Master the Art of Stakeholder Management in Small Enterprise Environments

  • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}572|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: Stakeholder Management
  • Parent Category Link: /stakeholder-management
  • IT hasn’t taken into account critical stakeholders and their concerns and preferences as they plan projects or operate on daily business.
  • It is difficult to tailor communication and messaging to all of the different personal and professional styles and motivations of stakeholders.
  • Access to stakeholders and getting an accurate understanding of their needs and concerns regarding IT can be difficult to obtain.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Small enterprises have an advantage in stakeholder management. Less people and fewer barriers create opportunities for more productive interactions and stronger relationships.
  • The guiding principles for effective stakeholder management are common concepts, but unfortunately not common practice.
  • By stepping back and taking the time to thoughtfully consider the dynamics and needs of important IT stakeholders, you will be better able to position yourself and your department.

Impact and Result

  • Info-Tech’s guiding principles provide clear and feasible recommendations for how to incorporate stakeholder management into daily interactions.
  • This blueprint’s guidance will enable IT leaders to tailor communication and interactions that will enable them to build stronger and more meaningful relationships with stakeholders.
  • Following this approach and its guiding principles will make IT projects be more successful by reducing their risk of failure due to issues of buy-in, misunderstanding of priorities, or a lack of support from critical stakeholders.

Master the Art of Stakeholder Management in Small Enterprise Environments Research & Tools

Executive Overview

Use Info-Tech’s approach to stakeholder management to guide you in building stronger and more beneficial relationships, 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:

  • Master the Art of Stakeholder Management in Small Enterprise Environments Storyboard
  • None
  • None

1. Identify stakeholders

Determine the stakeholders for an IT department of a singular initiative.

  • Stakeholder Management Analysis Tool

2. Analyze stakeholders

Use the guidance of this section to analyze stakeholders on both a professional and personal level.

3. Manage stakeholders

Use Info-Tech’s guiding principles of stakeholder management to direct how to best engage key stakeholders.

4. Review case studies

Use real-life experiences from Info-Tech’s analysts to understand how to use and apply stakeholder management techniques.

[infographic]

Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook

  • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}407|cart{/j2store}
  • member rating overall impact: 8.3/10 Overall Impact
  • member rating average dollars saved: $8,065 Average $ Saved
  • member rating average days saved: 7 Average Days Saved
  • Parent Category Name: Business Analysis
  • Parent Category Link: /business-analysis
  • Organizations often have many business processes that rely on manual, routine, and repetitive data collection and processing work. These processes need to be automated to meet strategic priorities.
  • Your stakeholders may have decided to invest in process automation solutions. They may be ready to begin the planning and delivery of their first automated processes.
  • However, if your processes are costly, slow, defective, and do not generate the value end users want, automation will only magnify these inefficiencies.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Put the user front and center. Aim to better understand the end user and their operational environment. Use cases, data models, and quality factors allow you to visualize the human-computer interactions from an end-user perspective and initiate a discussion on how technology and process improvements can be better positioned to help your end users.
  • Build for the future. Automation sets the technology foundations and process governance and management building blocks in your organization. Expect that more automation will be done using earlier investments.
  • Manage automations as part of your application portfolio. Automations are add-ons to your application portfolio. Unmanaged automations, like applications, will sprawl and reduce in value over time. A collaborative rationalization practice pinpoints where automation is required and identifies which business inefficiencies should be automated next.

Impact and Result

  • Clarify the problem being solved. Gain a grounded understanding of your stakeholders’ drivers for business process automation. Discuss current business operations and systems to identify automation candidates.
  • Optimate your processes. Apply good practices to first optimize (opti-) and then automate (-mate) key business processes. Take a user-centric perspective to understand how users interact with technology to complete their tasks.
  • Deliver minimum viable automations (MVAs). Maximize the learning of automation solutions and business operational changes through small, strategic automation use cases. This sets the foundations for a broader automation practice.

Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook Research & Tools

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

1. Business Process Automation Deck – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to optimize and automate your business processes.

This blueprint helps you develop a repeatable approach to understand your process challenges and to optimize and automate strategic business processes.

  • Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook – Phases 1-3

2. Business Process Automation Playbook – A repeatable set of practices to assess, optimize, and automate your business processes.

This playbook template gives your teams a step-by-step guide to build a repeatable and standardized framework to optimize and automate your processes.

  • Business Process Automation Playbook

3. Process Interview Template – A structured approach to interviewing stakeholders about their business processes.

Info-Tech's Process Interview Template provides a number of sections that you can populate to help facilitate and document your stakeholder interviews.

  • Process Interview Template

4. Process Mapping Guide – A guide to mapping business processes using BPMN standards.

Info-Tech's Process Mapping Guide provides a thorough framework for process mapping, including the purpose and benefits, the best practices for facilitation, step-by-step process mapping instructions, and process mapping naming conventions.

  • Process Mapping Guide

Infographic

Workshop: Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook

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

1 Identify Automation Opportunities

The Purpose

Understand the goals and visions of business process automation.

Develop your guiding principles.

Build a backlog of automation opportunities

Key Benefits Achieved

Business process automation vision, expectations, and objectives.

High-priority automation opportunities identified to focus on.

Activities

1.1 State your objectives and metrics.

1.2 Build your backlog.

Outputs

Business process automation vision and objectives

Business process automation guiding principles

Process automation opportunity backlog

2 Define Your MVAs

The Purpose

Assess and optimize high-strategic-importance business process automation use cases from the end user’s perspective.

Shortlist your automation solutions.

Build and plan to deliver minimum viable automations (MVAs).

Key Benefits Achieved

Repeatable framework to assess and optimize your business process.

Selection of the possible solutions that best fit the business process use case.

Maximized learning with a low-risk minimum viable automation.

Activities

2.1 Optimize your processes.

2.2 Automate your processes.

2.3 Define and roadmap your MVAs.

Outputs

Assessed and optimized business processes with a repeatable framework

Fit assessment of use cases to automation solutions

MVA definition and roadmap

3 Deliver Your MVAs

The Purpose

Modernize your SDLC to support business process automation delivery.

Key Benefits Achieved

An SDLC that best supports the nuances and complexities of business process automation delivery.

Activities

3.1 Deliver your MVAs

Outputs

Refined and enhanced SDLC

Service Desk

  • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}11|cart{/j2store}
  • Related Products: {j2store}11|crosssells{/j2store}
  • Up-Sell: {j2store}11|upsells{/j2store}
  • member rating overall impact: 9.4/10
  • member rating average dollars saved: $22,900
  • member rating average days saved: 20
  • Parent Category Name: Infra and Operations
  • Parent Category Link: /infra-and-operations
The service desk is typically the first point of contact for clients and staff who need something. Make sure your team is engaged, involved, knowledgeable, and gives excellent customer service.

Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative

  • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}223|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: Vendor Management
  • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
  • As cloud vendors, managed service providers, and other IT vendors continue to play a larger role in IT operations, the VMI must evolve to meet new challenges. Maximizing the VMI's impact requires it to keep pace with the IT landscape and transforming from tactical to strategic.
  • Increased spend with and reliance on vendors leads to less control and more risk for IT organizations. The VMI must mature on multiple fronts to continue adding value; staying stagnant is not an option.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • An organization’s vendor management initiative must continue to evolve and mature to reach its full strategic value. In the early stages, the vendor management initiative may be seen as transactional, focusing on the day-to-day functions associated with vendor management. The real value of a VMI comes from becoming strategic partner to other functional groups (departments) within your organization.
  • Developing vendor management personnel is critical to the vendor management initiative’s evolution and maturation. For the VMI to mature, its personnel must mature as well. Their professional skills, competencies, and knowledge must increase over time. Failure to accentuate personal growth within the team limits what the team is able to achieve and how the team is perceived.
  • Vendor management is not about imposing your will on vendors; it is about understanding the multi-faceted dynamics between your organization and your vendors and charting the appropriate path forward. Resource allocation and relationship expectations flow from these dynamics. Each critical vendor requires an individual plan to build the best possible relationship and to leverage that relationship. What works with one vendor may not work or even be possible with another vendor…even if both vendors are critical to your success.

Impact and Result

  • Evolve the VMI from tactical to strategic
  • Improve the VMI’s brand and brand awareness
  • Develop the VMI’s team members to increase the VMI’s impact
  • Take relationships to the next level with your critical vendors
  • Understand how your vendors view your organization as a customer
  • Create and implement plans to improve relationships with critical vendors
  • Create and implement plans to improve underperforming vendors

Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should continue to evolve and mature your vendor management initiative and to understand the additional elements of Info-Tech’s four-step cycle to running your vendor management initiative.

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

  • Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative – Executive Brief
  • Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phases 1-4

1. Plan

This phase helps the VMI stay focused and aligned by reviewing existing materials, updating the existing maturity assessment, and ensuring that the foundational elements of the VMI are up to date. The main outcomes from this phase are a current maturity assessment and updated or revised Plan documents.

  • Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 1

2. Build

This phase helps you configure, create, and understand the tools and templates used to elevate the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are a clear understanding of the tools that identify which vendors are important to you, tools and concepts to help you take key vendor relationships to the next level, and tools to help you evaluate and improve the VMI and its personnel.

  • Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 2
  • Elevate – COST Model Vendor Classification Tool
  • Elevate – MVP Model Vendor Classification Tool
  • Elevate – OPEN Model Customer Positioning Tool
  • Elevate – Relationship Assessment and Improvement Tool
  • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium

3. Run

This phase helps you begin integrating the new tools and templates into the VMI’s operations. The main outcomes from this phase are guidance and the steps required to continue your VMI’s maturation and evolution.

  • Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 3

4. Review

This phase helps the VMI stay aligned with the overall organization, stay current, and improve its strategic value as it evolves. The main outcomes from this phase are ways to advance the VMI’s strategic impact.

  • Elevate your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 4

Infographic

Workshop: Elevate 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 and Build

The Purpose

Review existing tools and templates and configure new tools and templates.

Key Benefits Achieved

Updated Maturity Assessment and configured tools and templates.

Activities

1.1 Existing Plan document review and new maturity assessment.

1.2 Optional classification models.

1.3 Customer positioning model.

1.4 Two-way scorecards.

Outputs

Updated Plan documents.

New maturity assessment.

Configured classification model.

Customer positioning for top five vendors.

Configured scorecard and feedback form.

2 Build and Run

The Purpose

Configure VMI Tools and Templates.

Key Benefits Achieved

Configured Tools and Templates for the VMI.

Activities

2.1 Performance improvement plans (PIPs).

2.2 Relationship improvement plans (RIPs).

2.3 Vendor-at-a-Glance reports.

2.4 VMI Personnel Competency Evaluation Tool.

Outputs

Configured Performance Improvement Plan.

Configured Relationship Assessment and Relationship Improvement Plan.

Configured 60-Second Report and completed Vendor Calendar for one vendor.

Configured VMI Personnel Competency Evaluation Tool.

3 Build and Run

The Purpose

Continue configuring VMI Tools and Templates and enhancing VM competencies.

Key Benefits Achieved

Configured Tools and Templates for the VMI and market intelligence to gather.

Activities

3.1 Internal feedback tool.

3.2 VMI ROI calculation.

3.3 Vendor recognition program.

3.4 Assess the Relationship Landscape.

3.5 Gather market intelligence.

3.6 Improve professional skills.

Outputs

Configured Internal Feedback Tool.

General framework for a vendor recognition program.

Completed Relationship Landscape Assessment (representative sample).

List of market intelligence to gather for top five vendors.

4 Run and Review

The Purpose

Improve the VMI’s brand awareness and impact on the organization; continue to maintain alignment with the overall organization.

Key Benefits Achieved

Raising the organization’s awareness of the VMI, and ensuring the VMI Is becoming more strategic.

Activities

4.1 Expand professional knowledge.

4.2 Create brand awareness.

4.3 Investigate potential alliances.

4.4 Continue increasing the VMI’s strategic value.

4.5 Review and update (governances, policies and procedures, lessons learned, internal alignment, and leading practices).

Outputs

Branding plan for the VMI.

Branding plan for individual VMI team members.

Further reading

Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative

Transform Your VMI From Tactical to Strategic to Maximize Its Impact and Value

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Transform your VMI into a strategic contributor to ensure its longevity.

The image contains a picture of Phil Bode.

By the time you start using this blueprint, you should have established a solid foundation for your vendor management initiative (VMI) and implemented many or all of the principles outlined in Info-Tech’s blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management (the Jump Start blueprint). This blueprint (the Elevate blueprint) is meant to continue the evolutionary or maturation process of your VMI. Many of the items presented here will build on and refer to the elements from the Jump Start blueprint. The goal of the Elevate blueprint is to assist in the migration of your VMI from transactional to strategic. Why? Simply put, the more strategic the VMI, the more value it adds and the more impact it has on the organization as a whole.

While the day-to-day, transactional aspect of running a VMI will never go away, getting stuck in transactional mode is a horrible place for the VMI and its team members:

  • The VMI will never live up to its potential.
  • The work won’t be enjoyable or rewarding for most people.
  • The VMI will be seen paper pushers, gatekeepers, and other things that don’t add value or should be avoided.
  • Being reactive (i.e. putting out fires all day) is exhausting and provides little or no control over the work and workflow.
  • Lastly, the VMI’s return on investment will be low, and unless it was established due to regulatory, audit, or other influences, the VMI could be disbanded. Minimal resources will be available to the VMI…just enough to keep it alive and obtain whatever checkmark needs to be earned to satisfy the original need for its creation.

To prevent these tragic things from happening, transform the VMI into a strategic contributor and partner internally. This Elevate blueprint provides a roadmap and guidance to get your journey started. Focus on expanding your understanding of customer/vendor dynamics, improving the skills, competencies, and knowledge of the VMI’s team members, contributing value beyond the savings aspect, and building a solid brand internally and with your vendors. This requires a conscious effort and a proactive approach to vendor management…not to mention treating your internal “clients” with respect and providing great customer service.

At the end of the day, ask yourself one question: If your internal clients had to pay for your services, would they? If you can answer yes, you are well on your way to being strategic. If not, you still have some work to do. Long live the strategic VMI!

Phil Bode
Principal Research Director, Vendor Management
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Common Obstacles

Info-Tech’s Approach

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.*

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.

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. Often, 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.

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 and the VMI evolve to add value and impact to the organization that was started with the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your VMI.

Info-Tech Insight

The VMI must continue to mature and evolve, or it will languish, atrophy, and possibly be disbanded.

  • A transactional approach to vendor management ignores the multi-faceted dynamics in play and limits the VMI’s potential value.
  • Improving the VMI’s impact starts with the VMI’s personnel – their skills, knowledge, competencies, and relationships.
  • Adding value to the organization requires time to build trust and understand the landscape (internal and external).
*Source: Information Services Group, Inc., 2022.

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.

38%

2021

16%

2021

47%

2021

Spend on

As-a-Service Providers

Spend on

Managed Services

Providers

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.

The image contains a screenshot of a diagram that demonstrates the expected value of a contract with and without a vmi.

Source: Based on findings from Geller & Company, 2003.

Executive Summary

Info-Tech’s Approach

A sound, cyclical approach to vendor management will help ensure your VMI meets your needs and stays in alignment with your organization as they both change (i.e. mature and evolve).

Vendor Management Process

  1. Plan
  • Review and Update Existing Plan Materials
  • Build
    • Vendor Classification Models
    • Customer Positioning Model
    • 2-Way Scorecards
    • Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)
    • Relationship Improvement Plan (RIP)
    • Vendor-at-a-Glance Reports
    • VMI Personnel Competency Evaluation Tool
    • Internal Feedback Tool
    • VMI ROI Calculation Tools
    • Vendor Recognition Program
  • Run
    • Classify Vendors and Identify Customer Position
    • Assess the Relationship Landscape
    • Leverage 2-Way Scorecards
    • Implement PIPs and RIPS
    • Gather Market Intelligence
    • Generate Vendor-at-a-Glance Reports
    • Evaluate VMI Personnel
    • Improve Professional Skills
    • Expand Professional Knowledge
    • Create Brand Awareness
    • Survey Internal Clients
    • Calculate VMI ROI
    • Implement Vendor Recognition Program
  • Review
    • Investigate Potential Alliances
    • Continue Increasing the VMI's Strategic Value
    • Review and Update Governances
    • Outcomes
      • Better Allocation of VMI Resources
      • Measurable Impact of the VMI
      • Increased Awareness of the VMI
      • Improved Vendor Performance
      • Improved Vendor Relationships
      • VMI Team Member Development
      • Strategic Relationships Internally

    Info-Tech’s Methodology for Elevating Your VMI

    Phase 1 - Plan

    Phase 2 - Build

    Phase 3 - Run

    Phase 4 – Review

    Phase Steps

    1.1 Review and Update Existing Plan Materials

    2.1 Vendor Classification Models

    2.2 Customer Positioning Model

    2.3 Two-Way Scorecards

    2.4 Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)

    2.5 Relationship Improvement Plan (RIP)

    2.6 Vendor-at-a-Glance Reports

    2.7 VMI Personnel Competency Evaluation Tool

    2.8 Internal Feedback Tool

    2.9 VMI ROI Calculation

    2.10 Vendor Recognition Program

    3.1 Classify Vendors & Identify Customer Position

    3.2 Assess the Relationship Landscape

    3.3 Leverage Two-Way Scorecards

    3.4 Implement PIPs and RIPs

    3.5 Gather Market Intelligence

    3.6 Generate Vendor-at-a-Glance Reports

    3.7 Evaluate VMI Personnel

    3.8 Improve Professional Skills

    3.9 Expand Professional Knowledge

    3.10 Create Brand Awareness

    3.11 Survey Internal Clients

    3.12 Calculate VMI ROI

    3.13 Implement Vendor Recognition Program

    4.1 Investigate Potential Alliances

    4.2 Continue Increasing the VMI’s Strategic Value

    4.3 Review and Update

    Phase Outcomes

    This phase helps the VMI stay focused and aligned by reviewing existing materials, updating the existing maturity assessment, and ensuring that the foundational elements of the VMI are up-to-date.

    This phase helps you configure, create, and understand the tools and templates used to elevate the VMI.

    This phase helps you begin integrating the new tools and templates into the VMI’s operations.

    This phase helps the VMI stay aligned with the overall organization, stay current, and improve its strategic value as it evolves.

    Insight Summary

    Insight 1

    An organization’s vendor management initiative must continue to evolve and mature to reach its full strategic value. In the early stages, the vendor management initiative may be seen as transactional, focusing on the day-to-day functions associated with vendor management. The real value of a VMI comes from becoming strategic partner to other functional groups (departments) within your organization.

    Insight 2

    Developing vendor management personnel is critical to the vendor management initiative’s evolution and maturation. For the VMI to mature, its personnel must mature as well. Their professional skills, competencies, and knowledge must increase over time. Failure to accentuate personal growth within the team limits what the team can achieve and how the team is perceived.

    Insight 3

    Vendor management is not about imposing your will on vendors; it is about understanding the multifaceted dynamics between your organization and your vendors and charting the appropriate path forward. Resource allocation and relationship expectations flow from these dynamics. Each critical vendor requires an individual plan to build the best possible relationship and to leverage that relationship. What works with one vendor may not work or even be possible with another vendor – even if both vendors are critical to your success.

    Blueprint Deliverables

    The four phases of maturing and evolving your 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

    Continue building your foundation for your VMI and configure tools and templates to help you manage your vendor relationships.

    The image contains screenshots of the VMI Tools and Templates.

    Key Deliverables:

    Info-Tech’s

    1. Elevate – COST Model Vendor Classification Tool
    2. Elevate – MVP Model Vendor Classification Tool
    3. Elevate – OPEN Model Customer Positioning Tool
    4. Elevate – Relationship Assessment and Improvement Plan Tool
    5. Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium

    A suite of tools and templates to help you upgrade and evolve your vendor management initiative.

    Blueprint benefits

    IT Benefits

    Business Benefits

    • Improve VMI performance and value.
    • Improve VMI team member performance.
    • Build better relationships with critical vendors.
    • Measure the impact and contributions provided by the VMI.
    • Establish realistic and appropriate expectations for vendor interactions.
    • Understand customer positioning to allocate vendor management resources more effectively and more efficiently.
    • Improve vendor accountability.
    • Increase collaboration between departments.
    • Improve working relationships with your vendors.
    • Create a feedback loop to address vendor/customer issues before they get out of hand or are more costly to resolve.
    • Increase access to meaningful data and information regarding important vendors.

    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 Phases 2 and 3 Phase 4

    Call #1: Review status of existing plan materials.

    Call #2: Conduct a new maturity assessment.

    Call #3: Review optional classification models.

    Call #4: Determine customer positioning for top vendors.

    Call #5: Configure vendor Scorecards and vendor feedback forms.

    Call #6: Discuss PIPs, RIPs, and vendor-at-a-glance reports.

    Call #7: VMI personnel competency evaluation tool.

    Call #8: Create internal feedback tool and discuss ROI.

    Call #9: Identify vendor recognition program attributes and assess the relationship landscape.

    Call #10: Gather market intelligence and create brand awareness.

    Call #11: Identify potential vendor alliances, review the components of a strategic VMI, and discuss the continuous improvement loop.

    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 12 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

    Plan/Build Run

    Build/Run

    Build/Run

    Run/Review

    Activities

    1.1 Existing Plan document review and new maturity assessment.

    1.2 Optional classification models.

    1.3 Customer positioning model.

    1.4 Two-way scorecards.

    2.1 Performance improvement plans (PIPs).

    2.2 Relationship improvement plans (RIPs).

    2.3 Vendor-at-a-glance reports.

    2.4 VMI personnel competency evaluation tool.

    3.1 Internal feedback tool.

    3.2 VMI ROI calculation.

    3.3 Vendor recognition program.

    3.4 Assess the relationship landscape.

    3.5 Gather market intelligence.

    3.6 Improve professional skills.

    4.1 Expand professional knowledge.

    4.2 Create brand awareness.

    4.3 Investigate potential alliances.

    4.4 Continue increasing the VMI’s strategic value.

    4.5 Review and update (governances, policies and procedures, lessons learned, internal alignment, and leading practices).

    Deliverables

    1. Updated plan documents.
    2. New maturity assessment.
    3. Configured classification model.
    4. Customer positioning for top 5 vendors.
    5. Configured scorecard and feedback form.
    1. Configured performance improvement plan.
    2. Configured relationship assessment and relationship improvement plan.
    3. Configured 60-second report and completed vendor calendar for one vendor.
    4. Configured VMI personnel competency evaluation tool.
    1. Configured internal feedback tool.
    2. General framework for a vendor recognition program.
    3. Completed relationship landscape assessment (representative sample).
    4. List of market intelligence to gather for top 5 vendors.
    1. Roadmap/plan for improving skills and knowledge for VMI personnel.
    2. Action plan for creating brand awareness for the VMI.
    3. Action plan for creating brand awareness for each VMI team member.

    Using complementary vendor management blueprints

    Jump Start Your VMI and Elevate Your VMI

    The image contains a screenshot to demonstrate using complementary vendor management blueprints.

    Phase 1 – Plan

    Look to the Future and Update Existing Materials

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Review and update existing Plan materials

    2.1 Vendor classification models

    2.2 Customer positioning model

    2.3 Two-way scorecards

    2.4 Performance improvement plan (PIP)

    2.5 Relationship improvement plan (RIP)

    2.6 Vendor-at-a-glance reports

    2.7 VMI personnel competency evaluation tool

    2.8 Internal feedback tool

    2.9 VMI ROI calculation

    2.10 Vendor recognition program

    3.1 Classify vendors and identify customer position

    3.2 Assess the relationship landscape

    3.3 Leverage two-way scorecards

    3.4 Implement PIPs and RIPs

    3.5 Gather market intelligence

    3.6 Generate vendor-at-a-glance reports

    3.7 Evaluate VMI personnel

    3.8 Improve professional skills

    3.9 Expand professional knowledge

    3.10 Create brand awareness

    3.11 Survey internal clients

    3.12 Calculate VMI ROI

    3.13 Implement vendor recognition program

    4.1 Investigate potential alliances

    4.2 Continue increasing the VMI’s strategic value

    4.3 Review and update

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    This phase helps the VMI stay focused and aligned by reviewing existing materials, updating the existing maturity assessment, and ensuring that the foundational elements of the VMI are up-to-date. The main outcomes from this phase are a current maturity assessment and updated or revised Plan documents.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Procurement/Sourcing
    • IT
    • Others as needed

    Phase 1 – Plan

    Phase 1 – Plan revisits the foundational elements from the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative. As the VMI continues to operate and mature, looking backward periodically provides a new perspective and helps the VMI move forward:

    • Has anything changed (mission statement, goals, scope, strengths and obstacles, roles and responsibilities, and process mapping)?
    • What progress was made against the maturity assessment?
    • What is next in the maturity process for the VMI?
    • Were some foundational elements overlooked or not done thoroughly due to time constraints, a lack of knowledge, or other factors?

    Keep an eye on the past as you begin looking toward the future.

    Step 1.1 – Review and update existing Plan materials

    Ensure existing materials are current

    At this point, the basic framework for your VMI should be in place. However, now is a good time to correct any oversights in your foundational elements. Have you:

    • Drafted a mission statement for the VMI and listed its goals, answering the questions “why does the VMI exist” and “what will it achieve”?
    • Determined the VMI’s scope, establishing what is in and outside the purview of the VMI?
    • Listed the VMI’s strengths and obstacles, identifying what you can leverage and what needs to be managed to ensure smooth sailing?
    • Established roles and responsibilities (OIC Chart) for the vendor management lifecycle, defining each internal party’s place in the process?
    • Documented process maps, delineating (at a minimum) what the VMI is doing for each step of the vendor management lifecycle?
    • Created a charter, establishing an operational structure for the VMI?
    • Completed a vendor inventory, identifying the major vendors included in the VMI?
    • Conducted a VMI maturity assessment, establishing a baseline and desired future state to work toward?
    • Defined the VMI’s structure, documenting the VMI’s place in the organization, its services, and its clients?

    If any of these elements is missing, revisit the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative to complete these components. If they exist, review them and make any required modifications.

    Download the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    1.1.1 – Review and update existing Plan materials

    1 – 6 Hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review existing documents and tools created or configured during Phase 1 of the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative: mission statement and goals, scope, strengths and obstacles, OIC chart, process maps, charter, vendor inventory, maturity assessment, and structure.
    2. Update the documents as needed.
    3. Redo the maturity assessment if more than 12 months have passed since the initial assessment was conducted.
    Input Output
    • Documents and tools from Phase 1 of the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative
    • Updated documents and tools from Phase 1 of the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative
    Materials Participants
    • Documents and tools from Phase 1 of the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative
    • Whiteboard or flip charts (as needed)
    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Download the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    Download the Jump - Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Phase 2 – Build

    Create New Tools and Consider Alternatives to Existing Tools

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Review and update existing Plan materials

    2.1 Vendor classification models

    2.2 Customer positioning model

    2.3 Two-way scorecards

    2.4 Performance improvement plan (PIP)

    2.5 Relationship improvement plan (RIP)

    2.6 Vendor-at-a-glance reports

    2.7 VMI personnel competency evaluation tool

    2.8 Internal feedback tool

    2.9 VMI ROI calculation

    2.10 Vendor recognition program

    3.1 Classify vendors and identify customer position

    3.2 Assess the relationship landscape

    3.3 Leverage two-way scorecards

    3.4 Implement PIPs and RIPs

    3.5 Gather market intelligence

    3.6 Generate vendor-at-a-glance reports

    3.7 Evaluate VMI personnel

    3.8 Improve professional skills

    3.9 Expand professional knowledge

    3.10 Create brand awareness

    3.11 Survey internal clients

    3.12 Calculate VMI ROI

    3.13 Implement vendor recognition program

    4.1 Investigate potential alliances

    4.2 Continue increasing the VMI’s strategic value

    4.3 Review and update

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    This phase helps you configure, create, and understand the tools and templates used to elevate the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are a clear understanding of the tools that identify which vendors are important to you, tools and concepts to help you take key vendor relationships to the next level, and tools to help you evaluate and improve the VMI and its personnel.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Legal
    • Marketing
    • Others as needed

    Phase 2 – Build

    Create and configure tools, templates, and processes

    Phase 2 – Build is similar to its counterpart in the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative; this phase focuses on tools, templates, and concepts that help the VMI increase its strategic value and impact. The items referenced in this phase will require your customization or configuration to integrate them within your organization and culture for maximum effect.

    One goal of this phase is to provide new ways of looking at things and alternate approaches. (For example, two methods of classifying your vendors are presented for your consideration.) You don’t live in a one-size-fits-all world, and options allow you (or force you) to evaluate what’s possible rather than running with the herd. As you review this phase, keep in mind that some of the concepts presented may not be applicable in your environment…or it may be that they just aren’t applicable right now. Timing, evolution, and maturity will always be factors in how the VMI operates.

    Another goal of this phase is to get you thinking about the value the VMI brings to the organization, and just as important, how to capture and report it. Money alone may be at the forefront of most people’s minds when return on investment is brought up, but there are many ways to measure a VMI’s value and impact. This Phase will help you in your pursuit.

    Lastly, a VMI must focus on its internal clients, and that starts with the VMI’s personnel. The VMI is a reflection of its team members – what they do, say, and know will determine how the VMI is perceived…and used.

    Step 2.1 – Vendor classification model

    Determine which classification model works best for your VMI

    The classification model in the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative is simple and easy to use. It provides satisfactory results for the first one or two years of the VMI’s life. After that, a more sophisticated model should be used, one with more parameters or flexibility to accommodate the VMI’s new maturity.

    Two models are presented on the following pages. The first is a variation of the COST model used in the Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative blueprint. The second is the MVP model, which segments vendors into three categories instead of four and eliminates the 50/50 allocation constraint inherent in a 2x2 model.

    Step 2.1 – Vendor classification model

    Configure the COST Vendor Classification Tool

    The image contains a screenshot of the COST classification model.

    If you used the COST classification model in the Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative blueprint, you are familiar with its framework: vendors are plotted into a 2x2 matrix based on their spend and switching costs and their value to your operation. The simple variation of this model uses three variables to assess the vendor’s value to your operation and two variables to determine the vendor’s spend and switching cost implications.

    The COST classification model presented here sticks to the same basic tenets but adds to the number of variables used to plot a vendor’s position within the matrix. Six variables are used to define a vendor’s value and three variables are used to set the spend and switching cost. This provides greater latitude in identifying what makes a vendor important to you.

    Step 2.1 – Vendor classification model

    Configure the MVP Vendor Classification Tool

    The image contains a screenshot example of the MVP clsssification tool.

    Another option for classifying vendors is the MVP classification model. In this model, vendors fall into one of three categories: minor, valued, or principal. Similar to the COST vendor classification model, the MVP classification model requires a user to evaluate statements or questions to assess a vendor’s importance to the organization. In the MVP approach, each question/statement is weighted, and the potential responses to each question/statement are assigned points (100, 33, or 10) based on their impact. Multiplying the weight (expressed as a percentage) for each question/statement by the response points for each question/statement yields a line-item score. The total number of points obtained by a vendor determines its classification category. A vendor receiving a score of 75 or greater would be a principal vendor (similar to a strategic vendor under the COST model); 55 to 74 points would be a valued vendor (similar to operational or tactical vendor); less than 55 points would be a minor vendor (similar to a commodity vendor).

    Step 2.1 – Vendor classification model

    Which classification model is best?

    By now, you may be asking yourself, “Which model should I use? What is the advantage of the MVP model?” Great questions! Both models work well, but the COST model has a limitation inherent in any basic 2x2 model. Since two axes are used in a 2x2 approach, the effective weighting for each axis is 50%. As a result, the weights assigned to an individual element are reduced by 50%. A simple but extreme example will help clarify this issue (hopefully).

    Suppose you wanted to use an element such as How integrated with our business processes are the vendor's products/services? and weighted it 100%. Under the 2x2 matrix approach, this element only moves the X-axis score; it has no impact on the Y-axis score. The vendor in this hypothetical could max out the X-axis under the COST model, but additional elements would be needed for the vendor to rise from the tactical quadrant to the strategic quadrant. In the MVP model, if the vendor maxed out the score on that one element (at 100%), the vendor would be at the top of the pyramid and would be a principal vendor.

    One model is not necessarily better than the other. Both provide an objective way for you to determine the importance of your vendors. However, if you are using elements that don’t fit neatly into the two axes of the COST model, consider using the MVP model. Play with each and see which one works best in your environment, knowing you can always switch at a later point.

    2.1.1 – COST Model Vendor Classification Tool

    15 – 45 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to decide whether you want to use this model or the MVP model (see next page); if you choose this model, configure it for your environment by reviewing Elevate – COST Model Vendor Classification Tool – Tab 2. Set Parameters.
      1. Review the questions in column C for each axis (items 1-9), the weights in column D, and the answers/descriptors for each question (columns E, F, G, and H). Make any adjustments necessary to fit your culture, environment, and goals.
      2. Using the Jump Start Your Vendor Management blueprint tool Jump - Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 1.7 Vendor Inventory, sort your vendors by spend; if you used multiple line items for a vendor in the Vendor Inventory Tool, aggregate the spend data for this activity.
      3. Adjust the descriptors and values in row 16 (Item 7) to match your actual data. General guidance for establishing the spend ranges is provided in the tool itself.
    2. No other modifications should be made to the parameters.
    Input Output
    • Jump - Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 1.7 Vendor Inventory from the blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative
    • Configured COST Model Vendor Classification Tool
    Materials Participants
    • Elevate – Cost Model Vendor Classification Tool – Tab 2. Set Parameters
    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate - COST Model Vendor Classification Tool

    2.1.2 – MVP Model Vendor Classification Tool

    15 – 45 Minutes

    1. Meet with the Participants to decide whether you want to use this model or the COST Model (see previous page); if you choose this model, configure it for your environment by reviewing Elevate – MVP Model Vendor Classification Tool – Tab 2. Set Parameters.
    2. Review the questions in column C (Items 1 - 7 ), the answers/descriptors for each question (columns D, E, and F), and the weights in column G. Make any adjustments necessary to fit your culture, environment, and goals.
    3. For the answers/descriptors use words and phrases that resonate with your audience and are as intuitive as possible.
    4. If you use annualized spend as an element, general guidance for establishing the spend ranges is provided in the tool itself.
    5. When assigning a weight value to a question, refrain from going below 5%; weights below this threshold will have minimal to no impact on a vendor's score.
    InputOutput
    • Jump - Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 1.7 Vendor Inventory from the Info-Tech blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative
    • Configured MVP Model Vendor Classification Tool
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Elevate – MVP Model Vendor Classification Tool – Tab 2. Set Parameters
    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate – MVP Model Vendor Classification Tool

    Step 2.2 – Customer positioning model

    Identify how the vendors view your organization

    The image contains a screenshot of the customer positioning model.

    Now that you have configured your choice of vendor classification model (or decided to stick with your original model), it’s time to think about the other side of the coin: How do your vendors view your organization. Why is this important? Because the VMI will have only limited success if you are trying to impose your will on your vendors without regard for how they view the relationship from their perspective. For example, if the vendor is one of your strategic (COST Model) or principal (MVP Model) vendors, but you don’t spend much money with them, you are difficult to work with, and there is no opportunity for future growth, you may have a difficult time getting the vendor to show up for BAMs (business alignment meetings), caring about scorecards, or caring about the relationship period.

    Our experience at Info-Tech interacting with our members through vendor management workshops, guided implementations, and advisory calls has led us to a significant conclusion on this topic: Most customers tend to overvalue their importance to their vendors. To open your eyes about how your vendors actually view your account, use Info-Tech’s OPEN Model Customer Positioning Tool. (It is based on the supplier preferencing model pioneered by Steele & Court in 1996 in which the standard 2x2 matrix tool for procurement [and eventually vendor management] was repurposed to provide insights from the vendor’s perspective.) For our purposes, think of the OPEN model for customer positioning as a mirror’s reflection of the COST model for vendor classification. The OPEN model provides a more objective way to determine your importance to your vendors. Ultimately, your relationship with each vendor will be plotted into the 2x2 grid, and it will indicate whether your account is viewed as an opportunity, preferred, exploitable, or negligible.

    *Adapted from Profitable Purchasing Strategies by Paul T. Steele and Brian H. Court

    Step 2.3 – Two-way scorecards

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors

    The image contains a screenshot example of the otwo-way feedback loop with vendors.

    As with the vendor classification models discussed in Step 2.1, the two-way scorecards presented here are an extension of the scorecard and feedback material from the Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative blueprint.

    The vendor scorecard in this blueprint provides additional flexibility and sophistication for your scorecarding approach by allowing the individual variables (or evidence indicators) within each measurement category to be evaluated and weighted. (The prior version only allowed the evaluation and weighting at the category level.)

    On the vendor feedback side, the next evolution is to formalize the feedback and document it in its own scorecard format rather than continuing to list questions in the BAM agenda. The vendor feedback template included with this blueprint provides a sample approach to quantifying the vendor’s feedback and tracking the information.

    The fundamentals of scorecarding remain the same:

    • Keep your eye on what is important to you.
    • Limit the number of measurement categories and evidence indicators to a reasonable and manageable number.
    • Simple is almost always better than complicated.

    2.3.1 – Two-way scorecards (vendor scorecard)

    15 – 60 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to configure the scorecard from Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3.1 Vendor Scorecard to meet your needs:
      1. Review the measurement categories and criteria and modify as needed.
      2. Weight the measurement categories (Column E) according to their relative importance to each other; make sure the total adds up to 100%.
      3. Weight the measurement criteria (Column D) within each measurement category according to their relative importance to each other; make sure the total adds up to 100%.
    2. As a reminder, the vendor scorecard is for the vendor overall, not for a specific contract.
    3. You can create variations of the scorecard based on vendor categories (e.g. hardware, software, cloud, security, telecom), but avoid the temptation of creating vendor-specific scorecards unless the vendor is unique; conversely, you may want to create two or more scorecards for a vendor that crosses categories (one for each category).
    InputOutput
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3.1 Vendor Scorecard
    • Brainstorming
    • Configured vendor scorecards
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3.1 Vendor Scorecard
    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium

    2.3.2 – Two-way scorecards (vendor feedback form)

    15 – 60 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to configure the feedback form from Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3.2 Vendor Feedback Form to meet your needs:
      1. Review the measurement categories and criteria and modify as needed.
      2. Weight the measurement categories (Column E) according to their relative importance to each other; make sure the total adds up to 100%.
      3. Weight the measurement criteria (Column D) within each measurement category according to their relative importance to each other; make sure the total adds up to 100%.
    2. As a reminder, the vendor feedback form is for the relationship overall and not for a specific contract.
    3. You can create variations of the feedback form based on vendor categories (e.g. hardware, software, cloud, security, telecom), but avoid the temptation of creating vendor-specific feedback forms unless the vendor is unique; conversely, you may want to create two or more feedback forms for a vendor that crosses categories and you work with different account management teams (one for each team).
    InputOutput
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3.2 Vendor Feedback Form
    • Brainstorming
    • Configured vendor feedback forms
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.3.2 Vendor Feedback Form
    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 2.4 – Performance improvement plan (PIP)

    Design your template to help underperforming vendors

    It is not uncommon to see performance dips from even the best vendors. However, when poor performance becomes a trend, the vendor manager can work with the vendor to create and implement a performance improvement plan (PIP).

    Performance issues can come from a variety of sources:

    • Contractual obligations.
    • Scorecard items.
    • Compliance issues not specified in the contract.
    • Other areas/expectations not covered by the scorecard or contract (e.g. vendor personnel showing up late for meetings, vendor personnel not being adequately trained, vendor personnel not being responsive).

    PIPs should focus on at least a few key areas:

    • The stated performance in the contract or the expected performance.
    • The actual performance provided by the vendor.
    • The impact of the vendor’s poor performance on the customer.
    • A corrective action plan, including steps to be taken by the vendor and due dates and/or review dates.
    • The consequences for not improving the performance level.

    Info-Tech Insight

    PIPs are most effective when the vendor is an operational, strategic, or tactical vendor (COST model) or a principal or valued vendor (MVP model) and when you are an opportunity or preferred customer (OPEN model).

    2.4.1 – Performance improvement plan (PIP)

    15 – 30 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to review the two options for PIPs: Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tabs 2.4.1 and 2.4.2. Decide whether you want to use one or both options.
    2. Modify, add, or delete elements from either or both options to meet your needs.
    3. If you want to add signature lines for acknowledgement by the parties or other elements that may have legal implications, check with your legal advisors.
    InputOutput
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium - Tabs 2.4.1 and 2.4.2
    • Brainstorming
    • Configured performance improvement plan templates
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium - Tabs 2.4.1 and 2.4.2
    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 2.5 – Relationship improvement plan (RIP)

    Identify key relationship indicators for your vendors

    Relationships are often taken for granted, and many faulty assumptions are made by both parties in the relationship: good relationships will stay good, bad relationships will stay bad, and relationships don’t require any work. In the vendor management space, these assumptions can derail the entire VMI and diminish the value added to your organization by vendors.

    To complicate matters, relationships are multi-faceted. They can occur:

    • On an organization-to-organization, working level.
      • Do your roadmaps align with the vendors?
      • Do the parties meet their contractual obligations?
      • Do the parties meet their day-to-day requirements (meetings, invoices, responses to inquiries)?
    • On an individual, personnel-to-personnel basis.
      • Do you have a good relationship with the account manager?
      • Does your project manager work well with the vendor’s project manager?
      • Do your executives have good relationships with their counterparts at the vendor?

    Improving or maintaining a relationship will not happen by accident. There must be a concerted effort to achieve the desired results (or get as close as possible). A relationship improvement plan can be used to improve or maintain a relationship with the vendor and the individuals who make up the vendor’s organization.

    Step 2.5 – Relationship improvement plan (RIP)

    Identify key relationship indicators for your vendors (continued)

    Improving relationships (or even maintaining them) requires a plan. The first step is to understand the current situation: Is the relationship good, bad, or somewhere in between? While the analysis will be somewhat subjective, it can be made more objective than merely thinking about relationships emotionally or intuitively. Relationships can be assessed based on the presence and quality of certain traits, factors, and elements. For example, you may think communication is important in a relationship. However, that is too abstract and subjective; to be more objective, you would need to identify the indicators or qualities of good communication. For a vendor relationship, they might include (but wouldn’t necessarily be limited to):

    • Vendor communication is accurate and complete.
    • Vendor personnel respond to inquiries on a timely basis.
    • Vendor personnel communications are easy to understand.
    • Vendor personnel communicate with you in your preferred manner (text, email, phone).
    • Vendor personnel discuss the pros and cons of vendor products/services being presented.

    Evaluating these statements on a predefined and consistent scale establishes the baseline necessary to conduct a gap analysis. The second half of the equation is the future state. Using the same criteria, what would or should the communication component look like a year from now? After that is determined, a plan can be created to improve the deficient areas and maintain the acceptable areas.

    Although this example focused on one category, the same methodology can be used for additional categories. It all starts with the simple question that requires a complex answer, “What traits are important to you and are indicators of a good relationship?”

    2.5.1 – Relationship Improvement Plan (RIP)

    15 – 60 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to configure the relationship indicators in Elevate – Relationship Assessment and Improvement Plan tool – Tab 2. Set Parameters.
    2. Review the 60 relationship indicators in column E of Tab 2. Set Parameters.
    3. Identify any relationship indicators that are important to you but that are missing from the prepopulated list.
    4. Add the relationship indicators you identified in step 3 above in the space provided at the end of column E of Tab 2. Set Parameters. There is space for up to 15 additional relationship indicators.
    InputOutput
    • Elevate – Relationship Assessment and Improvement Plan Tool
    • Brainstorming
    • Configured Relationship Assessment and Improvement Plan tool
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Elevate – Relationship Assessment and Improvement Plan tool
    • Whiteboard of flip chart
    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate – Relationship Assessment and Improvement Plan tool

    Step 2.6 – Vendor-at-a-glance reports

    Configure executive and stakeholder reports

    Executives and stakeholders (“E&S”) discuss vendors during internal meetings and often meet directly with vendors as well. Having a solid working knowledge of all the critical vendors used by an organization is nearly impossible for E&S. Without situational awareness, though, E&S can appear uninformed, can be at the mercy of others with better information, and can be led astray by misinformation. To prevent these and other issues from derailing the E&S, two essential vendor-at-a-glance reports can be used.

    The first report is the 60-Second Report. As the name implies, the report can be reviewed and digested in roughly a minute. The report provides a lot of information on one page in a combination of graphics, icons, charts, and words.

    The second report is a vendor calendar. Although it is a simple document, the Vendor Calendar is a powerful communication tool to keep E&S informed of upcoming events with a vendor. The purpose is not to replace the automated calendaring systems (e.g. Outlook), but to supplement them.

    Combined, the 60-Second Report and the Vendor Calendar provide E&S with an overview of the information required for any high-level meeting with a vendor or to discuss a vendor.

    2.6.1 – Vendor-at-a-glance reports (60-Second Report)

    30 – 90 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to review the sample 60-Second Report and the Checklist of Potential Topics in Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.6.1 V-at-a-G 60-Second Report.
    2. Identify topics of interest and ways to convey the data/information. (Make sure the data sources are valid and the data are easy to obtain.)
    3. Create a framework for the report and populate the fields with sample data. Use one printed page as a guideline for the framework; if it doesn’t fit on one page, adjust the amount of content until it does. If you adjust the margins, font, size of the graphic content, and other items, make sure you don’t reduce the size too much. The brain needs white space to more easily absorb the content, and people shouldn’t have to squint to read the content!
    4. Share the mockup with the intended audience and get their feedback. Use an iterative approach until you are satisfied that no further changes are necessary (or reasonable). Keep in mind that you will not be able to please everyone!
    InputOutput
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.6.1 V-at-a-G 60-Second Report
    • Design elements and framework for 60-Second Reports
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.6.1. V-at-a-G 60-Second Report
    • Whiteboard or flip chart
    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium

    2.6.2 – Vendor-at-a-glance reports (vendor calendar)

    15 – 30 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to review the sample Vendor Calendar format in Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.6.2 V-at-a-G Vendor Calendar.
    2. Brainstorm as a team to identify items to include in the calendar (e.g. business alignment meeting dates, conference dates, contract renewals).
    3. Determine whether you want the Vendor Calendar to be:
      1. A calendar year or a fiscal year (if they are different in your organization)
      2. A rolling twelve-month calendar or a fixed calendar.
    4. Decide whether the fill color for each month should change based on your answers in 3, above. For example, you might want a color scheme by quarter or by year (if you choose a rolling twelve-month calendar).
    5. Share the mockup with the intended audience to get their feedback. Use an iterative approach until you are satisfied that no further changes are necessary (or reasonable). Keep in mind you will not be able to please everyone!
    InputOutput
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.6.2 V-at-a-G Vendor Calendar
    • Brainstorming
    • Framework and topics for Vendor Calendar Reports
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.6.2 V-at-a-G Vendor Calendar
    • Whiteboard or flip chart
    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 2.7 – VMI personnel competency evaluation tool

    Identify skills, competencies, and knowledge required for success

    The image contains a screenshot of the VMI personnel competency evaluation tool.

    By now, you have built and begun managing the VMI’s 3-year roadmap and 90-day plans to help you navigate the VMI’s day-to-day operational path. To complement these plans, it is time to build a roadmap for the VMI’s personnel as well. It doesn’t matter whether VMI is just you, you and some part-time personnel, a robust and fully staffed vendor management office, or some other point on the vendor management spectrum. The VMI is a reflection of its personnel, and they must improve their skills, competencies, and knowledge (“S/C/K”) over time for the VMI to reach its potential. As the adage says, “What got you here won’t get you there.”

    To get there requires a plan that starts with creating an inventory of the VMI’s team members’ S/C/K. Initially, focus on two items:

    • What S/C/K does the VMI currently have across its personnel?
    • What S/C/K does the VMI need to get to the next level?

    Conducting an assessment of and developing an improvement plan for each team member will be addressed later in this blueprint. (See steps 3.7 – Evaluate VMI Personnel, 3.8 – Improve Professional Skills, and 3.9 - Expand Professional Knowledge.)

    2.7.1 – VMI Personnel Competency Evaluation Tool

    15 – 60 Minutes

    1. Review the two options of the competency matrix found in Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium tabs 2.7.1 and 2.7.2 and decide which format you want to use.
    2. Review and modify as needed the prepopulated list of skills, competencies, knowledge, and other intellectual assets found in section 1 of the template option you selected in step 1. The list you use should reflect items that are important to your VMI's mission, goals, scope, charter, and operations.
    3. No changes are required to Sections 2 and 3. They are dashboards and will be updated automatically based on any changes you make to the skills, competencies, knowledge, and other intellectual assets elements in section 1.
    Input Output
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tabs 2.7.1 and 2.7.2
    • Current job descriptions
    • A list of competencies, skills, and knowledge VMI personnel
      • Should have
      • Do have

    An assessment and inventory of competencies, skills, knowledge, and other intellectual assets by VMI team member

    Materials Participants
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tabs 2.7.1 and 2.7.2
    • VMI team lead
    • VMI team members as needed

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium.

    Step 2.8 – Internal feedback tool

    Create a user-friendly survey to learn about the VMI’s impact on the organization

    The image contains a screenshot of the internal feedback tool.

    *Adapted from “Best Practices for Every Step of Survey Creation” from surveymonkey.com and “The 9 Most Important Survey Design Tips & Best Practices” by Swetha Amaresan.

    As part of the vendor management lifecycle, the VMI conducts an annual review to assesses compliance with policies and procedures, to incorporate changes in leading practices, to ensure that lessons learned are captured and leveraged, to validate that internal alignment is maintained, and to update governances as needed. As the VMI matures, the annual review process should incorporate feedback from those the VMI serves and those directly impacted by the VMI’s efforts. Your internal clients and others will be able to provide insights on what the VMI does well, what needs improvement, what challenges arise when using the VMI’s services, and other issues.

    A few best practices for creating surveys are set out below:*

    1. Start by establishing a clearly defined, attainable, and high-level goal by filling in the blank: "I want to better understand [blank] (e.g. how the VMI impacts our clients and the executives/stakeholders)." From there, you can begin to derive questions that will help you meet your stated goal.
    2. Use mostly “closed-ended” questions in the survey – responses selected from a list provided. Do ask some “open-ended” questions at the end of the survey to obtain specific examples, anecdotes, or compliments by providing space for the respondent to provide a narrative.
    3. Avoid using biased and leading questions, for example, “Would you say the VMI was great or merely fabulous?” The goal is to get real feedback that helps the VMI improve. Don’t ask the respondents to tell you what you want to hear…listen to what they have to say.

    Step 2.8 – Internal feedback tool

    Create a user-friendly survey to learn about the VMI’s impact on the organization (continued)

    The image contains a screenshot of the internal feedback tool.

    4. Pay attention to your vocabulary and phrasing; use simple words. The goal is to communicate effectively and solicit feedback, and that all starts with the respondents being able to understand what you are asking or seeking.

    5. Use response scales and keep the answer choices balanced. You want the respondents to find an answer that matches their feedback. For example, potential answers such as “strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree” are better than “strongly agree, agree, other.”

    6. To improve your response rate, keep your survey short. Most people don’t like surveys, but they really hate long surveys. Make every question count, and keep the average response time to a maximum of a couple of minutes.

    7. Watch out for “absolutes;” they can hurt the quality of your responses. Avoid using language such as always, never, all, and every in your questions or statements. They tend to polarize the evaluation and make it feel like an all-or-nothing situation.

    8. Ask one question at a time or request evaluation of one statement at a time. Combining two topics into the same question or statement (double-barreled questions or statements) makes it difficult for the respondent to determine how to answer if both parts require different answers, for example, “During your last interaction with the VMI, how would you rate our assistance and friendliness?”

    2.8.1 – Internal Feedback Tool

    15 – 60 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review the information in Elevate – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.8.
    2. Two types of surveys are referenced in tab 2.8: a general awareness survey and a specific interaction survey. Decide whether you want to create one or both for your VMI.
      1. For a general awareness survey, review the questions in part 1 of tab 2.8 and make any changes required to meet your needs. Try to keep the number of questions to seven or less. Determine who will receive the survey and how often it will be used.
      2. For a specific interaction survey, review the questions in Part 2 of Tab 2.8. Select up to 7 questions you want to use, making changes to existing questions or creating your own. The goal of this survey is to solicit feedback immediately after one of your internal clients has used the VMI’s services. You may need multiple variations of the survey based on the types of interactions or services the VMI provides.
    3. Balance the length of the surveys against the information you are seeking and the time required for the respondents to complete the survey.
    InputOutput
    • Elevate – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.8
    • Brainstorming
    • Configured internal surveys
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Elevate – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.8
    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate –Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 2.9 – VMI ROI calculation

    Identify ROI variables to track

    After the VMI has been operating for a year or two, questions may begin to surface about the value the VMI provides. “We’re making an investment in the VMI. What are we getting in return?” “Does the VMI provide us with any tangible benefits, or is it another mandatory area like Internal Audit?” To keep the naysayers at bay, start tracking the value the VMI adds to the organization or the return on investment (ROI) provided.

    The easy thing to focus on is money: hard-dollar savings, soft-dollar savings, and cost avoidance. However, the VMI often plays a critical role in vendor-facing activities that lead to saving time, improving performance, and managing risk. All of these are quantifiable and trackable. In addition, internal customer satisfaction (step 2.8 and step 3.11) can provide examples of the VMI’s impact beyond the four pillars of money, time, performance, and risk.

    VMI ROI is a multifaceted and complex topic that is beyond the scope of this blueprint. However, you can do a deep (or shallow) dive on this topic by downloading and reading Info-Tech’s blueprint Capture and Market the ROI of Your VMO to plot your path for tracking and reporting the VMI’s ROI or value.

    Download the Info-Tech blueprint Capture and Market the ROI of Your VMO

    2.9.1 – VMI ROI calculation

    2 – 4 Hours

    1. Meet with the participants to review the Info-Tech blueprint Capture and Market the ROI of Your VMO.
    2. Identify your ROI maturity level using the tools from that blueprint.
    3. Develop a game plan for measuring and reporting your ROI.
    4. Configure the tools to meet your needs.
    5. Gain approval from applicable stakeholders or executives.
    Input Output
    • The tools and materials from the Info-Tech blueprint Capture and Market the ROI of Your VMO
    • Brainstorming
    • Game plan for measuring and reporting ROI
    Materials Participants
    • The Info-Tech blueprint Capture and Market the ROI of Your VMO and its tools
    • VMI team
    • Executives and stakeholders as needed

    Download the Info-Tech blueprint Capture and Market the ROI of Your VMO

    Step 2.10 – Vendor recognition program

    Address the foundational elements of your program

    A vendor recognition program can provide many benefits to your organization. Obtaining those benefits requires a solid plan and the following foundational elements:

    • Internal alignment: The program must align with your organization’s principles and culture. A vendor recognition program that accentuates value and collaboration will not succeed in a customer environment that operates with a “lowest cost wins/price is the only thing we care about” mentality.
    • Funding: Not every program requires extensive funding (or any funding), but more formal vendor recognition programs do require some investment. Underfunding will make your program look cheap and unimpressive. For example, a certificate of appreciation printed on plain paper using a Word template doesn’t send the same message as a nice plaque engraved with the winner’s name.
    • Support: Executive buy-in and support are essential. Without this, only the most informal vendor recognition programs stand a chance of surviving. Executives and stakeholders are often directly involved in formal programs, and this broadens the appeal of the program from the vendor’s perspective.
    • Designated leader: Someone needs to be in charge of the vendor recognition program. This doesn’t mean only one person is doing all the work, but it does require one person to lead the effort and drive the program forward. Much like the VMI itself, there are things the leader will be able to do themselves and things that will require the input, assistance, and participation from others throughout the organization.

    Step 2.10 – Vendor recognition program

    Leverage the advantages of recognizing vendors

    As with any project, there are advantages and disadvantages with implementing and operating a vendor recognition program.

    Advantages:

    • The Pygmalion effect may come into play; the vendors’ performance can be influenced by your expectations as conveyed through the program.
    • There may be some prestige for the vendor associated with winning one of your awards or receiving recognition.
    • Vendor recognition programs can be viewed as a competition, and this can improve vendor performance as it relates to the program and program categories.
    • The program can provide additional feedback to the vendor on what's important to you and help the vendor focus on those items.
    • The vendors’ executives may have an increased awareness of your organization, which can help build relationships.
    • Performance gains can be maintained or increased. Vendors are competitive by nature. Once a vendor wins an award or receives the recognition, it will strive to win again the following year (or measurement period).

    Step 2.10 – Vendor recognition program

    Manage the disadvantages of recognizing vendors

    Just as a coin has two sides, there are two sides to a vendor recognition program. Advantages must be weighed against disadvantages, or at the very least, you must be aware of the potential disadvantages.

    Disadvantages:

    • The program may require funding, depending upon the scope and type of awards, rewards, and recognition being provided.
    • Some vendors who don’t qualify for the program or who fail to win may get hurt feelings. This may alienate them.
    • In addition to hurt feelings from being excluded or finishing outside of the winner’s circle, some vendors may believe the program shows favoritism to certain vendors or is too subjective.
    • Some vendors may not “participate” in the program; they may not understand the WIIFM (what’s in it for me). You may have to “sell” the benefits and advantages of participation to the vendors.
    • Participation may vary by size of vendor. The award, reward, or recognition may mean more to small and mid-sized companies than large companies.

    Step 2.10 – Vendor recognition program

    Create your program’s framework

    There is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a vendor recognition program. Your program should align with your goals. For example, do you want to drive performance and collaboration, or do you want to recognize vendors that exceed your expectations? While these are not mutually exclusive, the first step is to identify your goals. Next, focus on whether you want a formal or informal program. An informal program could consist of sending thank-you emails or notes to vendor personnel who go above and beyond; a formal program could consist of objective criteria announced and measured annually, with the winners receiving plaques, publicity, and/or recognition at a formal award ceremony with your executives. Once you have determined the type of program you want, you can begin building the framework.

    Take a “crawl, walk, run” approach to designing, implementing, and running your vendor recognition program. Start small and build on your successes. If you try something and it doesn’t work the way you intended, regroup and try again.

    The vendor recognition program may or may not end up residing in the VMI. Regardless, the VMI can be instrumental in creating the program and reinforcing it with the vendors. Even if the program is run and operated by the VMI, other departments will need to be involved. Seek input from the legal and marketing departments to build a durable program that works for your environment and maximizes its impact.

    Lastly, don’t overlook the simple gestures…they go a long way to making people feel appreciated in today’s impersonal world. A simple (but specific) thank-you can have a lasting impact, and not everything needs to be about the vendor’s organization. People make the organization “go,” not the other way around.

    2.10.1 – Vendor recognition program

    30 – 90 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to review the checklist in Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.10 Vendor Recognition.
      1. Decide whether you want to create a program that recognizes individual vendor personnel. If so, review part 1 of tab 2.10 and select the elements you are interested in using to build your program.
      2. Decide whether you want to create a program that recognizes vendors at the company level. If so, review part 2 of tab 2.10.
        1. The first section lists elements of an informal and a formal approach. Decide which approach you want to take.
        2. The second section focuses on creating a formal recognition program. Review the checklist and identify elements that you want to include or issues that must be addressed in creating your program.
    2. Create a draft framework of your programs and work with other areas to finalize the program elements, timeline, marketing, budget, and other considerations.
    Input Output
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.10 Vendor Recognition
    • Brainstorming
    • A framework for a vendor recognition program
    Materials Participants
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 2.10. Vendor Recognition
    • Whiteboard or flip chart
    • VMI team
    • Executives and stakeholders as needed
    • Marketing and legal as needed

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium

    Phase 3 – Run

    Use New and Updated Tools and Increase the VMI’s Impact

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Review and update existing Plan materials

    2.1 Vendor classification models

    2.2 Customer positioning model

    2.3 Two-way scorecards

    2.4 Performance improvement plan (PIP)

    2.5 Relationship improvement plan (RIP)

    2.6 Vendor-at-a-glance reports

    2.7 VMI personnel competency evaluation tool

    2.8 Internal feedback tool

    2.9 VMI ROI calculation

    2.10 Vendor recognition program

    3.1 Classify vendors and identify customer position

    3.2 Assess the relationship landscape

    3.3 Leverage two-way scorecards

    3.4 Implement PIPs and RIPs

    3.5 Gather market intelligence

    3.6 Generate vendor-at-a-glance reports

    3.7 Evaluate VMI personnel

    3.8 Improve professional skills

    3.9 Expand professional knowledge

    3.10 Create brand awareness

    3.11 Survey internal clients

    3.12 Calculate VMI ROI

    3.13 Implement vendor recognition program

    4.1 Investigate potential alliances

    4.2 Continue increasing the VMI’s strategic value

    4.3 Review and update

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    This phase helps you begin integrating the new tools and templates into the VMI’s operations. The main outcomes from this phase are guidance and the steps required to continue your VMI’s maturation and evolution.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • IT
    • Legal
    • Marketing
    • Human resources
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Others as needed

    Phase 3 – Run

    Implement new processes, tools, and templates and leverage new concepts

    The review and assessment conducted in Phase 1 – Plan and the tools and templates created and configured during Phase 2 – Build are ready for use and incorporation into your operations. As you trek through Phase 3 – Run, a couple of familiar concepts will be reviewed (vendor classification and scorecarding), and additional details on previously introduced concepts will be provided (customer positioning, surveying internal clients); in addition, new ideas will be presented for your consideration:

    • Assessing the relationship landscape
    • Gathering market intelligence
    • Improving professional skills
    • Expanding professional knowledge
    • Creating brand awareness

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors & identify customer position

    Classify your top 25 vendors by spend

    The methodology used to classify your vendors in the blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative applies here as well, regardless of whether you use the COST model or the MVP model. Info-Tech recommends using an iterative approach initially to validate the results from the model you configured in step 2.1.

    1. Start with your top 25 vendors by spend. From this pool, select 10 vendors: choose your top three vendors by spend, three from the middle of the pack (e.g. numbers 14, 15, and 16 by spend), and the bottom four by spend. Run all 10 vendors through the classification model and review the results.
    2. If the results are what you expected and do not contain any significant surprises, run the rest of the top 25 vendors through the model.
    3. If the results are not what you expected or do contain significant surprises, look at the configuration page of the tool (tab 2) and adjust the weights slightly. Be cautious in your evaluation of the results before modifying the configuration page – some legitimate results are unexpected or surprises based on biases or subjective expectations. Proceed to point 1 above and repeat this process as needed.

    Remember to share the results with executives and stakeholders. Switching from one classification model to another may lead to concerns or questions. As always, obtain their buy-in on the final results.

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors and identify customer position

    Translate terminology and processes if you use the MVP vendor classification model

    If you use the MVP model, the same features will be applicable and the same processes will be followed after classifying your vendors, despite the change in nomenclature. (Strategic vendors are the equivalent of principal vendors; high operational and high tactical vendors are the equivalent of valued vendors; and all other vendors are the equivalent of minor vendors.)

    • Roughly 5% (max) of your total vendor population will be classified as principal.
    • Approximately 10% (max) of your total vendor population will be classified as valued.
    • About 80% of your total vendor population will be classified as minor.
    • Business alignment meetings should be conducted and scorecards should be compiled quarterly for your principal vendors and at least every six months for your valued vendors; business alignment meetings are not necessary for your minor vendors.
    • All other activities will be based on the criteria you used in your MVP model. For example, risk measuring, monitoring, and reporting might be done quarterly for principal and valued vendors if risk is a significant component in your MVP model; if risk is a lesser component, measuring, monitoring, and reporting might be done less frequently (every six or 12 months).

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors and identify customer position

    Determine your customer position for your top 25 vendors using the OPEN model

    The image contains a screenshot of the customer positioning model.

    After classifying your vendors, run your top 25 vendors through the OPEN Model Customer Positioning Tool. The information you need can come from multiple sources, including:

    • Talking to internal personnel to determine responses to the OPEN model assessment statements.
    • Compiling spend information.
    • Looking at the vendors’ financial statements.
    • Talking with the vendors to glean additional information.

    At first blush, the results can run the emotional and logical gamut: shocking, demeaning, degrading, comforting, insightful, accurate, off-kilter, or a combination of these and other reactions. To a certain extent, that is the point of the activity. As previously stated, customers often overestimate their importance to a vendor. To be helpful, your perspective must be as objective as possible rather than the subjective view painted by the account team and others within the vendor (e.g. “You’re my favorite client,” “We love working with you,” “You’re one of our key accounts,” or “You’re one of our best clients.”) The vendor often puts customers on a pedestal that is nothing more than sales puffery. How a vendor treats you is more important than them telling you how great you are.

    Use the OPEN model results and the material on the following pages to develop a game plan as you move forward with your vendor-facing VMI activities. The outcomes of the OPEN model will impact your business alignment meetings, scorecards, relationships, expectations, and many other facets of the VMI.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The OPEN Model Customer Positioning Tool can be adapted for use at the account manager level to determine how important your account is to the account manager.

    *Adapted from Profitable Purchasing Strategies by Paul T. Steele and Brian H. Court

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors and identify customer position

    Learn how each quadrant of the open model impacts your organization (continued)

    Opportunity

    Low value and high attractiveness

    Characteristics and potential actions by the vendor

    • Higher level of service provided.
    • Higher level of attention.
    • Nurture the customer.1
    • Expand the business and relationship.1
    • Seek new opportunities.2
    • Provide proactive service.
    • Demonstrate added value.

    Customer strategies

    • Leverage the position – the vendor may be willing (at least in the short term) to meet your requirements in order to win more business.3
    • Look for ways to improve your value to the vendor and to grow the relationship and business if it works to your advantage.
    1. Procurement Cube, 2020. 2. Accuity Consultants, 2012. 3. New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, 2021.

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors and identify customer position

    Learn how each quadrant of the OPEN model impacts your organization (continued)

    Preferred

    High value and high attractiveness

    Characteristics and potential actions by the vendor

    • High level of service provided.
    • High level of attention, service, and response.1
    • The supplier actively seeks longer-term commitments.2
    • Retain and expand the business and relationship.3
    • Look after and pamper the customer.4
    • Fight to keep the account.
    • There is a dedicated account manager2 (you are the account manager’s only account).

    Customer strategies

    • Establish a rewarding business relationship in which both parties continually seek to add value.3
    • Leverage the relationship to gain better access to innovation, collaborate to eliminate waste, and work together to maintain or increase your competitive advantages.1
      1. Procurement Cube, 2020. 2. Comprara, 2015. 3. New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, 2021. 4. Accuity Consultants, 2012.

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors and identify customer position

    Learn how each quadrant of the OPEN model impacts your organization (continued)

    Exploitable

    High value and low attractiveness

    Characteristics and potential actions by the vendor

    • Lower level of service provided.
    • Lower level of attention.
    • Strive for best price from the customer (i.e. premium pricing).1
    • Seek short-term advantage and consistent price increases.
    • Accept risk of losing the customer.
    • Focus on maximizing profits.2
    • Provide reactive service.

    Customer strategies

    • Look for alternative vendors or try to make the relationship more attractive by considering more efficient ways to do business2 or focusing on issues other than pricing.
    • Identify ways to improve your organization’s attractiveness to the vendor or the account manager.
    1. Accuity Consultants, 2012. 2. New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, 2021.

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors and identify customer position

    Learn how each quadrant of the open model impacts your organization

    Negligible

    Low value and low attractiveness

    Characteristics and potential actions by the vendor

    • Lower level of service provided.
    • Lower level of attention.1
    • Loss of interest and enthusiasm for customer’s business.
    • Loss of customer will not cause any pain.1
    • Terminate the relationship.2
    • Terms and conditions are the “standard” terms and are non-negotiable.3
    • There is a standard price list and discounts are in line with industry norms.3

    Customer strategies

    • You may wish to consider sourcing from other suppliers who value your business more highly.2
    • Identify the root cause of your position and determine whether it is worthwhile (or possible) to improve your position.
    1. Procurement Cube, 2020. 2. New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, 2021. 3 Comprara, 2015.

    Step 3.1 – Classify vendors and identify customer position

    Think like a vendor to increase situational awareness

    In summary, vendor actions are understandable and predictable. Learning about how they think and act is invaluable. As some food for thought, consider this snippet from an article aimed at vendors:

    “The [customer positioning] grid or matrix is, in itself, a valuable snapshot of the portfolio of customers. However, it is what we do with this information that governs how effective the tool is. It can be used in many ways:

    • It helps in the allocation of resources to specific customers, and whether the right resources are being allocated to the right customers.
    • It can determine the style of relationship that is appropriate to have with this client – and whether the real relationship truly reflects this.
    • It can influence the amount of time spent with these clients. Interestingly, we often find that a disproportionate amount of management time is spent on [Negligible] Customers (at the expense of spending more time with [Preferred] Accounts)!
    • It should significantly influence the price and profitability targets for specific customers.
    • And, last but by no means least, it should determine our negotiation style for different customers.”1
    1 “Rule No. 5: All Customers/Suppliers Have a Different Value to You,” New Dawn Partners.

    Step 3.2 – Assess the relationship landscape

    Identify key relationships and relationship risks

    After classifying your vendors (COST or MVP model) and identifying your positioning for the top vendors via the OPEN Model Customer Positioning Tool, the next step is to assess the relationship landscape. For key vendors (strategic, high operational, and high tactical under the COST model and principal and valued under the MVP model), look closer at the relationships that currently exist:

    • What peer-to-peer relationships exist between your organization and the vendor (e.g. your project manager works closely with the vendor’s project manager)? Look across executives, mid-level management, and frontline employees.
    • What politically charged relationships exist between employees of the two organizations and the organizations themselves? Examples include:
      • Friendships, neighbors, and relationships fostered by children on the same sports team or engaged in other activities.
      • Serving on third-party boards of directors or working with the same charities in an active capacity.
      • Reciprocity relationships where each organization is a customer and vendor to the other (e.g. a bank buys hardware from the vendor and the vendor uses the customer for its banking needs).
    • How long has the contract relationship been in place?

    This information will provide a more holistic view of the dynamics at work (or just beneath the surface) beyond the contract and operational relationships. It will also help you understand any relationship leverage that may be in play…now or in the future…from each party’s perspective.

    3.2.1 – Assess the relationship landscape

    10 - 30 Minutes per vendor

    1. Decide whether to meet with the participants in small groups or as a large group.
    2. Using Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 3.2 Relationship Landscape, for each important vendor (strategic, tactical, and operational under the COST model or principal and valued under the MVP model), identify and evaluate the relationships that exist for the following categories:
      1. Professional: relationships your personnel have with the vendor’s executives, mid-level management, and frontline employees.
      2. Political: personal relationships between customer and vendor personnel, any professional connections, and any reciprocity between your organization and the vendor.
    Input Output
    • Relationship information
    • Vendor classification categories for each vendor being assessed
    • A list of customer-vendor relationships
    • Potential reciprocity issues to manage
    Materials Participants
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 3.2 Relationship Landscape
    • VMI team
    • Stakeholders
    • Others with knowledge of customer/vendor relationships

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 3.3 – Leverage two-way scorecards

    Roll out your new vendor scorecards and feedback forms

    As you roll out your new, enhanced scorecards, the same principles apply. Only a couple of modifications need to be made to your processes.

    For the vendor scorecards, the VMI will still be driving the process, and internal personnel will still be completing the scorecards. An email or short orientation meeting for those involved will ease the transition from the old format to the new format. Consider creating a FAQ (frequently asked questions) for the new template, format, and content; you’ll be able to leverage it via the email or meeting to answer questions such as: What changed? Why did it change? Why are we doing this? In addition, making a change to the format and content may generate a need for new or additional internal personnel to be part of the scorecarding process. A scorecarding kick-off meeting or orientation meeting will ensure that the new participants buy into the process and acclimate to the process quickly.

    For the vendor feedback, the look and feel is completely new. The feedback questions that were part of the BAM agenda have been replaced by a more in-depth approach that mirrors the vendor scorecards. Consider conducting a kick-off meeting with each participating vendor to ensure they understand the importance of the feedback form and the process for completing it. Remember to update your process to remind the vendors to submit the feedback forms three to five business days prior to the BAM (and update your BAM agenda). You will want time to review the feedback and identify any questions or items that need to be clarified. Lastly, set aside some extra time to review the feedback form in the first BAM after you shift to the formal format.

    Step 3.4 – Implement PIPs and RIPs

    Improve vendor performance

    Underperforming vendors are similar to underperforming employees. There can be many reasons for the lackluster performance, and broaching the subject of a PIP may put the vendor on the defensive. Consider working with the human resources department (or whatever it is called in your organization) to learn some of the subtle nuances and best practices from the employee PIP realm that can be used in the vendor PIP realm.

    When developing the PIP, make sure you:

    • Work with legal to ensure compliance with the contract and applicable laws.
    • Adequately convey the expected performance to the vendor; it is unfair to hold a vendor accountable for unreasonable and unconveyed expectations.
    • Work with the vendor on the PIP rather than imposing the PIP on the vendor.
    • Remain objective and be realistic about timelines and improvement.

    Not all performance issues require a PIP; some can be addressed one-on-one with the vendor’s account manager, project manager, or other personnel. The key is to identify meaningful problems and use a PIP to resolve them when other measures have failed or when more formality is required.

    A PIP is a communication tool, not a punishment tool. When used properly, PIPs can improve relationships, help avoid lawsuits, and prevent performance issues from having a significant impact on your organization.

    Step 3.4 – Implement PIPs and RIPs

    Improve vendor relationships

    After assessing the relationship landscape in step 3.2 and configuring the Relationship Assessment and Improvement Plan Tool in step 2.5, the next step is to leverage that information: 1) establish a relationship baseline for each critical vendor; and 2) develop and implement a plan for each to maintain or improve those relationships.

    The Relationship Assessment and Improvement Plan Tool provides insights into the actual status of your relationships. It allows you to quantify and qualify those relationships rather than relying on intuition or instinct. It also pinpoints areas that are strong and areas that need improvement. Identify your top seven relationship priorities and build your improvement/maintenance plan around those to start. (This number can be expanded if some of your priorities are low effort or if you have several people who can assist with the implementation of the plan.) Decide which relationship indicators need a formal plan, which ones require only an informal plan, and which ones involve a hybrid approach. Remember to factor in the maintenance aspect of the relationship – if something is going well, it can still be a top priority to ensure that the relationship component remains strong.

    Similar to a PIP, your RIP can be very formal with action items and deadlines. Unlike a PIP, the RIP is typically not shared with the vendor. (It can be awkward to say, “Here are the things we’re going to do to improve our relationship, vendor.”)

    The level of formality for your plan will vary. Customize your plan for each vendor. Relationships are not formulaic, although they can share traits. Keep in mind what works with one person or one vendor may not work for another. It’s okay to revisit the plan if it is not working and make adjustments.

    Step 3.5 – Gather market intelligence

    Determine the nature and scope of your market intelligence

    What is market intelligence?

    Market intelligence is a broad umbrella that covers a lot of topics, and the breadth and depth of those topics depend on whether you sit on the vendor or customer side of the equation. Even on the customer side, the scope and meaning of market intelligence are defined by the role served by those gathering market intelligence. As a result, the first step for the VMI is to set the boundaries and expectations for its role in the process. There can be some overlap between IT, procurement/sourcing, and the VMI, for example. Coordinating with other functional areas is a good idea to avoid stepping on each other’s toes or expending duplicate resources unnecessarily.

    For purposes of this blueprint, market intelligence is defined as gathering, analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing data and information about your critical vendors (high operational, high tactical, and strategic under the COST model or valued and principal under the MVP model), their competitors, and the industry. Market intelligence can be broken into two basic categories: individual vendors and the industry as a whole. For vendors, it generally encompasses data and information about products and services available, each vendor’s capabilities, reputation, costs, pricing, advantages, disadvantages, finances, location, risks, quality ratings, standard service level agreements (SLAs) and other metrics, supply chain risk, total cost of ownership, background information, and other points of interest. For the industry, it can include the market drivers, pressures, and competitive forces; each vendor’s position in the industry; whether the industry is growing, stable, or declining; whether the industry is competitive or led by one or two dominant players; and the potential for disruption, trends, volatility, and risk for the industry. This represents some of the components of market intelligence; it is not intended to be an exhaustive list.

    Market intelligence is an essential component of a VMI as it matures and strives to be strategic and to provide significant value to the organization.

    Step 3.5 – Gather market intelligence

    Determine the nature and scope of your market intelligence

    What are the benefits of gathering market intelligence?

    Depending on the scope of your research, there are many potential uses, goals, and benefits that flow from gathering market intelligence:

    • Identify potential alternate vendors.
    • Learn more about the vendors and market in general.
    • Identify trends, innovations, and what’s available in the industry.
    • Improve contract protections and mitigate contract/performance risk.
    • Identify more comprehensive requirements for RFPs and negotiations.
    • Identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for vendors.
    • Assist with minority/women/veteran-owned business or small business use initiatives.
    • Improve the pool of potential vendors for future RFPs, which can improve competition for your business.
    • Leverage information gained when negotiating or renegotiating at renewal (better terms and conditions).
    • Ensure ongoing alignment or identify gaps/risks between your current vendor’s capabilities and your needs.

    Step 3.5 – Gather market research and intelligence

    Begin collecting data and information

    What are some potential sources of information for market intelligence?

    For general information, there are many places to obtain market intelligence. Here are some common resources:

    • User groups
    • The internet
    • Vendor demos
    • Vendor marketing materials and websites
    • Internal personnel interviews and meetings
    • Industry publications and general periodicals
    • Trade shows and conferences (hosted or attended by vendors)
    • Requests for information (RFIs) and requests for proposal (RFPs)
    • Vendor financial filings for publicly held companies (e.g. annual reports, 10-K, 10-Q)

    Keep in mind the source of the information may be skewed in favor of the vendor. For example, vendor marketing materials may paint a rosier picture of the vendor than reality. Using multiple sources to validate the data and information is a leading practice (and common sense).

    For specific information, many VMIs use a third-party service. Third-party services can dedicate more resources to research since that is their core function. However, the information obtained from any third party should be used as guidance and not as an absolute. No third-party service has access to every deal, and market conditions can change often and quickly.

    Step 3.5 – Gather market research and intelligence

    Resolve storage and access issues

    Some additional thoughts on market intelligence

    • Market intelligence is another tool in the VMI’s toolbox. How you use it and what you do with the results of your efforts is critical. Collecting information and passing it on without analysis or insights is close to being a capital offense.
    • As previously mentioned, defining the scope and nature of market intelligence is the first step. In conjunction with that, remember to identify where the information will be stored. Set up a system that allows for searching by relevance and easy retrieval. You can become overwhelmed with information.
    • Periodically update the scope and reach of your market intelligence efforts. Do you need to expand, contract, or maintain the breadth and depth of your research? Do new vendors and industries need to be added to the mix?
    • Information can grow stale. Review your market intelligence repository at least annually and purge unneeded or outdated information. Be careful though – some historical information is helpful to show trends and evolution. Decide whether old information should be deleted completely or moved to an archive.
    • Determine who should have access to your repository and what level of access they should have. Do you want to share outside of the VMI? Do you want others to contribute to or modify/edit the material in the repository or only be able to read from the repository?

    Step 3.6 – Generate vendor-at-a-glance reports

    Keep executives and stakeholders informed about critical vendors

    Much of the guidance provided on reports in the blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative holds true for the 60-Second Report and the Vendor Calendar.

    • Determine who will be responsible for updating the reports, knowing that the VMI will be mainly coordinating the process and assembling the data/information rather than obtaining the data firsthand.
    • Determine the frequency. Most likely it will be periodic and ad hoc; for example, you may decide to update the 60-Second Report in whole or in part each quarter, but you may need to update it in the middle of the quarter if an executive has a meeting with one of your critical vendors at that time.
    • Even though you obtained feedback and “approval” from executives and stakeholders during step 2.6, you will still want to seek their input periodically. Their needs may change from time to time with respect to data, information, and formatting. Avoid the temptation to constantly make changes to the format, though. After the initial review cycle, try to make changes only annually as part of your ongoing review process.
    • Unfortunately, these reports require a manual approach; some parts may be automated, but that will depend on your format and systems.

    These reports should be kept confidential. Consider using a “confidential” stamp, header, watermark, or other indicator to highlight that the materials are sensitive and should not be disclosed outside of your organization without approval.

    Step 3.7 – Evaluate VMI personnel

    Compare skills, competencies, and knowledge needed to current levels

    Using the configured VMI personnel assessment tool (Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium tab 2.7.1 or 2.7.2), evaluate each VMI employee’s skills, competencies, and knowledge (S/C/K) against the established minimum level required/desired field for each. Use this tool for full-time and part-time team members to obtain a complete inventory of the VMI’s S/C/K.

    After completing the assessment, you will be able to identify areas where personnel exceed, meet, or fail to meet the minimum level required/desired using the included dashboards. This information can be used to create a development plan for areas of deficiency or areas where improvement is desired for career growth.

    As an alternative, you can assess VMI personnel using their job descriptions. Tab 2.7.3 of the Tools and Templates Compendium is set up to perform this type of analysis and create a plan for improvement when needed. Unlike Tabs 2.7.1 and 2.7.2, however, the assessment does not provide a dashboard for all employee evaluations. Tab 2.7.3 is intended to focus on the different roles and responsibilities for each employee versus the VMI as a whole.

    Lastly, you can use Tab 2.7.4 to evaluate potential VMI personnel during the interview process. Load the roles and responsibilities into the template, and evaluate all the candidates on the same criteria. A dashboard at the bottom of the template quantifies the number of instances each candidate exceeds, meets, and fails to meet the criteria. Used together, the evaluation matrix and dashboard will make it easier to identify each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses (and ultimately select the best new VMI team member).

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Increase proficiency in a few key areas

    The image contains an a screenshot example to demonstrate how to increase proficiency in a few key areas.

    To be an effective member of the VMI requires proficiency in many areas. Some basic skills like computer skills, writing, and time management are straightforward. Others are more nebulous. The focus of this step is on a few of the often-overlooked skills lurking in the shadows:

    • Communication
    • Running a meeting
    • Diplomacy
    • Emotional intelligence quotient (EQ)
    • Influence and persuasion
    • Building and maintaining relationships

    For the VMI to be viewed as a strategic and integral part of the organization, these skills (and others) are essential. Although this blueprint cannot cover all of them, some leading practices, tips, and techniques for each of the skills listed above will be shared over the next several pages.

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Communicate more effectively

    Communication is the foundational element for the other professional skills covered in this Step 3.8. By focusing on seven key areas, you can improve your relationships, influence, emotional intelligence quotient, diplomacy, and impact when interacting with others. The concepts for the seven focal points presented here are the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Continue learning about these areas, and recognize that mastering each will require time and practice.

    1. Writing.
      1. Stick with simple words;1 you’re trying to communicate, not impress people with your vocabulary.
      2. Keep your sentences simple;1 use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs.2
      3. Read your writing aloud;1 If you have to take a breath while reading a sentence out loud, the sentence is too long.
      4. Use a tool like Grammarly or the built-in functionality of Word to determine readability; aim for a score of 60 to 70 or a seventh- or eighth-grade level.3
      5. When reviewing your writing: consider your word choice and the implications of your words; look for unintended interpretations, ambiguities, and implied-tone issues.
    1 Grammarly, 2017. 2 Elna Cain, 2018. 3 Forbes, 2016.

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Communicate more effectively (continued)

    2. Speaking

    1. Similar to writing, focus on short words and sentences. Avoid run-on sentences.
    2. Think before speaking and work on eliminating “ums,” “uhs,” and “you knows.” These detract from your message.
    3. Choose words that are “comfortable” for the other person/people. Rule number one in public speaking is to know your audience, and that rule applies beyond public speaking and to groups of all sizes (1 to 1,000+).
    4. Don’t confuse the words with the message.
    5. Pay attention to your tone, pace, and volume. Try to match your counterpart in one-on-one settings.

    3. Body Language.

    1. Understand body language’s limitations; it is part art and part science…not an absolute.
    2. Individual movements and movement clusters can provide information regarding the spoken message – look for consistencies and inconsistencies. A baseline for the person is needed to interpret the body language “accurately.”
    3. Pay attention to your own body language. Does it match the message being conveyed by your words or those of your teammates (in group settings)?

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Communicate more effectively (continued)

    4. Personality.

    1. Identify your counterpart’s personality: Are they extroverted or introverted? Are they effusive or reserved? Are they diplomatic or offensive? Are they collaborative or looking to blame someone?
    2. Appeal to their personality type when possible, but avoid the blame game. For example, don’t be loud and “over the top” with someone who is reserved and quiet.

    5. Style.

    1. Determine your counterpart’s style for both written and spoken communications: Are they direct or indirect? Are they bottom-line or do they prefer descriptions and build-ups? Are they into empirical data or anecdotal examples?
    2. To maximize the connection and communication effectiveness, match their style…even if it means getting out of your comfort zone a little. For example, if you have an indirect style, you will have to be more direct when dealing with someone who is direct; otherwise, you run the risk of alienating your counterpart (i.e. they will get frustrated or bored, or their mind will wander).

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Communicate more effectively (continued)

    6. Learning

    1. People absorb information in three ways:
      1. Visually: These learners need to see things for them to make sense and be retained.
      2. Auditory: These learners need to hear things for them to make sense and be retained.
      3. Kinesthetic/experiential: These learners need to do something or experience it to understand and retain it.
    2. While some people are dominant in one area, most are a combination of one or more methods.
    3. If you can identify a person’s preferred method of learning, you can enhance your ability to communicate. For example, talking (exclusively) with a visual learner will be minimally effective; showing that person a picture or graph while talking will increase your effectiveness.

    7. Actions and inactions.

    1. Communication goes beyond words, messages, body language, and other issues. Your actions or inactions following a communication can undo your hard work to communicate effectively.
    2. Follow through on promises, action items, or requests.
    3. Meet any deadlines or due dates that result from communications. This helps build trust.
    4. Make sure your follow-through items are complete and thorough. Half-way is no way!
    5. Communicate any delays in meeting the deadlines or due dates to avoid

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Tap into your inner diplomat

    Diplomacy can be defined many ways, but this one seems to fit best for the purposes of vendor management: The ability to assert your ideas or opinions, knowing what to say and how to say it without damaging the relationship by causing offense.1 At work, diplomacy can be about getting internal or external parties to work together, influencing another party, and conveying a message tactfully. As a vendor manager, diplomacy is a necessary skill for working with your team, your organization, and vendors.

    To be diplomatic, you must be in tune with others and understand many things about them such as their feelings, opinions, ideas, beliefs, values, positions, preferences, and styles. To achieve this, consider the following guidance:2

    • Modify your communication style: Communication is about getting someone to understand and evaluate your message so they can respond. Approach people the way they want to be approached. For example, sending an email to a person who prefers phone calls may create a communication issue.
    • Choose your words carefully: Use words as an artist uses a brush, paint, and a canvas. Paint a picture through word selection. Similar words can portray different scenes (e.g. the child ran to the store quickly vs. the child raced to the store). Make sure your image is relatable for your counterpart.
    1 “The Art of Tact and Diplomacy,” SkillsYouNeed 2 Communiqué PR, 2020.

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Tap into your inner diplomat (continued)

    • Slow down a speak concisely: Say what you have to say…and stop. No one likes a communicator who rambles on and on. Once your message has been conveyed, go into silent mode. Get comfortable with silence; there is no need to fill the void with more meaningless words. Let your counterpart contemplate in peace.
    • Listen to understand: Be an active listener rather than biding your time until you can talk again. Avoid interrupting the other party (whenever possible, but sometimes it is needed!). Show interest in what the other person is saying and ask clarifying questions. Make eye contact, nod your head periodically, and summarize what you hear from time to time. Use your ears and mouth in proportion: listen twice as much as you talk.
    • Consider nonverbals: Read the facial expressions of the speaker and be aware of your own. Faces tend to be expressive; sometimes we are aware of it…and sometimes we aren’t. Try relaxing your face and body to minimize the involuntary expressions that may betray you. Adopt a diplomatic facial expression and practice using it; find the right mix of interest and neutrality.

    Whenever things get tense, take a deep breath, take a break, or stop the communication (based on the situation and what is appropriate). Being diplomatic can be taxing, and it is better to step back than to continue down a wrong path due to stress, emotion, being caught off guard, etc.

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Build and maintain relationships

    Relationship building and networking cannot be overvalued. VMI personnel interact with many areas and people throughout the organization, and good relationships are essential. Building and maintaining relationships requires hard work and focusing on the right items. Although there isn’t a scientific formula or a mathematical equation to follow, key elements are present in all durable relationships.

    Focus on building relationships at all levels within your organization. People at every level may have data or information you need, and your relationship with them may be the deciding factor in whether you get the information or not. At other times, you will have data and information to give, and the relationship may determine how receptive others are to your message. Some relationship fundamentals are provided below and continue on the next page.1,2

    • Trust: be honest and ethical and follow through on your commitments.
    • Diversity: build relationships with people who aren’t just like you to expand your mindset.
    • Interrelatedness: understand how what you do impacts others you have relationships with.
    • Varied interaction: a good relationship will incorporate work-related interactions with personal interactions.
    • Effective communication: combine methods of communication but focus on the other person’s preferred method.
    1 ”Seven Characteristics of Successful Work Relationships,” 2006. 2 Success.com, 2022.

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Build and maintain relationships (continued)

    • Empathy – understand where the other person is coming from through active listening.
    • Vulnerability – create a judgment-free zone.
    • Respect – this must be given and earned.
    • Real face time – meeting in the offline world signals to the person that they are important (but this is not always possible today).
    • A giving-first mentality – provide something of value before asking for something in return.
    • Unique perspective – tap into what the other person believes and values.
    • Intent – start with genuine interest in the other person and the relationship.
    • Hard work – active engagement and a commitment to the relationship are required.
    • Honesty – be honest in your communications.
    • Challenge – be open to thinking differently and trying new things.
    • Value – identify what you add to the relationship.
    • Conscientiousness – be aware of the relationship’s status and react accordingly.

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Run meetings more efficiently and effectively

    Most people don’t get excited about meetings, but they are an important tool in the toolbox. Unfortunately, many meetings are unnecessary and unproductive. As a result, meeting invites often elicit an audible groan from invitees. Eliminating meetings completely is not a practical solution, which leaves one other option: improving them.

    You may not be in charge of every meeting, but when you are, you can improve their productivity and effectiveness by making a few modifications to your approach. Listed below are ten ideas for getting the most out of your meetings:*

    1. Begin with the mindset that you are a steward or protector of the meeting attendees’ time, and you never want attendees to feel that you wasted their time.
    2. Keep the attendee list to essential personnel only. Everyone attending the meeting should be able to justify their attendance (or you should be able to justify it).
    3. Set an appropriate time limit for the meeting. Don’t default to the 60-minute meeting; right-size the meeting time (e.g. 15, 30, or 45 minutes or some other number). Shorter meeting times force participants to focus.
    4. Create and use an agenda. To help you stay focused and to determine who to invite, set up the agenda as a list of questions rather than a list of topics.
    *Adapted from “The Surprising Science Behind Successful Remote Meetings” by Steven G. Rogelberg

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Run meetings more efficiently and effectively (continued)

    5. Use video when anyone is attending virtually. This helps prevent anonymity and increases engagement.

    6. Start and end meetings on time. Running over impacts other meetings and commitments; it also makes you look ineffective and increases stress levels for attendees.

    7. If longer meetings are necessary, build in a short break or time for people to stand up and stretch. Don’t say, “If you need a break or to stand up during the meeting, feel free.” Make it a planned activity.

    8. Keep others engaged by facilitating and drawing specific people into the conversation; however, don’t ask people to contribute on topics that they know nothing about or ask generally if anyone has any comments.

    9. Leverage technology to help with the meeting; have someone monitor the chat for questions and concerns. However, the chat should not be for side conversations, memes, and other distractions.

    10. End the meeting with a short recap, and make sure everyone knows what was decided/accomplished, what next steps are, and which action items belong to which people.

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Increase emotional intelligence

    Emotional intelligence (otherwise known as emotional intelligence quotient or EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.1 This is an important set of skills for working with vendors and internal personnel. Increasing your EQ will help you build better relationships and be seen as a valuable teammate…at all levels within your organization.

    Improving this skill dovetails with other skills discussed in this step 3.8, such as communication and diplomacy. Being well versed in the concepts of EQ won’t be enough. To improve requires a willingness to be open – open to feedback from others and open to new ideas. It also requires practice and patience. Change won’t happen overnight, but with some hard work and perseverance, your EQ can improve.

    There are many resources that can help you on your journey, and here are some tips to improve your EQ:2

    • Practice observing how you feel.
    • Pay attention to how you behave.
    • Learn to look at yourself objectively.
    • Understand what motivates you.
    • Acknowledge your emotional triggers.
    • Be interested in the subject matter.
    1 HelpGuide, 2022. 2 RocheMartin, 2022.

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Increase emotional intelligence (continued)

    Tips to improve your EQ (continued from previous page):

    • It’s your choice how you react to a situation.
    • Listen without interruption, preconceptions, or skepticism; absorb their situation and consider how they are feeling before you react.
    • Try to be approachable and accessible.
    • Think about what’s happening from their perspective.
    • Cultivate a curiosity about strangers to understand different opinions, views, and values.
    • Acknowledge what people are saying to show you are actively listening.
    • Think about how you’re physically coming across with your body language, tone of voice, eye contact, and facial expressions.

    Things to avoid:1

    • Drama – don’t let others’ emotions affect or rule yours.
    • Complaining – don’t be a victim; do look for solutions.
    • Dwelling on the past – learn from the past and live in the present.
    • Selfishness – consider others’ needs, not just your own.
    • Being overly critical – understand the other person, then communicate the change you want to see.
    1 RocheMartin, 2022.

    Step 3.8 – Improve Professional Skills

    Use Influence and Persuasion to Benefit the VMI

    Skills such as influence and persuasion are important (even necessary) for vendor managers. (Don’t confuse this with the dark arts version – manipulation.) A good working definition is provided by the Center for Creative Leadership: Influence is the ability to affect the behavior of others in a particular direction, leveraging key tactics that involve, connect, and inspire them.* Influence and persuasion are not about strongarming or blackmailing someone to get your way. Influence and persuasion are about presenting issues, facts, examples, and other items in a way that moves people to align with your position. Sometimes you will be attempting to change a person’s mind, and other times you will be moving them from a neutral stance to agreeing to support your position.

    Building upon the basic communication skills discussed at the start of this step, there are some ways to improve your ability to influence and persuade others. Here are some suggestions to get you started:*

    1. Develop organizational intelligence – learn how your organization truly operates; identify the power brokers and their spheres of control and influence. Many failures to persuade and influence stem from not understanding who can help and how they can help (or hinder) your efforts. The most influential person in your organization may not be the person with the fancy title.
    2. Promote yourself and the team – don’t be afraid to step into the spotlight and demonstrate your knowledge and expertise. To be able to persuade and influence as and individual or a team, credibility must be established.
    * Center for Creative Leadership, 2020.

    Step 3.8 – Improve professional skills

    Use influence and persuasion to benefit the VMI (continued)

    3. Build and maintain trust – trust has two main components: competency and character. In item 2 on the previous page, competency trust was discussed from the perspective of knowledge and expertise. For character trust, you need to be viewed as being above reproach. You are honest and ethical; you follow through and honor your commitments. Once both types of trust are in place, eyes and ears will be open and more receptive to your messages. Bottom line: You can’t influence or persuade people if they don’t trust you.

    4. Grow and leverage networks – the workplace is a dynamic atmosphere, and it requires almost constant networking to ensure adequate contacts throughout the organization are maintained. Leveraging your network is an artform, and it must be used wisely. You don’t want to wear out your welcome by asking for assistance too often.

    As you prepare your plan to influence or persuade someone, ask yourself the following questions:*

    • Who am I attempting to influence?
    • What is the situation and how much support do I need?
    • Why do I need this person’s support for my idea?
    • What tactics can I use, and how can I establish rapport?
    • What responses do I anticipate?
    • What mutual points of agreement can I use?
    • How can I end on a positive note no matter what the outcome is?
    * Center for Creative Leadership, 2020.

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Learn more about departments and functions tangential to the VMI

    To function in their roles, VMI personnel must be well versed in the concepts and terminology associated with vendor management. To be strategic and to develop relationships with other departments, divisions, agencies, and functional groups, VMI personnel must also be familiar with the concepts and terminology for functions outside the VMI. Although a deep dive is beyond the scope of this blueprint, understanding basic concepts within each of the topics below is critical:

    • Finance and accounting
    • Project management
    • Contracts and contract management
    • Procurement/sourcing
    • Change management
    • Conflict management
    • Account team dynamics

    It isn’t necessary to be an expert in these subjects, but VMI personnel must be able to talk with their peers intelligently. For example, a vendor manager needs to have a general background in contract terms and conditions to be able to discuss issues with legal, finance, procurement, and project management groups. A well-rounded and well-versed VMI team member can rise to the level of trusted advisor and internal strategic partner rather than wallowing in the operational or transactional world.

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand finance and accounting basics

    Finance and accounting terms and concepts are commonplace in every organization. They are the main language of business – they are the way for-profit businesses keep score. Regardless of whether your organization is a for-profit, non-profit, governmental, or other entity, finance and accounting run through the veins of your organization as well. In addition to the customer side of the equation, there is the vendor side of the equation: Every vendor you deal with will be impacted financially by working with you.

    Having a good grasp of finance and accounting terms and concepts will improve your ability to negotiate, talk to finance and accounting personnel (internal and external), conduct ongoing due diligence on your critical vendors, review contracts, and evaluate vendor options, to name just a few of the benefits.

    The concepts listed on the following pages are some of the common terms applicable to finance and accounting. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Continue to learn about these concepts and identify others that allow you to grow professionally.

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand finance and accounting basics (continued)

    Finance and accounting terms and concepts

    • Cash accounting vs. accrual accounting.
    • Fiscal year vs. calendar year.
    • Profit vs. cash flow.
    • Fixed expenses vs. variable expenses.
    • Capital expense (CapEx) vs. operating expense (OpEx).
    • Depreciation vs. amortization.
    • Payment upfront vs. payment in arrears.
    • Favorable (positive) variance vs. unfavorable (negative) variance.
    • Discretionary expense (cost/expenditure) vs. non-discretionary expense (cost/expenditure).
    • Income statement and its components.
    • Balance sheet and its components.

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand finance and accounting basics (continued)

    Finance and accounting terms and concepts (cont’d)

    • Operating profit margin.
    • Net profit margin.
    • Return on assets.
    • Current ratio.
    • Quick ratio.
    • Debt-to-asset ratio.
    • Interest coverage.
    • Total asset turnover.
    • Receivables turnover.
    • Average collection period.
    • Inventory turnover.
    • Time value of money concept.
    • Future value (FV).
    • Present value (PV).
    • Net present value (NPV).
    • Cost of capital.
    • Internal rate of return (IRR).
    • Return on investment (ROI).
    • Payback (payback period or break even).

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand project management basics

    The image contains a screenshot example of expanding professional knowledge.

    Whether your organization has a formal project management office (PMO) or not, project management practices are being used by those tasked with making sure software and software as a service implementations go smoothly, technology refreshes are rolled out without a hitch, and other major activities are successful. Listed below are some common competencies/skills used by project managers to make sure the job gets done right.

    1. Requirements – define the project’s goals, objectives, and requirements.
    2. Scope – develop, monitor, and manage the project’s scope.
    3. Time – develop and manage the timeline and determine the order (parallel and sequential) for the tasks and activities.
    4. Budget – create and manage the project budget and report on any variances.
    5. Resources – manage space, people, software, equipment, services, etc.
    6. Risk – identify, evaluate, monitor, and manage project risk.
    7. Change – manage updated requirements, changes to the scope, and modifications to the contract.
    8. Documentation – work with the project charter, open issue logs, meeting minutes, and various reports.
    9. Communication – communicate with vendor personnel and internal personnel, including stakeholders and executives as needed.
    10. Quality – ensure the deliverables and other work are acceptable and coordinate/conduct acceptance tests.

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand project management basics (continued)

    The image contains a screenshot of understanding project management basics.

    The concepts listed below are common project management terms and concepts.1, 2 This list is not intended to be exhaustive. Look internally at your project management processes and operations to identify the concepts applicable in your environment and any that are missing from this list.
    • Project plan
    • Work breakdown structure (WBS)
    • Critical path
    • Project manager
    • Project stakeholder
    • Agile project
    • Waterfall project
    • Milestone
    • Deliverable
    • Dependency
    • Phase
    • Kickoff meeting
    • Project budget
    • Project timeline
    • Resource allocation
    • Project risk
    • Risk management
    • Risk owner
    • Issue log
    • Gantt chart
    1 nTask, 2019. 2 Whiz Labs, 2018.

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand contracts and contract lifecycle management basics

    Contracts and contract lifecycle management (CLM) are two separate but related topics. It is possible to have contracts without a formal CLM process, but you can’t have CLM without contracts. This portion of step 3.9 provides some general background on each topic and points you to blueprints that cover each subject in more detail.

    IT contracts tend to be more complicated than other types of contracts due to intellectual property (IP) rights being associated with most IT contracts. As a result, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of IP and common IT contract provisions.

    There are four main areas of IP: copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. Each has its own nuances, and people who don’t work with IP often mistake one for another or use the terms interchangeably. They are not interchangeable, and each affords a different type of protection when available (e.g. something may not be capable of being patented, but it can be copyrighted).

    For contract terms and conditions, vendor managers are best served by understanding both the business side and the legal side of the provisions. In addition, a good contract checklist will act as a memory jogger whether you are reviewing a contract or discussing one with legal or a vendor. For more information on contract provisions, checklists, and playbooks, download the Info-Tech blueprints identified to the left.

    Download the Info-Tech blueprint Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively

    Download the Info-Tech blueprint Improve Your Statements of Work to Hold Your Vendors Accountable

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand contracts and contract lifecycle management basics (continued)

    CLM is a process that helps you manage your agreements from cradle to grave. A robust CLM process eases the challenges of managing hundreds or even thousands of contracts that affect the day-to-day business and could expose your organization to various types of vendor-related risk.

    Managing a few contracts through the contracting process is easy, but as the number of contracts grows, managing each step of the process for each contract becomes increasingly difficult and time consuming. That’s where CLM and CLM tools can help. Here is a high-level overview of the CLM process:

    1. Request – a request for a contract is initiated.
    2. Create contract – the contract is drafted by the customer or provided by the vendor.
    3. Review risk – areas of risk in the contract are identified.
    4. Approve – base agreement and attachments are approved and readied for negotiations.
    5. Negotiate – the agreement is negotiated and finalized.
    6. Sign – the agreement is signed or executed by the parties.
    7. Capture – the agreement is stored in a centralized repository.
    8. Manage – actively manage the operational and commitment aspects of the agreement.
    9. Monitor compliance – ensure that each party is honoring and complying with its obligations.
    10. Optimize – review the process and the contracts for potential improvements.

    For more information on CLM, download the Info-Tech blueprint identified to the left.

    Download the Info-Tech Blueprint Design and Build an Effective Contract Lifecycle Management Process

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand procurement/sourcing basics

    Almost every organization has a procurement or sourcing department. Procurement/sourcing is often the gatekeeper of the processes used to buy equipment and services, lease equipment, license software, and acquire other items. There are many different types of procurement/sourcing departments and several points of maturity within each type. As a result, the general terms listed on the next page may or may not be applicable within your organization. (Or your organization may not have a procurement/sourcing department at all!)

    Identifying your organization’s procurement/sourcing structure is the best place to start. From there, you can determine which terms are applicable in your environment and dive deeper on the appropriate concepts as needed.

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand procurement/sourcing basics (continued)

    Procurement sourcing terms and concepts

    • Hard dollar savings
    • Soft dollar savings
    • Cost avoidance
    • Value creation
    • Value created
    • Addressable spend
    • Spend addressed
    • Revenue creation
    • Category management
    • Category manager
    • Targeted negotiations
    • Indirect procurement/sourcing
    • Direct procurement/sourcing
    • Sourcing/procurement processes
    • Sourcing/procurement drivers and metrics
    • RFX (RFP, RFI, RFQ) processes
    • Forecasting value creation
    • Percentage of value creation to spend addressed
    • Category opportunity
    • Category plans
    • Center-led procurement/sourcing
    • Centralized procurement/sourcing
    • Decentralized procurement/sourcing

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand conflict management basics

    Whether you consider conflict management a skill, knowledge, or something in between, there is no denying that vendor managers are often engaged to resolve conflicts and disputes. At times, the VMI will be a “disinterested third party,” sitting somewhere between the vendor and an internal department, line of business, agency, or other functional designation. The VMI also may be one of the parties involved in the dispute or conflict. As a result, a little knowledge and a push in the right direction will help you learn more about how to handle situations where two parties don’t agree.

    To begin with, there are four levels of “formal” dispute resolution. You may be intimately aware of all of them or only have cursory knowledge of how they work and the purpose they serve:

    • Negotiation
    • Mediation
    • Arbitration
    • Litigation

    Their use often can be controlled or limited either contractually or by your organization’s preferences. They may be exclusive or used in combination with one another (e.g. negotiation first, and if things aren’t resolved, arbitration). Look at your contracts and legal department for guidance. It’s important to understand when and how these tools are used and what is expected (if anything) from the VMI.

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand conflict management basics (continued)

    The image contains a screenshot of The Thomas-Kilman Conflict Resolution Model.

    Another factor in the conflict management and informal dispute resolution process is the people component. Perhaps the most famous or well-known model on this topic is the Thomas-Kilmann conflict resolution model. It attempts to bring clarity to the five different personality types you may encounter when resolving differences. As the graphic indicates, it is not purely a black-and-white endeavor; it is comprised of various shades of grey.

    The framework presented by Mr. Thomas and Mr. Kilmann provides insights into how people behave and how to engage them based on personality characteristics and attributes. The model sorts people into one of five categories:

    • Avoiders.
    • Competitors.
    • Collaborators.
    • Accommodators.
    • Compromisers.

    Although it is not an absolute science since people are unpredictable at times, the Thomas-Kilmann model provides great insights into human behavior and ways to work with the personality types listed.

    *Kilmann Diagnostics, 2018.

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand conflict management basics (continued)

    Although the topic is vastly greater than being presented here, the last consideration is a sound process to follow when the conflict or dispute will be handled informally (at least to start). The simple process presented below works with vendors, but it can be adapted to work with internal disputes as well. The following process assumes that the VMI is attempting to facilitate a dispute between an internal party and a vendor.

    Step 1. Validate the person and the issue being brought to you; don’t discount the person, their belief, or their issue. Show genuine interest and concern.

    Step 2. Gather and verify data; not all issues brought forward can be pursued or pursued as presented. For example, “The vendor is always late with its reports” may or may not be 100% accurate as presented.

    Step 3. Convert data gathered into useful and relatable information. To continue the prior example, you may find that the vendor was late with the reports on specified dates, and this can be converted into “the vendor was late with its reports 50% of the time during the last three months.”

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand conflict management basics (continued)

    Step 4. Escalate findings internally to the appropriate stakeholders and executives as necessary so they are not blindsided if a vendor complains or goes around you and the process. In addition, they may want to get involved if it is a big issue, or they may tell you to get rid of it if it is a small issue.

    Step 5. Engage the vendor once you have your facts and present the issues without judgment. Ask the vendor to do its own fact gathering.

    Step 6. Schedule a meeting to review of the situation and hear the vendor’s version of the facts…they may align, or they may not.

    Step 7. Resolve any differences between your facts/information and the vendor’s. There may be extenuating circumstances, oversights, different data, or other items that come to light.

    Step 8. Attempt to resolve the problem and prevent further occurrences through root cause analysis and collaborative problem-solving techniques.

    Develop your own process and make sure it stays neutral. The process should not put the vendor (or any party) on the defensive. The process is to help the parties reach resolution…not to assign blame.

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand account team management basics

    Working with the account or sales team from your critical vendors can be challenging. A basic understanding of account team operations and customer/vendor dynamics will go a long way to improving your interactions (and even vendor performance) over time.

    Sales basics

    • Salespeople are typically paid a base salary and a commission on each sale.
    • Salespeople have quotas that must be met; failure to meet the quota results in probation (at a minimum) or termination.
    • Salespeople sell what they are motivated to sell; the motivation comes in the way of contests, commissions, and recognition. The commission structure is not the same for every service or product sold by the vendor. In addition, incentives may be created to move old product, overstock, or new product (to name a few).
    • Salespeople have multiple goals when interacting with customers:
      • Sell
      • Gather information
      • Build a relationship
      • Get a reference
      • Obtain a reference
      • Increase the vendor’s footprint

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand account team management basics (continued)

    Improving sales and account team dynamics with your organization

    • Conduct due diligence on your account team. Are they “qualified” to work with your account?
    • Set expectations with the account team for the ongoing relationship. Don’t leave it to chance.
    • Evaluate the sales and account teams at least annually. Get feedback from those who work closely with the salespeople and account managers, including stakeholders and executives.
    • Educate people internally about the sales process. At a minimum, counsel them to avoid giving away leverage, answering “damaging” questions, and disclosing confidential information.
    • Try to get involved early in the sales cycle. Sell your value to internal personnel.
    • Work to convert your account manager into your champion within the vendor. The salesperson can benefit by going to bat for you even though they work for the vendor. The commission structure often creates a split loyalty issue. Capitalize on it!
    • Watch out for high turnover. This can indicate a problem at the vendor OR your account is not that attractive/profitable. (See steps 2.2 and 3.1 regarding customer positioning.)

    Step 3.9 – Expand professional knowledge

    Understand account team management basics (continued)

    Improving sales and account team dynamics with your organization (continued)

    • Support effective sales reps by educating them on your organization, the best way to work with you, and the benefits of working with your processes. If they do something above and beyond, consider sending them a thank-you and copying their boss. Little things go a long way.
    • Control the sales process. Require qualified people from your organization to be invited to meetings; require an agenda for those meetings; and avoid “surprise” meetings (those meetings with limited notice and no agenda… "My boss is in town today, and I wanted to stop by and introduce her to you").
    • Don’t be afraid to request a new account manager. For your critical vendors, you should always be dealing with competent account teams. They should have the requisite knowledge of their products and services to be able to answer basic through intermediate questions; they should be ethical; and they should be responsive.
    • Build relationships beyond the salesperson or account manager. Develop a network that extends throughout the sales organization. (For example, the sales manager, sales director, and sales vice president at a minimum.) These people generally have more sway within the vendor organization and can get things done when the need arises.

    For more information on this topic, download the Info-Tech blueprint Evaluate Your Vendor Account Team to Optimize Vendor Relations.

    Step 3.10 – Create brand awareness

    Determine whether a brand makes sense for the VMI

    Branding isn’t just for companies. It is for departments (or whatever you call them at your place of employment) and individuals working in those departments. With a little work and even less money, you can create a meaningful brand for the VMI. While you are at it, you may want to encourage the VMI’s team members to focus a little attention on their personal brands since the VMI and its personnel are intertwined. First, let's define “brand.”

    Ask 50 people, “How do you define ‘brand’?” and you are likely to get 50 different answers. For the purposes of this blueprint, the following definition provides some guiderails by describing what a brand is and isn’t: “A brand is not a logo. A brand is not an identity. A brand is not a product. A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.”1 Let’s expand the definition of “a brand is…” to include departments and individuals since that’s the focus of this step, and it doesn’t violate the spirit of the original definition. A further expansion could include the goodwill associated with the product, service, organization, department, or individual.

    Dedicating time and other resources to proactively creating and nurturing the VMI’s brand has many advantages:

    • “If you don’t define your brand, others will.”2 This is your chance to define the VMI’s narrative and influence the perception others have of it.
    • It allows VMI team members to feel connected to the VMI’s vision and goals during their day-to-day activities.
    • It helps form an emotional connection between the VMI and your internal “clients.”
    • “Branding is a way of establishing and consistently reinforcing who you are and what you [do]…”2 Your brand helps you promote the VMI’s value and impact.
    1 Emotive Brand, 2019. 2 Forbes, 2018.

    Step 3.10 – Create brand awareness

    Establish the VMI’s brand and monitor it

    As you embark on creating a brand for the VMI and raising awareness, here are a few considerations to keep in mind:

    • Identify your mission.* Review the VMI’s mission statement and goals. Translate them into statements that connect with your internal clients.
    • Establish your unique value proposition.* What does the VMI provide to your internal clients that would make them go out of their way to use your services? How can you help them in ways others can’t?
    • Create your brand’s visual identity.* Can you create a logo for the VMI? Can you provide a consistent look and feel for the reports you generate and information you provide?
    • Increase brand recognition.* It takes time to build trust and establish a reputation. The same is true of creating a brand and increasing its recognition. Develop a plan for this rather than leaving it to chance.
    • Be consistent. Make sure your brand is consistent with the organization’s brand or at least doesn’t contradict it. The VMI’s brand is based on its values, mission, goals, and other items; these should complement the organization’s values, mission, goals, and other items.
    • Spread the word. Attend internal clients’ staff meetings, conduct lunch & learn sessions, send out a newsletter to ensure that your internal clients know who you are, what you do, and the impact you can make or have made. Make personal connections whenever possible.
    • Monitor your brand. It is not enough to create a brand and turn it loose unsupervised. Seek feedback on the VMI and its brand beyond the internal survey (step 3.11), and adjust your brand periodically as needed.
    * Stevens & Tate, 2019.

    Step 3.10 – Create brand awareness

    Enhance the brand of VMI team members

    As previously mentioned, brands are for individuals as well. In fact, everybody has a brand associated with them…for better or worse...whether they have consciously created and molded it or not. Focusing on the individual brand at this point offers the VMI and its team members the opportunity to enhance the brand for both. After all, the VMI is a reflection of its personnel.

    Here are some things VMI team members can do to enhance their brand:

    • Network internally beyond your immediate team.1 Get to know people and build relationships with others even if you don’t work directly or indirectly with them.
    • Say yes to relevant opportunities.1 Volunteer for projects where you can make an impact and let others see your value; it’s also a good way to build relationships beyond your immediate team.
    • Speak at a conference. According to Jeff Butler (author and TEDx speaker), “Speaking gets you that immediate credibility not only internally but also externally where other companies are now seeing you as an expert.” He also states that “speaking at … conferences is not only good for you but also good for your [organization].”1
    • Share your voice.1 Become a resource for bloggers, authors, and podcasters; consider blogging, writing, and podcasting. Remember not to disclose any proprietary or confidential information, though! Work with your legal and marketing departments before embarking on this path.
    • Set goals and monitor your progress. Track the number of times you are asked to speak or contribute to a blog, podcast, event, or article, and track the number of times you are mentioned or referenced in social media, blogs, articles, and podcasts.2
    1 Forbes, 2018. 2 Oberlo, 2022.

    3.10.1 – Create brand awareness

    30 – 90 Minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to review the information in Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 3.10. The worksheet is divided into two parts.
      1. Part 1 is for the VMI to use to create a brand, and
      2. Part 2 is for an individual VMI team member to create a brand.
    2. For Part 1, work as a team to answer the questions to begin identifying components of your brand awareness and building a strategy for the VMI's brand.
    3. For Part 2, individuals can work by themselves or with the team leader to answer the questions and set goals to help build an individual brand (if it is desirable).
    InputOutput
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 3.10
    • Brainstorming
    • VMI brand framework
    • Individual VMI personnel brand framework
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Elevate – Tools and Templates Compendium – Tab 3.10
    • VMI team

    Download the Info-Tech Elevate - Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 3.11 – Survey internal clients

    Gain insights and feedback from internal sources

    As you deploy your surveys, timing must be considered. For annual surveys, avoid busy seasons such as mid to late December (especially if your organization’s fiscal year is a calendar year). Give people time to recover from any November holidays, and survey them before they become distracted by December holidays (if possible). You may want to push the annual survey until January or February when things have settled back into a normal routine. Your needs for timing and obtaining the results must be balanced against the time constraints and other issues facing the potential respondents.

    For recency surveys, timing can work to your advantage or disadvantage. Send the survey almost immediately after providing assistance. If you wait more than a week or two, memories will begin to fade, and the results will trend toward the middle of the road.

    Regardless of whether it is an annual survey or a recency survey, distributing the surveys to a big enough sample size will be tough. Combine that with low response rates and the results may be skewed. Take what you can get and look for trends over time. Some people may be tough critics; if possible, send the survey to the same people (and incorporate new ones) to see if the tough graders’ responses are remaining true over time. Another way to mitigate some of the tough critics is to review their answers to the open-ended questions. For example, a tough grader may respond with a “4 – helpful” when you were expecting a “5 – very helpful;” the narrative portion of the survey may be consistent with that answer, or it may provide what you were looking for: “The VMI was great to work with on this project.” When confined to a scale, some respondents won’t give the top value/assessment no matter what, but they will sing your praises in a question that requires a narrative response. Taken together, you may get a slightly different picture – one that often favors you.

    Step 3.11 – Survey internal clients

    Gain insights and feedback from internal sources (continued)

    The image contains a screenshot of an example survey.

    After you have received a few responses to your surveys (recency and annual), review the results against your expectations and follow up with some of the respondents. Were the questions clear? Were the answer choices appropriate? Ultimately, you have to decide if the survey provided the meaningful feedback you were looking for. If not, revise the questions and answers choices as needed. (Keep in mind, you are not looking for “feelgood fluff.” You are looking for feedback that will reinforce what you are doing well and show areas for improvement.)

    Once you have the results, it’s time to share them with the executives and stakeholders. When creating a report, consider the following guidance:

    • Don’t just list the data; convert it to usable information.
    • When needed, provide some context and interpretation for the results. For example, if you have an internal goal or service level, indicate this and show how the results compare to the target (e.g. in a bar chart, insert a horizontal line and label it “target”).
    • Present the results on a question-by-question basis, but you may want to combine or aggregate results to provide meaningful information. For example, combine 21% responding with “doing a great job” and 62% responding with “doing a good job” into one statement of “83% of those surveyed said the VMI is doing a good job or doing a great job.”
    • Use an executive summary as an overview or to highlight the key findings, with the detailed data and information on subsequent pages for people who want to dive deeper.

    Step 3.12 – Calculate VMI ROI

    Identify and report the VMI’s value and impact on the organization

    Calculating ROI begins with establishing baselines: what is the current situation? Once those are established, you can begin tracking the impact made by the VMI by looking at the differences between the baseline and the end result. For example, if the VMI is tracking money saved, it is critical to know the baseline amounts (e.g. the initial quote from the vendor, the budgeted amount). If time is being measured, it is important to understand how much time was previously spent on items (e.g. vendor meetings to address concerns, RFPs).

    The blueprint Capture and Market the ROI of Your VMO will lead you through the process, but there are a couple of key things to remember: 1) some results will be quick and easy – the low-hanging fruit, things that have been ignored or not done well, eliminating waste, and streamlining inefficiencies; and 2) other things may take time to come to fruition. Be patient and make sure you work with finance or others to bring credibility to your calculations.

    When reporting the ROI, remember to include the results of the survey from step 3.11. They are not always quantifiable, but they help executives and stakeholders see the complete picture, and the stories or examples make the ROI “personal” to the organization.

    Reporting can be a challenge. VMIs often underestimate their value and don’t like self-promotion. While you don’t want to feel like you operate in justification mode, many eyes will be on the VMI. The ROI report helps validate and promote the VMI, and it helps build brand awareness for the VMI.

    Step 3.13 – Implement vendor recognition program

    Set your plan in motion

    As indicated in step 2.10, take a “crawl, walk, run” approach to your vendor recognition program. Start off small and grow the program over time. Based on the scope of the program, decide how you’ll announce and promote it. Work with marketing, IT, and others to ensure a consistent message, to leverage technology (e.g. your website), and to maximize awareness.

    For a formal program, you may want to hold a kickoff meeting to introduce the program internally and externally. The external kickoff can be handled in a variety of ways depending on available resources and the extent of the program. For example, a video can be produced and shared with eligible vendors, an email from the VMI or an executive can be used, or the program can be rolled out through BAMs if only BAM participants are eligible for the program. If you are taking an informal approach to the vendor recognition program, you may not need an external kickoff at all.

    For a formal program, collect information periodically throughout the year rather than waiting until the end of the year; however, some data may not be available or relevant until the end of the measurement period. For subjective criteria, the issue of recency may be an issue, and memories will fade over time. (Be careful the subjective portion doesn’t turn into a popularity contest.)

    If the vendor recognition program is not meeting your goals adequately, don’t be afraid to modify it or even scrap it. At some point, you may have to do a partial or total reboot of the program. Creating and maintaining a “lessons learned” document will make a reboot easier and better if it is necessary. Remember: While a vendor recognition program has many potential benefits, your main goals must be achieved or the program adds little or no value.

    Phase 4 - Review

    Ensure Your VMI Continues to Evolve

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Review and update existing Plan materials

    2.1 Vendor classification models

    2.2 Customer positioning model

    2.3 Two-way scorecards

    2.4 Performance improvement plan (PIP)

    2.5 Relationship improvement plan (RIP)

    2.6 Vendor-at-a-glance reports

    2.7 VMI personnel competency evaluation tool

    2.8 Internal feedback tool

    2.9 VMI ROI calculation

    2.10 Vendor recognition program

    3.1 Classify vendors and identify customer position

    3.2 Assess the relationship landscape

    3.3 Leverage two-way scorecards

    3.4 Implement PIPs and RIPs

    3.5 Gather market intelligence

    3.6 Generate vendor-at-a-glance reports

    3.7 Evaluate VMI personnel

    3.8 Improve professional skills

    3.9 Expand professional knowledge

    3.10 Create brand awareness

    3.11 Survey internal clients

    3.12 Calculate VMI ROI

    3.13 Implement vendor recognition program

    4.1 Investigate potential alliances

    4.2 Continue increasing the VMI’s strategic value

    4.3 Review and update

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    This phase helps the VMI stay aligned with the overall organization, stay current, and improve its strategic value as it evolves. The main outcomes from this phase are ways to advance the VMI’s strategic impact.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Others as needed

    Phase 4 – Review

    Continue evolving the VMI and keep it up to date

    The emphasis of this final phase is on the VMI’s continued evolution.

    • First up is the concept of alliances. For a small number of vendors, your relationship has the ability to transcend to a different level. A collaborative, synergistic relationship can be achieved under the right circumstances.
    • Next, additional material on transforming the VMI from purely transactional to strategic is provided (along with some reminders from prior phases). To reach its full potential, the VMI must mature and evolve, but this won’t happen without the active management of a well-crafted plan. What got the VMI to this point won’t necessarily work to get you to the next point on the evolution scale.
    • Lastly, remember to stay vigilant about the review process. What is the VMI doing well? Where can it improve? What needs to change?

    Step 4.1 – Investigate potential alliances

    Understand what separates an alliance from a regular relationship

    Chances are you’ve seen a marketing or business alliance at work in your personal life. If you’ve visited a Target store or a Barnes and Noble store, you’ve more than likely walked past the Starbucks counter. The relationship is about more than the landlord-tenant agreement, and the same business concept can exist in non-retail settings. Although they may not be as common in the customer-IT vendor space, alliances can work here as well.

    Definition

    For vendor management purposes, an alliance is a symbiotic relationship between two parties where both benefit beyond the traditional transactional (i.e. buyer-seller) relationship.

    Characteristics

    • Each party remains independent; this is not a true partnership or joint venture from a legal perspective.
    • Each party obtains benefits they wouldn’t be able to obtain by themselves (or, at a minimum, the timeline is accelerated significantly).
    • The relationship is geared toward the long term, and each party contributes resources to achieve synergies.

    Step 4.1 – Investigate potential alliances

    Analyze benefits and risks for the alliance

    Benefits

    • Synergies
    • Innovations
    • Use of pooled resources
    • Access to different areas of expertise
    • Quicker development or improvement of products or services
    • Competitive advantages, new revenue streams, and new markets

    Risks

    • Cultural fit
    • Departing executives/sponsors
    • Return on investment pressures
    • Different interests or expectations
    • Failure to address intellectual property issues adequately
    • Lack of experience and process to manage the relationship

    Step 4.1 – Investigate potential alliances

    Set up the alliance for success

    Keys to success

    • Communicate transparently.
    • Ensure executive participation from both parties.
    • Establish a joint steering committee and alliance governances.
    • Set clear expectations and define what each party wants out of the alliance.
    • Create “alliance managers” in addition to vendor managers and project mangers.
    • Start with a small alliance; don’t go all-in on a big alliance the first time you try it.
    • Create an environment of trust and collaboration; the alliance goes beyond the contract.
    • Make sure both parties are happy with their contributions to and rewards from the alliance.

    The purpose of this step is not to make you an expert on alliances or to encourage you to rush out of your office, cubicle, bedroom, or other workspace looking for opportunities. The purpose is to familiarize you with the concepts, to encourage you to keep your eyes open, and to think about relationships from different angles. How will you make the most of your vendors’ expertise, resources, market, and other things they bring to the table?

    Step 4.2 – Continue increasing the VMI’s strategic value

    Grow the VMI’s impact over time

    Although they are not synonymous concepts, increasing the VMI’s maturity and increasing the VMI’s strategic value can go hand in hand. Evolving the VMI to be strategic allows the organization to receive the greatest benefit for its investment. This isn’t to say that all work the VMI does will be strategic. It will always live in two places – the transactional world and the strategic world – even when it is fully mature and operating strategically. Just like any job, there are transactional tasks and activities that must be done, and some of them are foundational elements for being strategic (e.g. conducting research, preparing reports, and classifying vendors). The VMI must evolve and become strategic for many reasons: staying in the transactional world limits the VMI’s contributions, results, influence and impact; team members will have less job satisfaction and enjoyment and lower salaries; ultimately, the justification for the VMI could disappear.

    To enhance the VMI’s (and, as applicable, its personnel’s) strategic value, continue:

    • Maturing the VMI and its personnel.
    • Building relationships internally and with the critical vendors (typically, high operational, high tactical, and strategic vendors under the COST model and valued and principal vendors under the MVP model).
    • Increasing your knowledge about vendor management and your critical vendors and their industries.
    • Saying yes to opportunities or volunteering for cross-functional teams that allow the VMI to showcase its abilities.
    • Increasing your knowledge of your organization, how it operates, the political environment, and anything else that will help the VMI provide information, insight, and guidance.
    • Learning about your industry and competitors (if applicable).

    Step 4.2 – Continue increasing the VMI’s strategic value

    Shift from transactional to strategic as much as possible

    Indicators of a transactional VMI:

    Indicators of a strategic VMI:

    • Exclusively reactive approach to operations
    • Focused exclusively on day-to-day operations
    • Internal clients are obligated to use the VMI due to policy
    • No perceived value-add; perceived as an administrative function
    • Left out of the RFP process or only have a limited role
    • Left out of the negotiation process or only have a limited role
    • VMI has a narrow reach and impact within the organization
    • Measure of value for the VMI is only quantitative
    • Metrics gathering without analysis and influential use
    • Personnel have limited skills, competencies, and knowledge
    • Proactive approach to operations
    • Focused on the big picture
    • Internal clients seek out or voluntarily consult the VMI
    • VMI is valued for its contributions and impact
    • Good relationships exist with vendors and stakeholders
    • Personnel possess high levels of skill, competency, and knowledge
    • VMI processes are integrated into the organization
    • VMI participates in business strategy development
    • VMI leads or is heavily involved in the RFP & negotiation processes
    • Relationship managers are assigned to all critical vendors
    • Measure of value for the VMI is quantitative and qualitative
    • Metrics are used to make and influence decisions/strategy

    Step 4.3 – Review and update

    Tap into the collective wisdom and experience of your team members

    The vendor management lifecycle is continuous and more chaotic than linear, but the chaos mostly stays within the boundaries of the “plan, build, run, and review” framework outlined in this blueprint and the blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative. Two of the goals of managing the lifecycle are: 1) to adapt to a changing world; and 2) to improve the VMI and its impact over time. To do this, keep following the guidance in this phase, but don’t forget about the direction provided in phase 4 of the blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative:

    • Review and assess compliance.
    • Compile and leverage lessons learned.
    • Focus on maintaining alignment internally.
    • Identify and incorporate leading practices.
    • Update governances.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Continue reviewing and updating the VMI’s risk footprint. Add risk categories and scope as needed (measurement, monitoring, and reporting). Review Info-Tech’s vendor management-based series of risk blueprints for further information (Identify and Manage Reputational Risk Impacts on Your Organization and others).

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    It is easy for business owners to lose sight of things. There is a saying among entrepreneurs about remembering to work on the business rather than working exclusively in the business. For many entrepreneurs, it is easy to get lost in the day-to-day grind and to forget to look at the bigger picture. A VMI is like a business in that regard – it is easy to focus on the transactional work and lose sight of maturing or evolving the VMI. Don’t let this happen!

    Leverage the tools and templates from this blueprint and adapt them to your environment as needed. Unlike the blueprint Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative, some of the concepts presented here may take more time, resources, and evolution before you are ready to deploy them. Continue using the three-year roadmap and 90-day plans from the Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative blueprint, and add components from this blueprint when the time is right. The two blueprints are designed to work in concert as you move forward on your VMI journey.

    Lastly, focus on getting a little better each day, week, month, or year: better processes, better policies and procedures, better relationships with vendors, better relationships with internal clients, better planning, better anticipation, better research, better skills, competencies, and knowledge for team members, better communication, better value, and better impact. A little “better” goes a long way, and over time it becomes a lot better.

    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

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    IT (and the organization as a whole) are more reliant on vendors than ever before, and vendor management has become increasingly necessary to manage the relationships and manage the risks. Implementing a vendor management initiative is no longer a luxury...it is a necessity.

    Capture and Market the ROI of Your VMO

    Calculating the impact or value of a vendor management office (VMO) can be difficult without the right framework and tools. Let Info-Tech’s tools and templates help you account for the contributions made by your VMO.

    Evaluate Your Vendor Account Team to Optimize Vendor Relations

    Understanding your vendor team’s background, experience, and strategic approach to your account is key to the management of the relationship, the success of the vendor agreement, and, depending on the vendor, the success of your business.

    Identify and Manage Financial Risk Impacts on Your Organization

    Vendors’ failure to perform, including security and compliance violations, can have significant financial consequences. Good vendor management practices help organizations understand the costs of those actions.

    Bibliography

    Amaresan, Swetha. “The 9 Most Important Survey Design Tips & Best Practices.” HubSpot. Accessed 13 July 2022.
    “Best Practices for Every Step of Survey Creation.” Survey Monkey. Accessed 13 July 2022.
    Brevig, Armand. ”Here Is a Quicker Way of Getting Better Supply Market Insights.” Procurement Cube, 30 July 2020. Accessed 19 May 2022.
    Cain, Elna. “9 Simple Ways on How to Improve Your Writing Skills.” Elna Cain, 20 Nov. 2018. Accessed 5 June 2020.
    Colwell, Tony. “How to Select Strategic Suppliers Part 1: Beware the Supplier's Perspective.” Accuity Consultants, 7 Feb 2012. Accessed 19 May 2022.
    “50 Tips for Improving Your Emotional Intelligence.” RocheMartin, 12 Jan. 2022. Accessed 25 July 2022.
    “4 Ways to Strengthen Your Ability to Influence Others.” Center for Creative Leadership, 24 Nov. 2020. Accessed 20 July 2022.
    Ferreira, Nicole Martins. “10 Personal Branding Tips That’ll Elevate Your Business In 2022.” Oberlo, 21 Mar. 2022. Accessed 24 May 2022.
    Gartlan, Dan. “4 Essential Brand Components.” Stevens & Tate, 25 Nov. 2019. Accessed 24 May 2022.
    Geller & Company. “World-Class Procurement — Increasing Profitability and Quality.” Spend Matters, 2003. Accessed 4 March 2022.
    Gumaste, Pavan. “50 Project Management Terms You Should Know.” Whiz Labs, 2018. Accessed 22 July 2022.
    Hertzberg, Karen. “How to Improve Writing Skills in 15 Easy Steps.” Grammarly, 15 June 2017. Accessed 5 June 2020.
    “Improving Emotional Intelligence (EQ).” HelpGuide, 2022. Accessed 25 July 2022.
    “ISG Index 4Q 2021.” Information Services Group, Inc., 2022. Web.
    Lehoczky, Etelka. “How To Improve Your Writing Skills At Work.” Forbes, 9 Mar. 2016. Accessed 5 June 2020.
    Liu, Joseph. “5 Ways To Build Your Personal Brand At Work.” Forbes, 30 Apr. 2018. Accessed 24 May 2022.
    Lloyd, Tracy. “Defining What a Brand Is: Why Is It So Hard?” Emotive Brand, 18 June 2019. Accessed 28 July 2022.
    Nielson, Megan. “The Basic Tenants of Diplomatic Communication.” Communiqué PR, 22 October 2020. Accessed 23 May 2022
    “Positioning Yourself in the Market.” New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, 2021. Accessed 19 May 2022.
    Rogelberg, Steven G. “The Surprising Science Behind Successful Remote Meetings.” sloanreview.mit.edu. 21 May 2020. Accessed 19 July 2022.
    “Rule No 5: All Customers/Suppliers Have a Different Value to You.” newdawnpartners.com. Accessed 19 May 2022.

    Bibliography

    Shute, Benjamin. “Supplier Relationship Management: Is Bigger Always Better?” Comprara, 24 May 2015. Accessed 19 May 2022.
    Steele, Paul T. and Brian H. Court. Profitable Purchasing Strategies: A Manager's Guide for Improving Organizational Competitiveness Through the Skills of Purchasing. ‎ McGraw-Hill, 1996.
    “Take the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI).” Kilmann Diagnostics, 2018. Accessed 20 Aug. 2020.
    Tallia, Alfred F. MD, MPH, et al. ”Seven Characteristics of Successful Work Relationships.” Fam Pract Manag. 2006 Jan;13(1):47-50.
    “The Art of Tact and Diplomacy.” skillsyouneed.com. Accessed 23 May 2022.
    “13 Key Traits of Strong Professional Relationships.” success.com. Accessed 4 Feb. 2022.
    Wilson, Fred. “Top 40 Project Management Terms and Concepts of 2022.” nTask, 25 Feb. 2019. Accessed 24 July 2022.

    Terms of use

     These Terms of Use state the terms and conditions under which you may use this website and the Services, which are the property of Tymans Group BV. ("TY"). Your use of this site and the Services constitutes acceptance of these Terms of Use.
    1. General Use Restrictions

    TY services, advice, materials, products, websites, and networks (collectively the "Services") are to be used for the User (meaning a named individual user that uses the publicly available Services or is authorized by TY in a service agreement to use the Services that require paid access) use and benefit only pursuant to the terms and limitations of the paid subscription and may not be disclosed, disseminated or distributed to any other party, except as TY otherwise agrees in writing. The User will not circumvent any encryption or otherwise gain access to Services for which the User has not been expressly granted the appropriate rights of access.

    The User will not use the Services for or knowingly transmit to TY or upload to any TY site or network any illegal, improper, or unacceptable material or use them for illegal, improper, or unacceptable practices, including without limitation the dissemination of any defamatory, fraudulent, infringing, abusive, lewd, obscene or pornographic material, viruses, trojan horses, time bombs, worms, or other harmful code designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any software, hardware or communications equipment, unsolicited mass email or other internet-based advertising campaigns, privacy breaches, denial of use attacks, spoofing, or impersonation.

    1. Copyright

    The Services are © Tymans Group BV. All rights reserved.

    The Services are owned by and copyrighted by TY and other parties and may contain trademarks of TY or others. They are protected by Canadian, US, and international copyright and trademark laws and conventions.

    User may use the Services solely for his or their own information purposes pursuant to the terms and limitations of the paid subscription. The User may download any of the Service's tools or templates for his or her individual use but may not distribute any articles, tools, templates, or blueprints internally, subject to the exceptions below. The User may create derivative works from the Service's tools or templates and distribute these for internal use but may not distribute these derivative works externally for any commercial or resale purposes.

    Any other reproduction or dissemination of the Services in any form or by any means is forbidden without TY's written permission, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the User will not:

    • A. record and re-transmit the Service over any network (including any local area network), except as otherwise stated above;
    • B. use any Service in any timesharing, service bureau, bulletin board, or similar arrangement or public display;
    • C. post any Service to any other online service (including bulletin boards or the internet);
    • D. sublicense, lease, sell, offer for sale or assign the Service; or
    • E. use TY's name or any excerpts from the Services in the promotion of its products or services.
    1. Users

    Users must be authorized to use the Services by TY. Users must maintain and protect the confidentiality of any password(s) and are responsible for ensuring that the passwords are effective. Users shall advise TY immediately if they discover that their password has been compromised at the following number: 1-888-670-8889. If you are an organization that is party to a service agreement with TY, references in these Terms of Use to "User(s)" include you, and you are responsible for compliance by named individual Users within your organization with these Terms of Use.

    1. User Perspective

    For the benefit of all Users, TY's research services include the ability for Users to (i) participate in the creation of research by contributing User perspectives for publication on TY's websites and (ii) participate in industry-specific community groups and other forums by contributing discussion posts. All such contributions are voluntary with the full consent of the User. If your account is used to contribute content to TY's websites (collectively, "User Contributions"), you agree to accept sole responsibility for those User Contributions, including the information, statements, facts, and material contained in any form or medium (e.g., text, audio, video, and photographic) therein. To the extent Users contribute any feedback to TY (as User Contributions or otherwise), TY may use that feedback to assess, improve, and market its products. To the extent Users contribute to research, TY may incorporate those contributions within the research Services without the necessity of attribution. You grant us and our affiliates a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free, nonexclusive license to use, reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute publicly display, and publish User Contributions. You agree you will not attempt to enforce any so-called "moral rights" in User Contributions against us or our affiliates.

    By using TY's research services, you agree that none of your User Contributions will:

    • Infringe on the intellectual property, trade secret, privacy, publicity, or other rights of others;
    • Contain false statements or misrepresentations that could damage TY or any third party;
    • Include obscene, libelous, defamatory, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful, sexually explicit, sexually-oriented, profane, or embarrassing material, as determined by TY in its sole discretion;
    • Be illegal or otherwise objectionable;
    • Contain the personal information of any third party, including, without limitation, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers, and credit card numbers;
    • Encourage or facilitate insider trading or anti-competitive behavior;
    • Include commercial advertisements or solicitations; or
    • Purport to or actually provide legal or professional advice.

    BecauseTY's Web sites are available to the public, User Contributions on TY's Web sites are not Confidential Information.

    Although you are solely responsible for the content you provide, and we do not have a policy of reviewing or monitoring all User Contributions, we reserve the right to pre-screen and/or monitor User Contributions. If we become aware of User Contributions that violate these Terms of Service or that we believe to be otherwise objectionable, we may reject or delete them or take other action without notice to you and at our sole discretion.

    If you believe that any User Contributions appear to violate these Terms of Service, or if you believe any other user is engaged in illegal, harassing, or objectionable behavior, please contact us.

    1. Non-Disclosure of Confidential Information

    In these Terms of Use, "Confidential Information" means information of a commercially sensitive or proprietary character that is marked as confidential or that a reasonable person would understand to be confidential. The "Disclosing Party" is the party disclosing Confidential Information, and the "Receiving Party" is the party receiving Confidential Information. However, Confidential Information does not include information that:

    • was in the public domain at the time of communication to the Receiving Party or is later placed in the public domain by the Disclosing Party;
    • entered the public domain through no fault of the Receiving Party subsequent to the time of disclosure hereunder to the Receiving Party;
    • was in the Receiving Party's possession free of any obligation of confidence prior to disclosure hereunder; or
    • was developed by employees or agents of the Receiving Party independently of and without reference to any Confidential Information.

    The Receiving Party shall not disclose, publish or communicate the Confidential Information to any third party without the prior written consent of the Disclosing Party. However, the Receiving Party may disclose the Confidential Information to a third party who has a need to know the Confidential Information and (i) is an accountant, attorney, underwriter, or advisor under a duty of confidentiality; or (ii) is under a written obligation of confidentiality at least as restrictive as this Agreement and to the extent required by law.

    TY may create or use anonymized data for purposes such as benchmarking, analytics, and other good-faith business purposes. Anonymized data is not the Confidential Information of Users.

    1. Term

    Many of the Services are "subscription" services that have a fixed Term and must be renewed in writing at the end of the term for services to continue. The contractual term of membership is generally one (1) to three (3) years in length and is agreed to by the parties in writing. Workshops purchased as part of membership expire without refund or credit at the end of the membership period covered by the purchase. Workshops purchased outside membership expire without refund or credit one (1) year after purchase. TY may terminate a User's access at any time if the User or the entity paying for the User's access violates the terms of use or subscription or any other agreement with TY.

    1. Cancellation

    As the Services are paid in advance for a committed membership term, a service agreement or membership cannot be terminated by a User for convenience during a contractual term.

    1. Changes

    TY strives to innovate. TY may update, upgrade or otherwise change or discontinue content, features, or other aspects of its Services. TY will not make changes that cumulatively degrade the quality of a paid subscription to the Services. TY also reserves the right to change the terms and conditions applicable to your use of the Services unless TY has otherwise agreed in a service agreement. Use of the Services after such changes shall be deemed to be acceptance by the User of such changes. These terms were last revised on June 8, 2022.

    1. Accuracy of Information and Warranty

    The information contained in the Services has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but TY does not warrant the completeness, timeliness, or accuracy of any information contained in the Services. The Services are intended to: help identify business risks; provide insights based on industry research; and help you focus on certain matters which may be affecting your business. TY does not provide legal, accounting, or other professional advice, nor should any advice from TY be construed as such. We encourage you to seek professional advice whenever necessary.

    TY expressly excludes and disclaims all express or implied conditions, representations, and warranties, including, without limitation, any implied warranties or conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, to the extent allowable by law.

    Although TY takes reasonable steps to screen Services for infection by viruses, worms, Trojan horses, or other code manifesting contaminating or destructive properties before making the Services available, TY cannot guarantee that any Service will be free of infection.

    User assumes sole responsibility for the selection of the Services to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed in the Services are subject to change without notice.

    TY does not endorse third-party products or services. TY assesses and analyzes the effectiveness and appropriateness of information technology in the context of a general business environment only unless specifically hired by a User to assess in the context of their own environment.

    1. Limitation of Liability

    In no event is TY liable for any special, indirect, consequential, incidental, punitive, or other damages however caused, whether in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, operation of law, or otherwise (including without limitation damages for lost profits, business interruption or loss arising out of the use of or inability to use the Services, or any information provided in the Services, or claims attributable to errors, omissions or other inaccuracies in the Service or interpretations thereof), even if TY has been advised of the possibility of such damages. TY's total liability shall in no event exceed the amount paid by the User for the Service in question.

    The User acknowledges that TY has set its prices and sold the Services to it in reliance on the limitations of liability and disclaimers of warranties and damages set forth herein and that the same form a fundamental and essential basis of the bargain between the parties. They shall apply even if the contract between the User and TY is found to have failed in its fundamental or essential purpose or has been fundamentally breached.

    1. Links to Third-Party Sites

    Any third-party sites that are linked to the Services are not under TY's control. TY is not responsible for anything on the linked sites, including without limitation any content, links to other sites, any changes to those sites, or any policies those sites may have. TY provides links as a convenience only, and such links do not imply any endorsement by TY of those sites.

    1. Investment Advice

    The Services are not intended to be used for the purpose of, or as a basis for, making investment decisions or recommendations with respect to securities of any company or industry, and TY assumes no liability for decisions made, in whole or in part, on the basis of any information contained in the Services.

    1. Governing Law

    This site and any service agreement are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario, Canada, excluding any conflicts of law provisions and excluding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Any legal action against TY shall take place in the courts of the province of Antwerp, Belgium. The parties attorn to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Ontario.

    1. Entire Agreement

    These standard terms of use, together with any service agreements and statements of work signed by the parties, contains the complete and exclusive statement of Agreement between the parties and supersedes all purchase order terms and conditions, understandings, proposals, negotiations, representations, or warranties of any kind whether written or oral.

    1. Privacy

    A User's right to privacy is of paramount importance to TY. See our Privacy Policy for more detail. The identity of our research clients is not considered personal or confidential information, and we may disclose that information for promotion and marketing purposes.

    1. Contact Information

    Attn: General Counsel

    legal@tymansgroup.com

    (US): 1-917-473-8669

    (BE): 32-468-142-754

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}528|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
    • Customer expectations regarding service are rapidly evolving. As your current IT systems may be viewed as ineffective at delivering upon these expectations, a transformation is called for.
    • It is unclear whether IT has the system architecture/infrastructure to support modern Customer Service channels and technologies.
    • The relationship between Customer Service and IT is strained. Strategic system-related decisions are being made without the inclusions of IT, and IT is only engaged post-purchase to address integration or issues as they arise.
    • Scope: An ABPM-centric approach is taken to model the desired future state, and retrospectively look into the current state to derive gaps and sequential requirements. The requirements are bundled into logical IT initiatives to be plotted on a roadmap and strategy document.
    • Challenge: The extent to which business processes can be mapped down to task-based Level 5 can be challenging depending on the maturity of the organization.
    • Pain/Risk: The health of the relationship between IT and Customer Service may determine project viability. Poor collaboration and execution may strain the relationship further.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • When transformation is called for, start with future state visioning. Current state analysis can impede your ability to see future needs and possibilities.
    • Solve your own problems by enhancing core or “traditional” Customer Service functionality first, and then move on to more ambitious business enabling functionality.
    • The more rapidly businesses can launch applications in today’s market, the better positioned they are to improve customer experience and reap the associated benefits. Ensure that technology is implemented with a solid strategy to support the initiative.

    Impact and Result

    • The right technology is established to support current and future Customer Service needs.
    • Streamlined and optimized Customer Service processes that drive efficiency and improve Customer Service quality are established.
    • The IT and Customer Service functions are both transformed from a cost center into a competitive advantage.

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service Research & Tools

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

    1. Structure the project

    Identify project stakeholders, define roles, and create the project charter.

    • Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service Storyboard
    • Project RACI Chart
    • Project Charter

    2. Define vision for future state

    Identify and model the future state of key business processes.

    • Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    3. Document current state and assess gaps

    Model the current state of key business processes and assess gaps.

    4. Evaluate solution options

    Review the outputs of the current state architecture health assessment and adopt a preliminary posture on architecture.

    5. Evaluate application options

    Evaluate the marketplace applications to understand the “art of the possible.”

    6. Frame desired state and develop roadmap

    Compile and score a list of initiatives to bridge the gaps, and plot the initiatives on a strategic roadmap.

    • Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

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

    1 Define Vision for Future State

    The Purpose

    Discuss Customer Service-related organizational goals and align goals with potential strategies for implementation.

    Score level 5 Customer Service business processes against organizational goals to come up with a shortlist for modeling.

    Create a future state model for one of the shortlisted business processes.

    Draft the requirements as they relate to the business process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Preliminary list of Customer Service-related business goals

    List of Customer Service business processes (Task Level 5)

    Pre-selected Customer Service business process for modeling

    Activities

    1.1 Outline and prioritize your customer goals and link their relevance and value to your Customer Service processes with the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool.

    1.2 Score customer service business processes against organizational goals with the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    Outputs

    Initial position on viable Customer Service strategies

    Shortlist of key business processes

    Documented future state business process model

    Business/functional/non-functional requirements

    2 Document Current State and Assess Gaps

    The Purpose

    Create a current state model for the shortlisted business processes.

    Score the functionality and integration of current supporting applications.

    Revise future state model and business requirements.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Inventory of Customer Service supporting applications

    Inventory of related system interfaces

    Activities

    2.1 Holistically assess multiple aspects of Customer Service-related IT assets with the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    Outputs

    Documented current state business process model

    Customer Service systems health assessment

    3 Adopt an Architectural Posture

    The Purpose

    Review the Customer Service systems health assessment results.

    Discuss options.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Completed Customer Service systems health assessment

    Application options

    Activities

    3.1 Analyze CS Systems Strategy and review results with the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    Outputs

    Posture on system architecture

    4 Frame Desired State and Develop Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Draft a list of initiatives based on requirements.

    Score and prioritize the initiatives.

    Plot the initiatives on a roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Business/functional/non-functional requirements

    Activities

    4.1 Help project and management stakeholders visualize the implementation of Customer Service IT initiatives with the Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool.

    Outputs

    Scored and prioritized list of initiatives

    Customer Service implementation roadmap

    Further reading

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

    E-commerce is accelerating, and with it, customer expectations for exceptional digital service.

    Analyst Perspective

    The future of Customer Service is digital. Your organization needs an IT strategy to meet this demand.

    The image contains a picture of Thomas E. Randall.

    As the pandemic closed brick-and-mortar stores, the acceleration of ecommerce has cemented Customer Service’s digital future. However, the pandemic also revealed severe cracks in the IT strategy of organizations’ Customer Service – no matter the industry. These cracks may include low resolution and high wait times through the contact center, or a lack of analytics that fuel a reactive environment. Unfortunately, organizations have no time to waste in resolving these issues. Customer patience for poor digital service has only decreased since March 2020, leaving organizations with little to no runway for ramping up their IT strategy.

    Organizations that quickly mature their digital Customer Service will come out the other side of COVID-19 more competitive and with a stronger reputation. This move necessitates a concrete IT strategy for coordinating what the organization’s future state should look like and agreeing on the technologies and software required to meet this state across the entire organization.

    Thomas E. Randall, Ph.D.

    Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Solution

    • COVID-19 has accelerated ecommerce, rapidly evolving customer expectations about the service they should receive. Without a robust IT strategy for enabling remote, contactless points of service, your organization will quickly fall behind.
    • The organization would like to use modern channels and technologies to enhance customer service, but it is unclear whether IT has the infrastructure to support them.
    • The relationship between Customer Service and IT is strained. Strategic system-related decisions are being made without the inclusion of IT.
    • IT is in a permanent reactive state, only engaged post-purchase to fix issues as they arise and to offer workarounds.
    • Use Info-Tech’s methodology to produce an IT strategy for Customer Service:
      • Phase 1: Define Project and Future State
      • Phase 2: Evaluate Current State
      • Phase 3: Build a Roadmap to Future State
    • Each phase contributes toward this blueprint’s key deliverable: the Strategic Roadmap.

    Info-Tech Insight

    IT must proactively engage with the organization to define what good customer service should look like. This ensures IT has a fair say in what kinds of architectural solutions are feasible for any projected future state. In this proactive scenario, IT can help build the roadmap for implementing and maintaining customer service infrastructure and operations, reducing the time and resources spent on putting out preventable fires or trying to achieve an unworkable goal set by the organization.

    Key insights

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

    Ecommerce growth has increased customer expectations

    Despite the huge obstacles that organizations are having to overcome to meet accelerating ecommerce from the pandemic, customers have not increased their tolerance for organizations with poor service. Indeed, customer expectations for excellent digital service have only increased since March 2020. If organizations cannot meet these demands, they will become uncompetitive.

    The future of customer service is tied up in analytics

    Without a coordinated IT strategy for leveraging technology and data to improve Customer Service, the organization will quickly be left behind. Analytics and reporting are crucial for proactively engaging with customers, planning marketing campaigns, and building customer profiles. Failing to do so leaves the organization blind to customer needs and will constantly be in firefighting mode.

    Meet the customer wherever they are – no matter the channel

    Providing an omnichannel experience is fast becoming a table stakes offering for customers. To maximize customer engagement and service, the organization must connect with the customer on whatever channel the customer prefers – be it social media, SMS, or by phone. While voice will continue to dominate how Customer Service connects with customers, demographics are shifting toward a digital-first generation. Organizations must be ready to capture this rapidly expanding audience.

    This blueprint will achieve:

    Increased customer satisfaction

    • An IT strategy for Customer Service that proactively meets customer demand, improving overall customer satisfaction with the organization’s services.
    • A process for identifying the organization’s future state of Customer Service and developing a concrete gap analysis.

    Time saved

    • Ready-to-use deliverables that analyze and provide a roadmap toward the organization’s desired future state.
    • Market analyses and rapid application selection through SoftwareReviews to streamline project time-to-completion.

    Increased ROI

    • A modernization process that aids Customer Service digital transformation, with a view to achieve high ROI.
    • Save costs through an effective requirements gathering method.
    • Building and expanding the organization’s customer base to increase revenues by meeting the customers where they are – no matter what channel.

    An IT strategy for customer service is imperative for a post-COVID world

    COVID-19 has accelerated ecommerce, rapidly evolving customer expectations for remote, contactless service.

    59% Of customers agree that the pandemic has raised their standards for service (Salesforce, 2020).

    • With COVID-19, most customer demand and employment moved online and turned remote.
    • Retailers had to rapidly respond, meeting customer demand through ecommerce. This not only entailed a complete shift in how customers could buy their goods but how retailers could provide a remote customer journey from discovery to post-purchase support.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The pandemic did not improve customer tolerance for bad service – instead, the demand for good service increased dramatically. Organizations need an IT strategy to meet customer support demands wherever the customer is located.

    The technology to provide remote customer support is surging

    IT needs to be at the forefront of learning about and suggesting new technologies, working with Customer Service to deliver a consistent, business-driven approach.

    78%

    Of decision makers say they’ve invested in new technology as a result of the pandemic (Salesforce, 2020).

    OMNICHANNEL SUPPORT

    Rapidly changing demographics and modes of communications require an evolution toward omnichannel engagement. Agents need customer information synced across each channel they use, meeting the customer’s needs where they are.

    78%

    Of customers have increased their use of self-service during the pandemic (Salesforce, 2020).

    INTELLIGENT SELF-SERVICE PORTALS

    Customers want their issues resolved as quickly as possible. Machine-learning self-service options deliver personalized customer experiences, which also reduce both agent call volume and support costs for the organization.

    90%

    Of global executives who use data analytics report that they improved their ability to deliver a great customer experience (Gottlieb, 2019).

    LEVERAGING ANALYTICS

    The future of customer service is tied up with analytics: from AI-driven capabilities that include agent assist and using biometric data (e.g., speech) for security, to feeding real insights about how customers and agents are doing and performing.

    Executive Brief – Case Study

    Self-service options improve quality of service and boost organization’s competitiveness in a digital marketspace.

    INDUSTRY: Financial Services

    SOURCE: TSB

    Situation

    Solution

    Results

    • The pandemic increased pressure on TSB’s Customer Service, with higher call loads from their five million customers who were anxious about their financial situation.
    • TSB needed to speed up its processing times to ensure loan programs and other assistances were provided as quickly as possible.
    • As meeting in-person became impossible due to the lockdown, TSB had to step up its digital abilities to serve their customers.
    • TSB sought to boost its competitiveness by shifting as far as possible to digital services.
    • TSB launched government loan programs in 36 hours, ahead of its competitors.
    • TSB created and released 21 digital self-service forms for customers to complete without needing to interact with bank staff.
    • TSB processed 140,000 forms in three months, replacing 15,000 branch visits.
    • TSB increased digital self-service rate by nine percent.

    IT can demonstrate its value to business by enhancing remote customer service

    IT must engage with Customer Service – otherwise, IT risks being perennially reactive and dictated to as remote customer service needs increase.

    IT benefits

    Customer Service benefits

    • The right technology is established to support Customer Service.
    • IT is viewed as a strategic partner and innovator, not just a cost center and support function.
    • Streamlined and optimized Customer Service processes that drive efficiency and improve Customer Service quality.
    • Transformation of the Customer Service function into a competitive advantage.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Change to how Customer Service will operate is inevitable. This is an opportunity for IT to establish their value to the business and improve their autonomy in how new technologies should be onboarded and utilized.

    Customer Service and IT need to work together to mitigate their pain points

    IT and Customer Service have an opportunity to reinforce and build their organization’s customer base by working together to streamline operations.

    IT pain points

    Customer Service pain points

    • IT lacks understanding of Customer Service challenges and pain points.
    • IT has technical debt or constrained technology funding.
    • The IT department is viewed as a cost center and support organization, not an engine of innovation, growth, and service delivery performance.
    • Processes supporting Customer Service delivery may be sub-optimal.
    • The existing technology cannot support the increasingly advanced needs of Customer Service functions.
    • Customer Service isn’t fully aware of what your customers think of your service quality. There is little to no monitoring of customer sentiment.
    • There is a lack of value-based segmentation of customers and information on their channel usage and preferences.
    • Competitor actions are not actively monitored.

    IT often cannot spark a debate with Customer Service on whether a decision made without IT is misaligned with corporate direction. It’s almost always an uphill battle for IT.

    Sahri Lava, Research Director, IDC

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

    DON’T FALL BEHIND

    70% of companies either have a digital transformation strategy in place or are working on one (Tech Pro Research, 2018). Unless IT can enable technology that meets the customer where they are, the organization will quickly fall behind in an age of accelerating ecommerce.

    DEVELOP FUTURE STATES

    Many customer journeys are now exclusively digital – 63% of customers expect to receive service over social media (Ringshall, 2020). Organization’s need an IT strategy to develop the future of their customer service – from leveraging analytics to self-service AI portals.

    BUILD GAP ANALYSIS

    73% of customers prefer to shop across multiple channels (Sopadjieva et al., 2017). Assess your current state’s application integrations and functionality to ensure your future state can accurately sync customer information across each channel.

    SHORTLIST SOLUTIONS

    Customer relationship management software is one of the world's fastest growing industries (Kuligowski, 2022). Choosing a best-fit solution requires an intricate analysis of the market, future trends, and your organization’s requirements.

    ADVANCE CHANGE

    95% of customers cite service as key to their brand loyalty (Microsoft, 2019). Build out your roadmap for the future state to retain and build your customer base moving forward.

    Use Info-Tech’s method to produce an IT strategy for Customer Service:

    PHASE 1: Define Project and Future State

    Output: Project Charter and Future State Business Processes

    1.1 Structure the Project

    1.2 Define a Vision for Future State

    1.3 Document Preliminary Requirements

    KEY DELIVERABLE:

    Strategic Roadmap

    The image contains a screenshot of the strategic roadmap.

    PHASE 2: Evaluate Current State

    Output: Requirements Identified to Bridge Current to Future State

    2.1 Document Current State Business Processes

    2.2 Assess Current State Architecture

    2.3 Review and Finalize Requirements for Future State

    PHASE 3: Build a Roadmap to Future State

    Output: Initiatives and Strategic Roadmap

    3.1 Evaluate Architectural and Application Options

    3.2 Understand the Marketplace

    3.3 Score and Plot Initiatives Along Your Strategic Roadmap

    Key deliverable and tools outline

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

    Project RACI Chart

    Activity 1.1a Organize roles and responsibilities for carrying out project steps.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Project RACI Chart.

    Key Deliverable:

    Strategic Roadmap

    Develop, prioritize, and implement key initiatives for your customer service IT strategy, plotting and tracking them on an easy-to-read timeline.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Strategic Roadmap.

    Business Process Shortlisting Tool

    Activities 1.2a, 1.2b, and 2.1aOutline and prioritize customer service goals.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Business Process Shortlisting Tool.

    Project Charter Template

    Activity 1.1b Define the project, its key deliverables, and metrics for success.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Project Charter Template.

    Systems Strategy Tool

    Activities 1.3a, Phase 2, 3.1a Prioritize requirements, assess current state customer service functions, and decide what to do with your current systems going forward.

    .The image contains a screenshot of the Systems Strategy Tool.

    Looking ahead: defining metrics for success

    Phase 1 of this blueprint will help solidify how to measure this project’s success. Start looking ahead now.

    For example, the metrics below show the potential business benefits for several stakeholders through building an IT strategy for Customer Service. These stakeholders include agents, customers, senior leadership, and IT. The benefits of this project are listed to the right.

    Metric Description

    Current Metric

    Future Goal

    Number of channels for customer contact

    1

    6

    Customer self-service resolution

    0%

    50%

    % ROI

    - 4%

    11%

    Agent satisfaction

    42%

    75%

    As this project nears completion:

    1. Customers will have more opportunities for self-service resolution.
    2. Agents will experience higher satisfaction, improving attrition rates.
    3. The organization will experience higher ROI from its digital Customer Service investments.
    4. Customers can engage the contact center via a communication channel that suits them.

    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 Guided Implementation on this topic look like?

    Define Project and Future StateDocument and Assess Current StateEvaluate Architectural and Application OptionsBuild Roadmap to Future State

    Call #1: Introduce project, defining its vision and metrics of success.

    Call #2: Review environmental scan to define future state vision.

    Call #3: Examine future state business processes to compile initial requirements.

    Call #4: Document current state business processes.

    Call #5: Assess current customer service IT architecture.

    Call #6: Refine and prioritize list of requirements for future state.

    Call #7: Evaluate architectural options.

    Call #8: Evaluate application options.

    Call #9:Develop and score initiatives to future state.

    Call #10: Develop timeline and roadmap.

    Call #11: Review progress and wrap-up project.

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

    A typical Guided Implementation is two to 12 calls over the course of four to six months.

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com1-888-670-8889

    Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5

    Define Your Vision for Future State

    Document Current State and Assess Gaps

    Adopt an Architectural Posture

    Frame Desired State and Develop Roadmap

    Communicate and Implement

    Activities

    1.1 Outline and prioritize your customer goals.

    1.2 Link customer service goals’ relevance and value to your Customer Service processes.

    1.3 Score Customer Service business processes against organizational goals.

    2.1 Holistically assess multiple aspects of Customer Service-related IT assets with Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    3.1 Analyze Customer Service Systems Strategy and review results with the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    4.1 Help project management stakeholders visualize implementation of Customer Service IT initiatives.

    4.2 Build strategic roadmap and plot initiatives.

    5.1 Finalize deliverables.

    5.2 Support communication efforts.

    5.3 Identify resources in support of priority initiatives.

    Deliverables

    1. Initial position on viable Customer Service strategies.
    2. Shortlist of key business processes.
    3. Documented future-state business process model.
    4. Business/functional/non-functional requirements.
    1. Documented current state business process model.
    2. Customer Service systems health assessment.
    3. Inventory of Customer Service supporting applications.
    4. Inventory of related system interfaces.
    1. Posture on system architecture.
    2. Completed Customer Service systems health assessment.
    3. List of application options.
    1. Scored and prioritized list of initiatives.
    2. Customer Service implementation roadmap.
    1. Customer Service IT Strategy Roadmap.
    2. Mapping of Info-Tech resources against individual initiatives.

    Phase 1

    Define Project and Future State

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Structure the Project

    1.2 Define Vision for Future State

    1.3 Document Preliminary Requirements

    2.1 Document Current State Business Processes

    2.2 Assess Current State Architecture

    2.3 Review and Finalize Requirements for Future State

    3.1 Evaluate Architectural and Application Options

    3.2 Understand the Marketplace

    3.3 Score and Plot Initiatives Along Strategic Roadmap

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    1.1a Create your project’s RACI chart to establish key roles throughout the timeline of the project.

    1.1b Finalize your project charter that captures the key goals of the project, ready to communicate to stakeholders for approval.

    1.2a Begin documenting business processes to establish potential future states.

    1.2b Model future state business processes for looking beyond current constraints and building the ideal scenario.

    1.3a Document your preliminary requirements for concretizing a future state and performing a gap analysis.

    Participants required for Phase 1:

    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives

    1.1 Identify process owners early for successful project execution

    IT and Customer Service must work in tandem throughout the project. Both teams’ involvement ensures all stakeholders are heard and support the final decision.

    Customer Service Perspective

    IT Perspective

    • Customer Service is the victim of pain points resulting from suboptimal systems and it stands to gain the most benefits from a well-planned systems strategy.
    • Looking to reduce pain points, Customer Service will likely initiate, own, and participate heavily in the project.
    • Customer Service must avoid the tendency to make IT-independent decisions. This could lead to disparate systems that contribute little to the overall organizational goals.
    • IT owns the application and back-end support of all Customer Service business processes. Any technological aspect of processes will need IT involvement.
    • IT may or may not have the mandate to run the Customer Service strategy project. Responsibility for systems decisions remains with IT.
    • IT should own the task of filtering out unnecessary or infeasible application and technology decisions. IT capabilities to support such acquisitions and post-purchase maintenance must be considered.

    Info-Tech Insight

    While involving management is important for high-level strategic decisions, input from those who interact day-to-day with the systems is a crucial component to a well-planned strategy.

    1.1 Define project roles and responsibilities to improve progress tracking

    Assign responsibilities, accountabilities, and other project involvement roles using a RACI chart.

    • IT should involve Customer Service from the beginning of project planning to implementation and execution. The project requires input and knowledge from both functions to succeed.
    • Do not let the tasks be forgotten within inter-functional communication. Define roles and responsibilities for the project as early as possible.
    • Each member of the project team should be given a RACI designation, which will vary for each task to ensure clear ownership, execution, and progress tracking.
    • Assigning RACI early can:
      • Improve project quality by assigning the right people to the right tasks.
      • Improve chances of project task completion by assigning clear accountabilities.
      • Improve project buy-in by ensuring that stakeholders are kept informed of project progress, risks, and successes.

    R – Responsibility

    A – Accountability

    C – Consulted

    I – Informed

    1.1 Use Info-Tech’s recommended process owners and roles for this blueprint

    Customer Service Head

    Customer Service Director

    CIO

    Applications Director*

    CEO/COO

    Marketing Head

    Sales Head

    Determine Project Suitability

    ARCCCII

    Phase 1.1

    CCARIII

    Phases 1.2 – 1.3

    ARCCICC

    Phase 2

    ARICIII

    Phase 3.1

    (Architectural options)

    CCARIII

    Phase 3.1

    (Application options)

    ACIRICC

    Phases 3.2 – 3.3

    CCARCII

    * The Applications Director is to compile a list of Customer Service systems; the Customer Service Director is responsible for vetting a list and mapping it to Customer Service functions.

    ** The Applications Director is responsible for technology-related decisions (e.g. SaaS or on-premise, integration issues); the Customer Service Director is responsible for functionality-related decisions.

    1.1a Create your project’s RACI chart

    1 hour

    1. The Applications Director and Customer Service Head should identify key participants and stakeholders of the project.
    2. Use Info-Tech’s Project RACI Chart to identify ownership of tasks.
    3. Record roles in the Project RACI Chart.
    The image contains a screenshot of the project RACI chart.
    InputOutput
    • Identification of key project participants and stakeholders.
    • Identification of key project participants and stakeholders.

    Materials

    Participants

    • Project RACI Chart
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director

    Download the Project RACI Chart

    1.1 Start developing the project charter

    A project charter should address the following:

    • Executive Summary and Project Overview
      • Goals
      • Benefits
      • Critical Success Factors
    • Scope
    • Key Deliverables
    • Stakeholders and RACI
    • Risk Assessment
      • What are some risks you may encounter during project execution?
    • Projected Timeline and Key Milestones
    • Review and Approval Process

    What is a project charter?

    • The project charter defines the project and lays the foundation for all subsequent project planning.
    • Once approved by the business, the charter gives the project lead formal authority to initiate the project.

    Why create a project charter?

    • The project charter allows all parties involved to reach an agreement and document major aspects of the project.
    • It also supports the decision-making process and can be used as a communication tool.

    Stakeholders must:

    • Understand and agree on the objectives and important characteristics of the project charter before the project is initiated.
    • Be given the opportunity to adjust the project charter to better address their needs and concerns.

    1.1b Finalize the project charter

    1-2 hours

    1. Request relevant individuals and parties to complete sections of Info-Tech’s Project Charter Template.
    2. Input the simplified RACI output from tab 3 in Info-Tech’s Project RACI Chart tool into the RACI section of the charter.
    3. Send the completed template to the CIO and Customer Service Head for approval.
    4. Communicate the document to stakeholders for changes and finalization.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Project Charter Template.

    Input

    Output

    • Customer Service and IT strategies
    • Justification of impetus to begin this project
    • Timeline estimates
    • A completed project charter that captures the key goals of the project, ready to communicate to stakeholders for approval.

    Materials

    Participants

    • Project RACI Chart
    • Project Charter Template
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director

    Download the Project Charter Template

    1.2 IT must play a role shaping Customer Service’s future vision

    IT is only one or two degrees of separation from the end customer – their involvement can significantly impact the customer experience.

    IT

    Customer Service

    Customer

    Customer Service-Facing Application

    Customer-Facing Application

    • IT enables, supports, and maintains the applications used by the Customer Service organization to service customers. IT provides the infrastructural and technical foundation to operate the function.
    • IT supports customer-facing interfaces and channels for Customer Service interaction.
    • Channel examples include web pages, mobile device applications and optimization, and interactive voice response for callers.

    1.2 Establish a vision for Customer Service excellence

    Info-Tech has identified three prominent Customer Service strategic patterns. Evaluate which fits best with your situation and organization.

    Retention

    Efficiency

    Cross-Sell/Up-Sell

    Ensuring customers remain customers by providing proactive customer service and a seamless omnichannel strategy.

    Reducing costs by diverting customers to lower cost channels and empowering agents to solve problems quickly.

    Maximizing the value of existing customers by capitalizing on cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.

    1.2 Let profitability goals help reveal which strategy to pursue

    Profitability goals are tied to the enabling of customer service strategies.

    • If looking to drive cost decreases across the organization, pursue cost efficiency strategies such as customer volume diversion in order to lower cost channels and avoid costly escalations for customer complaints and inquiries.
    • Ongoing Contribution Margin is positive only once customer acquisition costs (CAC) have been paid back. For every customer lost, another customer has to be acquired in order to experience no loss. In this way, customer retention strategies help decrease your overall costs.
    • Once cost reduction and customer retention measures are in place, look to increase overall revenue through cross-selling and up-selling activities with your customers.
    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate the relationship between goals and enabling strategies.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Purely driving efficiency is not the goal. Create a balance that does not compromise customer satisfaction.

    Customer Service strategies: Case studies

    Efficiency

    • Volume diversion to lower cost channels
    • Agent empowerment

    MISS DIG 811 – a utility notification system – sought to make their customer service more efficient by moving to softphones. Using the Cisco Customer Journey Platform, Miss Dig saw a 9% YoY increase in agent productivity and 83% reduction in phone equipment costs. Source: (Cisco, 2018).

    Retention

    • Proactive Customer Service
    • Seamless omnichannel strategy

    VoiceSage worked with Home Retail Group – a general merchandise retailer – to proactively increase customer outreach, reducing the number of routine customer order and delivery queries received. In four weeks, Home Retail Group increased their 30-40% answer rate from customers to 100%, with 90% of incoming calls answered and 60% of contacts made via SMS. Source: (VoiceSage, 2018)

    Cross-Sell/

    Up-Sell

    • Cross-Sell and Up-Sell opportunities

    A global brand selling language-learning software utilized Callzilla to help improve their call conversion rate of 2%. After six months of agent and supervisor training, this company increased their call conversion rate to 16% and their upsell rate to 40%. Their average order value increased from < $300 to $465. Source: (Callzilla, n.d.)

    1.2 Performing an environmental scan can help IT optimize Customer Service support

    Though typically executed by Customer Service, IT can gain valuable insights for best supporting infrastructure, applications, and operations from an environmental scan.

    An environmental scan seeks to understand your organization’s customers from multiple directions. It considers:

    • Customers’ value-based segmentations.
    • The interaction channels customers prefer to use.
    • Customers’ likes and dislikes.
    • The general sentiment of your customer service quality.
    • What your competitors are doing in this space.
    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate how performing an environmental scan can help IT optimize Customer Service support.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Business processes must directly relate to customer service. Failing to correlate customer experience with business performance outcomes overlooks the enormous cost of negative sentiment.

    1.2 The environmental scan results should drive IT’s strategy and resource spend

    Insights derived from this scan can help frame IT’s contributions to Customer Service’s future vision.

    Why IT should care:

    Implications:

    Each customer experience, from product/service selection to post-transaction support, can have a significant impact on business performance.

    It is not just IT or Customer Service that should care; rather, it should be an organizational responsibility to care about what customers say.

    Customers have little tolerance for mediocrity or poor service and simply switch their allegiances to those that can satisfy their expectations.

    Do not ignore your competitors; they may be doing something well in Customer Service technology which may serve as your organization’s benchmark.

    With maturing mobile and social technologies, customers want to be treated as individuals rather than as a series of disconnected accounts

    Do not ignore your customers’ plea for individuality through mobile and social. Assess your customers’ technology channel preferences.

    Customer service’s perception of service quality may be drastically different than what is expected by the customers.

    Prevent your organization from investing in technology that will have no positive impact on your customer experience.

    Some customers may not provide your organization the business value that surpasses your cost to serve them.

    Focus on enhancing the technology and customer service experience for your high-value customers.

    1.2 Have Customer Service examine feedback across channels for a holistic view

    Your method of listening needs to evolve to include active listening on social and mobile channels.

    Insights and Implications for Customer Service

    Limitations of conventional listening:

    • Solicited customer feedback, such as surveys, do not provide an accurate feedback method since customers only have one channel to express their views.
    • Sentiment, voice, and text analytics within social media channels provide the most accurate and timely intelligence.

    How IT Can Help

    IT can help facilitate the customer feedback process by:

    • Conducting customer feedback with voice recognition software.
    • Monitoring customer sentiment on mobile and social channels.
    • Utilizing customer data analytic engines on social media management platforms.
    • Referring Customer Service to customer advisory councils and their databases.

    1.2 Benchmark IT assets by examining your competitors’ Customer Service capabilities

    The availability of the internet means almost complete transparency between your products and services, and those of your competitors.

    Insights and implications from Customer Service

    How IT can help

    Competitor actions are crucial. Watch your competitors to learn how they use Customer Service as a competitive differentiator and a customer acquisition tool.

    Do not learn about a competitor’s actions because your customers are already switching to them. Track your competitors before getting a harsh surprise from your customers.

    View the customer service experience from the outside in. Assessing from the inside out gives an internal perspective on how good the service is, rather than what customers are experiencing.

    Take a data and analytics-driven approach to mine insights on what customers are saying about your competitors. Negative sentiment and specific complaints can be used as reference for IT and Customer Service to:

    • Avoid repeating the competitor’s mistakes.
    • Utilize sentiment as a benchmark for goal setting and improvements.
    • Duplicate successful technology initiatives to realize business value.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Look to your competitors for comparative models but do not pursue to solely replicate what they currently have. Aim higher and attempt to surpass their capabilities and brand value.

    1.2 Collaborate with Customer Service to understand customer value segments

    Let segmentation help you gain intelligence on customers’ expectations.

    Insights and implications from customer service

    • Segment your customers based on their value relative to the cost to serve. The easiest way to do so is with channel preference categorization.
    • If the cost for retention attempts are higher than the value that those customers provide, there is little business case to pursue retention action.

    How IT can help

    • Couple value-based segmentation with channel preference and satisfaction levels of your most-valued customers to effectively target IT investments in channels that maximize service customization and quality.
    • Correlate the customers’ channel and technology usage with their business value to see which IT assets are delivering on their investments.

    The image contains a screenshot of a graph to demonstrate the relationship between cost of retention and value.

    “If you're developing a Customer Service strategy, it has to start with who your clients are, what [they are] trying to do, and through what channels […] and then your decision around processes have to fall out of that. If IT is trying to lead the conversation, or bring people together to lead the conversation, then marketing and whoever does segmentation has to be at the table as a huge component of this.”

    Lisa Woznica, Director of Client Experience, BMO Financial Group

    1.2 Be mindful of trends in the consumer and technology landscape

    Building a future vision of customer service requires knowing what upcoming technologies can aid the organization.

    OMNICHANNEL SUPPORT

    Rapidly changing demographics and modes of communication requires an evolution toward omnichannel engagement. 63% of customers now expect to communicate with contact centers over their social media (Ringshall 2020). Agents need customer information synced across each channel they use, meeting the customer’s needs where they are.

    INTELLIGENT SELF-SERVICE PORTALS

    Customers want their issues resolved as quickly as possible. Machine learning self-service options deliver personalized customer experiences, which also reduce both agent call volume and support costs for the organization. 60% of contact centers are using or plan to use AI in the next 12 months to improve their customer (Canam Research 2020).

    LEVERAGING ANALYTICS

    The future of customer service is tied up with analytics. This not only entails AI-driven capabilities that fetch the agent relevant information, but it finds skills-based routing and uses biometric data (e.g., speech) for security. It also feeds operations leaders’ need for easy access to real insights about how their customers and agents are doing.

    Phase 1 – Case Study

    Omnichannel support delivers a financial services firm immediate customer service results.

    INDUSTRY: Financial Services

    SOURCE: Mattsen Kumar

    Situation

    Solution

    Results

    • A financial services firm’s fast growth began to show cracks in their legacy customer service system.
    • Costs to support the number of customer queries increased.
    • There was a lack of visibility into incoming customer communications and their resolutions.
    • Business opportunities were lost due to a lack of information on customers’ preferences and challenges. Customer satisfaction was decreasing, negatively impacting the firm’s brand.
    • Mattsen Kumar diagnosed that the firm’s major issue was that their customer service processes required a high percentage of manual interventions.
    • Mattsen Kumar developed an omnichannel strategy, including a mix of social channels joined together by a CRM.
    • A key aspect of this omnichannel experience was designing automated processes with minimal manual intervention.
    • 25% reduction in callbacks from customers.
    • $50,000 reduction in operational costs.
    • Two minutes wait time reduction for chat process.
    • 14% decrease in average handle time.
    • Scaled up from 6000 to 50,000 monthly calls that could be handled by the current team.
    • Enabled more than 10,000 customer queries over chats.

    1.2 Construct your future state using a business process management approach

    Documenting and evaluating your business processes serves as a good starting point for defining the overall Customer Service strategy.

    • Examining key Customer Service business processes can unlock clues around the following:
      • Driving operational effectiveness.
      • Identifying, implementing, and maintaining reusable enterprise systems.
      • Identifying gaps that can be addressed by acquisition of additional systems.
    • Business process modeling facilitates the collaboration between business and IT, recording the sequence of events, tasks performed, by whom they are performed, and the levels of interaction with the various supporting applications.
    • By identifying the events and decision points in the process, and overlaying the people that perform the functions and technologies that support them, organizations are better positioned to identify gaps that need to be bridged.
    • Encourage the analysis by compiling the inventory of Customer Service business processes that are relevant to the organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A process-oriented approach helps organizations see the complete view of the system by linking strategic requirements to business requirements, and business requirements to system requirements.

    1.2 Use the APQC Framework to define your Customer Service-related processes

    • APQC’s Process Classification Framework (PCF) is a taxonomy of cross-functional business processes intended to allow the objective comparison of organizational performance within and among organizations.
    • Section 5 of the PCF details various levels of Customer Service business processes, useful for mapping on to your own organization’s current state.
    • The APQC Framework can be accessed through the following link: APQC’s Process Classification Framework.

    The APQC Framework serves as a high-level, industry-neutral enterprise model that allows organizations to see activities from a cross-industry process perspective.

    The image contains a screenshot example of the APQC Process Classification Framework.
    Source: (Ziemba and Eisenbardt 2015)

    Info-Tech Caution

    The APQC framework does not list all processes within a specific organization, nor are the processes which are listed in the framework present in every organization. It is designed as a framework and global standard to be customized for use in any organization.

    1.2 Each APQC process has five levels that represent its logical components

    The image contains a screenshot of the APQC five levels. The levels include: category, process group, process, and activity.

    The PCF provides L1 through 4 for the Customer Service Framework.

    L5 processes are task- and industry-specific and need to be defined by the organization.

    Source: (APQC 2020)
    This Industry Process Classification Framework was jointly developed by APQC and IBM to facilitate improvement through process management and benchmarking. ©2018 APQC and IBM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    1.2a Begin documenting business processes

    4 hours

    1. Using Info-Tech’s Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool, list the Customer Service goals and rank them by importance.
    2. Score the APQC L4 processes by relevance to the defined goals and perceived satisfaction index.
    3. Define the L5 processes for the top scoring L4 process.
    4. Leave Tab 5, Columns G – I for now. These columns will be revisited in activities 1.2b and 2.1a.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Process Shortlisting Tool.

    Input

    Output

    • List of Customer Service goals
    • A detailed prioritization of Customer Service business processes to model for future states

    Materials

    Participants

    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives

    Download the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool

    1.2 Start designing the future state of key business processes

    If Customer Service transformation is called for, start with your future-state vision. Don’t get stuck in current state and the “art of the possible” within its context.

    Future-State Analysis

    Start by designing your future state business processes (based on the key processes shortlisting exercise). Design these processes as they would exist as your “ideal scenario.” Next, analyze your current state to help better your understanding of:

    • The gaps that exist and must be bridged to achieve the future-state vision.
    • Whether or not any critical functions that support your business were omitted accidentally from the future-state processes.
    • Whether or not any of the supporting applications or architecture can be salvaged and used toward delivery of your future-state vision.

    Though it’s a commonly used approach, documenting your current-state business processes first can have several drawbacks:

    • Current-state analysis can impede your ability to see future possibility.
    • Teams will spend a great deal of time and effort on documenting current state and inevitably succumb to “analysis paralysis.”
    • Current state assessment, when done first, limits the development of the future (or target) state, constraining thinking to the limitations of the current environment rather than the requirements of the business strategy.

    Current-State Analysis

    “If you're fairly immature and looking for a paradigm shift or different approach [because] you recognize you're totally doing it wrong today, then starting with documenting current state doesn't do a lot except make you sad. You don't want to get stuck in [the mindset of] ‘Here's the current state, and here’s the art of the possible.’”

    Trevor Timbeck, Executive Coach, Parachute Executive Coaching

    1.2 Start modeling future-state processes

    Build buy-in and accountability in process owners through workshops and whiteboarding – either in-person or remotely.

    Getting consensus on the process definition (who does what, when, where, why, and how) is one of the hardest parts of BPM.

    Gathering process owners for a process-defining workshop isn’t easy. Getting them to cooperate can be even harder. To help manage these difficulties during the workshop, make sure to:

    • Keep the scope contained to the processes being defined in order to make best use of everyone’s time, as taking time away from employees is a cost too.
    • Prior to the workshop, gather information about the processes with interviews, questionnaires, and/or system data gathering and analysis.
    • Use the information gathered to have real-life examples of the processes in question so that time isn’t wasted.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Keep meetings short and on task as tangents are inevitable. Set ground rules at the beginning of any brainstorming or whiteboarding session to ensure that all participants are aligned.

    1.2 Use the five W’s to help map out your future-state processes

    Define the “who, what, why, where, when, and how” of the process to gain a better understanding of individual activities.

    Owner

    Who

    What

    When

    Where

    Why

    How

    Record Claim

    Customer Service

    Customer Service Rep.

    Claim

    Accident

    Claims system

    Customer notification

    Agent enters claim into the system and notifies claims department

    Manage Claim

    Claims Department

    Claims Clerk

    Claim

    Agent submitted the claim

    Claims system

    Agent notification

    Clerk enters claim into the claims system

    Investigate Claim

    Claims Investigation

    Adjuster

    Claim

    Claim notification

    Property where claim is being made

    Assess damage

    Evaluation and expert input

    Settle Claim

    Claims Department

    Claim Approver

    Claim and Adjuster’s evaluation

    Receipt of Adjuster’s report

    Claims system

    Evaluation

    Approval or denial

    Administer Claim

    Finance Department

    Finance Clerk

    Claim amount

    Claim approval notification

    Finance system

    Payment required

    Create payment voucher and cut check

    Close Claim

    Claims Department

    Claims Clerk

    Claim and all supporting documentation

    Payment issued

    Claims system

    Claim processed

    Close the claim in the system

    Info-Tech Insight

    It’s not just about your internal processes. To achieve higher customer retention and satisfaction, it’s also useful to map the customer service process from the customer perspective to identify customer pain points and disconnects.

    1.2 Use existing in-house software as a simplistic entry point to process modeling

    A diagramming tool like Visio enables you to plot process participants and actions using dedicated symbols and connectors that indicate causality.

    • Models can use a stick-figure format, a cross-functional workflow format, or BPMN notation.
    • Plot the key activities and decision points in the process using standard flowcharting shapes. Identify the data that belongs to each step in a separate document or as call-outs on the diagram.
    • Document the flow control between steps, i.e., what causes one step to finish and another to start?

    The image contains a screenshot of the sample cross-functional diagram using the claims process.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Diagramming tools can force the process designer into a specific layout: linear or cross-functional/swim lane.

    • A linear format is recommended for single function and system processes.
    • A swim lane format is recommended for cross-functional and cross-departmental processes.

    1.2 Introduce low investment alternatives for process modeling for modeling disciplines

    SaaS and low-cost modeling tools are emerging to help organizations with low to medium BPM maturity visualize their processes.

    • Formal modeling tools allow a designer to model in any view and easily switch to other views to gain new perspectives on the process.
    • Subscription-based, best-of-breed SaaS tools provide scalable and flexible process modeling capabilities.
    • Open source and lower cost tools also exist to help distribute BPM modeling discipline and standards.
    • BPMS suites incorporate advanced modeling tools with process execution engines for end-to-end business process management. Integrate process discovery with modeling, process simulation, and analysis. Deploy, monitor, and measure process models in process automation engines.

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram of the claims process.

    Explore SoftwareReviews’ Business Process Management market analysis by clicking here.

    1.2b Model future state business processes

    4 hours

    1. Model the future state of the most critical business processes.
    2. Use Tab 5, Columns G – H of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool to keep stock of what processes are targeted for modeling, and whether the models have been completed.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool.

    Input

    Output

    • Modeled future Customer Service business processes
    • An inventory of modeled future states for critical Customer Service business processes

    Materials

    Participants

    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director

    Download the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool

    1.3 Start a preliminary inventory of your requirements

    Use the future state business process models as a source for software requirements.

    • Business process modeling deals with business requirements that can be used as the foundation for elicitation of system (functional and non-functional) requirements.
    • Modeling creates an understanding of the various steps and transfers in each business process, as well as the inputs and outputs of the process.
    • The future state models form an understanding of what information is needed and how it flows from one point to another in each process.
    • Understand what technologies are (or can be) leveraged to facilitate the exchange of information and facilitate the process.

    For each task or event in the process, ask the following questions:

    • What is the input?
    • What is the output?
    • What are the underlying risks and how can they be mitigated?
    • What conditions should be met to mitigate or eliminate each risk?
    • What are the improvement opportunities?
    • What conditions should be met to enable these opportunities?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Incorporate future considerations into the requirements. How will the system need to adapt over time to accommodate additional processes, process variations, introduction of additional channels and capabilities, etc. Do not overreach by identifying system capabilities that cannot possibly be met.

    1.3 Understand the four different requirements to document

    Have a holistic view for capturing the various requirements the organization has for a Customer Service strategy.

    Business requirements

    High-level requirements that management would typically understand.

    User requirements

    High-level requirements on how the tool should empower users’ lives.

    Non-functional requirements

    Criteria that can be used to judge the operation of a contact center. It defines how the system should perform for the organization.

    Functional requirements

    Outline the technical requirements for the desired contact center.

    1.3 Extract requirements from the business process models

    To see how, let us examine our earlier example for the Claims Process, extracting requirements from the “Record Claim” task.

    The image contains an example of the claims process, and focuses on the record claim task.

    1.3a Document your preliminary requirements

    4 hours

    1. The Applications Director and Customer Service Head are to identify participants based on the business processes that will be reviewed.
    2. They are to conduct a workshop to gather all requirements that can be taken from the business process models.
    3. Use Tab 4 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool to document your preliminary requirements.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Half-day workshop to review the proposed future-state diagrams and distill from them the business, functional, and non-functional requirements
    • Future state business process models from activities 1.2a and 1.2b
    • An inventory of preliminary requirements for modeled future states
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • Results of activities 1.2a and 1.2b
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    Phase 2

    Evaluate Current State

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Structure the Project

    1.2 Define Vision for Future State

    1.3 Document Preliminary Requirements

    2.1 Document Current State Business Processes

    2.2 Assess Current State Architecture

    2.3 Review and Finalize Requirements for Future State

    3.1 Evaluate Architectural and Application Options

    3.2 Understand the Marketplace

    3.3 Score and Plot Initiatives Along Strategic Roadmap

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    2.1a Model current-state business processes for an inventory to compare against future-state models.

    2.1b Compare future and current business states for a preliminary gap analysis.

    2.1c Begin compiling an inventory of CS Systems by function for an overview of your current state map.

    2.2a Rate your functional and integration quality to assess the performance of your application portfolio.

    2.3a Compare states and propose action to bridge current business processes with viable future alternatives.

    2.3b Document finalized requirements, ready to enact change.

    Participants required for Phase 2:

    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives
    • IT Managers

    2.1 Document the current state of your key business processes

    Doing so will solidify your understanding of the gaps, help identify any accidental omissions from the future state vision, and provide clues as to what can be salvaged.

    • Analysis of the current state is important in the context of gap analysis. It aids in understanding the discrepancies between your baseline and the future-state vision, and ensuring that these gaps are recorded as part of the overall requirements.
    • By analyzing the current state of key business processes, you may identify critical functions that are in place today that were not taken into consideration during the future-state business process visioning exercise.
    • By overlaying the current state process models with the applications that support them, the current state models will indicate what systems and interfaces can be salvaged.
    • The baseline feeds the business case, allowing the team to establish proposed benefits and improvements from implementing the future-state vision. Seek to understand the following:
      • The volumes of work
      • Major exceptions
      • Number of employees involved
      • Amount of time spent in each area of the process

    2.1 Assess the current state to drive the gap analysis

    Before you choose any solution, identify what needs to be done to your current state in order to achieve the vision you have defined.

    • By beginning with the future state in mind, you have likely already envisioned some potential solutions.
    • By reviewing your current situation in contrast with your desired future state, you can deliberate what needs to be done to bridge the gap. The differences between the models allow you to define a set of changes that must be enacted in sequence or in parallel. These represent the gaps.
    • The gaps, once identified, translate themselves into additional requirements.

    Assessment Example

    Future State

    Current Situation

    Next Actions/ Proposals

    Incorporate social channels for responding to customer inquiries.

    No social media monitoring or channels for interaction exist at present.

    1. Implement a social media monitoring platform tool and integrate it with the current CSM.
    2. Recruit additional Customer Service representatives to monitor and respond to inquiries via social channels.
    3. Develop report(s) for analyzing volumes of inquiries received through social channels.

    Info-Tech Insight

    It is important to allot time for the current-state analysis, confine it to the minimum effort required to understand the gaps, and identify any missing pieces from your future-state vision. Make sure the work expended is proportional to the benefit derived from this exercise.

    2.1a Model current-state business processes

    2 hours

    1. Model the current state of the most critical business processes, using the work done in activities 1.2a and 1.2b to help identify these processes.
    2. Use Tab 5, Column I of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool to keep stock of what models have been completed.
    3. This tool is now complete.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Modeled current-state Customer Service business processes
    • An inventory of modeled current states for critical Customer Service business processes
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool
    • Results of activities 1.2a and 1.2b.
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director

    Download the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool

    2.1b Compare future and current business states

    2 hours

    1. Use Tab 9 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool to record a summary of the future state, current state, and actions proposed in order to bridge the gaps.
      • Fill out the desired future state of the business processes and IT architecture.
      • Fill out the current state of the business processes and IT architecture.
      • Fill out the actions required to mitigate the gaps between the future and current state.
    The image contains a screenshot of thr Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • The results of activities 1.2a, 1.2b, and 2.1a.
    • Modeled future- and current-state business processes
    • An overview and analysis of how to reach certain future states from the current state.
    • A preliminary list of next steps through bridging the gap between current and future states.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool
    • Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    2.1 Assess whether Customer Service architecture can meet future-state vision

    Approach your CS systems holistically to identify opportunities for system architecture optimization.

    • Organizations often do not have a holistic view of their Customer Service systems. These systems are often cobbled together from disparate parts, such as:
      • Point solutions (both SaaS and on-premise).
      • Custom interfaces between applications and databases.
      • Spreadsheets and other manual workarounds.
    • A high degree of interaction between multiple systems can cause distention in the application portfolio and databases, creating room for error and more work for CS and IT staff. Mapping your systems and architectural landscape can help you:
      • Identify the number of manual processes you currently employ.
      • Eliminate redundancies.
      • Allow for consolidation and/or integration.

    Consider the following metrics when tracking your CS systems:

    Time needed to perform core tasks (i.e., resolving a customer complaint)

    Accuracy of basic information (customer history, customer product portfolio)

    CSR time spent on manual process/workarounds

    Info-Tech Insight

    There is a two-step process to document the current state of your Customer Service systems:

    1. Compile an inventory of systems by function
    2. Identify points of integration across systems

    2.1c Begin compiling an inventory of CS systems by function

    2 hours

    1. Using Tab 2 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool, request that the CS managers fill in the application inventory template with all the CS systems that they use.
    2. Questions to trigger exercise:
      • Which applications am I using?
      • Which CS function does the application support?
      • How many applications support the same function?
      • What spreadsheets or manual workarounds do I use to fill in system gaps?
    3. Send the filled-in template to IT Managers to validate and fill in missing system information.
    InputOutput
    • Applications Directors’ knowledge of the current state
    • IT Managers’ validation of this state
    • A corroborated inventory of the current state for Customer Service systems
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • Applications Director
    • IT managers

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    2.1 Use activity 2.1c for an overview of your current state map

    The image contains a screenshot of activity 2.1.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A current-state map of CS systems can offer insight on:

    • Coverage, i.e. whether all functional areas are supported by systems.
    • Redundancies, i.e. functional areas with multiple systems. If a customer’s records are spread across multiple systems, it may be difficult to obtain a single source of truth.

    2.2 Assess current state with user interface architecture diagrams

    Understand a high-level overview of how your current state integrates together to rate its overall quality.

    • If IT already has an architecture diagram, use this in conjunction with your application inventory for the basis of current state discussions.
    • If your organization does not already have an architecture diagram for review and discussion, consider creating one in its most simplistic form using the following guidelines (see illustrative example on next slide):

    Represent each of your systems as a labelled shape with a unique number (this number can be referenced in other artifacts that can provide more detail).

    Color coding can also be applied to differentiate these objects, e.g., to indicate an internal system (where development is owned by your organization) vs. an external system (where development is outside of your organization’s control).

    2.2 Example: Current state with user interface architecture diagrams

    The image contains a screenshot of an example of current state with user interface architecture diagrams.

    2.2 Evaluate application functionality and functional coverage

    Use this documentation of the current state as an opportunity to spot areas for rationalizing your application portfolio.

    If an application is well-received by the organization and is an overall good platform, consider acquiring more modules from the same vendor application.

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate functionality and functional coverage.

    If you have more than one application for a function, consider why that is and how you might consolidate into a single application.

    Measure the effectiveness of applications under consideration. For example, consider the number of failures when an application attempts a function (by ticket numbers), and overall satisfaction/ease of use.

    The above steps will reveal capability overlaps and application pain points and show how the overall portfolio could be made more efficient.

    2.2 Determine the degree of integration between systems

    Data and system integration are key components of an effective CS system portfolio.

    The needed level of integration will depend on three major factors:

    Integration between systems helps facilitate reporting. The required reports will vary from organization to organization:

    How many other systems benefit from the data of the application?

    Large workforces will benefit from more detailed WFM reports for optimizing workforce planning and talent acquisition.

    Will automating the integration between systems alleviate a significant amount of manual effort?

    Organizations with competitive sales and incentives will want to strategize around talent management and compensation.

    What kind of reports will your organization require in order to perform core and business-enabling functions?

    Aging workforces or organizations with highly specialized skills can benefit from detailed analysis around succession planning.

    Phase 2 – Case Study

    Integrating customer relationship information streamlines customer service and increases ROI for the organization.

    INDUSTRY: Retail and Wholesale

    SOURCE: inContact

    Situation

    Solution

    Results

    • Hall Automotive – a group of 14 multi-franchise auto dealerships located throughout Virginia and North Carolina – had customer information segmented throughout their CRM system at each dealership.
    • Call center agents lacked the technology to synthesize this information, leading customers to receive multiple and unrelated service calls.
    • Hall Automotive wanted to avoid embarrassing information gaps, integrate multiple CRM systems, and help agents focus on customers.
    • Hall Automotive utilized an inContact solution that included Automated Call Distributor, Computer Telephony Integration, and IVR technologies.
    • This created a complete customer-centric system that interfaced with multiple CRM and back-office systems.
    • The inContact solution simplified intelligent call flows, routed contacts to the right agent, and provided comprehensive customer information.
    • Call time decreased from five minutes to one minute and 23 seconds.
    • 350% increase in production.
    • Market response time down from three months to one day.
    • Cost per call cut from 83 cents to 23 cents.
    • Increased agents’ calls-per-hour from 12 to 43.
    • Scalability matched seasonal fluctuations in sales.

    2.2a Rate your functional and integration quality

    2 hours

    1. Using Tab 5 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool, evaluate the functionality of your applications.
    2. Then, use Tab 6 of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool to evaluate the integration of your applications.
    The image contains screenshots of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Applications Directors’ knowledge of the current state
    • IT Managers’ validation of this state
    • A documented evaluation of the organization’s application portfolio regarding functional and integration quality
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • Applications Director
    • IT managers

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    2.3 Revisit and refine the future-state business processes and list of requirements

    With a better understanding of the current state, determine whether the future-state models hold up. Ensure that the requirements are updated accordingly to reflect the full set of gaps identified.

    • Future-state versus current-state modeling is an iterative process.
    • By assessing the gaps between target state and current state, you may decide that:
      • The future state model was overly ambitious for what can reasonably be delivered in the near-term.
      • Core functions that exist today were accidentally omitted from the future state models and need to be incorporated.
      • There are systems or processes that your organization would like to salvage, and they must be worked into the future-state model.
    • Once the future state vision is stabilized, ensure that all gaps have been translated into business requirements.
      • If possible, categorize all gaps by functional and non-functional requirements.

    2.3a Compare states and propose action

    3 hours

    • Revisit Tab 9 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool to more accurately compare your organization’s current- and future-state business processes.
    • Ensure that gaps in the system architecture have been captured.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Modeled future- and current-state business processes
    • Refined and prioritized list of requirements
    • An accurate list of action steps for bridging current and future state business processes
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • Applications Director
    • IT managers

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    2.3 Prioritize and finalize the requirements

    Prioritizing requirements will help to itemize initiatives and the timing with which they need to occur.

    Requirements are to be prioritized based on relative important and the timing of the respective initiatives.

    Prioritize the full set of requirements by assigning a priority to each:

    1. High/Critical: A critical requirement; without it, the product is not acceptable to the stakeholders.
    2. Medium/Important: A necessary but deferrable requirement that makes the product less usable but still functional.
    3. Low/Desirable: A nice feature to have if there are resources, but the product can function well without it.

    Requirements prioritization must be completed in collaboration with all key stakeholders (business and IT).

    Consider the following criteria when assigning the priority:

    • Business value
    • Business or technical risk
    • Implementation difficulty
    • Likelihood of success
    • Regulatory compliance
    • Relationship to other requirements
    • Urgency
    • Unified stakeholder agreement

    Stakeholders must ask themselves:

    • What are the consequences to the business objectives if this requirement is omitted?
    • Is there an existing system or manual process/workaround that could compensate for it?
    • Why can’t this requirement be deferred to the next release?
    • What business risk is being introduced if a particular requirement cannot be implemented right away?

    2.3b Document finalized requirements

    4 hours

    1. Using Tab 4 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool, evaluate your applications’ functionality, review, refine, prioritize, and finalize your requirements.
    2. Review the proposed future state diagrams in activity 2.3a and distill from them the business, functional, and non-functional requirements.
    3. The Applications Director and Customer Service Head are to identify participants based on the business processes that will be reviewed. They are to conduct a workshop to gather all the requirements that can be taken from the business process models.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Modeled future- and current-state business processes
    • Refined and prioritized list of requirements
    • A documented finalized list of requirements to achieve future state business processes
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Writing materials
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • IT Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    Phase 3

    Build Roadmap to Future State

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Structure the Project

    1.2 Define Vision for Future State

    1.3 Document Preliminary Requirements

    2.1 Document Current State Business Processes

    2.2 Assess Current State Architecture

    2.3 Review and Finalize Requirements for Future State

    3.1 Evaluate Architectural and Application Options

    3.2 Understand the Marketplace

    3.3 Score and Plot Initiatives Along Strategic Roadmap

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    3.1a Analyze future architectural posture to understand how applications within the organization ought to be arranged.

    3.3a Develop a Customer Service IT Systems initiative roadmap to reach your future state.

    Participants required for Phase 3:

    • Applications Director
    • CIO
    • Customer Service Director
    • Customer Service Head
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives
    • IT Applications Director

    3.1a Analyze future architectural posture

    1 hour

    Review Tab 8 of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    This tab plots each system that supports Customer Service on a 2x2 framework based on its functionality and integration scores. Where these systems plot on each 2x2 provides clues as to whether they should be considered for retention, functional enhancement (upgrade), increased system integration, or replacement.

    • Integrate: The application is functionally rich, so integrate it with other modules by building or enhancing interfaces.
    • Retain: The application satisfies both functionality and integration requirements, so it should be considered for retention.
    • Replace: The application neither offers the functionality sought, nor is it integrated with other modules.
    • Replace/Enhance: The module offers poor functionality but is well integrated with other modules. If enhancing for functionality is easy (e.g., through configuration or custom development), consider enhancement or replace it altogether.
    The image contains a screenshot of tab 8 of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Review Tab 8 of the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • An overview of how different applications in the organization ought to be assessed
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool
    • IT Applications Director
    • Customer Service Director
    • IT and Customer Service Representatives

    Download the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool

    3.1 Interpret 3.1a’s results for next steps

    Involving both sales and marketing in these discussions will provide a 360-degree view on what the modifications should accomplish.

    If the majority of applications are plotted in the “Integrate” quadrant:

    The applications are performing well in terms of functionality but have poor integration. Determine what improvements can be made to enhance integration between the systems where required (e.g. re-working existing interfaces to accommodate additional data elements, automating interfaces, or creating brand new custom interfaces where warranted).

    If the applications are spread across “Integrate,” “Retain,” and “Replace/Enhance”:

    There is no clear recommended direction in this case. Weigh the effort required to replace/enhance/integrate specific applications critical for supporting processes. If resource usage for piecemeal solutions is too high, consider replacement with suite.

    If the majority of applications are plotted in the “Retain” quadrant:

    All applications satisfy both functionality and integration requirements. There is no evidence that significant action is required.

    If the application placements are split between the “Retain” and “Replace/Enhance” quadrants:

    Consider whether or not IT has the capabilities to execute application replacement procedures. If considering replacement, consider the downstream impact on applications that the system in question is currently integrated with. Enhancing an application usually implies upgrading or adding a module to an existing application. Consider the current satisfaction with the application vendor and whether the upgrade or additional module will satisfy your customer service needs.

    3.1 Work through architectural considerations to narrow future states

    Best-of-breeds vs. suite

    Integration and consolidation

    Deployment

    Does the organization only need a point solution or an entire platform of solutions?

    Does the current state enable interoperability between software? Is there room for rationalization?

    Should any new software be SaaS-based, on-premises, or a hybrid?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Decommissioning and replacing entire applications can put well-functioning modules at risk. Make sure to drill down into the granular features to assess if the feature level performance prompts change. The goal is to make the architecture more efficient for Customer Service and easier to manage for IT. If integration has been chosen as a course of action, make sure that the spend on resources and effort is less than that on system replacement. Also make sure that the intended architecture streamlines usability for agents.

    3.1 Considerations: Best-of-breeds vs. suite

    If requirements extend beyond the capabilities of a best-of-breed solution, a suite of tools may be required.

    Best-of-breed

    Suite

    Benefits

    • Features may be more advanced for specific functional areas and a higher degree of customization may be possible.
    • If a potential delay in real-time customer data transfer is acceptable, best-of-breeds provide a similar level of functionality to suites for a lower price.
    • Best-of-breeds allow value to be realized faster than suites, as they are easier and faster to implement and configure.
    • Rip and replace is easier and vendor updates are relatively quick to market.

    Benefits

    • Everyone in the organization works from the same set of customer data.
    • There is a “lowest common denominator” for agent learning as consistent user interfaces lower learning curves and increase efficiency in usage.
    • There is a broader range of functionality using modules.
    • Integration between functional areas will be strong and the organization will be in a better position to enable version upgrades without risking invalidation of an integration point between separate systems.

    Challenges

    • Best-of-breeds typically cover less breadth of functionality than suites.
    • There is a lack of uniformity in user experience across best-of-breeds.
    • Data integrity risks are higher.
    • Variable infrastructure may be implemented due to multiple disparate systems, which adds to architecture complexity and increased maintenance.
    • There is potential for redundant functionality across multiple best-of-breeds.

    Challenges

    • Suites exhibit significantly higher costs compared to point solutions.
    • Suite module functionality may not have the same depth as point solutions.
    • Due to high configuration availability and larger-scale implementation requirements, the time to deploy is longer than point solutions.

    3.1 Considerations: Integration and consolidation

    Use Tab 7 of Info-Tech’s Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool to gauge the need for consolidation.

    IT benefits

    • Decreased spend on infrastructure, application acquisition, and development.
    • Reduced complexity in vendor management.
    • Less resources and effort spent on internal integration and functional customization.

    Customer Service benefits

    • Reduced user confusion and application usage efficiency.
    • Increased operational visibility and ease process mapping.
    • Improved data management and integrity.

    Theoretical scenarios and recommendations

    The image contains a screenshot of an example of a customer service functional purpose.

    Problem:

    • Large Redundancy – multiple applications address the same function, but one application performs better than others.

    Recommendation:

    • Consolidate the functions into Application 1 and consider decommissioning Applications 2 to 4.
    The image contains a screenshot of an example of a customer service functional purpose.

    Problem:

    • Large Redundancy – multiple applications address the same function, but none of them do it well.

    Recommendation:

    • None of the applications perform well in functional support. Consider replacing with suite or leveraging the Application 3 vendor for functional module expansion, if feasible.

    3.1 Considerations: Deployment

    SaaS is typically recommended as it reduces IT support needs. However, customization limitations and higher long-term TCO values continue to be a challenge for SaaS.

    On-premises deployment

    Hybrid deployment

    Public cloud deployment

    Benefits

    • Solution and deployment are highly customizable.
    • There are fewer compliance and security risks because customer data is kept on premises.

    Challenges

    • There is slower physical deployment.
    • Physical hardware and software are required.
    • There are higher upfront costs.

    Benefits

    • Pick-and-mix which aspects to keep on premises and which to outsource.
    • Benefits of scaling and flexibility for outsourced solution.

    Challenges

    • Expensive to maintain.
    • Requires in-house skillset for on-premises option.
    • Some control is lost over outsourced customization.

    Benefits

    • Physical hardware is not required.
    • There is rapid deployment, vendor managed product updates, and server maintenance.
    • There are lower upfront costs.

    Challenges

    • There is higher TCO over time.
    • There are perceived security risks.
    • There are service availability and reliability risks.
    • There is limited customization.

    3.1 Considerations: Public cloud deployment

    Functionality is only one aspect of a broader range of issues to narrow down the viability of a cloud-based architecture.

    Security/Privacy Concerns:

    Whether the data is stored on premise or in the cloud, it is never 100% safe. The risk increases with a multi-tenant cloud solution where a single vendor manages the data of multiple clients. If your data is particularly sensitive, heavily scrutinize the security infrastructure of potential vendors or store the data internally if internal security is deemed stronger than that of a vendor.

    Location:

    If there are individuals that need to access the system database and work in different locations, centralizing the system and its database in the cloud may be an effective approach.

    Compatibility:

    Assess the compatibility of the cloud solutions with your internal IT systems. Cloud solutions should be well-integrated with internal systems for data flow to ensure efficiency in service operations.

    Cost/Budget Constraints:

    SaaS allows conversion of up-front CapEx to periodic OpEx. It assists in bolstering a business case as costs in the short-run are much more manageable. On-premise solutions have a much higher upfront TCO than cloud solutions. However, the TCO for the long-term usage of cloud solutions under the licensing model will exceed that of an on-premise solution, especially with a growing business and user base.

    Functionality/Customization:

    Ensure that the function or feature that you need is available on the cloud solution market and that the feature is robust enough to meet service quality standards. If the available cloud solution does not support the processes that fit your future-state vision and gaps, it has little business value. If high levels of customization are required to meet functionality, the amount of effort and cost in dealing with the cloud vendor may outweigh the benefits.

    Maintenance/Downtime:

    For most organizations, lapses in cloud-service availability can become disastrous for customer satisfaction and service quality. Organizations should be prepared for potential outages since customers require constant access to customer support.

    3.2 Explore the customer service technology marketplace

    Your requirements, gap analysis, and assessment of current applications architecture may have prompted the need for a new solutions purchase.

    • Customer service technology has come a long way since PABX in 1960s call centers. Let Info-Tech give you a quick overview of the market and the major systems that revolve around Customer Service.
    • The image contains a screenshot of a timeline of the market and major systems that revolve  around customer service.

    Info-Tech Insight

    While Customer Relationships Management systems interlock several aspects of the customer journey, best-of-breed software for specific aspects of this journey could provide a better ROI if the organization’s coverage of these aspects are only “good enough” and need boosting.

    3.2 The CRM software market will continue to grow at an aggressive rate

    • In recent years, CRM suite solutions have matured significantly in their customer support capabilities. Much of this can be attributed to their acquisitions of smaller best-of-breed Customer Service vendors.
    • Many of the larger CRM solutions (like those offered by Salesforce) have now added social media engagement, knowledge bases, and multi-channel capabilities into their foundational offering.
    • CRM systems are capable of huge sophistication and integration with the core ERP, but they also have heavy license and implementation costs, and therefore may not be for everyone.
    • In some cases, customers are looking to augment upon very specific capabilities that are lacking from their customer service foundation. In these cases, best-of-breed solutions ought to be integrated with a CRM, ERP, or with one another through API integration.
    The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates the CRM global market growth, 2019-2027.

    3.2 Utilize SoftwareReviews to focus on which CS area needs enhancing

    Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)

    Cloud-based customer experience solution that allows organizations to utilize a provider’s software to administer incoming support or inquiries from consumers in a hosted, subscription model.

    Customer Service Management (CSM)

    Supports an organization's interaction with current and potential customers. It uses data-driven tools designed to help organizations drive sales and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

    Customer Intelligence Platform

    Gather and analyze data from both structured and unstructured sources regarding your customers, including their demographic/firmographic details and activities, to build deeper and more effective customer relationships and improve business outcomes.

    Enterprise Social Media Management

    Software for monitoring social media activity with the goal of gaining insight into user opinion and optimizing social media campaigns.

    Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

    Consists of applications designed to automate and manage the customer life cycle. CRM software optimizes customer data management, lead tracking, communication logging, and marketing campaigns.

    Virtual Assistants and Chatbots

    interactive applications that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to engage in conversation via speech or text. These applications simulate human interaction by employing natural language input and feedback.

    3.2 SoftwareReviews’ data accelerates and improves the software selection process

    SoftwareReviews collects and analyzes detailed reviews on enterprise software from real users to give you an unprecedented view into the product and vendor before you buy.

    With SoftwareReviews:

    • Access premium reports to understand the marketspace of 193 software categories.
    • Compare vendors with SoftwareReviews’ Data Quadrant Reports.
    • Discover which vendors have better customer relations management with SoftwareReviews’ Emotional Footprint Reports.
    • Explore the Product Scorecards of single vendors for a detailed analysis of their software offerings.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Software Reviews offerings.

    3.2 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.

    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.

    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. The insights of our expert analysts provide unparalleled support to our members at every step of their buying journey.

    3.2 Leverage Info-Tech’s Rapid Application Selection Framework

    Improve your key software selection metrics for best-of-breed customer service software.

    The image contains a screenshot of an example of Info-Tech's Rapid Application Selection Framework.

    A simple measurement of the number of days from intake to decision.

    Use our Project Satisfaction Tool to measure stakeholder project satisfaction.

    Use our Application Portfolio Assessment Tool annually to measure application satisfaction.

    Use our Contract Review Service to benchmark and optimize your technology spending.

    Learn more about Info-Tech’s The Rapid Application Selection Framework

    The Rapid Application Selection Framework (RASF) is best geared toward commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications

    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. The RASF approach is best for commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications; selecting complex applications is better handled by the methodology described in Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process.

    RASF Methodology

    Commodity & Personal Applications

    • Simple, straightforward applications (think OneNote vs. Evernote)
    • Total application spend of up to $10,000; limited risk and complexity
    • Selection done as a single, rigorous, one-day session

    Complex Mid-Tier Applications

    • More differentiated, department-wide applications (Marketo vs. Pardot)
    • Total application spend of up to $100,000; medium risk and complexity
    • RASF approach done over the course of an intensive 40-hour engagement

    Consulting Engagement

    Enterprise Applications

    Sophisticated, enterprise-wide applications (Salesforce vs. Dynamics)

    Total application spend of over $100,000; high risk and complexity

    Info-Tech can assist with tailored, custom engagements

    3.3 Translate gathered requirements and gaps into project-based initiatives

    Identify initiatives that can address multiple requirements simultaneously.

    The Process

    • You now have a list of requirements from assessing business processes and the current Customer Service IT systems architecture.
    • With a viable architecture and application posture, you can now begin scoring and plotting key initiatives along a roadmap.
    • Group similar requirements into categories of need and formulate logical initiatives to fulfill the requirements.
    • Ensure that all requirements are related to business needs, measurable, sufficiently detailed, and prioritized, and identify initiatives that meet the requirements.

    Consider this case:

    Paul’s organization, a midsize consumer packaged goods retailer, needs to monitor social media for sentiment, use social analytics to gain intelligence, and receive and respond to inquiries made over Twitter.

    The initiative:

    Implement a social media management platform (SMMP): A SMMP is able to deliver on all of the above requirements. SMMPs are highly capable platforms that have social listening modules and allow costumer service representatives to post to and monitor social media.

    3.3 Prioritize your initiatives and plan the order of rollout

    Initiatives should not and cannot be tackled all at once. There are three key factors that dictate the prioritization of initiatives.

    1. Value
      • What is the monetary value/perceived business value?
      • Are there regulatory or security related impacts if the initiative is not undertaken?
      • What is the time to market and is it an easily achievable goal?
      • How well does it align with the strategic direction?
    2. Risk
      • How technically complex is it?
      • Does it impact existing business processes?
      • Are there ample resources and right skillsets to support it?
    3. Dependencies
      • What initiatives must be undertaken first?
      • Which subsequent initiatives will it support?

    Example scenario using Info-Tech’s Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool

    An electronics distributor wants to implement social media monitoring and response. Its existing CRM does not have robust channel management functions. The organization plans to replace its CRM in the future, but because of project size and impact and budgetary constraints, the replacement project has been scheduled to occur two years from now.

    • The SMMP solution proposed for implementation has a high perceived value and is low risk.
    • The CRM replacement has higher value, but also carries significantly more risk.
    • Option 1: Complete the CRM replacement first, and overlay the social media monitoring component afterward (as the SMMP must be integrated with the CRM).
    • Option 2: Seize the easily achievable nature of the SMMP initiative. Implement it now and plan to re-work the CRM integration later.
    The image contains a screenshot of an example scenario using Info-Tech's Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool.

    3.3a Develop a Customer Service IT Systems initiative roadmap

    1 hour

    • Complete the tool as a team during a one-hour meeting to collaborate and agree on criteria and weighting.
      1. Input initiative information.
      2. Determine value and risk evaluation criteria.
      3. Evaluate each initiative to determine its priority.
      4. Create a roadmap of prioritized initiatives.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool.
    InputOutput
    • Input the initiative information including the start date, end date, owner, and dependencies
    • Adjust the evaluation criteria, i.e., the value and risk factors
    • A list of initiatives and a roadmap toward the organization’s future state of Customer Service IT Systems
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool
    • Applications Director
    • CIO
    • Customer Service Head

    Download the Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool

    Document and communicate the strategy

    Leverage the artifacts of this blueprint to summarize your findings and communicate the outcomes of the strategy project to the necessary stakeholders.

    Document Section

    Proposed Content

    Leverage the Following Artifacts

    Executive Summary

    • Introduction
    • The opportunity
    • The scope
    • The stakeholders
    • Project success measures

    Project Charter section:

    • 1.1 Project Overview
    • 1.2 Project Objectives
    • 1.3 Project Benefits
    • 2.0 Scope

    Project RACI Chart Tool:

    • Tab 3. Simplified Output
    The image contains screenshots from the Project Charter, and the RACI Chart Tool.

    Background

    • The project approach
    • Current situation overview
    • Results of the environmental scan

    Blueprint slides:

    • Info-Tech’s methodology to develop your IT Strategy for CS Systems
    The image contains a screenshot from the blueprint slides.

    Future-State Vision

    • Customer service goals
    • Future-state modeling findings

    Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool:

    • Tab 2. Customer Service Goals
    • Tab 5. Level 5 Process Inventory

    Future State Business Process Models

    The image contains screenshots from the Customer Service Business Process Shortlisting Tool.

    Current Situation

    • Current-state modeling findings
    • Current-state architecture findings
    • Gap assessment
    • Requirements

    Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool:

    • Tab 2. Inventory of Applications
    • Tab 7. Systems Health Heat Map
    • Tab 8. Systems Health Dashboard
    • Tab 9. Future vs. Current State
    • Tab 4. Requirements Collection
    The image contains screenshots from the Customer Service Systems Strategy Tool.

    Summary of Recommendations

    • Optimization opportunities
    • New capabilities

    N/A

    IT Strategy Implementation Plan

    • Implementation plan
    • Business case

    Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool:

    • Tab 2. CS Initiative Definition
    • Tab 4. CS Technology Roadmap
    The image contains screenshots from the Customer Service Initiative Scoring and Roadmap Tool.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Develop an IT Strategy to Support Customer Service

    With ecommerce accelerating and customer expectations rising with it, organizations must have an IT strategy to support Customer Service.

    The deliverable you have produced from this blueprint provides a solution to this problem: a roadmap to a desired future state for how IT can ground an effective customer service engagement. From omnichannel to self-service, IT will be critical to enabling the tools required to digitally meet customer needs.

    Begin implementing your roadmap!

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

    Contact your account representative for more information.

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department

    • One training session is not enough to make a change. Leaders must embed the habits, create a culture of engagement and positivity, provide continual coaching and development, regularly gather customer feedback, and seek ways to improve.

    Build a Chatbot Proof of Concept

    • When implemented effectively, chatbots can help save costs, generate new revenue, and ultimately increase customer satisfaction for both external- and internal-facing customers.

    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.

    Bibliography (1/2)

    • Callzilla. "Software Maker Compares Call Center Companies, Switches to Callzilla After 6 Months of Results." Callzilla. N.d. Accessed: 4 Jul. 2022.
    • Cisco. “Transforming Customer Service.” Cisco. 2018. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Gottlieb, Giorgina. “The Importance of Data for Superior Customer Experience and Business Success.” Medium. 23 May 2019. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Grand View Research. “Customer Relationship Management Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Solution, By Deployment, By Enterprise Size, By End Use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 – 2027.” Grand View Research. April 2020. Accessed: 17 Feb. 2021.
    • inContact. “Hall Automotive Accelerates Customer Relations with inContact.” inContact. N.d. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Kulbyte, Toma. “37 Customer Experience Statistics to Know in 2021.” Super Office. 4 Jan. 2021. Accessed: 5 Feb. 2021.
    • Kuligowski, Kiely. "11 Benefits of CRM Systems." Business News Daily. 29 Jun. 2022. Accessed: 4 Jul. 2022.
    • Mattsen Kumar. “Ominchannel Support Transforms Customer Experience for Leading Fintech Player in India.” Mattsen Kumar. 4 Apr. 2020. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Microsoft. “State of Global Customer Service Report.” Microsoft. Mar. 2019. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Ringshall, Ben. “Contact Center Trends 2020: A New Age for the Contact Center.” Fonolo. 20 Oct. 2020. Accessed 2 Nov. 2020.
    • Salesforce. “State of Service.” Salesforce. 4th ed. 2020. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • Sopadjieva, Emma, Utpal M. Dholakia, and Beth Benjamin. “A Study of 46,000 Shoppers Shows That Omnichannel Retailing Works.” Harvard Business Review. 3 Jan. 2017. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.

    Bibliography (2/2)

    • Tech Pro Research. “Digital Transformation Research Report 2018: Strategy, Returns on Investment, and Challenges.” Tech Pro Research. 29 Jul. 2018. Accessed: 5 Feb. 2021.
    • TSB. “TSB Bank Self-Serve Banking Increases 9% with Adobe Sign.” TSB. N.d. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.
    • VoiceSage. “VoiceSage Helps Home Retail Group Transform Customer Experience.” VoiceSage. 4 May 2018. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2021.

    Select Your Data Platform

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}346|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $62,999 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 20 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management

    Every organization needs a data management (DM) platform that enables the DM capabilities required. This could be a daunting task because:

    • Every organization has a unique set of requirements for the DM platform.
    • Software products are difficult to compare because every vendor provides a unique set of features.
    • Software vendors are interested in getting as large a footprint as possible.
    • Some products from different categories offer the same functionalities.
    • Some products are just not compatible.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Technology requirements start with the business goals.
    • Data platform selection should be based on common best practices and, at the same time, be optimized for the organization’s specific needs and goals and support an evolutionary platform development.
    • What is best for one organization may be totally unacceptable for another – all for very valid reasons.

    Impact and Result

    Understand your current environment and use proven reference architecture patterns to expedite building the data management platform that matches your needs.

    • Use a holistic approach.
    • Understand your goals and priorities.
    • Picture your target-state architecture.
    • Identify your current technology coverage.
    • Select the software covering the gaps in technology enablement based on feature/functional enablement descriptions as well as vendor and deployment preferences.

    Select Your Data Platform Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out what challenges are typically in the way of designing a data platform, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand how we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Select your data platform

    Assess your current environment, find the right reference architecture pattern, and match identified capabilities with software features.

    • Data Platform Design Assessment
    • Reference Architecture Pattern

    Infographic

    Foster Data-Driven Culture With Data Literacy

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}132|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $12,999 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 115 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management

    Organizations are joining the wave and adopting machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to unlock the value in their data and power their competitive advantage. But to succeed with these complex analytics programs, they need to begin by looking at their data – empowering their people to realize and embrace the valuable insights within the organization’s data.

    The key to achieve becoming a data-driven organization is to foster a strong data culture and equip employees with data skills through an organization-wide data literacy program.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Start with real business problems in a hands-on format to demonstrate the value of data.
    • Use a formalized organization-wide approach to data literacy program to bridge the data skills gap.
    • Provide relevant and practical training programs tailored to different learning styles and tenures (e.g. onboarding, development plan).

    Impact and Result

    Data literacy is critical to the success of digital transformation and AI analytics. Info-Tech’s approach to creating a sustainable and effective data literacy program is recognizing it is:

    • More than just technical training. A data literacy program isn’t just about data; it encompasses aspects of business, IT, and data.
    • More than a one-off exercise. To keep the literacy skills alive the program must be regular, sustainable, and tailored to different needs across all levels of the organization.
    • More than one delivery format. Different delivery methods need to be considered to suit various learning styles to ensure an effective delivery.

    Foster Data-Driven Culture With Data Literacy Research & Tools

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

    1. Foster Data-Driven Culture With Data Literacy Storyboard – A step-by-step guide to help organizations build an effective and sustainable data literacy program that benefits all employees who work with data.

    Data literacy as part of the data governance strategic program should be launched to all levels of employees that will help your organization bridge the data knowledge gap at all levels of the organization. This research recommends approaches to different learning styles to address data skill needs and helps members create a practical and sustainable data literacy program.

    • Foster Data-Driven Culture With Data Literacy Storyboard

    2. Fundamental Data Literacy Program Template – A document that provides an example of a fundamental data literacy program.

    Kick off a data awareness program that explains the fundamental understanding of data and its lifecycle. Explore ways to create or mature the data literacy program with smaller amounts of information on a more frequent basis.

    • Fundamental Data Literacy Program Template
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Foster Data-Driven Culture With Data Literacy

    Data literacy is an essential part of a data-driven culture, bridging the data knowledge gaps across all levels of the organization.

    Analyst Perspective

    Data literacy is the missing link to becoming a data-driven organization.

    “Digital transformation” and “data driven” are two terms that are inseparable. With organizations accelerating in their digital transformation roadmap implementation, organizations need to invest in developing data skills with their people. Talent is scarce and the demand for data skills is huge, with 70% of employees expected to work heavily with data by 2025. There is no time like the present to launch an organization-wide data literacy program to bridge the data knowledge gap and foster a data-driven culture.

    Data literacy training is as important as your cybersecurity training. It impacts all levels of the organization. Data literacy is critical to success with digital transformation and AI analytics.

    Annabel Lui

    Principal Advisory Director, Data & Analytics Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Organizations are joining the wave and adopting machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to unlock the value in their data and power their competitive advantage. But to succeed with these complex analytics programs, they need to begin by empowering their people to realize and embrace the valuable insights within the organization’s data.

    The key to becoming a data-driven organization is to foster a strong data culture and equip people with data skills through an organization-wide data literacy program.

    Common Obstacles

    Challenges the data leadership is likely to face as digital transformation initiatives drive intensified competition:

    • Resistance to change
    • Technological distractions
    • “Shadow data”
    • Difficulty securing resources and skilled data professionals
    • Inability to appreciate the value of data and its meaning for users – even fear of it

    Info-Tech's Approach

    We interviewed data leaders and instructors to gather insights about investing in data:

    • Start with real business problems in a hands-on format to demonstrate the value of data.
    • Implement a formalized organization-wide approach to data literacy program to bridge the data skill gap.
    • Provide relevant and practical training programs tailored to different learning styles and tenures (e.g. onboarding,development plan).

    Info-Tech Insight

    By thoughtfully designing a data literacy training program for the audience's own experience, maturity level, and learning style, organizations build the data-driven and engaged culture that helps them to unlock their data's full potential and outperform other organizations.

    Your Challenge

    Data literacy is the missing link to drive business outcomes from data.

    • Having a data-driven culture as an organization’s mission statement without implementing a data literacy program is like making an empty promise and leaving the value unrealized and unattainable.
    • A study conducted by the Data Literacy Project clearly indicates that organizations with aggressive data literacy programs will outperform those who do not have such programs. By 2030, data literacy will be one of the most sought-after skill sets. All employees require data literacy skills.
    • Everyone has a role in data. From employees who are actively involved in data collection to operational teams who create reports with analytics tools and finally to executives who use data to make business decisions – they all require continuous data literacy training in a data-driven organization. Because of differences in maturity, data literacy strategies cannot be one-size-fits-all.

    “Data literacy is the ability to read, work with, analyze, and communicate with data. It's a skill that empowers all levels of workers to ask the right questions of data and machines, build knowledge, make decisions, and communicate meaning to others.” – Qlik, n.d.

    75% of organizational employees have access to data tools – only 21% demonstrated confidence in their data skills.

    Source: Accenture, 2020.

    89% of C-level executives expect team members to explain how data has informed their decisions, but only 11% employees are fully confident in their ability to read, analyze, work with, and communicate with data

    Source: Qlik, 2022.

    Data debt or data asset?

    Manage your data as strategic assets.

    “[Data debt is] when you have undocumented, unused, incomplete, and inconsistent data,” according to Secoda (2023). “When … data debt is not solved, data teams could risk wasting time managing reports no one uses and producing data that no one understands.”

    Signs of data debt when considering investing in data literacy:

    • Lack of definition and understanding of data terms, therefore they don’t speak the same language. Without data literacy, an organization will not succeed in becoming a data-driven organization.
    • Putting data literacy as a low priority. Organization sees this as “another” training to put on the list and keeps it on the back burner.
    • Data literacy is not seen as the number one skill set needed in the organization. However, anyone who works with data requires data skills.
    • End users are not trained on self-serve features and tools.
    • Focusing on a minority group of people rather than everyone in the organization or seeing it as a one-off exercise.
    • Delays or failure to deliver digital transformation projects due to lack of data skills and data access issues.

    66%

    of organizations say a backlog of data debt is impacting new data management initiatives.

    40%

    of organizations say individuals within the business do not trust data insights.

    30%

    of organizations are unable to become data-driven.

    Source: Experian, 2020

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Data literacy is critical to success with digital transformation and AI analytics.

    Diagram showing components of Data literacy: 1 - Data: understand your data, 2 - Business: define the purpose, 3 - IT: Introduce new ways of working

    The Info-Tech difference:

    1. More than just technical training. Data literacy program isn’t just about data but rather encompasses aspects of business, IT, and data.
    2. More than a one-off exercise. To keep literacy skills alive, the program must be routine and sustainable, tailored to different needs across all levels of the organization.
    3. More than one delivery format. Different delivery methods need to be considered to suit various learning styles.

    Data needs to be processed

    Data – facts – are organized, processed, and given meaning to become insights.

    Data, information, knowledge, insight, wisdom

    Image source: Welocalize, 2020.

    Data represents a discrete fact or event without relation to other things (e.g. it is raining). Data is unorganized and not useful on its own.

    Information organizes and structures data so that it is meaningful and valuable for a specific purpose (i.e. it answers questions). Information is a refined form of data.

    When information is combined with experience and intuition, it results in knowledge. It is our personal map/model of the world.

    Knowledge set with context generates insight. We become knowledgeable as a result of reading, researching, and memorizing (i.e. accumulating information).

    Wisdom means the ability to make sound judgments. Wisdom synthesizes knowledge and experiences into insights.

    Investment in data literacy is a game changer.

    Data literacy is the ability to collect, manage, evaluate, and apply data in a critical manner.

    A data-driven culture is “an operating environment that seeks to leverage data whenever and wherever possible to enhance business efficiency and effectiveness” (Forbes).

    Info-Tech Insight

    Data-driven culture refers to a workplace where decisions are made based on data evidence, not on gut instinct.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for building a data literacy program

    Phase Steps

    1. Define Data Literacy Objectives

    1.1 Understand organization’s needs

    1.2 Create vision and objective for data literacy program

    2. Assess Learning Style and Align to Program Design

    2.1 Create persona and identify audience

    2.2 Assess learning style and align to program design

    2.3 Determine the right delivery method

    3. Socialize Roadmap and Milestones

    3.1 Establish a roadmap

    3.2 Set key performance metrics and milestones

    Phase Outcomes

    Identify key objectives to establish and grow the data literacy program by articulating the problem and solutions proposed.

    Assess each audience’s learning style and adapt the program to their unique needs.

    Show a roadmap with key performance indicators to track each milestone and tell a data story.

    Insight Summary

    “In a world of more data, the companies with more data-literate people are the ones that are going to win.”

    – Miro Kazakoff, senior lecturer, MIT Sloan, in MIT Sloan School of Management, 2021

    Overarching insight

    By thoughtfully designing a data literacy training program personalized to each audience's maturity level, learning style, and experience, organizations can develop and grow a data-driven culture that unlocks the data's full potential for competitive differentiation.

    Module 1 insight

    We can learn a lot from each other. Literacy works both ways – business data stewards learn to “speak data” while IT data custodians understand the business context and value. Everyone should strive to exchange knowledge.

    Module 2 insight

    Avoid traditional classroom teaching – create a data literacy program that is learner-centric to allow participants to learn and experiment with data.

    Aligning program design to those learning styles will make participants more likely to be receptive to learning a new skill.

    Module 3 insight

    A data literacy program isn’t just about data but rather encompasses aspects of business, IT, and data. With executive support and partnership with business, running a data literacy program means that it won’t end up being just another technical training. The program needs to address why, what, how questions.

    Tactical insight

    A lot of programs don’t include the fundamentals. To get data concepts to stick, focus on socializing the data/information/knowledge/wisdom foundation.

    Tactical insight

    Many programs speak in abstract terms. We present case studies and tangible use cases to personalize training to the audience’s world and showcase opportunities enabled through data.

    Key performance indicators (KPIs) for your data literacy program

    How do you know if your data literacy program is successful? Here are some useful KPIs:

    Program Adoption Metrics

    • Percentage of employees attending data literacy training
    • Percentage of participants who report gains in data management knowledge after training sessions
    • Maturity assessment result
    • Survey and diagnostic feedback before and after training
    • Trend analysis of overall data literacy program

    Operational Metrics

    • Number of requests for analytics/reporting services
    • Number of reports created by users
    • Speed and quality of business decisions
    • User satisfaction with reports and analytics services
    • Improved business performance (customer satisfaction)
    • Improved valuation of organization data

    A data-driven culture builds tools and skills, builds users’ trust in the quality of data across sources, and raises the skills and understanding among the frontlines by encouraging everyone to leverage data for critical thinking and innovation.

    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 the project."

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

    Workshop Overview

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

    Session 1

    Session 2

    Session 3

    Session 4

    Activities

    Define Data Literacy Objectives

    1.1 Review Data Culture Diagnostic results

    1.2 Identify business context: business goals, initiatives

    1.3 Create vision and objective for data literacy program

    Assess Learning Style and Align to Program Design

    2.1 Identify audience

    2.2 Assess learning style and align to program design

    2.3 Determine the right delivery method

    Build a Data Literacy Roadmap and Milestones

    3.1 Identify program initiatives and topics

    3.2 Determine delivery methods

    3.3 Build the data literacy roadmap

    Operational Strategy to implement Data Literacy

    4.1 Identify key performance metrics

    4.2 Identify owners and document RACI matrix

    4.3 Discuss next steps and wrap up.

    Deliverables

    1. Diagnostics reports (data culture survey)
    2. Vision and value statement
    1. Assessment of audience covering all levels of organization
    1. List of key program initiatives and topics
    2. Allocation of delivery methods
    3. Roadmap
    1. Data literacy metrics
    2. List of owners and roles and responsibilities
    3. Next step and implementation schedule

    Phase 1

    Define Data Literacy Objectives

    Phase 1: step 1 - Understand organization's needs, step 2 - Create vision and objective for data literacy program.

    Foster Data-Driven Culture With Data Literacy

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Understand the organization’s needs.
    • Create vision and objective for data literacy program.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Data governance sponsor
    • Data owners
    • Data stewards
    • Data custodians

    1.1 Gauge your organization’s current data culture

    Conduct data culture survey or diagnostic.

    1. Identify members of the data user base, data consumers, and other key stakeholders for surveying.
    2. Conduct an information session to introduce Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic survey. Explain the objective and importance of the survey and its role in helping to understand the organization’s current data culture and inform the improvement of that culture.
    3. Roll out the Info-Tech Data Culture Diagnostic survey to the identified users and stakeholders.
    4. Debrief and document the results and scorecard in the Data Strategy Stakeholder Interview Guide and Findings document.

    Input

    • Email addresses of participants in your organization who should receive the survey

    Output

    • Your organization’s Data Culture Scorecard for understanding current data culture as it relates to the use and consumption of data
    • An understanding of whether data is currently perceived to be an asset to the organization

    Materials

    • Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic service

    Participants

    • Participants include those at the senior leadership level through to middle management, as well as other business stakeholders at varying levels across the organization
    • Data owners, stewards, and custodians
    • Core data users and consumers

    Contact your Info-Tech Account Representative for details on launching a Data Culture Diagnostic.

    1.2 Define data literacy objectives

    1. Understand the organization’s needs by identifying opportunities and challenges relating to data. Document the described real-life examples.
    2. Categorize the list and identify areas where data literacy can address the business problem.
    3. Create a vision statement for the data literacy program, ensuring that it covers all levels of the organization.
    4. Articulate the intended targets and goals in planning for a data literacy program.

    Input

    • List of opportunities and challenges relating to data
    • Relevant business real-life examples

    Output

    • Categorized list of data literacy needs
    • Vision for literacy program
    • Targets and goals

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Sticky notes

    Participants

    • CDO or sponsor
    • Key business stakeholders
    • Data stewards
    • Data custodians
    • Data governance working group

    Quick wins for improving data literacy

    Data collected through Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic suggests three ways to improve data literacy:

    87%

    think more can be done to define and document commonly used terms with methods such as a business data glossary.

    68%

    think they can have a better understanding of the meaning of all data elements that are being captured or managed.

    86%

    feel that they can have more training in terms of tools as well as on what data is available at the organization.

    Source: Info-Tech Research Group's Data Culture Diagnostic, 2022; N=2,652

    Quick Wins

    • Create a business data glossary to document and define common terms.
    • Provide easy access to the business data glossary and procedures on how data is captured and managed.
    • Launch an organization-wide data literacy program.

    Delivering value is a means and the goal

    Start with real business problems in a hands-on format to demonstrate the value of data.

    Identify business problem:

    • Business decisions without facts are just guesses.
    • Management spends a lot of time finding and fixing data.
    • Unknown challenges on data assets and risk.
    • Incomplete view of customer/client and industry.
    • Not ready for modern data opportunities (e.g. artificial intelligence).

    Create an objective

    Treat data as a strategic asset to gain insight into our customers for all levels of organization.

    The solution: Data-driven culture powered by people who speak data.

    • Data dictionary
    • Data literacy
    • Trusted single source
    • Access to analytics tools
    • Decision making

    "According to Forrester, 91% of organizations find it challenging to improve the use of data insights for decision-making – even though 90% see it as a priority. Why the disconnect? A lack of data literacy."

    – Alation, 2020

    Fundamental data literacy

    Data literacy is more than just a technical training or a one-off exercise.

    Info-Tech provides various topics suited for a data literacy program that can accommodate different data skill requirements and encompasses relevant aspects of business, IT, and data.

    Info-Tech Research Group’s Data Literacy Program

    Use discovery and diagnostics to understand users’ comfort level and maturity with data.

    Data lunch 'n' learn

    • The power and value of data
    • Everyone is a data steward
    • Becoming data literate
    • Data 101
    • The future is data
    1 hour
    For: General audience, senior leadership, data leads, change management

    Speak data

    • What is data
    • Meet the data team
    • Day in the life of a steward
    • How data impacts you
    • Tools of the trade
    1/2 day
    For: New stewards, data owners, pre-data strategy workshop

    Your data story

    • Ask the right questions
    • Find the top five data elements
    • Understand your data
    • Present your data story
    • Lessons from COVID-19
    1/2 day
    For: New stewards, business data owners, pre-BI/analytics workshop

    Phase 2

    Assess Learning Style and Align to Program Design

    Phase 2: step 1 - Identify audience, step 2 - Access learning style and align to program design, step 3 - Determine the right delivery method.

    Foster Data-Driven Culture With Data Literacy

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify your audience.
    • Assess learning styles and align them to the data program design.
    • Determine the right delivery method.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Data governance sponsor
    • Data owners
    • Data stewards
    • Data custodians

    Avoid common pitfalls

    75%

    feel that training was too long to remember or to apply in their day-to-day work.

    21%

    find training had insufficient follow-up to help them apply on the job.

    Source: Grovo, 2018.

    1. Information Overload

      Trying to cover too much useful information results in overwhelm and does not deliver on key training objectives.
    2. Limited Implementation

      Learning is only the beginning. The real results are obtained when learning is followed by practice, which turns new knowledge into reliable habits.
    3. Lack of Organizational Alignment

      Implementing training without a clear link to organizational objectives leaves you unable to clearly communicate its value, undermines your ability to secure buy-in from attendees and executives, and leaves you unable to verify that the training is actually improving effectiveness.

    2.1 Understand learning style

    1. Create persona and identify the audiences and their roles in data across all levels of the organization.
    2. Identify the data program initiatives and assign the best delivery method to each initiative.
    3. Assign participants to each program initiative based on their skill gap and learning style.

    Input

    • List of audiences, their roles, and tenures
    • Data skill gap assessment
    • List of literacy program initiatives/topics

    Output

    • Target audience grouping
    • List of program initiatives with assigned groups

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Sticky notes

    Participants

    • CDO or sponsor
    • Key business stakeholders
    • Data stewards
    • Data custodians
    • Data governance working group

    You and data

    Is data an integral part of your work?

    Do you feel comfortable finding and using data in your organization?

    • Many people feel intimidated by data and therefore miss out on what data can do for them.
    • Often the obstacle is language. If you don’t understand the semantics around data, you will not feel confident to contribute to discussions around data.
    • You use data every day but need additional vocabulary to understand how to handle it properly.
    • Data literacy is the ability to “speak data” and to understand what data means (i.e. how to read charts and graphs, draw valid conclusions, and recognize when data is misinterpreted or used inappropriately to be misleading).
    • The business often doesn’t understand its role in data governance and how it informs and assists IT in responsible data management.

    Info-Tech Insight

    IT and data professionals need to understand the business as much as business needs to talk about data. Bidirectional learning and feedback improves the synergy between business and IT.

    Create personas

    Persona creation is a way to brainstorm ideas for the data literacy program.

    Choose a data role (e.g. data steward, data owner, data scientist).

    Describe the persona based on goals, priorities, tenures, preferred learning style, type of work with data.

    Identify data skill and level of skills required.

    Persona 1: Denise - Manager, People and Culture. Goals, priorities, tenure, data role, learning style, skill level

    Consider these other ways to brainstorm:

    • Review current in-flight projects.
    • Analyze types of data requests.
    • Understand needs by department.
    • Share learnings in a community of practice.

    Program design

    Categorize into six data skill areas

    Not everyone needs the same level of skill sets

    Bullseye board with skill levels (Innermost going outward): Expert, advanced, intermediate and Basic. The six data skill areas: 1. Understanding Data, 2. Find and Obtain Data, 3. Read, Interpret and Evaluate Data, 4. Manage Data, 5. Create and Use Data, 6. Tell a Story and Share Data are placed equally around in sections.

    Map the personas to the program

    Bridging the data knowledge gap.

    • Each component will promote the value of data to all levels of employees when demonstrating the right way for data to be understood, managed, and consumed in the organization.
    • Categorizing the data literacy program into six areas and levels of skill sets will provide clarity into which areas to focus on.
    • The program is intended to be implemented in stages, allowing the audience to learn and adopt the new skills. Leveraging in-flight projects for rolling out training will have a higher success because the need is already built into the project.
    Personas are placed at different points in the data skill area and skill level.

    Align program design to learning styles

    The four methods (Discussion, Information, Coaching, and Self-Discovery) are based on learner-centered model design rather than the traditional teacher-centered model.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Tailor your data literacy program to meet your organization’s needs, filling your range of knowledge gaps and catering to different levels of users.

    When it comes to rolling out a data literacy program, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Your data literacy program is intended to spread knowledge throughout your organization. It should target everyone from executive leadership to management to subject matter experts across all functions of the business.

    Discussion method

    Delivery Method

    • Interactive format between instructor and learner
    • Instructor empowers and motivates learner through dialogues and exercises

    The imaginative learner

    The imaginative learner group likes to engage in feelings and spend time on reflection. This type of learner desires personal meaning and involvement. They focus on personal values for themselves and others and make connections quickly.

    For this group of learners, their question is: why should I learn this?

    Learning characteristics

    • Seek meaning
    • Need to be personally involved
    • Learn by listening and sharing ideas
    • Function through social interaction

    Information method

    Delivery Method

    • Instructor does most of the talking in the training
    • Instructor is teaching the content, delivering the training content, and demonstrating

    Analytical learner

    The analytical learner group likes to listen, to think about information, and to come up with ideas. They are interested in acquiring facts and delving into concepts and processes. They can learn effectively and enjoy doing independent research.

    For this group of learners, their question is: what should I learn?

    Learning characteristics

    • Seek and examine the facts
    • Need to know what experts think
    • Interested in ideas and concepts
    • Critique information and collect data
    • Function by adapting to experts

    Coaching method

    Delivery Method

    • Learning has on-the-job training or learning through role-play exercises
    • Instructor is coaching and facilitating learner

    Common sense learner

    The common sense learner group likes thinking and doing. They are satisfied when they can carry out experiments, build and design, and create usability. They like tinkering and applying useful ideas.

    For this group of learners, their question is: how should I learn?

    Learning characteristics

    • Seek usability
    • Need to know how things work
    • Learn by testing theories using practical methods
    • Use factual data to build concepts
    • Enjoy hands-on experience

    Self-discovery method

    Delivery Method

    • Interactive format between instructor and learner
    • Instructor provides evaluation and remedial instruction

    Common sense learner

    The dynamic learner group learns through doing and experiencing. They are continually looking for hidden possibilities and researching ideas to make original adjustments. They learn through trial and error and self-discovery.

    For this group of learners, their question is: what if I learn this?

    Learning characteristics

    • Seek hidden possibilities
    • Need to know what can be done with things
    • Learn by trial and error
    • Enjoy variety and excel in being flexible

    Delivery method considerations

    There are four common ways to learn a new skill: by watching, conceptualizing, doing, and experiencing. The following are some suggestions on ways to implement your data literacy program through different delivery methods.

    There are four common ways to learn a new skill: by watching, conceptualizing, doing, and experiencing. The following are some suggestions on ways to implement your data literacy program through different delivery methods.

    Phase 3

    Map Out Data Literacy Roadmap and Milestones

    Phase 3: step 1 - Roadmap exercise, step 2 - Set key performance metrics and milestones.

    Foster Data-Driven Culture With Data Literacy

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Complete a roadmap exercise.
    • Set key performance metrics and milestones.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Data governance sponsor
    • Data owners
    • Data stewards
    • Data custodians

    3.1 Build the data literacy roadmap and milestones

    1-3 hours
    1. Gather the data literacy objectives and list of program initiatives with their assigned groups.
    2. Discuss each program initiative with the data literacy creation team, assigning content owners and estimating effort required to build the content.

    For the Gantt chart:

    • Input the roadmap start year.
    • List each data literacy topic and delivery method.
    • Populate the planned start and end dates for the prepopulated list of program initiatives.

    Input

    • List of data literacy topics with assigned groups
    • Vision statement of data literacy program
    • Data literacy objectives

    Output

    • Roadmap Gantt chart
    • List of program initiatives with start and end date
    • Content owner assignment

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Sticky notes
    • MS Projects/Excel

    Participants

    • CDO or sponsor
    • Key business stakeholders
    • Data stewards
    • Data custodians
    • Data governance working group

    Data literacy journey mapping

    Making it sustainable

    • Deliver the literacy program in stages to make it easier for the audience to consume the content.
    • Allow opportunities to apply the learnings at work.
    • Map out the data literacy trainings as they get delivered and identify gaps, if any. Continue to refine and adjust the program and delivery method for better outcome.
    • Set clear goals and KPIs measurement up front.
    • Conduct Info-Tech Research Group’s Data Culture Diagnostics to set the baseline and repeat the assessment in 12 to 18 months.
    • Assign champions to lead change and influence end users to adopt better processes.
    Data Literacy journey mapping. Different departments need different skills in data literacy.

    Research contributors

    Name

    Position

    Andrea Malick Advisory Director, Info-Tech Research Group
    Andy Neill AVP, Data and Analytics, Chief Enterprise Architect, Info-Tech Research Group
    Crystal Singh Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group
    Imad Jawadi Senior Manager, Consulting Advisory, Info-Tech Research Group
    Irina Sedenko Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group
    Reddy Doddipalli Senior Workshop Director, Info-Tech Research Group
    Sherwick Min Technical Counselor, Info-Tech Research Group
    Wayne Cain Principal Advisory Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Info-Tech’s Data Literacy Program

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

    Session 1

    Session 2

    Session 3

    Session 4

    Activities

    Understand the WHY and Value of Data

    1.1 Business context, business objectives, and goals

    1.2 You and data

    1.3 Data journey from data to insights

    1.4 Speak data – common terminology

    Learn about the WHAT Through Data Flow

    2.1 Data creation

    2.2 Data ingestion

    2.3 Data accumulation

    2.4 Data augmentation

    2.5 Data delivery

    2.6 Data consumption

    Explore the HOW Through Data Visualization Training

    3.1 Ask the right questions

    3.2 Find the top five data elements

    3.3 Understand your data

    3.4 Present your data story

    3.5 Sharing of lessons learned

    Put Them All Together Through Data Governance Awareness

    4.1 Data governance framework

    4.2 Data roles and responsibilities

    4.3 Data domain and owners

    Deliverables

    1. Learning material for understanding the data fundamental and its terminology
    1. Learning material for data flow elements
    1. Learning material for data visualization
    1. Learning material for data governance awareness program

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Establish Data Governance

    Deliver measurable business value.

    Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

    Key to building and fostering a data-driven culture.

    Create a Data Management Roadmap

    Streamline your data management program with our simplified framework.

    Bibliography

    About Learning. “4MAT overview.” About Learning., 16 Aug. 2001. Web.

    Accenture. “The Human Impact of Data Literacy,” Accenture, 2020. Web.

    Anand, Shivani. “IDC Reveals India Data and Content Technologies Predictions for 2022 and onwards; Focus on Data Literacy for an Elevated data Culture.” IDC, 14 Mar. 2022. Web.

    Belissent, Jennifer, and Aaron Kalb. “Data Literacy: The Key to Data-Driven Decision Making.” Alation, April 2020. Web.

    Brown, Sara. “How to build data literacy in your company.” MIT Sloan School of Management, 9 Feb 2021. Web.

    ---. “How to build a data-driven company.” MIT Sloan School of Management, 24 Sept. 2020. Web.

    Domo. “Data Never Sleeps 9.0.” Domo, 2021. Web.

    Dykes, Brent. “Creating A Data-Driven Culture: Why Leading By Example Is Essential.” Forbes, 26 Oct. 2017. Web.

    Experian. “10 signs you are sitting on a pile of data debt.” Experian, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021. Web.

    Experian. “2019 Global Data Management Research.” Experian, 2019. Web.

    Knight, Michelle. “Data Literacy Trends in 2023: Formalizing Programs.” Dataversity, 3 Jan. 2023. Web.

    Ghosh, Paramita. “Data Literacy Skills Every Organization Should Build.” Dataversity, 2 Nov. 2022. Web.

    Johnson, A., et al., “How to Build a Strategy in a Digital World,” Compact, 2018, vol. 2. Web.

    LifeTrain. “Learning Style Quiz.” EMTrain, Web.

    Lambers, E., et al. “How to become data literate and support a data-drive culture.” Compact, 2018, vol. 4. Web.

    Marr, Benard. “Why is data literacy important for any business?” Bernard Marr & Co., 16 Aug. 2022. Web.

    Marr, Benard. “8 simple ways to enhance your data literacy skills.” Bernard Marr & Co., 16 Aug. 2022. Web/

    Mendoza, N.F. “Data literacy: Time to cure data phobia” Tech Republic, 27 Sept. 2022. Web.

    Mizrahi, Etai. “How to stay ahead of data debt and downtime?” Secoda, 17 April 2023. Web.

    Needham, Mass., “IDC FutureScape: Top 10 Predictions for the Future of Intelligence.” IDC, 5 Dec. 2022. Web.

    Paton, J., and M.A.P. op het Veld. “Trusted Analytics.” Compact, 2017, vol. 2. Web.

    Qlik. “Data Literacy to be Most In-Demand Skill by 2030 as AI Transforms Global Workplaces.” Qlik., 16 Mar 2022. Web.

    Qlik. “What is data literacy?” Qlik, n.d. Web.

    Reed, David. Becoming Data Literate. Harriman House Publishing, 1 Sept. 2021. Print.

    Salomonsen, Summer. “Grovo’s First-Time Manager Microlearning® Program Will Help Your New Managers Thrive in 2018.” Grovos Blog, 5 Dec. 2018. Web.

    Webb, Ryan. “More Than Just Reporting: Uncovering Actionable Insights From Data.” Welocalize, 1 Sept. 2020. Web.

    Fast Track Your GDPR Compliance Efforts

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}372|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $25,779 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 30 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Governance, Risk & Compliance
    • Parent Category Link: /governance-risk-compliance
    • Organizations often tackle compliance efforts in an ad hoc manner, resulting in an ineffective use of resources.
    • The alignment of business objectives, information security, and data privacy is new for many organizations, and it can seem overwhelming.
    • GDPR is an EU regulation that has global implications; it likely applies to your organization more than you think.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Financial impact isn’t simply fines. A data controller fined for GDPR non-compliance may sue its data processor for damage.
    • Even day-to-day activities may be considered processing. Screen-sharing from a remote location is considered processing if the data shown onscreen contains personal data!
    • This is not simply an IT problem. Organizations that address GDPR in a siloed approach will not be as successful as organizations that take a cross-functional approach.

    Impact and Result

    • Follow a robust methodology that applies to any organization and aligns operational and situational GDPR scope. Info-Tech's framework allows organizations to tackle GDPR compliance in a right-sized, methodical approach.
    • Adhere to a core, complex GDPR requirement through the use of our documentation templates.
    • Understand how the risk of non-compliance is aligned to both your organization’s functions and data scope.
    • This blueprint will guide you through projects and steps that will result in quick wins for near-term compliance.

    Fast Track Your GDPR Compliance Efforts Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should fast track your GDPR compliance efforts, 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 your compliance requirements

    Understand the breadth of the regulation’s requirements and document roles and responsibilities.

    • Fast Track Your GDPR Compliance Efforts – Phase 1: Understand Your Compliance Requirements
    • GDPR RACI Chart

    2. Define your GDPR scope

    Define your GDPR scope and prioritize initiatives based on risk.

    • Fast Track Your GDPR Compliance Efforts – Phase 2: Define Your GDPR Scope
    • GDPR Initiative Prioritization Tool

    3. Satisfy documentation requirements

    Understand the requirements for a record of processing and determine who will own it.

    • Fast Track Your GDPR Compliance Efforts – Phase 3: Satisfy Documentation Requirements
    • Record of Processing Template
    • Legitimate Interest Assessment Template
    • Data Protection Impact Assessment Tool
    • A Guide to Data Subject Access Requests

    4. Align your data breach requirements and security program

    Document your DPO decision and align security strategy to data privacy.

    • Fast Track Your GDPR Compliance Efforts – Phase 4: Align Your Data Breach Requirements & Security Program

    5. Prioritize your GDPR initiatives

    Prioritize any initiatives driven out of Phases 1-4 and begin developing policies that help in the documentation effort.

    • Fast Track Your GDPR Compliance Efforts – Phase 5: Prioritize Your GDPR Initiatives
    • Data Protection Policy
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Fast Track Your GDPR Compliance Efforts

    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 Your Compliance Requirements

    The Purpose

    Kick-off the workshop; understand and define GDPR as it exists in your organizational context.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Prioritize your business units based on GDPR risk.

    Assign roles and responsibilities.

    Activities

    1.1 Kick-off and introductions.

    1.2 High-level overview of weekly activities and outcomes.

    1.3 Identify and define GDPR initiative within your organization’s context.

    1.4 Determine what actions have been done to prepare; how have regulations been handled in the past?

    1.5 Identify key business units for GDPR committee.

    1.6 Document business units and functions that are within scope.

    1.7 Prioritize business units based on GDPR.

    1.8 Formalize stakeholder support.

    Outputs

    Prioritized business units based on GDPR risk

    GDPR Compliance RACI Chart

    2 Define Your GDPR Scope

    The Purpose

    Know the rationale behind a record of processing.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Determine who will own the record of processing.

    Activities

    2.1 Understand the necessity for a record of processing.

    2.2 Determine for each prioritized business unit: are you a controller or processor?

    2.3 Develop a record of processing for most-critical business units.

    2.4 Perform legitimate interest assessments.

    2.5 Document an iterative process for creating a record of processing.

    Outputs

    Initial record of processing: 1-2 activities

    Initial legitimate interest assessment: 1-2 activities

    Determination of who will own the record of processing

    3 Satisfy Documentation Requirements and Align With Your Data Breach Requirements and Security Program

    The Purpose

    Review existing security controls and highlight potential requirements.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Ensure the initiatives you’ll be working on align with existing controls and future goals.

    Activities

    3.1 Determine the appetite to align the GDPR project to data classification and data discovery.

    3.2 Discuss the benefits of data discovery and classification.

    3.3 Review existing incident response plans and highlight gaps.

    3.4 Review existing security controls and highlight potential requirements.

    3.5 Review all initiatives highlighted during days 1-3.

    Outputs

    Highlighted gaps in current incident response and security program controls

    Documented all future initiatives

    4 Prioritize GDPR Initiatives

    The Purpose

    Review project plan and initiatives and prioritize.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Finalize outputs of the workshop, with a strong understanding of next steps.

    Activities

    4.1 Analyze the necessity for a data protection officer and document decision.

    4.2 Review project plan and initiatives.

    4.3 Prioritize all current initiatives based on regulatory compliance, cost, and ease to implement.

    4.4 Develop a data protection policy.

    4.5 Finalize key deliverables created during the workshop.

    4.6 Present the GDPR project to key stakeholders.

    4.7 Workshop executive presentation and debrief.

    Outputs

    GDPR framework and prioritized initiatives

    Data Protection Policy

    List of key tools

    Communication plans

    Workshop summary documentation

    Build an IT Succession Plan

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}476|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $338,474 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 17 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Lead
    • Parent Category Link: /lead
    • Pending retirements in key roles create workforce risks and potentially impact business continuity.
    • Fifty-six percent of organizations have not engaged in succession planning, so they haven’t identified at-risk key roles or successors for those roles.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Just under 60% of organizations haven't tackled succession planning.
    • This means that three out of five organizations don’t know what skills they need for the future or what their key roles truly are. They also haven’t identified at-risk key roles or successors for those roles.
    • In addition, 74% of organizations have no formal process for facilitating knowledge transfer between individuals, so knowledge will be lost.

    Impact and Result

    • Info-Tech's Key Roles Succession Planning Tool will help you assess key role incumbent risk factors as well as identify potential successors and their readiness. Pay particular attention to those employees in key roles that are nearing retirement, and flag them as high risk.
    • Plan for the transfer of critical knowledge held by key role incumbents. Managers and HR leaders see significant tacit knowledge gaps in younger workers; prioritize tacit knowledge in your transfer plan and leverage multiple transfer methods.
    • Explore alternative work arrangements to ensure sufficient time to prepare successors. A key role incumbent must be available to complete knowledge transfer.
    • Define formal transition plans for all employees in at-risk key roles and their successors by leveraging your workforce and succession planning outputs, knowledge transfer strategy, and selected alternative work arrangements.

    Build an IT Succession Plan Research & Tools

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

    1. Build an IT Succession Plan Deck – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to future-proof your IT team.

    Protect your team and organization from losses associated with departure of people from key roles. This blueprint will help you build an IT succession plan to ensure critical knowledge doesn’t walk out the door and continuity of business when people in key roles leave.

    • Build an IT Succession Plan Storyboard

    2. Critical Role Identifier – A tool to help you determine which roles are most critical to the success of your team.

    The purpose of this tool is to help facilitate a conversation around critical roles.

    • Critical Role Identifier

    3. Key Role Succession Planning Template – A tool that walks you through reviewing your talent, succession planning, and determining successor readiness.

    This tool will help IT leaders work through key steps in succession development for each employee in the team, and present summaries of the findings for easy reference and defensibility.

    • Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    4. Role Profile Template – A template that helps you outline the minimum requirements for each critical role addressed in succession planning.

    This template is a guide and the categories can be customized to your organization.

    • Role Profile Template

    5. Individual Talent Profile Template – A template to assess an employee against the role profiles of critical roles.

    This profile provides the basis for evidence-based comparison of talent in talent calibration sessions.

    • Individual Talent Profile Template

    6. Role Transition Plan Template – A template to help you plan to implement knowledge transfer and alternative work arrangements.

    As one person exits a role and a successor takes over, a clear checklist-based plan will help ensure a smooth transition.

    • Role Transition Plan Template
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    INFO~TECH RESEARCH GROUP

    Build an IT Succession Plan

    Future-proof your IT team.


    Build an IT Succession Plan

    Future-proof your IT team.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Most organizations are unprepared for the loss of employees who hold key roles.

    • The departure of employees in key roles results in the loss of valuable knowledge, core business relationships, and profits.
    • Pending retirements in key roles create workforce risks and potentially impact business continuity.

    Planning and executing on key role transition can take years. CIOs should prepare now to mitigate the risk of loss later.

    Common Obstacles
    • The number of organizations which have not engaged in succession planning is 56%; they haven’t identified at-risk key roles, or successors for those roles.
    • Analyzing key roles at the incumbent and successor level introduces real-life, individual-focused factors that have a major impact on role-related risk.
    Info-Tech’s Approach
    • Plan for the transfer of critical knowledge held by key role incumbents.
    • Explore alternative work arrangements to ensure sufficient time to prepare successors.
    • Define formal transition plans for all employees in at-risk key roles and their successors.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Losing employees in key roles without adequate preparation hinders productivity, knowledge retention, relationships, and opportunities. Implement scalable succession planning to mitigate the risks.

    Most organizations are unprepared for the loss of employees who hold key roles

    Due to the atmosphere of uncertainty.

    Not only do they not have the right processes in place, but they are also ill-equipped to deal with the sheer volume of retirees in the future.

    Over 58% of organizations are unprepared for Baby Boomer retirement. Only 8% said they were very prepared.

    Pie chart with percentages of organizations who are prepared for Baby Boomer retirement.
    (Source: McLean & Company, 2013; N=120)

    A survey done by SHRM and AARP found similar results: 41% of HR professionals said their organizations have done nothing and don’t plan to do anything to prepare for a possible worker shortage as Boomers retire.

    (Source: Poll: Organizations Can Do More to Prepare for Talent Shortage as Boomers Retire)
    This means that three out of five organizations don’t know what skills they need for the future, or what their key roles truly are. They also have not identified at-risk key roles or successors for those roles.
    (Source: McLean & Company, 2013, N=120)

    To make matters worse, 74% of organizations have no formal process for facilitating knowledge transfer between individuals, so knowledge will be lost.

    Pie chart with percentages of organizations with a formal process for facilitating knowledge transfer.
    (Source: McLean & Company, 2013; N=120)

    Most organizations underestimate the costs associated with ignoring succession planning

    “In many cases, executives have no idea what knowledge they are losing.” (TLNT: Lost Knowledge – What Are You and Your Organization Doing About It?”)
    Objections to succession planning now: The risks of this mindset…
    “The recession bought us time to plan for Baby Boomer retirement.” Forty-two percent of organizations believe this to be true and may feel a false sense of security. Assume it takes three years to identify an internal successor for a key role, develop them, and execute the transition. Add the idea that, like most organizations, you don’t have a repeatable process for doing this. Do you still have enough time?
    “The skills possessed by my organization’s Baby Boomers are easy to develop in others internally.” Forty percent of organizations agree with this statement, but given the low rate of workforce planning taking place, most may not actually know the skills and knowledge they need to meet future business goals. These organizations may realize their loss too late.
    “We don’t have the time to invest in succession planning.” Thirty-nine percent of organizations cite this as an obstacle, which is a very real concern. Adopting a simple, scalable process that focuses on the most mission critical key roles will be easier to digest, as well as eliminate time wasted trying to recoup losses in the long run. The costs of not planning are much higher than the costs of planning.
    “We don’t know when our boomers plan to retire, so we can’t really plan for it.” The fact that 42% of organizations do not know employees’ retirement plans is proof positive that they’re operating blind. You can’t plan for something if you don’t have any information about what to plan for or the time frame you’re working against.
    “My organization puts a premium on fresh ideas over experience.” While nearly 45% of organizations prioritize fresh ideas, 50% value experience more. Succession planning and knowledge transfer are important strategies for ensuring experience is retained long enough for it to be passed along in the organization.

    Use Info-Tech’s tools and templates

    Talent Review

    Succession Planning

    Knowledge Transfer

    Key tools and templates to help you complete your project deliverables
    Key Roles Succession Planning Tool
    Critical Role Identifier
    Role Profile Template
    Individual Talent Profile Template
    Key Roles Succession Planning Tool
    Role Profile Template
    Individual Talent Profile Template
    Role Transition Plan Template
    Key Roles Succession Planning Tool
    Role Profile Template
    Individual Talent Profile Template
    Your completed project deliverables

    Critical Role Identifier

    Key Roles Succession Plan

    Key Role Profiles

    Individual Talent Profiles

    Key Role Transition Plans

    Ignoring succession planning could cause significant costs

    Losing knowledge will undermine your strategy in four ways:

    Inefficiency

    Inefficiency due to “reinvention of the wheel.” When workers leave and don’t effectively transfer their knowledge, duplication of effort to solve problems and find solutions occurs.

    Innovation

    Reduced capacity to innovate. Older workers know what works and what doesn’t, what’s new and what’s not. They can identify the status quo faster to make way for novel thinking.

    Competitive Advantage

    Loss of competitive advantage. Losing knowledge and/or established client relationships hurts your asset base and stifles growth.

    Vulnerability

    Increased vulnerability. Losing knowledge can impede your organizational ability to identify, understand, and mitigate risks. You’ll have to learn through experience all over again.

    Succession planning improves performance by reducing the impact of sudden departures

    Business Continuity

    Succession planning limits disruption to daily operations and minimizes recruitment costs:

    • The average time to fill a vacant role externally in the US is approximately 43 days (Workable). Succession planning can reduce this via a talent pool of ready-now successors.
    Engagement & Retention

    Effective succession planning is a tool for engaging, developing, and retaining employees:

    • Of departing employees, 45% cite lack of opportunities for career advancement as the moderate, major, or primary reason they left (McLean & Company Exit Survey, 2018, N=7,530).
    Innovation & Growth

    Knowledge is a strategic asset, and succession planning can help retain, grow, and capitalize on it:

    • Retaining the experience and expertise of individuals departing from critical roles supports and enhances the quality of innovation (Harvard Business Review, 2008).

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Talent Review

    Conduct a talent review to identify key roles

    Short bracket.
    Succession Planning

    Succession planning helps you assess which key roles are most at risk

    Long bracket.
    Knowledge Transfer

    Utilize methods that make it easy to apply the knowledge in day-to-day practice.

    Long bracket.
    Identify Critical Roles Assess Talent Identify Successors Develop Successors Select Successors Identify Critical Knowledge Select Transfer Methods Document Role Transition Plans

    Future-Proofed IT Team
    • Business continuity
    • The right people, in the right positions, at the right time
    • Retention due to employee development & growth
    • IT success
    • Decreased impact of sudden departures
    • Improved performance

    Info-Tech’s methodology for building an IT succession plan

    1. Talent Review 2. Succession Planning 3. Knowledge Transfer
    Phase Steps
    1. Identify critical roles
    2. Assess talent
    1. Identify successor pool
    2. Develop successors
    3. Select successors
    1. Identify critical knowledge
    2. Select knowledge transfer methods
    3. Document role transition plans
    Phase Outcomes
    • Documented business priorities
    • Identified critical roles including required skills and knowledge that support achievement of business strategy
    • Key at-risk roles identified.
    • Potential successors for key roles identified.
    • Gap assessment between key role incumbents and potential successors.
    • Critical knowledge risks identified.
    • Appropriate knowledge transfer methods selected.
    • Documented knowledge transfer initiatives for key role transition plans.

    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 six to ten calls over the course of four to eight months.

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges. Call #2:Review business priorities and clarify criteria weighting.

    Call #3: Review key role criteria. Explain information collection process.

    Call #4: Review risk and readiness assessments.

    Call #5: Analyze gaps between key roles and successors for key considerations.

    Call #6: Feedback and recommendations on critical knowledge risks.

    Call #7: Review selected transfer methods.

    Call #8: Analyze role transition plans for flags.

    Build an IT Succession Plan

    Phase 1

    Talent Review

    Phase 1

    1.1 Identify Critical Roles

    1.2 Assess Talent

    Phase 2

    2.1 Identify Successors

    2.2 Develop Successors

    2.3 Select Successors

    Phase 3

    3.1 Identify Critical Knowledge

    3.2 Select Transfer Methods

    3.3 Document Role Transition Plan

    This phase will walk you through:

    • Identifying your business priorities
    • Identifying your critical roles including required skills and knowledge that support achievement of business strategy

    Tools and resources used:

    • Key Roles Succession Planning Tool
    • Key Role Profile
    • Individual Talent Profile
    • Critical Role Identifier

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT leadership/management team
    • HR

    Conduct a talent review to identify key roles

    Sixty percent of organizations have not engaged in formal workforce planning, so they don’t know what skills they need or what their key roles truly are. (Source: McLean & Company, 2013; N=139)
    1. A talent review ensures that each work unit has the right people, in the right place, at the right time to successfully execute the business strategy.
    2. Only 40% of organizations have engaged in some form of workforce planning.
    3. The first step is to identify your business focus; with this information you can start to note the key roles that drive your business strategy.

    Key roles

    Where an organization’s most valued skills and knowledge reside

    Organizations should prepare now to mitigate the risk of loss later.

    Key roles are:

    • Held by the most senior people in the organization, who carry the bulk of leadership and decision-making responsibility.
    • Highly technical or specialized, and therefore difficult to replace.
    • Tied closely to unique or proprietary processes or possess knowledge that cannot be procured externally.
    • Critical to the continuation of business and cannot be left vacant without risking business operations.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Losing employees in key roles without adequate preparation for their departure has a direct impact on the bottom line in terms of disrupted productivity, lost knowledge, severed relationships, and missed opportunities.

    A tree of key roles, starting with CEO and branching down.

    Identifying key roles is the first step in a range of workforce management activities because it helps establish organizational needs and priorities, as well as focusing planning effort.

    A talent review allows you to identify the knowledge and skills you need today and for the long term.

    Knowing what you need is the first step in determining what you have and what you need to keep.

    • A talent review is an analytic planning process used to ensure a work unit has the right people, in the right place, at the right time, and for the right cost in order to successfully execute its business strategy. It allows organizations to:
    • Evaluate workforce demographics, review skills, and conduct position inventories.
    • Evaluate business continuity risk from a talent perspective by identifying potential workforce shortages.
    • Identify critical positions, critical skills for each position, and percentage of critical workers retiring to assess the potential impact of losing them.
    • Look at the effect of loss on new product development, revenues, costs, and business strategic objectives.

    Caution

    A talent review is a high-level planning process which does not take individual employees into consideration. Succession planning looks at individuals and will be discussed in Phase 2.

    A talent review gets you to think in terms of:

    • Where your organization wants to be in five years.
    • What skills the organization needs to meet business goals between now and then.
    • How it can be best positioned for the longer-term future.

    Note: Planning against a time frame longer than five years is difficult because uncertainty in the external business environment will have unforeseen effects. Revisit your plan annually and update it, considering changes.

    Step 1.1

    Identify critical roles

    Activities
    • 1.1.1 Document Business Priorities, Goals, and Challenges
    • 1.1.2 Clarify Key Role Criteria and Weighting
    • 1.1.3 Evaluate Role Importance
    • 1.1.4 Key Role Selection and Comparison
    • 1.1.5 Capture Key Elements of Critical Roles

    The primary goal of this step is to ensure we have effectively identified key roles based on business priorities, goals, and challenges, and to capture the key elements of critical roles.

    Outcomes of this step

    • Documented business priorities, goals, and challenges.
    • Key elements of critical roles captured.
    • Key role criteria and weighting.
    Talent Review
    Step 1.1 Step 1.2

    Business priorities will determine the knowledge and skills you value most

    Venn diagram of business priorities: 'Customer Focus', 'Operational Focus', and 'Product Focus'.
    Note: Most organizations will be a blend of all three, with one predominating
    “I’ve been in the position where the business assumes everyone knows what is required. It’s not until you get people into a room that it becomes clear there is misalignment. It all seems very intuitive but in a lot of cases they haven’t made the critical distinctions regarding what exactly the competencies are. They haven’t spent the time figuring out what they know.” (Anne Roberts, Principal, Leadership Within Inc.)

    1.1.1 Document business priorities

    Input: Business strategic plan

    Output: Completed workforce planning worksheet (Tab 2) of the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    Materials: Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    Participants: IT leadership

    Start by identifying your business priorities based on your strategic plan. The goal of this exercise is to blast away assumptions and make sure leadership has a common understanding of your target.

    With the questions on the previous slide in mind document your business priorities, business goals, and business challenges in Tab 2 of the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool worksheet.

    Get clear answers to these questions:

    • Are we customer focused, product focused, or operationally focused? In other words, is your organization known for:
      • Great customer service or a great customer experience?
      • The lowest price?
      • Having the latest technology, or the best quality product?
    • What are our organizational/departmental business goals? To improve operational effectiveness, are we really talking about reducing operational costs?
    • What are the key business challenges to address within the context of our focus?

    Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    Clarify what defines a key role

    A key role is crucial to achieving organizational objectives, drives business performance, and includes specialized and rare competencies. Key roles are high in strategic value and rarity – for example, the developer role for a tech company.
    Chart with axes 'Rarity' and 'Strategic Value'. Lowest in both are 'Supporting Roles', Highest in both are 'Critical Roles', and the space in the middle are 'Core Roles'. Look at two dimensions when examining roles:
    • Strategic value refers to the importance of the role in keeping the organization functioning and executing on the strategic objectives.
    • Rarity refers to how difficult it is to find and develop the competencies in the role.

    Info-tech insight

    Traditionally, succession planning has only addressed top management roles. However, until you look at the evidence, you won’t know if these are indeed high-value roles, and you may be missing other critical roles further down the hierarchy.

    Use the Critical Role Identifier to facilitate the identification of critical roles with your leaders.

    1.1.2 Clarify key role criteria & weighting

    Input: Business strategic plan

    Output: Weighted criteria to help identify critical roles

    Materials: Critical Role Identifier

    Participants: IT leadership

    1. Using Tab 2 of the Critical Role Identifier tool, along with the information on the previous slide, determine the relative importance of four criteria as contributing to the importance of a role within the organization.
    2. Rate each of the four criteria: strategic value, rarity, revenue generation, business/operation continuity, and any custom criteria numerically. You might choose only one or two criteria – they all do not need to be included.
    3. Document your decisions in Tab 2 of the Critical Role Identifier.

    Critical Role Identifier

    1.1.3 Evaluate role importance

    Input: List of IT roles

    Output: Full list of roles and a populated Critical Role Selection sheet (Tab 4)

    Materials: Critical Role Identifier

    Participants: IT leadership

    1. Using Tab 3 of the Critical Role Identifier, collect information about IT roles.
    2. Start by listing each role under consideration, and its department or subcategory.
    3. For each criteria statement listed across the top of the sheet, select an option from the drop-down menu to reflect the appropriate answer scale rating. Replace the text in grey with information customized to your team. If criteria has a weighting of zero in Tab 2, the questions associated with that criteria will be greyed out and do not have to be answered.

    Critical Role Identifier

    Identify the key roles that support and drive your business priorities

    Focus on key IT roles instead of all roles to save time and concentrate effort on your highest risk areas.

    Key Roles include:

    • Strategic Roles: Roles that give the greatest competitive advantage. Often these are roles that involve decision-making responsibility.
    • Core Roles: Roles that must provide consistent results to achieve business goals.
    • Proprietary Roles: Roles that are tied closely to unique or proprietary internal processes or knowledge that cannot be procured externally. These are often highly technical or specialized.
    • Required Roles: Roles that support the department and are required to keep it moving forward day-to-day.
    • Influential Roles: Positions filled by employees who are the backbone of the organization, the go-to people who are the corporate culture.
    Ask these questions to identify key roles:
    1. What are the roles that have a significant impact on delivering the business strategy?
    2. What are the key differentiating roles for our organization?
    3. Which roles, if vacant, would leave the organization open to non-compliance with regulatory or legal requirements?
    4. Which roles have a direct impact on the customer?
    5. Which roles, if vacant, would create system, function, or process failure for the organization?

    1.1.4 Key role selection and comparison

    Input: Tab 3 of the Critical Role Identifier

    Output: List of roles from highest to lowest criticality score, List of key roles entered in Tab 2 of the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    Materials: Critical Role Identifier, Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    Participants: IT leadership

    1. Using tab 4 of the Critical Role Identifier, which displays the results of the role importance evaluation, review the weighted criticality score. To add or remove roles or departments make changes on Tab 3.
    2. Use this table to see the scores and roles from highest to lowest based on your weightings and scoring.
    3. In column J, classify the roles as critical, core, or supporting based on the weighted overall score and the individual criteria scores.
      1. Critical – is crucial to achieving organizational objectives, drives business performance, and includes specialized and rare skills.
      2. Core – is related to operational excellence. Highly strategically valuable but easy to find or develop.
      3. Supporting – is important in keeping business functioning; however, the strategic value is low. Competencies are easy to develop.
    4. Once you’ve selected the key roles, transfer them into Tab 2 of the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool worksheet where you have documented your business priorities.

    Critical Role Identifier

    Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    1.1.5 Capture key elements of critical roles

    Input: Job descriptions, Success profiles, Competency profiles

    Output: List of required skills and knowledge for key roles, Role profiles documented for key roles

    Materials: Key Roles Succession Planning Tool, Role Profile Template

    Participants: IT leadership

    1. Document the minimum requirements for critical roles in column E and F of Tab 2 of the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool. Include elements that drive talent decisions, are measurable, and are oriented to future organizational needs.
    2. Consider how leadership competencies and technical skills tie to business expansion plans, new service offerings, etc.
    3. Use the Role Profile Template to help in this process and to maintain up-to-date information.
    4. Role profiles may be informed by existing job descriptions, success profiles, or competency profiles.
    5. Conduct regular maintenance on your role profiles. Outdated and inaccurate role-related information can make succession planning efforts ineffective.

    Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    Role Profile Template

    Case Study

    Conduct a “sanity check” by walking through a checklist of all roles to ensure you haven’t missed anything.
    INDUSTRY
    Large Provincial Hospital
    SOURCE
    Payroll Manager
    Challenge
    • Key roles may not be what you think they are.
    • The Payroll Manager of a large Provincial hospital, with 20-year tenure, announced her retirement.
    • Throughout her tenure, this employee took on many tasks outside the scope of her role, including pension calculations/filings and other finance-related tasks that required a high level of specialized knowledge of internal systems.
    Solution
    • Little time or effort was placed on fully understanding what she did day-to-day.
    • Furthermore, the search for a replacement was left far too late, which meant that she vacated the role without training a replacement.
    • Low level roles can become critical to business continuation if they’re occupied by only one person, creating a “single point of failure” if they become vacant.
    Results
    • It wasn’t until after she left that it became obvious how much extra work she was doing, which made it nearly impossible to find a replacement.
    • Her manager found a replacement to take the payroll duties but had to distribute the other duties to colleagues (who were very unhappy about the extra tasks).
    • This role may not seem like a “key role,” but the incumbent turned it into one. Keep tabs on what people are working on to avoid overly nuanced role requirements.

    Step 1.2

    Assess talent

    Activities
    • 1.2.1 Identify Current Incumbents’ Information
    • 1.2.2 Identify Potential Successors and Collect Information

    The primary goal of this step is to assess departmental talent and identify gaps between potential successors and key roles. This analysis is intended to support departmental access to suitable talent ensuring future business success.

    Outcomes of this step

    • Collection of current incumbents’ information.
    • Collection of potential successor information.
    • Gap assessment.

    Talent Review

    Step 1.1 Step 1.2

    Find out key role incumbents’ career plans

    Have career discussions with key role incumbents

    • Do not ask employees directly about their retirement plans as this can be misconstrued as age discrimination – let them take the initiative.
    • To take the spotlight away from older workers and potential feelings of discrimination, supervisors should be having these discussions with their employees at least annually.
    • Having this discussion creates an opportunity for employees to share their retirement plans, if they have any.
    • Warning: This is not the time to make promises about the future. For example, alternative work arrangements cannot be guaranteed without further analysis and planning.
    Do the following:
    1. Book a meeting with employees and ask them to prepare for a career development discussion.
    2. Ask direct questions about motivation, lifestyle preferences, and passions.
    3. Spend the time to understand your employees’ goals and their development needs.
    If an employee discloses that they plan to leave within the next few years:
    1. Gather information about approximate exit dates (non-binding).
    2. Find out their opinions about how they would like to transition out of their role, including any alternative work arrangements they would like to pursue.

    Potential questions to ask during career discussions with key role incumbents

    • Where do you see yourself in five years?
    • What role would you see yourself in after this one?
    • What gets you excited about coming to work?
    • Describe your greatest strengths. How would you like to use those strengths in the future?
    • What is standing in the way of your career goals?
    ** Do not ask employees directly about their retirement plans as this can be misconstrued as age discrimination – let them take the initiative.**
    Stock photo of a smiling employee with grey hair.

    1.2.1 Identify current incumbents' information

    Input: Key roles list, Employee information

    Output: List of key roles with individual incumbent information

    Materials: Key Roles Succession Planning Tool – Succession Plan Worksheet (Tab 3)

    Participants: IT leadership/management team, HR, Current incumbents if necessary

    Identify current incumbents for all key roles and collect information about them.

    Using Tab 3 of the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool identify the incumbent (the person currently in the role) for all key roles.

    Distribute the worksheet to department managers and team leaders to complete the information below for each key role.

    For that incumbent, also document:

    1. Their time in that role.
    2. Their overall performance in current role (does not meet, meets, or exceeds expectations).
    3. Next step in career (target role or retirement).
    4. Time until exit from the current role (known or estimated).
    5. Development needs for next step in career.
    6. Any additional knowledge and skills they possess beyond the role description that is of value to the organization.

    Upon completion, managers and team leaders should review the results with the department leader.

    Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    Identify potential successors for all key roles

    It’s imperative that multiple sources of information are used to ensure no potential successor is missed and to gain a complete candidate picture.

    Work collaboratively with the management team and HR business partners for names of potential successors.

    The management team includes:

    • The incumbent’s direct supervisor.
    • Managers from the department in which the key role exists.
    • Leaders of teams with which potential successors have worked.
    • The key role incumbent (assuming it’s appropriate to do so).

    Use management roundtable discussions to identify and analyze each potential successor.

    • Participants should come equipped with names of potential successors and be prepared to provide a rationale for their recommendation.
    • Provide all participants with the key role job description in advance of the meeting, including responsibilities and required knowledge and skills.

    Don’t confuse successors with high potentials!

    • Identifying high potential employees involves recognizing those employees who consistently outperform their peers, progress more quickly than their peers, and live the company culture. They are usually striving for leadership roles.
    • While you also want your successors to exemplify these qualities of excellence, succession planning is specifically about identifying the employees who currently possess (or soon will possess) the skills and knowledge required to take over a key role.
    • Remember: Key roles are not limited to leadership roles, so cast a wider net when identifying succession candidates.
    See the following slide for sources of information participants should consult to back up their recommendations and vet succession candidates.

    Determine how employees will be identified for talent assessment

    Description Advice
    Management-nominated employees
    • Managers or skip-level leaders nominate potential successors within or outside their team.
    • Limit bias by requiring management nominations to be based on specific evidence of performance and potential.
    High-potential employees (HiPos)
    • Consider employees who are in an existing high-potential program.
    • Determine whether the HiPo program sufficiently assesses for critical role requirements. Successors must possess the skills and knowledge required for specific critical roles. Expand assessment beyond just HiPo.
    Self-nominated employees
    • Employees are informed about succession planning and asked to indicate their interest in critical roles.
    • Train managers to support the program and to handle difficult conversations (e.g. employee submitted self-nomination and was unsuccessful).
    All employees
    • All employees across a division, geography, function, or leadership level are invited for assessment.
    • While less common, this approach is appropriate for highly inclusive cultures. Be prepared to invest significantly more time and resources.
    When identifying employees, keep the following advice in mind:

    Widen the net

    Don’t limit yourself to the next level down or the same functional group.

    Match transparency

    With less transparency, there are fewer options, and you risk missing out on potential successors.

    Select the appropriate talent assessment methods

    Identify all talent assessment types used in your organization and examine their ability to inform decision-making for critical role assignments. Select multiple sources to ensure a robust talent assessment approach:

    A sound talent assessment methodology will involve both quantitative and qualitative components. Multiple data inputs and perspectives will help ensure relevant information is prioritized and suitable candidates aren’t overlooked.

    However, beware that too many inputs may slow down the process and frustrate managers.

    Beware of biases in talent assessments. A common tendency is for people to recommend successors who are exactly like them or who they like personally, not necessarily the best person for the job. HR must (diplomatically) challenge leaders to use evidence-based assessments.

    Good Successor Information Sources

    • 360-Degree Feedback – (breadth and accuracy)
    • HR-led Interviews – (objectivity and confirmation)
    • Talent Review Meetings – (leadership input)
    • Stretch Assignments – (challenge comfort zones)
    • Competency-Based Aptitude Tests – (objective data)
    • Job Simulations – (real-life testing)
    • Recent Performance Evaluations – (predictor of future performance)

    Prepare to customize the Individual Talent Profile Template

    Ensure the role profile and individual talent profile are synchronized to enable comparing employee qualifications and readiness to critical role requirements. Sample of the Role Profile.

    Role Profile

    A role profile contains information on the skills, competencies, and other minimum requirements for the critical role. It details the type of incumbent that would fit a critical role.
    Stock image of a chain link.

    Use both in conjunction during:

    • Talent assessment
    • Successor identification
    • Successor development
    • Successor selection
    Sample the Individual Talent Profile.

    Individual Talent Profile

    A talent profile provides information about a person. In addition to responding to role profile criteria, it provides information on an employee’s past experiences and performance, career aspirations, and future potential.

    1.2.2 Identify Potential Successors’ Information

    Input: Key roles list, Employee information, Completed role profiles and/or Tab 2 role information.

    Output: List of potential successors for key roles that are selected for talent assessment

    Materials: Key Roles Succession Planning Tool – Succession Plan Worksheet (Tab 3)

    Participants: IT leadership, IT team leads, Employees

    Identify potential successors for key roles and collect critical information.

    Have managers and team leads complete column I on Tab 3 of the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool and review with the department leader.

    There may be more than one potential successor for key roles; this is okay.

    Once the list is compiled, complete an individual talent profile for each potential successor. Record an employee’s:

    1. Employee information
    2. Career goals
    3. Experience and education
    4. Achievements
    5. Competencies
    6. Performance
    7. Any assessment results

    Once the profiles are completed, they can be compared to the role profile to identify development needs.

    Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    Individual Talent Profile Template

    Build an IT Succession Plan

    Phase 2

    Succession Planning

    Phase 1

    1.1 Identify Critical Roles

    1.2 Assess Talent

    Phase 2

    2.1 Identify Successors

    2.2 Develop Successors

    2.3 Select Successors

    Phase 3

    3.1 Identify Critical Knowledge

    3.2 Select Transfer Methods

    3.3 Document Role Transition Plan

    This phase will walk you through how to:

    • Conduct an assessment to identify “at risk” key role incumbents.
    • Identify potential successors for key roles and collect critical information.
    • Assess gaps between key role incumbents and potential successors.

    Tools and resources used:

    • Key Roles Succession Planning Tool
    • Key Role Profile
    • Individual Talent Profile

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT leadership/management team
    • HR

    Succession planning helps you assess which key roles are most at risk

    Drilling down to the incumbent and successor level introduces “real life,” individual-focused factors that have a major impact on role-related risk.

    Succession planning is an organizational process for identifying and developing talent internally to fill key business roles. It allows organizations to:

    • Understand the career plans of employees to allow organizations to plan more accurately.
    • Identify suitable successors for key roles and assess their readiness.
    • Mitigate risks to long-term business continuity and growth.
    • Avoid external replacement costs including headhunting and recruitment, HR administration, and productivity loss.
    • Retain internal tacit knowledge.
    • Increase engagement and retention; keeping talented people reinforces career path opportunities and builds team culture.

    Caution:

    Where the talent review was about high-level strategic planning for talent requirements, succession planning looks at individual employees and plans for which employees will fulfill which key roles next.
    “I ask the questions, What are the risks we have with these particular roles? Is there a way to disperse this knowledge to other members of the group? If yes, then how do we do that?” (Director of HR, Service Industry)

    Succession planning ultimately must drill down to individual people – namely, the incumbent and potential successors.

    This is because individual human beings possess a unique knowledge and skill set, along with their own personal aspirations and life circumstances.

    The risks associated with a key role are theoretical. When people are introduced into the equation, the “real life” risk of loss for that key role can change dramatically.

    Succession Planning

    Funnel titled 'Succession Planning' with 'Critical Roles' at the top of the funnel, 'Critical Knowledge and Skills' as the middle of the funnel, 'Individuals' as the bottom of the funnel, and it drains into 'Incumbent's Potential Successors'.

    Step 2.1

    Identify Successors

    Activities
    • 2.1.1 Conduct Individual Risk Assessment
    • 2.1.2 Successor Readiness Assessment

    This step highlights the relative positioning of all employees assessed for departure risk compared to the potential successors’ readiness, identifying gaps that create risk for the organization, and need mitigation strategies.

    Outcomes of this step

    • Individual risk assessment results – mitigate, manage, accept matrix.
    • Potential successor readiness ranking.
    • Determination on transparency level with successors.

    Succession Planning

    Step 2.1 Step 2.2 Step 2.3

    Decide how to obtain information on employee interest in critical roles

    Not all employees may want to be considered as part of the succession planning program. It might not fit their short- or long-term plans. Avoid misalignment and outline steps to ascertain employee interest.

    Transparency

    • Use your target transparency level to:
      • Determine the degree of employees’ participation in self-assessment.
      • Guide organization-wide and targeted messaging about succession planning (see Step 3).

    Timing

    • Ensure program-level communication has occurred before asking employees about their interests in critical roles, in order to garner more trust and engagement.
    • Decide at what point along the succession planning process (if at all) that employee’s career interests will be collected and incorporated.

    Manager accountability and resources

    • Identify resources needed for managers to conduct targeted career conversations with employees (e.g. training, communication guides, key messaging).
    • If program communication is to be implemented organization-wide, approach accordingly.

    Obtaining employee interest ensures process efficiency because:

    • Time isn’t wasted focusing on candidates who aren’t interested.
    • The assessment group is narrowed down through self-selection.

    Level-set expectations with employees:

    • Communicate that they will be considered for assessment and talent review discussions.
    • Ensure they understand that everyone assessed will not necessarily be identified or selected as a successor.

    Conduct a risk assessment

    Identify key role incumbents who may leave before you’re ready.

    Pay particular attention to those employees nearing retirement and flag them as high risk.

    Understand the impact that employee age has on key role risk. Keep the following in mind when filling out the Individual Risk Assessment of the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool. See the next slide for more details on this.

    High Risk Arrow pointing both ways vertically. Anyone 60 years of age or older, or anyone who has indicated they will be retiring within five years.
    Moderate Risk Employees in their early 50s are still many years away from retirement but have enough years remaining in their career to make a significant move to a new role outside of your organization. Furthermore, they have specialized skills making them more attractive to external organizations.
    Employees in their late 50s are likely more than five years away from retirement but are also less likely than younger employees to leave your organization for another role elsewhere. This is because of increasing personal risk in making such a move, and persistent employer unwillingness to hire older employees.
    Low Risk Technically, when it comes to succession planning for key roles held by employees over the age of 50, no one should be considered “low risk for departure.
    Pull some hard demographic data.

    Compile a report that breaks down employees into age-based demographic groups.

    Flag those over the age of 50 – they’re in the “retirement zone” and could decide to leave at any time.

    Check to see which key role incumbents fall into the “over 50” age demographic. You’ll want to shortlist these people for an individual risk assessment.

    Update this report twice a year to keep it current.

    For those people on your shortlist, gather the information that supervisors gained from the career discussions that took place. Specifically, draw out information that indicates their retirement plans.

    2.1.1 Conduct Individual Risk Assessment

    Input: Completed Succession Plan worksheet

    Output: Risk assessment of key role incumbents, understanding of which key role departures to manage, mitigate, and accept

    Materials: Key Roles Succession Planning Tool – Individual Risk Assessment (Tab 4), Key Roles Succession Planning Tool – Risk Assessment Results (Tab 5)

    Participants: IT leadership/management team

    Assign values for probability of departure and impact of departure using the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool.

    For those in key roles and those over 50, complete the Individual Risk Assessment (Tab 4) of the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool:

    1. Assess each key role incumbent’s probability of departure based on your knowledge. If the person is going to another job, is a known flight risk, or faces dismissal, the probability is high.
      • 0-40: Unlikely to Leave. If the employee is new to the role, highly engaged, or a high potential.
      • 41-60: Unknown. If the employee is sending mixed messages about happiness at work, or sending no messages, it may be difficult to guess.
      • 61-100: Likely to Leave. If the employee is nearing retirement, actively job searching, disengaged, or faces dismissal, then the probability of departure is high.
    2. Assess the role and the individual’s impact of departure on a scale of 1 (no impact) to 100 (devasting impact).
    3. Review the risk assessment results on tab 5 of the planning tool. The employees that appear in the mitigate quadrant are your succession planning priorities.

    Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    Define readiness criteria for successor identification

    1. Select the types of readiness and the number of levels:

      Readiness by time horizon:

      • Successors are identified as ready based on how long it is estimated they will take to acquire the minimum requirements of the critical role.
      • Levels example: Ready Now, Ready in 1-2 Years, Ready in 3-5 Years.

      Readiness by moves:

      • Successors are identified as ready based on how many position moves they have made or how many developmental experiences they have had.
      • Levels example: Ready Now, Ready after 1 Move, Ready after 2 Moves.
    2. Create definitions for each readiness level:
      Example:

      Performance

      Potential

      Ready Now Definition: Ability to deliver in current role Requirement: Meets or exceeds expectations Definition: Ability to take on greater responsibility Requirement: Demonstrates learning agility
      The 9-box is an effective way to map performance and potential requirements and can guide management decision making in talent review and calibration sessions. See McLean & Company’s 9-Box Job Aid for more information. Sample of the 9-Box Job Aid, a 9-field matrix with axes 'Potential: Low to High' and 'Performance: Low to High'.
      “Time means nothing. If you say someone will be ready in a year, and you’ve done nothing in that year to develop them, they won’t be ready. We look at it as moves or experiences: ready now, ready in one move, ready in two moves.” (Amanda Mathieson, Senior Manager, Talent Management, Tangerine)

    2.1.2 Successor Readiness Assessment

    Input: Individual talent profiles, List of potential successors (Tab 3)

    Output: Readiness ranking for each potential successor

    Materials: Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    Participants: IT leadership/management team

    Assign values for probability of departure and impact of departure using the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool.

    Using Tab 6 of the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool, evaluate the readiness of each potential successor that you previously identified.

    1. Enter the name, current role, and target role of each potential successor into the spreadsheet.
    2. For each employee, fill in a response from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” for the assessment criteria statements listed in column B of Tab 6. This will give you a readiness ranking in row 68.

    Key Roles Succession Planning Tool

    Decide if and how successors will be told about their status in the succession plan

    1. Decide if employees will be told. Be as transparent as possible. This will provide several benefits to your organization (e.g. higher engagement, retention) while managing potential risks (e.g. perception that the process is unfair, reducing motivation to perform).
    2. Decide who will tell them. Decide based on the culture of your organization; are official communications usually conveyed through the direct manager, HR, senior leaders, or steering committee?
    1. Determine how you will tell them.

      Suggested messaging to non-successors:

      • Not being identified as a successor does not mean that an employee is not valued by the organization, nor does it indicate the employee will be let go. It simply means that the organization needs a backup plan to manage risk.
      • Employees can still develop toward a critical role they are interested in, and the organization will continue to evaluate whether they can be a potential successor.
      • It is the employee’s responsibility to own their development and communicate to their manager any interest they have in critical roles.

      Suggested messaging to successors:

      • Being identified as a successor is an investment in employee development – not a guaranteed promotion.
      • Successor status may change based on changes to the critical role itself, or if performance is not on par with expectations.
      • The organization strives to be as fair and objective as possible through evidence-based assessments of performance and potential.

    Case Study

    Failing to have a career aspiration discussion with a potential successor leaves a sales director in a bind.

    INDUSTRY
    Professional Services
    SOURCE
    Confidential
    Challenge
    • A senior sales director in a medium-sized private company knew there would be a key management opportunity opening up in six months. He had one candidate in mind: a key contributor from the sales floor.
    • The sales manager assumed that the sales representative would want the management position and began planning the candidate’s required training in order to get him ready.
    Solution
    • Three months before the position opened up, the manager finally approached the representative about the opportunity, telling the representative that he was an excellent candidate for the role.
    • However, the sales representative was not interested in managing people. He wanted to come in, do a really great day’s worth of work, and then go home and be done. He already loved what he did.
    Results
    • The sales representative turned down the offer point blank, leaving the manager with less than three months to find and groom a new internal successor.
    • The manager failed on several fronts. First, he did not ask the employee about his career aspirations. Second, he did not groom a pool of potential successors for the role, affording no protection in the event that the primary candidate couldn’t or wouldn’t assume the role.

    Step 2.2

    Develop Successors

    Activities
    • 2.2.1 Outline Successor Development Process

    The primary goal of this step is to identify the steps that need to be taken to develop potential successors. Focus on training employees for their future role, not just their current one.

    Outcomes of this step

    • Identified gaps between key role exits and successor readiness.

    Succession Planning

    Step 2.1 Step 2.2 Step 2.3

    2.2.1 Outline Successor Development Process

    Input: Role profiles, Talent profiles, Talent assessments

    Output: Identified gaps between key role exits and successor readiness

    Materials: Key Roles Succession Planning Tool – Successor Identification (Tab 7)

    Participants: IT leadership/management team

    Prepare successors for their next role, not just their current one.

    Use role and talent profiles and any talent assessment results to identify gaps for development.

    1. Outline the steps involved in the individual development planning process for successors. Key steps include identifying development timeline, learning needs, learning resources and strategies, and accomplishment metrics/evidence.
    2. Identify learning elements successor development will involve based on critical role type. For example, coaching and/or mentoring, leadership training, functional skills training, or targeted experiences/projects.
    3. Select metrics with associated timelines to measure the progress of successor development plans. Establish guidelines for employee and manager accountability in developing prioritized competencies.
    4. Determine monitoring cadence of successor development plans (i.e. how often successor development plans will be tracked to ensure timely progress). Identify who will be involved in monitoring the process (e.g. steering committee).

    Info-Tech insight

    Succession planning without integrated efforts for successor development is simply replacement planning. Get successors ready for promotion by ensuring a continuously monitored and customized development plan is in place.

    Integrate knowledge transfer in the successor development process

    1

    Brainstorm ideas to encourage knowledge-sharing and transfer from incumbent to successor.

    2

    Integrate knowledge-transfer methods into the successor development process.
    Identify key knowledge areas to include:
    • Specialized technical knowledge
    • Specialized research and development processes
    • Unique design capabilities/methods/models
    • Special formulas/algorithms/techniques
    • Proprietary production processes
    • Decision-making criteria
    • Innovative sales methods
    • Knowledge about key customers
    • Relationships with key stakeholders
    • Company history and values
    Use multiple methods for effective knowledge transfer.

    Explicit knowledge is easily explained and codified, such as facts and procedures. Knowledge transfer methods tend to be more formal and one-way. For example:

    • Formal documentation of processes and best practices
    • Self-published knowledgebase
    • Formal training sessions

    Tacit knowledge accumulates over years of experience and is hard to articulate. Knowledge transfer methods are often informal and interactive. For example:

    • Mentoring and job shadowing
    • Multigenerational work teams
    • Networks and communities
    Knowledge transfer can occur via a wide range of methods that need to be selected and integrated into daily work to suit the needs of the knowledge to be transferred and of the people involved. See Phase 3 for more details on knowledge transfer.

    Step 2.3

    Select Successors

    The goal of this step is to determine how critical roles will be filled when vacancies arise.

    Outcomes of this step

    • Agreement with HR on the process to fill vacancies when key roles exit.

    Succession Planning

    Step 2.1 Step 2.2 Step 2.3

    Determine how critical roles will be filled when vacancies arise

    Choose one of two approaches to successor selection:
    • Talent review meeting:
      • Conduct a talent review meeting with functional leaders to discuss key open positions and select the right successors. Ascertain successor interest prior to the meeting, if not obtained already.
      • If multiple successors are ready now, use both role and talent profiles to arrive at a final decision.
      • If only one successor is ready now, outline steps for their promotion process. Which leaders should be involved for final approval? What is TA’s role?
    • Talent acquisition (TA) process:
      • Align with TA to implement a formal recruitment process to select the right successor (open application and interview process to talent pool).
      • Decide if a talent review meeting is required afterwards to agree on the final successor or if the interview panel will make the final decision.

    Work together with Talent Acquisition (TA) to outline special treatment of critical role vacancies. Ensure TA is aware of succession plan(s).

    Explicitly determine the level of preference for internal successors versus external hires to your TA team to ensure alignment. This will create an environment where promotion from within is customary.

    Build an IT Succession Plan

    Phase 3

    Knowledge Transfer

    Phase 1

    1.1 Identify Critical Roles

    1.2 Assess Talent

    Phase 2

    2.1 Identify Successors

    2.2 Develop Successors

    2.3 Select Successors

    Phase 3

    3.1 Identify Critical Knowledge

    3.2 Select Transfer Methods

    3.3 Document Role Transition Plan

    This phase will show you to:

    • Identify critical knowledge risks.
    • Select appropriate transfer methods.
    • Document knowledge transfer initiatives for key role transition plans.

    Tools and resources used:

    • Role Transition Plan Template

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT leadership/management team
    • HR
    • Incumbent & successor managers

    Mitigate risk – formalize knowledge transfer

    Use Info-Tech’s Mitigate Key IT Employee Knowledge Loss blueprint to build and implement your knowledge transfer plan.

    Effective knowledge transfer allows organizations to:
    • Maintain or improve speed and productivity by ensuring the right people have the right skills to do their jobs well.
    • Increase agility because knowledge is more evenly distributed amongst employees. Multiple people can perform a given task and no one person becomes a bottleneck.
    • Capture and sustain knowledge; creating a knowledge database provides all employees access to the information, now and in the future.
    Knowledge transfer between those in key roles and potential successors yields the highest dividends for:
    • Senior level successions.
    • External hires.
    • Senior expatriate transfers.
    • Developmental stretch assignments.
    • Internal cross-divisional transfers and promotions.
    • High organizational dependency on unique expert knowledge.
    • Critical function/project/team transitions.
    • Large scale reorganizations and mergers & acquisitions.
    (Source: Piktialis and Greenes, 2008)
    Sample of the Mitigate Key IT Employee Knowledge Loss blueprint.

    Mitigate Key IT Employee Knowledge Loss

    Knowledge transfer is complex and must be both multi-faceted and well supported

    Knowledge transfer is the capture, organization, and distribution of knowledge held by individuals to ensure that it is accessible and usable by others.

    Knowledge transfer is not stopping, learning, and returning to work. Nor is it simply implementing a document management system.  Arrow pointing right. Knowledge transfer is a wide range of methods that must be carefully selected and integrated into daily work in order to meet the needs of the knowledge to be transferred and the people involved.

    Knowledge transfer works best when the following techniques are applied

    • Use multiple methods and media to transfer the knowledge.
    • Ensure a two-way interaction between the knowledge source and recipient.
    • Support knowledge transfer with active mentoring.
    • Transfer knowledge at the point of need; that is, when it’s immediately useful.
    • Offer experience-oriented training to reinforce knowledge absorption.
    • Use a knowledge management system to permanently capture knowledge shared.
    Personalization is the key.

    Dwyer & Dwyer say that providing “insights to a particular person (or people) needing knowledge at the time of the requirement” is the difference between knowledge transfer that sticks and knowledge that is forgotten.

    “Designing a system in which the employee must interrupt his or her work to learn or obtain new knowledge is not productive. Focus on ‘teachable moments.” (Karl Kapp, “Tools and Techniques for Transferring Know-How from Boomers to Gamers”)

    Step 3.1

    Identify Critical Knowledge to Transfer

    The goal of this step is to understand what knowledge and skills much be transferred, keeping in mind the various types of knowledge.

    Outcomes of this step

    • Critical knowledge and skills for key roles documented in the Key Role Transition plans.

    Knowledge Transfer

    Step 3.1 Step 3.2 Step 3.3

    Understand what knowledge and skills must be transferred

    There are two basic types of knowledge:

    Explicit knowledge:
    Easily explained and codified, e.g. facts and procedures.
    Image of a head with gears inside. Tacit knowledge:
    Accumulates over years of experience and is hard to verbalize.
    • You should already have a good idea of what knowledge and skills are valued from the worksheets completed earlier.
    • Focus on identifying the knowledge, skills, and relationships essential to the specific incumbent in a key role and what it is he or she does to perform that key role well.
    Document critical knowledge and skills for key roles in the:

    Role Transition Plan Template

    1. Identify key knowledge areas. These include:
      • Specialized technical knowledge and research and development process.
      • Unique design capabilities/methods/models.
      • Special formulas/algorithms/techniques.
      • Proprietary production processes.
      • Decision-making criteria.
      • Innovative sales methods.
      • Knowledge about key customers.
      • Relationships with key stakeholders.
      • Company history and values.
    2. Ask questions of both sources and receivers of knowledge to help determine the best knowledge transfer methods to use.
      • What is the nature of the knowledge? Explicit or tacit?
      • Why is it important to transfer?
      • How will the knowledge be used?
      • What knowledge is critical for success?
      • How will the users find and access it?
      • How will it be maintained and remain relevant and usable?
      • What are the existing knowledge pathways or networks connecting sources to recipients?

    Step 3.2

    Select Knowledge Transfer Methods

    Activities
    • 3.2.1 Select Knowledge Transfer Methods

    This step helps you identify the knowledge transfer methods that will be the most effective, considering the knowledge or skill that needs to be transferred and the individuals involved.

    Outcomes of this step

    • Knowledge transfer methods chosen documented in the Key Role Transition Plans.

    Knowledge Transfer

    Step 3.1 Step 3.2 Step 3.3

    Knowledge transfer methods available

    Be prepared to use various methods to transfer knowledge and use them all liberally.

    The most common knowledge transfer method is simply to have a collaborative culture

    Horizontal bar chart ranking knowledge transfer methods by commonality.
    (Source: McLean & Company, 2013; N=121)

    A basic willingness for a role incumbent to share with a successor is the most powerful item in your tacit knowledge transfer toolkit.

    Formal documentation is critical for explicit knowledge sharing, yet only 40% of organizations use it.

    Rewarding and recognizing employees for doing knowledge transfer well is underutilized yet has emerged as an important reinforcing component of any effective knowledge transfer program.
    Don’t forget it!

    3.2.1 Select Knowledge Transfer Methods

    Input: Role profiles, Talent profiles

    Output: Methods for integrating knowledge transfer into day-to-day practice

    Materials: Role Transition Plan Template

    Participants: IT leadership/management team, HR, Knowledge source, Knowledge recipient

    Utilize methods that make it easy to apply the knowledge in day-to-day practice.

    Select your method according to the following criteria:

    1. The type of knowledge. A soft skill, like professionalism, is best taught via mentoring, while a technical process is best documented and applied on-the-job.
    2. What the knowledge recipient is comfortable with. The recipient may get bored during formal training sessions and retain more during job shadowing.
    3. What the knowledge source is comfortable with. The source may be uncomfortable with blogs and wikis, but comfortable with SharePoint.
    4. The cost. Some methods require an investment in time (e.g. mentoring), while others require an investment in technology (e.g. knowledge bases).
      • The good news is that many supporting technologies may already exist in your organization or can be acquired for free.
      • Methods that cost time may be difficult to get underway since employees may feel they don’t have the time or must change the way they work.

    The more integrated knowledge transfer is in day-to-day activities, the more likely it is to be successful and the lower the time cost. This is because real learning is happening at the same time real work is being accomplished.

    Document the knowledge transfer methods in the Role Transition Plan Template.

    Role Transition Plan Template

    Explore alternative work arrangements

    Ensure sufficient time to prepare successors

    If a key role incumbent isn’t around to complete knowledge transfer, it’s all for naught.

    Alternative work arrangements are critical tools that employers can use to achieve a mutually beneficial solution that mitigates the risk of loss associated with key roles.

    Alternative work arrangements not only support employees who want to keep working, but they allow the business to retain employees that are needed in key roles.

    In a survey from The Conference Board, one out of four older workers indicated that they continue to work because their company provided them with needed flexibility.

    And, nearly half said that more flexibility would make them less likely to retire. (Source: Ivey Business Journal)

    Flexible work options are the most used form of alternative work arrangement

    Horizontal bar chart ranking alternative work arrangements by usage.
    (Source: McLean & Company, N=44)

    Choose the alternative work arrangement that works best for you and the employee

    Alternative Work Arrangement

    Description

    Ideal Use

    Caveats

    Flexible work options Employees work the same number of hours but have flexibility in when and where they work (e.g. from home, evenings). Employees who work fairly independently, with no or few direct reports. Employee may become isolated or disconnected, impeding knowledge transfer methods that require interaction or one-on-one time.
    Contract-based work Working for a defined period of time on a specific project on a non-salaried or non-wage basis. Project-oriented work that requires specialized knowledge or skills. Available work may be sporadic or specific projects more intensive than the employee wants. Knowledge transfer must be built into the contractual arrangement.
    Part-time roles Half-days or a certain number of days per week; indefinite with no end date in mind. Employees whose roles can be readily narrowed and upon whom people and critical processes are not dependent. It may be difficult to break a traditionally full-time job down into a part-time role given the size and nature of associated tasks.
    Graduated retirement Retiring employee has a set retirement date, gradually reducing hours worked per week over time. Roles where a successor has been identified and is available to work alongside the incumbent in an overlapping capacity while he or she learns. The role may only require a single FTE, and the organization may not be able to afford the amount of redundancy inherent in this arrangement.

    The arrangement chosen may be a combination of multiple options

    Alternative Work Arrangement

    Description

    Ideal Use

    Caveats

    Part-year jobs or job sharingWorking part of the year and having the rest of the year off, unpaid.Project-oriented work where ongoing external relationships do not need to be maintained. The employee is unavailable for knowledge transfer activities for a large portion of the year. Another risk is that the employee may opt not to return at the end of the extended time off, with little notice.
    Increased paid time offAdditional vacation days upon reaching a certain age.Best used as recognition or reward for long-term service. This may be a particularly useful retention incentive in organizations that do not offer pension plans. The company may not be able to financially afford to pay for such extensive time off. If the role incumbent is the only one in the role, this may mean crucial work is not being done.
    Altered rolesConcentration of a job description on fewer tasks that allows the employee to focus on his or her specific expertise.Roles where a successor has been identified and is available to work alongside the incumbent, with the incumbent’s new role highly focused on mentoring. The role may only require a single FTE, and the organization may not be able to afford the amount of redundancy inherent in this arrangement.

    Alternative work arrangements require senior management support

    Senior management and other employees must see the value of retaining older workers, or they will not be supportive of these solutions.

    Any changes made to an employee’s work arrangement has an impact on people, processes, and policies.

    If the knowledge and skills of older employees aren’t valued, then:

    • Alternative arrangements will be seen as wasteful accommodation of a low-value employee.
    • Time won’t be allowed to manage the transition properly and make appropriate changes.
    • Other employees may resent any workload spillover.
    Alternate work arrangements can’t be implemented on a whim.

    Make sure alternative work arrangements can be done right and are supported – they’re often solutions that come with additional work. Determine the effects and make appropriate adjustments.

    • Review processes, particularly hand-off and approval points, to ensure tasks will still be handled seamlessly.
    • Assess organizational policies to ensure no violations are occurring or to rework policies (where possible) to accommodate alternative work arrangements.
    • Speak to affected employees to answer questions, identify obstacles, gain support, redefine their job descriptions if required, and make appropriate compensation adjustments. Always provide appropriate training when skills requirements are expanded.

    Step 3.3

    Document Role Transition Plans for all Key Roles

    Activities
    • 3.3.1 Document Role Transition Plans

    The primary goal of this step is to build clear checklist-based plans for each key role to help ensure a smooth transition as a successor takes over.

    Outcomes of this step

    • Completed key role transition plans

    Knowledge Transfer

    Step 3.1 Step 3.2 Step 3.3

    3.3.1 Document Role Transition Plans

    Input: Role profiles, Talent profiles, Talent assessments, Workforce plans

    Output: A clear checklist-based plan to help ensure a smooth transition.

    Materials: Role Transition Plan Template

    Participants: IT leadership/management team, Incumbent, Successor(s), HR

    Define a transition plan for all employees in at-risk key roles, and their successors.

    You should already have a good idea of what knowledge and skills are valued from the worksheets completed earlier. Focus on identifying the knowledge, skills, and relationships essential to the specific incumbent in a key role and what it is they do to perform that key role well.

    Using the Role Transition Plan Template develop a plan to transfer what needs to be transferred from the incumbent to the successor.

    1. Record the incumbent and successor information in the template.
    2. Summarize the key accountabilities and expectations of the incumbent’s role. This summary should highlight specific tasks and initiatives that the successor must take on, including success enablers. Attach the job description for a full description of accountabilities and expectations.
    3. Document the knowledge and skills requirements for the key role, as well as any additional knowledge and skills possessed by the key role incumbent that will aid the successor.
    4. Document any alternative work arrangements to the incumbent’s roles.
    5. Populate the Role Transition Checklist for key transition activities that must be completed by certain dates. A list of sample checklist items has been provided. Add, delete, or modify list items to suit your needs.

    Role Transition Plan Template

    DairyNZ leverages alternative work arrangements

    Ensures successful knowledge transfer
    INDUSTRY
    Agricultural research
    SOURCE
    Rose Macfarlane, General Manager Human Resources, DairyNZ
    Challenge
    • DairyNZ employs many people in specialized science research roles. Some very senior employees are international experts in their field.
    • Several experts have reached or are nearing retirement age. These pending retirements have come as no surprise.
    • However, due to the industry’s lack of development investment in the past, there is a 20–30-year experience gap in the organization for some key roles.
    Solution
    • One principal scientist gave over two years’ notice. His replacement – an external candidate – had been identified in advance and was hired once retirement notice was given.
    • The incumbent’s role was amended. He worked alongside his successor for 18 months in a controlled hand-over process.
    Results
    • The result was ideal in that the advance notice allowed full knowledge transfer to take place.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Anne Roberts
    Principal, Leadership Within Inc. al,
    • Anne T. Roberts is an experienced organization development professional and executive business coach who works with leaders and their organizations to help them create, articulate and implement their change agenda. Her extensive experience in change management, organizational design, meeting design and facilitation, communication and leadership alignment has helped leaders tap into their creativity, drive and energy. Her ability to work with and coach people at the leadership level on a wide range of topics has them face their own organizational stories.
    Amanda Mathieson
    Senior Manager, Talent Management, Tangerine
    • Amanda is responsible for researching people- and leadership-focused trends, developing thought models, and providing resources, tools, and processes to build and drive the success of leaders in a disruptive world.
    • Her expertise in leadership development, organizational change management, and performance and talent management comes from her experience in various industries spanning pharmaceutical, retail insurance, and financial services. She takes a practical, experiential approach to people and leadership development that is grounded in adult learning methodologies and leadership theory. She is passionate about identifying and developing potential talent, as well as ensuring the success of leaders as they transition into more senior roles.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Stock image of a brain. Mitigate Key IT Employee Knowledge Loss
    • Transfer IT knowledge before it’s gone.
    • Effective knowledge transfer mitigates risks from employees leaving the organization and is a key asset driving innovation and customer service.
    Stock image of sticky notes being organized on a board. Implement an IT Employee Development Plan
    • There is a growing gap between the competencies organizations have been focused on developing, and what is needed in the future.
    • Employees have been left to drive their own development, with little direction or support and without the alignment of development to organizational needs.

    Bibliography

    “Accommodating Older Workers’ Needs for Flexible Work Options.” Ivey Business Journal, July/August 2005. Accessed Jan 7, 2013.

    Christensen, Kathleen and Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes. “Approaching 65: A Survey of Baby Boomers Turning 65 Years Old”. AARP, Dec. 2010.

    Coyne, Kevin P. and Shawn T. Coyne. “The Baby Boomer Retirement Fallacy and What It Means to You. “ HBR Blog Network. Harvard Business Review, May 16, 2008. Accessed 8 Jan. 2013.

    Dwyer, Kevin and Ngoc Luong Dwyer. “Managing the Baby Boomer Brain Drain: The Impact of Generational Change on Human Resource Management.” ChangeFactory, April 2010. Accessed Jan 9, 2013.

    Gurchiek, Kathy. “Poll: Organizations Can Do More to Prepare for Talent Shortage as Boomers Retire.” SHRM, Nov 17, 2010. Accessed Jan 3, 2013.

    Howden, Daniel. “What Is Time to Fill? KPIs for Recruiters.” Workable, 24 March 2016. Web.

    Kapp, Karl M. “Tools and Techniques for Transferring Know-How from Boomers to Gamers.” Global Business and Organizational Excellence, July/August 2007. Web.

    Piktialis, Diane and Kent A. Greenes. Bridging the Gaps: How to Transfer Knowledge in Today’s Multigenerational Workplace. The Conference Board, 2008.

    Pisano, Gary P. “You need an Innovation Strategy.” Harvard Business Review, June 2015.

    Vilet, Jacque. “Lost Knowledge – What Are You and Your Organization Doing About It?” TLNT, 25 April 2012. Accessed 5 Jan. 2013.

    Implement Software Asset Management

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}313|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $107,154 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 39 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Asset Management
    • Parent Category Link: /asset-management
    • Organizations are aware of the savings that result from implementing software asset management (SAM), but are unsure of where to start the process.
    • Poor data capture procedures and lack of a centralized repository produce an incomplete picture of software assets and licenses, preventing accurate forecasting and license optimization.
    • Audit protocols are ad hoc, resulting in sloppy reporting and time-consuming work and lack of preparedness for external software audits.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • A strong SAM program will benefit all aspects of the business. Data and reports gained through SAM will enable data-driven decision making for all areas of the business.
    • Don’t just track licenses; manage them to create value from data. Gathering and monitoring license data is just the beginning. What you do with that data is the real test.
    • Win the audit battle without fighting. Conduct internal audits to minimize surprises when external audits are requested.

    Impact and Result

    • Conduct a current state assessment of existing SAM processes to form an appropriate plan for implementing or improving your SAM program.
    • Define standard policies, processes, and procedures for each stage of the software asset lifecycle, from procurement through to retirement.
    • Develop an internal audit policy to mitigate the risk of costly external audits.

    Implement Software Asset Management Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should implement software asset management, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Assess & plan

    Assess current state and plan the scope of the SAM program, team, and budget.

    • Implement Software Asset Management – Phase 1: Assess & Plan
    • SAM Maturity Assessment
    • SAM Standard Operating Procedures
    • SAM Budget Workbook

    2. Procure, receive & deploy

    Define processes for software requests, procurement, receiving, and deployment.

    • Implement Software Asset Management – Phase 2: Procure, Receive & Deploy
    • SAM Process Workflows (Visio)
    • SAM Process Workflows (PDF)

    3. Manage, redeploy & retire

    Define processes for software inventory, maintenance, harvest and redeployment, and retirement.

    • Implement Software Asset Management – Phase 3: Manage, Redeploy & Retire
    • Patch Management Policy

    4. Build supporting processes

    Build processes for audits and plan the implementation.

    • Implement Software Asset Management – Phase 4: Build Supporting Processes & Tools
    • Software Audit Scoping Email Template
    • Software Audit Launch Email Template
    • SAM Communication Plan
    • SAM FAQ Template
    • Software Asset Management Policy
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Implement Software Asset 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 Assess & Plan

    The Purpose

    Assess current state and plan the scope of the SAM program, team, and budget.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Current state assessment

    Defined roles and responsibilities

    SAM budget plan

    Activities

    1.1 Outline SAM challenges and objectives.

    1.2 Assess current state.

    1.3 Identify roles and responsibilities for SAM team.

    1.4 Identify metrics and reports.

    1.5 Identify SAM functions to centralize vs. decentralize.

    1.6 Plan SAM budget process.

    Outputs

    Current State Assessment

    RACI Chart

    Defined metrics and reports

    SAM Budget Workbook

    2 Procure, Receive & Deploy

    The Purpose

    Define processes for software requests, procurement, receiving, and deployment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined standards for software procurement

    Documented processes for software receiving and deployment

    Activities

    2.1 Determine software standards.

    2.2 Define procurement process for new contracts.

    2.3 Define process for contract renewals and additional procurement scenarios.

    2.4 Design process for receiving software.

    2.5 Design deployment workflow.

    2.6 Define process for non-standard software requests.

    Outputs

    Software standards

    Standard Operating Procedures

    SAM Process Workflows

    3 Manage, Redeploy & Retire

    The Purpose

    Define processes for software inventory, maintenance, harvest and redeployment, and retirement.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined process for conducting software inventory

    Maintenance and patch policy

    Documented workflows for software harvest and redeployment as well as retirement

    Activities

    3.1 Define process for conducting software inventory.

    3.2 Define policies for software maintenance and patches.

    3.3 Map software license harvest and reallocation process.

    3.4 Define policy for retiring software.

    Outputs

    Standard Operating Procedures

    Patch management policy

    SAM Process Workflows

    4 Build Supporting Processes & Tools

    The Purpose

    Build processes for audits, identify tool requirements, and plan the implementation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined process for internal and external audits

    Tool requirements

    Communication and implementation plan

    Activities

    4.1 Define and document the internal audit process.

    4.2 Define and document the external audit process.

    4.3 Document tool requirements.

    4.4 Develop a communication plan.

    4.5 Prepare an FAQ list.

    4.6 Identify SAM policies.

    4.7 Develop a SAM roadmap to plan your implementation.

    Outputs

    Audit response templates

    Tool requirements

    Communication plan

    End-user FAQ list

    Software Asset Management Policy

    Implementation roadmap

    Further reading

    Implement Software Asset Management

    Go beyond tracking licenses to proactively managing software throughout its lifecycle.

    Table of contents

    1. Title
    2. Executive Brief
    3. Execute the Project/DIY Guide
    4. Next Steps
    5. Appendix

    Analyst Perspective

    “Organizations often conflate software asset management (SAM) with license tracking. SAM is not merely knowing how many licenses you require to be in compliance; it’s asking the deeper budgetary questions to right-size your software spend.

    Software audits are a growing concern for businesses, but proactive reporting and decision making supported by quality data will mitigate audit risks. Value is left on the table through underused or poor-quality data, so active data management must be in play. A dedicated ITAM tool can assist with extracting value from your license data.

    Achieving an optimized SAM program is a transformative effort, but the people, processes, and technology need to be in place before that can happen.” (Sandi Conrad, Senior Director, Infrastructure & Operations Practice, Info-Tech Research Group)

    Software license complexity and audit frequency are increasing: are you prepared to manage the risk?

    This Research Is Designed For:

    • CIOs that want to improve IT’s reputation with the business.
    • CIOs that want to eliminate the threat of a software audit.
    • Organizations that want proactive reporting that benefits the entire business.
    • IT managers who want visibility into their software usage.

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Establish a standardized software management process.
    • Track and manage software throughout its lifecycle, from procurement through to retirement or redeployment.
    • Rationalize your software license estate.
    • Improve your negotiations with software vendors.
    • Improve the quality of your SAM data gathering and reporting.

    Executive summary

    Situation

    • Organizations are aware of the savings that result from implementing software asset management (SAM), but are unsure of where to start the process. With no formal standards in place for managing licenses, organizations are constantly at risk for costly software audits and poorly executed software spends.

    Complication

    • Poor data-capture procedures produce an incomplete picture of software lifecycles.
    • No centralized repository exists, resulting in fragmented reporting.
    • Audit protocols are ad hoc, resulting in sloppy reporting and time-consuming work.

    Resolution

    • Conduct a current state assessment of existing SAM processes to form an appropriate plan for implementing or improving your SAM program.
    • Build and involve a SAM team in the process from the beginning to help embed the change.
    • Define standard policies, processes, and procedures for each stage of the software asset lifecycle, from procurement through to retirement. Pace yourself; a staged implementation will make your ITAM program a success.
    • Develop an internal audit program to mitigate the risk of costly audits.
    • Once a standardized SAM program and data are in place, you will be able to use the data to optimize and rationalize your software licenses.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A strong SAM program will benefit all aspects of the business.
    Data and reports gained through SAM will enable data-driven decision making for all areas of the business.

    Don’t just track licenses; manage them to create value from data.
    Gathering and monitoring license data is just the beginning. What you do with that data is the real test.

    Win the audit battle without fighting.
    Conduct internal audits to minimize surprises when external audits are requested.

    Build the business case for SAM on cost and risk avoidance

    You can estimate the return even without tools or data.

    Benefit Calculate the return
    Compliance

    How many audits did you have in the past three years?

    How much time did you spend in audit response?

    Suppose you had two audits each year for the last three years, each with an average $250,000 in settlements.

    A team of four with an average salary of $75,000 each took six months to respond each year, allocating 20% of their work time to the audit.

    You could argue annual audits cost on average $530,000. Increasing ITAM maturity stands to reduce that cost significantly.

    Efficiency

    How much do you spend on software and maintenance by supplier?

    Suppose you spent $1M on software last year. What if you could reduce the spend by just 10% through better practices?

    SAM can help reduce the annual spend by simplifying support, renegotiating contracts based on asset data, reducing redundancy, and reducing spend.

    The Business Benefits of SAM

    • Compliance: Managing audits and meeting legal, contractual, and regulatory obligations.
    • Efficiency: Reducing costs and making the best use of assets while maintaining service.
    • Agility: Anticipate requirements using asset data for business intelligence and analytics.

    Poor software asset management practices increase costs and risks

    Failure to implement SAM can lead to:

    High cost of undiscovered IT assets
    • Needless procurement of software for new hires can be costly.
    Licensing, liability, and legal violations
    • Legal actions and penalties that result from ineffective SAM processes and license incompliance can severely impact an organization’s financial performance and corporate brand image.
    Compromised security
    • Not knowing what assets you have, who is using them and how, can compromise the security of sensitive information.
    Increased management costs
    • Not having up-to-date software license information impacts decision making, with many management teams failing to respond quickly and efficiently to operational demands.
    Increased disruptions
    • Vendors seek out organizations who don’t manage their software assets effectively; it is likely that you could be subject to major operational disruptions as a result of an audit.
    Poor supplier/vendor relationship
    • Most organizations fear communicating with vendors and are anxious about negotiating new licenses.

    54% — A study by 1E found that only 54% of organizations believe they can identify all unused software in their organization.

    28% — On average, 28% of deployed software is unused, with a wasted cost of $224 per PC on unused software (1E, 2014).

    53% — Express Metrix found that 53% of organizations had been audited within the past two years. Of those, 72% had been audited within the last 12 months.

    SAM delivers cost savings beyond the procurement stage

    SAM delivers cost savings in several ways:

    • Improved negotiating position
      • Certainty around software needs and licensing terms can put the organization in a better negotiating position for new contracts or contract renewals.
    • Improved purchasing position
      • Centralized procurement can allow for improved purchasing agreements with better pricing.
    • More accurate forecasting and spend
      • With accurate data on what software is installed vs. used, more accurate decisions can be made around software purchasing needs and budgeting.
    • Prevention of over deployment
      • Deploy software only where it is needed based on what end users actively use.
    • Software rationalization
      • SAM data may reveal multiple applications performing similar functions that can be rationalized into a single standard software that is used across the enterprise.
    • License harvesting
      • Identify unused licenses that can be harvested and redeployed to other users rather than purchasing new licenses.

    SAM delivers many benefits beyond cost savings

    Manage risk. If licensing terms are not properly observed, the organization is at risk of legal and financial exposure, including illegal software installation, loss of proof of licenses purchased, or breached terms and conditions.

    Control and predict spend. Unexpected problems related to software assets and licenses can significantly impact cash flow.

    Less operational interruptions. Poor software asset management processes could lead to failed deployments, software update interruptions, viruses, or a shutdown of unlicensed applications.

    Avoid security breaches. If data is not secure through software patches and security, confidential information may be disclosed.

    More informed decisions. More accurate data on software assets improves transparency and informs decision making.

    Improved contract management. Automated tools can alert you to when contracts are up for renewal to allow time to plan and negotiate, then purchase the right amount of licenses.

    Avoid penalties. Conduct internal audits and track compliance to avoid fees or penalties if an external audit occurs.

    Reduced IT support. Employees should require less support from the service desk with proper, up to date, licensed software, freeing up time for IT Operations to focus on other work.

    Enhanced productivity. By rationalizing and standardizing software offerings, more staff should be using the same software with the same versioning, allowing for better communication and collaboration.

    Asset management is especially correlated with the following processes

    Being highly effective at asset management means that you are more likely to be highly effective at almost all IT processes, especially:

    Icon for process 'BAI10 Configuration Management'. Configuration Management
    76% more effective
    Icon for process 'ITRG03 Manage Service Catalogs'. Service Catalog
    74% more effective
    Icon for process 'APO11 Quality Management'. Quality Management
    63% more effective
    Icon for process 'ITRG08 Data Quality'. Data Quality
    62% more effective
    Icon for process 'MEA01 Performance Measurement'. Performance Measurement
    61% more effective
    Icon for process 'BAI05 Organizational Change Management'. Organizational Change Management
    60% more effective
    Icon for process 'APO05 Portfolio Management'. Portfolio Management
    59% more effective
    Icon for process 'APO03 Enterprise Architecture'. Enterprise Architecture
    58% more effective

    Why? Good SAM processes are integral to both service management and configuration management

    (Source: Info-Tech Research Group, IT Management and Governance Diagnostic; N=972 organizations) (High asset management effectiveness was defined as those organizations with an effectiveness score of 8 or above.)

    To accelerate progress, Info-Tech Research Group parses software asset management into its essential processes

    Focus on software asset management essentials

    Software Procurement:

    • Define procurement standards for software and related warranties and support options.
    • Develop processes and workflows for purchasing and work out financial implications to inform budgeting later.

    Software Deployment and Maintenance:

    • Define policies, processes, and workflows for software receiving, deployment, and maintenance practices.
    • Develop processes and workflows for managing imaging, harvests and redeployments, service requests, and large-scale rollouts.

    Software Harvest and Retirement:

    • Manage the employee termination and software harvest cycle.
    • Develop processes, policies, and workflows for software security and retirement.

    Software Contract and Audit Management:

    • Develop processes for data collection and validation to prepare for an audit.
    • Define metrics and reporting processes to keep asset management processes on track.
    A diagram that looks like a tier circle with 'Implement SAM' at the center. The second ring has 'Request & Procure', 'Receive & Deploy', 'Manage & Maintain', and 'Harvest & Retire'. The third ring seems to be a cycle beginning with 'Plan', 'Request', 'Procure', 'Deploy', 'Manage', 'Retire', and back to 'Plan'.

    Asset management is a key piece of Info-Tech’s COBIT-based IT Management and Governance Framework

    The Info-Tech / COBIT5 IT Management & Governance Framework, a number of IT process icons arranged like a periodic table. A magnifying glass highlights process 'BAI09 Asset Management' in the 'Infrastructure & Operations' category.

    Follow Info-Tech's methodology to build a plan to implement software asset management

    Phase 1
    Assess & Plan
    Phase 2
    Procure, Receive & Deploy
    Phase 3
    Manage, Redeploy & Retire
    Phase 4
    Build supporting processes

    1.1

    Assess current state

    2.1

    Request & procure

    3.1

    Manage & maintain contracts

    4.1

    Compliance & audits

    1.2

    Build team and define metrics

    2.2

    Receive & deploy

    3.2

    Harvest or retire

    4.2

    Communicate & build roadmap

    1.3

    Plan & budget
    Deliverables
    Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
    SAM maturity assessment Process workflows Process workflows Audit response templates
    RACI chart Software standards Patch management policy Communication plan & FAQ template
    SAM metrics SAM policies
    SAM budget workbook

    Thanks to SAM, Visa saved $200 million in three years

    Logo for VISA.

    Case Study

    Industry: Financial Services
    Source: International Business Software Managers Association

    Visa, Inc.

    Visa, Inc. is the largest payment processing company in the world, with a network that can handle over 40,000 transactions every minute.

    Software Asset Management Program

    In 2006, Visa launched a formal IT asset management program, but it was not until 2011 that it initiated a focus on SAM. Joe Birdsong, the SAM director, first addressed four major enterprise license agreements (ELAs) and compliance issues. The SAM team implemented a few dedicated SAM tools in conjunction with an aggressive approach to training.

    Results

    The proactive approach taken by Visa used a three-pronged strategy: people, process, and tools. The process included ELA negotiations, audit responses, and software license rationalization exercises.

    According to Birdsong, “In the past three years, SAM has been credited with saving Visa over $200 million.”

    An timeline arrow with benchmarks, in order: 'Tool purchases', 'ELA negotiations', 'License rationalization', 'Audit responses', '$200 million in savings in just three years thanks to optimized SAM processes'.

    Info-Tech delivers: Use our tools and templates to accelerate your project to completion

    Thumbnail of Info-Tech's 'SAM Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)'.
    SAM Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
    Thumbnail of Info-Tech's 'SAM Maturity Assessment'.
    SAM Maturity Assessment
    Thumbnail of Info-Tech's 'SAM Visio Process Workflows'.
    SAM Visio Process Workflows
    Thumbnail of Info-Tech's 'SAM Budget Workbook'.
    SAM Budget Workbook
    Thumbnail of Info-Tech's 'Additional SAM Policy Templates'.
    Additional SAM Policy Templates
    Thumbnail of Info-Tech's 'Software Asset Management Policy'.
    Software Asset Management Policy
    Thumbnail of Info-Tech's 'SAM Communication Plan'.
    SAM Communication Plan
    Thumbnail of Info-Tech's 'SAM FAQ Template'.
    SAM FAQ Template

    Use these insights to help guide your understanding of the project

    • SAM provides value to other processes in IT.
      Data, reports, and savings gained through SAM will enable data-driven decision making for all areas of the business.
    • Don’t just track licenses; manage them to create value from data.
      Gathering and monitoring license data is just the beginning. What you do with that data is the real test.
    • SAM isn’t about managing costs; it’s about understanding your environment to make better decisions.
      Capital tied up in software can impact the progress of other projects.
    • Managing licenses can impact the entire organization.
      Gain project buy-in from stakeholders by articulating the impact that managing licenses can have on other projects and the prevalence of shadow IT.

    Measure the value of a guided implementation (GI)

    Engaging in GIs doesn’t just offer valuable project advice, it also results in significant cost savings.

    GI Measured Value (Assuming 260 workdays in a year)
    Phase 1: Assess & Plan
    • Time, value, and resources saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology to assess current state and create a defined SAM team with actionable metrics
    • For example, 2 FTEs * 5 days * $80,000/year = $6,400
    Phase 2: Procure, Receive & Deploy
    • Time, value, and resources saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology to streamline request, procurement, receiving, and deployment processes for software assets.
    • For example, 2 FTEs * 5 days * $80,000/year = $6,400
    Phase 3: Manage, Redeploy & Retire
    • Time, value, and resources saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology to streamline the maintenance, inventory, license redeployment, and software retiring processes.
    • For example, 2 FTEs * 5 days * $80,000/year = $6,400
    Phase 4: Build Supporting Processes and Tools
    • Time, resources, and potential audit fines saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology to improve audit defense processes ($298,325 average audit penalty (Based on the results of Cherwell Software’s 2013 Software Audit Industry Report)) and design a communication and implementation plan.
    • For example, 2 FTEs * 5days * $80,000/year = $6,400 + $298,325 = $304,725
    Total savings $330,325

    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

    Implement Software Asset Management – project overview

    Phase 1: Assess & plan Phase 2: Procure, receive & deploy Phase 3: Manage, redeploy & retire Phase 4: Build supporting processes
    Supporting Tool icon Best-Practice Toolkit

    Step 1.1: Assess current state

    Step 1.2: Build team and define metrics

    Step 1.3: Plan and budget

    Step 2.1: Request and procure

    Step 2.2: Receive and deploy

    Step 3.1: Manage and maintain contracts

    Step 3.2: Harvest, redeploy, or retire

    Step 4.1: Compliance and audits

    Step 4.2: Communicate and build roadmap

    Guided Implementations
    • Assess current state and challenges.
    • Define roles and responsibilities as well as metrics.
    • Discuss SAM budgeting.
    • Define software standards and procurement process.
    • Build processes for receiving software and deploying software.
    • Define process for conducting software inventory and maintenance and patches.
    • Build software harvest and redeployment processes and retirement.
    • Define process for internal and external audits.
    • Develop communication and implementation plan.
    Associated Activity icon Onsite Workshop Module 1:
    Assess & Plan
    Module 2:
    Map Core Processes: Procure, Receive & Deploy
    Module 3:
    Map Core Processes: Manage, Redeploy & Retire
    Module 4:
    Prepare for audit, build roadmap and communications

    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
    Assess & Plan

    1.1 Outline SAM challenges and objectives

    1.2 Assess current state

    1.3 Identify roles and responsibilities for SAM team

    1.4 Identify metrics and reports

    1.5 Identify SAM functions to centralize vs. decentralize

    1.6 Plan SAM budget process

    Map Core Processes: Procure, Receive & Deploy

    2.1 Determine software standards

    2.2 Define procurement process for new contracts

    2.3 Define process for contract renewals and additional procurement scenarios

    2.4 Design process for receiving software

    2.5 Design deployment workflow

    2.6 Define process for non-standard software requests

    Map Core Processes: Manage, Redeploy & Retire

    3.1 Define process for conducting software inventory

    3.2 Define policies for software maintenance and patches

    3.3 Map software license harvest and reallocation process

    3.4 Define policy for retiring software

    Build Supporting Processes

    4.1 Define and document the internal audit process

    4.2 Define and document the external audit process

    4.3 Develop a communication plan

    4.4 Prepare an FAQ list

    4.5 Identify SAM policies

    4.6 Develop a SAM roadmap to plan your implementation

    Deliverables
    • SAM maturity assessment
    • RACI chart
    • Defined metrics and reports
    • Budget workbook
    • Process workflows
    • Software standards
    • Process workflows
    • Patch management policy
    • Standard operating procedures
    • Audit response templates
    • Communication plan
    • FAQ template
    • Additional policy templates
    • Roadmap of initiatives

    Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research

    Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.

    A small monochrome icon of a wrench and screwdriver creating an X.

    This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.

    A small monochrome icon depicting a person in front of a blank slide.

    This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.

    Phase 1: Assess Current State

    VISA fought fire with fire to combat costly software audits

    Logo for VISA.

    Case Study

    Industry: Financial Services
    Source: SAM Summit 2014

    Challenge

    Visa implemented an IT asset management program in 2006. After years of software audit teams from large firms visiting and leaving expensive software compliance bills, the world’s leading payment processing company decided it was time for a change.

    Upper management recognized that it needed to combat audits. It had the infrastructure in place and the budget to purchase SAM tools that could run discovery and tracking functions, but it was lacking the people and processes necessary for a mature SAM program.

    Solution

    Visa decided to fight fire with fire. It initially contracted the same third-party audit teams to help build out its SAM processes. Eventually, Visa formed a new SAM team that was led by a group of former auditors.

    The former auditors recognized that their role was not technology based, so a group of technical individuals were hired to help roll out various SAM tools.

    The team rolled out tools like BDNA Discover and Normalize, Flexera FlexNet Manager, and Microsoft SCCM.

    Results

    To establish an effective SAM team, diverse talent is key. Visa focused on employees that were consultative but also technical. Their team needed to build relationships with teams within the organization and externally with vendors.

    Most importantly, the leaders of the team needed to think like auditors to better prepare for audits. According to Joe Birdsong, SAM Director at Visa, “we want to be viewed as a team that can go in and help right-size their environment and better understand licensing to help teams make better decisions.”

    The SAM team was only the beginning.

    Step 1.1 Assess current state and plan scope

    Phase 1:
    Assess & Plan
    This step will walk you through the following activities:This step involves the following participants:

    1.1

    Assess current state
    • 1.1.1 Outline the organization’s SAM challenges
    • 1.1.2 Identify objectives of SAM program
    • 1.1.3 Determine the maturity of your SAM program
    • Project Sponsor
    • IT Director, CIO
    • IT Managers and SAM Manager

    1.2

    Build team and define metrics

    1.3

    Plan & budget

    Step Outcomes

    • An outline of the challenges related to SAM
    • A clear direction for the program based on drivers, anticipated benefits, and goals
    • A completed maturity assessment of current SAM processes

    Sketch out challenges related to software asset management to shape the direction of the project

    Common SAM challenges

    • Audits are disruptive, time-consuming, and costly
    • No audit strategy and response in place
    • Software non-compliance risk is too high
    • Lacking data to forecast software needs
    • No central repository of software licenses
    • Untracked or unused software licenses results in wasted spend
    • Software license and maintenance costs account for a large percentage of the budget
    • Lacking data to know what software is purchased and deployed across the organization
    • Lack of software standards make it difficult to collect consistent information about software products
    • New software licenses are purchased when existing licenses remain on the shelf or multiple similar software products are purchased
    • Employees or departments make ad hoc purchases, resulting in overspending and reduced purchasing power
    • License renewal dates come up unexpectedly without time for adequate decision making
    • No communication between departments to coordinate software purchasing
    • Difficult to stay up to date with software licensing rule changes to remain in compliance
    • Processes and policies are unstandardized and undocumented

    Outline the organization’s SAM challenges

    Associated Activity icon 1.1.1 Brainstorm SAM challenges

    Participants: CIO/CFO, IT Director, Asset Manager, Purchasing, Service Desk Manager, Security (optional), Operations (optional)

    1. Distribute sticky notes to participants. Have everyone start by identifying challenges they face as a result of poor software asset management.
    2. As group, discuss and outline the software asset management challenges facing the organization. These may be challenges caused by poor SAM processes or simply by a lack of process. Group the challenges into key pain points to inform the current state discussion and assessment to follow.

    To be effective with software asset management, understand the drivers and potential impact to the organization

    Drivers of effective SAM Results of effective SAM
    Contracts and vendor licensing programs are complex and challenging to administer without data related to assets and their environment. Improved access to accurate data on contracts, licensing, warranties, installed software for new contracts, renewals, and audit requests.
    Increased need to meet compliance requires a formal approach to tracking and managing assets. Encryption, software application controls, and change notifications all contribute to better asset controls and data security.
    Cost cutting is on the agenda, and management is looking to reduce overall IT spend in the organization in any possible way. Reduction of software spend through data for better forecasting, planning, and licensing rationalization and harvesting.
    Audits are time consuming, disruptive to project timelines and productivity, and costly. Respond to audits with a formalized process, accurate data, and minimal disruption using always-available reporting.

    Determine goals to focus the direction of your SAM program

    Associated Activity icon 1.1.2 Identify objectives of the SAM program

    Participants: CIO/CFO, IT Director, Asset Manager, Service Manager (optional)

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. Identify the drivers behind the software asset management implementation or improvement project. List on a whiteboard or flip chart.
    2. Using the project drivers as input, brainstorm the goals of the SAM project. Discuss the goals as a group and finalize into a list of objectives for the SAM program.
    3. Record the objectives in the SOP and keep them in mind as you work through the rest of the project.

    Sample Objectives:

    1. A single data repository to efficiently manage assets for their entire lifecycle.
    2. Formalizing a methodology for documenting assets to make data retrieval easy and accurate.
    3. Defining and documenting processes to determine where improvements can be made.
    4. Improving customer experience in accessing, using, and maintaining assets.
    5. Centralizing contract information.
    6. Providing access to information for all technical teams as needed.

    Implementing SAM processes will support other IT functions

    By improving how you manage your licenses and audit requests, you will not only provide benefits through a mature SAM program, you will also improve your service desk and disaster recovery functions.

    Service Desk Disaster Recovery
    • Effective service desk tickets require a certain degree of technical detail for completion that a SAM program often provides.
    • Many tools are available that can handle both ITSM and ITAM functions. Your SAM data can be integrated into many of your service desk functions.
    • For example, if a particular application is causing a high number of tickets, SAM data could show the application’s license is almost expired and its usage has decreased due to end-user frustrations. The SAM team could review the application and decide to purchase software that better meets end-user needs.
    • If you don’t know what you have, you don’t know what needs to be back online first.
    • The ability to restore system functionality is heavily dependent on the ability to locate or reproduce master media documentation and system configuration information.
    • If systems/software are permanently lost, the ability to recover software licensing information is crucial to preserving compliance.
    • License agreement and software are needed to demonstrate software ownership. Unless the proof of ownership is present, there is no proof of compliance.
    Short description of Info-Tech blueprint 'Standardize the Service Desk'. Short description of Info-Tech blueprint 'Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan'.

    Each level of SAM maturity comes with its own unique challenges

    Maturity People & Policies Processes Technology
    Chaos
    • No dedicated staff
    • No policies published
    • Procedures not documented or standardized
    • Licenses purchased randomly
    • Help desk images machines, but users can buy and install software
    • Minimal tracking tools in place
    Reactive
    • Semi-focused SAM manager
    • No policies published
    • Reliance on suppliers to provide reports for software purchases
    • Buy licenses as needed
    • Software installations limited to help desk
    • Discovery tools and spreadsheets used to manage software
    Controlled
    • Full-time SAM manager
    • End-user policies published and requiring sign-off
    • License reviews with maintenance and support renewals
    • SAM manager involved in budgeting and planning sessions
    • Discovery and inventory tools used to manage software
    • Compliance reports run as needed
    Proactive
    • Extended SAM team, including help desk and purchasing
    • Corporate anti-piracy statement in place and enforced
    • Quarterly license reviews
    • Centralized view into software licenses
    • Software requests through service catalog with defined standard and non-standard software
    • Product usage reports and alerts in place to harvest and reuse licenses
    • Compliance and usage reports used to negotiate software contracts
    Optimized
    • SAM manager trained and certified
    • Working with HR, Legal, Finance, and IT to enforce policies
    • Full support and maintenance analysis for all license reviews
    • Quarterly meetings with SAM team to review policies, procedures, upcoming contracts, and rollouts
    • Software deployed automatically through service catalog/apps store
    • Detailed savings reports provided to executive team annually
    • Automated policy enforcement and process workflows

    Determine the maturity of your SAM program

    Supporting Tool icon 1.1.3 Use the SAM Maturity Assessment Tool
    1. Download the SAM Maturity Assessment Tool and go to tab 2.
    2. Complete the self-assessment in all seven categories:
      1. Control Environment
      2. Roles & Responsibilities
      3. Policies & Procedures
      4. Competence
      5. Planning & Implementation Process
      6. Monitoring & Review
      7. Inventory Processes
    3. Go to tab 3 and examine the graphs produced. Identify the areas in your SAM program that require the most attention and which are already relatively mature.
    4. Use the results of this maturity assessment to focus the efforts of the project moving forward. Return to the assessment after a pre-determined time (e.g. one year later) to track improvement in maturity over time.
    Screenshot of the results page from the SAM Maturity Assessment Tool. Screenshot of the processes page from the SAM Maturity Assessment Tool.

    Step 1.2 Build team and define metrics

    Phase 1:
    Assess & Plan
    This step will walk you through the following activities:This step involves the following participants:

    1.1

    Assess current state
    • 1.2.1 Identify roles and responsibilities for SAM team
    • 1.2.2 Identify metrics and KPIs to track the success of your SAM program
    • 1.2.3 Define SAM reports to track metrics
    • CIO/CFO
    • IT Director
    • SAM Manager
    • SAM Team
    • Service Desk Manager

    1.2

    Build team and define metrics

    1.3

    Plan & budget

    Step Outcomes

    • A description of the roles and responsibilities of IT staff involved in SAM
    • A list of metrics and reports to track to measure the success of the software asset management program

    Define roles and responsibilities for the SAM program

    Roles and responsibilities should be adapted to fit specific organizational requirements based on its size, structure, and distribution and the scope of the program. Not all roles are necessary and in small organizations, one or two people may fulfill multiple roles.

    Senior Management Sponsor – Ensures visibility and support for the program.

    IT Asset Manager – Responsible for management of all assets and maintaining asset database.

    Software Asset Manager – Responsible for management of all software assets (a subset of the overall responsibility of the IT Asset Manager).

    SAM Process Owner – Responsible for overall effectiveness and efficiency of SAM processes.

    Asset Analyst – Maintains up-to-date records of all IT assets, including software version control.

    Additional roles that interact with SAM:

    • Security Manager
    • Auditors
    • Procurement Manager
    • Legal Council
    • Change Manager
    • Configuration Manager
    • Release and Deployment Manager
    • Service Desk Manager

    Form a software asset management team to drive project success

    Many organizations simply do not have a large enough staff to hire a full-time software asset manager. The role will need to be championed by an internal employee.

    Avoid filling this position with a temporary contract; one of the most difficult operational factors in SAM implementation and continuity is constant turnover and organizational shifts. Hiring a software asset manager on contract might get the project going faster, but without the knowledge gained by doing the processes, the program won’t have enough momentum to sustain itself.

    Software Asset Manager Duties

    • Gather proof of license.
    • Record and track all assets within the SAM repository.
    • Produce compliance reports.
    • Preparation of budget requests.
    • Administration of software renewal process.
    • Contract and support analysis.
    • Document procedures.
    • Ensure project is on track.

    SAM Team Member Duties

    • Record license and contract data in SAM tool.
    • Assist in production of SAM reports.
    • Data analysis.
    • Match tickets to SAM data.
    • Assist in documentation.
    • Assist in compliance reports.
    • Gather feedback from end users.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Make sure your SAM team is diverse. The SAM team will need to be skilled at achieving compliance, but there is also a need for technically skilled individuals to maximize the function of the SAM tool(s) at your organization.

    Identify roles and responsibilities for SAM

    Associated Activity icon 1.2.1 Complete a RACI chart for your organization

    Participants: CIO/CFO, IT Director, SAM Manager, SAM Team, Service Desk Manager

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    Determine the roles and responsibilities for your SAM program. Record the results in a RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed) chart such as the example below.

    SAM Processes and Tasks CIO CFO SAM Manager IT Director Service Management Team IT Ops Security Finance Legal Project Manager
    Policies/Governance A C R R I I C I R I
    Strategy A C R R I I I I C
    Risk Management/Asset Security A C R R C R C C C
    Data Entry/Quality I I A R R
    Compliance Auditing R C A R I I I I
    Education & Training R I A C I I
    Contract Lifecycle Management R R A R C C C C R C
    Workflows R C A R I I I R I C/I
    Budgeting R R R A C R
    Software Acquisition R I A R I C R C C
    Controls/Reporting R I A R I I C I
    Optimize License Harvesting I I A R I C C

    Identify metrics to form the framework of the project

    Trying to achieve goals without metrics is like trying to cook without measuring your ingredients. You might succeed, but you’ll have no idea how to replicate it.

    SAM metrics should measure one of five categories:

    • Quantity → How many do we have? How many do we want?
    • Compliance → What is the level of compliance in a specific area?
    • Duration → How long does it take to achieve the desired result?
    • Financial → What is the cost/value? What is our comparative spend?
    • Quality → How good was the end result? E.g. Completeness, accuracy, timeliness

    The metrics you track depend on your maturity level. As your organization shifts in maturity, the metrics you prioritize for tracking will shift to reflect that change. Example:

    Metric category Low maturity metric High maturity metric
    Compliance % of software installed that is unauthorized % of vendors in effective licensing position (ELP) report
    Quantity % of licenses documented in ITAM tool % of requests made through unauthorized channels

    Associate KPIs and metrics with SAM goals

    • Identify the critical success factors (CSFs) for your software asset management program based on strategic goals.
    • For each success factor, identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success, as well as specific metrics that will be tracked and reported on.
    • Sample metrics are below:

    CSF = Goal, or what success looks like

    KPI = How achievement of goal will be defined

    Metric = Numerical measure to determine if KPI has been achieved

    CSF/Goal KPI Metrics
    Improve accuracy of software budget and forecasting
    • Reduce software spend by 5%
    • Total software asset spending
    • Budgeted software spend vs. actual software spend
    Avoid over purchasing software licenses and optimize use of existing licenses
    • Reduce number of unused and underused licenses by 10%
    • Number of unused licenses
    • Money saved from harvesting licenses instead of purchasing new ones
    Improve accuracy of data
    • Data in SAM tool matches what is deployed with 95% accuracy
    • Percentage of entitlements recorded in SAM tool
    • Percentage of software titles recognized by SAM tool
    Improved service delivery
    • Reduce time to deploy new software by 10%
    • Mean time to purchase new software
    • Mean time to fulfill new software requests

    Identify metrics and KPIs to track the success of your SAM program

    Associated Activity icon 1.2.2 Brainstorm metrics and KPIs

    Participants: CIO, IT Director, SAM Manager, SAM Team

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. Discuss the goals and objectives of implementing or improving software asset management, based on challenges identified earlier.
    2. From the goals, identify the critical success factors for the SAM program.
    3. For each CSF, identify one to three key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate achievement of the success factor.
    4. For each KPI, identify one to three metrics that can be tracked and reported on to measure success. Ensure that the metrics are tangible and measurable.

    Use the table below as an example.

    Goal/CSF KPI Metric
    Improve license visibility Increase accuracy and completeness of SAM data
    • % of total titles included in ITAM tool
    • % of licenses documented in ITAM tool
    Reduce software costs Reduce number of unused software licenses by 20%
    • % of licenses assigned to ex-employees
    • % of deployed licenses that have not been used in the past six months
    Reduce shadow IT Reduce number of unauthorized software purchases and installations by 10%
    • % of software requests made through unauthorized channels
    • % of software installed that is unauthorized

    Tailor metrics and reports to specific stakeholders

    Asset Managers

    Asset managers require data to manage how licenses are distributed throughout the organization. Are there multiple versions of the same application deployed? What proportion of licenses deployed are assigned to employees who are no longer at the organization? What are the usage patterns for applications?

    Service Desk Technicians

    Service desk technicians need real-time data on licenses currently available to deploy to machines that need to be imaged/updated, otherwise there is a risk of breaching a vendor agreement.

    Business Managers and Executives

    Business managers and executives need reports to make strategic decisions. The reports created for business stakeholders need to help them align business projects or business processes with SAM metrics. To determine which reports will provide the most value, start by looking at business goals and determining the tactical data that will help inform and support these goals and their progress.

    Additional reporting guidelines:

    • Dashboards should provide quick-glance information for daily maintenance.
    • Alerts should be set for all contract renewals to provide enough advanced notice (e.g. 90 days).
    • Reports should be automated to provide actionable information to appropriate stakeholders as needed.

    Define SAM reports to track metrics

    Associated Activity icon 1.2.3 Identify reports and metrics to track regularly

    Participants: CIO, IT Director, SAM Manager, SAM Team

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. Identify key stakeholders requiring SAM reports. For each audience, identify their goals and requirements from reporting.
    2. Using the list of metrics identified previously, sort metrics into reports for each audience based on their requirements and goals. Add any additional metrics required.
    3. Identify a reporting frequency for each report.

    Example:

    Stakeholder Purpose Report Frequency
    Asset Manager
    • Manage budget
    • Manage contracts and cash flow
    • Ensure processes are being followed
    Operational budget spent to date Monthly
    Capital budget spent to date Monthly
    Contracts coming due for renewal Quarterly
    Software harvested for redeployment Quarterly
    Number of single applications being managed Annually
    CFO
    • Manage budget
    • Manage cash flow
    Software purchased, operational & capital Monthly
    Software accrued for future purchases Monthly
    Contracts coming due for renewal
    • Include dollar value, savings/spend
    Quarterly
    CIO
    • Resource planning
    • Progress reporting
    Software deployments and redeployments Monthly
    Software rollouts planned Quarterly
    % of applications patched Quarterly
    Money saved Annually
    Number of contracts & apps managed Quarterly

    Step 1.3 Plan the SAM program and budget

    Phase 1:
    Assess & Plan
    This step will walk you through the following activities:This step involves the following participants:

    1.1

    Assess current state
    • 1.3.1 Identify SAM functions to centralize vs. decentralize
    • 1.3.2 Complete the SAM budget tool
    • Project Sponsor
    • IT Director, CIO
    • IT Managers and SAM Manager
    • CFO

    1.2

    Build team and define metrics

    1.3

    Plan & budget

    Step Outcomes

    • Defined scope for the SAM program in terms of the degree of centralization of core functions and contracts
    • A clearer picture of software spend through the use of a SAM budgeting tool.

    Asset managers need to be involved in infrastructure projects at the decision-making stage

    Ensure that your software asset manager is at the table when making key IT decisions.

    Many infrastructure managers and business managers are unaware of how software licensing can impact projects. For example, changes in core infrastructure configuration can have big impacts from a software licensing perspective.

    Mini Case Study

    • When a large healthcare organization’s core infrastructure team decided to make changes to their environment, they failed to involve their asset manager in the decision-making process.
    • When the healthcare organization decided to make changes to their servers, they were running Oracle software on their servers, but the licenses were not being tracked.
    • When the change was being made to the servers, the business contacted Oracle to notify them of the change. What began as a tech services call quickly devolved into a licensing error; the vendor determined that the licenses deployed in the server environment were unauthorized.
    • For breaching the licensing agreement, Oracle fined the healthcare organization $250,000.
    • Had the asset manager been involved in the process, they would have understood the implications that altering the hardware configuration would have on the licensing agreement and a very expensive mistake could have been avoided.

    Decide on the degree of centralization for core SAM functions

    • Larger organizations with multiple divisions or business units will need to decide which SAM functions will be centralized and which, if any, will be decentralized as they plan the scope of their SAM program. Generally, certain core functions should be centralized for the SAM program to deliver the greatest benefits.
    • The degree of centralization may also be broken down by contract, with some contracts centralized and some decentralized.
    • A centralized SAM database gives needed visibility into software assets and licenses across the organization, but operation of the database may also be done locally.

    Centralization

    • Allows for more strategic planning
    • Visibility into software licenses across the organization promotes rationalization and cost savings
    • Ensure common products are used
    • More strategic sourcing of vendors and resellers
    • Centrally negotiate pricing for better deals
    • Easier to manage risk and prepare for audits
    • Greater coordination of resources

    Decentralization

    • May allow for more innovation
    • May be easier to demonstrate local compliance if the organization is geographically decentralized
    • May be easier to procure software if offices are in different countries
    • Deployment and installation of software on user devices may be easier

    Identify SAM functions to centralize vs. decentralize

    Associated Activity icon 1.3.1 Identify functions for centralization

    Participants: CIO, IT Director, SAM Manager, SAM Team

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. If applicable, identify SAM functions that will need to be centralized and evaluate the implications of centralization to ensure it is feasible.
    2. If applicable, identify SAM functions that will be decentralized, if resources are available to manage those functions locally.

    Example:

    Centralized Functions
    • Operation of SAM database
    • SAM budget
    • Vendor selection
    • Contract negotiation and purchasing
    • Data analysis
    • Software receiving and inventory
    • Audits and risk management
    Decentralized functions
    • Procurement
    • Deployment and installation

    Software comprises the largest part of the infrastructure and operations budget

    After employee salaries (38%), the four next largest spend buckets have historically been infrastructure related. Adding salaries and external services, the average annual infrastructure and operations spend is over 50% of all IT spend.

    The largest portion of that spend is on software license and maintenance. As of 2016, software accounted for the roughly the same budget total as voice communications, data communications, and hardware combined. Managing software contracts is a crucial part of any mature budgeting process.

    Graph showing the percentage of all IT spend used for 'Ongoing software license and maintenance' annually. In 2010 it was 17%; in 2018 it was 21%. Graph showing the percentage of all IT spend used for 'Hardware maintenance / upgrades' annually. In 2010 it was 7%; in 2018 it was 8%. Graph showing the percentage of all IT spend used for 'Data communications' annually. In 2010 it was 7%; in 2018 it was 7%. Graph showing the percentage of all IT spend used for 'Voice communications' annually. In 2010 it was 5%; in 2018 it was 7%.

    Gain control of the budget to increase the success of SAM

    A sophisticated software asset management program will be able to uncover hidden costs, identify opportunities for rationalization, save money through reharvesting unused licenses, and improve forecasting of software usage to help control IT spending.

    While some asset managers may not have experience managing budgets, there are several advantages to the ITAM function owning the budget:

    • Be more involved in negotiating pricing with vendors.
    • Build better relationships with stakeholders across the business.
    • Gain greater purchasing power and have a greater influence on purchasing decisions.
    • Forecast software requirements more accurately.
    • Inform benchmarks and metrics with more data.
    • Directly impact the reduction in IT spend.
    • Manage the asset database more easily and have a greater understanding of software needs.
    • Identify opportunities for cost savings through rationalization.

    Examine your budget from a SAM perspective to optimize software spend

    How does examining your budget from a SAM perspective benefit the business?

    • It provides a chance to examine vendor contracts as they break down contracts by projects and services, which gives a clearer picture of where software fits into the budget.
    • It also gives organizations a chance to review vendor agreements and identify any redundancies present in software supporting services.

    Review the budget:

    • When reviewing your budget, implement a contingency fund to mitigate risk from a possible breach of compliance.
    • If your organization incurs compliance issues that relate to specific services, these fines may be relayed back to the departments that own those services, affecting how much money each department has.
    • The more sure you are of your compliance position, the less likely you are to need a contingency fund, and vice versa.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Finance needs to be involved. Their questions may cover:

    • Where are the monthly expenditures? Where are our financial obligations? Do we have different spending amounts based on what time of year it is?

    Use the SAM Budget Workbook to uncover insights about your software spend

    Supporting Tool icon 1.3.2 Complete the SAM budget tool

    The SAM Budget Workbook is designed to assist in developing and justifying the budget for software assets for the upcoming year.

    Instructions

    1. Work through tabs 2-6, following the instructions as you go.
    2. Tab 2 involves selecting software vendors and services provided by software.
    3. Tab 3 involves classifying services by vendor and assigning a cost to them. Tab 3 also allows you to classify the contract status.
    4. Tab 4 is a cost variance tracking sheet for software contracts.
    5. Tabs 5 and 6 are monthly budget sheets that break down software costs by vendor and service, respectively.
    6. Tab 7 provides graphs to analyze the data generated by the tool.
    7. Use the results found on tab 7 to analyze your budget: are you spending too much with one service? Is there vendor overlap based on what project or service that software is reporting?
    Screenshots of the 'Budget of Services Supported by Software Vendors' and 'Software Expense cashflow reports by Vendor' pages from the SAM Budget Workbook. Screenshot of the 'Analysis of Data' page from the SAM Budget Workbook.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of an Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    1.1.3

    Sample of activity 1.1.3 'Determine the maturity of your SAM program'. Determine the maturity of your SAM program

    Using the SAM Maturity Assessment Tool, fill out a series of questions in a survey to assess the maturity of your current SAM program. The survey assesses seven categories that will allow you to align your strategy to your results.

    1.2.3

    Sample of activity 1.2.3 'Define SAM reports to track metrics'. Define SAM reports to track metrics

    Identify key stakeholders with reporting needs, metrics to track to fulfill reporting requirements, and a frequency for producing reports.

    Phase 1 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 1: Assess and Plan

    Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4
    Step 1.1: Assess current state Step 1.2: Build team and define metrics Step 1.3: Plan and budget
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Outline SAM challenges
    • Overview of the project
    • Assess current maturity level
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Define roles and responsibilities of SAM staff
    • Identify metrics and reports to track
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Plan centralization of SAM program
    • Discuss SAM budgeting
    Then complete these activities…
    • Identify challenges
    • Identify objectives of SAM program
    • Assess maturity of current state
    Then complete these activities…
    • Define roles and responsibilities
    • Identify metrics and KPIs
    • Plan reporting
    Then complete these activities…
    • Identify SAM functions to centralize
    • Complete the SAM budgeting tool
    With these tools & templates:
    • SAM Maturity Assessment
    • Standard Operating Procedures
    With these tools & templates:
    • Standard Operating Procedures
    With these tools & templates:
    • SAM Budget Workbook

    Phase 2: Procure, Receive, and Deploy

    VISA used high-quality SAM data to optimize its software licensing

    Logo for VISA.

    Case Study

    Industry: Financial Services
    Source: SAM Summit 2014

    Challenge

    Visa formed a SAM team in 2011 to combat costly software audits.

    The team’s first task was to use the available SAM data and reconcile licenses deployed throughout the organization.

    Organizations as large as Visa constantly run into issues where they are grossly over or under licensed, causing huge financial risk.

    Solution

    Data collection and analysis were used as part of the license rationalization process. Using a variety of tools combined with a strong team allowed Visa to perform the necessary steps to gather license data and analyze usage.

    One of the key exercises was uniting procurement and deployment data and the teams responsible for each.

    End-to-end visibility allowed the data to be uniform. As a result, better decisions about license rationalization can be made.

    Results

    By improving its measurement of SAM data, Visa was able to dedicate more time to analyze and reconcile its licenses. This led to improved license management and negotiations that reflected actual usage.

    By improving license usage through rationalization, Visa reduced the cost of supporting additional titles.

    The SAM team also performed license reclamation to harvest and redistribute licenses to further improve usage. The team’s final task was to optimize audit responses.

    Step 2.1 Request and procure software

    Phase 2:
    Procure, Receive & Deploy
    This step will walk you through the following activities:This step involves the following participants:

    2.1

    Request & Procure
    • 2.1.1 Determine which software contracts should be centralized vs. localized
    • 2.1.2 Determine your software standards
    • 2.1.3 Define procurement policy
    • 2.1.4 Identify approvals and requests for authorization thresholds
    • 2.1.5 Build software procurement workflow for new contracts
    • 2.1.6 Define process for contract renewals and additional procurement scenarios
    • IT Director, CIO
    • IT Managers and SAM Manager
    • SAM Team

    2.2

    Receive & Deploy

    Step Outcomes

    • Defined standards for software requests
    • A documented policy for software procurement including authorization thresholds
    • Documented process workflows for new contracts and contract renewals

    Procurement and SAM teams must work together to optimize purchasing

    Procurement and SAM must collaborate on software purchases to ensure software purchases meet business requirements and take into account all data on existing software and licenses to optimize the purchase and contract. Failure to work together can lead to unnecessary software purchases, overspending on purchases, and undesirable contract terms.

    SAM managers must collaborate with Procurement when purchasing software.

    SAM managers should:

    • Receive requests for software licenses
    • Ensure a duplicate license isn’t already purchased before going through with purchase
    • Ensure the correct license is purchased for the correct individuals
    • Ensure the purchasing information is tracked in the ITAM/SAM tool
    • Report on software usage to inform purchases
    Two cartoon people in work attire each holding a piece of a puzzle that fits with the other. Procurement must commit to be involved in the asset management process.

    Procurement should:

    • Review requests and ensure all necessary approvals have been received before purchasing
    • Negotiate optimal contract terms
    • Track and manage purchasing information and invoices and handle financial aspects
    • Use data from SAM team on software usage to decide on contract terms and optimize value

    Centralize procurement to decrease the likelihood of overspending

    Centralized negotiation and purchasing of software can ensure that the SAM team has visibility and control over the procurement process to help prevent overspending and uncontrolled agreements.

    Benefits of centralized procurement

    • Ability to easily manage software demand.
    • Provides capability to effectively manage your relationships with suppliers.
    • Allows for decreased contract processing times.
    • Provides easy access to data with a single consolidated system for tracking assets at an early stage.
    • Reduces number of rogue purchases by individual departments.
    • Efficiency through automation and coordinated effort to examine organization’s compliance and license position.
    • Higher degree of visibility and transparency into asset usage in the organization.

    Info-Tech Insights

    It may be necessary to procure some software locally if organizations have multiple locations, but try to centrally procure and manage the biggest contracts from vendors that are likely to audit the organization. Even with a decentralized model, ensure all teams communicate and that contracts remain visible centrally even if managed locally.

    Standards for software procurement help prevent overspending

    Software procurement is often more difficult for organizations than hardware procurement because:

    • Key departments that need to be involved in the purchasing process do not communicate or interact enough.
    • A fear of software auditing causes organizations to overspend to mitigate risk.
    • Standards are often not in place, with most purchases being made outside of the gold imaging standard.
    • A lack of discovery results in gross overspending on software licenses that are already present and underused.

    Info-Tech Insight

    One of the major challenges involved in implementing SAM is uniting multiple datasets and data sources across the enterprise. A conversation with each major business unit will help with the creation of software procurement standards that are acceptable to all.

    Determine which software contracts should be centralized vs. localized (optional)

    Associated Activity icon 2.1.1 Identify central standard enterprise offerings

    Participants: CIO, IT Director, SAM Manager, SAM Team

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. As a group, list as many software contracts that are in place across the organization as can easily be identified, focusing on top vendors.
    2. Identify which existing software contracts are standard enterprise offerings that are procured and managed centrally and which are non-standard or localized applications.
    3. Looking at the list of non-standard software, identify if any can or should be rationalized or replaced with a standard offering.
    Standard enterprise offerings
    • Microsoft
    • IBM
    • Adobe
    • Dell
    • Cisco
    • VMware
    • Barracuda
    Localized or non-standard software

    Classify your approved software into tiers to improve workflow efficiency

    Not all titles are created equal; classifying your pre-approved and approved software titles into a tiered system will provide numerous benefits for your SAM program.

    The more prestigious the asset tier, the higher the degree of data capture, support, and maintenance required.

    • Mission-critical, high-priority applications are classified as gold standard.
    • Secondary applications or high priority are silver standard.
    • Low-usage applications or normal priority are bronze standard.

    E.g. An enterprise application that needs to be available 24/7, such as a learning management system, should be classified as a gold tier to ensure it has 24/7 support.

    Creating tiers assists stakeholders in justifying the following set of decision points:

    • Which assets will require added maintenance (e.g. software assurance for Microsoft)
    • Technical support requirements to meet business requirements
    • Lifecycle and upgrade cycle of the software assets.
    • Monitoring usage to determine whether licenses can be harvested
    • Authorizations required for purchase requests

    Determine your software standards

    Associated Activity icon 2.1.2 Identify standard software images for your organization

    Participants: Asset Manager, Purchasing, Service Desk Manager, Operations (optional)

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. As a group, discuss and identify the relevant software asset tiers and number of tiers.
    2. For each tier, define:
      • Support requirements (hours and payments)
      • Maintenance requirements (mandatory or optional)
      • Lifecycle (when to upgrade, when to patch)
      • Financial requirements (CapEx/OpEx expenses)
      • Request authorizations (requestors and approvers)
    3. Sort the software contracts identified in the previous category into tiers, for example:
      • Mission-critical software (gold tier)
      • High-priority software (silver tier)
      • Normal-priority software (bronze tier)
    4. Use the SOP as an example.

    Determine which licensing options and methodologies fit into future IT strategy

    Not everyone is ready to embrace the cloud for all solutions; make sure to align cloud strategy to business requirements. Work closely with IT executives to determine appropriate contract terms, licensing options, and tracking processes.

    Vendors make changes to bundles and online services terms on a regular basis. Ensure you document your agreed upon terms to save your required functionality as vendor standard offerings change.

    • Any contracts getting moved to the cloud will need to undergo a contract comparison first.
    • The contract you signed last month could be completely different this month. Many cloud contracts are dynamic in nature.
    • Keep a copy of the electronic contract that you signed in a secure, accessible location.
    • Consider reaching a separate agreement with the vendor that they will ensure you maintain the results of the original agreement to prevent scope creep.

    Not all on-premises to cloud options transition linearly:

    • Features of perpetual licenses may not map to subscriptions
    • Product terms may differ from online services terms
    • Licensing may change from per device to per user
    • Vendor migrations may be more complex than anticipated

    Download the Own the Cloud: Strategy and Action Plan blueprint for more guidance

    Understand the three primary models of software usage agreements

    Licensed Open Source Shareware
    License Structure A software supplier is paid for the permission to use their software. The software is provided free of charge, but is still licensed. The software is provided free of charge, but is still licensed. Usage may be on a trial basis, with full usage granted after purchase.
    Source Code The source code is still owned by the supplier. Source code is provided, allowing users to change and share the software to suit their needs. Source code is property of the original developer/supplier.
    Technical Support Technical support is included in the price of the contract. Technical support may be provided, often in a community-based format from other developers of the open-source software in question. Support may be limited during trial of software, but upgraded once a purchase is made.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Open-source software should be managed in the same manner as commercial software to understand licensing requirements and be aware of any changes to these agreements, such as commercialization of such products, as well as any rules surrounding source code.

    Coordinate with purchasing department to define software procurement policy

    Associated Activity icon 2.1.3 Define procurement policy

    Participants: Asset Manager, Purchasing, Service Desk Manager, Operations (optional)

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    Define and document policies that will apply to IT software purchases, including policies around:

    • Software purchase approvals
    • Licenses for short-term contractors
    • On-premises vs. SaaS purchases
    • Shareware and freeware fees
    • Open-source software

    Use the example below as guidance and document in the SOP.

    • Software will not be acquired through user corporate credit cards, office supply, petty cash, or personal expense budgets. Purchases made outside of the acceptable processes will not be reimbursed and will be removed from company computers.
    • Contractors who are short term and paid through vendor contracts and invoices will supply their own licenses.
    • Software may be purchased as on-premises or as-a-service solutions as IT deems appropriate for the solution.
    • Shareware and freeware authors will be paid the fee they specify for use of their products.
    • Open-source software will be managed in the same manner as commercial software to understand licensing requirements and be aware of any changes to these agreements, such as commercialization of such products.

    Identify approvals and requests for authorization thresholds

    Associated Activity icon 2.1.4 Identify financial thresholds for approvals and requests

    Participants: Asset Manager, Purchasing, CIO, CFO, IT Director

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    Identify and classify financial thresholds for contracts requiring approval. For each category of contract value, identify who needs to authorize the request. Discuss and document any other approvals necessary. An example is provided below.

    Example:
    Requests for authorization will need to be directed based on the following financial thresholds:

    Contract value Authorization
    <$50,000 IT Director
    $50,000 to $250,000 CIO
    $250,000 to $500,000 CIO and CFO
    >$500,000 Legal review

    Develop a defined process for software procurement

    A poorly defined software procurement workflow can result in overspending on unnecessary software licensing throughout the year. This can impact budgeting and any potential software refreshes, as businesses will often rely on purchasing what they can afford, not what they need.

    Benefits of a defined workflow

    • Standardized understanding of the authorization processes results in reduced susceptibility to errors and quicker processing times.
    • Compliance with legal regulations.
    • Protection from compliance violations.
    • Transparency with the end user by communicating the process of software procurement to the business.

    Elements to include in procurement workflows:

    • RFP
    • Authorizations and approvals
    • Contract review
    • Internal references to numbers, cost centers, locations, POs, etc.

    Four types of procurement workflows:

    1. New contract – Purchasing brand new software
    2. Add to contract – Adding new POs or line items to an existing contract
    3. Contract renewal – Renewing an existing contract
    4. No contract required – Smaller purchases that don’t require a signed contract

    Outline the procurement process for new contracts

    The procurement workflow may involve the Service Desk, procurement team, and asset manager.

    The following elements should be accounted for:

    • Assignee
    • Requestor
    • Category
    • Type
    • Model or version
    • Requisition number
    • Purchase order number
    • Unit price
    A flowchart outlining the procurement process for new contracts. There are three levels, at the top is 'Tier 2 or Tier 3', the middle is 'IT Procurement', the bottom is 'Asset Manager'. It begins in 'Tier 2 or Tier 3' with 'Approved request received', and if it is not declined it moves on to 'Purchasing request forwarded to Procurement' on the 'IT Procurement' level. If an RFP is required, it eventually moves to 'Receives contract' on the 'Asset Manager' level and ends with 'Document license requirements, notify IT Product Owner'.

    Build software procurement workflow for new contracts

    Associated Activity icon 2.1.5 Build new contract procurement workflow

    Participants: Asset Manager, Purchasing, Service Desk Manager, Operations (optional)

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. As a team, outline each of the tasks in the process of procuring a new software asset using cue cards, sticky notes, or a whiteboard.
    2. Use the sample procurement workflow on the previous slide as an example if needed.
    3. Ensure the following elements required for the asset procurement process have been accounted for:
      • Assignee
      • Requestor
      • Category
      • Type
      • Model or version
      • Requisition number
      • Purchase order number
      • Unit price
    4. Review the workflow and make any adjustments necessary to improve the process. Document using Visio and add to the SOP.

    Review vendor contracts to right-size licensing procurement

    Many of your applications come from the same vendor, and a view into the business services provided by each software vendor contract will prove beneficial to the business.

    • You may uncover overlaps in services provided by software across departments.
    • The same service may be purchased from different vendors simply because two departments never compared notes!
    • This leaves a lot of money on the table from a lack of volume discounts.
    A graphic depicting a Venn diagram in which the 'Software' and 'Services' circles overlap, both of which stem from a 'Vendor Contract'.
    • Be cautious about approaching license budgeting strictly from a cost perspective. SAM is designed to right-size your licenses to properly support your organization.
    • One trap organizations often fall into is bundling discounts. Vendors will offer steep discounts if clients purchase multiple titles. On the surface, this might seem like a great offer.
    • However, what often happens is that organizations will bundle titles to get a steep discount on their prize title of the group.
    • The other titles become shelfware, and when the time comes to renew the contract, the maintenance fees on the shelfware titles will often make the contract more expensive than if only the prize title was purchased.

    Additionally, information regarding what licenses are being used for certain services may yield insight into potential redundancies. For example, two separate departments may have each have a different application deployed that supports the same service. This presents an opportunity for savings based on bulk licensing agreements, not to mention a simplified support environment by reducing the number of titles deployed in your environment.

    Define a procedure for tracking and negotiating contract renewals

    Participants: IT Director/CIO, Asset Manager, Purchasing, Service Desk Manager, Operations (optional)

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    Discuss and document a policy for tracking and negotiating contract renewals. Answer the following questions as guides:

    • How will renewal dates be tracked and monitored?
    • How soon should contracts be reviewed prior to renewal to determine appropriateness for use and compliance?
    • What criteria will be used to determine if the product should be renewed?
    • Who will be consulted for contract renewal decisions for major contracts?
    • How will licensing and support decisions be made?

    Optional contract review:

    1. Take a sample contract to renew. Create a list of services that are supported by the software. Look for overlaps, redundancies, shelfware, and potential bundling opportunities. Recall the issues outlined when purchasing bundled software.
    2. Create a list of action items to bring into the next round of contract negotiations with that vendor and identify a start date to begin reviewing these items.

    Define process for contract renewals and additional procurement scenarios

    Associated Activity icon 2.1.6 Build additional procurement workflows

    Participants: Asset Manager, Purchasing, Service Desk Manager, Operations (optional)

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    Build procurement workflows and define policies and procedures for additional purchasing scenarios beyond new contracts.

    This may include:

    1. Contract renewals
    2. Single purchase, non-contract procurement
    3. Adding to contracts

    Use the sample workflows in the Standard Operating Procedures as a guide.

    A flowchart outlining the procurement process for 'Software Contract Renewal'.

    A flowchart outlining the procurement process for 'Software single purchase, non-contract'.

    Negotiate for value to ensure quality license agreements

    Approach negotiating from a value-first, price-second perspective.

    Contract negotiations too often come down to a question of price. While you want to avoid overpaying for licenses, a worse offense is getting a steep discount for a bundle of applications where the majority will go unused.

    Vendors will try to sell a full stack of software at a steep discount to give the illusion of value. Often organizations bite off more than they can chew. When auditors come knocking, the business may be in compliance, but being over-licensed is a dangerous state to be in. Organizations end up over-licensed and in possession of numerous “shelfware” apps that sit on the proverbial shelf collecting dust while drawing expensive maintenance and licensing fees from the business.
    • Pressure from the business is also an issue. Negotiations can be rushed in an effort to fulfill an immediate need.
    • Make sure you clearly outline the level of compliance expected from the vendor.
    • Negotiate reduced-fee software support services. Your Service Desk can already handle the bulk of requests, and investing in a mature Service Desk will provide more lasting value than paying for expensive maintenance and support services that largely go unused.

    Learn to negotiate effectively to optimize contract renewals

    Leverage Info-Tech’s research, Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements, to review your software contracts to leverage your unique position during negotiations and find substantial cost savings.

    This blueprint includes the following tools and templates:

    • RASCI Chart
    • Vendor Communication Management Plan
    • Software Business Use Case Template
    • SaaS TCO Calculator
    • Software Terms & Conditions Evaluation Tool
    • Software Buyer’s Checklist
    • Controlled Vendor Communications Letter
    • Key Vendor Fiscal Year End Calendar
    • Contract Negotiation Tactics Playbook

    Step 2.2 Receive and deploy software

    Phase 2:
    Procure, Receive & Deploy
    This step will walk you through the following activities:This step involves the following participants:

    2.1

    Request & Procure
    • 2.2.1 Identify storage locations for software information and media
    • 2.2.2 Design the workflow for receiving software
    • 2.2.3 Design and document the deployment workflow(s)
    • 2.2.4 Create a list of pre-approved, approved, and unapproved software titles
    • 2.2.5 Document the request and deployment process for non-standard software requests
    • IT Director, CIO
    • IT Managers and SAM Manager
    • SAM Team
    • Purchasing (optional)
    • Service Desk Manager (optional)
    • Operations (optional)
    • Release & Deployment manager (optional)

    2.2

    Receive & Deploy

    Step Outcomes

    • A strategy for storing software information and media in the ITAM database and DML
    • A documented workflow for the software receiving process
    • Documented process workflows for software requests and deployment, including for large quantities of software
    • A list of pre-approved, approved, and unapproved software titles for deployment
    • A process for responding to non-standard software requests

    Verify product and information upon receipt

    Upon receipt of procured software:

    • Verify that the product is correct
    • Reconcile with purchase record to ensure the order has been completed
    • Verify that the invoice is correct
    • Update financial information such as budget and accounting records
    • Update ITAM database to show status as received
    • Record/attach license keys and software codes in ITAM database
    • Attach relevant documents to record in the ITAM database (license reports, invoices, end-user agreement, etc.)
    • Download and store any installation files, DVDs, and CDs
    • Once software has been installed, verify license is matched to discovered installed software within the ITAM database

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    While most software will be received through email and download, in some cases physical software may be received through courier or mail. Ensure processes and procedures are defined for both cases.

    Establish a secure repository for licenses and documentation

    All licenses, documentation, and digital media for authorized and supported software should be collected and stored in a central, secure location to minimize risk of theft, loss, or unauthorized installation or duplication of software.

    Where to store software data?

    The ITAM database should contain an up-to-date record of all software assets, including their associated:

    • Serial numbers
    • License keys and codes
    • Contracts and agreements

    The database allows you to view software that is installed and associated licenses.

    A definitive media library (DML) is a single logical storage area, which may consist of one or more locations in which definitive authorized versions of all software configuration items are securely stored and protected.

    The DML consists of file storage as well as physical storage of CDs and DVDs and must be continually updated to contain the latest information about each configuration item.

    The DML is used to organize content and link to automated deployment to easily install software.

    Use a definitive media library (DML) to assist in storage of software packages for deployment

    The DML will usually contain the most up-to-date versions to minimize errors created by having unauthorized, old, or problematic software releases being deployed into the live IT environment. The DML can be used for both full-packed product (FPP) software and in-house developed software, providing formalized data around releases of in-house software.

    The DML should consist of two main storage areas:

    1. Secure file storage
    2. Secure physical storage for any master CD/DVDs

    Additional Recommendations:

    • The process of building, testing, adapting, and final pre-production testing should provide your IT department with a solid final deployment package, but the archive will enable you to quickly pull in a previous version if necessary.
    • When upgrading software packages to include new patches or configurations, use the DML to ensure you're referencing a problem-free version.
    • Include the DML in your disaster recovery plan (DRP) and include testing of the DML as part of your DRP testing. If you need to rebuild servers from these files, offsite, you'll want to know your backup DML is sound.

    Ensure you have a strategy to create and update your DML

    Your DML should have a way to separate archived, new, and current software to allow for optimal organization of files and code, to ensure the correct software is installed, and to prepare for automated deployment through the service catalog.

    New software hasn’t been tested yet. Make it available for testing, but not widely available.

    Keep a record for archived software, but do not make it available for install.

    Current software is regularly used and should be available for install.

    Deployment

    • Are you using tools to integrate with the DML for deployment?
    • Store files that are ready for automated deployment in a separate location.

    Identify storage locations for software information and media

    Associated Activity icon 2.2.1 Identify software storage locations

    Participants: Asset Manager, IT Director

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. Identify storage locations for asset data that is received (i.e. ITAM database, DML).
    2. Identify information that should be stored with each asset (i.e. license, serial number, invoice, end-user license agreement) and where this information should be stored.
    3. Identify fields that should be populated in the DML for each record:
      • Product name
      • Version
      • Description
      • Authorized by
      • Received by/date
      • Configuration item on which asset is installed
      • Media
      • Physical and backup locations
      • Verified by/date

    Define the standard process for receiving software

    Define the following in your receiving process:

    • Process for software received by email/download
    • Process for physical material received at Service Desk
    • Information to be recorded and where
    • Process following discrepancy of received software
    A flowchart outlining the standard process for receiving software. There are two levels, at the top is 'Desktop Support Team' and the bottom is 'Procurement'. It begins in 'Desktop Support Team' with 'Received at Service Desk' or 'Receive by email/download'. If the reconciliation is correct it eventually moves on to 'Fulfill service request, deliver and close ticket'. If the reconciliation is not correct it moves to 'Contact vendor with discrepancy details' in 'Procurement'. If a return is required 'Repackage and ship', or if not 'Notify Desktop Support Team of resolution'.

    Design the workflow for receiving software

    Associated Activity icon 2.2.2 Design the workflow for receiving software

    Participants: Asset Manager, Purchasing, Service Desk Manager, Operations (optional)

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    Option 1: Whiteboard

    1. Discuss the workflow and draw it on the whiteboard.
    2. Assess whether you are using the best workflow. Modify it if necessary.
    3. Use the sample workflow from this step as a guide if starting from scratch.
    4. Engage the team in refining the process workflow.
    5. Transfer data to Visio and add to the SOP.

    Option 2: Tabletop Exercise

    1. Distribute index cards to each member of the team.
    2. Have each person write a single task they perform on the index card. Be granular. Include the title or the name of the person responsible.
    3. Mark cards that are decision points. Use a card of a different color or use a marker to make a colored dot.
    4. Arrange the index cards in order, removing duplicates.
    5. Assess whether you are using the best workflow. Engage the team to refine it if necessary.
    6. Transfer data to Visio and add to the SOP.

    Build release management into your software deployment process

    A sound software deployment process is tied to sound release management practices.

    Releases: A collection of authorized changes to an IT service. Releases are divided into:

    • Major software releases/upgrades: Normally containing large areas of new functionality, some of which may make intervening fixes to redundant problems.
    • Minor software releases/upgrades: Normally containing small enhancements and fixes, some of which may have already been issued as emergency fixes.
    • Emergency software fixes: Contain the corrections to a small number of known problems.

    Ensure that release management processes work with SAM processes:

    • If a release will impact licensing, the SAM manager must be made aware to make any necessary adjustments.
    • Deployment models should be in line with SAM strategy (i.e. is software rolled out to everyone or individually when upgrades are needed?).
    • How will user requests for upgrades be managed?
    • Users should be on the same software version to ensure file compatibility and smooth patch management.
    • Ideally, software should be no more than two versions back.

    Document the process workflow for software deployment

    Define the process for deploying software to users.

    Include the following in your workflow:

    • All necessary approvals
    • Source of software
    • Process for standard vs. non-standard software requests
    • Update ITAM database once software has been installed with license data and install information
    A flowchart outlining the process workflow for software deployment. There are four levels, at the top is 'Business', then 'Desktop Support Team', 'Procurement', and the bottom is 'Asset Manager'. It begins in 'Business' with 'Request for software', and if it is approved by the manager it moves to 'Check DB: Can a volume serial # be used?' in 'Desktop Support Team'. If yes, it eventually moves on to 'Close ticket' on the same level, if not it eventually moves to 'Initiate procurement process' in 'Procurement', 'Initiate receiving process' in 'Asset Manager', and finally to 'Run quarterly license review to purchase volume licenses'.

    Large-scale software rollouts should be run as projects

    Rollouts or upgrades of large quantities of software will likely be managed as projects.

    These projects should include project plans, including resources, timelines, and detailed procedures.

    Define the process for large-scale deployment if it will differ from the regular deployment process.

    A flowchart outlining large-scale software rollouts. There are three levels, at the top is 'IT Procurement', then 'Asset Manager', and the bottom is 'Software Packager'. It begins in 'IT Procurement' with 'Project plan approved', and if a bid is not required it skips to 'Sign contract/Create purchase order'. This eventually moves to 'Receive access to eLicense site/receive access to new product' in 'Asset Manager', and either to 'Approve invoice for payment, forward to accounting' on the same level or to 'Download software, license keys' in 'Software Packager' then eventually to 'Deploy'.

    Design and document the deployment workflow(s)

    Associated Activity icon 2.2.3 Document deployment workflows for desktop and large-scale deployment

    Participants: Asset Manager, Service Desk Manager, Release & Deployment Manager

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. Outline each step in the process of software deployment using notecards or on a whiteboard. Be as granular as possible. On each card, describe the step and the individual responsible for each step.
      • Be sure to identify the type of release for standard software releases and patches.
      • Additionally, identify how additional software outside the scope of the base image will be addressed.
    2. When you are satisfied that each step is accurately captured, use a second color of notecard to document any challenges, inefficiencies, or pains associated with each step. Consider further documenting the time on each task.
    3. Examine each challenge or pain point. Discuss whether there is a clear solution to the problem. If so, document the solution and amend the workflow. If not, engage in a broader discussion of possible solutions, considering people, processes, and available technology.
    4. Document separately the process for large-scale software deployment if required.

    Develop standards to streamline your software estate

    Software should be approved and deployed based on approved standards to minimize over-deployed software and manage costs appropriately. A list of standard software improves the efficiency of the software approval process.

    • Pre-approved titles include basic platforms like Office or Adobe Reader that are often available in enterprise-wide license packages.
    • Approved titles include popular titles with license numbers that need to be managed on a role-by-role basis. For example, if most of your marketing team uses the Adobe Creative Suite, a user still needs to get approval before they can get a license.
    • Unapproved titles are managed on a case-by-case basis and are up to the discretion of the asset manager and other involved parties.

    Additionally, create a list of unauthorized software including titles not to be installed under any circumstances. This list should be designed with feedback from your end users and technical support staff. Front-line knowledge is crucial to identifying which titles are causing major problems.

    Create a list of pre-approved, approved, and unapproved software titles

    Associated Activity icon 2.2.4 Determine software categories for deployment

    Participants: IT Director, Asset Manager, Purchasing (optional), Service Desk Manager (optional), Release & Deployment Manager (optional)

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. Define software categories that will be used to build software standards.
    2. Include definitions of each category.
    3. Add examples of software to each category to begin building list of approved software titles for deployment.

    Use the following example as a guide.

    Category Definition Software titles
    Pre-approved/standard
    • Supported and approved for install for all end users
    • Included on most, if not all devices
    • Typically installed as a base image
    • Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
    • Adobe Reader
    • Windows
    Approved by role
    • Supported and approved for install, but only for certain groups of end users
    • Popular titles with license numbers that need to be managed on a role-by-role basis
    • Pre-approved for purchase with business manager’s approval
    • Adobe Creative Cloud Suite
    • Adobe Acrobat Pro
    • Microsoft Visio
    Unapproved/requires review
    • Not previously approved or installed by IT
    • Special permission required for installation based on demonstrable business need
    • Managed on a case-by-case basis
    • Up to the discretion of the asset manager and other involved parties
    • Dynamics
    • Zoom Text
    • Adaptive Insights
    Unauthorized
    • Not to be installed under any circumstances
    • Privately owned software
    • Pirated copies of any software titles
    • Internet downloads

    Define the review and approval process for non-standard software

    Software requiring review will need to be managed on a case-by-case basis, with approval dependent on software evaluation and business need.

    The evaluation and approval process may require input from several parties, including business analysts, Security, technical team, Finance, Procurement, and the manager of the requestor’s department.

    A flowchart outlining the review and approval process for non-standard software. There are five levels, at the top is 'Business Analyst/Project Manager', then 'Security Team', 'Technical Team', 'Financial & Contract Review' and the bottom is 'Procurement'. It begins in 'Business Analyst/Project Manager' with 'Request for non-standard software', and if the approved product is available it moves to 'Evaluate tool for security, data, and privacy compliance' in 'Security Team'. If more evaluation is necessary it moves to 'Evaluate tool for infrastructure and integration requirements' in 'Technical Team', and then 'Evaluate terms and conditions' in 'Financial & Contract Review'. At any point in the evaluation process it can move back to the 'Business Analyst/Project Manager' level for 'Assemble requirements details', and finally down to the 'Procurement' level for 'Execute purchase'.

    Document the request and deployment process for non-standard software

    Associated Activity icon 2.2.5 Document process for non-standard software requests

    Participants: Asset Manager, Service Desk Manager, Release & Deployment Manager

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    Define the review and approval process for non-standard software requests.

    Use the workflow on the previous slide as a guide to map your own workflow process and document the steps in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    The following assessments may need to be included in the process:

    • Functionality and use requirements: May include suggestion back to the business before proceeding any further to see if similar, already approved software could be used in its place.
    • Technical specifications: Cloud, data center, hardware, backups, integrations (Active Directory, others), file, and program compatibility.
    • Security: Security team may need to assess to ensure nothing will install that will compromise data or systems security.
    • Privacy policy: Security and compliance team may need to evaluate the solution to ensure data will be secured and accessed only by authorized users.
    • Terms and conditions: The contracts team may evaluate terms and conditions to ensure contracts and end-user agreements do not violate existing standards.
    • Accessibility and compliance: Software may be required to meet accessibility requirements in accordance with company policies.

    BMW deployed a global data centralization program to achieve 100% license visibility

    Logo for BMW.

    Case Study

    Industry: Financial Services
    Source: SAM Summit 2014

    Challenge

    BMW is a large German automotive manufacturer that employs over 100,000 people. It has over 7,000 software products deployed across 106,000 clients and servers in over 150 countries.

    When the global recession hit in 2008, the threat of costly audits increased, so BMW decided to boost its SAM program to cut licensing costs. It sought to centralize inventory data from operations across the globe.

    Solution

    A new SAM office was established in 2009 in Germany. The SAM team at BMW began by processing all the accumulated license and installation data from operations in Germany, Austria, and the UK. Within six months, the team had full visibility of all licenses and software assets.

    Compliance was also a priority. The team successfully identified where they could make substantial reductions in support and maintenance costs as well as remove surplus costs associated with duplicate licensing.

    Results

    BMW overcame a massive data centralization project to achieve 100% visibility of its global licensing estate, an incredible achievement given the scope of the operation.

    BMW experienced efficiency gains due to transparency and centralized management of licenses through the new SAM office.

    Additionally, internal investment in training and technical knowledge has helped BMW continuously improve the program. This has resulted in ongoing cost reductions for the manufacturer.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of an Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    2.1.5

    Sample of activity 2.1.5 'Build software procurement workflow for new contracts'. Build software procurement workflow for new contracts

    Use the sample workflow to document your own process for procurement of new software contracts.

    2.2.4

    Sample of activity 2.2.4 'Create a list of pre-approved, approved, and unapproved software titles'. Create a list of pre-approved, approved, and unapproved software titles

    Build definitions of software categories to inform software standards and brainstorm examples of each category.

    Phase 2 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 2: Procure, receive, and deploy

    Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 6
    Step 2.1: Request and procureStep 2.2: Receive and deploy
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Define standards for software requests
    • Build procurement policy
    • Define procurement processes
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Build processes for software receiving
    • Build processes for software requests and deployment
    • Define process for non-standard requests
    Then complete these activities…
    • Determine software standards
    • Define procurement policy
    • Identify authorization thresholds
    • Build procurement workflows for new contracts and renewals
    Then complete these activities…
    • Identify storage locations for software information
    • Design workflow for receiving software
    • Design workflow for software deployment
    • Create a list of approved and non-standard requests
    • Define process for non-standard requests
    With these tools & templates:
    • Standard Operating Procedures
    With these tools & templates:
    • Standard Operating Procedures

    Phase 3: Manage, Redeploy, and Retire

    Step 3.1 Manage and maintain software contracts

    Phase 3:
    Manage, Redeploy & Retire
    This step will walk you through the following activities:This step involves the following participants:

    3.1

    Manage & Maintain Software
    • 3.1.1 Define process for conducting software inventory
    • 3.1.2 Define policies for software maintenance and patches
    • 3.1.3 Document your patch management policy
    • IT Director, CIO
    • IT Managers and SAM Manager
    • SAM Team
    • Release Manager (optional)
    • Security (optional)

    3.2

    Harvest, Redeploy, or Retire

    Step Outcomes

    • A process for conducting regular software inventory checks and analyzing the data to continually manage software assets and license compliance.
    • An understanding of software maintenance requirements
    • A policy for conducting regular software maintenance and patching
    • A documented patch management policy

    Manage your software licenses to decrease your risk of overspending

    Many organizations fail to track their software inventory effectively; the focus often remains on hardware due to its more tangible nature. However, annual software purchases often account for a higher IT spend than annual hardware purchases, so it’s important to track both.

    Benefits of managing software licenses

    • Better control of the IT footprint. Many companies already employ hardware asset management, but when they employ SAM, there is potential to save millions of dollars through optimal use of all technology assets.
    • Better purchasing decisions and negotiating leverage. Enhanced visibility into actual software needs means not only can companies procure and deploy the right increments of software in the right areas, but they can also do so more cost-effectively through tools such as volume purchase agreements or bundled services.
    • No refund policy combined with shelfware (software that sits unused “on the shelf”) is where software companies make their money.
    • Managing licenses will help prevent costly audit penalties. Special attention should be paid to software purchased from large vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, SAP, or IBM.

    Maintain a comprehensive, up-to-date software inventory to manage licenses effectively

    A clearly defined process for inventory management will reduce the risk of over buying licenses and falling out of compliance.

    • A detailed software inventory and tracking system should act as a single point of contact for all your license data.
    • Maintain a comprehensive inventory of installed software through complete and accurate records of all licenses, certifications, and software purchase transactions, storing these in a secure repository.
    • Periodically review installed software and accompanying licenses to ensure only legal and supported software is in use and to ensure ongoing compliance with the software management policy.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Have and maintain a list of supported software to guide what new software will be approved for purchase and what current software should be retained on the desktops, servers, and other processing devices.

    Conduct a baseline inventory of deployed software to know what you have

    You have to know what you have before you can manage it.

    A baseline inventory tells you exactly what software you have deployed and where it is being used. This can help to determine how to best optimize software and license usage.

    A software inventory will allow you to:

    • Identify all software residing on computers.
    • Compare existing software to the list of supported software.
    • Identify and delete illegal or unsupported software.
    • Identify and stop software use that violates license agreements, copyright law, or organizational policies.

    Two methods for conducting a software inventory:

    1. If you have several computers to analyze, use automated tools to conduct inventory for greater accuracy and efficiency. Software inventory or discovery tools scan installed software and generate inventory reports, while asset management tools will help you manage that data.
    2. Manual inventory may be possible if your organization has few computers.

    How to conduct a manual software inventory:

    1. Record serial number of device being analyzed.
    2. Record department and employee to whom the computer is assigned.
    3. Inspect contents of hard drive and/or server to identify software as well as hidden files and directories.
    4. Record licensing information for software found on workstation and server.
    5. Compare findings with list of supported software and licenses stored in repository.

    Keep the momentum going through regular inventory and licensing checks

    Take preventive action to avoid unauthorized software usage through regular software inventory and license management:

    • Regularly update the list of supported software and authorized use.
    • Monitor and optimize software license usage.
    • Continually communicate with and train employees around software needs and policies.
    • Maintain a regular inventory schedule to keep data up to date and remain compliant with licensing requirements – your specific schedule will depend on the size of the company and procurement schedule.
    • Conduct random spot inventories – even if you are using a tool, periodic spot checks should still be performed to ensure accuracy of inventory.
    • Periodically review software procurement records and ensure procurement process is being followed.
    • Continuously monitor software installations on networked computers through automated tools.
    • Ensure software licensing documentation and data is secure.

    Define process for conducting software inventory

    Associated Activity icon 3.1.1 Define process for regular software inventory

    Participants: IT Director, Asset Manager

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. If a baseline software inventory has not been conducted, discuss and document a plan for completing the inventory.
      • Will the inventory be conducted manually or through automated tools?
      • If manually, what information will be collected and recorded? Which devices will be analyzed? Where will data be stored?
      • If automatically, which tools will be used? Will any additional information need to be collected? Who will have access to the inventory?
      • When will the inventory be conducted and by whom?
        • Monthly inventory may be required if there is a lot of change and movement, otherwise quarterly is usually sufficient.
    2. Document how inventory data will be analyzed.
      • How will data be compared against supported software?
      • How will software violations be addressed?
    3. Develop a plan for continual inventory spot checks and maintenance.
      • How often will inventory be conducted and/or analyzed?
      • How often will spot checks be performed?

    Don’t forget that software requires maintenance

    While maintenance efforts are typically focused around hardware, software maintenance – including upgrades and patches – must be built into the software asset management process to ensure software remains compliant with security and regulatory requirements.

    Software maintenance guidelines:

    • Maintenance agreements should be stored in the ITAM database.
    • Software should be kept as current as possible. It is recommended that software remain no more than two versions off.
    • Unsupported software should be uninstalled or upgraded as required.
    • Upgrades should be tested, especially for high-priority or critical applications or if integrated with other applications.
    • Change and release management best practices should be applied for all software upgrades and patches.
    • A process should be defined for how often patches will be applied to end-user devices.

    Integrate patch management with your SAM practice to improve security and reduce downtime

    The integration between patch management and asset management is incredibly valuable from a technology point of view. IT asset management (ITAM) tools create reports on the characteristics of deployed software. By combining these reports with a generalized software updater, you can automate most simple patches to save your team’s efforts for more-critical incidents. Usage reports can also help determine which applications should be reviewed and removed from the environment.

    • In recent years, patch management has grown in popularity due to widespread security threats, the resultant downtime, and expenses associated with them.
    • The main objective of patch management is to create a consistently configured environment that is secure against known vulnerabilities in operating systems and application software.

    Assessing new patches should include questions such as:

    • What’s the risk of releasing the patch? What is the criticality of the system? What end users will be affected?
    • How will we manage business disruption during an incident caused by a failed patch deployment?
    • In the event of service outage as a result of a failed patch deployment, how will we recover services effectively in business priority order?
    • What’s the risk of expediting the patch? Of not releasing the patch at all?

    Define policies for software maintenance and patches

    Associated Activity icon 3.1.2 Define software maintenance and patching policies

    Participants: IT Director, Asset Manager, Release Manager (optional), Security (optional)

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    Software maintenance:

    Review the software maintenance guidelines in this section and in the SOP template. Discuss each policy and revise and document in accordance with your policies.

    Patch management:

    Discuss and document patch management policies:

    1. How often will end-user devices receive patches?
    2. How often will servers be patched?
    3. How will patches be prioritized? See example below.
      • Critical patches will be applied within two days of release, with testing prioritized to meet this schedule.
      • High-priority patches will be applied within 30 days of release, with testing scheduled to meet this requirement.
      • Normal-priority patches will be evaluated for appropriateness and will be installed as needed.

    Document your patch management policy

    Supporting Tool icon 3.1.3 Use the Patch Management Policy template to document your policy

    The patch management policy helps to ensure company computers are properly patched with the latest appropriate updates to reduce system vulnerability and to enhance repair application functionality. The policy aids in establishing procedures for the identification of vulnerabilities and potential areas of functionality enhancements, as well as the safe and timely installation of patches. The patch management policy is key to identifying and mitigating any system vulnerabilities and establishing standard patch management practices.

    Use Info-Tech’s Patch Management Policy template to get started.

    Sample of the 'Patch Management Policy' template.

    Step 3.2 Harvest, Redeploy, or Retire Software

    Phase 3:
    Manage, Redeploy & Retire
    This step will walk you through the following activities:This step involves the following participants:

    3.1

    Manage & Maintain Software
    • 3.2.1 Map your software license harvest and reallocation process
    • 3.2.2 Define the policy for retiring software
    • IT Director, CIO
    • IT Managers and SAM Manager
    • SAM Team

    3.2

    Harvest, Redeploy, or Retire

    Step Outcomes

    • A defined process for harvesting and reallocating unused software licenses
    • A defined policy for how and when to retire unused or outdated software

    Harvest and reallocate software to optimize license usage

    Using a defined process for harvesting licenses will yield a crop of savings throughout the organization.

    Unused software licenses are present in nearly every organization and result in wasted resources and software spend. Recycling and reharvesting licenses is a critical process within software asset management to save your organization money.

    Licensing Recycling

    When computers are no longer in use and retired, the software licenses installed on the machines may be able to be reused.

    License recycling involves reusing these licenses on machines that are still in use or for new employees.

    License Harvesting

    License harvesting involves more actively identifying machines with licenses that are either not in use or under utilized, and recovering them to be used elsewhere, thus reducing overall software spend on new licenses.

    Use software monitoring data to identify licenses for reallocation in alignment with policies and agreements

    1. Monitor software usage
      Monitor and track software license usage to gain a clear picture of where and how existing software licenses are being used and identify any unused or underused licenses.
    2. Identify licenses for reharvesting
      Identify software licenses that can be reharvested and reallocated according to your policy.
    3. Uninstall software
      Notify user, schedule a removal time if approved, uninstall software, and confirm it has been removed.
    4. Reallocate license when needed

    Sources of surplus licenses for harvest:

    • Projects that required a license during a particular time period, but now do not require a license (i.e. the free version of the software will suffice)
    • Licenses assigned to users no longer with the organization
    • Software installed on decommissioned hardware
    • Installed software that hasn’t been used by the user in the last 90 days (or other defined period)
    • Over-purchased software due to poorly controlled software request, approval, or provisioning processes

    Info-Tech Insight

    Know the stipulations of your end-user license agreement (EULA) before harvesting and reallocating licenses. There may be restrictions on how often a license can be recycled in your agreement.

    Create a defined process for software license harvesting

    Define a standard reharvest timeline. For example, every 90 days, your SAM team can perform an internal audit using your SAM tool to gather data on software usage. If a user has not used a title in that time period, your team can remove that title from that user’s machine. Depending on the terms and conditions of the contract, the license can either be retired or harvested and reallocated.

    Ensure you have exception rules built in for software that’s cyclical in its usage. For example, Finance may only use tax software during tax season, so there’s no reason to lump it under the same process as other titles.

    It’s important to note that in addition to this process, you will need a software usage policy that supports your license harvest process.

    The value of license harvesting

    • Let’s say you paid for 1,000 licenses of a software title at a price of $200 per license.
    • Of this total, 950 have been deployed, and of that total, 800 are currently being used.
    • This means that 16% of deployed licenses are not in use – at a cost of $30,000.
    • With a defined license harvest process, this situation would have been prevented.

    Build a workflow to document the software harvest process

    Include the following in your process:

    • How will unused software be identified?
    • How often will usage reports be reviewed?
    • How will the user be notified of software to be removed?
    • How will the software be removed?
    A flowchart documenting the software harvest process. There are two levels, at the top is 'IT Asset Manager', and the bottom is 'Desktop Support Team'. It begins in 'IT Asset Manager' with 'Create/Review Usage Report', and if the client agrees to removal it moves to 'License deactivation required?' in 'Desktop Support Team'. Eventually you 'Close ticket' and it moves back up to 'Discovery tool will register change automatically' in 'IT Asset Manager'.

    Map your software license harvest and reallocation process

    Associated Activity icon 3.2.1 Build license harvest and reallocation workflow

    Participants: IT Director, Asset Manager, Service Desk Manager

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. Outline each step in the process of software harvest and reallocation using notecards or a whiteboard. Be as granular as possible. On each card, describe the step and the individual responsible for each step.
    2. When you are satisfied that each step is accurately captured, use a second color of notecard to document any challenges, inefficiencies, or pains associated with each step. Consider further documenting the time on each task.
    3. Examine each challenge or pain point. Discuss whether there is a clear solution to the problem. If so, document the solution and amend the workflow. If not, engage in a broader discussion of possible solutions, considering people, processes, and available technology.
    4. Use the sample workflow on the previous slide as a guide if needed.

    The same flowchart documenting the software harvest process from the previous section.

    Improve your software retirement process to drive savings for the whole business

    Business Drivers for Software Disposal

    • Cost Reduction
      • Application retirement allows the application and the supporting hardware stack to be decommissioned.
      • This eliminates recurring costs such as licensing, maintenance, and application administration costs, representing potentially significant savings
    • Consolidation
      • Many legacy applications are redundant systems. For example, many companies have ten or more legacy financial systems from mergers/acquisitions.
      • Systems can be siloed, running incompatible software. Moving data to a common accessible repository streamlines research, audits, and reporting.
    • Compliance
      • An increased focus on regulations places renewed emphasis on e-discovery policies. Keeping legacy applications active just to retain data is an expensive proposition.
      • During application retirement, data is classified, assigned retention policies, and disposed of according to data/governance initiatives.
    • Risk Mitigation
      • Relying on IT to manage legacy systems is problematic. The lack of IT staff familiar with the application increases the potential risk of delayed responses to audits and e-discovery.
      • Retiring application data to a common platform lets you leverage skills you have current investments in. This enables you to be responsive to audit or litigation results.

    Retire your outdated software to decrease IT spend on redundant applications

    Benefits of software retirement:

    1. Assists the service desk in not having to support every release, version, or edition of software that your company might have used in the past.
    2. Stay current with product releases so your company is better placed to take advantage of improvements built-in to such products, rather than being limited by the lack of a newly introduced function.
    3. Removing software that is no longer of commercial benefit can offer a residual value through assets.

    Consequences of continuing to support outdated software:

    • Budgets are tied up to support existing applications and infrastructure, which leaves little room to invest in new technologies that would otherwise help grow business.
    • Much of this software includes legacy systems that were acquired or replaced when new applications were deployed. The value of these outdated systems decreases with every passing year, yet organizations often continue to support these applications.
      • Fear of compliance and data access are the most common reasons.
    • Unfortunately, the cost of doing so can consume over 50% of an overall IT budget.

    The solution to this situation is to retire outdated software.

    “Time and time again, I keep hearing stories from schools on how IT budgets are constantly being squeezed, but when I dig a little deeper, little or no effort is being made on accounting for software that might be on the kit we are taking away.” (Phil Goldsmith, Managing Director – ScrumpyMacs)

    Define the policy for retiring software

    Associated Activity icon 3.2.2 Document process for software retirement

    Participants: IT Director, Asset Manager, Operations

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    1. Discuss and document the process for retiring software that has been deemed redundant due to changing business needs or an improvement in competitive options.
    2. Consider the following:
      • What criteria will determine when software is suited for retirement?
      • The contract should always be reviewed before making a decision to ensure proper notice is given to the vendor.
      • Notice should be provided as soon as possible to ensure no additional billing arrives for renewals.
      • How will software be removed from all devices? How soon must the software be replaced, if applicable?
      • How long will records be archived in the ITAM database?
    3. Document decisions in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of an Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    3.1.2

    Sample of activity 3.1.2 'Define policies for software maintenance and patches'. Define policies for software maintenance and patches

    Discuss best practices and define policies for conducting regular software maintenance and patching.

    3.2.1

    Sample of activity 3.3.1 'Assess the maturity of audit management processes and policies'. Map your software license harvest and reallocation process

    Build a process workflow for harvesting and reallocating unused software licenses.

    Phase 3 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 3: Manage, redeploy, and retire

    Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4
    Step 3.1: Manage and maintain softwareStep 3.2: Harvest, redeploy, or retire
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Define a process for conducting software inventory
    • Define a policy for software maintenance
    • Build a patch management policy
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Build a process for harvesting and reallocating software licenses
    • Define a software retirement policy
    Then complete these activities…
    • Define process for conducting software inventory
    • Define policies for software maintenance
    • Document patch management policy
    Then complete these activities…
    • Map software harvest and reallocation process
    • Define software retirement policy
    With these tools & templates:
    • Standard Operating Procedures
    • Patch Management Policy
    With these tools & templates:
    • Standard Operating Procedures

    Phase 4: Build Supporting Processes & Tools

    Visa used an internal SAM strategy to win the audit battle

    Logo for VISA.

    Case Study

    Industry: Financial Services
    Source: SAM Summit 2014

    Challenge

    The overarching goal of any SAM program is compliance to prevent costly audit fines. The SAM team at Visa was made up of many individuals who were former auditors.

    To deal with audit requests from vendors, “understand how auditors do things and understand their approach,” states Joe Birdsong, SAM Director at Visa.

    Vendors are always on the lookout for telltale signs of a lucrative audit. For Visa, the key was to understand these processes and learn how to prepare for them.

    Solution

    Vendors typically look for the following when evaluating an organization for audit:

    1. A recent decrease in customer spend
    2. How easy the licensed software is to audit
    3. Organizational health

    Ultimately, an audit is an attack on the relationship between the vendor and organization. According to Birdsong: “Maybe they haven’t really touched base with your teams and had good contact and relationship with them, and they don’t really know what’s going on in your enterprise.”

    Results

    By understanding the motivations behind potential audits, Visa was able to form a strategy to increase transparency with the vendor.

    Regular data collection, almost real-time reporting, and open, quick communication with the vendor surrounding audits made Visa a low-risk client for vendors.

    Buy-in from management is also important, and the creation of an official SAM strategy helps maintain support. Thanks to its proactive SAM program, Visa saved $200 million in just three years.

    Step 4.1 Ensure compliance for audits

    Phase 4:
    Build supporting processes & tools
    This step will walk you through the following activities:This step involves the following participants:

    4.1

    Compliance & audits
    • 4.1.1 Define and document the internal audit process
    • 4.1.2 Define and document the external audit process
    • 4.1.3 Prepare an audit scoping email template
    • 4.1.4 Prepare an audit launch email template
    • IT Director, CIO
    • IT Managers and SAM Manager
    • SAM Team

    4.2

    Communicate & build roadmap

    Step Outcomes

    • An understanding of the audit process and importance of audit preparation
    • A defined process for conducting regular internal audits to prepare for and defend against external audits
    • A strategy and documented process for responding to external audit requests

    Take a lifecycle approach to your software compliance process

    Internal audits are an effective way for organizations to regularly assess their licensing position in preparation for an audit.

    1. Gather License Data
      Use your SAM tool to run a discovery check to determine the current state of your software estate.
    2. Improve Data Quality
      Scan the data for red flags. Improve its completeness, consistency, and quality.
    3. Identify Audit Risks
      Using corrected license data, examine your reports and identify areas of risk within the organization.
    4. Identify priority titles
      Determine which titles need attention first by using the output of the license rationalization step.
    5. Reconcile to eliminate gaps
      Ensure that the correct number of licenses are deployed for each title.
    6. Draft Vendor Response
      Prepare response to vendor for when an audit has been requested.

    Improve audit response maturity by leveraging technology and contract data

    By improving your software asset management program’s maturity, you will drive savings for the business that go beyond the negotiating table.

    Recognize the classic signs of each stage of audit response maturity to identify where your organization currently stands and where it can go.

    • Optimized: Automated tools generate compliance, usage, and savings reports. Product usage reports and alerts in place to harvest and reuse licenses. Detailed savings reports provided to executive team.
    • Proactive: Best practices enforced. Compliance positions are checked quarterly, and compliance reports are used to negotiate software contracts.
    • Reactive: Best practices identified but unused. Manual tools still primarily in use. Compliance reports are time-consuming and often inaccurate.
    • Chaotic: Purchases are ad hoc and transaction based. Minimal tracking in place, leading to time-consuming manual processes.

    Implement a proactive internal audit strategy to defend against external audits

    Audits – particularly those related to software – have been on the rise as vendors attempt to recapture revenue.

    Being prepared for an audit is critical. Internal preparation will not only help your organization reduce the risk associated with an audit but will also improve daily operations through focusing on diligent documentation and data collection.

    Conducting routine internal audits will help prepare your organization for the real deal and may even prevent the audit from happening altogether. Hundreds of thousands of dollars can be saved through a proactive audit strategy with routine documentation in place.

    In addition to the fines incurred from a failed audit, numerous other negative consequences can arise:

    • Multiple audits: Failing an audit makes the organization more likely to be audited again.
    • Poor perception of IT: Unless non-compliance was previously disclosed to the business, IT can be deemed responsible.
    • Punitive injunctions: If a settlement is not reached, vendors will apply for an injunction, inhibiting use of their software.
    • Inability to justify purchases: IT can have difficulty justifying the purchase of additional resources after a failed audit.
    • Disruption to business: Precious time and resources will be spent dealing with the results of the audit.

    Perform routine internal compliance reports to decrease audit risk

    The intent of an internal audit is to stop the battle from happening before it starts. Waiting for a knock at the door from a vendor can be stressful, and it can do harm beyond a costly fine.

    • Internal audits help to ensure you’re keeping track of any software changes to keep your data and licensing up to date and avoid costly surprises if an external audit is requested.
    • Identify areas where processes are breaking down and address them before there’s a potential negative impact.
    • Identify control points in processes ahead of time to more easily identify access points where information should be verified.

    “You want to get [the] environment to a level where you’re comfortable sharing information with [a] vendor. Inviting them in to have a chat and exposing numbers means there’s no relationship there where they’re coming to audit you. They only come to audit you when they know there’s a gain to be had, otherwise what’s the point of auditing?
    I want customers to get comfortable with licensing and what they’re spending, and then there’s no problem exposing that to vendors. Vendors actually appreciate that.”
    (Ben Brand, SAM Practice Manager, Insight)

    Info-Tech Insight

    “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” – Sun Tzu

    Performing routine checks on your license compliance will drastically reduce the risk that your organization gets hit with a costly fine. Maintaining transparency and demonstrating compliance will fend off audit-hungry vendors.

    Define and document the internal audit process

    Associated Activity icon 4.1.1 Document process and procedures for internal audits

    Participants: CIO and/or IT Director, Asset Manager, IT Managers

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    Define and document a process for conducting internal software audits.
    Include the following:

    1. How often will audits be completed for each software published?
    2. When will audits be conducted?
    3. Who will conduct the audit? Who will be consulted?
    4. What will be included in the scope of the audit?

    Example:

    • Annual audits will be completed for each software publisher, scheduled as part of the license or maintenance agreement renewals.
    • Where annual purchases are not required, vendor audits for compliance will be conducted annually, with a date predetermined based on minimizing scheduling conflicts with larger audits.
    • Audit will be completed with input from product managers.
    • Audit will include:
      • Software compliance review: Licenses owned compared to product installed.
      • Version review: Determine if installed versions match company standards. If there is a need for upgrades, does the license permit upgrading?
      • Maintenance review: Does the maintenance match requirements for the next year’s plans and licenses in use?
      • Support review: Is the support contract appropriate for use?
      • Budget: Has budget been allocated; is there an adjustment required due to increases?

    Identify organizational warning signs to decrease audit risk

    Being prepared for an audit is critical. Internal preparation will not only help your organization reduce the risk associated with an audit but will also improve daily operations through focusing on diligent documentation and data collection.

    Certain triggers exist that indicate a higher risk of an audit occurring. It is important to recognize these warning signs so you can prepare accordingly.

    Health of organization
    If your organization is putting out fires and a vendor can sense it, they’ll see an audit as a highly lucrative exercise.

    Decrease in customer spend
    A decrease in spend means that an organization has a high chance of being under-licensed.

    License complexity
    The more complex the license, the harder it is to remain in compliance. Some vendors are infamous for their complex licensing agreements.

    Audit Strategy

    • Audits should neither be feared nor embraced.
    • An audit is an attack on your relationship with your vendor; your vendor needs to defend its best interests, but it would also rather maintain a satisfied relationship with its client.
    • A proactive approach to audits through routine reporting and transparency with vendors will alleviate all fear surrounding the audit process. It provides your vendor with compliance assurance and communicates that an audit won’t net the vendor enough revenue to justify the effort.

    Focus on three key tactics for success before responding to an audit

    Taking these due diligence steps will pay dividends downstream, reducing the risk of negative results such as release of confidential information.

    Form an Audit Team

    • Once an audit letter is received from a vendor or third party, a virtual team needs to be formed.
    • The team should be cross-functional, representing various core areas of the business.
    • Don’t forget legal counsel: they will assist in the review of audit provision(s) to determine your contractual rights and obligations with respect to the audit.

    Sign an NDA

    • An NDA should be signed by all parties, the organization, the vendor, and the auditor.
    • Don’t wait on a vendor to provide its NDA. The organization should have its own and provide it to both parties.
    • If the auditor is a third party, negotiate a three-way NDA. This will prevent data being shared with other third parties.

    Examine Contract History

    • Vendors will attempt to alter terms of contracts when new products are purchased.
    • Maintain your current agreement if they are more favorable by “grandfathering” your original agreement.
    • Oracle master level agreements are an example: master level agreements offer more favorable terms than more recent versions.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Even if you cannot get a third-party NDA signed, the negotiation process should delay the overall audit process by at least a month, buying your organization valuable time to gather license data.

    Be prepared for external audit requests with a defined process for responding

    1. Vendor-initiated audit request received and brought to attention of IT Asset Manager and CIO.
    2. Acknowledge receipt of audit notice.
    3. Negotiate timing and scope of the audit (including software titles, geographic locations, entities, and completion date).
    4. Notify staff not to remove or acquire licenses for software under audit.
    5. Gather documentation and create report of all licensed software within audit scope.
      • Include original contract, most recent contract, and any addendums, purchase receipts, or reseller invoices, and publisher documentation such as manuals or electronic media.
    6. Compare documentation to installed software according to ITAM database.
    7. Validate any unusual or non-compliant software.
    8. Complete documentation requested by auditor and review results.

    Define and document the external audit process

    Associated Activity icon 4.1.2 Define external audit process

    Participants: CIO and/or IT Director, Asset Manager, IT Managers

    Document: Document in the Standard Operating Procedures.

    Define and document a process for responding to external software audit requests.
    Include the following:

    1. Who must be notified of the audit request when it is received?
    2. When must acknowledgement of the notice be sent and by whom?
    3. What must be defined under the scope of the audit (e.g. software titles, geographic locations, entities, completion date)?
    4. What communications must be sent to IT staff and end users to ensure compliance?
    5. What documentation should be gathered to review?
    6. How will documentation be verified against data?
    7. How will unusual or non-compliant software be identified and validated?
    8. Who needs to be informed of the results?

    Control audit scope with an audit response template

    Supporting Tool icon 4.1.3 Prepare an audit scoping email template

    Use the Software Audit Scoping Email Template to create an email directed at your external (or internal) auditors. Send the audit scoping email several weeks before an audit to determine the audit’s scope and objectives. The email should include:

    • Detailed questions about audit scope and objectives.
    • Critical background information on your organization/program.

    The email will help focus your preparation efforts and initiate your relationship with the auditors.

    Control scope by addressing the following:

    • Products covered by a properly executed agreement
    • Geographic regions
    • User groups
    • Time periods
    • Specific locations
    • A subset of users’ computers
    Sample of the 'Software Audit Scoping Email Template'.

    Keep leadership informed with an audit launch email

    Supporting Tool icon 4.1.4 Prepare an audit launch email template

    Approximately a week before the audit, you should email the internal leadership to communicate information about the start of the audit. Use the Software Audit Launch Email Template to create this email, including:

    • Staffing
    • Functional requirements
    • Audit contact person information
    • Scheduling details
    • Audit report estimated delivery time

    For more guidance on preparing for a software audit, see Info-Tech’s blueprint: Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit.

    Sample of the 'Software Audit Launch Email Template'.

    A large bank employed proactive, internal audits to experience big savings

    Case Study

    Industry: Banking
    Source: Pomeroy

    Challenge

    A large American financial institution with 1,300 banking centers in 12 states, 28,000 end users, and 108,000 assets needed to improve its asset management program.

    The bank had employed numerous ITAM tools, but IT staff identified that its asset data was still fragmented. There was still incomplete insight into what assets the banked owned, the precise value of those assets, their location, and what they’re being used for.

    The bank decided to establish an asset management program that involved internal audits to gather more-complete data sets.

    Solution

    With the help of a vendor, the bank implemented cradle-to-grave asset tracking and lifecycle management, which provided discovery of almost $80 million in assets.

    The bank also assembled an ITAM team and a dedicated ITAM manager to ensure that routine internal audits were performed.

    The team was instrumental in establishing standardization of IT policies, hardware configuration, and service requirements.

    Results

    • The bank identified and now tracks over 108,000 assets.
    • The previous level of 80% accuracy in inventory tracking was raised to 96%.
    • Nearly $500,000 was saved through asset recovery and repurposing of 600 idle assets.
    • There are hundreds of thousands of dollars in estimated savings as the result of avoiding costly penalties from failed audits thanks to proactive internal audits.

    Step 4.2 Build communication plan and roadmap

    Phase 4:
    Build supporting processes & tools
    This step will walk you through the following activities:This step involves the following participants:

    4.1

    Compliance & audits
    • 4.2.1 Develop a communication plan to convey the right messages
    • 4.2.2 Anticipate end-user questions by preparing an FAQ list
    • 4.2.3 Build a software asset management policy
    • 4.2.4 Build additional SAM policies
    • 4.2.5 Develop a SAM roadmap to plan your implementation
    • IT Director, CIO
    • IT Managers and SAM Manager
    • SAM Team

    4.2

    Communicate & build roadmap

    Step Outcomes

    • A documented communications plan for relevant stakeholders to understand the benefits and changes the SAM program will bring
    • A list of anticipated end-user questions with responses
    • Documented software asset management policies
    • An implementation roadmap

    Communicate SAM processes to gain acceptance and support

    Communication is crucial to the integration and overall implementation of your SAM program. If staff and users do not understand the purpose of processes and policies, they will fail to provide the desired value.

    An effective communication plan will:

    • Gain support from management at the project proposal phase.
    • Create end-user buy-in once the program is set to launch.
    • Maintain the presence of the program throughout the business.
    • Instill ownership throughout the business from top-level management to new hires.

    Communicate the following:

    1. Advertise successes

      • Regularly demonstrate the value of the SAM program with descriptive statistics focused on key financial benefits.
      • Share data with the appropriate personnel; promote success to obtain further support from senior management.
    2. Report and share asset data

      • Sharing detailed asset-related reports frequently gives decision makers useful data to aid in their strategy.
      • These reports can help your organization prepare for audits, adjust budgeting, and detect unauthorized software.
    3. Communicate the value of SAM

      • Educate management and end users about how they fit into the bigger picture.
      • Individuals need to know which behaviors may put the organization at risk or adversely affect data quality.

    Educate staff and end users through SAM training to increase program success

    As part of your communication plan and overall SAM implementation, training should be provided to both staff and end users within the organization.

    • ITAM solutions are complex by nature with both business process and technical knowledge required to use them correctly.
    • All facets of the business, from management to new hires, should be provided with training to help them understand their role in the program’s success.
    • Keep the message appropriate to the audience – end users don’t need to know the complete process, but will need to know policy and how to request.
    • Even after the SAM program has been fully implemented, keep employees up to date with policies and processes through ongoing training sessions for both new hires and existing employees:
      • New hires: Provide new hires with all relevant SAM policies and ensure they understand the importance of software asset management.
      • Existing employees: Continually remind them of how SAM is involved in their daily operations and inform them of any changes to policies.

    Create your communications plan to anticipate challenges, remove obstacles, and ensure buy-in

    Provide separate communications to key stakeholder groups

    Why:
    • What problems are you trying to solve?
    What:
    • What processes will it affect (that will affect me)?
    Who:
    • Who will be affected?
    • Who do I go to if I have issues with the new process?
    Three circular arrows each linking t the next in a downward daisy chain. The type arrow has 'IT Staff' in the middle, the second 'Management', and the third 'End Users' When:
    • When will this be happening?
    • When will it affect me?
    How:
    • How will these changes manifest themselves?
    Goal:
    • What is the final goal?
    • How will it benefit me?

    Develop a communication plan to convey the right messages

    Associated Activity icon 4.2.1 Develop a communication plan to convey the right messages

    Participants: CIO, IT Director, Asset Manager, Service Desk Manager

    Document: Document in the SAM Communication Plan.

    1. Identify the groups that will be affected by the SAM program.
    2. For each group requiring a communication plan, identify the following:
    3. Benefits of SAM for that group of individuals (e.g. more efficient software requests).
    4. The impact the change will have on them (e.g. change in the way a certain process will work).
    5. Communication method (i.e. how you will communicate).
    6. Timeframe (i.e. when and how often you will communicate the changes).
    7. Complete this information in a table like the one below and document in the Communication Plan.
    Group Benefits Impact Method Timeline
    Executives
    • Improved audit compliance
    • Improved budgeting and forecasting
    • Review and sign off on policies
    End Users
    • Streamlined software request process
    • Follow software installation and security policies
    IT
    • Faster access to data and one source of truth
    • Modified processes
    • Ensure audits are completed regularly

    Anticipate end-user questions by preparing an FAQ list

    Associated Activity icon 4.2.2 Prepare an FAQ list

    Document: Document FAQ questions and answers in the SAM FAQ Template.

    ITAM imposes changes to end users throughout the business and it’s normal to expect questions about the new program. Prepare your team ahead of time by creating a list of FAQs.

    Some common questions include:

    • Why are you changing from the old processes?
    • Why now?
    • What are you going to ask me to do differently?
    • Will I lose any of my software?

    The benefits of preparing a list of answers to FAQs include:

    • A reduction in time spent creating answers to questions. If you focus on the most common questions, you will make efficient use of your team’s time.
    • Consistency in your team’s responses. By socializing the answers to FAQs, you ensure that no one on your team is out of the loop and the message remains consistent across the board.

    Include policy design and enforcement in your communication plan

    • Software asset management policies should define the actions to be taken to support software asset management processes and ensure the effective and efficient management of IT software assets across the asset lifecycle.
    • Implementing asset management policies enforces the notion that the organization takes its IT assets and the management of them seriously and will help ensure the benefits of SAM are achieved.
    • Designing, approving, documenting, and adopting one set of standard SAM policies for each department to follow will ensure the processes are enforced equally across the organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Use policy templates to jumpstart your policy development and ensure policies are comprehensive, but be sure to modify and adapt policies to suit your corporate culture or they will not gain buy-in from employees. For a policy to be successful, it must be a living document and have participation and involvement from the committees and departments to whom it will pertain.

    Build a software asset management policy

    Supporting Tool icon 4.2.3 Document a SAM policy

    Use Info-Tech’s Software Asset Management Policy template to define and document the purpose, scope, objectives, and roles and responsibilities for your organization's software asset management program.

    The template allows you to customize policy requirements for:

    • Procurement
    • Installation and Removal
    • Maintenance
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Company Divestitures
    • Audits

    …as well as consequences for non-compliance.

    Sample of the 'Software Asset Management Policy' template.

    Use Info-Tech’s policy templates to build additional policies

    Supporting Tool icon 4.2.4 Build additional SAM policies

    Asset Security Policy
    The IT asset security policy will describe your organization's approach to ensuring the physical and digital security of your IT assets throughout their entire lifecycle.

    End-User Devices Acceptable Use Policy
    This policy should describe how business tools provided to employees are to be used in a responsible, ethical, and compliant manner, as well as the consequences of non-compliance.

    Purchasing Policy
    The purchasing policy helps to establish company standards, guidelines, and procedures for the purchase of all information technology hardware, software, and computer-related components as well as the purchase of all technical services.

    Release Management Policy
    Use this policy template to define and document the purpose, scope, objectives, and roles and responsibilities for your organization's release management program.

    Internet Acceptable Use Policy
    Use this template to help keep the internet use policy up to date. This policy template includes descriptions of acceptable and unacceptable use, security provisions, and disclaimers on the right of the organization to monitor usage and liability.

    Samples of additional SAM policies, listed to the left.

    Implement SAM in a phased, constructive approach

    One of the most difficult decisions to make when implementing a SAM program is: “where do we start?”

    It’s not necessary to deploy a comprehensive SAM program to start. Build on the essentials to become more mature as you grow.

    SAM Program Maturity (highest to lowest)

    • Audits and reporting
      Gather and analyze data about software assets to ensure compliance for audits and to continually improve the business.
    • Contracts and budget
      Analyze contracts and licenses for software across the enterprise and optimize planning to enable cost reduction.
    • Lifecycle standardization
      Define standards and processes for all asset lifecycle phases from request and procurement through to retirement and redistribution.
    • Inventory and tracking
      Define assets you will procure, distribute, and track. Know what you have, where it is deployed, and keep track of contracts and all relevant data.

    Integrate your SAM program with the organization to assist its implementation

    SAM cannot perform on its own – it must be integrated with other functional areas of the organization to maintain its stability and support.

    • Effective SAM is supported by a comprehensive set of processes as part of its implementation.
    • For example, integration with the procurement team’s processes and tools is required to track software purchases to mitigate software license compliance risk.
    • Integration with Finance is required to support internal cost allocations and chargebacks.
    • Integration with the service desk is required to track and deploy software requests.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    To integrate SAM effectively, a clear implementation roadmap needs to be designed. Prioritize “quick wins” to demonstrate success to the business early and to gain buy-in from your team. Short-term gains should be designed to support long-term goals of your SAM program.

    Sample short-term goals
    • Identify inventory classification and tool
    • Create basic SAM policies and processes
    • Implement SAM auto-discovery tools
    Sample long-term goals
    • Software contract data integration
    • Continual improvement through review and revision
    • Software compliance reports, internal audits

    Develop a SAM roadmap to plan your implementation

    Associated Activity icon 4.2.5 Build a project roadmap
    1. Identify and review all initiatives that will be taken to implement or improve the software asset management program. These may fall under people, process, or technology-related tasks.
    2. Assign a priority level to each task (Quick Win, Low, Medium, High).
    3. Use the priority to sort tasks into start dates, breaking down by:
      1. Short, medium, or long-term
      2. 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12+ months
      3. Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4
    4. Review tasks and adjust start dates for some, if needed to set realistic and achievable timelines.
    5. Transfer tasks to a project plan or Gantt chart to formalize.
    Examples:
    Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
    • Hire software asset manager
    • Document SOP
    • Define policies
    • Select a SAM tool
    • Create list of approved services and software
    • Define metrics
    • Inventory existing software and contracts
    • Build a patch policy
    • Build a service catalog
    • Contract renewal alignment
    • Run internal audit
    • Security review

    Review and maintain the SAM program to reach optimal maturity

    • SAM is a dynamic process. It must adapt to keep pace with the direction of the organization. New applications, different licensing needs, and a constant stream of new end users all contribute to complicating the licensing process.
    • As part of your organization’s journey to an optimized SAM program, put in place continual improvement practices to maintain momentum.

    A suggested cycle of review and maintenance for your SAM: 'Plan', 'Do', 'Check', 'Act'.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Advertising the increased revenue that is gained from good SAM practices is a powerful way to gain project buy-in.

    Keep the momentum going:

    • Clearly define ongoing responsibilities for each role.
    • Develop a training and awareness program for new employees to be introduced to SAM processes and policies.
    • Continually review and revise existing processes as necessary.
    • Measure the success of the program to identify areas for improvement and demonstrate successes.
    • Measure adherence to process and policies and enforce as needed.

    Reflect on the outcomes of implementing SAM to target areas for improvement and share knowledge gained within and beyond the SAM team. Some questions to consider include:

    1. How did the data compare to our expectations? Was the project a success?
    2. What obstacles were present that impacted the project?
    3. How can we apply lessons learned through this project to others in the future?

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of an Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    4.2.1

    Sample of activity 4.2.1 'Develop a communication plan to convey the right messages'. Develop a communication plan to convey the right messages

    Identify stakeholders requiring communication and formulate a message and delivery method for each.

    4.2.5

    Sample of activity 4.2.5 'Develop a SAM roadmap to plan your implementation'. Develop a SAM roadmap to plan your implementation

    Outline the tasks necessary for the implementation of this project and prioritize to build a project roadmap.

    Phase 4 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 4: Build supporting processes & tools

    Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4
    Step 4.1: Compliance & audits Step 4.2: Communicate & build roadmap
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Discuss audit process
    • Define a process for internal audits
    • Define a process for external audit response
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Build communication plan
    • Discuss policy needs
    • Build a roadmap
    Then complete these activities…
    • Document internal audit process
    • Document external audit process
    • Prepare audit templates
    Then complete these activities…
    • Develop communication plan
    • Prepare an FAQ list for end users
    • Build SAM policies
    • Develop a roadmap
    With these tools & templates:
    • Standard Operating Procedures
    • Software Audit Scoping Email Template
    • Software Audit Launch Email Template
    With these tools & templates:
    • SAM Communication Plan
    • Software Asset Management FAQ Template
    • Software Asset Management Policy
    • Additional Policy Templates

    Bibliography

    2013 Software Audit Industry Report.” Express Metrix, 2013. Web.

    7 Vital Trends Disrupting Today’s Workplace: Results and Data from 2013 TINYpulse Employee Engagement Survey.” TINYpulse, 2013. Web.

    Beaupoil, Christof. “How to measure data quality and protect against software audits.” Network World, 6 June 2011.

    Begg, Daniel. “Effective Licence Position (ELP) – What is it really worth?” LinkedIn, 19 January 2016.

    Boehler, Bernhard. “Advanced License Optimization: Go Beyond Compliance for Maximum Cost Savings.” The ITAM Review, 24 November 2014.

    Bruce, Warren. “SAM Baseline – process & best practice.” Microsoft. 2013 Australia Partner Conference.

    Case Study Top 20 U.S. Bank Tackles Asset Management.” Pomeroy, 2012. Web.

    Cherwell Software Software Audit Industry Report.” Cherwell Software, 2015. Web.

    Conrad, Sandi. “SAM starter kit: everything you need to get started with software asset management. Conrad & Associates, 2010.

    Corstens, Jan, and Diederik Van der Sijpe. “Contract risk & compliance software asset management (SAM).” Deloitte, 2012.

    Deas, A., T. Markowitzm and E. Black. “Software asset management: high risk, high reward.” Deloitte, 2014.

    Doig, Chris. “Why you should always estimate ROI before buying enterprise software” CIO, 13 August 2015.

    Fried, Chuck. “America Needs An Education On Software Asset Management (SAM).” LinkedIn. 16 June 2015.

    Lyons, Gwen. “Understanding the Drivers Behind Application Rationalization Critical to Success.” Flexera Software Blog, 31 October 2012.

    Bibliography

    Metrics to Measure SAM Success: eight ways to prove your SAM program is delivering business benefits.” Snow Software White Paper, 2015.

    Microsoft. “The SAM Optimization Model.” Microsoft Corporation White Paper, 2010.

    Miller, D. and M. Oliver. “Engaging Stakeholders for Project Success.” Project Management Institute White Paper, 2015.

    Morrison, Dan. “5 Common Misconceptions of Software Asset Management.” SoftwareOne. 12 May 2015.

    O’Neill, Leslie T. “Visa Case Study: SAM in the 21st Century.” International Business Software Managers Association (IBSMA), 30 July 2014.

    Reducing Hidden Operating Costs Through IT Asset Discovery.” NetSupport Inc., 2011.

    SAM Summit 2014, 23-25 June 2014, University of Chicago Gleacher Center Conference Facilities, Chicago, MI.

    Saxby, Heather. “20 Things Every CIO Needs to Know about Software Asset Management.” Crayon Software Experts, 13 May 2015.

    The 2016 State of IT: Managing the money monsters for the coming year.” Spiceworks, 2016.

    The Hidden Cost of Unused Software.” A 1E Report, 1E.com: 2014. Web.

    What does it take to achieve software license optimization?” Flexera White Paper, 2013.

    Research contributors and experts

    Photo of Michael Dean, Director, User Support Services, Des Moines University Michael Dean
    Director, User Support Services
    Des Moines University
    Simon Leuty
    Co-Founder
    Livingstone Tech
    Photo of Simon Leuty, Co-Founder, Livingstone Tech
    Photo of Clare Walsh, PR Consultant, Adesso Tech Ltd. Clare Walsh
    PR Consultant
    Adesso Tech Ltd.
    Alex Monaghan
    Director, Presales EMEA
    Product Support Solutions
    Photo of Alex Monaghan, Director, Presales EMEA, Product Support Solutions

    Research contributors and experts

    Photo of Ben Brand, SAM Practice Manager, Insight Ben Brand
    SAM Practice Manager
    Insight
    Michael Swanson
    President
    ISAM
    Photo of Michael Swanson, President, ISAM
    Photo of Bruce Aboudara, SVP, Marketing & Business Development, Scalable Software Bruce Aboudara
    SVP, Marketing & Business Development
    Scalable Software
    Will Degener
    Senior Solutions Consultant
    Scalable Software
    Photo of Will Degener, Senior Solutions Consultant, Scalable Software

    Research contributors and experts

    Photo of Peter Gregorowicz, Associate Director, Network & Client Services, Vancouver Community College Peter Gregorowicz
    Associate Director, Network & Client Services
    Vancouver Community College
    Peter Schnitzler
    Operations Team Lead
    Toyota Canada
    Photo of Peter Schnitzler, Operations Team Lead, Toyota Canada
    Photo of David Maughan, Head of Service Transition, Mott MacDonald Ltd. David Maughan
    Head of Service Transition
    Mott MacDonald Ltd.
    Brian Bernard
    Infrastructure & Operations Manager
    Lee County Clerk of Court
    Photo of Brian Bernard, Infrastructure & Operations Manager, Lee County Clerk of Court

    Research contributors and experts

    Photo of Leticia Sobrado, IT Data Governance & Compliance Manager, Intercept Pharmaceuticals Leticia Sobrado
    IT Data Governance & Compliance Manager
    Intercept Pharmaceuticals

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

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}352|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $3,000 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 2 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Development
    • Parent Category Link: /development
    • There are many voices with different opinions on the role of project management. This causes confusion and unnecessary churn.
    • Project management and product management naturally align to different time horizons. Harmonizing their viewpoints can take significant work.
    • Different parts of the organization have diverse views on how to govern and fund pieces of work, which leads to confusion when it comes to the role of project management.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

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

    Impact and Result

    • Get alignment on the definition of projects and products.
    • Understand the differences between delivering projects and delivering products.
    • Line up your project management activities with the needs of Agile and product-centric projects.
    • Understand how funding can change when moving away from project-centric delivery.

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

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

    1. Define the Role of Project Management in Agile and Product-Centric Delivery – A guide that walks you through how to define the role of project management in product-centric and Agile delivery environments.

    The activities in this research will guide you through clarifying how you want to talk about projects and products, aligning project management and agility, specifying the different activities for project management, and identifying key differences with funding of products instead of projects.

    • Define the Role of Project Management in Agile and Product-Centric Delivery Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Further reading

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

    Projects and products are not mutually exclusive.

    Table of Contents

    3 Analyst Perspective

    4 Executive Summary

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

    13 Step 1.2: Align Project Management and Agility

    16 Step 1.3: Specify the Different Activities for Project Management

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

    25 Where Do I Go Next?

    26 Bibliography

    Analyst Perspective

    Project management still has an important role to play!

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

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

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

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

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

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge
    • Organizations are under pressure to align the value they provide with the organization’s goals and overall company vision.
    • In response, they are moving to more product-centric delivery practices.
    • Previously, project managers focused on the delivery of objectives through a project, but changes in delivery practices result in de-emphasizing this. What should project managers should be doing?
    Common Obstacles
    • There are many voices with different opinions on the role of project management. This causes confusion and unnecessary churn.
    • Project management and product management naturally align to different time horizons. Harmonizing their viewpoints can take significant work.
    • Different parts of the organization have very specific views on how to govern and fund pieces of work, which leads to confusion about the role of project management.
    Info-Tech’s Approach
    • Get alignment on the definition of projects and products.
    • Understand the differences between delivering projects and products.
    • Line up your project management activities with the needs of Agile and product-centric projects.
    • Understand how funding can change when moving away from project-centric delivery.

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Your evolution of delivery practice is not a binary switch

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Activities to undertake as you transition to product-centric delivery

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

    Step 1.1

    Clarify How You Want to Talk About Projects and Products

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

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

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

    Definition of terms

    Project

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

    Product

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

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

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

    30-60 minutes

    Output: Your enterprise/organizational definition of products and projects

    Participants: Executives, Product/project managers, Applications teams

    1. Discuss what “product” and “project” mean in your organization.
    2. Create common, enterprise-wide definitions for “product” and “project.”
    3. Screenshot of the previous slide's definitions of 'Project' and 'Product'.

    Agile and product management does not mean projects go away

    Diagram laying out the roadmap for 'Continuous delivery of value'. Beginning with 'Projects With Agile Delivery' in which Projects with features and services end in a Product Release that is disconnected from the continuum. Then the 'Products With Agile Project and Operational Delivery' and 'Products With Agile Delivery' which are connected by a 'Product Roadmap' and 'Product Backlog' have Product Releases that connect to the continuum.

    Projects Within Products

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Note

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

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

    Project Product
    Fund projects — Funding –› Fund teams
    Line-of-business sponsor — Prioritization –› Product owner
    Project owner — Accountability –› Product owner
    Makes specific changes to a product —Product management –› Improves product maturity and support of the product
    Assignment of people to work — Work allocation –› Assignment of work to product teams
    Project manager manages — Capacity management –› Team manages

    Info-Tech Insight

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

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

    5-10 minutes

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

    Participants: Executives, Product/project managers, Applications teams

    • Discuss as a group:
      • What stands out in the evolution from project to product?
      • What concerns do you have with the change?
      • What will remain the same?
      • Which changes feel the most impactful?
      • Screenshot of the slide's 'Continuous delivery of value' diagram.

    Step 1.2

    Align Project Management and Agility

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

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Executives
    • Product/Project managers
    • Applications teams

    Outcomes of this step

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

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

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

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

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

    Product Owner
    • Defines the “what” and heavily involved in the “when” and the “why”
    • Accountable for delivery of value
    Delivery team members
    • Define the “how”
    • Accountable for building and delivering high-quality deliverables
    • Can include roles like user experience, interaction design, business analysis, architecture
    Process Manager
    • Facilitates the other teams to ensure valuable delivery
    • Can potentially, in a Scrum environment, play the scrum master role, which involves leading scrums, retrospectives, and sprint reviews and working to resolve team issues and impediments
    • Evolves into more of a facilitator and communicator role

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

    5-10 minutes

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

    Participants: Executives, Product/project managers, Applications teams

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

    Step 1.3

    Specify the Different Activities for Project Management

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

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Executives
    • Product/Project managers
    • Applications teams

    Outcomes of this step

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

    Kicking off the project

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

    Stock photo of many hands grabbing a 2D rocketship.
    Project Charter

    Project managers should still define a charter and capture the vision and scope. The vision and high-level scope is primarily defined by the product owner.

    Key Stakeholders and Communication

    Clearly defining stakeholders and communication needs is still important. However, they are defined based on significant input and cues by the product owner.

    Standardizing on Tools and Processes

    To ensure consistency across projects, project managers will want to align tools to how the team manages their backlog and workflow. This will smooth communication about status with stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    During the project: Three key activities

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

    1. Support
      • Communicate Agile/product team needs to leadership
      • Liaise and co-ordinate for non-Agile/product-focused parts of the organization
      • Coach members of the team
    2. Monitoring
      • Regular status updates to PMO still required
      • Metrics aligned with Agile/product practices
      • Leverage similar tooling and approaches to what is done locally on Agile/product teams (if possible)
    3. Escalation
      • Still a key escalation point for roadblocks that go outside the product teams
      • Collaborate closely with Agile/product team leadership and scrum masters (if applicable)
    Cross-section of a head, split into three levels with icons representing the three steps detailed on the left, 'Support', 'Monitoring', and 'Escalation'.

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

    5-10 minutes

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

    Participants: Executives, Product/project managers, Applications teams

    Why is this important?

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

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

    Step 1.4

    Identify Key Differences in Funding of Products Instead of Projects

    Activities
    • 1.4.1 Discuss traditional versus product-centric funding methods

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

    • Identified differences in funding of products instead of projects

    Planning and budgeting for products and families

    Reward for delivering outcomes, not features

    Autonomy

    Icon of a diamond.

    Fund what delivers value

    Fund long-lived delivery of value through products (not projects).

    Give autonomy to the team to decide exactly what to build.

    Flexibility

    Icon of a dollar sign.

    Allocate iteratively

    Allocate to a pool based on higher-level business case.

    Provide funds in smaller amounts to different product teams and initiatives based on need.

    Arrow cycling right in a clockwise motion.



    Arrow cycling left in a clockwise motion.

    Accountability

    Icon of a target.

    Measure and adjust

    Product teams define metrics that contribute to given outcomes.

    Track progress and allocate more (or less) funds as appropriate.

    Stock image of two suited hands exchanging coins.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Changes to funding require changes to product and Agile practices to ensure product ownership and accountability.

    (Adapted from Bain & Company)

    Budgeting approaches must evolve as you mature your product operating environment

    TRADITIONAL PROJECTS WITH WATERFALL DELIVERY TRADITIONAL PROJECTS WITH AGILE DELIVERY PRODUCTS WITH AGILE PROJECT DELIVERY PRODUCTS WITH AGILE DELIVERY

    WHEN IS THE BUDGET TRACKED?

    Budget tracked by major phases Budget tracked by sprint and project Budget tracked by sprint and project Budget tracked by sprint and release

    HOW ARE CHANGES HANDLED?

    All change is by exception Scope change is routine; budget change is by exception Scope change is routine; budget change is by exception Budget change is expected on roadmap cadence

    WHEN ARE BENEFITS REALIZED?

    Benefits realization post project completion Benefits realization ongoing throughout the life of the project Benefits realization ongoing throughout the life of the product Benefits realization ongoing throughout life of the product

    WHO DRIVES?

    Project Manager
    • Project team delivery role
    • Refines project scope, advocates for changes in the budget
    • Advocates for additional funding in the forecast
    Product Owner
    • Project team delivery role
    • Refines project scope, advocates for changes in the budget
    • Advocates for additional funding in the forecast
    Product Manager
    • Product portfolio team role
    • Forecasting new initiatives during delivery to continue to drive value throughout the life of the product
    Product Manager
    • Product family team role
    • Forecasting new initiatives during delivery to continue to drive value throughout the life of the product
    ˆ ˆ
    Hybrid Operating Environments

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    1.4.1 Discuss traditional versus product-centric funding methods

    30 minutes

    Output: Understanding of funding principles and challenges

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

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

    Case Study

    Global Digital Financial Services Company

    This financial services company looked to drive better results by adopting more product-centric practices.

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

    Where Do I Go Next?

    Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision

    • Build a product vision your organization can take from strategy through execution.

    Build a Better Product Owner

    • Strengthen the product owner role in your organization by focusing on core capabilities and proper alignment.

    Implement Agile Practices That Work

    • Improve collaboration and transparency with the business to minimize project failure.

    Implement DevOps Practices That Work

    • Streamline business value delivery through the strategic adoption of DevOps practices.

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

    • Turn planning into action with a realistic PMO timeline.

    Deliver Digital Products at Scale

    • Deliver value at the scale of your organization through defining enterprise product families.

    Extend Agile Practices Beyond IT

    • Further the benefits of Agile by extending a scaled Agile framework to the business.

    Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence

    • Facilitate ongoing alignment between Agile teams and the business with a set of targeted service offerings.

    Tailor IT Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects

    • Spend less time managing processes and more time delivering results.

    Bibliography

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}531|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
    • 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.

    Create a Data Management Roadmap

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}122|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $100,135 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 36 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management

    Data has quickly become one of the most valuable assets in any organization. But when it comes to strategically and effectively managing those data assets, many businesses find themselves playing catch-up. The stakes are high because ineffective data management practices can have serious consequences, from poor business decisions and missed revenue opportunities to critical cybersecurity risks.

    Successful management and consistent delivery of data assets requires collaboration between the business and IT and the right balance of technology, process, and resourcing solutions.

    Build an effective and collaborative data management practice

    Data management is not one-size-fits-all. Cut through the noise around data management and create a roadmap that is right for your organization:

    • Align data management plans with business requirements and strategic plans.
    • Create a collaborative plan that unites IT and the business in managing data assets.
    • Design a program that can scale and evolve over time.
    • Perform data strategy planning and incorporate data capabilities into your broader plans.
    • Identify gaps in current data services and the supporting environment and determine effective corrective actions.

    This blueprint will help you design a data management practice that builds capabilities to support your organization’s current use of data and its vision for the future.

    Create a Data Management Roadmap Research & Tools

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

    1. Create a Data Management Roadmap Storyboard – Use this deck to help you design a data management practice and turn data into a strategic enabler for the organization.

    Effective data delivery and management provides the business with new and improved opportunities to leverage data for business operations and decision making. This blueprint will help you design a data management practice that will help your team build capabilities that align to the business' current usage of data and its vision for the future.

    • Create a Data Management Roadmap – Phases 1-2

    2. Data Management Strategy Planning Tools – Use these tools to align with the business and lay the foundations for the success of your data management practice.

    Begin by using the interview guide to engage stakeholders to gain a thorough understanding of the business’ challenges with data, their strategic goals, and the opportunities for data to support their future plans. From there, these tools will help you identify the current and target capabilities for your data management practice, analyze gaps, and build your roadmap.

    • Data Strategy Planning Interview Guide
    • Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool
    • Data Management Project Charter Template

    3. Stakeholder Communication and Assessment Tools – Use these templates to develop a communication strategy that will convey the value of the data management project to the organization and meet the needs of key stakeholders.

    Strong messaging around the value and purpose of the data management practice is essential to ensure buy-in. Use these templates to build a business case for the project and socialize the idea of data management across the various levels of the organization while anticipating the impact on and reactions from key stakeholders.

    • Data Management Communication/Business Case Template
    • Project Stakeholder and Impact Assessment Tool

    4. Data Management Strategy Work Breakdown Structure Template – Use this template to maintain strong project management throughout your data management project.

    This customizable template will support an organized approach to designing a program that addresses the business’ current and evolving data management needs. Use it to plan and track your deliverables and outcomes related to each stage of the project.

    • Data Management Strategy Work Breakdown Structure Template

    5. Data Management Roadmap Tools – Use these templates to plan initiatives and create a data management roadmap presentation.

    Create a roadmap for your data management practice that aligns to your organization’s current needs for data and its vision for how it wants to use data over the next 3-5 years. The initiative tool guides you to identify and record all initiative components, from benefits to costs, while the roadmap template helps you create a presentation to share your project findings with your executive team and project sponsors.

    • Initiative Definition Tool
    • Data Management Roadmap Template

    6. Track and Measure Benefits Tool – Use this tool to monitor the project’s progress and impact.

    Benefits tracking enables you to measure the effectiveness of your project and make adjustments where necessary to realize expected benefits. This tool will help you track benefit metrics at regular intervals to report progress on goals and identify benefits that are not being realized so that you can take remedial action.

    • Track and Measure Benefits Tool

    Infographic

    Workshop: Create a Data Management Roadmap

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

    1 Develop Data Strategies

    The Purpose

    Understand the business’s vision for data and the role of the data management practice.

    Determine business requirements for data.

    Map business goals and strategic plans to create data strategies.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of business’s vision for data

    Unified vision for data management (business and IT)

    Identification of the business’s data strategies

    Activities

    1.1 Establish business context for data management.

    1.2 Develop data management principles and scope.

    1.3 Develop conceptual data model (subject areas).

    1.4 Discuss strategic information needs for each subject area.

    1.5 Develop data strategies.

    1.6 Identify data management strategies and enablers.

    Outputs

    Practice vision

    Data management guiding principles

    High-level data requirements

    Data strategies for key data assets

    2 Assess Data Management Capabilities

    The Purpose

    Determine the current and target states of your data management practice.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Clear understanding of current environment

    Activities

    2.1 Determine the role and scope of data management within the organization.

    2.2 Assess current data management capabilities.

    2.3 Set target data management capabilities.

    2.4 Identify performance gaps.

    Outputs

    Data management scope

    Data management capability assessment results

    3 Analyze Gaps and Develop Improvement Initiatives

    The Purpose

    Identify how to bridge the gaps between the organization’s current and target environments.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Creation of key strategic plans for data management

    Activities

    3.1 Evaluate performance gaps.

    3.2 Identify improvement initiatives.

    3.3 Create preliminary improvement plans.

    Outputs

    Data management improvement initiatives

    4 Design Roadmap and Plan Implementation

    The Purpose

    Create a realistic and action-oriented plan for implementing and improving the capabilities for data management.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Completion of a Data Management Roadmap

    Plan for how to implement the roadmap’s initiatives

    Activities

    4.1 Align data management initiatives to data strategies and business drivers.

    4.2 Identify dependencies and priorities

    4.3 Build a data management roadmap (short and long term)

    4.4 Create a communication plan

    Outputs

    Data management roadmap

    Action plan

    Communication plan

    Further reading

    Contents

    Executive Brief
    Analyst Perspective
    Executive Summary
    Phase 1: Build Business and User Context
    Phase 2: Assess Data Management and Build Your Roadmap
    Additional Support
    Related Research
    Bibliography

    Create a Data Management Roadmap

    Ensure the right capabilities to support your data strategy.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Establish a data management program to realize the data strategy vision and data-driven organization.

    Data is one of the most valuable organizational assets, and data management is the foundation – made up of plans, programs, and practices – that delivers, secures, and enhances the value of those assets.

    Digital transformation in how we do business and innovations like artificial intelligence and automation that deliver exciting experiences for our customers are all powered by readily available, trusted data. And there’s so much more of it.

    A data management roadmap designed for where you are in your business journey and what’s important to you provides tangible answers to “Where do we start?” and “What do we do?”

    This blueprint helps you build and enhance data management capabilities as well as identify the next steps for evaluating, strengthening, harmonizing, and optimizing these capabilities, aligned precisely with business objectives and data strategy.

    Andrea Malick
    Director, Research & Advisory, Data & Analytics Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Frame the problem

    Who this research is for
    • Data management professionals looking to improve the organization’s ability to leverage data in value-added ways
    • Data governance managers and data analysts looking to improve the effectiveness and value of their organization’s data management practice
    This research will help you
    • Align data management plans with business requirements and strategic plans.
    • Create a collaborative plan that unites IT and the business in managing the organization’s data assets.
    • Design a data management program that can scale and evolve over time.
    This research will also assist
    • Business leaders creating plans to leverage data in their strategic planning and business processes
    • IT professionals looking to improve the environment that manages and delivers data
    This research will also help you
    • Perform data strategy planning and incorporate data capabilities and plans into your broader plans.
    • Identify gaps in current data services and the supporting environment and determine effective corrective actions.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge
    • The organizational appetite for data is increasing, with growing demands for data to better support business processes and inform decision making.
    • For data to be accessible and trustworthy for the business it must be effectively managed throughout its lifecycle.
    • With so much data circulating throughout our systems and a steady flow via user activity and business activities, it is imperative that we understand our data environment, focus our data services and oversight on what really matters, and work closely with business leads to ensure data is an integral part of the digital solution.
    Common Obstacles
    • Despite the growing focus on data, many organizations struggle to develop an effective strategy for managing their data assets.
    • Successful management and consistent delivery of data assets throughout their lifecycle requires the collaboration of the business and IT and the balance of technology, process, and resourcing solutions.
    • Employees are doing their best to just get things done with their own spreadsheets and familiar patterns of behavior. It takes leadership to pause those patterns and take a thoughtful enterprise and strategic approach to a more streamlined – and transformed – business data service.
    Info-Tech’s Approach
    • Incremental approach: Building a mature and optimized practice doesn’t occur overnight – it takes time and effort. Use this blueprint’s approach and roadmap results to support your organization in building a practice that prioritizes scope, increases the effectiveness of your data management practice, and improves your alignment with business data needs.
    • Build smart: Don’t do data management for data management’s sake; instead, align it to business requirements and the business’ vision for the organization’s data. Ensure initiatives and program investments best align to business priorities and support the organization in becoming more data driven and data centric.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Use value streams and business capabilities to develop a prioritized and practical data management plan that provides the highest business satisfaction in the shortest time.

    Full page illustration of the 'Create a Data Management Roadmap' using the image of a cargo ship labelled 'Data Management' moving in the direction of 'Business Strategy'. The caption at the top reads 'Data Management capabilities create new business value by augmenting data & optimizing it for analytics. Data is a digital imprint of organizational activities.'

    Data Management Capabilities

    A similar concept to the last one, with a ship moving toward 'Business Strategy', except the ship is cross-sectioned with different capabilities filling the interior of the silhouette. Below are different steps in data management 'Data Creation', 'Data Ingestion', 'Data Accumulation, 'Data Augmentation', 'Data Delivery', and 'Data Consumption'.

    Data is a business asset and needs to be treated like one

    Data management is an enabler of the business and therefore needs to be driven by business goals and objectives. For data to be a strategic asset of the business, the business and IT processes that support its delivery and management must be mature and clearly executed.

    Business Drivers
    1. Client Intimacy/Service Excellence
    2. Product and Service Innovations
    3. Operational Excellence
    4. Risk and Compliance Management
    Data Management Enablers
    • Data Governance
    • Data Strategy Planning
    • Data Architecture
    • Data Operations Management
    • Data Risk Management
    • Data Quality Management

    Industry spotlight: Risk management in the financial services sector

    REGULATORY
    COMPLIANCE

    Regulations are the #1 driver for risk management.

    US$11M:

    Fine incurred by a well-known Wall Street firm after using inaccurate data to execute short sales orders.
    “To successfully leverage customer data while maintaining compliance and transparency, the financial sector must adapt its current data management strategies to meet the needs of an ever-evolving digital landscape.” (Phoebe Fasulo, Security Scorecard, 2021)

    Industry spotlight: Operational excellence in the public sector

    GOVERNMENT
    TRANSPARENCY

    With frequent government scandals and corruption dominating the news, transparency to the public is quickly becoming a widely adopted practice at every level of government. Open government is the guiding principle that the public has access to the documents and proceedings of government to allow for effective public oversight. With growing regulations and pressure from the public, governments must adopt a comprehensive data management strategy to ensure they remain accountable to their rate payers, residents, businesses, and other constituents.

    1. Transparency Transparency is not just about access; it’s about sharing and reuse.
    2. Social and commercial value Everything from finding your local post office to building a search engine requires access to data.
    3. Participatory government Open data enables citizens to be more directly informed and involved in decision making.

    Industry spotlight: Operational excellence and client intimacy in major league sports

    SPORTS
    ANALYTICS

    A professional sports team is essentially a business that is looking for wins to maximize revenue. While they hope for a successful post-season, they also need strong quarterly results, just like you. Sports teams are renowned for adopting data-driven decision making across their organizations to do everything from improving player performance to optimizing tickets sales. At the end of the day, to enable analytics you must have top-notch information management.

    Team Performance Benefits
    1. Talent identification
    2. In-game decision making
    3. Injury reduction
    4. Athlete performance
    5. Bargaining agreement
    Team Performance Benefits
    1. Fan engagement
    2. Licensing
    3. Sports gambling
    (Deloitte Insights, 2020)
    Industry leaders cite data, and the insights they glean from it, as their means of standing apart from their competitors.

    Industry spotlight: Operational excellence and service delivery within manufacturing and supply chain services

    SUPPLY CHAIN
    EFFICIENCY

    Data offers key insights and opportunities when it comes to supply chain management. The supply chain is where the business strategy gets converted to operational service delivery of the business. Proper data management enables business processes to become more efficient, productive, and profitable through the greater availability of quality data and analysis.

    Fifty-seven percent of companies believe that supply chain management gives them a competitive advantage that enables them to further develop their business (FinancesOnline, 2021).

    Involving Data in Your Supply Chain

    25%

    Companies can reap a 25% increase in productivity, a 20% gain in space usage, and a 30% improvement in stock use efficiency if they use integrated order processing for their inventory system.

    36%

    Thirty-six percent of supply chain professionals say that one of the top drivers of their analytics initiatives is the optimization of inventory management to balance supply and demand.
    (Source: FinancesOnline, 2021)

    Industry spotlight: Intelligent product innovation and strong product portfolios differentiate consumer retailers and CPGs

    INFORMED PRODUCT
    DEVELOPMENT
    Consumer shopping habits and preferences are notoriously variable, making it a challenge to develop a well-received product. Information and insights into consumer trends, shopping preferences, and market analysis support the probability of a successful outcome.

    Maintaining a Product Portfolio
    What is selling? What is not selling?

    Product Development
    • Based on current consumer buying patterns, what will they buy next?
    • How will this product be received by consumers?
    • What characteristics do consumers find important?
    A combination of operational data and analytics data is required to accurately answer these questions.
    Internal Data
    • Organizational sales performance
    External Data
    • Competitor performance
    • Market analysis
    • Consumer trends and preferences
    Around 75% of ideas fail for organizational reasons – viability or feasibility or time to market issues. On the other hand, around 20% of product ideas fail due to user-related issues – not valuable or usable (Medium, 2020).

    Changes in business and technology are changing how organizations use and manage data

    The world moves a lot faster today

    Businesses of today operate in real time. To maintain a competitive edge, businesses must identify and respond quickly to opportunities and events.

    To effectively do this businesses must have accurate and up-to-date data at their fingertips.

    To support the new demands around data consumption, data velocity (pace in which data is captured, organized, and analyzed) must also accelerate.

    Data Management Implications
    • Strong integration capabilities
    • Intelligent and efficient systems
    • Embedded data quality management
    • Strong transparency into the history of data and its transformation

    Studies and projections show a clear case of how data and its usage will grow and evolve.

    Zettabyte Era

    64.2

    More Data

    The amount of data created, consumed, and stored globally is forecast to increase rapidly, reaching 64.2 zettabytes in 2020 and projected to grow to over 180 zettabyes in 2025 (Statista, 2021).

    Evolving Technologies

    $480B

    Cloud Proliferation

    Global end-user spending on public cloud services is expected to exceed $480 billion next year (Info-Tech, 2021).

    To differentiate and remain competitive in today’s marketplace, organizations are becoming more data-driven

    Pyramid with a blue tip. Sublevels from top down are labelled 'Analytical Companies', 'Analytical Aspirations', 'Localized Analytics', and 'Analytically Impaired'.

    Analytic Competitor

    “Given the unforgiving competitive landscape, organizations have to transform now, and correctly. Winning requires an outcome-focused analytics strategy.” (Ramya Srinivasan, Forbes, 2021)
    Data and the use of data analytics has become a centerpiece to effective modern business. Top-performing organizations across a variety of industries have been cited as using analytics five times more than lower performers (MIT Sloan).

    The strategic value of data

    Power intelligent and transformative organizational performance through leveraging data.

    Respond to industry disruptors

    Optimize the way you serve your stakeholders and customers

    Develop products and services to meet ever-evolving needs

    Manage operations and mitigate risk

    Harness the value of your data

    Despite investments in data initiatives, organizations are carrying high levels of data debt

    Data debt is the accumulated cost that is associated with the suboptimal governance of data assets in an enterprise, like technical debt.

    Data debt is a problem for 78% of organizations.

    40%

    of organizations say individuals within the business do not trust data insights.

    66%

    of organizations say a backlog of data debt is impacting new data management initiatives.

    33%

    of organizations are not able to get value from a new system or technology investment.

    30%

    of organizations are unable to become data-driven.

    (Source: Experian, 2020)

    The journey to being data-driven

    The journey to becoming a data-driven organization requires a pit stop at data enablement.

    The Data Economy

    Diagram of 'The Data Economy' with three points on an arrow. 'Data Disengaged: You have a low appetite for data and rarely use data for decision making.' 'Data Enabled: Technology, data architecture, and people and processes are optimized and supported by data governance.' 'Data Driven: You are differentiating and competing on data and analytics, described as a “data first” organization. You’re collaborating through data. Data is an asset.'

    Measure success to demonstrate tangible business value

    Put data management into the context of the business:
    • Tie the value of data management and its initiatives back to the business capabilities that are enabled.
    • Leverage the KPIs of those business capabilities to demonstrate tangible and measurable value. Use terms and language that will resonate with senior leadership.

    Don’t let measurement be an afterthought:

    Start substantiating early on how you are going to measure success as your data management program evolves.

    Build a right-sized roadmap

    Formulate an actionable roadmap that is right-sized to deliver value in your organization.

    Key considerations:
    • When building your data management roadmap, ensure you do so through an enterprise lens. Be cognizant of other initiatives that might be coming down the pipeline that may require you to align your data governance milestones accordingly.
    • Apart from doing your planning with consideration for other big projects or launches that might be in-flight and require the time and attention of your data management partners, also be mindful of the more routine yet still demanding initiatives.
    • When doing your roadmapping, consider factors like the organization’s fiscal cycle, typical or potential year-end demands, and monthly/quarterly reporting periods and audits. Initiatives such as these are likely to monopolize the time and focus of personnel key to delivering on your data management milestones
    Sample milestones:
    • Data Management Leadership & Org Structure Definition
      Define the home for data management, as approved by senior leadership.
    • Data Management Charter and Policies
      Create a charter for your program and build/refresh associated policies.
    • Data Culture Diagnostic
      Understand the organization’s current data culture, perception of data, value of data, and knowledge gaps.
    • Use Case Build and Prioritization
      Build a use case that is tied to business capabilities. Prioritize accordingly.
    • Business Data Glossary/Catalog
      Build and/or refresh the business’ glossary for addressing data definitions and standardization issues.
    • Tools & Technology
      Explore the tools and technology offering in the data management space that would serve as an enabler to the program (e.g. RFI, RFP).

    Insight summary

    Overarching insight

    Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively managed data. Whether building customer service excellence or getting ahead of cyberattacks, a data management practice is the dependable mainstay supporting business operations and transformation.

    Insight 1

    Data – it’s your business.
    Data is a digital imprint of business activities. Data architecture and flows are reflective of the organizational business architecture. Take data management capabilities as seriously as other core business capabilities.

    Insight 2

    Take a data-oriented approach.
    Data management must be data-centric – with technology and functional enablement built around the data and its structure and flows. Maintain the data focus during project’s planning, delivery, and evaluation stages.

    Insight 3

    Get the business into the data business.
    Data is not “IT’s thing.” Just as a bank helps you properly allocate your money to achieve your financial goals, IT will help you implement data management to support your business goals, but the accountability for data resides with the business.

    Tactical insight

    Data management is the program and environment we build once we have direction, i.e. a data strategy, and we have formed an ongoing channel with the guiding voice of the business via data governance. Without an ultimate goal in a strategy or the real requirements of the business, what are we building data systems and processes for? We are used to tech buzz words and placing our hope in promising innovations like artificial intelligence. There are no shortcuts, but there are basic proven actions we can take to meet the digital revolution head on and let our data boost our journey.

    Key deliverable:

    Data Management Roadmap Template

    Use this template to guide you in translating your project's findings and outcomes into a presentation that can be shared with your executive team and project sponsors.

    Sample of the 'Data Management Roadmap Template' key deliverable.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool

    Use this tool to support your team in assessing and designing the capabilities and components of your organization's data management practice. Sample of the 'Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool' deliverable.

    Data Culture Diagnostic and Scorecard

    Sample of the 'Data Culture Diagnostic and Scorecard' deliverable.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic to understand how your organization scores across 10 areas relating to data culture.

    Business Capability Map

    This template takes you through a business capability and value stream mapping to identify the data capabilities required to enable them. Sample of the 'Business Capability Map' deliverable.

    Measure the value of this blueprint

    Leverage this blueprint’s approach to ensure your data management initiatives align and support your key value streams and their business capabilities.
    • Aligning your data management program and its initiatives to your organization’s business capabilities is vital for tracing and demonstrating measurable business value for the program.
    • This alignment of data management with value streams and business capabilities enables you to use business-defined KPIs and demonstrate tangible value.

    Project outcome

    Metric

    Timely data delivery Time of data delivery to consumption
    Improved data quality Data quality scorecard metrics
    Data provenance transparency Time for data auditing (from report/dashboard to the source)
    New reporting and analytic capabilities Number of level 2 business capabilities implemented as solutions
    In Phase 1 of this blueprint, we will help you establish the business context, define your business drivers and KPIs, and understand your current data management capabilities and strengths.

    In Phase 2, we will help you develop a plan and a roadmap for addressing any gaps and improving the relevant data management capabilities so that data is well positioned to deliver on those defined business metrics.

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

    DIY Toolkit

    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

    Create a Data Management Roadmap project overview

    1. Build Business Context and Drivers for the Data Management Program 2. Assess Data Management and Build Your Roadmap
    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Review the Data Management Framework

    1.2 Understand and Align to Business Drivers

    1.3 Build High-Value Use Cases

    1.4 Create a Vision

    2.1 Assess Data Management

    2.2 Build Your Data Management Roadmap

    2.3 Organize Business Data Domains

    Guided Implementation
    • Call 1
    • Call 2
    • Call 3
    • Call 4
    • Call 5
    • Call 6
    • Call 7
    • Call 8
    • Call 9
    Phase Outcomes
    • An understanding of the core components of an effective data management program
    • Your organization’s business capabilities and value streams
    • A business capability map for your organization
    • High-value use cases for data management
    • Vision and guiding principles for data management
    • An understanding of your organization’s current data management capabilities
    • Definition of target-state capabilities and gaps
    • Roadmap of priority data management initiatives
    • Business data domains and ownership

    Guided Implementation

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

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

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Call #1: Understand drivers, business context, and scope of data management at your organization. Learn about Info-Tech’s approach and resources.

    Call #2: Get a detailed overview of Info-Tech’s approach, framework, Data Culture Diagnostic, and blueprint.

    Call #3:Align your business capabilities with your data management capabilities. Begin to develop a use case framework.

    Call #4:Further discuss alignment of business capabilities to data management capabilities and use case framework.

    Call #5: Assess your current data management capabilities and data environment. Review your Data Culture Diagnostic Scorecard, if applicable.

    Call #6: Plan target state and corresponding initiatives.

    Call #7: Identify program risks and formulate a roadmap.

    Call #8: Identify and prioritize improvements. Define a RACI chart.

    Call #9: Summarize results and plan next steps.

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com1-888-670-8889
    Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
    Activities
    Understand and contextualize

    1.1 Review your data strategy.

    1.2 Learn data management capabilities.

    1.3 Discuss DM capabilities cross-dependencies and interactions.

    1.4 Develop high-value use cases.

    Assess current DM capabilities and set improvement targets

    2.1 Assess you current DM capabilities.

    2.2 Set targets for DM capabilities.

    Formulate and prioritize improvement initiatives

    3.1 Formulate core initiatives for DM capabilities improvement.

    3.2 Discuss dependencies across the initiatives and prioritize them.

    Plan for delivery dates and assign RACI

    4.1 Plan dates and assign RACI for the initiatives.

    4.2 Brainstorm initiatives to address gaps and enable business goals.

    Next steps and wrap-up (offsite)

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

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

    Deliverables
    1. Understanding of the data management capabilities and their interactions and logical dependencies
    2. Use cases
    1. DM capability assessment results
    2. DM vision and guiding principles
    1. Prioritized DM capabilities improvement initiatives
    1. DM capabilities improvement roadmap
    2. Business data domains and ownership
    1. Workshop final report with key findings and recommendations

    Full page diagram of the 'Data & Analytics landscape'. Caption reads 'The key to landscaping your data environment lies in ensuring foundational disciplines are optimized in a way that recognizes the interdependency among the various disciplines.' Many foundational disciplines are color-coded to a legend determining whether its 'accountability sits with IT' or 'with the business; CDO'. An arrow labeled 'You Are Here' points to 'Data Management', which is coded in both colors meaning both IT and the business are accountable.

    What is data management and why is it needed?

    “Data management is the development, execution, and supervision of plans, policies, programs and practices that deliver, control, protect and enhance the value of data and information assets throughout their lifecycles.” (DAMA International, 2017)

    Achieving successful management and consistent delivery of data assets throughout their lifecycle requires the collaboration of the business and IT and the balance of technology, process, and resourcing solutions.

    Who:

    This research is designed for:
    • Data management heads and professionals looking to improve their organization’s ability to leverage data in value-added ways.
    • Data management and IT professionals looking to optimize the data environment, from creation and ingestion right through to consumption.

    Are your data management capabilities optimized to support your organization’s data use and demand?

    What is the current situation?

    Situation
    • The volume and variety of data are growing exponentially and show no sign of slowing down.
    • Business landscapes and models are evolving.
    • Users and stakeholders are becoming more and more data-centric, with maturing and demanding expectations.
    Complication
    • Organizations struggle to develop a comprehensive approach to optimizing data management.
    • In their efforts to keep pace with the demands for data, data management groups often adopt a piecemeal approach that includes turning to tools as a means to address the needs.
    • Data architecture, models, and designs fail to deliver real and measurable business impact and value. Technology ROI is not realized.
    Info-Tech Insight

    A data strategy should never be formulated disjointed from the business. Ensure the data strategy aligns with the business strategy and supports the business architecture.

    Info-Tech’s Data Management Framework

    What Is Data Management?

    Data management is the development, execution, and supervision of plans, policies, programs and practices that deliver, control, protect and enhance the value of data and information assets throughout their lifecycles.” (DAMA International, 2017)

    The three-tiered Data Management Framework, tiers are labelled 'Data Management Enablers', 'Information Dimensions', and 'Business Information'.

    Adapted from DAMA-DMBOK and Advanced Knowledge Innovations Global Solutions

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Info-Tech’s Data Management Framework is designed to show how an organization’s business model sits as the foundation of its data management practice. Drawing from the requirements of the underpinning model, a practice is designed and maintained through the creation and application of the enablers and dimensions of data management.

    Build a data management practice that is centered on supporting the business and its use of key data assets

    Business Resources

    Data subject areas provide high-level views of the data assets that are used in business processes and enable an organization to perform its business functions.

    Classified by specific subjects, these groups reflect data elements that, when used effectively, are able to support analytical and operational use cases of data.

    This layer is representative of the delivery of the data assets and the business’ consumption of the data.

    Data is an integral business asset that exists across all areas of an organization

    Equation stating 'Trustworthy and Usable Data' plus 'Well-Designed and Executed Processes' equals 'Business Capabilities and Functions'.
    Data Management Framework with only the bottom tier highlighted.

    For a data management practice to be effective it ultimately must show how its capabilities and operations better support the business in accessing and leveraging its key data assets.*

    *This project focuses on building capabilities for data management. Leverage our data quality management research to support you in assessing the performance of this model.

    Information dimensions support the different types of data present within an organization’s environment

    Information Dimensions

    Components at the Information Dimensions layer manage the different types of data and information present with an environment.

    At this layer, data is managed based on its type and how the business is looking to use and access the data.

    Custom capabilities are developed at this level to support:

    • Structured data
    • Semi-structured data
    • Unstructured data
    The types, formats, and structure of the data are managed at this level using the data management enablers to support their successful execution and performance.
    Data Management Framework with only the middle tier highlighted.

    Build a data management practice with strong process capabilities

    Use these guiding principles to contextualize the purpose and value for each data management enabler.

    Data Management Framework with only the top tier highlighted.

    Data Management Enablers

    Info-Tech categorizes data management enablers as the processes that guide the management of the organization’s data assets and support the delivery.

    Govern and Direct

    • Ensures data management practices and processes follow the standards and policies outlined for them
    • Manages the executive oversight of the broader practice

    Align and Plan

    • Aligns data management plans to the business’ data requirements
    • Creates the plans to guide the design and execution of data management components

    Build, Acquire, Operate, Deliver, and Support

    • Executes the operations that manage data as it flows through the business environment
    • Manages the business’ risks in relation to its data assets and the level of security and access required

    Monitor and Improve

    • Analyzes the performance of data management components and the quality of business data
    • Creates and execute plans to improve the performance of the practice and the quality and use of data assets

    Use Info-Tech’s assessment framework to support your organization’s data management planning

    Info-Tech employs a consumer-driven approach to requirements gathering in order to support a data management practice. This will create a vision and strategic plan that will help to make data an enabler to the business as it looks to achieve its strategic objectives.

    Data Strategy Planning

    To support the project in building an accurate understanding of the organization’s data requirements and the role of data in its operations (current and future), the framework first guides organizations on a business and subject area assessment.

    By focusing on data usage and strategies for unique data subject areas, the project team will be better able to craft a data management practice with capabilities that will generate the greatest value and proactively handle evolving data requirements.

    Arrow pointing right.

    Data Management Assessment

    To support the design of a fit-for-purpose data management practice that aligns with the business’ data requirements this assessment will guide you in:

    • Determining the target capabilities for the different dimensions of data management.
    • Identifying the interaction dependencies and coordination efforts required to build a successful data management practice.

    Create a Data Management Roadmap

    Phase 1

    Build Business Context and Drivers for the Data Management Program

    Phase 1

    1.1 Review the Data Management Framework

    1.2 Understand and Align to Business Drivers

    1.3 Build High-Value Use Cases

    1.4 Create a Vision

    Phase 2

    2.1 Assess Data Management

    2.2 Build Your Data Management Roadmap

    2.3 Organize Business Data Domains

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify your business drivers and business capabilities.
    • Align data management capabilities with business goals.
    • Define scope and vision of the data management plan.
    • This phase involves the follow

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Data Management Lead/Information Management Lead, CDO, Data Lead
    • Senior Business Leaders
    • Business SMEs
    • Data Owners, Records Managers, Regulatory Subject Matter Experts (e.g. Legal Counsel, Security)

    Step 1.1

    Review the Data Management Framework

    Activities

    1.1.1 Walk through the main parts of the best-practice Data Management Framework

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Understand the main disciplines and makeup of a best-practice data management program.
    • Determine which data management capabilities are considered high priority by your organization.

    Outcomes of this step

    • A foundation for data management initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map
    Build Business Context and Drivers
    Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3 Step 1.4

    Full page diagram of the 'Data & Analytics landscape'. Caption reads 'The key to landscaping your data environment lies in ensuring foundational disciplines are optimized in a way that recognizes the interdependency among the various disciplines.' Many foundational disciplines are color-coded to a legend determining whether its 'accountability sits with IT' or 'with the business; CDO'. An arrow labeled 'You Are Here' points to 'Data Management', which is coded in both colors meaning both IT and the business are accountable.

    Full page illustration of the 'Create a Data Management Roadmap' using the image of a cargo ship labelled 'Data Management' moving in the direction of 'Business Strategy'. The caption at the top reads 'Data Management capabilities create new business value by augmenting data & optimizing it for analytics. Data is a digital imprint of organizational activities.'

    Data Management Capabilities

    A similar concept to the last one, with a ship moving toward 'Business Strategy', except the ship is cross-sectioned with different capabilities filling the interior of the silhouette. Below are different steps in data management 'Data Creation', 'Data Ingestion', 'Data Accumulation, 'Data Augmentation', 'Data Delivery', and 'Data Consumption'.

    Build a Robust & Comprehensive Data Strategy

    Business Strategy

    Organizational Goals & Objectives

    Business Drivers

    Industry Drivers

    Current Environment

    Data Management Capability Maturity Assessment

    Data Culture Diagnostic

    Regulatory and Compliance Requirements

    Data Strategy

    Organizational Drivers and Data Value

    Data Strategy Objectives & Guiding Principles

    Data Strategy Vision and Mission

    Data Strategy Roadmap

    People: Roles and Organizational Structure

    Data Culture & Data Literacy

    Data Management and Tools

    Risk and Feasibility

    Unlock the Value of Data

    Generate Game-Changing Insights

    Fuel Data-Driven Decision Making

    Innovate and Transform With Data

    Thrive and Differentiate With a Data-Driven Culture

    Elevate Organizational Data IQ

    Build a Foundation for Data Valuation

    What is a data strategy and why is it needed?

    • Your data strategy is the vehicle for ensuring data is poised to support your organization’s strategic objectives.
    • For any CDO or equivalent data leader, a robust and comprehensive data strategy is the number one tool in your toolkit for generating measurable business value from data.
    • The data strategy will serve as the mechanism for making high-quality, trusted, and well-governed data readily available and accessible to deliver on your organizational mandate.

    What is driving the need to formulate or refresh your organization’s data strategy?

    Who:

    This research is designed for:

    • Chief Data Officer (CDO) or equivalent
    • Head of Data
    • Chief Analytics Officer (CAO)
    • Head of Digital Transformation
    • CIO

    Info-Tech Insight

    A data strategy should never be formulated disjointed from the business. Ensure the data strategy aligns with the business strategy and supports the business architecture.

    Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework

    Model of Info-Tech's Data Governance Framework titled 'Key to Data Enablement'. There are inputs, a main Data Governance cycle, and a selection of outputs. The inputs are 'Business Strategy' and 'Data Strategy' injected into the cycle via 'Strategic Goals & Objectives'. The cycle consists of 'Operating Model', 'Policies & Procedures', 'Data Literacy & Culture', 'Enterprise Projects & Services', 'Data Management', 'Data Privacy & Security', 'Data Leadership', and 'Data Ownership & Stewardship'. The latter two are part of 'Enterprise Governance's 'Oversight & Alignment' cycle. Outputs are 'Defined Data Accountability & Responsibility', 'Knowledge & Common Understanding of Data Assets', 'Trust & Confidence in Traceable Data', 'Improved Data ROI & Reduced Data Debt', and 'Support of Ethical Use of Data in a Data-Driven Culture'.

    What is data governance and why is it needed?

    • Data governance is an enabling framework of decision rights, responsibilities, and accountabilities for data assets across the enterprise.
    • It should deliver agreed-upon models that are conducive to your organization’s operating culture, where there is clarity on who can do what with which data and via what means.
    • It is the key enabler for bringing high-quality, trusted, secure, and discoverable data to the right users across your organization.
    • It promotes and drives responsible and ethical use and handling of data while helping to build and foster an organizational culture of data excellence.

    Do you feel there is a clear definition of data accountability and responsibility in your organization?

    Who:

    This research is designed for:

    • Chief Data Officer (CDO) or equivalent
    • Head of Data Governance, Lead Data Governance Officer
    • Head of Data
    • Head of Digital Transformation
    • CIO

    Info-Tech Insight

    Data governance should not sit as an island in your organization. It must continuously align with the organization’s enterprise governance function.

    A diagram titled 'Data Platform Selection - Make complex tasks simple by applying proven methodology to connect businesses to software' with five steps. '1. Formalize a Business Strategy', '2. Identify Platform Specific Considerations', '3. Execute Data Platform Architecture Selection', 'Select Software', 'Achieve Business Goals'.

    Info-Tech’s Data Platform Framework

    Data pipeline for versatile and scalable data delivery

    a diagram showing the path from 'Data Creation' to 'Data Accumulation', to 'Engineering & Augmentation', to 'Data Delivery'. Each step has a 'Fast Lane', 'Operational Lane', and 'Curated Lane'.

    What are the data platform and practice and why are they needed?

    • The data platform and practice are two parts of the data and analytics equation:
      • The practice is about the operating model for data; that is, how stakeholders work together to deliver business value on your data platform. These stakeholders are a combination of business and IT from across the organization.
      • The platform is a combination of the architectural components of the data and analytics landscape that come together to support the role the business plays day to day with respect to data.
    • Don’t jump directly into technology: use Info-Tech tools to solve and plan first.
    • Create a continuous roadmap to implement and evolve your data practice and platform.
    • Promote collaboration between the business and IT by clearly defining responsibilities.

    Does your data platform effectively serve your reporting and analytics capabilities?

    Who:

    This research is designed for:

    • Data and Information Leadership
    • Enterprise Information Architect
    • Data Architect
    • Data Engineer/Modeler

    Info-Tech Insight

    Info-Tech’s approach is driven by business goals and leverages standard data practice and platform patterns. This enables the implementation of critical and foundational data and analytics components first and subsequently facilitates the evolution and development of the practice and platform over time.

    Info-Tech’s Reporting and Analytics Framework

    Formulating an enterprise reporting and analytics strategy requires the business vision and strategies to first be substantiated. Any optimization to the data warehouse, integration, and source layers is in turn driven by the enterprise reporting and analytics strategy.
    A diagram of the 'Reporting and Analytics Framework' with 'Business vision/strategies' fed through four stages beginning with 'Business Intelligence: Reporting & Analytics Strategy', 'Data Warehouse: Data Warehouse/ Data Lake Strategy', 'Integration and Translation: Data Integration Strategy', 'Sources: Source Strategy (Content/Quality)'
    The current states of your integration and warehouse platforms determine what data can be used for BI and analytics.
    Your enterprise reporting and analytics strategy is driven by your organization’s vision and corporate strategy.

    What is reporting and analytics and why is it needed?

    • Reporting and analytics bridges the gap between an organization’s data assets and consumable information that facilitates insight generation and informed or evidence-based decision making.
    • The reporting and analytics strategy drives data warehouse and integration strategies and the data needs to support business decisions.
    • The reporting and analytics strategy ensures that the investment made in optimizing the data environment to support reporting and analytics is directly aligned with the organization’s needs and priorities and hence will deliver measurable business value.

    Do you have a strategy to enable self-serve analytics? What does your operating model look like? Have you an analytics CoE?

    Who:

    This research is designed for:

    • Head of BI and Analytics
    • CIO or Business Unit (BU) Leader looking to improve reporting and analytics
    • Applications Lead

    Info-Tech Insight

    Formulating an enterprise reporting and analytics strategy requires the business vision and strategies to first be substantiated. Any optimization to the data warehouse, integration, and source layer is in turn driven by the enterprise reporting and analytics strategy.

    Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Framework

    Info-Tech’s methodology:
      1. Prioritize your core business objectives and identify your business driver.
      2. Learn how business drivers apply to specific tiers of Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture model.
      3. Determine the appropriate tactical pattern that addresses your most important requirements.
    Visual diagram of the first two parts of the methodology on the left. Objectives apply to the data architecture model, which appropriates tactical patterns, which leads to a focus.
      1. Select the areas of the five-tier architecture to focus on.
      2. Measure your current state.
      3. Set the targets of your desired optimized state.
      1. Roadmap your tactics.
      2. Manage and communicate change.
    Visual diagram of the third part of the methodology on the left. A roadmap of tactics leads to communicating change.

    What is data architecture and why is it needed?

    • Data architecture is the set of rules, policies, standards, and models that govern and define the type of data collected and how it is used, stored, managed, and integrated within the organization and its database systems.
    • In general, the primary objective of data architecture is the standardization of data for the benefit of the organization.

    Is your architecture optimized to sustainably deliver readily available and accessible data to users?

    Who:

    This research is designed for:

    • Data Architects or their equivalent
    • Enterprise Architects
    • Head of Data
    • CIO
    • Database Administrators

    Info-Tech Insight

    Data architecture is not just about models. Viewing data architecture as just technical data modeling can lead to a data environment that does not aptly serve or support the business. Identify your business’ priorities and adapt your data architecture to those needs.

    A diagram titled 'Build Your Data Quality Program'. '1. Data Quality & Data Culture Diagnostics Business Landscape Exercise', '2. Business Strategy & Use Cases', '3. Prioritize Use Cases With Poor Quality'. 'Info-Tech Insight: As data is ingested, integrated, and maintained in the various streams of the organization's system and application architecture, there are multiple points where the quality of the data can degrade.' A data flow diagram points out how 'Data quality issues can occur at any stage of the data flow', and that it is better to 'Fix data quality root causes here' during the 'Data Creation', 'Data Ingestion', and 'Data Accumulation & Engineering' stages in order 'to prevent expensive cures here' in the 'Data Delivery' and 'Reporting & Analytics' stages.

    What is data quality management and why is it needed?

    • Data is the foundation of decisions made at data-driven organizations.
    • Data quality management ensures that foundation is sustainably solid.
    • If there are problems with the organization’s underlying data, it can have a domino effect on many downstream business functions.
    • The transformational insights that executives are constantly seeking can be uncovered by a data quality practice that makes high-quality, trustworthy information readily available to the business users who need it.

    Do your users have an optimal level of trust and confidence in the quality of the organization’s data?

    Who:

    This research is designed for:

    • Chief Data Officer (CDO) or equivalent Head of Data
    • Chief Analytics Officer (CAO)
    • Head of Digital Transformation
    • CIO

    Info-Tech Insight

    Data quality suffers most at the point of entry. The resulting domino effect of error propagation makes these errors among the most costly forms of data quality errors. Fix data ingestion, whether through improving your application and database design or improving your data ingestion policy, and you will fix a majority of data quality issues.

    Info-Tech’s Enterprise Content Management Framework

    Drivers Governance Information Architecture Process Policy Systems Architecture
    Regulatory, Legal –›
    Efficiency, Cost-Effectiveness –›
    Customer Service –›
    User Experience –›
    • Establish decision-making committee
    • Define and formalize roles (RACI, charter)
    • Develop policies
    • Create business data glossary
    • Decide who approves documents in workflow
    • Operating models
    • Information categories (taxonomy)
    • Classifications, retention periods
    • Metadata (for findability and as tags in automated workflows)
    • Review and approval process, e.g. who approves
    • Process for admins to oversee performance of IM service
    • Process for capturing and classifying incoming documents
    • Audit trails and reporting process
    • Centralized index of data and records to be tracked and managed throughout their lifecycle
    • Data retention policy
    • E-signature policy
    • Email policy
    • Information management policies
    • Access/privacy rules
    • Understand the flow of content through multiple systems (e.g. email, repositories)
    • Define business and technical requirements to select a new content management platform/service
    • Improve integrations
    • Right-size solutions for use case (e.g. DAM)
    • Communication/Change Management
    • Data Literacy

    What is enterprise content management and why is it needed?

    “Enterprise Content Management is the systematic collection and organization of information that is to be used by a designated audience – business executives, customers, etc. Neither a single technology nor a methodology nor a process, it is a dynamic combination of strategies, methods and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver information supporting key organizational processes through its entire lifecycle.” (AIIM, 2021)

    • Changing your ECM capabilities is about changing organizational behavior; take an all-hands-on-deck approach to make the most of information gathering, create a vested interest, and secure buy-in.
    • It promotes and drives responsible and ethical use and handling of content while helping to build and foster an organizational culture of information excellence.

    Who:

    This research is designed for:

    • Information Architect
    • Chief Data Officer (CDO)
    • Head of Data, Information Management
    • Records Management
    • CIO

    Info-Tech Insight

    ECM is critical to becoming a digital and modernized operation, where both structured data (such as sales reports) and unstructured content (such as customer sentiment in social media) are brought together for a 360-degree view of the customer or for a comprehensive legal discovery.

    Metadata management/Data cataloging

    Overview

    Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource. Metadata is often called data about data or information about information (NISO).

    Metadata management is the function that manages and maintains the technology and processes that creates, processes, and stores metadata created by business processes and data.

    90%

    The majority of data is unstructured information like text, video, audio, web server logs, social media, and more (MIT Sloan, 2021).
    As data becomes more unstructured, complex, and manipulated, the importance and value of metadata will grow exponentially and support improved:
    • Data consumption
    • Quality management
    • Risk management

    Value of Effective Metadata Management

    • Supports the traceability of data through an environment.
    • Creates standards and logging that enable information and data to be searchable and cataloged.
    • Metadata schemas enable easier transferring and distribution of data across different environments.
    Data about data: The true value of metadata and the management practices supporting it is its ability to provide deeper understanding and auditability to the data assets and processes of the business.
    Metadata supports the use of:
    Big Data
    Unstructured data
    Content and Documents
    Unstructured and semi-structured data
    Structured data
    Master, reference, etc.

    Critical Success Factors of Metadata Management

    • Consistent and documented data standards and definitions
    • Architectural planning for metadata
    • Incorporation of metadata into system design and the processing of data
    • Technology to support metadata creation, collection, storage, and reviews (metadata repository, meta marts, etc.)

    Info-Tech’s Data Integration Framework

    On one hand…

    Data has massive potential to bring insight to an organization when combined and analyzed in creative ways.

    On the other hand…

    It is difficult to bring data together from different sources to generate insights and prevent stale data.

    How can these two ideas be reconciled?

    Answer: Info-Tech’s Data Integration Onion Framework summarizes an organization’s data environment at a conceptual level and is used to design a common data-centric integration environment.

    A diagram of the 'Data Integration Onion Framework' with five layers: 'Enterprise Business Processes', 'Enterprise Analytics', 'Enterprise Integration', 'Enterprise Data Repositories', and 'Enterprise Data' at the center.
    Info-Tech’s Data Integration Onion Framework
    Data-centric integration is the solution you need to bring data together to break down data silos.

    What is data integration and why is it needed?

    • To get more value from their information, organizations are relying on increasingly more complex data sources. These diverse data sources have to be properly integrated to unlock the full potential of that data.
    • Integrating large volumes of data from the many varied sources in an organization has incredible potential to yield insights, but many organizations struggle with creating the right structure for that blending to take place, and that leads to the formation of data silos.
    • Data-centric integration capabilities can break down organizational silos. Once data silos are removed and all the information that is relevant to a given problem is available, problems with operational and transactional efficiencies can be solved, and value from business intelligence (BI) and analytics can be fully realized.

    Is your integration near real time and scalable?

    Who:

    This research is designed for:

    • Data Engineers
    • Business Analysts
    • Data Architects
    • Head of Data Management
    • Enterprise Architects

    Info-Tech Insight

    Every IT project requires data integration. Any change in the application and database ecosystem requires you to solve a data integration problem.

    Info-Tech’s Master Data Management Framework

    Master data management (MDM) “entails control over Master Data values and identifiers that enable consistent use, across systems, of the most accurate and timely data about essential business entities” (DAMA, 2017).

    The Data Management Framework from earlier with tier 2 item 'Reference and Master' highlighted.

    Fundamental objective of MDM: Enable the business to see one view of critical data elements across the organization.

    Phases of the MDM Framework. 'Phase 1: Build a Vision for MDM' entails a 'Readiness Assessment', then both 'Identify the Master Data Needs of the Business' and 'Create a Strategic Vision'. 'Phase 2: Create a Plan and Roadmap for the Organization’s MDM Program' entails 'Assess Current MDM Capabilities', then 'Initiative Planning', then 'Strategic Roadmap'.

    What is MDM and why is it needed?

    • Master data management (MDM) “entails control over Master Data values and identifiers that enable consistent use, across systems, of the most accurate and timely data about essential business entities” (DAMA, 2017).
    • The fundamental objective of MDM is to enable the business to see one view of critical data elements across the organization.
    • What is included in the scope of MDM?
      • Party data (employees, customers, etc.)
      • Product/service data
      • Financial data
      • Location data

    Is there traceability and visibility into your data’s lineage? Does your data pipeline facilitate that single view across the organization?

    Who:

    This research is designed for:

    • Chief Data Officer (CDO)
    • Head of Data Management, CIO
    • Data Architect
    • Head of Data Governance, Data Officer

    Info-Tech Insight

    Successful MDM requires a comprehensive approach. To be successfully planned, implemented, and maintained it must include effective capabilities in the critical processes and subpractices of data management.

    Data Modeling Framework

    • The framework consists of the business, enterprise, application, and implementation layers.
    • The Business Layer encodes real-world business concepts via the conceptual model.
    • The Enterprise Layer defines all enterprise data asset details and their relationships.
    • The Application Layer defines the data structures as used by a specific application.
    • The Implementation Layer defines the data models and artifacts for use by software tools.
    Data Modeling Framework with items from the 'Implementation Layer' contributing to items in the 'Application Layer' and 'Enterprise Layer' before turning into a 'Conceptual Model' in the 'Business Layer'.

    Model hierarchy

    • The Conceptual data model describes the organization from a business perspective.
    • The Message model is used to describe internal- and external-facing messages and is equivalent to the canonical model.
    • The Enterprise model depicts the whole organization and is divided into domains.
    • The Analytical model is built for specific business use cases.
    • Application models are application-specific operational models.
    Model hierarchy with items from the 'Implementation Layer' contributing to items in the 'Application Layer' and 'Enterprise Layer' before turning into a 'Conceptual Model' in the 'Business Layer'.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The Conceptual model acts as the root of all the models required and used by an organization.

    Data architecture and modeling processes

    A diagram moving from right to left through 5 phases: 'Business concepts defined and organized', 'Business concepts enriched with attribution', 'Physical view of the data, still vendor agnostic', 'The view being used by developers and business', and 'Manage the progression of your data assets'.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The Conceptual data model adds relationships to your business data glossary terms and is the first step of the modeling journey.

    Data operations

    Objectives of Data Operations Management

    • Implement and follow policies and procedures to manage data at each stage of its lifecycle.
    • Maintain the technology supporting the flow and delivery of data (applications, databases, systems, etc.).
    • Control the delivery of data within the system environment.

    Indicators of Successful Data Operations Management

    • Effective delivery of data assets to end users.
    • Successful maintenance and performance of the technical environment that collects, stores, delivers, and purges organizational data.
    'Data Lifecycle' with steps 'Create', 'Acquire', 'Store', 'Maintain', 'Use', and 'Archive/Destroy'.
    This data management enabler has a heavy focus on the management and performance of data systems and applications.
    It works closely with the organization’s technical architecture to support successful data delivery and lifecycle management (data warehouses, repositories, databases, networks, etc.).

    Step 1.2

    Understand and Align to Business Drivers

    Activities

    1.2.1 Define your value streams

    1.2.2 Identify your business capabilities

    1.2.3 Categorize your organization’s key business capabilities

    1.2.4 Develop a strategy map tied to data management

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Leverage your organization’s existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map.
    • Determine which business capabilities are considered high priority by your organization.
    • Map your organization’s strategic objectives to value streams and capabilities to communicate how objectives are realized with the support of data.

    Outcomes of this step

    • A foundation for data management initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

    Build Business Context and Drivers

    Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3 Step 1.4

    Identifying value streams

    Value streams connect business goals to organization’s value realization activities. They enable an organization to create and capture value in the marketplace by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.
    There are several key questions to ask when endeavouring to identify value streams.

    Key Questions

    • Who are your customers?
    • What are the benefits we deliver to them?
    • How do we deliver those benefits?
    • How does the customer receive the benefits?

    1.2.1 Define value streams

    1-3 hours

    Input: Business strategy/goals, Financial statements, Info-Tech’s industry-specific business architecture

    Output: List of organization-specific value streams, Detailed value stream definition(s)

    Materials: Whiteboard/kanban board, Info-Tech’s Reference Architecture Template – contact your Account Representative for details, Other industry standard reference architecture models: BIZBOK, APQC, etc., Info-Tech’s Archimate models

    Participants: Enterprise/Business Architect, Business Analysts, Business Unit Leads, CIO, Departmental Executive & Senior managers

    Unify the organization’s perspective on how it creates value.

    1. Write a short description of the value stream that includes a statement about the value provided and a clear start and end for the value stream. Validate the accuracy of the descriptions with your key stakeholders.
    2. Consider:
      • How does the organization deliver those benefits?
      • How does the customer receive the benefits?
      • What is the scope of your value stream? What will trigger the stream to start and what will the final value be?
    3. Avoid:
      • Don’t start with a blank page. Use Info-Tech’s business architecture models for sample value streams.

    Contact your Account Representative for access to Info-Tech’s Reference Architecture Template

    Define or validate the organization’s value streams

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities. These value realization activities, in turn, depend on data.

    If the organization does not have a business architecture function to conduct and guide Activity 1.2.1, you can leverage the following approach:

    • Meet with key stakeholders regarding this topic, then discuss and document your findings.
    • When trying to identify the right stakeholders, consider: Who are the decision makers and key influencers? Who will impact this piece of business architecture–related work? Who has the relevant skills, competencies, experience, and knowledge about the organization?
    • Engage with these stakeholders to define and validate how the organization creates value. Consider:
      • Who are your main stakeholders? This will depend on the industry in which you operate. For example, they could be customers, residents, citizens, constituents, students, patients.
      • What are your stakeholders looking to accomplish?
      • How does your organization’s products and/or services help them accomplish that?
      • What are the benefits your organization delivers to them and how does your organization deliver those benefits?
      • How do your stakeholders receive those benefits?

    Align data management to the organization’s value realization activities.

    Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively managed and governed data. Without this, you could face elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, negative impact to reputation and brand, and/or increased exposure to business risk.

    Example of value streams – Retail Banking

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

    Example value stream descriptions for: Retail Banking

    Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities. Example Value Stream for Retail Banking with five value chains. 'Attract Customers: Retail banks design new products to fill gaps in their product portfolios by analyzing the market for changing customer needs and new competitor offerings or pricing; Pricing a product correctly through analysis and rate setting is a delicate balance and fundamental to a bank’s success.' 'Supply Loans and Mortgages and Credit Cards: Selecting lending criteria helps banks decide on the segment of customer they should take on and the degree of risk they are willing to accept.' 'Provide Core Banking Services: Servicing includes the day-to-day interactions with customers for onboarding, payments, adjustments, and offboarding through multiple banking channels; Customer retention and growing share of wallet are crucial capabilities in servicing that directly impact the growth and profitability of retail banks.' 'Offer Card Services: Card servicing involves quick turnarounds on card delivery and acceptance at a large number of merchants; Accurate billing and customizable spending alerts are crucial in ensuring that the customer understands their spending habits.' 'Grow Investments and Manage Wealth: Customer retention can be increased through effective wealth management and additional services that will increase the number of products owned by a customer.'

    For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.

    Example of value streams – Higher Education

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

    Example value stream descriptions for: Higher Education

    Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities. Example Value Stream for Higher Education with five value chains. 'Shape Institutional Research: Institutional research provides direct benefits to both partners and faculty, ensuring efficient use of resources and compliance with ethical and methodological standards; This value stream involves all components of the research lifecycle, from planning and resourcing to delivery and commercialization.' 'Facilitate Curriculum Design: Curriculum design is the process by which learning content is designed and developed to achieve desired student outcomes; Curriculum management capabilities include curriculum planning, design and commercialization, curriculum assessment, and instruction management.' 'Design Student Support Services: Support services design and development provides a range of resources to assist students with academic success, such as accessibility, health and counseling, social services, housing, and academic skills development.' 'Manage Academic Administration: Academic administration involves the broad capabilities required to attract and enroll students in institutional programs; This value stream involves all components related to recruitment, enrollment, admissions, and retention management.' 'Deliver Student Services: Delivery of student services comes after curricular management, support services design, and academic administration. It comprises delivery of programs and services to enable student success; Program and service delivery capabilities include curriculum delivery, convocation management, and student and alumni support services.'

    For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Higher Education.

    Example of value streams – Local Government

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

    Example value stream descriptions for: Local Government

    Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities. Example Value Stream for Local Government with five value chains. 'Sustain Land, Property, and the Environment: Local governments act as the stewards of the regional land and environment that are within their boundaries; Regional government bodies are responsible for ensuring that the natural environment is protected and sustained for future citizens in the form of parks and public land.' 'Facilitate Civic Engagement: Local governments engage with constituents to maintain a high quality of life through art, culture, and education.' 'Protect Local Health and Safety: Health concerns are managed by a local government through specialized campaigns and clinics; Emergency services are provided by the local authority to protect and react to health and safety concerns including police and firefighting services.' 'Grow the Economy: Economic growth is a cornerstone of a strong local government. Growth comes from flourishing industries, entrepreneurial success, high levels of employment, and income from tourism.' 'Provide Regional Infrastructure: Local governments ensure that infrastructure is built, maintained, and effective in meeting the needs of constituents. (Includes: electricity, water, sustainable energy sources, waste collection, transit, and local transportation.'

    For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.

    Example of value streams – Manufacturing

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

    Example value stream descriptions for: Manufacturing

    Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities. Example Value Stream for Manufacturing with three value chains. 'Design Product: Manufacturers proactively analyze their respective markets for any new opportunities or threats; They design new products to serve changing customer needs or to rival any new offerings by competitors; A manufacturer’s success depends on its ability to develop a product that the market wants at the right price and quality level.' 'Produce Product: Optimizing production activities is an important capability for manufacturers. Raw materials and working inventories need to be managed effectively to minimize wastage and maximize the utilization of the production lines; Processes need to be refined continuously over time to remain competitive and the quality of the materials and final products needs to be strictly managed.' 'Sell Product: Once produced, manufacturers need to sell the products. This is done through distributors, retailers, and, in some cases, directly to the end consumer; After the sale, manufacturers typically have to deliver the product, provide customer care, and manage complaints; Manufacturers also randomly test their end products to ensure they meet quality requirements.'

    For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.

    Define the organization’s business capabilities in a business capability map

    A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. Business capabilities represent stable business functions and typically will have a defined business outcome.

    Business capabilities can be thought of as business terms defined using descriptive nouns such as “Marketing” or “Research and Development.”

    If your organization doesn’t already have a business capability map, you can leverage the following approach to build one. This initiative requires a good understanding of the business. By working with the right stakeholders, you can develop a business capability map that speaks a common language and accurately depicts your business.

    Working with the stakeholders as described in the slide entitled “Define or validate the organization’s value streams”:

    • Analyze the value streams to identify and describe the organization’s capabilities that support them.
    • Consider the objective of your value stream. (This can highlight which capabilities support which value stream.)
    • As you initiate your engagement with your stakeholders, don’t start a blank page. Leverage the examples on the next slides as a starting point for your business capability map.
    • When using these examples, consider: What are the activities that make up your particular business? Keep the ones that apply to your organization, remove the ones that don’t, and add any needed.

    Align data management to the organization’s value realization activities.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data management program must support.

    For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

    1.2.2 Identify your business capabilities

    Input: List of confirmed value streams and their related business capabilities

    Output: Business capability map with value streams for your organization

    Materials: Your existing business capability map, Business Alignment worksheet provided in the Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool, Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture blueprint

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Data stewards, Data custodians, Data leads and administrators

    Confirm your organization's existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map:

    • If you have an existing business capability map, meet with the relevant business owners/stakeholders to confirm that the content is accurate and up to date. Confirm the value streams (how your organization creates and captures value) and their business capabilities reflect the organization’s current business environment.
    • If you do not have an existing business capability map, complete this activity to initiate the formulation of a map (value streams and related business capabilities):
      1. Define the organization’s value streams. Meet with senior leadership and other key business stakeholders to define how your organization creates and captures value.
      2. Define the relevant business capabilities. Meet with senior leadership and other key business stakeholders to define the business capabilities.

    Note: A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. Business capabilities are business terms defined using nouns such as “Marketing” or “Research and Development.” They represent stable business functions, are unique and independent of one another, and typically will have a defined business outcome.

    Example business capability map – Retail Banking

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Tip: Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data management program.

    Example business capability map for: Retail Banking

    Example business capability map for Retail Banking with value stream items as column headers, and rows 'Enabling', 'Shared', and 'Defining'.

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.

    Example business capability map – Higher Education

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Tip: Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data management program.

    Example business capability map for: Higher Education

    Example business capability map for Higher Education with value stream items as column headers, and rows 'Enabling', 'Shared', and 'Defining'.

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Higher Education.

    Example business capability map – Local Government

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Tip: Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

    Example business capability map for: Local Government

    Example business capability map for Local Government with value stream items as column headers, and rows 'Enabling', 'Shared', and 'Defining'.

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.

    Example business capability map – Manufacturing

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Tip: Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

    Example business capability map for: Manufacturing

    Example business capability map for Manufacturing with value stream items as column headers, and rows 'Enabling', 'Shared', and 'Defining'.

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.

    Example business capability map – Retail

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Tip: Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

    Example business capability map for: Retail

    Example business capability map for Retail with value stream items as column headers, and rows 'Enabling', 'Shared', and 'Defining'.

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

    1.2.3 Categorize your organization’s key capabilities

    Input: Strategic insight from senior business stakeholders on the business capabilities that drive value for the organization

    Output: Business capabilities categorized and prioritized (e.g. cost advantage creators, competitive advantage differentiators, high value/high risk) See next slide for an example

    Materials: Your existing business capability map or the business capability map derived in Activity 1.2.2

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Data stewards, Data custodians, Data governance working group

    Determine which capabilities are considered high priority in your organization.

    1. Categorize or heatmap the organization’s key capabilities. Consult with senior and other key business stakeholders to categorize and prioritize the business’ capabilities. This will aid in ensuring your data governance future-state planning is aligned with the mandate of the business. One approach to prioritizing capabilities with business stakeholders is to examine them through the lens of cost advantage creators, competitive advantage differentiators, and/or by high value/high risk.
    2. Identify cost advantage creators. Focus on capabilities that drive a cost advantage for your organization. Highlight these capabilities and prioritize programs that support them.
    3. Identify competitive advantage differentiators. Focus on capabilities that give your organization an edge over rivals or other players in your industry.

    This categorization/prioritization exercise helps highlight prime areas of opportunity for building use cases, determining prioritization, and the overall optimization of data and data governance.

    For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

    Example of business capabilities categorization or heatmapping – Retail

    This exercise is useful in ensuring the data governance program is focused and aligned to support the priorities and direction of the business.

    • Depending on the mandate from the business, priority may be on developing cost advantage. Hence the capabilities that deliver efficiency gains are the ones considered to be cost advantage creators.
    • The business’ priority may be on maintaining or gaining a competitive advantage over its industry counterparts. Differentiation might be achieved in delivering unique or enhanced products, services, and/or experiences, and the focus will tend to be on the capabilities that are more end-stakeholder-facing (e.g. customer-, student-, patient,- and/or constituent-facing). These are the organization’s competitive advantage creators.

    Example: Retail

    Example business capability map for Retail with capabilities categorized into Cost Advantage Creators and Competitive Advantage creators via a legend. Value stream items as column headers, and rows 'Enabling', 'Shared', and 'Defining'.

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

    1.2.4 Develop a strategy map tied to data management

    Input: Strategic objectives as outlined by the organization’s business strategy and confirmed by senior leaders

    Output: A strategy map that maps your organizational strategic objectives to value streams, business capabilities, and ultimately data programs

    Materials: Your existing business capability map or the one created in Activity 1.2.2, Business strategy (see next slide for an example)

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Data stewards, Data custodians, Data governance working group

    Identify the strategic objectives for the business. Knowing the key strategic objectives will drive business–data governance alignment. It’s important to make sure the right strategic objectives of the organization have been identified and are well understood.

    1. Meet with senior business leaders and other relevant stakeholders to help identify and document the key strategic objectives for the business.
    2. Leverage their knowledge of the organization’s business strategy and strategic priorities to visually represent how these map to value streams, business capabilities, and ultimately data and data governance needs and initiatives. Tip: Your map is one way to visually communicate and link the business strategy to other levels of the organization.
    3. Confirm the strategy mapping with other relevant stakeholders.

    Example of a strategy map tied to data management

    • Strategic objectives are the outcomes the organization is looking to achieve.
    • Value streams enable an organization to create and capture value in the market through interconnected activities that support strategic objectives.
    • Business capabilities define what a business does to enable value creation in value streams.
    • Data capabilities and initiatives are descriptions of action items on the data and data governance roadmap that will enable one or multiple business capabilities in its desired target state.

    Info-Tech Tip: Start with the strategic objectives, then map the value streams that will ultimately drive them. Next, link the key capabilities that enable each value stream. Then map the data and data governance initiatives that support those capabilities. This process will help you prioritize the data initiatives that deliver the most value to the organization.

    Example: Retail

    Example of a strategy map tied to data management with diagram column headers 'Strategic Objectives' (are realized through...) 'Value Streams' (are enabled by...) 'Key Capabilities' (are driven by...) 'Data Capabilities and Initiatives'. Row headers are objectives and fields are composed of three examples of each column header.

    For this strategy map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

    Step 1.3

    Build High-Value Use Cases for Data Management

    Activities

    1.3.1 Build high-value use cases

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Understand the main disciplines and makeup of a best-practice data management program.
    • Determine which data management capabilities are considered high priority by your organization.

    Outcomes of this step

    • A foundation for data management initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

    Build Business Context and Drivers

    Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3 Step 1.4

    1.3.1 Build high-value use cases

    Input: Value streams and business capabilities as defined by business leaders, Business stakeholders’ subject area expertise, Data custodian systems, integration, and data knowledge

    Output: Use cases that articulate data-related challenges, needs, or opportunities that are tied to defined business capabilities and hence, if addressed, will deliver measurable value to the organization

    Materials: Your business capability map from Activity 1.2.2, Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template, Whiteboard or flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely), Markers/pens

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Data stewards and business SMEs, Data custodians, Data leads and administrators

    This business needs gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

    1. Bring together key business stakeholders (data owner, stewards, SMEs) from a particular line of business as well the relevant data custodian(s) to build cases for their units. Leverage the business capability map you created for facilitating this act.
    2. Leverage Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template as seen on the next slide.
    3. Have the stakeholders move through each breakout session outlined in the use case worksheet. Use flip charts or a whiteboard to brainstorm and document their thoughts.
    4. Debrief and document results in the Data Use Case Framework Template.
    5. Repeat this exercise with as many lines of the business as possible, leveraging your business capability map to guide your progress and align with business value.

    Tip: Don’t conclude these use case discussions without substantiating what measures of success will be used to demonstrate the business value of the effort to produce the desired future state, as relevant to each particular use case.

    Download Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template

    Data use cases

    Sample Data

    The following is the list of use cases as articulated by key stakeholders at [Organization Name].

    The stakeholders see these as areas that are relevant and highly valuable for delivering strategic value to [Organization Name].

    Use Case 1: Customer/Student/Patient/Resident 360 View

    Use Case 2: Project/Department Financial Performance

    Use Case 3: Vendor Lifecycle Management

    Use Case 4: Project Risk Management

    Prioritization of use cases

    Example table for use case prioritization. Column headers are 'Use Case', 'Order of Priority', and 'Comments'. Fields are empty.

    Use case 1

    Sample Data

    Problem statement:

    • We are not realizing our full growth potential because we do not have a unified 360 view of our customers/clients/[name of external stakeholder].
    • This impacts: our cross-selling; upselling; talent acquisition and retention; quality of delivery; ability to identify and deliver the right products, markets, and services...

    If we could solve this:

    • We would be able to better prioritize and position ourselves to meet evolving customer needs.
    • We would be able to optimize the use of our limited resources.

    Use case 1: challenges, risks, and opportunities

    Sample Data

    1. What is the number one risk you need to alleviate?
      • Loss of potential revenue, whether from existing or net new customers.
        • How?
          • By not maximizing opportunities with customers or even by losing customers; by not understanding or addressing their greatest needs
          • By not being able to win potential new customers because we don’t understand their needs
    2. What is the number one opportunity you wish to see happen?
      • The ability to better understand and anticipate the needs of both existing and potential customers.
    3. What is the number one pain point you have when working with data?
      • I can’t do my job with confidence because it’s not based on comprehensive, sound, reliable data. My group spends significant time reconciling data sets with little time left for data use and analysis.
    4. What are your challenges in performing the activity today?
      • I cannot pull together customer data in a timely manner due to having a high level of dependence on specific individuals with institutional knowledge rather than having easy access to information.
      • It takes too much time and effort to pull together what we know about a customer.
      • The necessary data is not consolidated or readily/systematically available for consumption.
      • These challenges are heightened when dealing with customers across markets.

    Use case 1 (cont'd)

    Sample Data

    1. What does “amazing” look like if we solve this perfectly?
      • Employees have immediate, self-service access to necessary information, leading to better and more timely decisions. This results in stronger business and financial growth.
    2. What other business unit activities/processes will be impacted/improved if we solve this?
      • Marketing/bid and proposal, staffing, procurement, and contracting strategy
    3. What compliance/regulatory/policy concerns do we need to consider in any solution?
      • PII, GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, etc.
    4. What measures of success/change should we use to prove the value of the effort (KPIs/ROI)?
      • Win rate, number of services per customer, gross profit, customer retention, customer satisfaction scores, brand awareness, and net promoter score
    5. What are the steps in the process/activity today?
      • Manual aggregation (i.e. pull data from systems into Excel), reliance on unwritten knowledge, seeking IT support, canned reports

    Use case 1 (cont'd)

    Sample Data

    1. What are the applications/systems used at each step?
      • Salesforce CRM, Excel, personal MS Access databases, SharePoint
    2. What data elements (domains) are involved, created, used, or transformed at each step?
      • Bid and proposal information, customer satisfaction, forecast data, list of products, corporate entity hierarchy, vendor information, key staffing, recent and relevant news, and competitor intelligence

    Use case worksheet

    Objective: This business needs gathering activity will help you highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities. They should be clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

    1.

    What business capability (or capabilities) in your business area is this use case tied to?

    Examples: Demand Planning, Assortment Planning, Allocation & Replenishment, Fulfillment Planning, Customer Management
    2.

    What are your data-related challenges in performing this today?

    Use case worksheet (cont’d.)

    Objective: This business needs gathering activity will help you highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities. They should be clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

    3.

    What are the steps in the process/activity today?

    4.

    What are the applications/systems used at each step today?

    5.

    What data domains are involved, created, used, or transformed at each step today?

    Use case worksheet (cont’d.)

    Objective: This business needs gathering activity will help you highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities. They should be clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

    6.

    What does an ideal or improved state look like?

    7.

    What other business units, business capabilities, activities, or processes will be impacted and/or improved if this were to be solved?

    8.

    Who are the stakeholders impacted by these changes? Who needs to be consulted?

    9.

    What are the risks to the organization (business capability, revenue, reputation, customer loyalty, etc.) if this is not addressed?

    Use case worksheet (cont’d.)

    Objective: This business needs gathering activity will help you highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities. They should be clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

    10.

    What compliance, regulatory, or policy concerns do we need to consider in any solution?

    11.

    What measures of success or change should we use to prove the value of the effort (KPIs/ROI)? What is the measurable business value of doing this?

    Use case worksheet (cont’d.)

    Objective: This business needs gathering activity will help you highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities. They should be clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

    10.

    Conclusion: What are the data capabilities that need to be optimized, addressed, or improved to support or help realize the business capability (or capabilities) highlighted in this use case?

    (Tip: This will inform your future-state data capabilities optimization planning and roadmapping activities.)

    Data Management Workshop
    Use Case 1: Covid-19 Emergency Management

    [SAMPLE]

    Problem Statement

    Inability to provide insights to DPH due to inconsistent data, inaccurate reporting, missing governance, and unknown data sources resulting in decisions that impact citizens being made without accurate information.

    Challenges
    • Data is not suitable for analytics. It takes lot of effort to clean data.
    • Data intervals are not correct and other data quality issues.
    • The roles are not clearly defined.
    • Lack of communication between key stakeholders.
    • Inconsistent data/reporting/governance in the agencies. This has resulted in number of issues for Covid-19 emergency management. Not able to report accurately on number of cases, deaths, etc.
    • Data collection systems changed overtime (forms, etc.).
    • GIS has done all the reporting. However, why GIS is doing all the reporting is not clear. GIS provides critical information for location. Reason: GIS was ready with reporting solution ArcGIS.
    • Problem with data collection, consolidation, and providing hierarchical view.
    • Change in requirements, metrics – managing crisis by email and resulting in creating one dashboard after another. Not sure whether these dashboards being used.
    • There is a lot of manual intervention and repeated work.
    What Does Amazing Look Like?
    • One set of dashboards (or single dashboard) – too much time spend on measure development
    • Accurate and timely data
    • Automated data
    • Access to granular data (for researchers and other stakeholders)
    • Clear ownership of data and analytics
    • It would have been nice to have governance already prior to this crisis
    • Proper metrics to measure usage and value
    • Give more capabilities such as predictive analytics, etc.
    Related Processes/Impact
    • DPH
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Citizens
    • Resources & Funding
    • Data Integration & GIS
    • Data Management
    • Automated Data Quality
    Compliance
    • HIPAA, FERPA, CJIS, IRS
    • FEMA
    • State compliance requirement – data classification
    • CDC
    • Federal data-sharing agreements/restrictions
    Benefits/KPIs
    • Reduction in cases
    • Timely response to outbreak
    • Better use of resources
    • Economic impact
    • Educational benefits
    • Trust and satisfaction

    Data Management Workshop
    Use Case 1: Covid-19 Emergency Management

    [SAMPLE]

    Problem Statement

    Inability to provide insights to DPH due to inconsistent data, inaccurate reporting, missing governance, and unknown data sources resulting in decisions that impact citizens being made without accurate information.

    Current Steps in Process Activity (Systems)
    1. Collect data through Survey123 using ArcGIS (hospitals are managed to report by 11 am) – owned KYEM
    2. KYEM stores this information/data
    3. Deduplicate data (emergency preparedness group)
    4. Generate dashboard using ArcGIS
    5. Map to monitor status of the update
    6. Error correction using web portal (QAQC)
    7. Download Excel/CVS after all 97 hospital reports
    8. Sent to federal platform (White House, etc.)
    9. Generate reports for epidemiologist (done manually for public reporting)
    Data Flow diagram

    Data flow diagram.

    SystemsData Management Dimensions
    1. Data Governance
    2. Data Quality
    3. Data Integrity
    4. Data Integration
    1. Data Architecture
    2. Metadata
    3. Data Warehouse, Reporting & Analytics
    4. Data Security

    Data Management Workshop
    Use Case 1: Covid-19 Emergency Management

    [SAMPLE]

    Problem Statement

    Inability to provide insights to DPH due to inconsistent data, inaccurate reporting, missing governance, and unknown data sources resulting in decisions that impact citizens being made without accurate information.

    List Future Process Steps

    Prior to COVID-19 Emergency Response:

    • ArcGIS data integrated available in data warehouse/data lake.
    • KYEM data integrated and available in data warehouse/data lake.
    • CHFS data integrated and available in data warehouse/data lake.
    • Reporting standards and tools framework established.

    After COVID-19 Emergency Response:

    • Collect data through Survey123 using ArcGIS (hospitals are managed to report by 11 am) – owned KYEM.
    • Error correction using web portal (QAQC).
    • Generate reports/dashboard/files as per reporting/analytical requirements:
      • Federal reporting
      • COVID dashboards
      • Epidemiologist reports
      • Lab reporting
    Future Process and Data Flow

    Data flow diagram with future processes.

    Step 1.4

    Create a Vision and Guiding Principles for Data Management

    Activities

    1.4.1 Craft a vision

    1.4.2 Create guiding principles

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Leverage your organization’s existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map, guided by info-Tech’s approach.
    • Determine which business capabilities are considered high priority by your organization.
    • Map your organization’s strategic objectives to value streams and capabilities to communicate how objectives are realized with the support of data.

    Outcomes of this step

    • A foundation for data management initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

    Build Business Context and Drivers

    Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3 Step 1.4

    1.4.1 Craft a vision

    Input: Organizational vision and mission statements, Stakeholder survey results and elicitation findings, Use cases, Business and data capability map

    Output: Vision and mission statements

    Materials: Markers and pens, Whiteboard, Online whiteboard, Vision samples and templates

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Data managers, Data owners, Business leads and SMEs, Project team, Project sponsor

    Complete the vision statement to set the direction, the “why,” for the changes we’re making. The vision is a reference point that should galvanize everyone in the organization and set guardrails for technical and process decisions to follow.

    1. Bring together key business stakeholders (content owners, SMEs, and relevant IT custodians) to craft a data management vision statement.
    2. Start by brainstorming keywords, such as customer-focused, empower the business, service excellence, findable and manageable, protected, accessible, paperless.
    3. Highlight the keywords that resonate most with the group. Refer to example vision statements for ideas.

    Create a common data management vision that is consistently communicated to the organization

    A data management program should be an enterprise-wide initiative.

    • To create a strong vision for data management, there must be participation from the business and IT. A common vision will articulate the state the organization wishes to achieve and how it will reach that state. Visioning helps to develop long-term goals and direction.
    • Once the vision is established, it must be effectively communicated to everyone, especially those who are involved in creating, managing, disposing, or archiving data.
    • The data management program should be periodically refined. This will ensure the organization continues to incorporate best methods and practices as the organization grows and data needs evolve.
    Stock image of a megaphone with multiple icons pouring from its opening.

    Info-Tech Tips

    • Use information from the stakeholder interviews to derive business goals and objectives.
    • Work to integrate different opinions and perspectives into the overall vision for data management.
    • Brainstorm guiding principles for content and understand the overall value to the organization.

    Create compelling vision and mission statements for the organization’s future data management practice

    A vision represents the way your organization intends to be in the future.

    A clear vision statement helps align the entire organization to the same end goal.

    Your vision should be brief, concise, and inspirational; it is attempting to say a lot in a few words, so be very thoughtful and careful with the words you choose. Consider your strengths across departments – business and IT, the consumers of your services, and your current/future commitments to service quality.

    Remember that a vision statement is internally facing for other members of your company throughout the process.

    A mission expresses why you exist.

    While your vision is a declaration of where your organization aspires to be in the future, your mission statement should communicate the fundamental purpose of the data management practice.

    It identifies the function of the practice, what it produces, and its high-level goals that are linked to delivering timely, high-quality, relevant, and valuable data to business processes and end users. Consider if the practice is responsible for providing data for analytical and/or operational use cases.

    A mission statement should be a concise and clear statement of purpose for both internal and external stakeholders.

    “The Vision is the What, Where or Who you want the company to become. The Mission is the WHY the company exists, it is your purpose, passion or cause.” (Doug Meyer-Cuno, Forbes, 2021)

    Data Management Vision and Mission Statements: Draft

    Vision and mission statements crafted by the workshop participants. These statements are to be reviewed, refined into a single version, approved by members of the senior leadership team, and then communicated to the wider organization.

    Corporate

    Group 1

    Group 2

    Vision:
    Create and maintain an institution of world-class excellence.
    Vision: Vision:
    Mission:
    Foster an economic and financial environment conducive to sustainable economic growth and development.
    Mission: Mission:

    Information management framework

    The information management framework is a way to organize all the ECM program’s guidelines and artifacts

    Information management framework with 'Information Management Vision' above six principles. Below them are 'Information Management Policies' and 'Information Management Standards and Procedures.'

    The vision is a statement about the organization’s goals and provides a basis to guide decisions and rally employees toward a shared goal.

    The principles or themes communicate the organization’s priorities for its information management program.

    Policies are a set of official guidelines that determine a course of action. For example: Company is committed to safety for its employees.

    Procedures are a set of actions for doing something. For example: Company employees will wear protective gear while on the production floor.

    Craft your vision

    Use the insights you gathered from users and stakeholders to develop a vision statement
    • The beginning of a data management practice is a clear set of goals and key performance indicators (KPIs).
      A good set of goals takes time and input from senior leadership and stakeholders.
    • The data management program lead is selling a compelling vision of what is possible.
    • The vision also helps set the scope and expectations about what the data management program lead is and is not doing.
    • Be realistic about what you can do and how long it will take to see a difference.
    Table comparing the talk (mission statements, vision statements, and values) with the walk (strategies/goals, objectives, and tactical plans). Example vision statements:
    • The organization is dedicated to creating an enabling structure that helps the organization get the right information to the right people at the right time.
    • The organization is dedicated to creating a program that recognizes data as an asset, establishing a data-centric culture, and ensuring data quality and accessibility to achieve service excellence.
    The vision should be short, memorable, inspirational and draw a clear picture of what that future-state data management experience looks like.

    Is it modern and high end, with digital self-service?

    Is it a trusted and transparent steward of customer assets?

    1.4.2 Create guiding principles

    Input: Sample data management guiding principles, Stakeholder survey results and elicitation findings, Use cases, Business and data capability map

    Output: Data management guiding principles

    Materials: Markers and pens, Whiteboard, Online whiteboard, Guiding principles samples and templates

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Data managers, Data owners, Business leads and SMEs, Project team, Project sponsor

    Draft a set of guiding principles that express your program’s values as a framework for decisions and actions and keep the data strategy alive.

    1. Bring together key business stakeholders (data owners, SMEs, and relevant IT custodians) to craft a set of data management guiding principles.
    2. Refer to industry sample guiding principles for data management.
    3. Discuss what’s important to stakeholders and owners, e.g. security, transparency, integrity. Good guiding principles address real challenges.
    4. A helpful tip: Craft principles as “We will…” statements for the problems you’ve identified.

    Twelve data management universal principles

    [SAMPLE]
    Principle Definitions
    Data Is Accessible Data is accessible across the organization based on individuals’ roles and privileges.
    Treat Data as an Asset Treat data as a most valuable foundation to make right decisions at the right time. Manage the data lifecycle across organization.
    Manage Data Define strategic enterprise data management that defines, integrates, and effectively retrieves data to generate accurate, consistent insights.
    Define Ownership & Stewardship Organizations should clearly appoint data owners and data stewards and ensure all team members understand their role in the company’s data management system.
    Use Metadata Use metadata to ensure data is properly managed by tacking how data has been collected, verified, reported, and analyzed.
    Single Source of Truth Ensure the master data maintenance across the organization.
    Ensure Data Quality Ensure data integrity though out the lifecycle of data by establishing a data quality management program.
    Data Is Secured Classify and maintain the sensitivity of the data.
    Maximize Data Use Extend the organization’s ability to make the most of its data.
    Empower the Users Foster data fluency and technical proficiency through training to maximize optimal business decision making.
    Share the Knowledge Share and publish the most valuable insights appropriately.
    Consistent Data Definitions Establish a business data glossary that defines consistent business definitions and usage of the data.

    Create a Data Management Roadmap

    Phase 2

    Assess Data Management and Build Your Roadmap

    Phase 1

    1.1 Review the Data Management Framework

    1.2 Understand and Align to Business Drivers

    1.3 Build High-Value Use Cases

    1.4 Create a Vision

    Phase 2

    2.1 Assess Data Management

    2.2 Build Your Data Management Roadmap

    2.3 Organize Business Data Domains

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Understand your current data management capabilities.
    • Define target-state capabilities required to achieve business goals and enable the data strategy.
    • Identify priority initiatives and planning timelines for data management improvements.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Data Management Lead/Information Management Lead, CDO, Data Lead
    • Senior Business Leaders
    • Business SMEs
    • Data owners, records managers, regulatory subject matter experts (e.g. legal counsel, security)

    Step 2.1

    Assess Your Data Management Capabilities

    Activities

    2.1.1 Define current state of data management capabilities

    2.1.2 Set target state and identify gaps

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Assess the current state of your data management capabilities.
    • Define target-state capabilities required to achieve business goals and enable the data strategy.
    • Identify gaps and prioritize focus areas for improvement.

    Outcomes of this step

    • A prioritized set of improvement areas aligned with business value stream and drivers

    Assess Data Management and Build Your Roadmap

    Step 2.1 Step 2.2 Step 2.3

    Define current state

    The Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool will help you analyze your organization’s data requirements, identify data management strategies, and systematically develop a plan for your target data management practice.
    • Based on Info-Tech’s Data Management Framework, evaluate the current-state performance levels for your organization’s data management practice.
    • Use the CMMI maturity index to assign values 1 to 5 for each capability and enabler.

    A visualization of stairs numbered up from the bottom. Main headlines of each step are 'Initial and Reactive', 'Managed while developing DG capabilities', 'Defined DG capabilities', 'Quantitatively Managed by DG capabilities', and 'Optimized'.

    Sample of the 'Data Management Current State Assessment' form the Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool.

    2.1.1 Define current state

    Input: Stakeholder survey results and elicitation findings, Use cases, Business and data management capability map

    Output: Current-state data management capabilities

    Materials: Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Business leads and SMEs, Project team, Project sponsor, Data leads, Data custodians

    Assign a maturity level value from 1 to 5 for each question in the assessment tool, organized into capabilities, e.g. Data Governance, Data Quality, Risk.

    1. Bring together key business stakeholders (data owners, SMEs, and relevant IT custodians) to assign current-state maturity levels in each question of the worksheet.
    2. Remember that there is more distance between levels 4 and 5 than there is between 1 and 2 – the distance between levels is not even throughout.
    3. To help assign values, think of the higher levels as representing cross-enterprise standardization, monitored for continuous improvement, formalized and standardized, while the lower levels mean applied within individual units, not formalized or tracked for performance.
    4. In tab 4, “Current State Assessment,” populate a current-state value for each item in the Data Management Capabilities worksheet.
    5. Once you’ve entered values in tab 4, a visual and summary report of the results will be generated on tab 5, “Current State Results.”

    2.1.2 Set target state and identify gaps

    Input: Stakeholder survey results and elicitation findings, Use cases, Business and data management capability map to identify priorities

    Output: Target-state data management capabilities, Gaps identification and analysis

    Materials: Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Business leads and SMEs, Project team, Project sponsor, Data leads, Data custodians

    Assign a maturity level value from 1 to 5 for each question in the assessment tool, organized into capabilities, e.g., Data Governance, Data Quality, Risk.

    1. Bring together key business stakeholders (data owners, SMEs, and relevant IT custodians) to assign target-state maturity levels in each question of the worksheet.
    2. Remember that there is more distance between levels 4 and 5 than there is between 1 and 2 – the distance between levels is not even throughout.
    3. To help assign values, think of the higher levels as representing cross-enterprise standardization, monitored for continuous improvement, formalized and standardized, while the lower levels mean applied within individual units, not formalized or tracked for performance.
    4. In tab 6, “Target State & Gap Analysis,” enter maturity values in each item of the Capabilities worksheet in the Target State column.
    5. Once you’ve assigned both target-state and current-state values, the tool will generate a gap analysis chart on tab 7, “Gap Analysis Results,” where you can start to decide first- and second-line priorities.

    Step 2.2

    Build Your Data Management Roadmap

    Activities

    2.2.1 Describe gaps

    2.2.2 Define gap initiatives

    2.2.2 Build a data management roadmap

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Identify and understand data management gaps.
    • Develop data management improvement initiatives.
    • Build a data management–prioritized roadmap.

    Outcomes of this step

    • A foundation for data management initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

    Assess Data Management and Build Your Roadmap

    Step 2.1 Step 2.2 Step 2.3

    2.2.1 Describe gaps

    Input: Target-state maturity level

    Output: Detail and context about gaps to lead planners to specific initiatives

    Materials: Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Business leads and SMEs, Project team, Project sponsor, Data leads, Data custodians

    Based on the gaps result, describe the nature of the gap, which will lead to specific initiatives for the data management plan:

    1. In tab 6, “Target State & Gap Analysis,” the same tab where you entered your target-state maturity level, enter additional context about the nature and extent of each gap in the Gap Description column.
    2. Based on the best-practices framework we walked through in Phase 1, note the specific areas that are not fully developed in your organization; for example, we don’t have a model of our environment and its integrations, or there isn’t an established data quality practice with proactive monitoring and intervention.

    2.2.2 Define gap initiatives

    Input: Gaps analysis, Gaps descriptions

    Output: Data management initiatives

    Materials: Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Business leads and SMEs, Project team, Project sponsor, Data leads, Data custodians

    Based on the gap analysis, start to define the data management initiatives that will close the gaps and help the organization achieve its target state.

    1. In tab 6, “Target State & Gap Analysis,” the same tab where you entered your target-state maturity level, note in the Gap Initiative column what actions you can take to address the gap for each item. For example, if we found through diagnostics and use cases that users didn’t understand the meaning of their data or reports, an initiative might be, “Build a standard enterprise business data catalog.”
    2. It’s an opportunity to brainstorm, to be creative, and think about possibilities. We’ll use the roadmap step to select initiatives from this list.
    3. There are things we can do right away to make a difference. Acknowledge the resources, talent, and leadership momentum you already have in your organization and leverage those to find activities that will work in your culture. For example, one company held a successful Data Day to socialize the roadmap and engage users.

    2.2.3 Build a data management roadmap

    Input: Gap initiatives, Target state and current-state assessment

    Output: Data management initiatives and roadmap

    Materials: Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Business leads and SMEs, Project team, Project sponsor, Data leads, Data custodians

    Start to list tangible actions you will take to address gaps and achieve data objectives and business goals along with timelines and responsibility:

    1. With an understanding of your priority areas and specific gaps, and referring back to your use cases, draw up specific initiatives that you can track, measure, and align with your original goals.
    2. For example, in data governance, initiatives might include:
      • Assign data owners and stewards for all data assets.
      • Consolidate disparate business data catalogs.
      • Create a data governance charter or terms of reference.
    3. Alongside the initiatives, fill in other detail, especially who is responsible and timing (start and end dates). Assigning responsibility and some time markers will help to keep momentum alive and make the work projects real.

    Step 2.3

    Organize Business Data Domains

    Activities

    2.3.1 Define business data domains and assign owners

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Identify business data domains that flow through and support the systems environment and business processes.
    • Define and organize business data domains with assigned owners, artifacts, and profiles.
    • Apply the domain map to building governance program.

    Outcomes of this step

    • Business data domain map with assigned owners and artifacts

    Assess Data Management and Build Your Roadmap

    Step 2.1 Step 2.2 Step 2.3

    2.3.1 Define business data domains

    Input: Target-state maturity level

    Output: Detail and context about gaps to lead planners to specific initiatives

    Materials: Data Management Assessment and Planning Tool

    Participants: Key business stakeholders, Business leads and SMEs, Project team, Project sponsor, Data leads, Data custodians

    Identify the key data domains for each line of business, where the data resides, and the main contact or owner.

    1. We have an understanding of what the business wants to achieve, e.g. build customer loyalty or comply with privacy laws. But where is the data that can help us achieve that? What systems is that data moving and living in and who, if anyone, owns it?
    2. Define the main business data domains apart from what system it may be spread over. Use the worksheet on the next slide as an example.
    3. Examples of business data domains: Customer, Product, Vendor.
    4. Each domain should have owners and associated business processes. Assign data domain owners, application owners, and business process owners.

    Business and data domains

    [SAMPLE]

    Business Domain App/Data Domains Business Stewards Application Owners Business Owners
    Client Experience and Sales Tech Salesforce (Sales, Service, Experience Clouds), Mulesoft (integration point) (Any team inputting data into the system)
    Quality and Regulatory Salesforce
    Operations Salesforce, Salesforce Referrals, Excel spreadsheets, SharePoint
    Finance Workday, Sage 300 (AccPac), Salesforce, Moneris Finance
    Risk/Legal Network share drive/SharePoint
    Human Resources Workday, Network share drive/SharePoint HR team
    Corporate Sales Salesforce (Sales, Service, Health, Experience Clouds),
    Sales and Client Success Mitel, Outlook, PDF intake forms, Workday, Excel. Sales & Client Success Director, Marketing Director CIO, Sales & Client Success Director, Marketing Director

    Embrace the technology

    Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you:
    • Data catalog
    • Business data glossary
    • Data lineage
    • Metadata management
    While data governance tools and technologies are no panacea, leverage their automated and AI-enabled capabilities to augment your data governance program.
    Array of logos of tech companies whose products are used for this type of work: Informatica, Collibra, Tibco, Alation, Immuta, TopQuadrant, and SoftwareReviews.

    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 an analyst.

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

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

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

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:
    Sample of the Data Governance Strategy Map slide from earlier.

    Build Your Business and User Context

    Work with your core team of stakeholders to build out your data management roadmap, aligning data management initiatives with business capabilities, value streams, and, ultimately, your strategic priorities.
    Sample of a 'Data Management Enablers' table.

    Formulate a Plan to Get to Your Target State

    Develop a data management future-state roadmap and plan based on an understanding of your current data governance capabilities, your operating environment, and the driving needs of your business.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Stock image of people pointing to a tablet with a dashboard.

    Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

    Key to building and fostering a data-driven culture.
    Sample of the 'Data & Analytics Landscape' slide from earlier.

    Understand the Data and Analytics Landscape

    Optimize your data and analytics environment.
    Stock image of co-workers looking at the same thing.

    Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics

    Data architecture best practices to prepare data for reporting and analytics.

    Research Contributors

    Name Position Company
    Anne Marie Smith Board of Directors DAMA International
    Andy Neill Practice Lead, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
    Dirk Coetsee Research Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
    Graham Price Executive Advisor, Advisory Executive Services Info-Tech Research Group
    Igor Ikonnikov Research Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
    Jean Bujold Senior Workshop Delivery Director Info-Tech Research Group
    Mario Cantin Chief Data Strategist Prodago
    Martin Sykora Director NexJ Analytics
    Michael Blaha Author, Patterns of Data Modeling Consultant
    Rajesh Parab Research Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
    Ranjani Ranganathan Product Manager, Research – Workshop Delivery Info-Tech Research Group
    Reddy Doddipalli Senior Workshop Director Info-Tech Research Group

    Bibliography

    AIIM, “What is Enterprise Content Management (ECM)?” Intelligent Information Management Glossary, AIIM, 2021. Web.

    BABOK V3: A Guide to Business Analysis Body of Knowledge. IIBA, 2014. Web.

    Barton, Dominic, and David Court. "Three Keys To Building a Data-Driven Strategy." McKinsey and Company, 1 Mar. 2013. Web.

    Boston University Libraries. "Data Life Cycle » Research Data Management | Boston University." Research Data Management RSS. Boston University, n.d. Accessed Oct. 2015.

    Chang, Jenny. “97 Supply Chain Statistics You Must Know: 2020 / 2021 Market Share Analysis & Data.” FinancesOnline, 2021. Web.

    COBIT 5: Enabling Information. ISACA, 2013. Web.

    CSC (Computer Sciences Corporation), Big Data Infographic, 2012. Web.

    DAMA International. DAMA-DMBOK Guide. 1st ed., Technics Publications, 2009. Digital.

    DAMA International. “DAMA Guide to the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK2 Guide).” 2nd ed., 2017. Accessed June 2017.

    Davenport, Thomas H. "Analytics in Sports: The New Science of Winning." International Institute for Analytics, 2014. Web.

    Department of Homeland Security. Enterprise Data Management Policy. Department of Homeland Security, 25 Aug. 2014. Web.

    Enterprise Data Management Data Governance Plan. US Federal Student Aid, Feb. 2007. Accessed Oct. 2015.

    Experian. “10 signs you are sitting on a pile of data debt.” Experian, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Fasulo, Phoebe. “6 Data Management Trends in Financial Services.” SecurityScorecard, 3 June 2021. Web.

    Georgia DCH Medicaid Enterprise – Data Management Strategy. Georgia Department of Community Health, Feb. 2015. Accessed Oct. 2015.

    Hadavi, Cyrus. “Use Exponential Growth of Data to Improve Supply Chain Operations.” Forbes, 5 Oct. 2021. Web.

    Harbert, Tam. “Tapping the power of unstructured data.” MIT Sloan, 1 Feb. 2021. Web.

    Hoberman, Steve, and George McGeachie. Data Modeling Made Simple with PowerDesigner. Technics Pub, 2011. Print.

    “Information Management Strategy.” Information Management – Alberta. Service Alberta, Nov.-Dec. 2013. Web.

    Jackson, Brian, et al. “2021 Tech Trends.” Info-Tech Research Group, 2021. Web.

    Jarvis, David, et al. “The hyperquantified athlete: Technology, measurement, and the business of sports.” Deloitte Insights, 7 Dec. 2020. Web.

    Bibliography

    Johnson, Bruce. “Leveraging Subject Area Models.” EIMInsight Magazine, vol. 3, no. 4, April 2009. Accessed Sept. 2015.

    Lewis, Larry. "How to Use Big Data to Improve Supply Chain Visibility." Talking Logistics, 14 Sep. 2014. Web.

    McAfee, Andrew, and Erik Brynjolfsson. “Big Data: The Management Revolution,” Harvard Business Review, vol. 90, no. 10, 2012, pp. 60-68.

    Meyer-Cuno, Doug. “Is A Vision Statement Important?” Forbes, 24 Feb. 2021. Web.

    MIT. “Big Data: The Management Revolution.” MIT Center for Digital Business, 29 May 2014. Accessed April 2014.

    "Open Framework, Information Management Strategy & Collaborative Governance.” MIKE2 Methodology RSS, n.d. Accessed Aug. 2015.

    PwC. “Asset Management 2020: A Brave New World.” PwC, 2014. Accessed April 2014.

    Riley, Jenn. Understanding Metadata: What is Metadata, and What is it For: A Primer. NISO, 1 Jan. 2017. Web.

    Russom, Philip. "TDWI Best Practices Report: Managing Big Data." TDWI, 2013. Accessed Oct. 2015.

    Schneider, Joan, and Julie Hall. “Why Most Product Launches Fail.” Harvard Business Review, April 2011. Web.

    Sheridan, Kelly. "2015 Trends: The Growth of Information Governance | Insurance & Technology." InformationWeek. UBM Tech, 10 Dec. 2014. Accessed Nov. 2015.

    "Sports Business Analytics and Tickets: Case Studies from the Pros." SloanSportsConference. Live Analytics – Ticketmaster, Mar. 2013. Accessed Aug. 2015.

    Srinivasan, Ramya. “Three Analytics Breakthroughs That Will Define Business in 2021.” Forbes, 4 May 2021. Web.

    Statista. “Amount of data created, consumed, and stored 2010-2020.” Statista, June 2021. Web.

    “Understanding the future of operations: Accenture Global Operations Megatrends research.” Accenture Consulting, 2015. Web.

    Vardhan, Harsh. “Why So Many Product Ideas Fail?” Medium, 26, Sept. 2020. Web.

    Build a Cloud Security Strategy

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}169|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.4/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $38,592 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 44 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Security Strategy & Budgeting
    • Parent Category Link: /security-strategy-and-budgeting
    • Leveraging the cloud introduces IT professionals to a new world that they are tasked with securing.
    • With many cloud vendors proposing to share the security responsibility, it can be a challenge for organizations to develop a clear understanding of how they can best secure their data off premises.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Cloud security is not fundamentally different from security on premises.
    • While some of the mechanics are different, the underlying principles are the same. Accountability doesn’t disappear.
    • By virtue of its broad network accessibility, the cloud does expose decisions to extreme scrutiny, however.

    Impact and Result

    • The business is adopting a cloud environment and it must be secured, which includes:
      • Ensuring business data cannot be leaked or stolen.
      • Maintaining privacy of data and other information.
      • Securing the network connection points.
    • This blueprint and associated tools are scalable for all types of organizations within various industry sectors.

    Build a Cloud Security Strategy Research & Tools

    Start Here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build a cloud security 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. Explore security considerations for the cloud

    Explore how the cloud changes the required controls and implementation strategies for a variety of different security domains.

    • Build a Cloud Security Strategy – Phase 1: Explore Security Considerations for the Cloud
    • Cloud Security Information Security Gap Analysis Tool
    • Cloud Security Strategy Template

    2. Prioritize initiatives and construct a roadmap

    Develop your organizational approach to various domains of security in the cloud, considering the cloud’s unique risks and challenges.

    • Build a Cloud Security Strategy – Phase 2: Prioritize Initiatives and Construct a Roadmap
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build a Cloud Security Strategy

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

    1 Define Your Approach

    The Purpose

    Define your unique approach to improving security in the cloud.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An understanding of the organization’s requirements for cloud security.

    Activities

    1.1 Define your approach to cloud security.

    1.2 Define your governance requirements.

    1.3 Define your cloud security management requirements.

    Outputs

    Defined cloud security approach

    Defined governance requirements

    2 Respond to Cloud Security Challenges

    The Purpose

    Explore challenges posed by the cloud in various areas of security.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An understanding of how the organization needs to evolve to combat the unique security challenges of the cloud.

    Activities

    2.1 Explore cloud asset management.

    2.2 Explore cloud network security.

    2.3 Explore cloud application security.

    2.4 Explore log and event management.

    2.5 Explore cloud incident response.

    2.6 Explore cloud eDiscovery and forensics.

    2.7 Explore cloud backup and recovery.

    Outputs

    Understanding of cloud security strategy components (cont.).

    3 Build Cloud Security Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Identify initiatives to mitigate challenges posed by the cloud in various areas of security.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A roadmap for improving security in the cloud.

    Activities

    3.1 Define tasks and initiatives.

    3.2 Finalize your task list

    3.3 Consolidate gap closure actions into initiatives.

    3.4 Finalize initiative list.

    3.5 Conduct a cost-benefit analysis.

    3.6 Prioritize initiatives and construct a roadmap.

    3.7 Create effort map.

    3.8 Assign initiative execution waves.

    3.9 Finalize prioritization.

    3.10 Incorporate initiatives into a roadmap.

    3.11 Schedule initiatives.

    3.12 Review your results.

    Outputs

    Defined task list.

    Cost-benefit analysis

    Roadmap

    Effort map

    Initiative schedule

    IT Management and Policies

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}23|cart{/j2store}
    • Related Products: {j2store}23|crosssells{/j2store}
    • 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
    • member rating overall impact: 9.5/10
    • member rating average dollars saved: $23101
    • member rating average days saved: 11
    • 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

    Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}128|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.1/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $49,748 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 28 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Business Intelligence Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /business-intelligence-strategy
    • In respect to business intelligence (BI) matureness, you can’t expect the whole organization to be at the same place at the same time. Your BI strategy needs to recognize this and should strive to align rather than dictate.
    • Technology is just one aspect of your BI and analytics strategy and is not a quick solution or a guarantee for long-term success.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The BI strategy drives data warehouse and integration strategies and the data needed to support business decisions.
    • The solution to better BI often lies in improving the BI practice, not acquiring the latest and greatest tool.

    Impact and Result

    • Align BI with corporate vision, mission, goals, and strategic direction.
    • Understand the needs of business partners.
    • BI & analytics informs data warehouse and integration layers for required content, latency, and quality.

    Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should create or refresh the BI Strategy and review Info-Tech’s approach to developing a BI strategy that meets business needs.

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

    1. Understand the business context and BI landscape

    Lay the foundation for the BI strategy by detailing key business information and analyzing current BI usage.

    • Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy – Phase 1: Understand the Business Context and BI Landscape
    • BI Strategy and Roadmap Template
    • BI End-User Satisfaction Survey Framework

    2. Evaluate the current BI practice

    Assess the maturity level of the current BI practice and envision a future state.

    • Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy – Phase 2: Evaluate the Current BI Practice
    • BI Practice Assessment Tool

    3. Create a BI roadmap for continuous improvement

    Create BI-focused initiatives to build an improvement roadmap.

    • Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy – Phase 3: Create a BI Roadmap for Continuous Improvement
    • BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool
    • BI Strategy and Roadmap Executive Presentation Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy

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

    1 Establish Business Vision and Understand the Current BI Landscape

    The Purpose

    Document overall business vision, mission, and key objectives; assemble project team.

    Collect in-depth information around current BI usage and BI user perception.

    Create requirements gathering principles and gather requirements for a BI platform.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Increased IT–business alignment by using the business context as the project starting point

    Identified project sponsor and project team

    Detailed understanding of trends in BI usage and BI perception of consumers

    Refreshed requirements for a BI solution

    Activities

    1.1 Gather key business information (overall mission, goals, objectives, drivers).

    1.2 Establish a high-level ROI.

    1.3 Identify ideal candidates for carrying out a BI project.

    1.4 Undertake BI usage analyses, BI user perception survey, and a BI artifact inventory.

    1.5 Develop requirements gathering principles and approaches.

    1.6 Gather and organize BI requirements

    Outputs

    Articulated business context that will guide BI strategy development

    ROI for refreshing the BI strategy

    BI project team

    Comprehensive summary of current BI usage that has quantitative and qualitative perspectives

    BI requirements are confirmed

    2 Evaluate Current BI Maturity and Identify the BI Patterns for the Future State

    The Purpose

    Define current maturity level of BI practice.

    Envision the future state of your BI practice and identify desired BI patterns.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Know the correct migration method for Exchange Online.

    Prepare user profiles for the rest of the Office 365 implementation.

    Activities

    2.1 Perform BI SWOT analyses.

    2.2 Assess current state of the BI practice and review results.

    2.3 Create guiding principles for the future BI practice.

    2.4 Identify desired BI patterns and the associated BI functionalities/requirements.

    2.5 Define the future state of the BI practice.

    2.6 Establish the critical success factors for the future BI, identify potential risks, and create a mitigation plan.

    Outputs

    Exchange migration strategy

    Current state of BI practice is documented from multiple perspectives

    Guiding principles for future BI practice are established, along with the desired BI patterns linked to functional requirements

    Future BI practice is defined

    Critical success factors, potential risks, and a risk mitigation plan are defined

    3 Build Improvement Initiatives and Create a BI Development Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Build overall BI improvement initiatives and create a BI improvement roadmap.

    Identify supplementary initiatives for enhancing your BI program.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined roadmap composed of robust improvement initiatives

    Activities

    3.1 Create BI improvement initiatives based on outputs from phase 1 and 2 activities. Build an improvement roadmap.

    3.2 Build an improvement roadmap.

    3.3 Create an Excel governance policy.

    3.4 Create a plan for a BI ambassador network.

    Outputs

    Comprehensive BI initiatives placed on an improvement roadmap

    Excel governance policy is created

    Internal BI ambassadors are identified

    Further reading

    Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy

    Deliver actionable business insights by creating a business-aligned reporting and analytics strategy.

    Terminology

    As the reporting and analytics space matured over the last decade, software suppliers used different terminology to differentiate their products from others’. This caused a great deal of confusion within the business communities.

    Following are two definitions of the term Business Intelligence:

    Business intelligence (BI) leverages software and services to transform data into actionable insights that inform an organization’s strategic and tactical business decisions. BI tools access and analyze data sets and present analytical findings in reports, summaries, dashboards, graphs, charts, and maps to provide users with detailed intelligence about the state of the business.

    The term business intelligence often also refers to a range of tools that provide quick, easy-to-digest access to insights about an organization's current state, based on available data.

    CIO Magazine

    Business intelligence (BI) comprises the strategies and technologies used by enterprises for the data analysis of business information. BI technologies provide historical, current, and predictive views of business operations.

    Common functions of business intelligence technologies include reporting, online analytical processing, analytics, data mining, process mining, complex event processing, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics.

    Wikipedia

    This blueprint will use the terms “BI,” “BI and Analytics,” and “Reporting and Analytics” interchangeably in different contexts, but always in compliance to the above definitions.

    ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

    A fresh analytics & reporting strategy enables new BI opportunities.

    We need data to inform the business of past and current performance and to support strategic decisions. But we can also drown in a flood of data. Without a clear strategy for business intelligence, a promising new solution will produce only noise.

    BI and Analytics teams must provide the right quantitative and qualitative insights for the business to base their decisions on.

    Your Business Intelligence and Analytics strategy must support the organization’s strategy. Your strategy for BI & Analytics provides direction and requirements for data warehousing and data integration, and further paves the way for predictive analytics, big data analytics, market/industry intelligence, and social network analytics.

    Dirk Coetsee,

    Director, Data and Analytics Info-Tech Research Group

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research is Designed For:

    • A CIO or Business Unit (BU) Leader looking to improve reporting and analytics, reduce time to information, and embrace fact-based decision making with analytics, reporting, and business intelligence (BI).
    • Application Directors experiencing poor results from an initial BI tool deployment who are looking to improve the outcome.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • Project Managers and Business Analysts assigned to a BI project team to collect and analyze requirements.
    • Business units that have their own BI platforms and would like to partner with IT to take their BI to an enterprise level.

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Align your reporting and analytics strategy with the business’ strategic objectives before you rebuild or buy your Business Intelligence platform.
    • Identify reporting and analytics objectives to inform the data warehouse and integration requirements gathering process.
    • Avoid common pitfalls that derail BI and analytic deployments and lower their adoption.
    • Identify Business Intelligence gaps prior to deployment and incorporate remedies within your plans.

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Recruit the right resources for the program.
    • Align BI with corporate vision, mission, goals, and strategic direction.
    • Understand the needs of business partners.
    • Assess BI maturity and plan for target state.
    • Develop a BI strategy and roadmap.
    • Track the success of the BI initiative.

    Executive summary

    Situation:

    BI drives a new reality. Uber is the world’s largest taxi company and they own no vehicles; Alibaba is the world’s most valuable retailer and they have no inventory; Airbnb is the world’s largest accommodation provider and they own no real estate. How did they disrupt their markets and get past business entry barriers? A deep understanding of their market through impeccable business intelligence!

    Complication:

    • In respect to BI matureness, you can’t expect the whole organization to be at the same place at the same time. Your BI strategy needs to recognize this and should strive to align rather than dictate.
    • Technology is just one aspect of your BI and Analytics strategy and is not a quick solution or a guarantee for long term success.

    Resolution:

    • Drive strategy development by establishing the business context upfront in order to align business intelligence providers with the most important needs of their BI consumers and the strategic priorities of the organization.
    • Revamp or create a BI strategy to update your BI program to make it fit for purpose.
    • Understand your existing BI baggage – e.g. your existing BI program, the artifacts generated from the program, and the users it supports. Those will inform the creation of the strategy and roadmap.
    • Assess current BI maturity and determine your future state BI maturity.
    • BI needs governance to ensure consistent planning, communication, and execution of the BI strategy.
    • Create a network of BI ambassadors across the organization to promote BI.
    • Plan for the future to ensure that required data will be available when the organization needs it.

    Info-Tech Insight

    1. Put the “B” back in BI. Don’t have IT doing BI for IT’s sake; ensure the voice and needs of the business are the primary drivers of your strategy.
    2. The BI strategy drives data warehouse and integration strategies and the data needs to support business decisions.
    3. Go beyond the platform. The solution to better BI often lies in improving the BI practice, not acquiring the latest and greatest tool.

    Metrics to track BI & Analytical program progress

    Goals for BI:

    • Understand business context and needs. Identify business processes that can leverage BI.
    • Define the Reporting & Analytics Roadmap. Develop data initiatives, and create a strategy and roadmap for Business Intelligence.
    • Continuous improvements. Your BI program is evolving and improving over time. The program should allow you to have faster, better, and more comprehensive information.

    Info-Tech’s Suggested Metrics for Tracking the BI Program

    Practice Improvement Metrics Data Collection and Calculation Expected Improvement
    Program Level Metrics Efficiency
    • Time to information
    • Self-service penetration
    • Derive from the ticket management system
    • Derive from the BI platform
    • 10% reduction in time to information
    • Achieve 10-15% self-service penetration
    • Effectiveness
    • BI Usage
    • Data quality
    • Derive from the BI platform
    • Data quality perception
    • Majority of the users use BI on a daily basis
    • 15% increase in data quality perception
    Comprehensiveness
    • # of integrated datasets
    • # of strategic decisions made
    • Derive from the data integration platform
    • Decision-making perception
    • Onboard 2-3 new data domains per year
    • 20% increase in decision-making perception

    Intangible Metrics:

    Tap into the results of Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision diagnostic to monitor the changes in business-user satisfaction as you implement the initiatives in your BI improvement roadmap.

    Your Enterprise BI and Analytics Strategy is driven by your organization’s Vision and Corporate Strategy

    Formulating an Enterprise Reporting and Analytics Strategy requires the business vision and strategies to first be substantiated. Any optimization to the Data Warehouse, Integration and Source layer is in turn driven by the Enterprise Reporting and Analytics Strategy

    Flow chart showing 'Business Vision Strategies'

    The current state of your Integration and Warehouse platforms determine what data can be utilized for BI and Analytics

    Where we are, and how we got here

    How we got here

    • In the beginning was BI 1.0. Business intelligence began as an IT-driven centralized solution that was highly governed. Business users were typically the consumers of reports and dashboards created by IT, an analytics-trained minority, upon request.
    • In the last five to ten years, we have seen a fundamental shift in the business intelligence and analytics market, moving away from such large-scale, centralized IT-driven solutions focused on basic reporting and administration, towards more advanced user-friendly data discovery and visualization platforms. This has come to be known as BI 2.0.
    • Many incumbent market leaders were disrupted by the demand for more user-friendly business intelligence solutions, allowing “pure-play” BI software vendors to carve out a niche and rapidly expand into more enterprise environments.
    • BI-on-the-cloud has established itself as a solid alternative to in-house implementation and operation.

    Where we are now

    • BI 3.0 has arrived. This involves the democratization of data and analytics and a predominantly app-centric approach to BI, identifiable by an anywhere, anytime, and device-or-platform-independent collaborative methodology. Social workgroups and self-guided content creation, delivery, analysis, and management is prominent.
    • Where the need for reporting and dashboards remains, we’re seeing data discovery platforms fulfilling the needs of non-technical business users by providing easy-to-use interactive solutions to increase adoption across enterprises.
    • With more end users demanding access to data and the tools to extract business insights, IT is looking to meet these needs while continuing to maintain governance and administration over a much larger base of users. The race for governed data discovery is heated and will be a market differentiator.
    • The next kid on the block is Artificial Intelligence that put further demands on data quality and availability.

    RICOH Canada used this methodology to develop their BI strategy in consultation with their business stakeholders

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Manufacturing and Retail

    Source: RICOH

    Ricoh Canada transforms the way people work with breakthrough technologies that help businesses innovate and grow. Its focus has always been to envision what the future will look like so that it can help its customers prepare for success. Ricoh empowers digital workplaces with a broad portfolio of services, solutions, and technologies – helping customers remove obstacles to sustained growth by optimizing the flow of information and automating antiquated processes to increase workplace productivity. In their commitment towards a customer-centric approach, Ricoh Canada recognized that BI and analytics can be used to inform business leaders in making strategic decisions.

    Enterprise BI and analytics Initiative

    Ricoh Canada enrolled in the ITRG Reporting & Analytics strategy workshop with the aim to create a BI strategy that will allow the business to harvest it strengths and build for the future. The workshop acted as a forum for the different business units to communicate, share ideas, and hear from each other what their pains are and what should be done to provide a full customer 360 view.

    Results

    “This workshop allowed us to collectively identify the various stakeholders and their unique requirements. This is a key factor in the development of an effective BI Analytics tool.” David Farrar

    The Customer 360 Initiative included the following components

    The Customer 360 Initiative includes the components shown in the image

    Improve BI Adoption Rates

    Graph showing Product Adoption Rates

    Sisense

    Reasons for low BI adoption

    • Employees that never used BI tools are slow to adopt new technology.
    • Lack of trust in data leads to lack of trust in the insights.
    • Complex data structures deter usage due to long learning curves and contained nuances.
    • Difficult to translate business requirements into tool linguistics due to lack of training or technical ineptness.
    • Business has not taken ownership of data, which affects access to data.

    How to foster BI adoption

    • Senior management proclaim data as a strategic asset and involved in the promotion of BI
    • Role Requirement that any business decision should be backed up by analytics
    • Communication of internal BI use case studies and successes
    • Exceptional data lineage to act as proof for the numbers
    • A Business Data glossary with clearly defined business terms. Use the Business Data Glossary in conjunction with data lineage and semantic layers to ensure that businesses are clearly defined and traced to sources.
    • Training in business to take ownership of data from inception to analytics.

    Why bother with analytics?

    In today’s ever-changing and global environment, organizations of every size need to effectively leverage their data assets to facilitate three key business drivers: customer intimacy, product/service innovation, and operational excellence. Plus, they need to manage their operational risk efficiently.

    Investing in a comprehensive business intelligence strategy allows for a multidimensional view of your organization’s data assets that can be operationalized to create a competitive edge:

    Historical Data

    Without a BI strategy, creating meaningful reports for business users that highlight trends in past performance and draw relationships between different data sources becomes a more complex task. Also, the ever growing need to identify and assess risks in new ways is driving many companies to BI.

    Data Democracy

    The core purpose of BI is to provide the right data, to the right users, at the right time, and in a format that is easily consumable and actionable. In developing a BI strategy, remember the driver for managed cross-functional access to data assets and features such as interactive dashboards, mobile BI, and self-service BI.

    Predictive and Big Data Analytics

    As the volume, variety, and velocity of data increases rapidly, businesses will need a strategy to outline how they plan to consume the new data in a manner that does not overwhelm their current capabilities and aligns with their desired future state. This same strategy further provides a foundation upon which organizations can transition from ad hoc reporting to using data assets in a codified BI platform for decision support.

    Business intelligence serves as the layer that translates data, information, and organizational knowledge into insights

    As executive decision making shifts to more fact-based, data-driven thinking, there is an urgent need for data assets to be organized and presented in a manner that enables immediate action.

    Typically, business decisions are based on a mix of intuition, opinion, emotion, organizational culture, and data. Though business users may be aware of its potential value in driving operational change, data is often viewed as inaccessible.

    Business intelligence bridges the gap between an organization’s data assets and consumable information that facilitates insight generation and informed decision making.

    Most organizations realize that they need a BI strategy; it’s no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.

    – Albert Hui, Principal, Data Economist

    A triangle grapg depicting the layers of business itelligence

    Business intelligence and business analytics: what is the difference and should you care

    Ask 100 people and you will get 100 answers. We like the prevailing view that BI looks at today and backward for improving who we are, while BA is forward-looking to support change decisions.

    The image depicts a chart flowing from Time Past to Future. Business Intelligence joins with Business Analytics over the Present
    • Business intelligence is concerned with looking at present and historical data.
    • Use this data to create reports/dashboards to inform a wide variety of information consumers of the past and current state of affairs.
    • Almost all organizations, regardless of size and maturity, use some level of BI even if it’s just very basic reporting.
    • Business analytics, on the other hand, is a forward-facing use of data, concerned with the present to the future.
    • Analytics uses data to both describe the present, and more importantly, predict the future, enabling strategic business decisions.
    • Although adoption is rapidly increasing, many organizations still do not utilize any advanced analytics in their environment.

    However, establishing a strong business intelligence program is a necessary precursor to an organization’s development of its business analytics capabilities.

    Organizations that successfully grow their BI capabilities are reaping the rewards

    Evidence is piling up: if planned well, BI contributes to the organization’s bottom line.

    It’s expected that there will be nearly 45 billion connected devices and a 42% increase in data volume each year posing a high business opportunity for the BI market (BERoE, 2020).

    The global business intelligence market size to grow from US$23.1 billion in 2020 to US$33.3 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6% (Global News Wire, 2020)

    In the coming years, 69% of companies plan on increasing their cloud business intelligence usage (BARC Research and Eckerson Group Study, 2017).

    Call to Action

    Small organizations of up to 100 employees had the highest rate of business intelligence penetration last year (Forbes, 2018).

    Graph depicting business value from 0 months to more than 24 months

    Source: IBM Business Value, 2015

    For the New England Patriots, establishing a greater level of customer intimacy was driven by a tactical analytics initiative

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Professional Sports

    Source Target Marketing

    Problem

    Despite continued success as a franchise with a loyal fan base, the New England Patriots experienced one of their lowest season ticket renewal rates in over a decade for the 2009 season. Given the numerous email addresses that potential and current season-ticket holders used to engage with the organization, it was difficult for Kraft Sports Group to define how to effectively reach customers.

    Turning to a Tactical Analytics Approach

    Kraft Sports Group turned to the customer data that it had been collecting since 2007 and chose to leverage analytics in order to glean insight into season ticket holder behavior. By monitoring and reporting on customer activity online and in attendance at games, Kraft Sports Group was able to establish that customer engagement improved when communication from the organization was specifically tailored to customer preferences and historical behavior.

    Results

    By operationalizing their data assets with the help of analytics, the Patriots were able to achieve a record 97% renewal rate for the 2010 season. KSG was able to take their customer engagement to the next level and proactively look for signs of attrition in season-ticket renewals.

    We're very analytically focused and I consider us to be the voice of the customer within the organization… Ultimately, we should know when renewal might not happen and be able to market and communicate to change that behavior.

    – Jessica Gelman,

    VP Customer Marketing and Strategy, Kraft Sports Group

    A large percentage of all BI projects fail to meet the organization’s needs; avoid falling victim to common pitfalls

    Tool Usage Pitfalls

    • Business units are overwhelmed with the amount and type of data presented.
    • Poor data quality erodes trust, resulting in a decline in usage.
    • Analysis performed for the sake of analysis and doesn’t focus on obtaining relevant business-driven insights.

    Selection Pitfalls

    • Inadequate requirements gathering.
    • No business involvement in the selection process.
    • User experience is not considered.
    • Focus is on license fees and not total cost.

    Implementation Pitfalls

    • Absence of upfront planning
    • Lack of change management to facilitate adoption of the new platform
    • No quick wins that establish the value of the project early on
    • Inadequate initial or ongoing training

    Strategic Pitfalls

    • Poor alignment of BI goals with organization goals
    • Absence of CSFs/KPIs that can measure the qualitative and quantitative success of the project
    • No executive support during or after the project

    BI pitfalls are lurking around every corner, but a comprehensive strategy drafted upfront can help your organization overcome these obstacles. Info-Tech’s approach to BI has involvement from the business units built right into the process from the start and it equips IT to interact with key stakeholders early and often.

    Only 62% of Big Data and AI projects in 2019 provided measurable results.

    Source: NewVantage Partners LLC

    Business and IT have different priorities for a BI tool

    Business executives look for:

    • Ease of use
    • Speed and agility
    • Clear and concise information
    • Sustainability

    IT professionals are concerned about:

    • Solid security
    • Access controls on data
    • Compliance with regulations
    • Ease of integration

    Info-Tech Insight

    Combining these priorities will lead to better tool selection and more synergy.

    Elizabeth Mazenko

    The top-down BI Opportunity Analysis is a tool for senior executives to discover where Business Intelligence can provide value

    The image is of a top-down BI Opportunity Analysis.

    Example: Uncover BI opportunities with an opportunity analysis

    Industry Drivers Private label Rising input prices Retail consolidation
    Company strategies Win at supply chain execution Win at customer service Expand gross margins
    Value disciplines Strategic cost management Operational excellence Customer service
    Core processes Purchasing Inbound logistics Sales, service & distribution
    Enterprise management: Planning, budgeting, control, process improvement, HR
    BI Opportunities Customer service analysis Cost and financial analysis Demand management

    Williams (2016)

    Bridge the gap between business drivers and business intelligence features with a three-tiered framework

    Info-Tech’s approach to formulating a fit-for-purpose BI strategy is focused on making the link between factors that are the most important to the business users and the ways that BI providers can enable those consumers.

    Drivers to Establish Competitive Advantage

    • Operational Excellence
    • Client Intimacy
    • Innovation

    BI and Analytics Spectrum

    • Strategic Analytics
    • Tactical Analytics
    • Operational Analytics

    Info-Tech’s BI Patterns

    • Delivery
    • User Experience
    • Deep Analytics
    • Supporting

    This is the content for Layout H3 Tag

    Though business intelligence is primarily thought of as enabling executives, a comprehensive BI strategy involves a spectrum of analytics that can provide data-driven insight to all levels of an organization.

    Recommended

    Strategic Analytics

    • Typically focused on predictive modeling
    • Leverages data integrated from multiple sources (structured through unstructured)
    • Assists in identifying trends that may shift organizational focus and direction
    • Sample objectives:
      • Drive market share growth
      • Identify new markets, products, services, locations, and acquisitions
      • Build wider and deeper customer relationships earning more wallet share and keeping more customers

    Tactical Analytics

    • Often considered Response Analytics and used to react to situations that arise, or opportunities at a department level.
    • Sample objectives:
      • Staff productivity or cost analysis
      • Heuristics/algorithms for better risk management
      • Product bundling and packaging
      • Customer satisfaction response techniques

    Operational Analytics

    • Analytics that drive business process improvement whether internal, with external partners, or customers.
    • Sample objectives:
      • Process step elimination
      • Best opportunities for automation

    Business Intelligence Terminology

    Styles of BI New age BI New age data Functional Analytics Tools
    Reporting Agile BI Social Media data Performance management analytics Scorecarding dashboarding
    Ad hoc query SaaS BI Unstructured data Financial analytics Query & reporting
    Parameterized queries Pervasive BI Mobile data Supply chain analytics Statistics & data mining
    OLAP Cognitive Business Big data Customer analytics OLAP cubes
    Advanced analytics Self service analytics Sensor data Operations analytics ETL
    Cognitive business techniques Real-time Analytics Machine data HR Analytics Master data management
    Scorecards & dashboards Mobile Reporting & Analytics “fill in the blanks” analytics Data Governance

    Williams (2016)

    "BI can be confusing and overwhelming…"

    – Dirk Coetsee,

    Research Director,

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Business intelligence lies in the Information Dimensions layer of Info-Tech’s Data Management Framework

    The interactions between the information dimensions and overlying data management enablers such as data governance, data architecture, and data quality underscore the importance of building a robust process surrounding the other data practices in order to fully leverage your BI platform.

    Within this framework BI and analytics are grouped as one lens through which data assets at the business information level can be viewed.

    The image is the Information Dimensions layer of Info-Tech’s Data Management Framework

    Use Info-Tech’s three-phase approach to a Reporting & Analytics strategy and roadmap development

    Project Insight

    A BI program is not a static project that is created once and remains unchanged. Your strategy must be treated as a living platform to be revisited and revitalized in order to effectively enable business decision making. Develop a reporting and analytics strategy that propels your organization by building it on business goals and objectives, as well as comprehensive assessments that quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate your current reporting and analytical capabilities.

    Phase 1: Understand the Business Context and BI Landscape Phase 2: Evaluate Your Current BI Practice Phase 3: Create a BI Roadmap for Continuous Improvement
    1.1 Establish the Business Context
    • Business Vision, Goals, Key Drivers
    • Business Case Presentation
    • High-Level ROI
    2.1 Assess Your Current BI Maturity
    • BI Practice Assessment
    • Summary of Current State
    3.1 Construct a BI Initiative Roadmap
    • BI Improvement Initiatives
    • RACI
    • BI Strategy and Roadmap
    1.2 Assess Existing BI Environment
    • BI Perception Survey Framework
    • Usage Analyses
    • BI Report Inventory
    2.2 Envision BI Future State
    • BI Style Requirements
    • BI Practice Assessment
    3.2 Plan for Continuous Improvement
    • Excel/Access Governance Policy
    • BI Ambassador Network Draft
    1.3 Develop BI Solution Requirements
    • Requirements Gathering Principles
    • Overall BI Requirements

    Stand on the shoulders of Information Management giants

    As part of our research process, we leveraged the frameworks of COBIT5, Mike 2.0, and DAMA DMBOK2. Contextualizing business intelligence within these frameworks clarifies its importance and role and ensures that our assessment tool is focused on key priority areas.

    The DMBOK2 Data Management framework by the Data Asset Management Association (DAMA) provided a starting point for our classification of the components in our IM framework.

    Mike 2.0 is a data management framework that helped guide the development of our framework through its core solutions and composite solutions.

    The Cobit 5 framework and its business enablers were used as a starting point for assessing the performance capabilities of the different components of information management, including business intelligence.

    Info-Tech has a series of deliverables to facilitate the evolution of your BI strategy

    BI Strategy Roadmap Template

    BI Practice Assessment Tool

    BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool

    BI Strategy and Roadmap Executive Presentation Template

    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

    Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy – Project Overview

    1. Understand the Business Context and BI Landscape 2. Evaluate the Current BI Practice 3. Create a BI Roadmap for Continuous Improvement
    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Document overall business vision, mission, industry drivers, and key objectives; assemble a project team

    1.2 Collect in-depth information around current BI usage and BI user perception

    1.3 Create requirements gathering principles and gather requirements for a BI platform

    2.1 Define current maturity level of BI practice

    2.2 Envision the future state of your BI practice and identify desired BI patterns

    3.1 Build overall BI improvement initiatives and create a BI improvement roadmap

    3.2 Identify supplementary initiatives for enhancing your BI program

    Guided Implementations
    • Discuss Info-Tech’s approach for using business information to drive BI strategy formation
    • Review business context and discuss approaches for conducting BI usage and user analyses
    • Discuss strategies for BI requirements gathering
    • Discuss BI maturity model
    • Review practice capability gaps and discuss potential BI patterns for future state
    • Discuss initiative building
    • Review completed roadmap and next steps
    Onsite Workshop Module 1:

    Establish Business Vision and Understand the Current BI Landscape

    Module 2:

    Evaluate Current BI Maturity Identify the BI Patterns for the Future State

    Module 3:

    Build Improvement Initiatives and Create a BI Development Roadmap

    Phase 1 Outcome:
    • Business context
    • Project team
    • BI usage information, user perception, and new BI requirements
    Phase 2 Outcome:
    • Current and future state assessment
    • Identified BI patterns
    Phase 3 Outcome:
    • BI improvement strategy and initiative roadmap

    Workshop overview

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

    Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2 Workshop Day 3 Workshop Day 4
    Activities

    Understand Business Context and Structure the Project

    1.1 Make the case for a BI strategy refresh.

    1.2 Understand business context.

    1.3 Determine high-level ROI.

    1.4 Structure the BI strategy refresh project.

    Understand Existing BI and Revisit Requirements

    2.1 Understand the usage of your existing BI.

    2.2 Gather perception of the current BI users.

    2.3 Document existing information artifacts.

    2.4 Develop a requirements gathering framework.

    2.5 Gather requirements.

    Revisit Requirements and Current Practice Assessment

    3.1 Gather requirements.

    3.2 Determine BI Maturity Level.

    3.3 Perform a SWOT for your existing BI program.

    3.4 Develop a current state summary.

    Roadmap Develop and Plan for Continuous Improvements

    5.1 Develop BI strategy.

    5.2 Develop a roadmap for the strategy.

    5.3 Plan for continuous improvement opportunities.

    5.4 Develop a re-strategy plan.

    Deliverables
    1. Business and BI Vision, Goals, Key Drivers
    2. Business Case Presentation
    3. High-Level ROI
    4. Project RACI
    1. BI Perception Survey
    2. BI Requirements Gathering Framework
    3. BI User Stories and Requirements
    1. BI User Stories and Requirements
    2. BI SWOT for your Current BI Program
    3. BI Maturity Level
    4. Current State Summary
    1. BI Strategy
    2. Roadmap accompanying the strategy with timeline
    3. A plan for improving BI
    4. Strategy plan

    Phase 2

    Understand the Business Context and BI Landscape

    Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy

    Phase 1 overview

    Detailed Overview

    Step 1: Establish the business context in terms of business vision, mission, objectives, industry drivers, and business processes that can leverage Business Intelligence

    Step 2: Understand your BI Landscape

    Step 3: Understand business needs

    Outcomes

    • Clearly articulated high-level mission, vision, and key drivers from the business, as well as objectives related to business intelligence.
    • In-depth documentation regarding your organization’s BI usage, user perception, and outputs.
    • Consolidated list of requirements, existing and desired, that will direct the deployment of your BI solution.

    Benefits

    • Align business context and drivers with IT plans for BI and Analytics improvement.
    • Understand your current BI ecosystem’s performance.

    Understand your business context and BI landscape

    Phase 1 Overarching Insight

    The closer you align your new BI platform to real business interests, the stronger the buy-in, realized value, and groundswell of enthusiastic adoption will be. Get this phase right to realize a high ROI on your investment in the people, processes, and technology that will be your next generation BI platform.

    Understand the Business Context to Rationalize Your BI Landscape Evaluate Your Current BI Practice Create a BI Roadmap for Continuous Improvement
    Establish the Business Context
    • Business Vision, Goals, Key Drivers
    • Business Case Presentation
    • High-Level ROI
    Assess Your Current BI Maturity
    • SWOT Analysis
    • BI Practice Assessment
    • Summary of Current State
    Construct a BI Initiative Roadmap
    • BI Improvement Initiatives
    • BI Strategy and Roadmap
    Access Existing BI Environment
    • BI Perception Survey Framework
    • Usage Analyses
    • BI Report Inventory
    Envision BI Future State
    • BI Patterns
    • BI Practice Assessment
    • List of Functions
    Plan for Continuous Improvement
    • Excel Governance Policy
    • BI Ambassador Network Draft
    Undergo Requirements Gathering
    • Requirements Gathering Principles
    • Overall BI Requirements

    Track these metrics to measure your progress through Phase 1

    Goals for Phase 1:

    • Understand the business context. Determine if BI can be used to improve business outcomes by identifying benefits, costs, opportunities, and gaps.
    • Understand your existing BI. Plan your next generation BI based on a solid understanding of your existing BI.
    • Identify business needs. Determine the business processes that can leverage BI and Analytics.

    Info-Tech’s Suggested Metrics for Tracking Phase 1 Goals

    Practice Improvement Metrics Data Collection and Calculation Expected Improvement
    Monetary ROI
    • Quality of the ROI
    • # of user cases, benefits, and costs quantified
    Derive the number of the use cases, benefits, and costs in the scoping. Ask business SMEs to verify the quality. High-quality ROI studies are created for at least three use cases
    Response Rate of the BI Perception Survey Sourced from your survey delivery system Aim for 40% response rate
    # of BI Reworks Sourced from your project management system Reduction of 10% in BI reworks

    Intangible Metrics:

    1. Executives’ understanding of the BI program and what BI can do for the organization.
    2. Improved trust between IT and the business by re-opening the dialogue.
    3. Closer alignment with the organization strategy and business plan leading to higher value delivered.
    4. Increased business engagement and input into the Analytics strategy.

    Use advisory support to accelerate your completion of Phase 1 activities

    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 two to three advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 1: Understand the Business Context and BI Landscape

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2-4 weeks

    Step 1.0: Assemble Your Project Team

    Start with an analyst kick-off call:

    • Discuss Info-Tech’s viewpoint and definitions of business intelligence.
    • Discuss the project sponsorship, ideal team members and compositions.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Identify a project sponsor and the project team members.

    Step 1.1: Understand Your Business Context

    Start with an analyst kick-off call:

    • Discuss Info-Tech’s approach to BI strategy development around using business information as the key driver.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Detail the business context (vision, mission, goals, objectives, etc.).
    • Establish business–IT alignment for your BI strategy by detailing the business context.

    Step 1.2: Establish the Current BI Landscape

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Review the business context outputs from Step 1.1 activities.
    • Review Info-Tech’s approach for documenting your current BI landscape.
    • Review the findings of your BI landscape.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Gather information on current BI usage and perform a BI artifact inventory.
    • Construct and conduct a user perception survey.

    With these tools & templates:

    BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Step 1.0

    Assemble the Project Team

    Select a BI project sponsor

    Info-Tech recommends you select a senior executive with close ties to BI be the sponsor for this project (e.g. CDO, CFO or CMO). To maximize the chance of success, Info-Tech recommends you start with the CDO, CMO, CFO, or a business unit (BU) leader who represents strategic enterprise portfolios.

    Initial Sponsor

    CFO or Chief Risk Officer (CRO)

    • The CFO is responsible for key business metrics and cost control. BI is on the CFO’s radar as it can be used for both cost optimization and elimination of low-value activity costs.
    • The CRO is tasked with the need to identify, address, and when possible, exploit risk for business security and benefit.
    • Both of these roles are good initial sponsors but aren’t ideal for the long term.

    CDO or a Business Unit (BU) Leader

    • The CDO (Chief Data Officer) is responsible for enterprise-wide governance and utilization of information as an asset via data processing, analysis, data mining, information trading, and other means, and is the ideal sponsor.
    • BU leaders who represent a growth engine for a company look for ways to mine BI to help set direction.

    Ultimate Sponsor

    CEO

    • As a the primary driver of enterprise-wide strategy, the CEO is the ideal evangelist and project sponsor for your BI strategy.
    • Establishing a CEO–CIO partnership helps elevate IT to the level of a strategic partner, as opposed to the traditional view that IT’s only job is to “keep the lights on.”
    • An endorsement from the CEO may make other C-level executives more inclined to work with IT and have their business unit be the starting point for growing a BI program organically.

    "In the energy sector, achieving production KPIs are the key to financial success. The CFO is motivated to work with IT to create BI applications that drive higher revenue, identify operational bottlenecks, and maintain gross margin."

    – Yogi Schulz, Partner, Corvelle Consulting

    Select a BI project team

    Create a project team with the right skills, experience, and perspectives to develop a comprehensive strategy aligned to business needs.

    You may need to involve external experts as well as individuals within the organization who have the needed skills.

    A detailed understanding of what to look for in potential candidates is essential before moving forward with your BI project.

    Leverage several of Info-Tech’s Job Description Templates to aid in the process of selecting the right people to involve in constructing your BI strategy.

    Roles to Consider

    Business Stakeholders

    Business Intelligence Specialist

    Business Analyst

    Data Mining Specialist

    Data Warehouse Architect

    Enterprise Data Architect

    Data Steward

    "In developing the ideal BI team, your key person to have is a strong data architect, but you also need buy-in from the highest levels of the organization. Buy-in from different levels of the organization are indicators of success more than anything else."

    – Rob Anderson, Database Administrator and BI Manager, IT Research and Advisory Firm

    Create a RACI matrix to clearly define the roles and responsibilities for the parties involved

    A common project management pitfall for any endeavour is unclear definition of responsibilities amongst the individuals involved.

    As a business intelligence project requires a significant amount of back and forth between business and IT – bridged by the BI Steering Committee – clear guidelines at the project outset with a RACI chart provide a basic framework for assigning tasks and lines of communication for the later stages.

    Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed

    Obtaining Buy-in Project Charter Requirements Design Development Program Creation
    BI Steering Committee A C I I I C
    Project Sponsor - C I I I C
    Project Manager - R A I I C
    VP of BI R I I I I A
    CIO A I I I I R
    Business Analyst I I R C C C
    Solution Architect - - C A C C
    Data Architect - - C A C C
    BI Developer - - C C R C
    Data Steward - - C R C C
    Business SME C C C C C C

    Note: This RACI is an example of how role expectations would be broken down across the different steps of the project. Develop your own RACI based on project scope and participants.

    STEP 1.1

    Understand Your Business Context and Structure the Project

    Establish business–IT alignment for your BI strategy by detailing the business context

    Step Objectives

    • Engage the business units to find out where users need BI enablement.
    • Ideate preliminary points for improvement that will further business goals and calculate their value.

    Step Activities

    1.1.1 Craft the vision and mission statements for the Analytics program using the vision, mission, and strategies of your organization as basis.

    1.1.2 Articulate program goals and objectives

    1.1.3 Determine business differentiators and key drivers

    1.1.4 Brainstorm BI-specific constraints and improvement objectives

    Outcomes

    • Clearly articulated business context that will provide a starting point for formulating a BI strategy
    • High-level improvement objectives and ROI for the overall project
    • Vision, mission, and objectives of the analytics program

    Research Support

    • Info-Tech’s BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Proposed Participants in this Step

    • Project Manager
    • Project Team
    • Relevant Business Stakeholders and Subject Matter Experts

    Transform the way the business makes decisions

    Your BI strategy should enable the business to make fast, effective, and comprehensive decisions.

    Fast Effective Comprehensive
    Reduce time spent on decision-making by designing a BI strategy around information needs of key decision makers. Make the right data available to key decision makers. Make strategic high-value, impactful decisions as well as operational decisions.

    "We can improve BI environments in several ways. First, we can improve the speed with which we create BI objects by insisting that the environments are designed with flexibility and adaptability in mind. Second, we can produce higher quality deliverables by ensuring that IT collaborate with the business on every deliverable. Finally, we can reduce the costs of BI by giving access to the environment to knowledgeable business users and encouraging a self-service function."

    – Claudia Imhoff, Founder, Boulder BI Brain Trust, Intelligent Solutions Inc.

    Assess needs of various stakeholders using personas

    User groups/user personas

    Different users have different consumption and usage patterns. Categorize users into user groups and visualize the usage patterns. The user groups are the connection between the BI capabilities and the users.

    User groups Mindset Usage Pattern Requirements
    Front-line workers Get my job done; perform my job quickly. Reports (standard reports, prompted reports, etc.) Examples:
    • Report bursting
    • Prompted reports
    Analysts I have some ideas; I need data to validate and support my ideas. Dashboards, self-service BI, forecasting/budgeting, collaboration Examples:
    • Self-service datasets
    • Data mashup capability
    Management I need a big-picture view and yet I need to play around with the data to find trends to drive my business. Dashboards, scorecards, mobile BI, forecasting/budgeting Examples:
    • Multi-tab dashboards
    • Scorecard capability
    Data scientists I need to combine existing data, as well as external or new, unexplored data sources and types to find nuggets in the data. Data mashup, connections to data sources Examples:
    • Connectivity to big data
    • Social media analyses

    The pains of inadequate BI are felt across the entire organization – and land squarely on the shoulders of the CIO

    Organization:

    • Insufficient information to make decisions.
    • Unable to measure internal performance.
    • Losses incurred from bad decisions or delayed decisions.
    • Canned reports fail to uncover key insights.
    • Multiple versions of information exist in silos.

    IT Department

    • End users are completely dependent on IT for reports.
    • Ad hoc BI requests take time away from core duties.
    • Spreadsheet-driven BI is overly manual.
    • Business losing trust in IT.

    CIO

    • Under great pressure and has a strong desire to improve BI.
    • Ad hoc BI requests are consuming IT resources and funds.
    • My organization finds value in using data and having decision support to make informed decisions.

    The overarching question that needs to be continually asked to create an effective BI strategy is:

    How do I create an environment that makes information accessible and consumable to users, and facilitates a collaborative dialogue between the business and IT?

    Pre-requisites for success

    Prerequisite #1: Secure Executive Sponsorship

    Sponsorship of BI that is outside of IT and at the highest levels of the organization is essential to the success of your BI strategy. Without it, there is a high chance that your BI program will fail. Note that it may not be an epic fail, but it is a subtle drying out in many cases.

    Prerequisite #2: Understand Business Context

    Providing the right tools for business decision making doesn’t need to be a guessing game if the business context is laid as the project foundation and the most pressing decisions serve as starting points. And business is engaged in formulating and executing the strategy.

    Prerequisite #3: Deliver insights that lead to action

    Start with understanding the business processes and where analytics can improve outcomes. “Think business backwards, not data forward.” (McKinsey)

    11 reasons BI projects fail

    Lack of Executive support

    Old Technology

    Lack of business support

    Too many KPIs

    No methodology for gathering requirements

    Overly long project timeframes

    Bad user experience

    Lack of user adoption

    Bad data

    Lack of proper human resources

    No upfront definition of true ROI

    Mico Yuk, 2019

    Make it clear to the business that IT is committed to building and supporting a BI platform that is intimately tied to enabling changing business objectives.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s BI Strategy and Roadmap Template to accelerate BI planning

    How to accelerate BI planning using the template

    1. Prepopulated text that you can use for your strategy formulation:
    2. Prepopulated text that can be used for your strategy formulation
    3. Sample bullet points that you can pick and choose from:
    4. Sample bullet points to pick and choose from

    Document the BI program planning in Info-Tech’s

    BI Strategy and Roadmap Template.

    Activity: Describe your organization’s vision and mission

    1.1.1

    30-40 minutes

    Compelling vision and mission statements will help guide your internal members toward your company’s target state. These will drive your business intelligence strategy.

    1. Your vision clearly represents where your organization aspires to be in the future and aligns the entire organization. Write down a future-looking, inspirational, and realizable vision in one concise statement. Consider:
    • “Five years from now, our business will be _______.”
    • What do we want to do tomorrow? For whom? What is the benefit?
  • Your mission tells why your organization currently exists and clearly expresses how it will achieve your vision for the future. Write down a mission statement in one clear and concise paragraph consisting of, at most, five sentences. Consider:
    • Why does the business exist? What problems does it solve? Who are its customers?
    • How does the business accomplish strategic tasks or reach its target?
  • Reconvene stakeholders to share ideas and develop one concise vision statement and mission statement. Focus on clarity and message over wording.
  • Input

    • Business vision and mission statements

    Output

    • Alignment and understanding on business vision

    Materials

    Participants

    • BI project lead
    • Executive business stakeholders

    Info-Tech Insight

    Adjust your statements until you feel that you can elicit a firm understanding of both your vision and mission in three minutes or less.

    Formulating an Enterprise BI and Analytics Strategy: Top-down BI Opportunity analysis

    Top-down BI Opportunity analysis

    Example of deriving BI opportunities using BI Opportunity Analysis

    Industry Drivers Private label Rising input prices Retail consolidation
    Company strategies Win at supply chain execution Win at customer service Expand gross margins
    Value disciplines Strategic cost management Operational excellence Customer service
    Core processes Purchasing Inbound logistics Sales, service & distribution
    Enterprise management: Planning, budgeting, control, process improvement, HR
    BI Opportunities Customer service analysis Cost and financial analysis Demand management

    Williams 2016

    Get your organization buzzing about BI – leverage Info-Tech’s Executive Brief as an internal marketing tool

    Two key tasks of a project sponsor are to:

    1. Evangelize the realizable benefits of investing in a business intelligence strategy.
    2. Help to shift the corporate culture to one that places emphasis on data-driven insight.

    Arm your project sponsor with our Executive Brief for this blueprint as a quick way to convey the value of this project to potential stakeholders.

    Bolster this presentation by adding use cases and metrics that are most relevant to your organization.

    Develop a business framework

    Identifying organizational goals and how data can support those goals is key to creating a successful BI & Analytical strategy. Rounding out the business model with technology drivers, environmental factors (as described in previous steps), and internal barriers and enablers creates a holistic view of Business Intelligence within the context of the organization as a whole.

    Through business engagement and contribution, the following holistic model can be created to understand the needs of the business.

    business framework holistic model

    Activity: Describe the Industry Drivers and Organization strategy to mitigate the risk

    1.1.2

    30-45 minutes

    Industry drivers are external influencers that has an effect on a business such as economic conditions, competitor actions, trade relations, climate etc. These drivers can differ significantly by industry and even organizations within the same industry.

    1. List the industry drivers that influences your organization:
    • Public sentiment in regards to energy source
    • Rising cost of raw materials due to increase demand
  • List the company strategies, goals, objectives to counteract the external influencers:
    • Change production process to become more energy efficient
    • Win at customer service
  • Identify the value disciplines :
    • Strategic cost management
    • Operational Excellence
  • List the core process that implements the value disciplines :
    • Purchasing
    • Sales
  • Identify the BI Opportunities:
    • Cost and financial analysis
    • Customer service analysis

    Input

    • Industry drivers

    Output

    • BI Opportunities that business can leverage

    Materials

    • Industry driver section in the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BI project lead
    • Executive business stakeholders

    Understand BI and analytics drivers and organizational objectives

    Environmental Factors Organizational Goals Business Needs Technology Drivers
    Definition External considerations are factors taking place outside the organization that are impacting the way business is conducted inside the organization. These are often outside the control of the business. Organizational drivers can be thought of as business-level metrics. These are tangible benefits the business can measure, such as customer retention, operation excellence, and/or financial performance. A requirement that specifies the behavior and the functions of a system. Technology drivers are technological changes that have created the need for a new BI solution. Many organizations turn to technology systems to help them obtain a competitive edge.
    Examples
    • Economy and politics
    • Laws and regulations
    • Competitive influencers
    • Time to market
    • Quality
    • Delivery reliability
    • Audit tracking
    • Authorization levels
    • Business rules
    • Deployment in the cloud
    • Integration
    • Reporting capabilities

    Activity: Discuss BI/Analytics drivers and organizational objectives

    1.1.3

    30-45 minutes

    1. Use the industry drivers and business goals identified in activity 1.1.2 as a starting point.
    2. Understand how the company runs today and what the organization’s future will look like. Try to identify the purpose for becoming an integrated organization. Use a whiteboard and markers to capture key findings.
    3. Take into account External Considerations, Organizational Drivers, Technology Drivers, and Key Functional Requirements.
    External Considerations Organizational Drivers Technology Considerations Functional Requirements
    • Funding Constraints
    • Regulations
    • Compliance
    • Scalability
    • Operational Efficiency
    • Data Accuracy
    • Data Quality
    • Better Reporting
    • Information Availability
    • Integration Between Systems
    • Secure Data

    Identify challenges and barriers to the BI project

    There are several factors that may stifle the success of a BI implementation. Scan the current environment to identify internal barriers and challenges to identify potential challenges so you can meet them head-on.

    Common Internal Barriers

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

    Activity: Discuss BI/Analytics challenges and pain points

    1.1.4

    30-45 minutes

    1. Identify challenges with the process identified in step 1.1.2.
    2. Brainstorm potential barriers to successful BI implementation and adoption. Use a whiteboard and marker to capture key findings.
    3. Consider Functional Gaps, Technical Gaps, Process Gaps, and Barriers to BI Success.
    Functional Gaps Technical Gaps Process Gaps Barriers to Success
    • No online purchase order requisition
    • Inconsistent reporting – data quality concerns
    • Duplication of data
    • Lack of system integration
    • Cultural mindset
    • Resistance to change
    • Lack of training
    • Funding

    Activity: Discuss opportunities and benefits

    1.1.5

    30-45 minutes

    1. Identify opportunities and benefits from an integrated system.
    2. Brainstorm potential enablers for successful BI implementation and adoption. Use a whiteboard and markers to capture key findings.
    3. Consider Business Benefits, IT Benefits, Organizational Benefits, and Enablers of BI success.
    Business Benefits IT Benefits Organizational Benefits Enablers of Success
    • Business-IT alignment
    • Compliance
    • Scalability
    • Operational Efficiency
    • Data Accuracy
    • Data Quality
    • Better Reporting
    • Change management
    • Training
    • Alignment to strategic objectives

    Your organization’s framework for Business Intelligence Strategy

    Blank organization framework for Business Intelligence Strategy

    Example: Business Framework for Data & Analytics Strategy

    The following diagram represents [Client]’s business model for BI and data. This holistic view of [Client]’s current environment serves as the basis for the generation of the business-aligned Data & Analytics Strategy.

    The image is an example of Business Framework for Data & Analytics Strategy.

    Info-Tech recommends balancing a top-down approach with bottom up for building your BI strateg

    Taking a top-down approach will ensure senior management’s involvement and support throughout the project. This ensures that the most critical decisions are supported by the right data/information, aligning the entire organization with the BI strategy. Furthermore, the gains from BI will be much more significant and visible to the rest of the organization.

    Two charts showing the top-down and bottom-up approach.

    Far too often, organizations taking a bottom-up approach to BI will fail to generate sufficient buy-in and awareness from senior management. Not only does a lack of senior involvement result in lower adoption from the tactical and operational levels, but more importantly, it also means that the strategic decision makers aren’t taking advantage of BI.

    Estimate the ROI of your BI and analytics strategy to secure executive support

    The value of creating a new strategy – or revamping an existing one – needs to be conveyed effectively to a high-level stakeholder, ideally a C-level executive. That executive buy-in is more likely to be acquired when effort has been made to determine the return on investment for the overall initiative.

    1. Business Impacts
      New revenue
      Cost savings
      Time to market
      Internal Benefits
      Productivity gain
      Process optimization
      Investment
      People – employees’ time, external resources
      Data – cost for new datasets
      Technology – cost for new technologies
    2. QuantifyCan you put a number or a percentage to the impacts and benefits? QuantifyCan you estimate the investments you need to put in?
    3. TranslateTranslate the quantities into dollar value
    4. The image depicts an equation for ROI estimate

    Example

    One percent increase in revenue; three more employees $225,000/yr, $150,000/yr 50%

    Activity: Establish a high-level ROI as part of an overall use case for developing a fit-for-purpose BI strategy

    1.1.6

    1.5 hours

    Communicating an ROI that is impactful and reasonable is essential for locking in executive-level support for any initiative. Use this activity as an initial touchpoint to bring business and IT perspectives as part of building a robust business case for developing your BI strategy.

    1. Revisit the business context detailed in the previous sections of this phase. Use priority objectives to identify use case(s), ideally where there are easily defined revenue generators/cost reductions (e.g. streamlining the process of mailing physical marketing materials to customers).
    2. Assign research tasks around establishing concrete numbers and dollar values.
    • Have a subject matter expert weigh in to validate your figures.
    • When calculating ROI, consider how you might leverage BI to create opportunities for upsell, cross-sell, or increased customer retention.
  • Reconvene the stakeholder group and discuss your findings.
    • This is the point where expectation management is important. Separate the need-to-haves from the nice-to-haves.

    Emphasize that ROI is not fully realized after the first implementation, but comes as the platform is built upon iteratively and in an integrated fashion to mature capabilities over time.

    Input

    • Vision statement
    • Mission statement

    Output

    • Business differentiators and key drivers

    Materials

    • Benefit Cost Analysis section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BI project lead
    • Executive IT & business stakeholders

    An effective BI strategy positions business intelligence in the larger data lifecycle

    In an effort to keep users satisfied, many organizations rush into implementing a BI platform and generating reports for their business users. BI is, first and foremost, a presentation layer; there are several stages in the data lifecycle where the data that BI visualizes can be compromised.

    Without paying the appropriate amount of attention to the underlying data architecture and application integration, even the most sophisticated BI platforms will fall short of providing business users with a holistic view of company information.

    Example

    In moving away from single application-level reporting, a strategy around data integration practices and technology is necessary before the resultant data can be passed to the BI platform for additional analyses and visualization.

    BI doesn’t exist in a vacuum – develop an awareness of other key data management practices

    As business intelligence is primarily a presentation layer that allows business users to visualize data and turn information into actionable decisions, there are a number of data management practices that precede BI in the flow of data.

    Data Warehousing

    The data warehouse structures source data in a manner that is more operationally focused. The Reporting & Analytics Strategy must inform the warehouse strategy on data needs and building a data warehouse to meet those needs.

    Data Integration, MDM & RDM

    The data warehouse is built from different sources that must be integrated and normalized to enable Business Intelligence. The Info-Tech integration and MDM blueprints will guide with their implementation.

    Data Quality

    A major roadblock to building an effective BI solution is a lack of accurate, timely, consistent, and relevant data. Use Info-Tech’s blueprint to refine your approach to data quality management.

    Data quality, poor integration/P2P integration, poor data architecture are the primary barriers to truly leveraging BI, and a lot of companies haven’t gotten better in these areas.

    – Shari Lava, Associate Vice-President, IT Research and Advisory Firm

    Building consensus around data definitions across business units is a critical step in carrying out a BI strategy

    Business intelligence is heavily reliant on the ability of an organization to mesh data from different sources together and create a holistic and accurate source of truth for users.

    Useful analytics cannot be conducted if your business units define key business terms differently.

    Example

    Finance may label customers as those who have transactional records with the organization, but Marketing includes leads who have not yet had any transactions as customers. Neglecting to note these seemingly small discrepancies in data definition will undermine efforts to combine data assets from traditionally siloed functional units.

    In the stages prior to implementing any kind of BI platform, a top priority should be establishing common definitions for key business terms (customers, products, accounts, prospects, contacts, product groups, etc.).

    As a preliminary step, document different definitions for the same business terms so that business users are aware of these differences before attempting to combine data to create custom reports.

    Self-Assessment

    Do you have common definitions of business terms?

    • If not, identify common business terms.
    • At the very least, document different definitions of the same business terms so the corporate can compare and contrast them.

    STEP 1.2

    Assess the Current BI Landscape

    Establish an in-depth understanding of your current BI landscape

    Step Objectives

    • Inventory and assess the state of your current BI landscape
    • Document the artifacts of your BI environment

    Step Activities

    1.2.1 Analyze the usage levels of your current BI programs/platform

    1.2.2 Perform a survey to gather user perception of your current BI environment

    1.2.3 Take an inventory of your current BI artifacts

    Outcomes

    • Summarize the qualitative and quantitative performance of your existing BI environment
    • Understand the outputs coming from your BI sources

    Research Support

    • Info-Tech’s BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Project Manager

    Data Architect(s) or Enterprise Architect

    Project Team

    Understand your current BI landscape before you rationalize

    Relying too heavily on technology as the sole way to solve BI problems results in a more complex environment that will ultimately frustrate business users. Take the time to thoroughly assess the current state of your business intelligence landscape using a qualitative (user perception) and quantitative (usage statistics) approach. The insights and gaps identified in this step will serve as building blocks for strategy and roadmap development in later phases.

    Phase 1

    Current State Summary of BI Landscape

    1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 1.2.4
    Usage Insights Perception Insights BI Inventory Insights Requirements Insights

    PHASE 2

    Strategy and Roadmap Formulation

    Gather usage insights to pinpoint the hot spots for BI usage amongst your users

    Usage data reflects the consumption patterns of end users. By reviewing usage data, you can identify aspects of your BI program that are popular and those that are underutilized. It may present some opportunities for trimming some of the underutilized content.

    Benefits of analyzing usage data:

    • Usage is a proxy for popularity and usability of the BI artifacts. The popular content should be kept and improved in your next generation BI.
    • Usage information provides insight on what, when, where, and how much users are consuming BI artifacts.
    • Unlike methods such as user interviews and focus groups, usage information is fact based and is not subject to peer pressure or “toning down.”

    Sample Sources of Usage Data:

    1. Usage reports from your BI platform Many BI platforms have out-of-the-box usage reports that log and summarize usage data. This is your ideal source for usage data.
    2. Administrator console in your BI platformBI platforms usually have an administrator console that allows BI administrators to configure settings and to monitor activities that include usage. You may obtain some usage data in the console. Note that the usage data is usually real-time in nature, and you may not have access to a historical view of the BI usage.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t forget some of the power users. They may perform analytics by accessing datasets directly or with the help of a query tool (even straight SQL statements). Their usage information is important. The next generation BI should provide consumption options for them.

    Accelerate the process of gathering user feedback with Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment (APA)

    In an environment where multiple BI tools are being used, discovering what works for users and what doesn’t is an important first step to rationalizing the BI landscape.

    Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment allows you to create a custom survey based on your current applications, generate a custom report that will help you visualize user satisfaction levels, and pinpoint areas for improvement.

    Activity: Review and analyze usage data

    1.2.1

    2 hours

    This activity helps you to locate usage data in your existing environment. It also helps you to review and analyze usage data to come up with a few findings.

    1. Get to the usage source. You may obtain usage data from one of the below options. Usage reports are your ideal choice, followed by some alternative options:
    2. a. Administrator console – limited to real-time or daily usage data. You may need to track usage data over for several days to identify patterns.

      b. Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment (APA).

      c. Other – be creative. Some may use an IT usage monitoring system or web analytics to track time users spent on the BI portal.

    3. Develop categories for classifying the different sources of usage data in your current BI environment. Use the following table as starting point for creating these groups:

    This is the content for Layout H4 Tag

    By Frequency Real Time Daily Weekly Yearly
    By Presentation Format Report Dashboard Alert Scorecard
    By Delivery Web portal Excel PDF Mobile application

    INPUT

    • Usage reports
    • Usage statistics

    OUTPUT

    • Insights pertaining to usage patterns

    Materials

    • Usage Insights of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BA
    • BI Administrator
    • PM

    Activity: Review and analyze usage (cont.)

    1.2.1

    2 hours

    3. Sort your collection of BI artifacts by usage. Discuss some of the reasons why some content is popular whereas some has no usage at all.

    Popular BI Artifacts – Discuss improvements, opportunities and new artifacts

    Unpopular BI Artifacts – Discuss retirement, improvements, and realigning information needs

    4. Summarize your findings in the Usage Insights section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template.

    INPUT

    • Usage reports
    • Usage statistics

    OUTPUT

    • Insights pertaining to usage patterns

    Materials

    • Usage Insights section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BA
    • BI Administrator
    • PM

    Gather perception to understand the existing BI users

    In 1.2.1, we gathered the statistics for BI usage; it’s the hard data telling who uses what. However, it does not tell you the rationale, or the why, behind the usage. Gathering user perception and having conversations with your BI consumers is the key to bridging the gap.

    User Perception Survey

    Helps you to:

    1. Get general insights on user perception
    2. Narrow down to selected areas

    User Interviews

    Perception can be gathered by user interviews and surveys. Conducting user interviews takes time so it is a good practice to get some primary insights via survey before doing in-depth interviews in selected areas.

    – Shari Lava, Associate Vice-President, IT Research and Advisory Firm

    Define problem statements to create proof-of-concept initiatives

    Info-Tech’s Four Column Model of Data Flow

    Find a data-related problem or opportunity

    Ask open-ended discovery questions about stakeholder fears, hopes, and frustrations to identify a data-related problem that is clear, contained, and fixable. This is then to be written as a problem/opportunity statement.

    1. Fear: What is the number one risk you need to alleviate?
    2. Hope: What is the number one opportunity you wish to realize?
    3. Frustration: What is the number one annoying pet peeve you wish to scratch?
    4. Next, gather information to support a problem/opportunity statement:

    5. What are your challenges in performing the activity or process today?
    6. What does amazing look like if we solve this perfectly?
    7. What other business activities/processes will be impacted/improved if we solve this?
    8. What compliance/regulatory/policy concerns do we need to consider in any solution?
    9. What measures of success/change should we use to prove value of the effort (KPIs/ROI)?
    10. What are the steps in the process/activity?
    11. What are the applications/systems used at each step and from step to step?
    12. What data elements are created, used, and/or transformed at each step?

    Leverage Info-Tech’s BI survey framework to initiate a 360° perception survey

    Info-Tech has developed a BI survey framework to help existing BI practices gather user perception via survey. The framework is built upon best practices developed by McLean & Company.

    1. Communicate the survey
    2. Create a survey
    3. Conduct the survey
    4. Collect and clean survey data
    5. Analyze survey data
    6. Conduct follow-up interviews
    7. Identify and prioritize improvement initiatives

    The survey takes a comprehensive approach by examining your existing BI practices through the following lenses:

    360° Perception

    Demographics Who are the users? From which department?
    Usage How is the current BI being used?
    People Web portal
    Process How good is your BI team from a user perspective?
    Data How good is the BI data in terms of quality and usability?
    Technology How good are your existing BI/reporting tools?
    Textual Feedback The sky’s the limit. Tell us your comments and ideas via open-ended questions.

    Use Info-Tech’s BI End-User Satisfaction Survey Framework to develop a comprehensive BI survey tailored to your organization.

    Activity: Develop a plan to gather user perception of your current BI program

    1.2.2

    2 hours

    This activity helps you to plan for a BI perception survey and subsequent interviews.

    1. Proper communication while conducting surveys helps to boost response rate. The project team should have a meeting with business executives to decide:
    • The survey goals
    • Which areas to cover
    • Which trends and hypotheses you want to confirm
    • Which pre-, during, and post-survey communications should be sent out
  • Have the project team create the first draft of the survey for subsequent review by select business stakeholders. Several iterations may be needed before finalizing.
  • In planning for the conclusion of the survey, the project team should engage a data analyst to:
    1. Organize the data in a useful format
    2. Clean up the survey data when there are gaps
    3. Summarize the data into a presentable/distributable format

    Collectively, the project team and the BI consuming departments should review the presentation and discuss these items:

    Misalignment

    Opportunities

    Inefficiencies

    Trends

    Need detailed interviews?

    INPUT

    • Usage information and analyses

    OUTPUT

    • User-perception survey

    Materials

    • Perception Insights section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BA
    • BI Administrator
    • PM
    • Business SMEs

    Create a comprehensive inventory of your BI artifacts

    Taking an inventory of your BI artifacts allows you to understand what deliverables have been developed over the years. Inventory taking should go beyond the BI content. You may want to include additional information products such as Excel spreadsheets, reports that are coming out of an Access database, and reports that are generated from front-end applications (e.g. Salesforce).

    1. Existing Reports from BI platform

    2. If you are currently using a BI platform, you have some BI artifacts (reports, scorecards, dashboards) that are developed within the platform itself.

    • BI Usage Reports (refer to step 2.1) – if you are getting a comprehensive BI usage reports for all your BI artifacts, there is your inventory report too.
    • BI Inventory Reports – Your BI platform may provide out-of-the-box inventory reports. You can use them as your inventory.
    • If the above options are not feasible, you may need to manually create the BI inventory. You may build that from some of your existing BI documentations to save time.
  • Excel and Access

    • Work with the business units to identify if Excel and Access are used to generate reports.
  • Application Reports

    • Data applications such as Salesforce, CRM, and ERP often provide reports as an out-of-the-box feature.
    • Those reports only include data within their respective applications. However, this may present opportunities for integrating application data with additional data sources.

    Activity: Inventory your BI artifacts

    1.2.3

    2+ hours

    This activity helps you to inventory your BI information artifacts and other related information artifacts.

    1. Define the scope of your inventory. Work with the project sponsor and CIO to define which sources should be captured in the inventory process. Consider: BI inventory, Excel spreadsheets, Access reports, and application reporting.
    2. Define the depth of your inventory. Work with the project sponsor and CIO to define the level of granularity. In some settings, the artifact name and a short description may be sufficient. In other cases, you may need to document users and business logic of the artifacts.
    3. Review the inventory results. Discuss findings and opportunities around the following areas:

    Interpret your Inventory

    Duplicated reports/ dashboards Similar reports/ dashboards that may be able to merge Excel and Access reports that are using undocumented, unconventional business logics Application reports that need to be enhanced by additional data Classify artifacts by BI Type

    INPUT

    • Current BI artifacts and documents
    • BI Type classification

    OUTPUT

    • Summary of BI artifacts

    Materials

    • BI Inventory Insights section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BA
    • Data analyst
    • PM
    • Project sponsor

    Project sponsor

    1.2.4

    2+ hours

    This activity helps you to inventory your BI by report type.

    1. Classify BI artifacts by type. Use the BI Type tool to classify Work with the project sponsor and CIO to define which sources should be captured in the inventory process. Consider: BI inventory, Excel spreadsheets, Access reports, and application reporting.
    2. Define the depth of your inventory. Work with the project sponsor and CIO to define the level of granularity. In some settings, the artifact name and a short description may be sufficient. In other cases, you may need to document users and business logic of the artifacts.
    3. Review the inventory results. Discuss findings and opportunities around the following areas:

    Interpretation of your Inventory

    Duplicated reports/dashboards Similar reports/dashboards that may be able to merge Excel and Access reports that are using undocumented, unconventional business logics Application reports that need to be enhanced by additional data

    INPUT

    • The BI Type as used by different business units
    • Business BI requirements

    OUTPUT

    • Summary of BI type usage across the organization

    Materials

    • BI Inventory Insights section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BA
    • Data analyst
    • PM
    • Project sponsor

    STEP 1.3

    Undergo BI Requirements Gathering

    Perform requirements gathering for revamping your BI environment

    Step Objectives

    • Create principles that will direct effective requirements gathering
    • Create a list of existing and desired BI requirements

    Step Activities

    1.3.1 Create requirements gathering principles

    1.3.2 Gather appropriate requirements

    1.3.3 Organize and consolidate the outputs of requirements gathering activities

    Outcomes

    • Requirements gathering principles that are flexible and repeatable
    • List of BI requirements

    Research Support

    • Info-Tech’s BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Proposed Participants in this Step

    Project Manager

    Data Architect(s) or Enterprise Architect

    Project Team

    Business Users

    Don’t let your new BI platform become a victim of poor requirements gathering

    The challenges in requirements management often have underlying causes; find and eliminate the root causes rather than focusing on the symptoms.

    Root Causes of Poor Requirements Gathering:

    • Requirements gathering procedures exist but aren’t followed.
    • There isn't enough time allocated to the requirements gathering phase.
    • There isn't enough involvement or investment secured from business partners.
    • There is no senior leadership involvement or mandate to fix requirements gathering.
    • There are inadequate efforts put towards obtaining and enforcing sign off.

    Outcomes of Poor Requirements Gathering:

    • Rework due to poor requirements leads to costly overruns.
    • Final deliverables are of poor quality and are implemented late.
    • Predicted gains from deployed applications are not realized.
    • There are low feature utilization rates by end users.
    • Teams are frustrated within IT and the business.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Requirements gathering is the number one failure point for most development or procurement projects that don’t deliver value. This has been, and continues to be, the case as most organizations still don't get requirements gathering right. Overcoming organizational cynicism can be a major obstacle to clear when it is time to optimize the requirements gathering process.

    Define the attributes of a good requirement to help shape your requirements gathering principles

    A good requirement has the following attributes:

    Verifiable It is stated in a way that can be tested.
    Unambiguous It is free of subjective terms and can only be interpreted in one way.
    Complete It contains all relevant information.
    Consistent It does not conflict with other requirements.
    Achievable It is possible to accomplish given the budgetary and technological constraints.
    Traceable It can be tracked from inception to testing.
    Unitary It addresses only one thing and cannot be deconstructed into multiple requirements.
    Accurate It is based on proven facts and correct information.

    Other Considerations

    Organizations can also track a requirement owner, rationale, priority level (must have vs. nice to have), and current status (approved, tested, etc.).

    Info-Tech Insight

    Requirements must be solution agnostic – they should focus on the underlying need rather than the technology required to satisfy the need.

    Activity: Define requirements gathering principles

    1.3.1

    1 hour

    1. Invite representatives from the project management office, project management team, and BA team, as well as some key business stakeholders.
    2. Use the sample categories and principles in the table below as starting points for creating your own requirements gathering principles.
    3. Document the requirements gathering principles in the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template.
    4. Communicate the requirements gathering principles to the affected BI stakeholders.

    Sample Principles to Start With

    Effectiveness Face-to-face interviews are preferred over phone interviews.
    Alignment Clarify any misalignments, even the tiniest ones.
    Validation Rephrase requirements at the end to validate requirements.
    Ideation Use drawings and charts to explain ideas.
    Demonstration Make use of Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions.

    INPUT

    • Existing requirement principles (if any)

    OUTPUT

    • Requirements gathering principles that can be revisited and reused

    Materials

    • Requirements Insights section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BA Team
    • PM
    • Business stakeholders
    • PMO

    Info-Tech Insight

    Turn requirements gathering principles into house rules. The house rules should be available in every single requirements gathering session and the participants should revisit them when there are disagreements, confusion, or silence.

    Right-size your approach to BI requirements management

    Info-Tech suggests four requirements management approaches based on project complexity and business significance. BI projects usually require the Strategic Approach in requirements management.

    Requirements Management Process Explanations

    Approach Definition Recommended Strategy
    Strategic Approach High business significance and high project complexity merits a significant investment of time and resources in requirements gathering. Treat the requirements gathering phase as a project within a project. A large amount of time should be dedicated to elicitation, business process mapping, and solution design.
    Fundamental Approach High business significance and low project complexity merits a heavy emphasis on the elicitation phase to ensure that the project bases are covered and business value is realized. Look to achieve quick wins and try to survey a broad cross-section of stakeholders during elicitation and validation. The elicitation phase should be highly iterative. Do not over-complicate the analysis and validation of a straightforward project.
    Calculated Approach Low business significance and high project complexity merits a heavy emphasis on the analysis and validation phases to ensure that the solution meets the needs of users. Allocate a significant amount of time to business process modeling, requirements categorization, prioritization, and solution modeling.
    Elementary Approach Low business significance and low project complexity does not merit a high amount of rigor for requirements gathering. Do not rush or skip steps, but aim to be efficient. Focus on basic elicitation techniques (e.g. unstructured interviews, open-ended surveys) and consider capturing requirements as user stories. Focus on efficiency to prevent project delays and avoid squandering resources.

    Vary the modes used in eliciting requirements from your user base

    Requirements Gathering Modes

    Info-Tech has identified four effective requirements gathering modes. During the requirements gathering process, you may need to switch between the four gathering modes to establish a thorough understanding of the information needs.

    Dream Mode

    • Mentality: Let users’ imaginations go wild. The sky’s the limit.
    • How it works: Ask users to dream up the ideal future state and ask how analytics can support those dreams.
    • Limitations: Not all dreams can be fulfilled. A variety of constraints (budget, personnel, technical skills) may prevent the dreams from becoming reality.

    Pain Mode

    • Mentality: Users are currently experiencing pains related to information needs.
    • How it works: Vent the pains. Allow end users to share their information pains, ask them how their pains can be relieved, then convert those pains to requirements.
    • Limitations: Users are limited by the current situation and aren’t looking to innovate.

    Decode Mode

    • Mentality: Read the hidden messages from users. Speculate as to what the users really want.
    • How it works: Decode the underlying messages. Be innovative to develop hypotheses and then validate with the users.
    • Limitations: Speculations and hypothesis could be invalid. They may direct the users into some pre-determined directions.

    Profile Mode

    • Mentality: “I think you may want XYZ because you fall into that profile.”
    • How it works: The information user may fall into some existing user group profile or their information needs may be similar to some existing users.
    • Limitations: This mode doesn’t address very specific needs.

    Supplement BI requirements with user stories and prototyping to ensure BI is fit for purpose

    BI is a continually evolving program. BI artifacts that were developed in the past may not be relevant to the business anymore due to changes in the business and information usage. Revamping your BI program entails revisiting some of the BI requirements and/or gathering new BI requirements.

    Three-Step Process for Gathering Requirements

    Requirements User Stories Rapid Prototyping
    Gather requirements. Most importantly, understand the business needs and wants. Leverage user stories to organize and make sense of the requirements. Use a prototype to confirm requirements and show the initial draft to end users.

    Pain Mode: “I can’t access and manipulate data on my own...”

    Decode Mode: Dig deeper: could this hint at a self-service use case?

    Dream Mode: E.g. a sandbox area where I can play around with clean, integrated, well-represented data.

    Profile Mode: E.g. another marketing analyst is currently using something similar.

    ExampleMary has a spreadmart that keeps track of all campaigns. Maintaining and executing that spreadmart is time consuming.

    Mary is asking for a mash-up data set that she can pivot on her own…

    Upon reviewing the data and the prototype, Mary decided to use a heat map and included two more data points – tenure and lifetime value.

    Identify which BI styles best meet user requirements

    A spectrum of Business Intelligence solutions styles are available. Use Info-Tech’s BI Styles Tool to assess which business stakeholder will be best served by which style.

    Style Description Strategic Importance (1-5) Popularity (1-5) Effort (1-5)
    Standards Preformatted reports Standard, preformatted information for backward-looking analysis. 5 5 1
    User-defined analyses Pre-staged information where “pick lists” enable business users to filter (select) the information they wish to analyze, such as sales for a selected region during a selected previous timeframe. 5 4 2
    Ad-hoc analyses Power users write their own queries to extract self-selected pre-staged information and then use the information to perform a user-created analysis. 5 4 3
    Scorecards and dashboards Predefined business performance metrics about performance variables that are important to the organization, presented in a tabular or graphical format that enables business users to see at a glance how the organization is performing. 4 4 3
    Multidimensional analysis (OLAP) Multidimensional analysis (also known as on-line analytical processing): Flexible tool-based, user-defined analysis of business performance and the underlying drivers or root causes of that performance. 4 3 3
    Alerts Predefined analyses of key business performance variables, comparison to a performance standard or range, and communication to designated businesspeople when performance is outside the predefined performance standard or range. 4 3 3
    Advanced Analytics Application of long-established statistical and/or operations research methods to historical business information to look backward and characterize a relevant aspect of business performance, typically by using descriptive statistics. 5 3 4
    Predictive Analytics Application of long-established statistical and/or operations research methods and historical business information to predict, model, or simulate future business and/or economic performance and potentially prescribe a favored course of action for the future. 5 3 5

    Activity: Gather BI requirements

    1.3.2

    2-6 hours

    Using the approaches discussed on previous slides, start a dialogue with business users to confirm existing requirements and develop new ones.

    1. Invite business stakeholders to a requirements gathering session.
    2. For existing BI artifacts – Invite existing users of those artifacts.

      For new BI development – Invite stakeholders at the executive level to understand the business operation and their needs and wants. This is especially important if their department is new to BI.

    3. Discuss the business requirements. Systematically switch between the four requirements gathering modes to get a holistic view of the requirements.
    4. Once requirements are gathered, organize them to tell a story. A story usually has these components:
    The Setting The Characters The Venues The Activities The Future
    Example Customers are asking for a bundle discount. CMO and the marketing analysts want to… …the information should be available in the portal, mobile, and Excel. …information is then used in the bi-weekly pricing meeting to discuss… …bundle information should contain historical data in a graphical format to help executives.

    INPUT

    • Existing documentations on BI artifacts

    OUTPUT

    • Preliminary, uncategorized list of BI requirements

    Materials

    • Requirements Insights section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BA team
    • Business stakeholders
    • Business SMEs
    • BI developers

    Clarify consumer needs by categorizing BI requirements

    Requirements are too broad in some situations and too detailed in others. In the previous step we developed user stories to provide context. Now you need to define requirement categories and gather detailed requirements.

    Considerations for Requirement Categories

    Category Subcategory Sample Requirements
    Data Granularity Individual transaction
    Transformation Transform activation date to YYYY-MM format
    Selection Criteria Client type: consumer. Exclude SMB and business clients. US only. Recent three years
    Fields Required Consumer band, Region, Submarket…
    Functionality Filters Filters required on the dashboard: date range filter, region filter…
    Drill Down Path Drill down from a summary report to individual transactions
    Analysis Required Cross-tab, time series, pie chart
    Visual Requirements Mock-up See attached drawing
    Section The dashboard will be presented using three sections
    Conditional Formatting Below-average numbers are highlighted
    Security Mobile The dashboard needs to be accessed from mobile devices
    Role Regional managers will get a subset of the dashboard according to the region
    Users John, Mary, Tom, Bob, and Dave
    Export Dashboard data cannot be exported into PDF, text, or Excel formats
    Performance Speed A BI artifact must be loaded in three seconds
    Latency Two seconds response time when a filter is changed
    Capacity Be able to serve 50 concurrent users with the performance expected
    Control Governance Govern by the corporate BI standards
    Regulations Meet HIPPA requirements
    Compliance Meet ISO requirements

    Prioritize requirements to assist with solution modeling

    Prioritization ensures that the development team focuses on the right requirements.

    The MoSCoW Model of Prioritization

    Must Have Requirements that mustbe implemented for the solution to be considered successful.
    Should Have Requirements that are high priority and should be included in the solution if possible.
    Could Have Requirements that are desirable but not necessary and could be included if resources are available.
    Won't Have Requirements that won’t be in the next release but will be considered for the future releases.

    The MoSCoW model was introduced by Dai Clegg of Oracle UK in 1994.

    Prioritization is the process of ranking each requirement based on its importance to project success. Hold a separate meeting for the domain SMEs, implementation SMEs, project managers, and project sponsors to prioritize the requirements list. At the conclusion of the meeting, each requirement should be assigned a priority level. The implementation SMEs will use these priority levels to ensure that efforts are targeted towards the proper requirements and the plan features available on each release. Use the MoSCoW Model of Prioritization to effectively order requirements.

    Activity: Finalize the list of BI requirements

    1.3.3

    1-4 hours

    Requirement Category Framework

    Category Subcategory
    Data Granularity
    Transformation
    Selection Criteria
    Fields Required
    Functionality Filters
    Drill Down Path
    Analysis Required
    Visual Requirements Mock-up
    Section
    Conditional Formatting
    Security Mobile
    Role
    Users
    Export
    Performance Speed
    Latency
    Capacity
    Control Governance
    Regulations
    Compliance

    Create requirement buckets and classify requirements.

    1. Define requirement categories according to the framework.
    2. Review the user story and requirements you collected in Step 1.3.2. Classify the requirements within requirement categories.
    3. Review the preliminary list of categorized requirements and look for gaps in this detailed view. You may need to gather additional requirements to fill the gaps.
    4. Prioritize the requirements according to the MoSCoW framework.
    5. Document your final list of requirements in the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template.

    INPUT

    • Existing requirements and new requirements from step 1.3.2

    OUTPUT

    • Prioritized and categorized requirements

    Materials

    • Requirements Insights section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BA
    • Business stakeholders
    • PMO

    Translate your findings and ideas into actions that will be integrated into the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    As you progress through each phase, document findings and ideas as they arise. At phase end, hold a brainstorming session with the project team focused on documenting findings and ideas and substantiating them into improvement actions.

    Translating findings and ideas into actions that will be integrated into the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Ask yourself how BI or analytics can be used to address the gaps and explore opportunities uncovered in each phase. For example, in Phase 1, how do current BI capabilities impede the realization of the business vision?

    Document and prioritize Phase 1 findings, ideas, and action items

    1.3.4

    1-2 hours

    1. Reconvene as a group to review findings, ideas, and actions harvested in Phase 1. Write the findings, ideas, and actions on sticky notes.
    2. Prioritize the sticky notes to yield those with high business value and low implementation effort. View some sample findings below:
    3. High Business Value, Low Effort High Business Value, High Effort
      Low Business Value, High Effort Low Business Value, High Effort

      Phase 1

      Sample Phase 1 Findings Found two business objectives that are not supported by BI/analytics
      Some executives still think BI is reporting
      Some confusion around operational reporting and BI
      Data quality plays a big role in BI
      Many executives are not sure about the BI ROI or asking for one
    4. Select the top findings and document them in the “Other Phase 1 Findings” section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template. The findings will be used again in Phase 3.

    INPUT

    • Phase 1 activities
    • Business context (vision, mission, goals, etc.

    OUTPUT

    • Other Phase 1 Findings section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Sticky notes

    Participants

    • Project manger
    • Project team
    • Business stakeholders

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    1.1.1-1.1.5

    Establish the business context

    To begin the workshop, your project team will be taken through a series of activities to establish the overall business vision, mission, objectives, goals, and key drivers. This information will serve as the foundation for discerning how the revamped BI strategy needs to enable business users.

    1.2.1- 1.2.3

    Create a comprehensive documentation of your current BI environment

    Our analysts will take your project team through a series of activities that will facilitate an assessment of current BI usage and artifacts, and help you design an end-user interview survey to elicit context around BI usage patterns.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-tech analysts

    1.3.1-1.3.3

    Establish new BI requirements

    Our analysts will guide your project team through frameworks for eliciting and organizing requirements from business users, and then use those frameworks in exercises to gather some actual requirements from business stakeholders.

    Phase 2

    Evaluate Your Current BI Practice

    Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy

    Revisit project metrics to track phase progress

    Goals for Phase 2:

    • Assess your current BI practice. Determine the maturity of your current BI practice from different viewpoints.
    • Develop your BI target state. Plan your next generation BI with Info-Tech’s BI patterns and best practices.
    • Safeguard your target state. Avoid BI pitfalls by proactively monitoring BI risks.

    Info-Tech’s Suggested Metrics for Tracking Phase 2 Goals

    Practice Improvement Metrics Data Collection and Calculation Expected Improvement
    # of groups participated in the current state assessment The number of groups joined the current assessment using Info-Tech’s BI Practice Assessment Tool Varies; the tool can accommodate up to five groups
    # of risks mitigated Derive from your risk register At least two to five risks will be identified and mitigated

    Intangible Metrics:

    • Prototyping approach allows the BI group to understand more about business requirements, and in the meantime, allows the business to understand how to partner with the BI group.
    • The BI group and the business have more confidence in the BI program as risks are monitored and mitigated on an ad hoc basis.

    Evaluate your current BI practice

    Phase 2 Overarching Insight

    BI success is not based solely on the technology it runs on; technology cannot mask gaps in capabilities. You must be capable in your environment, and data management, data quality, and related data practices must be strong. Otherwise, the usefulness of the intelligence suffers. The best BI solution does not only provide a technology platform, but also addresses the elements that surround the platform. Look beyond tools and holistically assess the maturity of your BI practice with input from both the BI consumer and provider perspectives.

    Understand the Business Context to Rationalize Your BI Landscape Evaluate Your Current BI Practice Create a BI Roadmap for Continuous Improvement
    Establish the Business Context
    • Business Vision, Goals, Key Drivers
    • Business Case Presentation
    • High-Level ROI
    Assess Your Current BI Maturity
    • SWOT Analysis
    • BI Practice Assessment
    • Summary of Current State
    Construct a BI Initiative Roadmap
    • BI Improvement Initiatives
    • BI Strategy and Roadmap
    Access Existing BI Environment
    • BI Perception Survey Framework
    • Usage Analyses
    • BI Report Inventory
    Envision BI Future State
    • BI Patterns
    • BI Practice Assessment
    • List of Functions
    Plan for Continuous Improvement
    • Excel Governance Policy
    • BI Ambassador Network Draft
    Undergo Requirements Gathering
    • Requirements Gathering Principles
    • Overall BI Requirements

    Phase 2 overview

    Detailed Overview

    Step 1: Assess Your Current BI Practice

    Step 2: Envision a Future State for Your BI Practice

    Outcomes

    • A comprehensive assessment of current BI practice maturity and capabilities.
    • Articulation of your future BI practice.
    • Improvement objectives and activities for developing your current BI program.

    Benefits

    • Identification of clear gaps in BI practice maturity.
    • A current state assessment that includes the perspectives of both BI providers and consumers to highlight alignment and/or discrepancies.
    • A future state is defined to provide a benchmark for your BI program.
    • Gaps between the future and current states are identified; recommendations for the gaps are defined.

    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: Evaluate Your Current BI Practice

    Proposed Time to Completion: 1-2 weeks

    Step 2.1: Assess Your Current BI Practice

    Start with an analyst kick-off call:

    • Detail the benefits of conducting multidimensional assessments that involve BI providers as well as consumers.
    • Review Info-Tech’s BI Maturity Model.

    Then complete these activities…

    • SWOT analyses
    • Identification of BI maturity level through a current state assessment

    With these tools & templates:

    BI Practice Assessment Tool

    BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Step 2.2: Envision a Future State for Your BI Practice

    Review findings with an analyst:

    • Discuss overall maturity gaps and patterns in BI perception amongst different units of your organization.
    • Discuss how to translate activity findings into robust initiatives, defining critical success factors for BI development and risk mitigation.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Identify your desired BI patterns and functionalities.
    • Complete a target state assessment for your BI practice.
    • Review capability practice gaps and phase-level metrics.

    With these tools & templates:

    BI Practice Assessment Tool

    BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Phase 2 Results & Insights:

    • A comprehensive assessment of the organization’s current BI practice capabilities and gaps
    • Visualization of BI perception from a variety of business users as well as IT
    • A list of tasks and initiatives for constructing a strategic BI improvement roadmap

    STEP 2.1

    Assess the Current State of Your BI Practice

    Assess your organization’s current BI capabilities

    Step Objectives

    • Understand the definitions and roles of each component of BI.
    • Contextualize BI components to your organization’s environment and current practices.

    Step Activities

    2.1.1 Perform multidimensional SWOT analyses

    2.1.2 Assess current BI and analytical capabilities, Document challenges, constraints, opportunities

    2.1.3 Review the results of your current state assessment

    Outcomes

    • Holistic perspective of current BI strengths and weaknesses according to BI users and providers
    • Current maturity in BI and related data management practices

    Research Support

    • Info-Tech’s Data Management Framework
    • Info-Tech’s BI Practice Assessment Tool
    • Info-Tech’s BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Proposed Participants in this Step

    Project Manager

    Data Architect(s) or Enterprise Architect

    Project Team

    Gather multiple BI perspectives with comprehensive SWOT analyses

    SWOT analysis is an effective tool that helps establish a high-level context for where your practice stands, where it can improve, and the factors that will influence development.

    Strengths

    Best practices, what is working well

    Weaknesses

    Inefficiencies, errors, gaps, shortcomings

    Opportunities

    Review internal and external drivers

    Threats

    Market trends, disruptive forces

    While SWOT is not a new concept, you can add value to SWOT by:

    • Conducting a multi-dimensional SWOT to diversify perspectives – involve the existing BI team, BI management, business executives and other business users.
    • SWOT analyses traditionally provide a retrospective view of your environment. Add a future-looking element by creating improvement tasks/activities at the same time as you detail historical and current performance.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Consider a SWOT with two formats: a private SWOT worksheet and a public SWOT session. Participants will be providing suggestions anonymously while solicited suggestions will be discussed in the public SWOT session to further the discussion.

    Activity: Perform a SWOT analysis in groups to get a holistic view

    2.1.1

    1-2 hours

    This activity will take your project team through a holistic SWOT analysis to gather a variety of stakeholder perception of the current BI practice.

    1. Identify individuals to involve in the SWOT activity. Aim for a diverse pool of participants that are part of the BI practice in different capacities and roles. Solution architects, application managers, business analysts, and business functional unit leaders are a good starting point.
    2. Review the findings summary from Phase 1. You may opt to facilitate this activity with insights from the business context. Each group will be performing the SWOT individually.
    3. The group results will be collected and consolidated to pinpoint common ideas and opinions. Individual group results should be represented by a different color. The core program team will be reviewing the consolidated result as a group.
    4. Document the results of these SWOT activities in the appropriate section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template.

    SWOT

    Group 1 Provider Group E.g. The BI Team

    Group 2 Consumer Group E.g. Business End Users

    INPUT

    • IT and business stakeholder perception

    OUTPUT

    • Multi-faceted SWOT analyses
    • Potential BI improvement activities/objectives

    Materials

    • SWOT Analysis section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • Selected individuals in the enterprise (variable)

    Your organization’s BI maturity is determined by several factors and the degree of immersion into your enterprise

    BI Maturity Level

    A way to categorize your analytics maturity to understand where you are currently and what next steps would be best to increase your BI maturity.

    There are several factors used to determine BI maturity:

    Buy-in and Data Culture

    Determines if there is enterprise-wide buy-in for developing business intelligence and if a data-driven culture exists.

    Business–IT Alignment

    Examines if current BI and analytics operations are appropriately enabling the business objectives.

    Governance Structure

    Focuses on whether or not there is adequate governance in place to provide guidance and structure for BI activities.

    Organization Structure and Talent

    Pertains to how BI operations are distributed across the overall organizational structure and the capabilities of the individuals involved.

    Process

    Reviews analytics-related processes and policies and how they are created and enforced throughout the organization.

    Data

    Deals with analytical data in terms of the level of integration, data quality, and usability.

    Technology

    Explores the opportunities in building a fit-for-purpose analytics platform and consolidation opportunities.

    Evaluate Your Current BI Practice with the CMMI model

    To assess BI, Info-Tech uses the CMMI model for rating capabilities in each of the function areas on a scale of 1-5. (“0” and “0.5” values are used for non-existent or emerging capabilities.)

    The image shows an example of a CMMI model

    Use Info-Tech’s BI Maturity Model as a guide for identifying your current analytics competence

    Leverage a BI strategy to revamp your BI program to strive for a high analytics maturity level. In the future you should be doing more than just traditional BI. You will perform self-service BI, predictive analytics, and data science.

    Ad Hoc Developing Defined Managed Trend Setting
    Questions What’s wrong? What happened? What is happening? What happened, is happening, and will happen? What if? So what?
    Scope One business problem at a time One particular functional area Multiple functional areas Multiple functional areas in an integrated fashion Internal plus internet scale data
    Toolset Excel, Access, primitive query tools Reporting tools or BI BI BI, business analytics tools Plus predictive platforms, data science tools
    Delivery Model IT delivers ad hoc reports IT delivers BI reports IT delivers BI reports and some self-service BI Self-service BI and report creation at the business units Plus predictive models and data science projects
    Mindset Firefighting using data Manage using data Analyze using data; shared tooling Data is an asset, shared data Data driven
    BI Org. Structure Data analysts in IT BI BI program BI CoE Data Innovation CoE

    Leverage Info-Tech’s BI Practice Assessment Tool to define your BI current state

    BI Practice Assessment Tool

    1. Assess Current State
    • Eight BI practice areas to assess maturity.
    • Based on CMMI maturity scale.
  • Visualize Current State Results
    • Determine your BI maturity level.
    • Identify areas with outstanding maturity.
    • Uncover areas with low maturity.
    • Visualize the presence of misalignments.
  • Target State
    • Tackle target state from two views: business and IT.
    • Calculate gaps between target and current state.
  • Visualize Target State and Gaps
    • A heat map diagram to compare the target state and the current state.
    • Show both current and target maturity levels.
    • Detailed charts to show results for each area.
    • Detailed list of recommendations.

    Purposes:

    • Assess your BI maturity.
    • Visualize maturity assessment to quickly spot misalignments, gaps, and opportunities.
    • Provide right-sized recommendations.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Assessing current and target states is only the beginning. The real value comes from the interpretation and analysis of the results. Use visualizations of multiple viewpoints and discuss the results in groups to come up with the most effective ideas for your strategy and roadmap.

    Activity: Conduct a current state assessment of your BI practice maturity

    2.1.2

    2-3 hours

    Use the BI Practice Assessment Tool to establish a baseline for your current BI capabilities and maturity.

    1. Navigate to Tab 2. Current State Assessment in the BI Practice Assessment Tool and complete the current state assessment together or in small groups. If running a series of assessments, do not star or scratch every time. Use the previous group’s results to start the conversation with the users.
    2. Info-Tech suggests the following groups participate in the completion of the assessment to holistically assess BI and to uncover misalignment:

      Providers Consumers
      CIO & BI Management BI Work Groups (developers, analysts, modelers) Business Unit #1 Business Unit #2 Business Unit #3
    3. For each assessment question, answer the current level of maturity in terms of:
      1. Initial/Ad hoc – the starting point for use of a new or undocumented repeat process
      2. Developing – the process is documented such that it is repeatable
      3. Defined – the process is defined/confirmed as a standard business process
      4. Managed and Measurable – the process is quantitatively managed in accordance with agreed-upon metrics.
      5. Optimized – the process includes process optimization/improvement.

    INPUT

    • Observations of current maturity

    OUTPUT

    • Comprehensive current state assessment

    Materials

    • BI Practice Assessment Tool
    • Current State Assessment section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • Selected individuals as suggested by the assessment tool

    Info-Tech Insight

    Discuss the rationale for your answers as a group. Document the comments and observations as they may be helpful in formulating the final strategy and roadmap.

    Activity: Review and analyze the results of the current state assessment

    2.1.3

    2-3 hours

    1. Navigate to Tab 3. Current State Results in the BI Practice Assessment Tool and review the findings:

    The tool provides a brief synopsis of your current BI state. Review the details of your maturity level and see where this description fits your organization and where there may be some discrepancies. Add additional comments to your current state summary in the BI Strategy and Roadmap Document.

    In addition to reviewing the attributes of your maturity level, consider the following:

    1. What are the knowns – The knowns confirm your understanding on the current landscape.
  • What are the unknowns – The unknowns show you the blind spots. They are very important to give you an alternative view of the your current state. The group should discuss those blind spots and determine what to do with them.
  • Activity: Review and analyze the results of the current state assessment (cont.)

    2.1.3

    2-3 hours

    2. Tab 3 will also visualize a breakdown of your maturity by BI practice dimension. Use this graphic as a preliminary method to identify where your organization is excelling and where it may need improvement.

    Better Practices

    Consider: What have you done in the areas where you perform well?

    Candidates for Improvement

    Consider: What can you do to improve these areas? What are potential barriers to improvement?

    STEP 2.2

    Envision a Future State for Your Organization’s BI Practice

    Detail the capabilities of your next generation BI practice

    Step Objectives

    • Create guiding principles that will shape your organization’s ideal BI program.
    • Pinpoint where your organization needs to improve across several BI practice dimensions.
    • Develop approaches to remedy current impediments to BI evolution.
    • Step Activities

      2.2.1 Define guiding principles for the future state

      2.2.2 Define the target state of your BI practice

      2.2.3 Confirm requirements for BI Styles by management group

      2.2.4 Analyze gaps in your BI practice and generate improvement activities and objectives

      2.2.5 Define the critical success factors for future BI

      2.2.6 Identify potential risks for your future state and create a mitigation plan

    Outcomes

    • Defined landscape for future BI capabilities, including desired BI functionalities.
    • Identification of crucial gaps and improvement points to include in a BI roadmap.
    • Updated BI Styles Usage sheet.

    Research Support

    • Info-Tech’s Data Management Framework
    • Info-Tech’s BI Practice Assessment Tool
    • Info-Tech’s BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Proposed Participants in this Step

    Project Manager

    Data Architect(s) or Enterprise Architect

    Project Team

    Define guiding principles to drive your future state envisioning

    Envisioning a BI future state is essentially architecting the future for your BI program. It is very similar to enterprise architecture (EA). Guiding principles are widely used in enterprise architecture. This best practice should also be used in BI envisioning.

    Benefits of Guiding Principles in a BI Context

    • BI planning involves a number of business units. Defining high-level future state principles helps to establish a common ground for those different business units.
    • Ensure the next generation BI aligns with the corporate enterprise architecture and data architecture principles.
    • Provide high-level guidance without depicting detailed solutioning by leaving room for innovation.

    Sample Principles for BI Future State

    1. BI should be fit for purpose. BI is a business technology that helps business users.
    2. Business–IT collaboration should be encouraged to ensure deliverables are relevant to the business.
    3. Focus on continuous improvement on data quality.
    4. Explore opportunities to onboard and integrate new datasets to create a holistic view of your data.
    5. Organize and present data in an easy-to-consume, easy-to-digest fashion.
    6. BI should be accessible to everything, as soon as they have a business case.
    7. Do not train just on using the platform. Train on the underlying data and business model as well.
    8. Develop a training platform where trainees can play around with the data without worrying about messing it up.

    Activity: Define future state guiding principles for your BI practice

    2.2.1

    1-2 hours

    Guiding principles are broad statements that are fundamental to how your organization will go about its activities. Use this as an opportunity to gather relevant stakeholders and solidify how your BI practice should perform moving forward.

    1. To ensure holistic and comprehensive future state principles, invite participants from the business, the data management team, and the enterprise architecture team. If you do not have an enterprise architecture practice, invite people that are involved in building the enterprise architecture. Five to ten people is ideal.
    2. BI Future State

      Awareness Buy-in Business-IT Alignment Governance Org. Structure; People Process; Policies; Standards Data Technology
    3. Once the group has some high-level ideas on what the future state looks like, brainstorm guiding principles that will facilitate the achievement of the future state (see above).
    4. Document the future state principles in the Future State Principles for BI section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    INPUT

    • Existing enterprise architecture guiding principles
    • High-level concept of future state BI

    OUTPUT

    • Guiding principles for prospective BI practice

    Materials

    • Future State Principles section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • Business representatives
    • IT representatives
    • The EA group

    Leverage prototypes to facilitate a continuous dialogue with end users en route to creating the final deliverable

    At the end of the day, BI makes data and information available to the business communities. It has to be fit for purpose and relevant to the business. Prototypes are an effective way to ensure relevant deliverables are provided to the necessary users. Prototyping makes your future state a lot closer and a lot more business friendly.

    Simple Prototypes

    • Simple paper-based, whiteboard-based prototypes with same notes.
    • The most basic communication tool that facilitates the exchange of ideas.
    • Often used in Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions.
    • Improve business and IT collaboration.
    • Can be used to amend requirements documents.

    Discussion Possibilities

    • Initial ideation at the beginning
    • Align everyone on the same page
    • Explain complex ideas/layouts
    • Improve collaboration

    Elaborated Prototypes

    • Demonstrates the possibilities of BI in a risk-free environment.
    • Creates initial business value with your new BI platform.
    • Validates the benefits of BI to the organization.
    • Generates interest and support for BI from senior management.
    • Prepares BI team for the eventual enterprise-wide deployment.

    Discussion Possibilities

    • Validate and refine requirements
    • Fail fast, succeed fast
    • Acts as checkpoints
    • Proxy for the final working deliverable

    Leverage Info-Tech’s BI Practice Assessment Tool to define your BI target state and visualize capability gaps

    BI Practice Assessment Tool

    1. Assess Current State
    • Eight BI practice areas to assess maturity.
    • Based on CMMI maturity scale.
  • Visualize Current State Results
    • Determine your BI maturity level.
    • Identify areas with outstanding maturity.
    • Uncover areas with low maturity.
    • Visualize the presence of misalignments.
  • Target State
    • Tackle target state from two views: business and IT.
    • Calculate gaps between target and current state.
  • Visualize Target State and Gaps
    • A heat map diagram to compare the target state and the current state.
    • Show both current and target maturity levels.
    • Detailed charts to show results for each area.
    • Detailed list of recommendations.

    Purposes:

    • Assess your BI maturity.
    • Visualize maturity assessment to quickly spot misalignments, gaps, and opportunities.
    • Provide right-sized recommendations.

    Document essential findings in Info-Tech’s BI Strategy and Roadmap Template.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Assessing current and target states is only the beginning. The real value comes from the interpretation and analyses of the results. Use visualizations of multiple viewpoints and discuss the results in groups to come up with the most effective ideas for your strategy and roadmap.

    Activity: Define the target state for your BI practice

    2.2.2

    2 hours

    This exercise takes your team through establishing the future maturity of your BI practice across several dimensions.

    1. Envisioning of the future state will involve input from the business side as well as the IT department.
    2. The business and IT groups should get together separately and determine the target state maturity of each of the BI practice components:

    The image is a screenshot of Tab 4: Target State Evaluation of the BI Practice Assessment Tool

    INPUT

    • Desired future practice capabilities

    OUTPUT

    • Target state assessment

    Materials

    • Tab 4 of the BI Practice Assessment Tool

    Participants

    • Business representatives
    • IT representatives

    Activity: Define the target state for your BI practice (cont.)

    2.2.2

    2 hours

    2. The target state levels from the two groups will be averaged in the column “Target State Level.” The assessment tool will automatically calculate the gaps between future state value and the current state maturity determined in Step 2.1. Significant gaps in practice maturity will be highlighted in red; smaller or non-existent gaps will appear green.

    The image is a screenshot of Tab 4: Target State Evaluation of the BI Practice Assessment Tool with Gap highlighted.

    INPUT

    • Desired future practice capabilities

    OUTPUT

    • Target state assessment

    Materials

    • Tab 4 of the BI Practice Assessment Tool

    Participants

    • Business representatives
    • IT representatives

    Activity: Revisit the BI Style Analysis sheet to define new report and analytical requirements by C-Level

    2.2.3

    1-2 hours

    The information needs for each executive is unique to their requirements and management style. During this exercise you will determine the reporting and analytical needs for an executive in regards to content, presentation and cadence and then select the BI style that suite them best.

    1. To ensure a holistic and comprehensive need assessment, invite participants from the business and BI team. Discuss what data the executive currently use to base decisions on and explore how the different BI styles may assist. Sample reports or mock-ups can be used for this purpose.
    2. Document the type of report and required content using the BI Style Tool.
    3. The BI Style Tool will then guide the BI team in the type of reporting to develop and the level of Self-Service BI that is required. The tool can also be used for product selection.

    INPUT

    • Information requirements for C-Level Executives

    OUTPUT

    • BI style(s) that are appropriate for an executive’s needs

    Materials

    • BI Style Usage sheet from BI Strategy and Roadmap Template
    • Sample Reports

    Participants

    • Business representatives
    • BI representatives

    Visualization tools facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of gaps in your existing BI practice

    Having completed both current and target state assessments, the BI Practice Assessment Tool allows you to compare the results from multiple angles.

    At a higher level, you can look at your maturity level:

    At a detailed level, you can drill down to the dimensional level and item level.

    The image is a screenshots from Tab 4: Target State Evaluation of the BI Practice Assessment Tool

    At a detailed level, you can drill down to the dimensional level and item level.

    Activity: Analyze gaps in BI practice capabilities and generate improvement objectives/activities

    2.2.4

    2 hours

    This interpretation exercise helps you to make sense of the BI practice assessment results to provide valuable inputs for subsequent strategy and roadmap formulation.

    1. IT management and the BI team should be involved in this exercise. Business SMEs should be consulted frequently to obtain clarifications on what their ideal future state entails.
    2. Begin this exercise by reviewing the heat map and identifying:

    • Areas with very large gaps
    • Areas with small gaps

    Areas with large gaps

    Consider: Is the target state feasible and achievable? What are ways we can improve incrementally in this area? What is the priority for addressing this gap?

    Areas with small/no gaps

    Consider: Can we learn from those areas? Are we setting the bar too low for our capabilities?

    INPUT

    • Current and target state visualizations

    OUTPUT

    • Gap analysis (Tab 5)

    Materials

    • Tab 5 of the BI Practice Assessment Tool
    • Future State Assessment Results section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • Business representatives
    • IT representatives

    Activity: Analyze gaps in BI practice capabilities and generate improvement objectives/activities (cont.)

    2.2.4

    2 hours

    2. Discuss the differences in the current and target state maturity level descriptions. Questions to ask include:

    • What are the prerequisites before we can begin to build the future state?
    • Is the organization ready for that future state? If not, how do we set expectations and vision for the future state?
    • Do we have the necessary competencies, time, and support to achieve our BI vision?

    INPUT

    • Current and target state visualizations

    OUTPUT

    • Gap analysis (Tab 5)

    Materials

    • Tab 5 of the BI Practice Assessment Tool
    • Future State Assessment Results section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • Business representatives
    • IT representatives

    Activity: Analyze gaps in BI practice capabilities and generate improvement objectives/activities (cont.)

    2.2.4

    2 hours

    3. Have the same group members reconvene and discuss the recommendations at the BI practice dimension level on Tab 5. of the BI Practice Assessment Tool. These recommendations can be used as improvement actions or translated into objectives for building your BI capabilities.

    Example

    The heat map displayed the largest gap between target state and current state in the technology dimension. The detailed drill-down chart will further illustrate which aspect(s) of the technology dimension is/are showing the most room for improvement in order to better direct your objective and initiative creation.

    The image is of an example and recommendations.

    Considerations:

    • What dimension parameters have the largest gaps? And why?
    • Is there a different set of expectations for the future state?

    Define critical success factors to direct your future state

    Critical success factors (CSFs) are the essential factors or elements required for ensuring the success of your BI program. They are used to inform organizations with things they should focus on to be successful.

    Common Provider (IT Department) CSFs

    • BI governance structure and organization is created.
    • Training is provided for the BI users and the BI team.
    • BI standards are in place.
    • BI artifacts rely on quality data.
    • Data is organized and presented in a usable fashion.
    • A hybrid BI delivery model is established.
    • BI on BI; a measuring plan has to be in place.

    Common Consumer (Business) CSFs

    • Measurable business results have been improved.
    • Business targets met/exceeded.
    • Growth plans accelerated.
    • World-class training to empower BI users.
    • Continuous promotion of a data-driven culture.
    • IT–business partnership is established.
    • Collaborative requirements gathering processes.
    • Different BI use cases are supported.

    …a data culture is essential to the success of analytics. Being involved in a lot of Bay Area start-ups has shown me that those entrepreneurs that are born with the data DNA, adopt the data culture and BI naturally. Other companies should learn from these start-ups and grow the data culture to ensure BI adoption.

    – Cameran Hetrick, Senior Director of Data Science & Analytics, thredUP

    Activity: Define provider and consumer critical success factors for your future BI capabilities

    2.2.5

    2 hours

    Create critical success factors that are important to both BI providers and BI consumers.

    1. Divide relevant stakeholders into two groups:
    2. BI Provider (aka IT) BI Consumer (aka Business)
    3. Write two headings on the board: Objective and Critical Success Factors. Write down each of the objectives created in Phase 1.
    4. Divide the group into small teams and assign each team an objective. For each objective, ask the following question:
    5. What needs to be put in place to ensure that this objective is achieved?

      The answer to the question is your candidate CSF. Write CSFs on sticky notes and stick them by the relevant objective.

    6. Rationalize and consolidate CSFs. Evaluate the list of candidate CSFs to find the essential elements for achieving success.
    7. For each CSF, identify at least one key performance indicator that will serve as an appropriate metric for tracking achievement.

    As you evaluate candidate CSFs, you may uncover new objectives for achieving your future state BI.

    INPUT

    • Business objectives

    OUTPUT

    • A list of critical success factors mapped to business objectives

    Materials

    • Whiteboard and colored sticky notes
    • CSFs for the Future State section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • Business and IT representatives
    • CIO
    • Head of BI

    Round out your strategy for BI growth by evaluating risks and developing mitigation plans

    A risk matrix is a useful tool that allows you to track risks on two dimensions: probability and impact. Use this matrix to help organize and prioritize risk, as well as develop mitigation strategies and contingency plans appropriately.

    Example of a risk matrix using colour coding

    Info-Tech Insight

    Tackling risk mitigation is essentially purchasing insurance. You cannot insure everything – focus your investments on mitigating risks with a reasonably high impact and high probability.

    Be aware of some common barriers that arise in the process of implementing a BI strategy

    These are some of the most common BI risks based on Info-Tech’s research:

    Low Impact Medium Impact High Impact
    High Probability
    • Users revert back to Microsoft Excel to analyze data.
    • BI solution does not satisfy the business need.
    • BI tools become out of sync with new strategic direction.
    • Poor documentation creates confusion and reduces user adoption.
    • Fail to address data issues: quality, integration, definition.
    • Inadequate communication with stakeholders throughout the project.
    • Users find the BI tool interface too confusing.
    Medium Probability
    • Fail to define and monitor KPIs.
    • Poor training results in low user adoption.
    • Organization culture is resistant to the change.
    • Lack of support from the sponsors.
    • No governance over BI.
    • Poor training results in misinformed users.
    Low Probability
    • Business units independently invest in BI as silos.

    Activity: Identify potential risks for your future state and create a mitigation plan

    2.2.6

    1 hour

    As part of developing your improvement actions, use this activity to brainstorm some high-level plans for mitigating risks associated with those actions.

    Example:

    Users find the BI tool interface too confusing.

    1. Use the probability-impact matrix to identify risks systematically. Collectively vote on the probability and impact for each risk.
    2. Risk mitigation. Risk can be mitigated by three approaches:
    3. A. Reducing its probability

      B. Reducing its impact

      C. Reducing both

      Option A: Brainstorm ways to reduce risk probability

      E.g. The probability of the above risk may be reduced by user training. With training, the probability of confused end users will be reduced.

      Option B: Brainstorm ways to reduce risk impact

      E.g. The impact can be reduced by ensuring having two end users validate each other’s reports before making a major decision.

    4. Document your high-level mitigation strategies in the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template.

    INPUT

    • Step 2.2 outputs

    OUTPUT

    • High-level risk mitigation plans

    Materials

    • Risks and Mitigation section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BI sponsor
    • CIO
    • Head of BI

    Translate your findings and ideas into actions that will be integrated into the BI strategy and roadmap

    As you progress through each phase, document findings and ideas as they arise. By phase end, hold a brainstorming session with the project team focused on documenting findings and ideas and substantiating them into improvement actions.

    Translated findings and ideas into actions that will be integrated into the BI strategy and roadmap.

    Ask yourself how BI or analytics can be used to address the gaps and explore opportunities uncovered in each phase. For example, in Phase 1, how do current BI capabilities impede the realization of the business vision?

    Document and prioritize Phase 2 findings, ideas, and action items

    2.2.7

    1-2 hours

    1. Reconvene as a group to review the findings, ideas, and actions harvested in Phase 2. Write the findings, ideas, and actions on sticky notes.
    2. Prioritize the sticky notes to yield those with high business value and low implementation effort. View some sample findings below:
    3. High Business Value, Low Effort High Business Value, High Effort
      Low Business Value, High Effort Low Business Value, High Effort

      Phase 2

      Sample Phase 2 Findings Found a gap between the business expectation and the existing BI content they are getting.
      Our current maturity level is “Level 2 – Operational.” Almost everyone thinks we should be at least “Level 3 – Tactical” with some level 4 elements.
      Found an error in a sales report. A quick fix is identified.
      The current BI program is not able to keep up with the demand.
    4. Select the top items and document the findings in the BI Strategy Roadmap Template. The findings will be used to build a Roadmap in Phase 3.

    INPUT

    • Phase 2 activities

    OUTPUT

    • Other Phase 2 Findings section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Sticky notes

    Participants

    • Project manger
    • Project team
    • Business stakeholders

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    • 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:

    2.1.1

    Determine your current BI maturity level

    The analyst will take your project team through Info-Tech’s BI Practice Assessment Tool, which collects perspectives from BI consumer and provider groups on multiple facets of your BI practice in order to establish a current maturity level.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts

    2.2.1

    Define guiding principles for your target BI state

    Using enterprise architecture principles as a starting point, our analyst will facilitate exercises to help your team establish high-level standards for your future BI practice.

    2.2.2-2.2.3

    Establish your desired BI patterns and matching functionalities

    In developing your BI practice, your project team will have to decide what BI-specific capabilities are most important to your organization. Our analyst will take your team through several BI patterns that Info-Tech has identified and discuss how to bridge the gap between these patterns, linking them to specific functional requirements in a BI solution.

    2.2.4-2.2.5

    Analyze the gaps in your BI practice capabilities

    Our analyst will guide your project team through a number of visualizations and explanations produced by our assessment tool in order to pinpoint the problem areas and generate improvement ideas.

    Phase 3

    Create a BI Roadmap for Continuous Improvement

    Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy

    Create a BI roadmap for continuous improvement

    Phase 3 Overarching Insight

    The benefit of creating a comprehensive and actionable roadmap is twofold: not only does it keep BI providers accountable and focused on creating incremental improvement, but a roadmap helps to build momentum around the overall project, provides a continuous delivery of success stories, and garners grassroots-level support throughout the organization for BI as a key strategic imperative.

    Understand the Business Context to Rationalize Your BI Landscape Evaluate Your Current BI Practice Create a BI Roadmap for Continuous Improvement
    Establish the Business Context
    • Business Vision, Goals, Key Drivers
    • Business Case Presentation
    • High-Level ROI
    Assess Your Current BI Maturity
    • SWOT Analysis
    • BI Practice Assessment
    • Summary of Current State
    Construct a BI Initiative Roadmap
    • BI Improvement Initiatives
    • BI Strategy and Roadmap
    Access Existing BI Environment
    • BI Perception Survey Framework
    • Usage Analyses
    • BI Report Inventory
    Envision BI Future State
    • BI Patterns
    • BI Practice Assessment
    • List of Functions
    Plan for Continuous Improvement
    • Excel Governance Policy
    • BI Ambassador Network Draft
    Undergo Requirements Gathering
    • Requirements Gathering Principles
    • Overall BI Requirements

    Phase 3 overview

    Detailed Overview

    Step 1: Establish Your BI Initiative Roadmap

    Step 2: Identify Opportunities to Enhance Your BI Practice

    Step 3: Create Analytics Strategy

    Step 4: Define CSF and metrics to monitor success of BI and analytics

    Outcomes

    • Consolidate business intelligence improvement objectives into robust initiatives.
    • Prioritize improvement initiatives by cost, effort, and urgency.
    • Create a one-year, two-year, or three-year timeline for completion of your BI improvement initiatives.
    • Identify supplementary programs that will facilitate the smooth execution of road-mapped initiatives.

    Benefits

    • Clear characterization of comprehensive initiatives with a detailed timeline to keep team members accountable.

    Revisit project metrics to track phase progress

    Goals for Phase 3:

    • Put everything together. Findings and observations from Phase 1 and 2 are rationalized in this phase to develop data initiatives and create a strategy and roadmap for BI.
    • Continuous improvements. Your BI program is evolving and improving over time. The program should allow you to have faster, better, and more comprehensive information.

    Info-Tech’s Suggested Metrics for Tracking Phase 3 Goals

    Practice Improvement Metrics Data Collection and Calculation Expected Improvement
    Program Level Metrics Efficiency
    • Time to information
    • Self-service penetration
    • Derive from the ticket management system
    • Derive from the BI platform
    • 10% reduction in time to information
    • Achieve 10-15% self-service penetration
    • Effectiveness
    • BI Usage
    • Data quality
    • Derive from the BI platform
    • Data quality perception
    • Majority of the users use BI on a daily basis
    • 15% increase in data quality perception
    Comprehensiveness
    • # of integrated datasets
    • # of strategic decisions made
    • Derive from the data integration platform
    • Decision-making perception
    • Onboard 2-3 new data domains per year
    • 20% increase in decision-making perception

    Learn more about the CIO Business Vision program.

    Intangible Metrics:

    Tap into the results of Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision diagnostic to monitor the changes in business-user satisfaction as you implement the initiatives in your BI improvement roadmap.

    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 helps you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 3: Create a BI Roadmap for Continuous Improvement

    Proposed Time to Completion: 1-2 weeks

    Step 3.1: Construct a BI Improvement Initiative Roadmap

    Start with an analyst kick off call:

    • Review findings and insights from completion of activities pertaining to current and future state assessments
    • Discuss challenges around consolidating activities into initiatives

    Then complete these activities…

    • Collect improvement objectives/tasks from previous phases
    • Develop comprehensive improvement initiatives
    • Leverage value-effort matrix activities to prioritize these initiatives and place them along an improvement roadmap

    With these tools & templates:

    BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool

    BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Step 3.2: Continuous Improvement Opportunities for BI

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Review completed BI improvement initiatives and roadmap
    • Discuss guidelines presenting a finalized improvement to the relevant committee or stakeholders
    • Discuss additional policies and programs that can serve to enhance your established BI improvement roadmap

    Then complete these activities…

    • Present BI improvement roadmap to relevant stakeholders
    • Develop Info-Tech’s recommended supplementary policies and programs for BI

    With these tools & templates:

    BI Strategy and Roadmap Executive Presentation Template

    Phase 3 Results & Insights:

    • Comprehensive initiatives with associated tasks/activities consolidated and prioritized in an improvement roadmap

    STEP 3.1

    Construct a BI Improvement Initiative Roadmap

    Build an improvement initiative roadmap to solidify your revamped BI strategy

    Step Objectives

    • Bring together activities and objectives for BI improvement to form initiatives
    • Develop a fit-for-purpose roadmap aligned with your BI strategy

    Step Activities

    3.1.1 Characterize individual improvement objectives and activities ideated in previous phases.

    3.1.2 Synthesize and detail overall BI improvement initiatives.

    3.1.3 Create a plan of action by placing initiatives on a roadmap.

    Outcomes

    • Detailed BI improvement initiatives, prioritized by value and effort
    • Defined roadmap for completion of tasks associated with each initiative and accountability

    Research Support

    • Info-Tech’s BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool

    Proposed Participants in this Step

    Project Manager

    Project Team

    Create detailed BI strategy initiatives by bringing together the objectives listed in the previous phases

    When developing initiatives, all components of the initiative need to be considered, from its objectives and goals to its benefits, risks, costs, effort required, and relevant stakeholders.

    Use outputs from previous project steps as inputs to the initiative and roadmap building:

    The image shows the previous project steps as inputs to the initiative and roadmap building, with arrow pointing from one to the next.

    Determining the dependencies that exist between objectives will enable the creation of unique initiatives with associated to-do items or tasks.

    • Group objectives into similar buckets with dependencies
    • Select one overarching initiative
    • Adapt remaining objectives into tasks of the main initiative
    • Add any additional tasks

    Leverage Info-Tech’s BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool to build a fit-for-purpose improvement roadmap

    BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool

    Overview

    Use the BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool to develop comprehensive improvement initiatives and add them to a BI strategy improvement roadmap.

    Recommended Participants

    • BI project team

    Tool Guideline

    Tab 1. Instructions Use this tab to get an understanding as to how the tool works.
    Tab 2. Inputs Use this tab to customize the inputs used in the tool.
    Tab 3. Activities Repository Use this tab to list and prioritize activities, to determine dependencies between them, and build comprehensive initiatives with them.
    Tab 4. Improvement Initiatives Use this tab to develop detailed improvement initiatives that will form the basis of the roadmap. Map these initiatives to activities from Tab 3.
    Tab 5. Improvement Roadmap Use this tab to create your BI strategy improvement roadmap, assigning timelines and accountability to initiatives and tasks, and to monitor your project performance over time.

    Activity: Consolidate BI activities into the tool and assign dependencies and priorities

    3.1.1

  • 2 hours
    1. Have one person from the BI project team populate Tab 3. Activities Repository with the BI strategy activities that were compiled in Phases 1 and 2. Use drop-downs to indicate in which phase the objective was originally ideated.
    2. With BI project team executives, discuss and assign dependencies between activities in the Dependencies columns. A dependency exists if:
    • An activity requires consideration of another activity.
    • An activity requires the completion of another activity.
    • Two activities should be part of the same initiative.
    • Two activities are very similar in nature.
  • Then discuss and assign priorities to each activity in the Priority column using input from previous Phases. For example, if an activity was previously indicated as critical to the business, if a similar activity appears multiple times, or if an activity has several dependencies, it should be higher priority.
  • Inputs

    • BI improvement activities created in Phases 1 and 2

    Output

    • Activities with dependencies and priorities

    Materials

    • BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool

    Participants

    • BI project team

    Activity: Consolidate BI activities into the tool and assign dependencies and priorities (cont’d.)

    3.1.1

    2 hours

    Screenshot of Tab 3. BI Activities Repository, with samples improvement activities, dependencies, statuses, and priorities

    The image is of a screenshot of Tab 3. BI Activities Repository, with samples improvement activities, dependencies, statuses, and priorities.

    Revisit the outputs of your current state assessment and note which activities have already been completed in the “Status” column, to avoid duplication of your efforts.

    When classifying the status of items in your activity repository, distinguish between broader activities (potential initiatives) and granular activities (tasks).

    Activity: Customize project inputs and build out detailed improvement initiatives

    3.1.2

    1.5 hours

    1. Follow instructions on Tab 2. Inputs to customize inputs you would like to use for your project.
    2. Review the activities repository and select up to 12 overarching initiatives based on the activities with extreme or highest priority and your own considerations.
    • Rewording where necessary, transfer the names of your initiatives in the banners provided on Tab 4. Improvement Initiatives.
    • On Tab 3, indicate these activities as “Selected (initiatives)” in the Status column.
  • In Tab 4, develop detailed improvement initiatives by indicating the owner, taxonomy, start and end periods, cost and effort estimates, goal, benefit/value, and risks of each initiative.
  • Use drop-downs to list “Related activities,” which will become tasks under each initiative.
    • activities with dependency to the initiative
    • activities that lead to the same goal or benefit/value of the main initiative

    Screenshot of the Improvement Initiative template, to be used for developing comprehensive initiatives

    <p data-verified=The image is a screenshot of the Improvement Initiative template, to be used for developing comprehensive initiatives.">

    Inputs

    • Tab 3. Activities Repository

    Output

    • Unique and detailed improvement initiatives

    Materials

    • BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool
    • BI Initiatives section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BI project team

    Visual representations of your initiative landscape can aid in prioritizing tasks and executing the roadmap

    Building a comprehensive BI program will be a gradual process involving a variety of stakeholders. Different initiatives in your roadmap will either be completed sequentially or in parallel to one another, given dependencies and available resources. The improvement roadmap should capture and represent this information.

    To determine the order in which main initiatives should be completed, exercises such as a value–effort map can be very useful.

    Example: Value–Effort Map for a BI Project

    Initiatives that are high value–low effort are found in the upper left quadrant and are bolded; These may be your four primary initiatives. In addition, initiative five is valuable to the business and critical to the project’s success, so it too is a priority despite requiring high effort. Note that you need to consider dependencies to prioritize these key initiatives.

    Value–Effort Map for a BI Project
    1. Data profiling techniques training
    2. Improve usage metrics
    3. Communication plan for BI
    4. Staff competency evaluation
    5. Formalize practice capabilities
    6. Competency improvement plan program
    7. Metadata architecture improvements
    8. EDW capability improvements
    9. Formalize oversight for data manipulation

    This exercise is best performed using a white board and sticky notes, and axes can be customized to fit your needs (E.g. cost, risk, time, etc.).

    Activity: Build an overall BI strategy improvement roadmap for the entire project

    3.1.3

    45 minutes

    The BI Strategy Improvement Roadmap (Tab 5 of the BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool) has been populated with your primary initiatives and related tasks. Read the instructions provided at the top of Tab 5.

    1. Use drop-downs to assign a Start Period and End Period to each initiative (already known) and each task (determined here). As you do so, the roadmap will automatically fill itself in. This is where the value–effort map or other prioritization exercises may help.
    2. Assign Task Owners reporting Managers.
    3. Update the Status and Notes columns on an ongoing basis. Hold meetings with task owners and managers about blocked or overdue items.
    • Updating status should also be an ongoing maintenance requirement for Tab 3 in order to stay up to date on which activities have been selected as initiatives or tasks, are completed, or are not yet acted upon.

    Screenshot of the BI Improvement Roadmap (Gantt chart) showing an example initiative with tasks, and assigned timeframes, owners, and status updates.

    INPUTS

    • Tab 3. Activities Repository
    • Tab 4. Improvement Initiatives

    OUTPUT

    • BI roadmap

    Materials

    • BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool
    • Roadmap section of the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Participants

    • BI project team

    Obtain approval for your BI strategy roadmap by organizing and presenting project findings

    Use a proprietary presentation template

    Recommended Participants

    • Project sponsor
    • Relevant IT & business executives
    • CIO
    • BI project team

    Materials & Requirements

    Develop your proprietary presentation template with:

    • Results from Phases 1 and 2 and Step 3.1
    • Information from:
      • Info-Tech’s Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy
    • Screen shots of outputs from the:
      • BI Practice Assessment Tool
      • BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool

    Next Steps

    Following the approval of your roadmap, begin to plan the implementation of your first initiatives.

    Overall Guidelines

    • Invite recommended participants to an approval meeting.
    • Present your project’s findings with the goal of gaining key stakeholder support for implementing the roadmap.
    1. Set the scene using BI vision & objectives.
    2. Present the results and roadmap next.
    3. Dig deeper into specific issues by touching on the important components of this blueprint to generate a succinct and cohesive presentation.
  • Make the necessary changes and updates stemming from discussion notes during this meeting.
  • Submit a formal summary of findings and roadmap to your governing body for review and approval (e.g. BI steering committee, BI CoE).
  • Info-Tech Insight

    At this point, it is likely that you already have the support to implement a data quality improvement roadmap. This meeting is about the specifics and the ROI.

    Maximize support by articulating the value of the data quality improvement strategy for the organization’s greater information management capabilities. Emphasize the business requirements and objectives that will be enhanced as a result of tackling the recommended initiatives, and note any additional ramifications of not doing so.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s presentation template to present your BI strategy to the executives

    Use the BI Strategy and Roadmap Executive Presentation Template to present your most important findings and brilliant ideas to the business executives and ensure your BI program is endorsed. Business executives can also learn about how the BI strategy empowers them and how they can help in the BI journey.

    Important Messages to Convey

    • Executive summary of the presentation
    • Current challenges faced by the business
    • BI benefits and associated opportunities
    • SWOT analyses of the current BI
    • BI end-user satisfaction survey
    • BI vision, mission, and goals
    • BI initiatives that take you to the future state
    • (Updated) Analytical Strategy
    • Roadmap that depicts the timeline

    STEP 3.2

    Continuous Improvement Opportunities for BI

    Create supplementary policies and programs to augment your BI strategy

    Step Objectives

    • Develop a plan for encouraging users to continue to use Excel, but in a way that does not compromise overall BI effectiveness.
    • Take steps to establish a positive organizational culture around BI.

    Step Activities

    3.2.1 Construct a concrete policy to integrate Excel use with your new BI strategy.

    3.2.2 Map out the foundation for a BI Ambassador network.

    Outcomes

    • Business user understanding of where Excel manipulation should and should not occur
    • Foundation for recognizing exceptional BI users and encouraging development of enterprise-wide business intelligence

    Research Support

    • Info-Tech’s BI Initiatives and Roadmap Tool
    • Info-Tech’s BI Strategy and Roadmap Template

    Proposed Participants in this Step

    Project Manager

    Project Team

    Additional Business Users

    Establish Excel governance to better serve Excel users while making sure they comply with policies

    Excel is the number one BI tool

    • BI applications are developed to support information needs.
    • The reality is that you will never migrate all Excel users to BI. Some Excel users will continue to use it. The key is to support them while imposing governance.
    • The goal is to direct them to use the data in BI or in the data warehouse instead of extracting their own data from various source systems.

    The Tactic: Centralize data extraction and customize delivery

    • Excel users formerly extracted data directly from the production system, cleaned up the data, manipulated the data by including their own business logic, and presented the data in graphs and pivot tables.
    • With BI, the Excel users can still use Excel to look at the information. The only difference is that BI or data warehouse will be the data source of their Excel workbook.

    Top-Down Approach

    • An Excel policy should be created at the enterprise level to outline which Excel use cases are allowed, and which are not.
    • Excel use cases that involve extracting data from source systems and transforming that data using undisclosed business rules should be banned.
    • Excel should be a tool for manipulating, filtering, and presenting data, not a tool for extracting data and running business rules.

    Excel

    Bottom-Up Approach

    • Show empathy to your users. They just want information to get their work done.
    • A sub-optimal information landscape is the root cause, and they are the victims. Excel spreadmarts are the by-products.
    • Make the Excel users aware of the risks associated with Excel, train them in BI, and provide them with better information in the BI platform.

    Activity: Create an Excel governance policy

    3.2.1

    4 hours

    Construct a policy around Excel use to ensure that Excel documents are created and shared in a manner that does not compromise the integrity of your overall BI program.

    1. Review the information artifact list harvested from Step 2.1 and identify all existing Excel-related use cases.
    2. Categorize the Excel use cases into “allowed,” “not allowed,” and “not sure.” For each category define:
    3. Category To Do: Policy Context
      Allowed Discuss what makes these use cases ideal for BI. Document use cases, scenarios, examples, and reasons that allow Excel as an information artifact.
      Not Allowed Discuss why these cases should be avoided. Document forbidden use cases, scenarios, examples, and reasons that use Excel to generate information artifacts.
      Not Sure Discuss the confusions; clarify the gray area. Document clarifications and advise how end users can get help in those “gray area” cases.
    4. Document the findings in the BI Strategy and Roadmap Template in the Manage and Sustain BI Strategy section, or a proprietary template. You may also need to create a separate Excel policy to communicate the Dos and Don’ts.

    Inputs

    • Step 2.1 – A list of information artifacts

    Output

    • Excel-for-BI Use Policy

    Materials

    • BI Strategy Roadmap and Template, or proprietary document

    Participants

    • Business executives
    • CIO
    • Head of BI
    • BI team

    Build a network of ambassadors to promote BI and report to IT with end-user feedback and requests

    The Building of an Insider Network: The BI Ambassador Network

    BI ambassadors are influential individuals in the organization that may be proficient at using BI tools but are passionate about analytics. The network of ambassadors will be IT’s eyes, ears, and even mouth on the frontline with users. Ambassadors will promote BI, communicate any messages IT may have, and keep tabs on user satisfaction.

    Ideal candidate:

    • A good relationship with IT.
    • A large breadth of experience with BI, not just one dashboard.
    • Approachable and well-respected amongst peers.
    • Has a passion for driving organizational change using BI and continually looking for opportunities to innovate.

    Push

    • Key BI Messages
    • Best Practices
    • Training Materials

    Pull

    • Feedback
    • Complaints
    • Thoughts and New Ideas

    Motivate BI ambassadors with perks

    You need to motivate ambassadors to take on this additional responsibility. Make sure the BI ambassadors are recognized in their business units when they go above and beyond in promoting BI.

    Reward Approach Reward Type Description
    Privileges High Priority Requests Given their high usage and high visibility, ambassadors’ BI information requests should be given a higher priority.
    First Look at New BI Development Share the latest BI updates with ambassadors before introducing them to the organization. Ambassadors may even be excited to test out new functionality.
    Recognition Featured in Communications BI ambassadors’ use cases and testimonials can be featured in BI communications. Be sure to create a formal announcement introducing the ambassadors to the organization.
    BI Ambassador Certificate A certificate is a formal way to recognize their efforts. They can also publicly display the certificate in their workspace.
    Rewards Appointed by Senior Executives Have the initial request to be a BI ambassador come from a senior executive to flatter the ambassador and position the role as a reward or an opportunity for success.
    BI Ambassador Awards Award an outstanding BI ambassador for the year. The award should be given by the CEO in a major corporate event.

    Activity: Plan for a BI ambassador network

    3.2.2

    2 hours

    Identify individuals within your organization to act as ambassadors for BI and a bridge between IT and business users.

    1. Obtain a copy of your latest organizational chart. Review your most up-to-date organizational chart and identify key BI consumers across a variety of functional units. In selecting potential BI ambassadors, reflect on the following questions:
    • Does this individual have a good relationship with IT?
    • What is the depth of their experience with developing/consuming business intelligence?
    • Is this individual respected and influential amongst their respective business units?
    • Has this individual shown a passion for innovating within their role?
  • Create a mandate and collateral detailing the roles and responsibilities for the ambassador role, e.g.:
    • Promote BI to members of your group
    • Represent the “voice of the data consumers”
  • Approach the ambassador candidates and explain the responsibilities and perks of the role, with the goal of enlisting about 10-15 ambassadors
  • Inputs

    • An updated organizational chart
    • A list of BI users

    Output

    • Draft framework for BI ambassador network

    Materials

    • BI Strategy and Roadmap Template or proprietary document

    Participants

    • Business executives
    • CIO
    • Head of BI
    • BI team

    Keeping tabs on metadata is essential to creating a data democracy with BI

    A next generation BI not only provides a platform that mirrors business requirements, but also creates a flexible environment that empowers business users to explore data assets without having to go back and forth with IT to complete queries.

    Business users are generally not interested in the underlying architecture or the exact data lineages; they want access to the data that matters most for decision-making purposes.

    Metadata is data about data

    It comes in the form of structural metadata (information about the spaces that contain data) and descriptive metadata (information pertaining to the data elements themselves), in order to answer questions such as:

    • What is the intended purpose of this data?
    • How up-to-date is this information?
    • Who owns this data?
    • Where is this data coming from?
    • How have these data elements been transformed?

    By creating effective metadata, business users are able to make connections between and bring together data sources from multiple areas, creating the opportunity for holistic insight generation.

    Like BI, metadata lies in the Information Dimension layer of our data management framework.

    The metadata needs to be understood before building anything. You need to identify fundamentals of the data, who owns not only that data, but also its metadata. You need to understand where the consolidation is happening and who owns it. Metadata is the core driver and cost saver for building warehouses and requirements gathering.

    – Albert Hui, Principal, Data Economist

    Deliver timely, high quality, and affordable information to enable fast and effective business decisions

    In order to maximize your ROI on business intelligence, it needs to be treated less like a one-time endeavor and more like a practice to be continually improved upon.

    Though the BI strategy provides the overall direction, the BI operating model – which encompasses organization structure, processes, people, and application functionality – is the primary determinant of efficacy with respect to information delivery. The alterations made to the operating model occur in the short term to improve the final deliverables for business users.

    An optimal BI operating model satisfies three core requirements:

    Timeliness

    Effectiveness

  • Affordability
  • Bring tangible benefits of your revamped BI strategy to business users by critically assessing how your organization delivers business intelligence and identifying opportunities for increased operational efficiency.

    Assess and Optimize BI Operations

    Focus on delivering timely, quality, and affordable information to enable fast and effective business decisions

    Implement a fit-for-purpose BI and analytics solution to augment your next generation BI strategy

    Organizations new to business intelligence or with immature BI capabilities are under the impression that simply getting the latest-and-greatest tool will provide the insights business users are looking for.

    BI technology can only be as effective as the processes surrounding it and the people leveraging it. Organizations need to take the time to select and implement a BI suite that aligns with business goals and fosters end-user adoption.

    As an increasing number of companies turn to business intelligence technology, vendors are responding by providing BI and analytics platforms with more and more features.

    Our vendor landscape will simplify the process of selecting a BI and analytics solution by:

    Differentiating between the platforms and features vendors are offering.

    Detailing a robust framework for requirements gathering to pinpoint your organization’s needs.

    Developing a high-level plan for implementation.

    Select and Implement a Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution

    Find the diamond in your data-rough using the right BI & Analytics solution

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-tech analysts:

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-tech analysts with your team:

    3.1.1-3.1.3

    Construct a BI improvement initiative roadmap

    During these activities, your team will consolidate the list of BI initiatives generated from the assessments conducted in previous phases, assign timelines to each action, prioritize them using a value–effort matrix, and finally produce a roadmap for implementing your organization’s BI improvement strategy.

    3.2

    Identify continuous improvement opportunities for BI

    Our analyst team will work with your organization to ideate supplementary programs to support your BI strategy. Defining Excel use cases that are permitted and prohibited in conjunction with your BI strategy, as well as structuring an internal BI ambassador network, are a few extra initiatives that can enhance your BI improvement plans.

    Insight breakdown

    Your BI platform is not a one-and-done initiative.

    A BI program is not a static project that is created once and remains unchanged. Your strategy must be treated as a living platform to be revisited and revitalized in order to provide effective enablement of business decision making. Develop a BI strategy that propels your organization by building it on business goals and objectives, as well as comprehensive assessments that quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate your current BI capabilities.

    Put the “B” back in “BI.”

    The closer you align your new BI platform to real business interests, the stronger will be the buy-in, realized value, and groundswell of enthusiastic adoption. Ultimately, getting this phase right sets the stage to best realize a strong ROI for your investment in the people, processes, and technology that will be your next generation BI platform.

    Go beyond the platform.

    BI success is not based solely on the technology it runs on; technology cannot mask gaps in capabilities. You must be capable in your environment – data management, data quality, and related data practices must be strong, otherwise the usefulness of the intelligence suffers. The best BI solution does not only provide a technology platform, but also addresses the elements that surround the platform. Look beyond tools and holistically assess the maturity of your BI practice with input from both the BI consumer and provider perspectives.

    Appendix

    Detailed list of BI Types

    Style Description Strategic Importance (1-5) Popularity (1-5) Effort (1-5)
    Standards Preformatted reports Standard, preformatted information for backward-looking analysis. 5 5 1
    User-defined analyses Pre-staged information where “pick lists” enable business users to filter (select) the information they wish to analyze, such as sales for a selected region during a selected previous timeframe. 5 4 2
    Ad-hoc analyses Power users write their own queries to extract self-selected pre-staged information and then use the information to perform a user-created analysis. 5 4 3
    Scorecards and dashboards Predefined business performance metrics about performance variables that are important to the organization, presented in a tabular or graphical format that enables business users to see at a glance how the organization is performing. 4 4 3
    Multidimensional analysis (OLAP) Multidimensional analysis (also known as On-line analytical processing): Flexible tool-based user-defined analysis of business performance and the underlying drivers or root causes of that performance. 4 3 3
    Alerts Predefined analyses of key business performance variables, comparison to a performance standard or range, and communication to designated businesspeople when performance is outside the predefined performance standard or range. 4 3 3
    Advanced Analytics Application of long-established statistical and/or operations research methods to historical business information to look backward and characterize a relevant aspect of business performance, typically by using descriptive statistics 5 3 4
    Predictive Analytics Application of long-established statistical and/or operations research methods to historical business information to predict, model, or simulate future business and/or economic performance and potentially prescribe a favored course of action for the future 5 3 5

    Our BI strategy approach follows Info-Tech’s popular IT Strategy Framework

    A comprehensive BI strategy needs to be developed under the umbrella of an overall IT strategy. Specifically, creating a BI strategy is contributing to helping IT mature from a firefighter to a strategic partner that has close ties with business units.

    1. Determine mandate and scope 2. Assess drivers and constraints 3. Evaluate current state of IT 4. Develop a target state vision 5. Analyze gaps and define initiatives 6. Build a roadmap 8. Revamp 7. Execute
    Mandate Business drivers Holistic assessments Vision and mission Initiatives Business-driven priorities
    Scope External drivers Focus-area specific assessments Guiding principles Risks
    Project charter Opportunities to innovate Target state vision Execution schedule
    Implications Objectives and measures

    This BI strategy blueprint is rooted in our road-tested and proven IT strategy framework as a systematic method of tackling strategy development.

    Research contributors

    Internal Contributors

    • Andy Woyzbun, Executive Advisor
    • Natalia Nygren Modjeska, Director, Data & Analytics
    • Crystal Singh, Director, Data & Analytic
    • Andrea Malick, Director, Data & Analytics
    • Raj Parab, Director, Data & Analytics
    • Igor Ikonnikov, Director, Data & Analytics
    • Andy Neill, Practice Lead, Data & Analytics
    • Rob Anderson, Manager Sales Operations
    • Shari Lava, Associate Vice-President, Vendor Advisory Practice

    External Contributors

    • Albert Hui, Principal, DataEconomist
    • Cameran Hetrick, Senior Director of Data Science & Analytics, thredUP
    • David Farrar, Director – Marketing Planning & Operations, Ricoh Canada Inc
    • Emilie Harrington, Manager of Analytics Operations Development, Lowe’s
    • Sharon Blanton, VP and CIO, The College of New Jersey
    • Raul Vomisescu, Independent Consultant

    Research contributors and experts

    Albert Hui

    Consultant, Data Economist

    Albert Hui is a cofounder of Data Economist, a data-consulting firm based in Toronto, Canada. His current assignment is to redesign Scotiabank’s Asset Liability Management for its Basel III liquidity compliance using Big Data technology. Passionate about technology and problem solving, Albert is an entrepreneur and result-oriented IT technology leader with 18 years of experience in consulting and software industry. His area of focus is on data management, specializing in Big Data, business intelligence, and data warehousing. Beside his day job, he also contributes to the IT community by writing blogs and whitepapers, book editing, and speaking at technology conferences. His recent research and speaking engagement is on machine learning on Big Data.

    Albert holds an MBA from the University of Toronto and a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering. He has twin boys and enjoys camping and cycling with them in his spare time.

    Albert Hui Consultant, Data Economist

    Cameran Hetrick

    Senior Director of Analytics and Data Science, thredUP

    Cameran is the Senior Director of Analytics and Data Science at thredUP, a startup inspiring a new generation to think second hand first. There she helps drives top line growth through advanced and predictive analytics. Previously, she served as the Director of Data Science at VMware where she built and led the data team for End User Computing. Before moving to the tech industry, she spent five years at The Disneyland Resort setting ticket and hotel prices and building models to forecast attendance. Cameran holds an undergraduate degree in Economics/Mathematics from UC Santa Barbara and graduated with honors from UC Irvine's MBA program.

    Cameran Hetrick Senior Director of Analytics and Data Science, thredUP

    Bibliography

    Bange, Carsten and Wayne Eckerson. “BI and Data Management in the Cloud: Issues and Trends.” BARC and Eckerson Group, January 2017. Web.

    Business Intelligence: The Strategy Imperative for CIOs. Tech. Information Builders. 2007. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.

    COBIT 5: Enabling Information. Rolling Meadows, IL: ISACA, 2013. Web.

    Dag, Naslund, Emma Sikander, and Sofia Oberg. "Business Intelligence - a Maturity Model Covering Common Challenges." Lund University Publications. Lund University, 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.

    “DAMA Guide to the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK Guide).” First Edition. DAMA International. 2009. Digital. April 2014.

    Davenport, Thomas H. and Bean, Randy. “Big Data and AI Executive Survey 2019.” NewVantage Partners LLC. 2019. Web.

    "Debunking the Business of Analytics." Experian Data Quality. Sept. 2013. Web.

    Bibliography

    Drouin, Sue. "Value Chain." SAP Analytics. February 27, 2015.

    Farrar, David. “BI & Data analytics workshop feedback.” Ricoh Canada. Sept. 2019.

    Fletcher, Heather. "New England Patriots Use Analytics & Trigger Emails to Retain Season Ticket Holders." Target Marketing. 1 Dec. 2011. Web.

    Gonçalves, Alex. "Social Media Analytics Strategy - Using Data to Optimize Business Performance.” Apress. 2017.

    Imhoff, Claudia, and Colin White. "Self Service Business Intelligence: Empowering Users to Generate Insights." SAS Resource Page. The Data Warehouse Institute, 2011. Web.

    Khamassi, Ahmed. "Building An Analytical Roadmap : A Real Life Example." Wipro. 2014.

    Kuntz, Jerry, Pierre Haren, and Rebecca Shockley. IBM Insight 2015 Teleconference Series. Proc. of Analytics: The Upside of Disruption. IBM Institute for Business Value, 19 Oct. 2015. Web.

    Kwan, Anne , Maximillian Schroeck, Jon Kawamura. “Architecting and operating model, A platform for accelerating digital transformation.” Part of a Deliotte Series on Digital Industrial Transformation, 2019. Web.

    Bibliography

    Lebied, Mona. "11 Steps on Your BI Roadmap To Implement A Successful Business Intelligence Strategy." Business Intelligence. July 20, 2018. Web.

    Light, Rob. “Make Business Intelligence a Necessity: How to Drive User Adoption.” Sisense Blog. 30 July 2018.

    Mazenko, Elizabeth. “Avoid the Pitfalls: 3 Reasons 80% of BI Projects Fail.” BetterBuys. October 2015.

    Marr, Bernard. "Why Every Business Needs A Data And Analytics Strategy.” Bernard Marr & Co. 2019.

    Mohr, Niko and Hürtgen, Holger. “Achieving Business Impact with Data.” McKinsey. April 2018.

    MIT Sloan Management

    Quinn, Kevin R. "Worst Practices in Business Intelligence: Why BI Applications Succeed Where BI Tools Fail." (2007): 1-19. BeyeNetwork. Information Builders, 2007. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.

    Ringdal, Kristen. "Learning multilevel Analysis." European social Survey. 2019.

    Bibliography

    Schaefer, Dave, Ajay Chandramouly, Burt Carmak, and Kireeti Kesavamurthy. "Delivering Self-Service BI, Data Visualization, and Big Data Analytics." IT@Intel White Paper (2013): 1-11. June 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

    Schultz, Yogi. “About.” Corvelle Consulting. 2019.

    "The Current State of Analytics: Where Do We Go From Here?" SAS Resource Page. SAS & Bloomberg Businessweek, 2011. Web.

    "The Four Steps to Defining a Customer Analytics Strategy." CCG Analytics Solutions & Services. Nov 10,2017.

    Traore, Moulaye. "Without a strategic plan, your analytics initiatives are risky." Advisor. March 12, 2018. web.

    Wells, Dave. "Ten Mistakes to Avoid When Gathering BI Requirements." Engineering for Industry. The Data Warehouse Institute, 2008. Web.

    “What is a Business Intelligence Strategy and do you need one?” Hydra. Sept 2019. Web.

    Williams, Steve. “Business Intelligence Strategy and Big Data Analytics.” Morgan Kaufman. 2016.

    Wolpe, Toby. "Case Study: How One Firm Used BI Analytics to Track Staff Performance | ZDNet." ZDNet. 3 May 2013. Web.

    Yuk, Mico. “11 Reasons Why Most Business Intelligence Projects Fail.” Innovative enterprise Channels. May 2019.

    Prepare for the Upgrade to Windows 11

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}166|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: End-User Computing Devices
    • Parent Category Link: /end-user-computing-devices
    • Windows 10 is going EOL in 2025.That is closer than you think.
    • Many of your endpoints are not eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade. You can’t afford to replace all your endpoints this year. How do you manage this Microsoft initiated catastrophe?
    • You want to stay close to the leading edge of technology and services, but how do you do that while keeping your spending in check and within budget?

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Windows 11 is a step forward in security, which is one of the primary reasons for the release of the new operating system. Windows 11 comes with a list of hardware requirements that enable the use of tools and features that, when combined, will reduce malware infections.

    Impact and Result

    Windows 11 hardware requirements will result in devices that are not eligible for the upgrade. Companies will be left to spend money on replacement devices. Following the Info-Tech guidance will help clients properly budget for hardware replacements before Windows 10 is no longer supported by Microsoft. Eligible devices can be upgraded, but Info-Tech guidance can help clients properly plan the upgrade using the upgrade ring approach.

    Prepare for the Upgrade to Windows 11 Research & Tools

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

    1. Prepare for the Upgrade to Windows 11 Deck – A look into some of the pros and cons of Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system, along with guidance on moving forward with this inevitable upgrade.

    Discover the reason for the release of Windows 11, what you require to be eligible for the upgrade, what features were added or updated, and what features were removed. Our guidance will assist you with a planned and controlled rollout of the Windows 11 upgrade. We also provide guidance on how to approach a device refresh plan if some devices are not eligible for Windows 11. The upgrade is inevitable, but you have time, and you have options.

    • Prepare for the Upgrade to Windows 11 Storyboard

    2. What Are My Options If My Devices Cannot Upgrade to Windows 11? – Build a Windows 11 Device Replacement budget with our Hardware Asset Management Budgeting Tool.

    This tool will help you budget for a hardware asset refresh and to adjust the budget as necessary to accommodate any unexpected changes. The tool can easily be modified to assist in developing and justifying the budget for hardware assets for a Windows 11 project. Follow the instructions on each tab and feel free to play with the HAM budgeting tool to fit your needs.

    • HAM Budgeting Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Prepare for the Upgrade to Windows 11

    The upgrade is inevitable, but you have time, and you have options.

    Analyst Perspective

    Upgrading to Windows 11 is easy, and while it should be properly investigated and planned, it should absolutely be an activity you undertake.

    “You hear that Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability.” ("The Matrix Quotes" )

    The fictitious Agent Smith uttered those words to Keanu Reeves’ character, Neo, in The Matrix in 1999, and while Agent Smith was using them in a very sinister and figurative context, the words could just as easily be applied to the concept of upgrading to the Windows 11 operating system from Microsoft in 2022.

    There have been two common, recurring themes in the media since late 2019. One is the global pandemic and the other is cyber-related crime. Microsoft is not in a position to make an impact on a novel coronavirus, but it does have the global market reach to influence end-user technology and it appears that it has done just that. Windows 11 is a step forward in endpoint security and functionality. It also solidifies the foundation for future innovations in end-user operating systems and how they are delivered. Windows-as-a-Service (WAAS) is the way forward for Microsoft. Windows 10 is living on borrowed time, with a defined end of support date of October 14, 2025. Upgrading to Windows 11 is easy, and while it should be properly investigated and planned, it should absolutely be an activity you undertake.

    It is inevitable!

    P.J. Ryan

    Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • Windows 10 is going EOL in 2025. That is closer than you think.
    • Many of your endpoints are not eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade. You can’t afford to replace all your endpoints this year. How do you manage this Microsoft-initiated catastrophe?
    • You want to stay close to the leading edge of technology and services, but how do you do that while keeping your spending in check and within budget?

    Common Obstacles

    • The difference between Windows 10 and Windows 11 is not clear. Windows 11 looks like Windows 10 with some minor changes, mostly cosmetic. Many online users don’t see the need. Why upgrade? What are the benefits?
    • The cost of upgrading devices just to be eligible for Windows 11 is high.
    • Your end users don’t like change. This is not going to go over well!

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • Spend wisely. Space out your endpoint replacements and upgrades over several years. You do not have to upgrade everything right away.
    • Be patient. Windows 11 contained some bugs when it was initially released. Microsoft fixed most of the issues through monthly quality updates, but you should ensure that you are comfortable with the current level of functionality before you upgrade.
    • Use the upgrade ring approach. Test your applications with a small group first, and then stage the rollout to increasingly larger groups over time.

    Info-Tech Insight

    There is a lot of talk about Windows 11, but this is only an operating system upgrade, and it is not a major one. Understand what is new, what is added, and what is missing. Check your devices to determine how many are eligible and ineligible. Many organizations will have to spend capital on endpoint upgrades. Solid asset management practices will help.

    Insight summary

    Windows 11 is a step forward in security, which is one of the primary reasons for the release of the new operating system.

    Windows 11 comes with a list of hardware requirements that enable the use of tools and features that, when combined, will reduce malware infections.

    The hardware requirements for Windows 11 enable security features such as password-less logon, disk encryption, increased startup protection with secure boot, and virtualization-based security.

    Many organizations will have to spend capital on endpoint upgrades.

    Microsoft now insists that modern hardware is required for Windows 11 for not only security but also for improved stability. That same hardware requirement will mean that many devices that are only three or four years old (as well as older ones) may not be eligible for Windows 11.

    Windows 11 is a virtualization challenge for some providers.

    The hardware requirements for physical devices are also required for virtual devices. The TPM module appears to be the biggest challenge. Oracle VirtualBox and Citrix Hypervisor as well as AWS and Google are unable to support Windows 11 virtual devices as of the time of writing.

    Windows 10 will be supported by Microsoft until October 2025.

    That will remove some of the pressure felt due to the ineligibility of many devices and the need to refresh them. Take your time and plan it out, keeping within budget constraints. Use the upgrade ring approach for systems that are eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade.

    New look and feel, and a center screen taskbar.

    Corners are rounded, some controls look a little different, but overall Windows 11 is not a dramatic shift from Windows 10. It is easier to navigate and find features. Oh, and yes, the taskbar (and start button) is shifted to the center of the screen, but you can move them back to the left if desired.

    The education industry gets extra attention with the release of Windows 11.

    Windows 11 comes with multiple subscription-based education offerings, but it also now includes a new lightweight SE edition that is intended for the K-8 age group. Microsoft also released a Windows 11 Education SE specific laptop, at a very attractive price point. Other manufacturers also offer Windows 11 SE focused devices.

    Why Windows 11?

    Windows 10 was supposed to be the final desktop OS from Microsoft, wasn’t it?

    Maybe. It depends who you ask.

    Jerry Nixon, a Microsoft developer evangelist, gained notoriety when he uttered these words while at a Microsoft presentation as part of Microsoft Ignite in 2015: “Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10,” (Hachman). Microsoft never officially made that statement. Interestingly enough, it never denied the comments made by Jerry Nixon either.

    Perhaps Microsoft released a new operating system as a financial grab, a way to make significant revenue?

    Nope.

    Windows 11 is a free upgrade or is included with any new computer purchase.

    Market share challenges?

    Doubtful.

    It’s true that Microsoft's market share of desktop operating systems is dropping while Apple OS X and Google Chrome OS are rising.

    In fact, Microsoft has relinquished over 13% of the market share since 2012 and Apple has almost doubled its market share. BUT:

    Microsoft is still holding 75.12% of the market while Apple is in the number 2 spot with 14.93% (gs.statcounter.com).

    The market share is worth noting for Microsoft but it hardly warrants a new operating system.

    New look and feel?

    Unlikely

    New start button and taskbar orientation, new search window, rounded corners, new visual look on some controls like the volume bar, new startup sound, new Windows logo, – all minor changes. Updates could achieve the same result.

    Security?

    Likely the main reason.

    Windows 11 comes with a list of hardware requirements that enable the use of tools and features that, when combined, will reduce malware infections.

    The hardware requirements for Windows 11 enable security features such as password-less logon, disk encryption, increased startup protection with secure boot, and virtualization-based security.

    The features are available on all Windows 11 physical devices, due to the common hardware requirements.

    Windows 11 hardware-based security

    These hardware options and features were available in Windows 10 but not enforced. With Windows 11, they are no longer optional. Below is a description and explanation of the main features.

    Feature What it is How it works
    TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) Chip TPM is a chip on the motherboard of the computer. It is used to store encryption keys, certificates, and passwords. TPM does this securely with tamper-proof prevention. It can also generate encryption keys and it includes its own unique encryption key that cannot be altered (helpdeskgeek.com). You do not need to enter your password once you setup Windows Hello, so the password is no longer easy to capture and steal. It is set up on a device per device basis, meaning if you go to a different device to sign in, your Windows Hello authentication will not follow you and you must set up your Hello pin or facial recognition again on that particular device. TPM (Trusted Platform Module) can store the credentials used by Windows Hello and encrypt them on the module.
    Windows Hello Windows Hello is an alternative to using a password for authentication. Users can use a pin, a fingerprint, or facial recognition to authenticate.
    Device Encryption Device encryption is only on when your device is off. It scrambles the data on your disk to make it unreadable unless you have the key to unscramble it. If your endpoint is stolen, the contents of the hard drive will remain encrypted and cannot be accessed by anyone unless they can properly authenticate on the device and allow the system to unscramble the encrypted data.
    UEFI Secure Boot Capable UEFI is an acronym for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. It is an interface between the operating system and the computer firmware. Secure Boot, as part of the firmware interface, ensures that only unchangeable and approved software and drivers are loaded at startup and not any malware that may have infiltrated the system (Lumunge). UEFI, with Secure Boot, references a database containing keys and signatures of drivers and runtime code that is approved as well as forbidden. It will not let the system boot up unless the signature of the driver or run-time code that is trying to execute is approved. This UEFI Secure boot recognition process continues until control is handed over to the operating system.
    Virtualization Based Security (VBS) and Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity (HVCI) VBS is security based on virtualization capabilities. It uses the virtualization features of the Windows operating system, specifically the Hyper-V hypervisor, to create and isolate a small chunk of memory that is isolated from the operating system. HVCI checks the integrity of code for violations. The Code Integrity check happens in the isolated virtual area of memory protected by the hypervisor, hence the acronym HVCI (Hypervisor Protected Code Integrity) (Murtaza). In the secure, isolated region of memory created by VBS with the hypervisor, Windows will run checks on the integrity of the code that runs various processes. The isolation protects the stored item from tampering by malware and similar threats. If they run incident free, they are released to the operating system and can run in the standard memory space. If issues are detected, the code will not be released, nor will it run in the standard memory space of the operating system, and damage or compromise will be prevented.

    How do all the hardware-based security features work?

    This scenario explains how a standard boot up and login should happen.

    You turn on your computer. Secure Boot authorizes the processes and UEFI hands over control to the operating system. Windows Hello works with TPM and uses a pin to authenticate the user and the operating systems gives you access to the Windows environment.

    Now imagine the same process with various compromised scenarios.

    You turn on your computer. Secure Boot does not recognize the signature presented to it by the second process in the boot sequence. You will be presented with a “Secure Boot Violation” message and an option to reboot. Your computer remains protected.

    You boot up and get past the secure boot process and UEFI passes control over to the Windows 11 operating system. Windows Hello asks for your pin, but you cannot remember the pin and incorrectly enter it three times before admitting temporary defeat. Windows Hello did not find a matching pin on the TPM and will not let you proceed. You cannot log in but in the eyes of the operating system, it has prevented an unauthorized login attempt.

    You power up your computer, log in without issue, and go about your morning routine of checking email, etc. You are not aware that malware has infiltrated your system and modified a page in system memory to run code and access the operating system kernel. VBS and HVCI check the integrity of that code and detect that it is malicious. The code remains isolated and prevented from running, protecting your system.

    TPM, Hello, UEFI with Secure Boot, VBS and HVCI all work together like a well-oiled machine.

    “Microsoft's rationale for Windows 11's strict official support requirements – including Secure Boot, a TPM 2.0 module, and virtualization support – has always been centered on security rather than raw performance.” – Andrew Cunningham, arstechnica.com

    “Windows 11 raises the bar for security by requiring hardware that can enable protections like Windows Hello, Device Encryption, virtualization-based security (VBS), hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI), and Secure Boot. These features in combination have been shown to reduce malware by 60% on tested devices.” – Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, Computerworld

    Can any device upgrade to Windows 11?

    In addition to the security-related hardware requirements listed previously, which may exclude some devices from Windows 11 eligibility, Windows 11 also has a minimum requirement for other hardware components.

    Windows 7 and Windows 10 were publicized as being backward compatible and almost any hardware would be able to run those operating systems. That changed with Windows 11. Microsoft now insists that modern hardware is required for Windows 11 for not only security but also improved stability.

    Software Requirement

    You must be running Windows 10 version 2004 or greater to be eligible for a Windows 11 upgrade (“Windows 11 Requirements”).

    Complete hardware requirements for Windows 11

    • 1 GHz (or faster) compatible 64-bit processor with two or more cores
    • 4 GB RAM
    • 64 GB or more of storage space
    • Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver
      • DirectX connects the hardware in your computer with Windows. It allows software to display graphics using the video card or play audio, as long as that software is DirectX compatible. Windows 11 requires version 12 (“What are DirectX 12 compatible graphics”).
      • WDDM is an acronym for Windows Display Driver Model. WDDM is the architecture for the graphics driver for Windows (“Windows Display Driver Model”).
      • Version 2.0 of WDDM is required for Windows 11.
    • 720p display greater than 9" diagonally with 8 bits per color channel
    • UEFI Secure Boot capable
    • TPM 2.0 chip
    • (“Windows 11 Requirements”)

    Windows 11 may challenge your virtual environment

    When Windows 11 was initially released, some IT administrators experienced issues when trying to install or upgrade to Windows 11 in the virtual world.

    The Challenge

    The issues appeared to be centered around the Windows 11 hardware requirements, which must be detected by the Windows 11 pre-install check before the operating system will install.

    The TPM 2.0 chip requirement was indeed a challenge and not offered as a configuration option with Citrix Hypervisor, the free VMware Workstation Player or Oracle VM VirtualBox when Windows 11 was released in October 2021, although it is on the roadmap for Oracle and Citrix Hypervisor. VMware provides alternative products to the free Workstation Player that do support a virtual TPM. Oracle and Citrix reported that the feature would be available in the future and Windows 11 would work on their platforms.

    Short-Term Solutions

    VMware and Microsoft users can add a vTPM hardware type when configuring a virtual Windows 11 machine. Microsoft Azure does offer Windows 11 as an option as a virtual desktop. Citrix Desktop-As-A-Service (DAAS) will connect to Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud and is only limited by the features of the hosting cloud service provider.

    Additional Insight

    According to Microsoft, any VM running Windows 11 must meet the following requirements (“Virtual Machine Support”):

    • It must be a generation 2 VM, and upgrading a generation 1 VM to Windows 11 (in-place) is not possible
    • 64 GB of storage or greater
    • Secure Boot capable with the virtual TPM enabled
    • 4 GB of memory or greater
    • 2 or more virtual processors
    • The CPU of the physical computer that is hosting the VM must meet the Windows 11 (“Windows Processor Requirements”)

    What’s new or updated in Windows 11?

    The following two slides highlight some of the new and updated features in Windows 11.

    Security

    The most important change with Windows 11 is what you cannot see – the security. Windows 11 adds requirements and controls to make the user and device more secure, as described in previous slides.

    Taskbar

    The most prominent change in relation to the look and feel of Windows 11 is the shifting of the taskbar (and Start button) to the center of the screen. Some users may find this more convenient but if you do not and prefer the taskbar and start button back on the left of your screen, you can change it in taskbar settings.

    Updated Apps

    Paint, Photos, Notepad, Media Player, Mail, and other standard Windows apps have been updated with a new look and in some cases minor enhancements.

    User Interface

    The first change users will notice after logging in to Windows 11 is the new user interface – the look and feel. You may not notice the additional colors added to the Windows palette, but you may have thought that the startup sound was different, and the logo also looks different. You would be correct. Other look-and-feel items that changed include the rounded corners on windows, slightly different icons, new wallpapers, and controls for volume and brightness are now a slide bar. File explorer and the settings app also have a new look.

    Microsoft Teams

    Microsoft Teams is now installed on the taskbar by default. Note that this is for a personal Microsoft account only. Teams for Work or School will have to be installed separately if you are using a work or school account.

    What’s new or updated in Windows 11?

    Snap Layouts

    Snap layouts have been enhanced and snap group functionality has been added. This will allow you to quickly snap one window to the side of the screen and open other Windows in the other side. This feature can be accessed by dragging the window you wish to snap to the left or right edge of the screen. The window should then automatically resize to occupy that half of the screen and allow you to select other Windows that are already open to occupy the remaining space on the screen. You can also hover your mouse over the maximize button in the upper right-hand corner of the window. A small screen with multiple snap layouts will appear for your selection. Multiple snapped Windows can be saved as a “Snap Group” that will open together if one of the group windows are snapped in the future.

    Widgets

    Widgets are expanding. Microsoft started the re-introduction of widgets in Windows 10, specifically focusing on the weather. Widgets now include other services such as news, sports, stock prices, and others.

    Android Apps

    Android apps can now run in Windows 11. You will have to use the Amazon store to access and install Android apps, but if it is available in the Amazon store, you can install it on Windows 11.

    Docking

    Docking has improved with Windows 11. Windows knows when you are docked and will minimize apps when you undock so they are not lost. They will appear automatically when you dock again.

    This is not intended to be an inclusive list but does cover some of the more prominent features.

    What’s missing from Windows 11?

    The following features are no longer found in Windows 11:

    • Backward compatibility
      • The introduction of the hardware requirements for Windows 11 removed the backward compatibility (from a hardware perspective) that made the transition from previous versions of Windows to their successor less of a hardware concern. If a computer could run Windows 7, then it could also run Windows 10. That does not automatically mean it can also run Windows 11.
    • Internet Explorer
      • Internet Explorer is no longer installed by default in Windows 11. Microsoft Edge is now the default browser for Windows. Other browsers can also be installed if preferred.
    • Tablet mode
      • Windows 11 does not have a "tablet" mode, but the operating system will maximize the active window and add more space between icons to make selecting them easier if the 2-in-1 hardware detects that you wish to use the device as a tablet (keyboard detached or device opened up beyond 180 degrees, etc.).
    • Semi-annual updates
      • It may take six months or more to realize that semi-annual feature updates are missing. Microsoft moved to an annual feature update schema but continued with monthly quality updates with Windows 11.
    • Specific apps
      • Several applications have been removed (but can be manually added from the Microsoft Store by the user). They include:
        • OneNote for Windows 10
        • 3D Viewer
        • Paint 3D
        • Skype
    • Cortana (by default)
      • Cortana is missing from Windows 11. It is installed but not enabled by default. Users can turn it on if desired.

    Microsoft included a complete list of features that have been removed or deprecated with Windows 11, which can be found here Windows 11 Specs and System Requirements.

    Windows 11 editions

    • Windows 11 is offered in several editions:
      • Windows 11 Home
      • Windows 11 Pro
      • Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
      • Windows 11 Enterprise Windows 11 for Education
      • Windows 11 SE for Education
    • Windows 11 hardware requirements and security features are common throughout all editions.
    • The new look and feel along with all the features mentioned previously are common to all editions as well.
    • Windows Home
      • Standard offering for home users
    • Pro versus Pro for Workstations
      • Windows 11 Pro and Pro for Workstations are both well suited for the business environment with available features such as support for Active Directory or Azure Active Directory, Windows Autopilot, OneDrive for Business, etc.
      • Windows Pro for Workstations is designed for increased demands on the hardware with the higher memory limits (2 TB vs. 6 TB) and processor count (2 CPU vs. 4 CPU).
      • Windows Pro for Workstations also features Resilient File System, Persistent Memory, and SMB Direct. Neither of these features are available in the Windows 11 Pro edition.
      • Windows 11 Pro and Pro for Workstations are both very business focused, although Pro may also be a common choice for non-business users (Home and Education).
    • Enterprise Offerings
      • Enterprise licenses are subscription based and are part of the Microsoft 365 suite of offerings.
      • Windows 11 Enterprise is Windows 11 Pro with some additional addons and functionality in areas such as device management, collaboration, and security services.
      • The level of the Microsoft 365 Enterprise subscription (E3 or E5) would dictate the additional features and functionality, such as the complete Microsoft Defender for Endpoint suite or the Microsoft phone system and Audio Conferencing, which are only available with the E5 subscription.

    Windows 11 Education Editions

    With the release of a laptop targeted specifically at the education market, Microsoft must be taking notice of the Google Chrome educational market penetration, especially with headlines like these.

    “40 Million Chromebooks in Use in Education” (Thurrott)

    “The Unprecedented Growth of the Chromebook Education Market Share” (Carklin)

    “Chromebooks Gain Market Share as Education Goes Online” (Hruska)

    “Chromebooks Gain Share of Education Market Despite Shortages” (Mandaro)

    “Chromebook sales skyrocketed in Q3 2020 with online education fueling demand” (Duke)

    • Education licenses are subscription based and are part of the Microsoft 365 suite of offerings. Educational pricing is one benefit of the Microsoft 365 Education model.
    • Windows 11 Education is Windows 11 Pro with some additional addons and functionality similar to the Enterprise offerings for Windows 11 in areas such as device management, collaboration, and security services. Windows 11 Education also adds some education specific settings such as Classroom Tools, which allow institutions to add new students and their devices to their own environment with fewer issues, and includes OneNote Class Notebook, Set Up School PCs app, and Take a Test app.
    • The level of the Microsoft 365 Education subscription (A3 or A5) would dictate the additional features and functionality, such as the complete Microsoft Defender for Endpoint suite or the Microsoft phone system and Audio Conferencing, which are only available with the A5 subscription.
    • Windows 11 SE for Education:
      • A cloud-first edition of Windows 11 specifically designed for the K-8 education market.
      • Windows 11 SE is a light version of Windows 11 that is designed to run on entry-level devices with better performance and security on that hardware.
      • Windows 11 SE requires Intune for Education and only IT admins can install applications.
    • Microsoft and others have come out with Windows SE specific devices at a low price point.
      • The Microsoft Surface Laptop SE comes pre-loaded with Windows 11 SE and can be purchased for US$249.00.
      • Dell, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, and others also offer Windows 11 SE specific devices (“Devices for Education”).

    Initial Reactions

    Below you can find some actual initial reactions to Windows 11.

    Initial reactions are mixed, as is to be expected with any new release of an operating system. The look and feel is new, but it is not a huge departure from the Windows 10 look and feel. Some new features are well received such as the snap feature.

    The shift of the taskbar (and start button) is the most popular topic of discussion online when it comes to Windows 11 reactions. Some love it and some do not. The best part about the shift of the taskbar is that you can adjust it in settings and move it back to its original location.

    The best thing about reactions is that they garner attention, and thanks in part to all the online reactions and comments, Microsoft is continually improving Windows 11 through quality updates and annual feature releases.

    “My 91-year-old Mum has found it easy!” Binns, Paul ITRG

    “It mostly looks quite nice and runs well.” Jmbpiano, Reddit user

    “It makes me feel more like a Mac user.” Chang, Ben Info-Tech

    “At its core, Windows 11 appears to be just Windows 10 with a fresh coat of paint splashed all over it.” Rouse, Rick RicksDailyTips.com

    “Love that I can snap between different page orientations.” Roberts, Jeremy Info-Tech

    “I finally feel like Microsoft is back on track again.” Jawed, Usama Neowin

    “A few of the things that seemed like issues at first have either turned out not to be or have been fixed with patches.” Jmbpiano, Reddit user

    “The new interface is genuinely intuitive, well-designed, and colorful.” House, Brett AnandTech

    “No issues. Have it out on about 50 stations.” Sandrews1313, Reddit User

    “The most striking change is to the Start menu.” Grabham, Dan pocket-lint.com

    How do I upgrade to Windows 11?

    The process is very similar to applying updates in Windows 10.

    • Windows 11 is offered as an upgrade through the standard Windows 10 update procedure. Windows Update will notify you when the Windows 11 upgrade is ready (assuming your device is eligible for Windows 11).
      • Allow the update (upgrade in this case) to proceed, reboot, and your endpoint will come back to life with Windows 11 installed and ready for you.
    • A fresh install can be delivered by downloading the required Windows 11 installation media from the Microsoft Software Download site for Windows 11.
    • Business users can control the timing and schedule of the Windows 11 rollout to corporate endpoints using Microsoft solutions such as WSUS, Configuration Manager, Intune and Endpoint Manager, or by using other endpoint management solutions.
    • WSUS and Configuration Manager will have to sync the product category for Windows 11 to manage the deployment.
    • Windows Update for Business policies will have to use the target version capability rather than using the feature update referrals alone.
    • Organizations using Intune and a Microsoft 365 E3 license will be able to use the Feature Update Deployments page to select Windows 11.
    • Other modern endpoint management solutions may also allow for a controlled deployment.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The upgrade itself may be a simple process but be prepared for the end-user reactions that will follow. Some will love it but others will despise it. It is not an optional upgrade in the long run, so everyone will have to learn to accept it.

    When can I upgrade to Windows 11?

    You can upgrade right now BUT there is no need to rush. Windows 11 was released in October 2021 but that doesn’t mean you have to upgrade everyone right away. Plan this out.

    • Build deployment rings into your Windows 11 upgrade approach: This approach, also referred to as Canary Releases or deployment rings, allows you to ensure that IT can support users if there's a major problem with the upgrade. Instead of disrupting all end users, you are only disrupting a portion of end users.
      • Deploy the initial update to your test environment.
      • After testing is successful or changes have been made, deploy Windows 11 to your pilot group of users.
      • After the pilot group gives you the thumbs up, deploy to the rest of production in phases. Phases are sometimes by office/location, sometimes by department, sometimes by persona (i.e. defer people that don't handle updates well), and usually by a combination of these factors.
      • Increase the size of each ring as you progress.
    • Always back up your data before any upgrade.

    Deployment Ring Example

    Pilot Ring - Individuals from all departments - 10 users

    Ring #1 - Dev, Finance - 20 Users

    Ring #2 - Research - 100 Users

    Ring #3 - Sales, IT, Marketing - 500 Users

    Upgrade your eligible devices and users to Windows 11

    Build Windows 11 Deployment Rings

    Instructions:

    1. Identify who will be in the pilot group. Use individuals instead of user groups.
    2. Identify how many standard rings you need. This number will be based on the total number of employees per office.
    3. Map groups to rings. Define which user groups will be in each ring.
    4. Allow some time to elapse between upgrades. Allow the first group to work with Windows 11 and identify any potential issues that may arise before upgrading the next group.
    5. Track and communicate. Record all information into a spreadsheet like the one on the right. This will aid in communication and tracking.
    Ring Department or Group Total Users Delay Time Before Next Group
    Pilot Ring Individuals from all departments 10 Three weeks
    Ring 1 Dev Finance 20 Two weeks
    Ring 2 Research 100 One week
    Ring 3 Sales, IT Marketing 500 N/A

    What are my options if my devices cannot upgrade to Windows 11?

    Don’t rush out to replace all the ineligible endpoint devices. You have some time to plan this out. Windows 10 will be available and supported by Microsoft until October 2025.

    Use asset management strategies and budget techniques in your Windows 11 upgrade approach:

    • Start with current inventory and determine which devices will not be eligible for upgrade to Windows 11.
    • Prioritize the devices for replacement, taking device age, the role of the user the device supports, and delivery times for remote users into consideration.
    • Take this opportunity to review overall device offerings and end-user compute strategy. This will help decide which devices to offer going forward while improving end-user satisfaction.
    • Determine the cost for replacement devices:
      • Compare vendor offerings using an RFP process.
    • Use the hardware asset management planning spreadsheet on the next slide to budget for the replacements over the coming months leading up to October 2025.

    Leverage Info-Tech research to improve your end-user computing strategy and hardware asset management processes:

    New to End User Computing Strategies? Start with Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy.

    New to IT asset management? Use Info-Tech’s Implement Hardware Asset Management blueprint.

    Use Info-Tech’s HAM Budgeting Tool to plan your hardware asset budget

    Build a Windows 11 Device Replacement Budget

    The link below will open up a hardware asset management (HAM) budgeting tool. This tool can easily be modified to assist in developing and justifying the budget for hardware assets for the Windows 11 project. The tool will allow you to budget for hardware asset refresh and to adjust the budget as needed to accommodate any changes. Follow the instructions on each tab to complete the tool.

    A sample of a possible Windows 11 budgeting spreadsheet is shown on the right, but feel free to play with the HAM budgeting tool to fit your needs.

    HAM Budgeting Tool

    Windows 11 Replacement Schedule
    2022 2023 2024 2025
    Department Total to replace Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Left to allocate
    Finance 120 20 20 20 10 10 20 20 0
    HR 28 15 13 0
    IT 30 15 15 0
    Research 58 8 15 5 20 5 5 0
    Planning 80 10 15 15 10 15 15 0
    Other 160 5 30 5 15 15 30 30 30 0
    Totals 476 35 38 35 35 35 35 38 35 50 35 35 35 35 0

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy

    This project helps support the workforce of the future by answering the following questions: What types of computing devices, provisioning models, and operating systems should be offered to end users? How will IT support devices? What are the policies and governance surrounding how devices are used? What actions are we taking and when? How do end-user devices support larger corporate priorities and strategies?

    Implement Hardware Asset Management

    This project will help you analyze the current state of your HAM program, define assets that will need to be managed, and build and involve the ITAM team from the beginning to help embed the change. It will also help you define standard policies, processes, and procedures for each stage of the hardware asset lifecycle, from procurement through to disposal.

    Bibliography

    aczechowski, et al. “Windows 11 Requirements.” Microsoft, 3 June 2022. Accessed 13 June 2022.

    Binns, Paul. Personal interview. 07 June 2022.

    Butler, Sydney. “What Is Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and How Does It Work?” Help Desk Geek, 5 August 2021. Accessed 18 May 2022.

    Carklin, Nicolette. “The Unprecedented Growth of the Chromebook Education Market Share.” Parallels International GmbH, 26 October 2021. Accessed 19 May 2022.

    Chang, Ben. Personal interview. 26 May 2022.

    Cunningham, Andrew. “Why Windows 11 has such strict hardware requirements, according to Microsoft.” Ars Technica, 27 August 2021. Accessed 19 May 2022.

    Dealnd-Han, et al. “Windows Processor Requirements.” Microsoft, 9 May 2022. Accessed 18 May 2022.

    “Desktop Operating Systems Market Share Worldwide.” Statcounter Globalstats, June 2021–June 2022. Accessed 17 May 2022.

    “Devices for education.” Microsoft, 2022. Accessed 13 June 2022.

    Duke, Kent. “Chromebook sales skyrocketed in Q3 2020 with online education fueling demand.” Android Police, 16 November 2020. Accessed 18 May 2022.

    Grabham, Dan. “Windows 11 first impressions: Our initial thoughts on using Microsoft's new OS.” Pocket-Lint, 24 June 2021. Accessed 3 June 2022.

    Hachman, Mark. “Why is there a Windows 11 if Windows 10 is the last Windows?” PCWorld, 18 June 2021. Accessed 17 May 2022.

    Howse, Brett. “What to Expect with Windows 11: A Day One Hands-On.” Anandtech, 16 November 2020. Accessed 3 June 2022.

    Hruska, Joel. “Chromebooks Gain Market Share as Education Goes Online.” Extremetech, 26 October 2020. Accessed 19 May 2022.

    Jawed, Usama. “I am finally excited about Windows 11 again.” Neowin, 26 February 2022. Accessed 3 June 2022.

    Jmbpiano. “Windows 11 - What are our initial thoughts and feelings?” Reddit, 22 November 2021. Accessed 3 June 2022.

    Lumunge, Erick. “UEFI and Legacy boot.” OpenGenus, n.d. Accessed 18 May 2022.

    Bibliography

    Mandaro, Laura. “Chromebooks Gain Share of Education Market Despite Shortages.” The Information, 9 September 2020. Accessed 19 May 2022.

    Murtaza, Fawad. “What Is Virtualization Based Security in Windows?” Valnet Inc, 24 October 2021. Accessed 17 May 2022.

    Roberts, Jeremy. Personal interview. 27 May 2022.

    Rouse, Rick. “My initial thoughts about Windows 11 (likes and dislikes).” RicksDailyTips.com, 5 September 2021. Accessed 3 June 2022.

    Sandrews1313. “Windows 11 - What are our initial thoughts and feelings?” Reddit, 22 November 2021. Accessed 3 June 2022.

    “The Matrix Quotes." Quotes.net, n.d. Accessed 18 May 2022.

    Thurrott, Paul.” Google: 40 Million Chromebooks in Use in Education.” Thurrott, 21 January 2020. Accessed 18 May 2022.

    Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. “The real reason for Windows 11.” Computerworld, 6 July 2021, Accessed 19 May 2022.

    “Virtual Machine Support.” Microsoft,3 June 2022. Accessed 13 June 2022.

    “What are DirectX 12 compatible graphics and WDDM 2.x.” Wisecleaner, 20 August 2021. Accessed 19 May 2022.

    “Windows 11 Specs and System Requirements.” Microsoft, 2022. Accessed 13 June 2022.

    “Windows Display Driver Model.” MiniTool, n.d. Accessed 13 June 2022.

    Network Segmentation

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}503|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: Network Management
    • Parent Category Link: /network-management
    • Many legacy networks were built for full connectivity and overlooked potential security ramifications.
    • Malware, ransomware, and bad actors are proliferating. It is not a matter of if you will be compromised but how can the damage be minimized.
    • Cyber insurance will detective control, not a preventative one. Prerequisite audits will look for appropriate segmentation.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Lateral movement amplifies damage. Contain movement within the network through segmentation.
    • Good segmentation is a balance between security and manageability. If solutions are too complex, they won’t be updated or maintained.
    • Network services and users change over time, so must your segmentation strategy. Networks are not static; your segmentation must maintain pace.

    Impact and Result

    • Create a common understanding of what is to be built, for whom, and why.
    • Define what services will be offered and how they will be governed.
    • Understand which assets that you already have can jump start the project.

    Network Segmentation Research & Tools

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

    1. Network Segmentation Deck – A deck to help you minimize risk by controlling traffic flows within the network.

    Map out appropriate network segmentation to minimize risk in your network.

    • Network Segmentation Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Network Segmentation

    Protect your network by controlling the conversations within it.

    Executive Summary

    Info-Tech Insight

    Lateral movement amplifies damage

    From a security perspective, bad actors often use the tactic of “land and expand.” Once a network is breached, if east/west or lateral movement is not restricted, an attacker can spread quickly within a network from a small compromise.

    Good segmentation is a balance between security and manageability

    The ease of management in a network is usually inversely proportional to the amount of segmentation in that network. Highly segmented networks have a lot of potential complications and management overhead. In practice, this often leads to administrators being confused or implementing shortcuts that circumvent the very security that was intended with the segmentation in the first place.

    Network services and users change over time, so must your segmentation strategy

    Network segmentation projects should not be viewed as singular or “one and done.” Services and users on a network are constantly evolving; the network segmentation strategy must adapt with these changes. Be sure to monitor and audit segmentation deployments and change or update them as required to maintain a proper risk posture.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Networks are meant to facilitate communication, and when devices on a network cannot communicate, it is generally seen as an issue. The simplest answer to this is to design flat, permissive networks. With the proliferation of malware, ransomware, and advanced persistent threats (ATPs) a flat or permissive network is an invitation for bad actors to deliver more damage at an increased pace.

    Cyber insurance may be viewed as a simpler mitigation than network reconfiguration or redesign, but this is not a preventative solution, and the audits done before policies are issued will flag flat networks as a concern.

    Network segmentation is not a “bolt on” fix. To properly implement a minimum viable product for segmentation you must, at a minimum:

    • Understand the endpoints and their appropriate traffic flows.
    • Understand the technologies available to implement segmentation.

    Implementing appropriate segmentation often involves elements of (if not a full) network redesign.

    To ensure the best results in a timely fashion, Info-Tech recommends a methodology that consists of:

    • Understand the network (or subset thereof) and prioritizing segmentation based on risk.
    • Align the appropriate segmentation methodology for each surfaced segment to be addressed.
    • Monitor the segmented environment for compliance and design efficacy, adding to and modifying existing as required.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The aim of networking is communication, but unfettered communication can be a liability. Appropriate segmentation in networks, blocking communications where they are not required or desired, restricts lateral movement within the network, allowing for better risk mitigation and management.

    Network segmentation

    Compartmentalization of risk:

    Segmentation is the practice of compartmentalizing network traffic for the purposes of mitigating or reducing risk. Segmentation methodologies can generally be grouped into three broad categories:

    1. Physical Segmentation

    The most common implementation of physical segmentation is to build parallel networks with separate hardware for each network segment. This is sometimes referred to as “air gapping.”

    2. Static Virtual Segmentation

    Static virtual segmentation is the configuration practice of using technologies such as virtual LANs (VLANs) to assign ports or connections statically to a network segment.

    3. Dynamic Virtual Segmentation

    Dynamic virtual segmentation assigns a connection to a network segment based on the device or user of the connection. This can be done through such means as software defined networking (SDN), 802.1x, or traffic inspection and profiling.

    Common triggers for network segmentation projects

    1. Remediate Audit Findings

    Many security audits (potentially required for or affecting premiums of cyber insurance) will highlight the potential issues of non-segmented networks.

    2. Protect Vulnerable Technology Assets

    Whether separating IT and OT or segmenting off IoT/IIoT devices, keeping vulnerable assets separated from potential attack vectors is good practice.

    3. Minimize Potential for Lateral Movement

    Any organization that has experienced a cyber attack will realize the value in segmenting the network to slow a bad actor’s movement through technology assets.

    How do you execute on network segmentation?

    The image contains a screenshot of the network segmentation process. The process includes: identify risk, design segmentation, and operate and optimize.

    Identify risks by understanding access across the network

    Gain visibility

    Create policy

    Prioritize change

    "Security, after all, is a risk business. As companies don't secure everything, everywhere, security resilience allows them to focus their security resources on the pieces of the business that add the most value to an organization, and ensure that value is protected."

    – Helen Patton,

    CISO, Cisco Security Business Group, qtd. In PR News, 2022

    Discover the data flows within the network. This should include all users on the network and the environments they are required to access as well as access across environments.

    Examine the discovered flows and define how they should be treated.

    Change takes time. Use a risk assessment to prioritize changes within the network architecture.

    Understand the network space

    A space is made up of both services and users.

    Before starting to consider segmentation solutions, define whether this exercise is aimed at addressing segmentation globally or at a local level. Not all use cases are global and many can be addressed locally.

    When examining a network space for potential segmentation we must include:

    • Services offered on the network
    • Users of the network

    To keep the space a consumable size, both of these areas should be approached in the abstract. To abstract, users and services should be logically grouped and generalized.

    Groupings in the users and services categories may be different across organizations, but the common thread will be to contain the amount of groupings to a manageable size.

    Service Groupings

    • Are the applications all components of a larger service or environment?
    • Do the applications serve data of a similar sensitivity?
    • Are there services that feed data and don’t interact with users (IoT, OT, sensors)?

    User Groupings

    • Do users have similar security profiles?
    • Do users use a similar set of applications?
    • Are users in the same area of your organization chart?
    • Have you considered access by external parties?

    Info-Tech Insight

    The more granular you are in the definition of the network space, the more granular you can be in your segmentation. The unfortunate corollary to this is that the difficulty of managing your end solution grows with the granularity of your segmentation.

    Create appropriate policy

    Understand which assets to protect and how.

    Context is key in your ability to create appropriate policy. Building on the definition of the network space that has been created, context in the form of the appropriateness of communications across the space and the vulnerabilities of items within the space can be layered on.

    To decide where and how segmentation might be appropriate, we must first examine the needs of communication on the network and their associated risk. Once defined, we can assess how permissive or restrictive we should be with that communication.

    The minimum viable product for this exercise is to define the communication channel possibilities, then designate each possibility as one of the following:

    • Permissive – we should freely allow this traffic
    • Restricted – we should allow some of the traffic and/or control it
    • Rejected – we should not allow this traffic

    Appropriate Communications

    • Should a particular group of users have access to a given service?
    • Are there external users involved in any grouping?

    Potential Vulnerabilities

    • Are the systems in question continually patched/updated?
    • Are the services exposed designed with the appropriate security?

    Prioritize the potential segmentation

    Use risk as a guide to prioritize segmentation.

    For most organizations, the primary reason for network segmentation is to improve security posture. It follows that the prioritization of initiatives and/or projects to implement segmentation should be based on risk.

    When examining risk, an organization needs to consider both:

    • Impact and likelihood of visibility risk in respect to any given asset, data, or user
    • The organization’s level of risk tolerance

    The assets or users that are associated with risk levels higher than the tolerance of the organization should be prioritized to be addressed.

    Service Risks

    • If this service was affected by an adverse event, what would the impact on the organization be?

    User Risks

    • Are the users in question FTEs as opposed to contractors or outsourced resources?
    • Is a particular user group more susceptible to compromise than others?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Be sure to keep this exercise relative so that a clear ranking occurs. If it turns out that everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. When ranking things relative to others in the exercise, we ensure clear “winners” and “losers.”

    Assess risk and prioritize action

    1-3 hours

    1. Define a list of users and services that define the network space to be addressed. If the lists are too long, use an exercise like affinity diagramming to appropriately group them into a smaller subset.
    2. Create a matrix from the lists (put users and services along the rows and columns). In the intersecting points, label how the traffic should be treated (e.g. Permissive, Restricted, Rejected).
    3. Examine the matrix and assess the intersections for risk using the lens of impact and likelihood of an adverse event. Label the intersections for risk level with one of green (low impact/likelihood), yellow (medium impact/likelihood), or red (high impact/likelihood).
    4. Find commonalities within the medium/high areas and list the users or services as priorities to be addressed.
    Input Output
    • Network, application, and security documentation
    • A prioritized list of areas to address with segmentation
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts

    OR

    • Excel spreadsheet
    • Network Team
    • Application Team
    • Security Team
    • Data Team

    Design segmentation

    Segmentation comes in many flavors; decide which is right for the specific circumstance.

    Methodology

    Access control

    "Learning to choose is hard. Learning to choose well is harder. And learning to choose well in a world of unlimited possibilities is harder still, perhaps too hard."

    ― Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

    What is the best method to segment the particular user group, service, or environment in question?

    How can data or user access move safely and securely between network segments?

    Decide on which methods work for your circumstances

    You always have options…

    There are multiple lenses to look through when making the decision of what the correct segmentation method might be for any given user group or service. A potential subset could include:

    • Effort to deploy
    • Cost of the solution
    • Skills required to operate
    • Granularity of the segmentation
    • Adaptability of the solution
    • Level of automation in the solution

    Info-Tech Insight

    Network segmentation within an organization is rarely a one-size-fits-all proposition. Be sure to look at each situation that has been identified to need segmentation and align it with an appropriate solution. The overall number of solutions deployed has to maintain a balance between that appropriateness and the effort to manage multiple environments.

    Framework to examine segmentation methods

    To assess we need to understand.

    To assess when technologies or methodologies are appropriate for a segmentation use case, we need to understand what those options are. We will be examining potential segmentation methods and concepts within the following framework:

    WHAT

    A description of the segmentation technology, method, or concept.

    WHY

    Why would this be used over other choices and/or in what circumstances?

    HOW

    A high-level overview of how this option could or would be deployed.

    Notional assessments will be displayed in a sidebar to give an idea of Effort, Cost, Skills, Granularity, Adaptability, and Automation.

    Implement

    Notional level of effort to implement on a standard network

    Cost

    Relative cost of implementing this segmentation strategy

    Maintain

    Notional level of time and skills needed to maintain

    Granularity

    How granular this type of segmentation is in general

    Adaptability

    The ability of the solution to be easily modified or changed

    Automation

    The level of automation inherent in the solution

    Air gap

    … And never the twain shall meet.

    – Rudyard Kipling, “The Ballad of East and West.”

    WHAT

    Air gapping is a strategy to protect portions of a network by segmenting those portions and running them on completely separate hardware from the primary network. In an air gap scenario, the segmented network cannot have connectivity to outside networks. This difference makes air gapping a very specific implementation of parallel networks (which are still segmented and run on separate hardware but can be connected through a control point).

    WHY

    Air gap is a traditional choice when environments need to be very secure. Examples where air gaps exist(ed) are:

    • Operational technology (OT) networks
    • Military networks
    • Critical infrastructure

    HOW

    Most networks are not overprovisioned to a level that physical segmentation can be done without purchasing new equipment. The major steps required for constructing an air gap include:

    • Design segmentation
    • Purchase and install new hardware
    • Cable to new hardware

    The image contains a screenshot that demonstrates pie graphs with the notional assessments: Effort, Cost, Skills, Granularity, and Automation.

    Info-Tech Insight

    An air gapped network is the ultimate in segmentation and security … as long as the network does not require connectivity. It is unfortunately rare in today’s world that a network will stand on its own without any need for external connectivity.

    VLAN

    Do what you can, with what you’ve got…

    – Theodore Roosevelt

    WHAT

    Virtual local area networks (VLANs) are a standard feature on today’s firewalls, routers, and manageable switches. This configuration option allows for network traffic to be segmented into separate virtual networks (broadcast domains) on existing hardware. This segmentation is done at layer 2 of the OSI model. All traffic will share the same hardware but be partitioned based on “tags” that the local device applies to the traffic. Because of these tags, traffic is handled separately at layer 2 of the OSI model, but traffic can pass between segments at layer 3 (e.g. IP layer).

    WHY

    VLANs are commonly used because most existing deployments already have the technology available without extra licensing. VLANs are also potentially used as foundational components in more complex segmentation strategies such as static or dynamic overlays.

    HOW

    VLANs allow for segmentation of a device at the port level. VLAN strategies are generally on a location level (e.g. most VLAN deployments are local to a site, though the same structure may be used among sites). To deploy VLANs you must:

    • Define VLAN segments
    • Assign ports appropriately

    The image contains a screenshot that demonstrates pie graphs with the notional assessments: Effort, Cost, Skills, Granularity, and Automation.

    Info-Tech Insight

    VLANs are tried and true segmentation workhorses. The fact that they are already included in modern manageable solutions means that there is very little reason to not have some level of segmentation within a network.

    Micro-segmentation

    Everyone is against micromanaging, but macro managing means you’re working on the big picture but don’t understand the details.

    – Henry Mintzberg

    WHAT

    Micro-segmentation is used to secure and control network traffic between workloads. This is a foundational technology when implementing zero trust or least-privileged access network designs. Segmentation is done at or directly adjacent to the workload (on the system or its direct network connectivity) through firewall or similar policy controls. The controls are set to only allow the network communication required to execute the workload and is limited to appropriate endpoints. This restrictive design restricts all traffic (including east-west) and reduces the attack surface.

    WHY

    Micro-segmentation is primarily used:

    • In server-to-server communication.
    • When lateral movement by bad actors is identified as a concern.

    HOW

    Micro-segmentation can be deployed at different places within the connectivity depending on the technologies used:

    • Workload/server (e.g. server firewall)
    • VM network overlay (e.g. VMware NSX)
    • Network port (e.g. ACL, firewall, ACI)
    • Cloud native (e.g. Azure Firewall)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Micro-segmentation is necessary in the data center to limit lateral movement. Just be sure to be thorough in defining required communication as this technology works on allowlists, not traditional blocklists.

    Static overlay

    Adaptability is key.

    – Marc Andreessen

    WHAT

    Static overlays are a form of virtual segmentation that allows multiple network segments to exist on the same device. Most of these solutions will also allow for these segments to expand across multiple devices or sites, creating overlay virtual networks on top of the existing physical networks. The static nature of the solution is because the ports that participate in the overlays are statically assigned and configured. Connectivity between devices and sites is done through encapsulation and may have a dynamic component of the control plane handled through routing protocols.

    WHY

    Static overlays are commonly deployed when the need is to segment different use cases or areas of the organization consistently across sites while allowing easy access within the segments between sites. This could be representative of segmenting a department like Finance or extending a layer 2 segment across data centers.

    HOW

    Static overlays are can segment and potentially extend a layer 2 or layer 3 network. These solutions could be executed with technologies such as:

    • VXLAN (Virtual eXtensible LAN)
    • MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching)
    • VRF (Virtual Routing & Forwarding)

    The image contains a screenshot that demonstrates pie graphs with the notional assessments: Effort, Cost, Skills, Granularity, and Automation.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Static overlays are commonly deployed by telecommunications providers when building out their service offerings due to the multitenancy requirements of the network.

    Dynamic overlay

    Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

    – George S. Patton

    WHAT

    A dynamic overlay segmentation solution has the ability to make security or traffic decisions based on policy. Rather than designing and hardcoding the network architecture, the policy is architected and the network makes decisions based on that policy. Differing levels of control exist in this space, but the underlying commonality is that the segmentation would be considered “software defined” (SDN).

    WHY

    Dynamic overlay solutions provide the most flexibility of the presented solutions. Some use cases such as BYOD or IoT devices may not be easily identified or controlled through static means. As a general rule of thumb, the less static the network is, the more dynamic your segmentation solution must be.

    HOW

    Policy is generally applied at the network ingress. When applying policy, which policy to be applied can be identified through different methodologies such as:

    • Authentication (e.g. 802.1x)
    • Device agents
    • Device profiling

    The image contains a screenshot that demonstrates pie graphs with the notional assessments: Effort, Cost, Skills, Granularity, and Automation.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Dynamic overlays allow for more flexibility through its policy-based configurations. These solutions can provide the highest value when positioned where we have less control of the points within a network (e.g. BYOD scenarios).

    Define how your segments will communicate

    No segment is an island…

    Network segmentation allows for protection of devices, users, or data through the act of separating the physical or virtual networks they are on. Counter to this protective stance, especially in today’s networks, these devices, users, or data tend to need to interact with each other outside of the neat lines we draw for them. Proper network segmentation has to allow for the transfer of assets between networks in a safe and secure manner.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The solutions used to facilitate the controlled communication between segments has to consider the friction to the users. If too much friction is introduced, people will try to find a way around the controls, potentially negating the security that is intended with the solution.

    Potential access methods

    A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

    – John A. Shedd

    Firewall

    Two-way controlled communication

    Firewalls are tried and true control points used to join networks. This solution will allow, at minimum, port-level control with some potential for deeper inspection and control beyond that.

    • Traditionally firewalls are sized to handle internet-bound (North-South) traffic. When being used between segments, (East-West) loads are usually much higher, necessitating a more powerful device.

    Jump Box

    A place between worlds

    Also sometimes referred to as a “Bastion Host,” a jump box is a special-purpose computer/server that has been hardened and resides on multiple segments of a network. Administrators or users can log into this box and use it to securely use the tools installed to act on other segments of the network.

    • Jump box security is of utmost importance. Special care should be taken in hardening, configuration, and application installed to ensure that users cannot use the box to tunnel or traverse between the segments outside of well-defined and controlled circumstances.

    Protocol Gateway

    Command-level control

    A protocol gateway is a specific and special subset of a firewall. Whereas a firewall is a security generalist, a protocol gateway is designed to understand and have rule-level control over the commands passing through it within defined protocols. This granularity, for example, allows for control and filtering to only allow defined OT commands to be passed to a secure SCADA network.

    • Protocol gateways are generally specific feature sets of a firewall and traditionally target OT network security as their core use case.

    Network Pump

    One-way data extraction

    A network pump is a concept designed to allow data to be transferred from a secure network to a less secure network while still protecting against covert channels such as using the ACK within a transfer to transmit data. A network pump will consist of trusted processes and schedulers that allow for data to pass but control channels to be sufficiently modified so as to not allow security concerns.

    • Network pumps would generally be deployed in the most security demanding of environments and are generally not “off the shelf” products.

    Operate and optimize

    Security is not static. Monitor and iterate on policies within the environment.

    Monitor

    Iterate

    Two in three businesses (68%) allow more employee data access than necessary.

    GetApp's 2022 Data Security Survey Report

    Are the segmentation efforts resulting in the expected traffic changes? Are there any anomalies that need investigation?

    Using the output from the monitoring stage, refine and optimize the design by iterating on the process.

    Monitor for efficacy, compliance, and the unknown

    Monitor to ensure your intended results and to identify new potential risks.

    Monitoring network segments

    A combination of passive and active monitoring is required to ensure that:

    • The rules that have been deployed are working as expected.
    • Appropriate proof of compliance is in place for auditing and insurance purposes.
    • Environments are being monitored for unexpected traffic.

    Active monitoring goes beyond the traditional gathering of information for alerts and dashboards and moves into the space of synthetic users and anomaly detection. Using these strategies helps to ensure that security is enforced appropriately and responses to issues are timely.

    "We discovered in our research that insider threats are not viewed as seriously as external threats, like a cyberattack. But when companies had an insider threat, in general, they were much more costly than external incidents. This was largely because the insider that is smart has the skills to hide the crime, for months, for years, sometimes forever."

    – Dr. Larry Ponemon, Chairman Ponemon Institute, at SecureWorld Boston

    Info-Tech Insight

    Using solutions like network detection and response (NDR) will allow for monitoring to take advantage of advanced analytical techniques like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). These technologies can help identify anomalies that a human might miss.

    Monitoring options

    It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

    – Henry David Thoreau

    Traditional

    Monitor cumulative change in a variable

    Traditional network monitoring is a minimum viable product. With this solution variables can be monitored to give some level of validation that the segmentation solution is operating as expected. Potential areas to monitor include traffic volumes, access-list (ACL) matches, and firewall packet drops.

    • This is expected baseline monitoring. Without at least this level of visibility, it is hard to validate the solutions in place

    Rules Based

    Inspect traffic to find a match against a library of signatures

    Rules-based systems will monitor traffic against a library of signatures and alert on any matches. These solutions are good at identifying the “known” issues on the network. Examples of these systems include security incident and event management (SIEM) and intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS).

    • These solutions are optimally used when there are known signatures to validate traffic against.
    • They can identify known attacks and breaches.

    Anomaly Detection

    Use computer intelligence to compare against baseline

    Anomaly detection systems are designed to baseline the network traffic then compare current traffic against that to find anomalies using technologies like Bayesian regression analysis or artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). This strategy can be useful in analyzing large volumes of traffic and identifying the “unknown unknowns.”

    • Computers can analyze large volumes of data much faster than a human. This allows these solutions to validate traffic in (near) real-time and alert on things that are out of the ordinary and would not be easily visible to a human.

    Synthetic Data

    Mimic potential traffic flows to monitor network reaction

    Rather than wait for a bad actor to find a hole in the defenses, synthetic data can be used to mimic real-world traffic to validate configuration and segmentation. This often takes the form of real user monitoring tools, penetration testing, or red teaming.

    • Active monitoring or testing allows a proactive stance as opposed to a reactive one.

    Gather feedback, assess the situation, and iterate

    Take input from operating the environment and use that to optimize the process and the outcome.

    Optimize through iteration

    Output from monitoring must be fed back into the process of maintaining and optimizing segmentation. Network segmentation should be viewed as an ongoing process as opposed to a singular structured project.

    Monitoring can and will highlight where and when the segmentation design is successful and when new traffic flows arise. If these inputs are not fed back through the process, designs will become stagnant and admins or users will attempt to find ways to circumvent solutions for ease of use.

    "I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better. I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself."

    – Elon Musk, qtd. in Mashable, 2012

    Info-Tech Insight

    The network environment will not stay static; flows will change as often as required for the business to succeed. Take insights from monitoring the environment and integrate them into an iterative process that will maintain relevance and usability in your segmentation.

    Bibliography

    Andreessen, Marc. “Adaptability is key.” BrainyQuote, n.d.
    Barry Schwartz. The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. Harper Perennial, 18 Jan. 2005.
    Capers, Zach. “GetApp’s 2022 Data Security Report—Seven Startling Statistics.” GetApp,
    19 Sept. 2022.
    Cisco Systems, Inc. “Cybersecurity resilience emerges as top priority as 62 percent of companies say security incidents impacted business operations.” PR Newswire, 6 Dec. 2022.
    “Dynamic Network Segmentation: A Must-Have for Digital Businesses in the Age of Zero Trust.” Forescout Whitepaper, 2021. Accessed Nov. 2022.
    Eaves, Johnothan. “Segmentation Strategy - An ISE Prescriptive Guide.” Cisco Community,
    26 Oct. 2020. Accessed Nov. 2022.
    Kambic, Dan, and Jason Fricke. “Network Segmentation: Concepts and Practices.” Carnegie Mellon University SEI Blog, 19 Oct. 2020. Accessed Nov. 2022.
    Kang, Myong H., et al. “A Network Pump.” IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 22 no. 5, May 1996.
    Kipling, Rudyard. “The Ballad of East and West.” Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, 1892.
    Mintzberg, Henry. “Everyone is against micro managing but macro managing means you're working at the big picture but don't know the details.” AZ Quotes, n.d.
    Murphy, Greg. “A Reimagined Purdue Model For Industrial Security Is Possible.” Forbes Magazine, 18 Jan. 2022. Accessed Oct. 2022.
    Patton, George S. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” BrainyQuote, n.d.
    Ponemon, Larry. “We discovered in our research […].” SecureWorld Boston, n.d.
    Roosevelt, Theodore. “Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are.” Theodore Roosevelt Center, n.d.
    Sahoo, Narendra. “How Does Implementing Network Segmentation Benefit Businesses?” Vista Infosec Blog. April 2021. Accessed Nov. 2022.
    “Security Outcomes Report Volume 3.” Cisco Secure, Dec 2022.
    Shedd, John A. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” Salt from My Attic, 1928, via Quote Investigator, 9 Dec. 2023.
    Singleton, Camille, et al. “X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2022” IBM, 17 Feb. 2022.
    Accessed Nov. 2022.
    Stone, Mark. “What is network segmentation? NS best practices, requirements explained.” AT&T Cyber Security, March 2021. Accessed Nov. 2022.
    “The State of Breach and Attack Simulation and the Need for Continuous Security Validation: A Study of US and UK Organizations.” Ponemon Institute, Nov. 2020. Accessed Nov. 2022.
    Thoreau, Henry David. “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” BrainyQuote, n.d.
    Ulanoff, Lance. “Elon Musk: Secrets of a Highly Effective Entrepreneur.” Mashable, 13 April 2012.
    “What Is Microsegmenation?” Palo Alto, Accessed Nov. 2022.
    “What is Network Segmentation? Introduction to Network Segmentation.” Sunny Valley Networks, n.d.

    Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}410|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.6/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $83,037 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 32 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: DR and Business Continuity
    • Parent Category Link: /business-continuity
    • 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.

    Pandemic Preparation – The People Playbook

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}513|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: Lead
    • Parent Category Link: /lead
    • Keeping employees safe – limiting exposure of employees to the virus and supporting them in the event they become ill.
    • Reducing potential disruption to business operations through employee absenteeism and travel restrictions.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Communication of facts and definitive action plans from credible leaders is the key to maintaining some stability during a time of uncertainty.
    • Remote work is no longer a remote possibility – implementing alternative temporary work arrangements that keep large groups of employees from congregating reduce risk of employee exposure and operational downtime.
    • Pandemic travel protocols are necessary to support staff and their continuation of work while traveling for business and/or if stuck in a high-risk, restricted area.

    Impact and Result

    • Assign accountability of key planning decisions to members of a pandemic response team.
    • Craft key messages in preparation for communicating to employees.
    • Cascade communications from credible sources in a way that will establish pandemic travel protocols.

    Pandemic Preparation – The People Playbook Research & Tools

    Start here. Read the Pandemic Preparation: The People Playbook

    Read our concise Playbook to find out how you can immediately prepare for the people side of pandemic planning.

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

    • Pandemic Preparation: The People Playbook
    [infographic]

    Do you believe in absolute efficiency?

    Weekend read. Hence I post this a bit later on Friday.
    Lately, I've been fascinated by infinity. And in infinity, some weird algebra pops up. Yet that weirdness is very much akin to what our business stakeholders want, driven by what our clients demand, and hence our KPIs drive us. Do more with less. And that is what absolute efficiency means.

    Register to read more …

    Agile Enterprise Architecture Operating Model

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}581|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.6/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $31,106 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 33 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Strategy & Operating Model
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-operating-model

    Establish an enterprise architecture practice that:

    • Leverages an operating model that promotes/supports agility within the organization.
    • Embraces business, data, application, and technology architectures in an optimal mix.
    • Is Agile in itself and will be sustainable and reactive to business needs, staying relevant and “profitable” – continuously delivering business value.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Use your business and EA strategy and design principles to right-size standardized operating models to fit your EA organization’s needs.
    • You need to define a sound set of design principles before commencing with the design of your EA organization.
    • The EA operating model structure should be rigid but pliable enough to fit the needs of the stakeholders it provides services to.
    • A phased approach and a good communication strategy is key to the success of the new EA organization.
    • Start with one group and work out the hurdles before rolling it out organization-wide.
    • Make sure that you communicate regularly on wins but also on hurdles and how to overcome them.

    Impact and Result

    • The organization design approach proposed will aim to provide twofold agility: the ability to stretch and shrink depending on business requirements and the promotion of agility in architecture delivery.
    • By recognizing that agility comes in different flavors, organizations using more traditional design patterns will also benefit from the approach advocated by this blueprint.

    Agile Enterprise Architecture Operating Model Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out create an Agile EA operating model to execute the EA function, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Design your EA operating model

    You need to define a sound set of design principles before commencing with the design of your EA organization.

    • Agile EA Operating Model Communication Deck
    • Agile EA Operating Model Workbook
    • Business Architect
    • Application Architect
    • Data Architect
    • Enterprise Architect

    2. Define your EA organizational structure

    The EA operating model structure should be rigid but pliable enough to fit the needs of the stakeholders it provide services to.

    • EA Views Taxonomy
    • EA Operating Model Template
    • Architecture Board Charter Template
    • EA Policy Template
    • EA Compliance Waiver Form Template

    3. Implement the EA operating model

    A phased approach and a good communications strategy are key to the success of the new EA organization.

    • EA Roadmap
    • EA Communication Plan Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Agile Enterprise Architecture Operating Model

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

    1 EA Function Design

    The Purpose

    Identify how EA looks within the organization and ensure all the necessary skills are accounted for within the function.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    EA is designed to be the most appropriately placed and structured for the organization.

    Activities

    1.1 Place the EA department.

    1.2 Define roles for each team member.

    1.3 Find internal and external talent.

    1.4 Create job descriptions with required proficiencies.

    Outputs

    EA organization design

    Role-based skills and competencies

    Talent acquisition strategy

    Job descriptions

    2 EA Engagement Model

    The Purpose

    Create a thorough engagement model to interact with stakeholders.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An understanding of each process within the engagement model.

    Create stakeholder interaction cards to plan your conversations.

    Activities

    2.1 Define each engagement process for your organization.

    2.2 Document stakeholder interactions.

    Outputs

    EA Operating Model Template

    EA Stakeholder Engagement Model Template

    3 EA Governance

    The Purpose

    Develop EA boards, alongside a charter and policies to effectively govern the function.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Governance that aids the EA function instead of being a bureaucratic obstacle.

    Adherence to governace.

    Activities

    3.1 Outline the architecture review process.

    3.2 Position the architecture review board.

    3.3 Create a committee charter.

    3.4 Make effective governance policy.

    Outputs

    Architecture Board Charter Template

    EA Policy Template

    4 Architecture Development Framework

    The Purpose

    Create an operating model that is influenced by universal standards including TOGAF, Zachmans, and DoDAF.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A thoroughly articulated development framework.

    Understanding of the views that influence each domain.

    Activities

    4.1 Tailor an architecture development framework to your organizational context.

    Outputs

    EA Operating Model Template

    Enterprise Architecture Views Taxonomy

    5 Operational Plan

    The Purpose

    Create a change management and communication plan or roadmap to execute the operating model.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Build a plan that takes change management and communication into consideration to achieve the wanted benefits of an EA program.

    Effectively execute the roadmap.

    Activities

    5.1 Create a sponsorship action plan.

    5.2 Outline a communication plan.

    5.3 Execute a communication roadmap.

    Outputs

    Sponsorship Action Plan

    EA Communication Plan Template

    EA Roadmap

    Satisfy Customer Requirements for Information Security

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}259|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $247 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 3 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Governance, Risk & Compliance
    • Parent Category Link: /governance-risk-compliance
    • Your customers and potential customers are increasingly demanding assurance that you will meet their information security requirements.
    • Responding to these assurance demands requires ever more effort from the security team, which distracts them from their primary mission of protecting the organization.
    • Every customer seems to have their own custom security questionnaire they want you to complete, increasing the effort you have to expend to respond to them.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Your security program can be a differentiator and help win and retain customers.
    • Value rank your customers to right-size the level of effort your security team dedicates to responding to questionnaires.
    • SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification can be an important part of your security marketing, but only if you make the right business case.

    Impact and Result

    • CISOs need to develop a marketing strategy for their information security program.
    • Ensure that your security team dedicates the appropriate amount of effort to sales by value ranking your potential customers and aligning efforts to value.
    • Develop a business case for SOC 2 or ISO 27001 to determine if certification makes sense for your organization, and to gain support from key stakeholders.

    Satisfy Customer Requirements for Information Security Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should proactively satisfy customer requirements for information security, 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. Manage customer expectations for information security

    Identify your customers’ expectations for security and privacy, value rank your customers to right-size your efforts, and learn how to impress them with your information security program.

    • Satisfy Customer Requirements for Information Security – Phase 1: Manage Customer Expectations for Information Security

    2. Select a certification path

    Decide whether to obtain SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification, and build a business case for certification.

    • Satisfy Customer Requirements for Information Security – Phase 2: Select a Certification Path
    • Security Certification Selection Tool
    • Security Certification Business Case Tool

    3. Obtain and maintain certification

    Develop your certification scope, prepare for the audit, and learn how to maintain your certification over time.

    • Satisfy Customer Requirements for Information Security – Phase 3: Obtain and Maintain Certification
    [infographic]

    Establish an Effective Data Protection Plan

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}504|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $6,850 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 9 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Storage & Backup Optimization
    • Parent Category Link: /storage-and-backup-optimization
    • Business requirements can be vague. Not knowing the business needs often results in overspending and overexposure to liability through data hoarding.
    • Backup options are abundant. Disk, tape, or cloud? Each has drawbacks, efficiencies, and cost factors that should be considered.
    • Backup infrastructure is never greenfield. Any organization with a history has been doing backup. Existing software was likely determined by past choices and architecture.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Don’t let failure be your metric.
      The past is not an indication of future performance! Quantify the cost of your data being unavailable to demonstrate value to the business.
    • Stop offloading backup to your most junior staff.
      Data protection should not exist in isolation. Get key leadership involved to ensure you can meet organizational requirements.
    • A lot of data is useless. Neglecting to properly tag and classify data will lead to a costly data protection solution that protects redundant, useless, or outdated data

    Impact and Result

    • Determine the current state of your data protection strategy by identifying the pains and gains of the solution and create a business-facing diagram to present to relevant stakeholders.
    • Quantify the value of data to the business to properly understand the requirements for data protection through a business impact analysis.
    • Identify the attributes and necessary requirements for your data tiers to procure a fit-for-purpose solution.

    Establish an Effective Data Protection Plan Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read this Executive Brief to understand why the business should be involved in your data protection plan, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Define the current state of your data protection plan

    Define the current state of your data protection practices by documenting the backup process and identifying problems and opportunities for the desired state.

    • Establish an Effective Data Protection Plan – Phase 1: Define the Current State of Your Data Protection Plan
    • Data Protection Value Proposition Canvas Template

    2. Conduct a business impact analysis to understand requirements for restoring data

    Understand the business priorities.

    • Establish an Effective Data Protection Plan – Phase 2: Conduct a Business Impact Analysis to Understand Requirements for Restoring Data
    • DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool
    • Legacy DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool
    • Data Protection Recovery Workflow

    3. Propose the future state of your data protection plan

    Determine the desired state.

    • Establish an Effective Data Protection Plan – Phase 3: Propose the Future State of Your Data Protection Plan

    4. Establish proper governance for your data protection plan

    Explore the component of governance required.

    • Establish an Effective Data Protection Plan – Phase 4: Establish Proper Governance for Your Data Protection Plan
    • Data Protection Proposal Template
    [infographic]

    z-Series Modernization and Migration

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}114|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: Strategy and Organizational Design
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-organizational-design

    Under the best of circumstances, mainframe systems are complex, expensive, and difficult to scale. In today’s world, applications written for mainframe legacy systems also present significant operational challenges to customers compounded by the dwindling pool of engineers who specialize in these outdated technologies. Many organizations want to migrate their legacy applications to the cloud but to do so they need to go through a lengthy migration process that is made more challenging by the complexity of mainframe applications.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    The most common tactic is for the organization to better realize their z/Series options and adopt a strategy built on complexity and workload understanding. To make the evident, obvious, the options here for the non-commodity are not as broad as with commodity server platforms and the mainframe is arguably the most widely used and complex non-commodity platform on the market.

    Impact and Result

    This research will help you:

    • Evaluate the future viability of this platform.
    • Assess the fit and purpose, and determine TCO
    • Develop strategies for overcoming potential challenges.
    • Determine the future of this platform for your organization.

    z/Series Modernization and Migration Research & Tools

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

    1. z/Series Modernization and Migration Guide – A brief deck that outlines key migration options and considerations for the z/Series platform.

    This blueprint will help you assess the fit, purpose, and price; develop strategies for overcoming potential challenges; and determine the future of z/Series for your organization.

    • z/Series Modernization and Migration Storyboard

    2. Scale Up vs. Scale Out TCO Tool – A tool that provides organizations with a framework for TCO.

    Use this tool to play with the pre-populated values or insert your own amounts to compare possible database decisions, and determine the TCO of each. Note that common assumptions can often be false; for example, open-source Cassandra running on many inexpensive commodity servers can actually have a higher TCO over six years than a Cassandra environment running on a larger single expensive piece of hardware. Therefore, calculating TCO is an essential part of the database decision process.

    • Scale Up vs. Scale Out TCO Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    z/Series Modernization and Migration

    The biggest migration is yet to come.

    Executive Summary

    Info-Tech Insight

    “A number of market conditions have coalesced in a way that is increasingly driving existing mainframe customers to consider running their application workloads on alternative platforms. In 2020, the World Economic Forum noted that 42% of core skills required to perform existing jobs are expected to change by 2022, and that more than 1 billion workers need to be reskilled by 2030.” – Dale Vecchio

    Your Challenge

    It seems like anytime there’s a new CIO who is not from the mainframe world there is immediate pressure to get off this platform. However, just as there is a high financial commitment required to stay on System Z, moving off is risky and potentially more costly. You need to truly understand the scale and complexity ahead of the organization.

    Common Obstacles

    Under the best of circumstances, mainframe systems are complex, expensive, and difficult to scale. In today’s world, applications written for mainframe legacy systems also present significant operational challenges to customers compounded by the dwindling pool of engineers who specialize in these outdated technologies. Many organizations want to migrate their legacy applications to the cloud, but to do so they need to go through a lengthy migration process that is made more challenging by the complexity of mainframe applications.

    Info-Tech Approach

    The most common tactic is for the organization to better realize its z/Series options and adopt a strategy built on complexity and workload understanding. To make the evident, obvious: the options here for the non-commodity are not as broad as with commodity server platforms and the mainframe is arguably the most widely used and complex non-commodity platform on the market.

    Review

    We help IT leaders make the most of their z/Series environment

    Problem statement:

    The z/Series remains a vital platform for many businesses and continues to deliver exceptional reliability and performance and play a key role in the enterprise. With the limited and aging resources at hand, CIOs and the like must continually review and understand their migration path with the same regard as any other distributed system roadmap.

    This research is designed for:

    IT strategic direction decision makers.

    IT managers responsible for an existing z/Series platform.

    Organizations evaluating platforms for mission critical applications.

    This research will help you:

    1. Evaluate the future viability of this platform.
    2. Assess the fit and purpose, and determine TCO.
    3. Develop strategies for overcoming potential challenges.
    4. Determine the future of this platform for your organization.

    Analyst Perspective

    Good Luck.

    Darin Stahl.

    Modernize the mainframe … here we go again.

    Prior to 2020, most organizations were muddling around in “year eleven of the four-year plan” to exit the mainframe platform where a medium-term commitment to the platform existed. Since 2020, it appears the appetite for the mainframe platform changed. Again. Discussions mostly seem to be about what the options are beyond hardware outsourcing or re-platforming to “cloud” migration of workloads – mostly planning and strategy topics. A word of caution: it would appear unwise to stand in front of the exit door for fear of being trampled.

    Hardware expirations between now and 2025 are motivating hosting deployments. Others are in migration activities, and some have already decommissioned and migrated but now are trying to rehab the operations team now lacking direction and/or structure.

    There is little doubt that modernization and “digital transformation” trends will drive more exit traffic, so IT leaders who are still under pressure to get off the platform need to assess their options and decide. Being in a state of perpetually planning to get off the mainframe handcuffs your ability to invest in the mainframe, address deficiencies, and improve cost-effectiveness.

    Darin Stahl
    Principal Research Advisor, Infrastructure & Operations Research
    Info-Tech Research Group

    The mainframe “fidget spinner”

    Thinking of modernizing your mainframe can cause you angst so grab a fidget spinner and relax because we have you covered!

    External Business Pressures:

    • Digital transformation
    • Modernization programs
    • Compliance and regulations
    • TCO

    Internal Considerations:

    • Reinvest
    • Migrate to a new platform
    • Evaluate public and vendor cloud alternatives
    • Hosting versus infrastructure outsourcing

    Info-Tech Insight

    With multiple control points to be addressed, care must be taken to simplify your options while addressing all concerns to ease operational load.

    The analyst call review

    “Who has Darin talked with?” – Troy Cheeseman

    Dating back to 2011, Darin Stahl has been the primary z/Series subject matter expert within the Infrastructure & Operations Research team. Below represents the percentage of calls, per industry, where z/Series advisory has been provided by Darin*:

    37% - State Government

    19% - Insurance

    11% - Municipality

    8% - Federal Government

    8% - Financial Services

    5% - Higher Education

    3% - Retail

    3% - Hospitality/Resort

    3% - Logistics and Transportation

    3% - Utility

    Based on the Info-Tech call history, there is a consistent cross section of industry members who not only rely upon the mainframe but are also considering migration options.

    Note:

    Of course, this only represents industries who are Info-Tech members and who called for advisory services about the mainframe.

    There may well be more Info-Tech members with mainframes who have no topic to discuss with us about the mainframe specifically. Why do we mention this?

    We caution against suggesting things like, ”somewhat less than 50% of mainframes live in state data centers” or any other extrapolated inference from this data.

    Our viewpoint and discussion is based on the cases and the calls that we have taken over the years.

    *37+ enterprise calls were reviewed and sampled.

    Scale out versus scale up

    For most workloads “scale out" (e.g. virtualized cloud or IaaS ) is going to provide obvious and quantifiable benefits.

    However, with some workloads (extremely large analytics or batch processing ) a "scale up" approach is more optimal. But the scale up is really limited to very specific workloads. Despite some assumptions, the gains made when moving from scale up to scale out are not linear.

    Obviously, when you scale out from a performance perspective you experience a drop in what a single unit of compute can do. Additionally, there will be latency introduced in the form of network overhead, transactions, and replication into operations that were previously done just bypassing object references within a single frame.

    Some applications or use cases will have to be architected or written differently (thinking about the high-demand analytic workloads at large scale). Remember the “grid computing” craze that hit us during the early part of this century? It was advantageous for many to distribute work across a grid of computing devices for applications but the advantage gained was contingent on the workload able to be parsed out as work units and then pulled back together through the application.

    There can be some interesting and negative consequences for analytics or batch operations in a large scale as mentioned above. Bottom line, as experienced previously with Microfocus mainframe ports to x86, the batch operations simply take much longer to complete.

    Big Data Considerations*:

    • Value: Data has no inherent value until it’s used to solve a business problem.
    • Variety: The type of data being produced is increasingly diverse and ranges from email and social media to geo-spatial and photographic data. This data may be difficult to process using a structured data model.
    • Volume: The sheer size of the datasets is growing exponentially, often ranging from terabytes to petabytes. This is complicating traditional data management strategies.
    • Velocity: The increasing speed at which data is being collected and processed is also causing complications. Big data is often time sensitive and needs to be captured in real time as it is streaming into the enterprise.

    *Build a Strategy for Big Data Platforms

    Consider your resourcing

    Below is a summary of concerns regarding core mainframe skills:

    1. System Management (System Programmers): This is the most critical and hard-to-replace skill since it requires in-depth low-level knowledge of the mainframe (e.g. at the MVS level). These are skills that are generally not taught anymore, so there is a limited pool of experienced system programmers.
    2. Information Management System (IMS) Specialists: Requires a combination of mainframe knowledge and data analysis skills, which makes this a rare skill set. This is becoming more critical as business intelligence takes on an ever-increasing focus in most organizations.
    3. Application Development: The primary concern here is a shortage of developers skilled in older languages such as COBOL. It should be noted that this is an application issue; for example, this is not solved by migrating off mainframes.
    4. Mainframe Operators: This is an easier skill set to learn, and there are several courses and training programs available. An IT person new to mainframes could learn this position in about six weeks of on-the-job training.
    5. DB2 Administration: Advances in database technology have simplified administration (not just for DB2 but also other database products). As a result, as with mainframe operators, this is a skill set that can be learned in a short period of time on the job.

    The Challenge

    An aging workforce, specialized skills, and high salary expectations

    • Mainframe specialists, such as system programmers and IMS specialists, are typically over 50, have a unique skill set, and are tasked with running mission-critical systems.

    The In-House Solution:

    Build your mentorship program to create a viable succession plan

    • Get your money’s worth out of your experienced staff by having them train others.
    • Operator skills take about six weeks to learn. However, it takes about two years before a system programmer trainee can become fully independent. This is similar to the learning curve for other platforms; however, this is a more critical issue for mainframes since organizations have far fewer mainframe specialists to fall back on when senior staff retire or move on.

    Understand your options

    Migrate to another platform

    Use a hosting provider

    Outsource

    Re-platform (cloud/vendors)

    Reinvest

    There are several challenges to overcome in a migration project, from finding an appropriate alternative platform to rewriting legacy code. Many organizations have incurred huge costs in the attempt, only to be unsuccessful in the end, so make this decision carefully.

    Organizations often have highly sensitive data on their mainframes (e.g. financial data), so many of these organizations are reluctant to have this data live outside of their four walls. However, the convenience of using a hosting provider makes this an attractive option to consider.

    The most common tactic is for the organization to adopt some level of outsourcing for the non-commodity platform, retaining the application support/development in-house.

    A customer can “re-platform” the non-commodity workload into public cloud offerings or in a few offerings
    “re-host.”

    If you’re staying with the mainframe and keeping it in-house, it’s important to continue to invest in this platform, keep it current, and look for opportunities to optimize its value.

    Migrate

    Having perpetual plans to migrate handcuffs your ability to invest in your mainframe, extend its value, and improve cost effectiveness.

    If this sounds like your organization, it’s time to do the analysis so you can decide and get clarity on the future of the mainframe in your organization.

    1. Identify current performance, availability, and security requirements. Assess alternatives based on this criteria.
    2. Review and use Info-Tech’s Mainframe TCO Comparison Tool to compare mainframe costs to the potential alternative platform.
    3. Assess the business risks and benefits. Can the alternative deliver the same performance, reliability, and security? If not, what are the risks? What do you gain by migrating?
    4. If migration is still a go, evaluate the following:
    • Do you have the expertise or a reliable third party to perform the migration, including code rewrites?
    • How long will the migration take? Can the business function effectively during this transition period?
    • How much will the migration cost? Is the value you expect to gain worth the expense?

    *3 of the top 4 challenges related to shortfalls of alternative platforms

    The image contains a bar graph that demonstrates challenges related to shortfalls of alternative platforms.

    *Source: Maximize the Value of IBM Mainframes in My Business

    Hosting

    Using a hosting provider is typically more cost-effective than running your mainframe in-house.

    Potential for reduced costs

    • Hosting enables you to reduce or eliminate your mainframe staff.
    • Economies of scale enable hosting providers to reduce software licensing costs. They also have more buying power to negotiate better terms.
    • Power and cooling costs are also transferred to the hosting provider.

    Reliable infrastructure and experienced staff

    • A quality hosting provider will have 24/7 monitoring, full redundancy, and proven disaster recovery capabilities.
    • The hosting provider will also have a larger mainframe staff, so they don’t have the same risk of suddenly being without those advanced critical skills.

    So, what are the risks?

    • A transition to a hosting provider usually means eliminating or significantly reducing your in-house mainframe staff. With that loss of in-house expertise, it will be next to impossible to bring the mainframe back in-house, and you become highly dependent on your hosting provider.

    Outsourcing

    The most common tactic is for the organization to adopt some level of outsourcing for the non-commodity platform, retaining the application support/development in-house.

    The options here for the non-commodity (z/Series, IBM Power platforms, for example) are not as broad as with commodity server platforms. More confusingly, the term “outsourcing” for these can include:

    Traditional/Colocation – A customer transitions their hardware environment to a provider’s data center. The provider can then manage the hardware and “system.”

    Onsite Outsourcing – Here a provider will support the hardware/system environment at the client’s site. The provider may acquire the customer’s hardware and provide software licenses. This could also include hiring or “rebadging” staff supporting the platform. This type of arrangement is typically part of a larger services or application transformation. While low risk, it is not as cost-effective as other deployment models.

    Managed Hosting – A customer transitions their legacy application environment to an off-prem hosted multi-tenanted environment. It will provide the most cost savings following the transition, stabilization, and disposal of existing environment. Some providers will provide software licensing, and some will also support “Bring Your Own,” as permitted by IBM terms for example.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Technical debt for non-commodity platforms isn’t only hardware based. Moving an application written for the mainframe onto a “cheaper” hardware platform (or outsourced deployment) leaves the more critical problems and frequently introduces a raft of new ones.

    Re-platform – z/Series COBOL Cloud

    Re-platforming is not trivial.

    While the majority of the coded functionality (JCLs, programs, etc.) migrate easily, there will be a need to re-code or re-write objects – especially if any object, code, or location references are not exactly the same in the new environment.

    Micro Focus has solid experience in this but if consider it within the context of an 80/20 rule (the actual metrics might be much better than that), meaning that some level of rework would have to be accomplished as an overhead to the exercise.

    Build that thought into your thinking and business case.

    AWS Cloud

    • Astadia (an AWS Partner) is re-platforming mainframe workloads to AWS. With its approach you reuse the original application source code and data to AWS services. Consider reviewing Amazon’s “Migrating a Mainframe to AWS in 5 Steps.”

    Azure Cloud

    Micro Focus COBOL (Visual COBOL)

    • Micro Focus' Visual COBOL also supports running COBOL in Docker containers and managing and orchestrating the containers with Kubernetes. I personally cannot imagine what sort of drunken bender decision would lead me to move COBOL into Docker and then use Kubernetes to run in GCP but there you are...if that's your Jam you can do it.

    Re-platform – z/Series (Non-COBOL)

    But what if it's not COBOL?

    Yeah, a complication for this situation is the legacy code.

    While re-platforming/re-hosting non-COBOL code is not new, we have not had many member observations compared to the re-platforming/re-hosting of COBOL functionality initiatives.

    That being said, there are a couple of interesting opportunities to explore.

    NTT Data Services (GLOBAL)

    • Most intriguing is the re-hosting of a mainframe environment into AWS. Not sure if the AWS target supports NATURAL codebase; it does reference Adabas however (Re-Hosting Mainframe Applications to AWS with NTT DATA Services). Nevertheless, NTT has supported re-platforming and NATURAL codebase environments previously.

    ModernSystems (or ModSys) has relevant experience.

    • ModSys is the resulting entity following a merger between BluePhoenix and ATERAS a number of years ago. ATERAS is the entity I find references to within my “wayback machine” for member discussions. There are also a number of published case studies still searchable about ATERAS’ successful re-platforming engagements, including the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) most famously after the Accenture project to rewrite it failed.

    ATOS, as a hosting vendor mostly referenced by customers with global locations in a short-term transition posture, could be an option.

    Lastly, the other Managed Services vendors with NATURAL and Adabas capabilities:

    Reinvest

    By contrast, reducing the use of your mainframe makes it less cost-effective and more challenging to retain in-house expertise.

    • For organizations that have migrated applications off the mainframe (at least partly to reduce dependency on the platform), inevitably there remains a core set of mission critical applications that cannot be moved off for reasons described on the “Migrate” slide. This is when the mainframe becomes a costly burden:
      • TCO is relatively high due to low utilization.
      • In-house expertise declines as workload declines and current staffing allocations become harder to justify.
    • Organizations that are instead adding capacity and finding new ways to use this platform have lower cost concerns and resourcing challenges. The charts below illustrate this correlation. While some capacity growth is due to normal business growth, some is also due to new workloads, and it reflects an ongoing commitment to the platform.

    *92% of organizations that added capacity said TCO is lower than for commodity servers (compared to 50% of those who did not add capacity)

    *63% of organizations that added capacity said finding resources is not very difficult (compared to 42% of those who did not add capacity)

    The image contains a bar graph as described in the above text. The image contains a bar graph as described in the above text.

    *Maximize the Value of IBM Mainframes in My Business

    An important thought about data migration

    Mainframe data migrations – “VSAM, IMS, etc.”

    • While the application will be replaced and re-platformed, there is the historical VIN data remaining in the VSAM files and access via the application. The challenge is that a bulk conversion can add upfront costs and delay the re-platforming of the application functionality. Some shops will break the historical data migration into a couple of phases.
    • While there are technical solutions to accessing VSAM data stores, what I have observed with other members facing a similar scenario is a need to “shrink” the data store over time. The technical accesses to historical VSAM records would also have a lifespan, and rather than kicking the can down the road indefinitely, many have turned to a process-based solution allowing them to shrink the historical data store over time. I have observed three approaches to the handling or digitization of historical records like this:

    Temporary workaround. This would align with a technical solution allowing the VASM files to be accessed using platforms other than on mainframe hardware (Micro Focus or other file store trickery). This can be accomplished relatively quickly but does run the risk of technology obsolesce for the workaround at some point in the future.

    Bulk conversion. This method would involve the extract/transform/load of the historical records into the new application platform. Often the order of the conversion is completed on work newest to oldest (the idea is that the newest historical records would have the highest likelihood of an access need), but all files would be converted to the new application and the old data store destroyed.

    Forward convert, which would have files undergo the extract/transform/load conversion into the new application as they are accessed or reopened. This method would keep historical records indefinitely or until they are converted – or the legal retention schedule allows for their destruction (hopefully no file must be kept forever). This could be a cost-efficient approach since the historical files remaining on the VSAM platform would be shrunk over time based on demand from the district attorney process. The conversion process could be automated and scripted, with a QR step allowing for the records to be deleted from the old platform.

    Info-Tech Insight

    It is not usual for organizations to leverage options #2 and #3 above to move the functionality forward while containing the scope creep and costs for the data conversions.

    Enterprise class job scheduling

    Job scheduling or data center automation?

    • Enterprise class job scheduling solutions enable complex unattended batched programmatically conditioned task/job scheduling.
    • Data center automation (DCIM) software automates and orchestrates the processes and workflow for infrastructure operations including provisioning, configuring, patching of physical, virtual, and cloud servers, and monitoring of tasks involved in maintaining the operations of a data center or Infrastructure environment.
    • While there maybe some overlap and or confusion between data center automation and enterprise class job scheduling solutions, data center automation (DCIM) software solutions are least likely to have support for non-commodity server platforms and lack robust scheduling functionality.

    Note: Enterprise job scheduling is a topic with low member interest or demand. Since our published research is driven by members’ interest and needs, the lack of activity or member demand would obviously be a significant influence into our ability to aggregate shared member insight, trends, or best practices in our published agenda.

    Data Center Automation (DCIM) Software

    Orchestration/Provisioning Software

    Enterprise class job scheduling features

    The feature set for these tools is long and comprehensive. The feature list below is not exhaustive as specific tools may have additional product capabilities. At a minimum, the solutions offered by the vendors in the list below will have the following capabilities:

    • Automatic restart and recovery
    • File management
    • Integration with security systems such as AD
    • Operator alerts
    • Ability to control spooling devices
    • Cross-platform support
    • Cyclical scheduling
    • Deadline scheduling
    • Event-based scheduling / triggers
    • Inter-dependent jobs
    • External task monitoring (e.g. under other sub-systems)
    • Multiple calendars and time-zones
    • Scheduling of packaged applications (such as SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards)
    • The ability to schedule web applications (e.g. .net, java-based)
    • Workload analysis
    • Conditional dependencies
    • Critical process monitoring
    • Event-based automation (“self-healing” processes in response to common defined error conditions)
    • Graphical job stream/workflow visualization
    • Alerts (job failure notifications, task thresholds (too long, too quickly, missed windows, too short, etc.) via multiple channels
    • API’s supporting programmable scheduler needs
    • Virtualization support
    • Workload forecasting and workload planning
    • Logging and message data supporting auditing capabilities likely to be informed by or compliant with regulatory needs such as Sarbanes, Gramme-Leach
    • Historical reporting
    • Auditing reports and summaries

    Understand your vendors and tools

    List and compare the job scheduling features of each vendor.

    • This is not presented as an exhaustive list.
    • The list relies on observations aggregated from analyst engagements with Info-Tech Research Group members. Those member discussions tend to be heavily tilted toward solutions supporting non-commodity platforms.
    • Nothing is implied about a solution suitability or capability by the order of presentation or inclusion or absence in this list.

    ✓ Advanced Systems Concepts

    ✓ BMC

    ✓ Broadcom

    ✓ HCL

    ✓ Fortra

    ✓ Redwood

    ✓ SMA Technologies

    ✓ StoneBranch

    ✓ Tidal Software

    ✓ Vinzant Software

    Info-Tech Insight

    Creating vendor profiles will help quickly filter the solution providers that directly meet your z/Series needs.

    Advanced Systems Concepts

    ActiveBatch

    Workload Management:

    Summary

    Founded in 1981, ASCs ActiveBatch “provides a central automation hub for scheduling and monitoring so that business-critical systems, like CRM, ERP, Big Data, BI, ETL tools, work order management, project management, and consulting systems, work together seamlessly with minimal human intervention.”*

    URL

    advsyscon.com

    Coverage:

    Global

    Amazon EC2

    Hadoop Ecosystem

    IBM Cognos

    DataStage

    IBM PureData (Netezza)

    Informatica Cloud

    Microsoft Azure

    Microsoft Dynamics AX

    Microsoft SharePoint

    Microsoft Team Foundation Server

    Oracle EBS

    Oracle PeopleSoft

    SAP

    BusinessObjects

    ServiceNow

    Teradata

    VMware

    Windows

    Linux

    Unix

    IBM i

    *Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.


    BMC

    Control-M

    Workload Management:

    Summary

    Founded in 1980, BMCs Control-M product “simplifies application and data workflow orchestration on premises or as a service. It makes it easy to build, define, schedule, manage, and monitor production workflows, ensuring visibility, reliability, and improving SLAs.”*

    URL

    bmc.com/it-solutions/control-m.html

    Coverage:

    Global

    AWS

    Azure

    Google Cloud Platform

    Cognos

    IBM InfoSphere

    DataStage

    SAP HANA

    Oracle EBS

    Oracle PeopleSoft

    BusinessObjects

    ServiceNow

    Teradata

    VMware

    Windows

    Linux

    Unix

    IBM i

    IBM z/OS

    zLinux

    *BMC

    Broadcom

    Atomic Automation

    Autosys Workload Automation

    Workload Management:

    Summary

    Broadcom offers Atomic Automation and Autosys Workload Automation which ”gives you the agility, speed and reliability required for effective digital business automation. From a single unified platform, Atomic centrally provides the orchestration and automation capabilities needed accelerate your digital transformation and support the growth of your company.”*

    URL

    broadcom.com/products/software/automation/automic-automation

    broadcom.com/products/software/automation/autosys

    Coverage:

    Global


    Windows

    MacOS

    Linux

    UNIX

    AWS

    Azure

    Google Cloud Platform

    VMware

    z/OS

    zLinux

    System i

    OpenVMS

    Banner

    Ecometry

    Hadoop

    Oracle EBS

    Oracle PeopleSoft

    SAP

    BusinessObjects

    ServiceNow

    Teradata

    VMware

    Windows

    Linux

    Unix

    IBM i

    *Broadcom

    HCL

    Workload Automation

    Workload Management:

    Summary

    “HCL Workload Automation streamlined modelling, advanced AI and open integration for observability. Accelerate the digital transformation of modern enterprises, ensuring business agility and resilience with our latest version of one stop automation platform. Orchestrate unattended and event-driven tasks for IT and business processes from legacy to cloud and kubernetes systems.”*

    URL

    hcltechsw.com/workload-automation

    Coverage:

    Global


    Windows

    MacOS

    Linux

    UNIX

    AWS

    Azure

    Google Cloud Platform

    VMware

    z/OS

    zLinux

    System i

    OpenVMS

    IBM SoftLayer

    IBM BigInsights

    IBM Cognos

    Hadoop

    Microsoft Dynamics 365

    Microsoft Dynamics AX

    Microsoft SQL Server

    Oracle E-Business Suite

    PeopleSoft

    SAP

    ServiceNow

    Apache Oozie

    Informatica PowerCenter

    IBM InfoSphere DataStage

    Salesforce

    BusinessObjects BI

    IBM Sterling Connect:Direct

    IBM WebSphere MQ

    IBM Cloudant

    Apache Spark

    *HCL Software

    Fortra

    JAMS Scheduler

    Workload Management:

    Summary

    Fortra’s “JAMS is a centralized workload automation and job scheduling solution that runs, monitors, and manages jobs and workflows that support critical business processes.

    JAMS reliably orchestrates the critical IT processes that run your business. Our comprehensive workload automation and job scheduling solution provides a single pane of glass to manage, execute, and monitor jobs—regardless of platforms or applications.”*

    URL

    jamsscheduler.com

    Coverage:

    Global


    OpenVMS

    OS/400

    Unix

    Windows

    z/OS

    SAP

    Oracle

    Microsoft

    Infor

    Workday

    AWS

    Azure

    Google Cloud Compute

    ServiceNow

    Salesforce

    Micro Focus

    Microsoft Dynamics 365

    Microsoft Dynamics AX

    Microsoft SQL Server

    MySQL

    NeoBatch

    Netezza

    Oracle PL/SQL

    Oracle E-Business Suite

    PeopleSoft

    SAP

    SAS

    Symitar

    *JAMS

    Redwood

    Redwood SaaS

    Workload Management:

    Summary

    Founded in 1993 and delivered as a SaaS solution, ”Redwood lets you orchestrate securely and reliably across any application, service or server, in the cloud or on-premises, all inside a single platform. Automation solutions are at the core of critical business operations such as forecasting, replenishment, reconciliation, financial close, order to cash, billing, reporting, and more. Enterprises in every industry — from manufacturing, utility, retail, and biotech to healthcare, banking, and aerospace.”*

    URL

    redwood.com

    Coverage:

    Global


    OpenVMS

    OS/400

    Unix

    Windows

    z/OS

    SAP

    Oracle

    Microsoft

    Infor

    Workday

    AWS

    Azure

    Google Cloud Compute

    ServiceNow

    Salesforce

    Github

    Office 365

    Slack

    Dropbox

    Tableau

    Informatica

    SAP BusinessObjects

    Cognos

    Microsoft Power BI

    Amazon QuickSight

    VMware

    Xen

    Kubernetes

    *Redwood

    Fortra

    Robot Scheduler

    Workload Management:

    Summary

    “Robot Schedule’s workload automation capabilities allow users to automate everything from simple jobs to complex, event-driven processes on multiple platforms and centralize management from your most reliable system: IBM i. Just create a calendar of when and how jobs should run, and the software will do the rest.”*

    URL

    fortra.com/products/job-scheduling-software-ibm-i

    Coverage:

    Global


    IBM i (System i, iSeries, AS/400)

    AIX/UNIX

    Linux

    Windows

    SQL/Server

    Domino

    JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

    SAP

    Automate Schedule (formerly Skybot Scheduler)

    *Fortra

    SMA Technologies

    OpCon

    Workload Management:

    Summary

    Founded in1980, SMA offers to “save time, reduce error, and free your IT staff to work on more strategic contributions with OpCon from SMA Technologies. OpCon offers powerful, easy-to-use workload automation and orchestration to eliminate manual tasks and manage workloads across business-critical operations. It's the perfect fit for financial institutions, insurance companies, and other transactional businesses.”*

    URL

    smatechnologies.com

    Coverage:

    Global

    Windows

    Linux

    Unix

    z/Series

    IBM i

    Unisys

    Oracle

    SAP

    Microsoft Dynamics AX

    Infor M3

    Sage

    Cegid

    Temenos

    FICS

    Microsoft Azure Data Management

    Microsoft Azure VM

    Amazon EC2/AWS

    Web Services RESTful

    Docker

    Google Cloud

    VMware

    ServiceNow

    Commvault

    Microsoft WSUS

    Microsoft Orchestrator

    Java

    JBoss

    Asysco AMT

    Tuxedo ART

    Nutanix

    Corelation

    Symitar

    Fiserv DNA

    Fiserv XP2

    *SMA Technologies

    StoneBranch

    Universal Automation Center (UAC)

    Workload Management:

    Summary

    Founded in 1999, ”the Stonebranch Universal Automation Center (UAC) is an enterprise-grade business automation solution that goes beyond traditional job scheduling. UAC's event-based workload automation solution is designed to automate and orchestrate system jobs and tasks across all mainframe, on-prem, and hybrid IT environments. IT operations teams gain complete visibility and advanced control with a single web-based controller, while removing the need to run individual job schedulers across platforms.”*

    URL

    stonebranch.com/it-automation-solutions/enterprise-job-scheduling

    Coverage:

    Global

    Windows

    Linux

    Unix

    z/Series

    Apache Kafka

    AWS

    Databricks

    Docker

    GitHub

    Google Cloud

    Informatica

    Jenkins

    Jscape

    Kubernetes

    Microsoft Azure

    Microsoft SQL

    Microsoft Teams

    PagerDuty

    PeopleSoft

    Petnaho

    RedHat Ansible

    Salesforce

    SAP

    ServiceNow

    Slack

    SMTP and IMAP

    Snowflake

    Tableau

    VMware

    *Stonebranch

    Tidal Software

    Workload Automation

    Workload Management:

    Summary

    Founded in 1979, Tidal’s Workload Automation will “simplify management and execution of end-to-end business processes with our unified automation platform. Orchestrate workflows whether they're running on-prem, in the cloud or hybrid environments.”*

    URL

    tidalsoftware.com

    Coverage:

    Global

    CentOS

    Linux

    Microsoft Windows Server

    Open VMS

    Oracle Cloud

    Oracle Enterprise Linux

    Red Hat Enterprise Server

    Suse Enterprise

    Tandem NSK

    Ubuntu

    UNIX

    HPUX (PA-RISC, Itanium)

    Solaris (Sparc, X86)

    AIX, iSeries

    z/Linux

    z/OS

    Amazon AWS

    Microsoft Azure

    Oracle OCI

    Google Cloud

    ServiceNow

    Kubernetes

    VMware

    Cisco UCS

    SAP R/3 & SAP S/4HANA

    Oracle E-Business

    Oracle ERP Cloud

    PeopleSoft

    JD Edwards

    Hadoop

    Oracle DB

    Microsoft SQL

    SAP BusinessObjects

    IBM Cognos

    FTP/FTPS/SFTP

    Informatica

    *Tidal

    Vinzant Software

    Global ECS

    Workload Management:

    Summary

    Founded in 1987, Global ECS can “simplify operations in all areas of production with the GECS automation framework. Use a single solution to schedule, coordinate and monitor file transfers, database operations, scripts, web services, executables and SAP jobs. Maximize efficiency for all operations across multiple business units intelligently and automatically.”*

    URL

    vinzantsoftware.com

    Coverage:

    Global

    Windows

    Linux

    Unix

    iSeries

    SAP R/3 & SAP S/4HANA

    Oracle, SQL/Server

    *Vizant Software

    Activity

    Scale Out or Scale Up

    Activities:

    1. Complete the Scale Up vs. Scale Out TCO Tool.
    2. Compare total lifecycle costs to determine TCO.

    This activity involves the following participants:

    IT strategic direction decision makers

    IT managers responsible for an existing z/Series platform

    Organizations evaluating platforms for mission critical applications

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Completed Scale Up vs. Scale Out TCO Tool

    Info-Tech Insight

    This checkpoint process creates transparency around agreement costs with the business and gives the business an opportunity to re-evaluate its requirements for a potentially leaner agreement.

    Scale out versus scale up activity

    The Scale Up vs. Scale Out TCO Tool provides organizations with a framework for estimating the costs associated with purchasing and licensing for a scale-up and scale-out environment over a multi-year period.

    Use this tool to:

    • Compare the pre-populated values.
    • Insert your own amounts to contrast possible database decisions and determine the TCO of each.
    The image contains screenshots of the Scale Up vs. Scale Out TCO Tool.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Watch out for inaccurate financial information. Ensure that the financials for cost match your maintenance and contract terms.

    Use the Scale Up vs. Scale Out TCO Tool to determine your TCO options.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Effectively Acquire Infrastructure Services

    Acquiring a service is like buying an experience. Don’t confuse the simplicity of buying hardware with buying an experience.

    Outsource IT Infrastructure to Improve System Availability, Reliability, and Recovery

    There are very few IT infrastructure components you should be housing internally – outsource everything else.

    Build Your Infrastructure Roadmap

    Move beyond alignment: Put yourself in the driver’s seat for true business value.

    Define Your Cloud Vision

    Make the most of cloud for your organization.

    Document Your Cloud Strategy

    Drive consensus by outlining how your organization will use the cloud.

    Build a Strategy for Big Data Platforms

    Know where to start and where to focus attention in the implementation of a big data strategy.

    Create a Better RFP Process

    Improve your RFPs to gain leverage and get better results.

    Research Authors

    Darin Stahl.

    Darin Stahl, Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    Darin is a Principal Research Advisor within the Infrastructure Practice, and leveraging 38+ years of experience, his areas of focus include: IT Operations Management, Service Desk, Infrastructure Outsourcing, Managed Services, Cloud Infrastructure, DRP/BCP, Printer Management, Managed Print Services, Application Performance Monitoring/ APM, Managed FTP, non-commodity servers (z/Series, mainframe, IBM i, AIX, Power PC).

    Troy Cheeseman.

    Troy Cheeseman, Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group

    Troy has over 25 years of IT management experience and has championed large enterprise-wide technology transformation programs, remote/home office collaboration and remote work strategies, BCP, IT DRP, IT Operations and expense management programs, international right placement initiatives, and large technology transformation initiatives (M&A). Additionally, he has deep experience working with IT solution providers and technology (cloud) start-ups.

    Bibliography

    “AWS Announces AWS Mainframe Modernization.” Business Wire, 30 Nov. 2021.
    de Valence, Phil. “Migrating a Mainframe to AWS in 5 Steps with Astadia?” AWS, 23 Mar. 2018.
    Graham, Nyela. “New study shows mainframes still popular despite the rise of cloud—though times are changing…fast?” WatersTechnology, 12 Sept. 2022.
    “Legacy applications can be revitalized with API.” MuleSoft, 2022.
    Vecchio, Dale. “The Benefits of Running Mainframe Applications on LzLabs Software Defined Mainframe® & Microsoft Azure.” LzLabs Sites, Mar. 2021.

    Create a Customized Big Data Architecture and Implementation Plan

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}388|cart{/j2store}
    • 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: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management
    • Big data architecture is different from traditional data for several key reasons, including:
      • Big data architecture starts with the data itself, taking a bottom-up approach. Decisions about data influence decisions about components that use data.
      • Big data introduces new data sources such as social media content and streaming data.
      • The enterprise data warehouse (EDW) becomes a source for big data.
      • Master data management (MDM) is used as an index to content in big data about the people, places, and things the organization cares about.
      • The variety of big data and unstructured data requires a new type of persistence.
    • Many data architects have no experience with big data and feel overwhelmed by the number of options available to them (including vendor options, storage options, etc.). They often have little to no comfort with new big data management technologies.
    • If organizations do not architect for big data, there are a couple of main risks:
      • The existing data architecture is unable to handle big data, which will eventually result in a failure that could compromise the entire data environment.
      • Solutions will be selected in an ad hoc manner, which can cause incompatibility issues down the road.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Before beginning to make technology decisions regarding the big data architecture, make sure a strategy is in place to document architecture principles and guidelines, the organization’s big data business pattern, and high-level functional and quality of service requirements.
    • The big data business pattern can be used to determine what data sources should be used in your architecture, which will then dictate the data integration capabilities required. By documenting current technologies, and determining what technologies are required, you can uncover gaps to be addressed in an implementation plan.
    • Once you have identified and filled technology gaps, perform an architectural walkthrough to pull decisions and gaps together and provide a fuller picture. After the architectural walkthrough, fill in any uncovered gaps. A proof-of-technology project can be started as soon as you have evaluation copies (or OSS) products and at least one person who understands the technology.

    Impact and Result

    • Save time and energy trying to fix incompatibilities between technology and data.
    • Allow the Data Architect to respond to big data requests from the business more quickly.
    • Provide the organization with valuable insights through the analytics and visualization technologies that are integrated with the other building blocks.

    Create a Customized Big Data Architecture and Implementation Plan Research & Tools

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

    1. Recognize the importance of big data architecture

    Big data is centered on the volume, variety, velocity, veracity, and value of data. Achieve a data architecture that can support big data.

    • Storyboard: Create a Customized Big Data Architecture and Implementation Plan

    2. Define architectural principles and guidelines while taking into consideration maturity

    Understand the importance of a big data architecture strategy. Assess big data maturity to assist with creation of your architectural principles.

    • Big Data Maturity Assessment Tool
    • Big Data Architecture Principles & Guidelines Template

    3. Build the big data architecture

    Come to accurate big data architecture decisions.

    • Big Data Architecture Decision Making Tool

    4. Determine common services needs

    What are common services?

    5. Plan a big data architecture implementation

    Gain business satisfaction with big data requests. Determine what steps need to be taken to achieve your big data architecture.

    • Big Data Architecture Initiative Definition Tool
    • Big Data Architecture Initiative Planning Tool

    Infographic

    Workshop: Create a Customized Big Data Architecture and Implementation 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 Recognize the Importance of Big Data Architecture

    The Purpose

    Set expectations for the workshop.

    Recognize the importance of doing big data architecture when dealing with big data.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Big data defined.

    Understanding of why big data architecture is necessary.

    Activities

    1.1 Define the corporate strategy.

    1.2 Define big data and what it means to the organization.

    1.3 Understand why doing big data architecture is necessary.

    1.4 Examine Info-Tech’s Big Data Reference Architecture.

    Outputs

    Defined Corporate Strategy

    Defined Big Data

    Reference Architecture

    2 Design a Big Data Architecture Strategy

    The Purpose

    Identification of architectural principles and guidelines to assist with decisions.

    Identification of big data business pattern to choose required data sources.

    Definition of high-level functional and quality of service requirements to adhere architecture to.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Key Architectural Principles and Guidelines defined.

    Big data business pattern determined.

    High-level requirements documented.

    Activities

    2.1 Discuss how maturity will influence architectural principles.

    2.2 Determine which solution type is best suited to the organization.

    2.3 Define the business pattern driving big data.

    2.4 Define high-level requirements.

    Outputs

    Architectural Principles & Guidelines

    Big Data Business Pattern

    High-Level Functional and Quality of Service Requirements Exercise

    3 Build a Big Data Architecture

    The Purpose

    Establishment of existing and required data sources to uncover any gaps.

    Identification of necessary data integration requirements to uncover gaps.

    Determination of the best suited data persistence model to the organization’s needs.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined gaps for Data Sources

    Defined gaps for Data Integration capabilities

    Optimal Data Persistence technology determined

    Activities

    3.1 Establish required data sources.

    3.2 Determine data integration requirements.

    3.3 Learn which data persistence model is best suited.

    3.4 Discuss analytics requirements.

    Outputs

    Data Sources Exercise

    Data Integration Exercise

    Data Persistence Decision Making Tool

    4 Plan a Big Data Architecture Implementation

    The Purpose

    Identification of common service needs and how they differ for big data.

    Performance of an architectural walkthrough to test decisions made.

    Group gaps to form initiatives to develop an Initiative Roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Common service needs identified.

    Architectural walkthrough completed.

    Initiative Roadmap completed.

    Activities

    4.1 Identify common service needs.

    4.2 Conduct an architectural walkthrough.

    4.3 Group gaps together into initiatives.

    4.4 Document initiatives on an initiative roadmap.

    Outputs

    Architectural Walkthrough

    Initiative Roadmap

    Audit the Project Portfolio

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}442|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: Portfolio Management
    • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
    • As a CIO you know you should audit your portfolio, but you don’t know where to start.
    • There is a lack of portfolio and project visibility.
    • Projects are out of scope, over budget, and over schedule.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Organizations establish processes and assume people are following them.
    • There is a dilution of practices from external influences and rapid turnover rates.
    • Many organizations build their processes around existing frameworks. These frameworks are great resources but they’re often missing context and clear links to tools, templates, and fiduciary duty.

    Impact and Result

    • The best way to get insight into your current state is to get an objective set of observations of your processes.
    • Use Info-Tech’s framework to audit your portfolios and projects:
      • Triage at a high level to assess the need for an audit by using the Audit Standard Triage Tool to assess your current state and the importance of conducting a deeper audit.
      • Complete Info-Tech’s Project Portfolio Audit Tool:
        • Validate the inputs.
        • Analyze the data.
        • Review the findings and create your action plan.

    Audit the Project Portfolio Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should audit the project portfolio, 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 readiness

    Understand your current state and determine the need for a deeper audit.

    • Audit the Project Portfolio – Phase 1: Assess Readiness
    • Info-Tech Audit Standard for Project Portfolio Management
    • Audit Glossary of Terms
    • Audit Standard Triage Tool

    2. Perform project portfolio audit

    Audit your selected projects and portfolios. Understand the gaps in portfolio practices.

    • Audit the Project Portfolio – Phase 2: Perform Project Portfolio Audit
    • Project Portfolio Audit Tool

    3. Establish a plan

    Document the steps you are going to take to address any issues that were uncovered in phase 2.

    • Audit the Project Portfolio – Phase 3: Establish a Plan
    • PPM Audit Timeline Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Audit the Project 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 Portfolio Audit

    The Purpose

    An audit of your portfolio management practices.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Analysis of audit results.

    Activities

    1.1 Info-Tech’s Audit Standard/Engagement Context

    1.2 Portfolio Audit

    1.3 Input Validation

    1.4 Portfolio Audit Analysis

    1.5 Start/Stop/Continue

    Outputs

    Audit Standard and Audit Glossary of Terms

    Portfolio and Project Audit Tool

    Start/Stop/Continue

    2 Project Audit

    The Purpose

    An audit of your project management practices.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Analysis of audit results.

    Activities

    2.1 Project Audit

    2.2 Input Validation

    2.3 Project Audit Analysis

    2.4 Start/Stop/Continue

    Outputs

    Portfolio and Project Audit Tool

    Start/Stop/Continue

    3 Action Plan

    The Purpose

    Create a plan to start addressing any vulnerabilities.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A plan to move forward.

    Activities

    3.1 Action Plan

    3.2 Key Takeaways

    Outputs

    Audit Timeline Template

    Bring Visibility to Your Day-to-Day Projects

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}444|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.8/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $9,649 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 24 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
    • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
    • As an IT leader, you are responsible for getting new things done while keeping the old things running. These “new things” can come in many forms, e.g. service requests, incidents, and officially sanctioned PMO projects, as well as a category of “unofficial” projects that have been initiated through other channels.
    • These unofficial projects get called many things by different organizations (e.g. level 0 projects,BAU projects, non-PMO projects, day-to-day projects), but they all have the similar characteristics: they are smaller and less complex than larger projects or officially sanctioned projects; they are larger and more risky than operational tasks or incidents; and they are focused on the needs of a specific functional unit and tend to stay within those units to get done.
    • Because these day-to-day projects are small, emergent, team-specific, operationally vital, yet generally perceived as being strategically unimportant, top-level leadership has a limited understanding of them when they are approving and prioritizing major projects. As a result, they approve projects with no insight into how your team’s capacity is already stretched thin by existing demands.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Senior leadership cannot contrast the priority of things that are undocumented. As an IT leader, you need to ensure day-to-day projects receive the appropriate amount of documentation without drowning your team in a process that the types of project don’t warrant.
    • Don’t bleed your project capacity dry by leaving the back door open. When executive oversight took over the strategic portfolio, we assumed they’d resource those projects as a priority. Instead, they focused on “alignment,” “strategic vision,” and “go to market” while failing to secure and defend the resource capacity needed. To focus on the big stuff, you need to sweat the small stuff.

    Impact and Result

    • Develop a method to consistently identify and triage day-to-day projects across functional teams in a standard and repeatable way.
    • Establish a way to balance and prioritize the operational necessity of day-to-day projects against the strategic value of major projects.
    • Build a repeatable process to document and report where the time goes across all given pockets of demand your team faces.

    Bring Visibility to Your Day-to-Day Projects Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should put more portfolio management structure around your day-to-day projects, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Uncover your organization’s hidden pockets of day-to-day projects

    Define an organizational standard for identifying day-to-day projects and triaging them in relation to other categories of projects.

    • Bring Visibility to Your Day-to-Day Projects – Phase 1: Uncover Your Organization’s Hidden Pockets of Day-to-Day Projects
    • Day-to-Day Project Definition Tool
    • Day-to-Day Project Supply/Demand Calculator

    2. Establish ongoing day-to-day project visibility

    Build a process for maintaining reliable day-to-day project supply and demand data.

    • Bring Visibility to Your Day-to-Day Projects – Phase 2: Establish Ongoing Day-to-Day Project Visibility
    • Day-to-Day Project Process Document
    • Day-to-Day Project Intake and Prioritization Tool
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Bring Visibility to Your Day-to-Day Projects

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

    1 Analyze the Current State of Day-to-Day Projects

    The Purpose

    Assess the current state of project portfolio management and establish a realistic target state for the management of day-to-day projects.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Realistic and well-informed workshop goals.

    Activities

    1.1 Begin with introductions and workshop expectations activity.

    1.2 Perform PPM SWOT analysis.

    1.3 Assess pain points and analyze root causes.

    Outputs

    Realistic workshop goals and expectations

    PPM SWOT analysis

    Root cause analysis

    2 Establish Portfolio Baselines for Day-to-Day Projects

    The Purpose

    Establish a standard set of baselines for day-to-day projects that will help them to be identified and managed in the same way across different functional teams.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Standardization of project definitions and project value assessments across different functional teams.

    Activities

    2.1 Formalize the definition of a day-to-day project and establish project levels.

    2.2 Develop a project value scorecard for day-to-day projects.

    2.3 Analyze the capacity footprint of day-to-day projects.

    Outputs

    Project identification matrix

    Project value scorecard

    A capacity overview to inform baselines

    3 Build a Target State Process for Day-to-Day Projects

    The Purpose

    Establish a target state process for tracking and monitoring day-to-day projects at the portfolio level.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Standardization of how day-to-day projects are managed and reported on across different functional teams.

    Activities

    3.1 Map current state workflows for the intake and resource management practices (small and large projects).

    3.2 Perform a right-wrong-missing-confusing analysis.

    3.3 Draft a target state process for the initiation of day-to-day projects and for capacity planning.

    Outputs

    Current state workflows

    Right-wrong-missing-confusing analysis

    Target state workflows

    4 Prepare to Implement Your New Processes

    The Purpose

    Start to plan the implementation of your new processes for the portfolio management of day-to-day projects.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An implementation plan, complete with communication plans, timelines, and goals.

    Activities

    4.1 Perform a change impact and stakeholder management analysis.

    4.2 Perform a start-stop-continue activity.

    4.3 Define an implementation roadmap.

    Outputs

    Change impact and stakeholder analyses

    Start-stop-continue retrospective

    Implementation roadmap

    Generative AI: Market Primer

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}349|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: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management
    • Much of the organization remains in the dark for understanding what Gen AI is, complicated by ambiguous branding from vendors claiming to provide Gen AI solutions.
    • Searching the market for a Gen AI platform is nearly impossible, owing to the sheer number of vendors.
    • The evaluative criteria for selecting a Gen AI platform are unclear.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • You cannot rush Gen AI selection and implementation. Organizations with (1) FTEs devoted to making Gen AI work (including developers and business intelligence analysts), (2) trustworthy and regularly updated data, and (3) AI governance are just now reaching PoC testing.
    • Gen AI is not a software category – it is an umbrella concept. Gen AI platforms will be built on different foundational models, be trained in different ways, and provide varying modalities. Do not expect Gen AI platforms to be compared against the same parameters in a vendor quadrant.
    • Bad data is the tip of the iceberg for Gen AI risks. While Gen AI success will be heavily reliant on the quality of data it is fine-tuned on, there are independent risks organizations must prepare for, from Gen AI hallucinations and output reliability to infrastructure feasibility and handling high-volume events.
    • Prepare for ongoing instability in the Gen AI market. If your organization is unsure about where to start with Gen AI, the secure route is to examine what your enterprise providers are offering. Use this as a learning platform to confidently navigate which specialized Gen AI provider will be viable for meeting your use cases.

    Impact and Result

    • Consensus on Gen AI scope and key Gen AI capabilities
    • Identification of your readiness to leverage Gen AI applications
    • Agreement on Gen AI evaluative criteria
    • Knowledge of vendor viability

    Generative AI: Market Primer Research & Tools

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

    1. Generative AI: Market Primer – Contextualize the marketspace and prepare for generative AI selection.

    Use Info-Tech’s best practices for setting out a selection roadmap and evaluative criteria for narrowing down vendors – both enterprise and specialized providers.

    • Generative AI: Market Primer Storyboard
    • Data Governance Policy
    • AI Governance Storyboard
    • AI Architecture Assessment and Project Planning Tool
    • AI Architecture Assessment and Project Planning Tool – Sample
    • AI Architecture Templates
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Generative AI: Market Primer

    Cut through Gen AI buzzwords to achieve market clarity.

    Analyst Perspective

    The generative AI (Gen AI) marketspace is complex, nascent, and unstable.

    Organizations need to get clear on what Gen AI is, its infrastructural components, and the governance required for successful platform selection.

    Thomas Randall

    The urge to be fast-moving to leverage the potential benefits of Gen AI is understandable. There are plenty of opportunities for Gen AI to enrich an organization’s use cases – from commercial to R&D to entertainment. However, there are requisites an organization needs to get right before Gen AI can be effectively applied. Part of this is ensuring data and AI governance is well established and mature within the organization. The other part is contextualizing Gen AI to know what components of this market the organization needs to invest in.

    Owing to its popularity surge, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has become near synonymous with Gen AI. However, Gen AI is an umbrella concept that encompasses a variety of infrastructural architecture. Organizations need to ask themselves probing questions if they are looking to work with OpenAI: Does ChatGPT rest on the right foundational model for us? Does ChatGPT offer the right modalities to support our organization’s use cases? How much fine-tuning and prompt engineering will we need to perform? Do we require investment in on-premises infrastructure to support significant data processing and high-volume events? And do we require FTEs to enable all this infrastructure?

    Use this market primer to quickly get up to speed on the elements your organization might need to make the most of Gen AI.

    Thomas Randall

    Advisory Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • Much of the organization remains in the dark for understanding what Gen AI is, complicated by ambiguous branding from vendors claiming to provide Gen AI solutions.
    • Searching the market for a Gen AI platform is near impossible, owing to the sheer number of vendors.
    • The evaluative criteria for selecting a Gen AI platform is unclear.

    Common Obstacles

    • Data governance is immature within the organization. There is no source of truth or regularly updated organizational process assets.
    • AI functionality is not well understood within the organization; there is little AI governance for monitoring and controlling its use.
    • The extent of effort and resources required to make Gen AI a success remains murky.

    Info-Tech's Solution

    This market primer for Gen AI will help you:

    1. Contextualize the Gen AI market: Learn what components of Gen AI an organization should consider to make Gen AI a success.
    2. Prepare for Gen AI selection: Use Info-Tech’s best practices for setting out a selection roadmap and evaluative criteria for narrowing down vendors – both enterprise and specialized providers.

    “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 co-pilots emerging in the major business tools we use today. The disruptive capabilities that can potentially drive dramatic benefits also introduces risks that need to be planned for.”

    Bill Wong, Principal Research Director – Data and BI, Info-Tech Research Group

    Who benefits from this project?

    This research is designed for:

    • Senior IT, developers, data staff, and project managers who:
      • Have received a mandate from their executives to begin researching the Gen AI market.
      • Need to quickly get up to speed on the state of the Gen AI market, given no deep prior knowledge of the space.
      • Require an overview of the different components to Gen AI to contextualize how vendor comparisons and selections can be made.
      • Want to gain an understanding of key trends, risks, and evaluative criteria to consider in their selection process.

    This research will help you:

    • Articulate the potential business value of Gen AI to your organization.
    • Establish which high-value use cases could be enriched by Gen AI functionality.
    • Assess vendor viability for enterprise and specialized software providers in the Gen AI marketspace.
    • Collect information on the prerequisites for implementing Gen AI functionality.
    • Develop relevant evaluative criteria to assist differentiating between shortlisted contenders.

    This research will also assist:

    • Executives, business analysts, and procurement teams who are stakeholders in:
      • Contextualizing the landscape for learning opportunities.
      • Gathering and documenting requirements.
      • Building deliverables for software selection projects.
      • Managing vendors, especially managing the relationships with incumbent enterprise software providers.

    This research will help you:

    • Identify examples of how Gen AI applications could be leveraged for your organization’s core use cases.
    • Verify the extent of Gen AI functionality an incumbent enterprise provider has.
    • Validate accuracy of Gen AI language and architecture referenced in project deliverables.

    Insight Summary

    You cannot speedrun Gen AI selection and implementation.

    Organizations with (1) FTEs devoted to making Gen AI work (including developers and business intelligence analysts), (2) trustworthy and regularly updated data, and (3) AI governance are just now reaching PoC testing.

    Gen AI is not a software category – it is an umbrella concept.

    Gen AI platforms will be built on different foundational models, be trained in different ways, and provide varying modalities. Do not expect to compare Gen AI platforms to the same parameters in a vendor quadrant.

    Bad data is the tip of the iceberg for Gen AI risks.

    While Gen AI success will be heavily reliant on the quality of data it is fine-tuned on, there are independent risks organizations must prepare for: from Gen AI hallucinations and output reliability to infrastructure feasibility to handle high-volume events.

    Gen AI use may require changes to sales incentives.

    If you plan to use Gen AI in a commercial setting, review your sales team’s KPIs. They are rewarded for sales velocity; if they are the human-in-the-loop to check for hallucinations, you must change incentives to ensure quality management.

    Prepare for ongoing instability in the Gen AI market.

    If your organization is unsure about where to start with Gen AI, the secure route is to examine what your enterprise providers are offering. Use this as a learning platform to confidently navigate which specialized Gen AI provider will be viable for meeting your use cases.

    Brace for a potential return of on-premises infrastructure to power Gen AI.

    The market trend has been for organizations to move to cloud-based products. Yet, for Gen AI, effective data processing and fine-tuning may call for organizations to invest in on-premises infrastructure (such as more GPUs) to enable their Gen AI to function effectively.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for understanding the Gen AI marketspace

    Phase Steps

    1. Contextualize the Gen AI marketplace

    1. Define Gen AI and its components.
    2. Explore Gen AI trends.
    3. Begin deriving Gen AI initiatives that align with business capabilities.

    2. Prepare for and understand Gen AI platform offerings

    1. Review Gen AI selection best practices and requisites for effective procurement.
    2. Determine evaluative criteria for Gen AI solutions.
    3. Explore Gen AI offerings with enterprise and specialized providers.
    Phase Outcomes
    1. Achieve consensus on Gen AI scope and key Gen AI capabilities.
    2. Identify your readiness to leverage Gen AI applications.
    3. Hand off to Build Your Generative AI Roadmap to complete pre-requisites for selection.
    1. Determine whether deeper data and AI governance is required; if so, hand off to Create an Architecture for AI.
    2. Gain consensus on Gen AI evaluative criteria.
    3. Understand vendor viability.

    Guided Implementation

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    • Call #1: Discover if Gen AI is right for your organization. Understand what a Gen AI platform is and discover the art of the possible.
    • Call #2: To take advantage of Gen AI, perform a business capabilities analysis to begin deriving Gen AI initiatives.
    • Call #3: Explore whether Gen AI initiatives can be achieved either with incumbent enterprise players or via procurement of specialized solutions.
    • Call #4: 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 Gen AI market evaluation process should be broken into segments:

    1. Gen AI market education with this primer
    2. Structured approach to selection
    3. Evaluation and final due diligence

    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.

    Software selection engagement

    Five advisory calls over a five-week period to accelerate your selection process

    • Receive 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.
    • Get better, faster results guaranteed, included in membership.
    Software selection process timeline. Week 1: Awareness - 1 hour call, Week 2: Education & Discovery - 1 hour call, Week 3: Evaluation - 1 hour call, Week 4: Selection - 1 hour call, Week 5: Negotiation & Configuration - 1 hour call.

    Click here to 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 and stakeholder management assistance
    • Save money, align stakeholders, speed up the process, and make better decisions
    • Better, faster results guaranteed; 25K standard engagement fee
    Software selection process timeline. Week 1: Awareness - 5 hours of Assistance, Week 2: Education & Discovery - 10 hours of assistance, Week 3: Evaluation - 10 hours of assistance, Week 4: Selection - 10 hours of assistance, Week 5: Negotiation & Configuration - 10 hours of assistance.

    Click here to book your workshop engagement.

    Data security consultancy

    Data security consultancy

    Based on experience
    Implementable advice
    human-based and people-oriented

    Data security consultancy makes up one of Tymans Group’s areas of expertise as a corporate consultancy firm. We are happy to offer our insights and solutions regarding data security and risk to businesses, both through online and offline channels. Read on and discover how our consultancy company can help you set up practical data security management solutions within your firm.

    How our data security consultancy services can help your company

    Data security management should be an important aspect of your business. As a data security consultancy firm, Tymans Group is happy to assist your small or medium-sized enterprise with setting up clear protocols to keep your data safe. As such, we can advise on various aspects comprising data security management. This ranges from choosing a fit-for-purpose data architecture to introducing IT incident management guidelines. Moreover, we can perform an external IT audit to discover which aspects of your company’s data security are vulnerable and which could be improved upon.

    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

    Discover our practical data security management solutions

    Data security is just one aspect with which our consultancy firm can assist your company. Tymans Group offers its extensive expertise in various corporate management domains, such as quality management and risk management. Our solutions all stem from our vast expertise and have proven their effectiveness. Moreover, when you choose to employ our consultancy firm for your data security management, you benefit from a holistic, people-oriented approach.

    Set up an appointment with our experts

    Do you wish to learn more about our data security management solutions and services for your company? We are happy to analyze any issues you may be facing and offer you a practical solution if you contact us for an appointment. You can book a one-hour online talk or elect for an on-site appointment with our experts. Contact us to set up your appointment now.

    Register to read more …

    Establish High-Value IT Performance Dashboards and Metrics

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}58|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $8,599 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 10 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Performance Measurement
    • Parent Category Link: /performance-measurement

    While most CIOs understand the importance of using metrics to measure IT’s accomplishments, needs, and progress, when it comes to creating dashboards to communicate these metrics, they:

    • Concentrate on the data instead of the audience.
    • Display information specific to IT activities instead of showing how IT addresses business goals and problems.
    • Use overly complicated, out of context graphs that crowd the dashboard and confuse the viewer.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    While most CIOs understand the importance of using metrics to measure IT’s accomplishments, needs, and progress, when it comes to creating dashboards to communicate these metrics, they:

    • Concentrate on the data instead of the audience.
    • Display information specific to IT activities instead of showing how IT addresses business goals and problems.
    • Use overly complicated, out of context graphs that crowd the dashboard and confuse the viewer.

    Impact and Result

    Use Info-Tech’s ready-made dashboards for executives to ensure you:

    • Speak to the right audience
    • About the right things
    • In the right quantity
    • Using the right measures
    • At the right time.

    Establish High-Value IT Performance Dashboards and Metrics Research & Tools

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

    1. Establish High-Value IT Performance Metrics and Dashboards – a document that walks you through Info-Tech’s ready-made IT dashboards.

    This blueprint guides you through reviewing Info-Tech’s IT dashboards for your audience and organization, then walks you through practical exercises to customize the dashboards to your audience and organization. The blueprint also gives practical guidance for delivering your dashboards and actioning your metrics.

    • Establish High-Value IT Performance Metrics and Dashboards Storyboard

    2. Info-Tech IT Dashboards and Guide – Ready-made IT dashboards for the CIO to communicate to the CXO.

    IT dashboards with visuals and metrics that are aligned and organized by CIO priority and that allow you to customize with your own data, eliminating 80% of the dashboard design work.

    • Info-Tech IT Dashboards and Guide

    3. IT Dashboard Workbook – A step-by-step tool to identify audience needs, translate needs into metrics, design your dashboard, and track/action your metrics.

    The IT Dashboard Workbook accompanies the Establish High Value IT Metrics and Dashboards blueprint and guides you through customizing the Info-Tech IT Dashboards to your audience, crafting your messages, delivering your dashboards to your audience, actioning metrics results, and addressing audience feedback.

    • Info-Tech IT Dashboards Workbook

    4. IT Metrics Library

    Reference the IT Metrics Library for ideas on metrics to use and how to measure them.

    • IT Metrics Library

    5. HR Metrics Library

    Reference the HR Metrics Library for ideas on metrics to use and how to measure them.

    • HR Metrics Library

    Infographic

    Workshop: Establish High-Value IT Performance Dashboards and Metrics

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

    1 Test Info-tech’s IT Dashboards Against Your Audience’s Needs and Translate Audience Needs Into Metrics

    The Purpose

    Introduce the Info-Tech IT Dashboards to give the participants an idea of how they can be used in their organization.

    Understand the importance of starting with the audience and understanding audience needs before thinking about data and metrics.

    Explain how audience needs translate into metrics.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of where to begin when it comes to considering dashboards and metrics (the audience).

    Identified audience and needs and derived metrics from those identified needs.

    Activities

    1.1 Review the info-Tech IT Dashboards and document impressions for your organization.

    1.2 Identify your audience and their attributes.

    1.3 Identify timeline and deadlines for dashboards.

    1.4 Identify and prioritize audience needs and desired outcomes.

    1.5 Associate metrics to each need.

    1.6 Identify a dashboard for each metric.

    Outputs

    Initial impressions of Info-Tech IT Dashboards.

    Completed Tabs 2 and 3 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    2 Inventory Your Data and Assess Data Quality and Readiness

    The Purpose

    Provide guidance on how to derive metrics and assess data.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand the importance of considering how you will measure each metric and get the data.

    Understand that measuring data can be costly and that sometimes you just can’t afford to get the measure or you can’t get the data period because the data isn’t there.

    Understand how to assess data quality and readiness.

    Activities

    2.1 Complete a data inventory for each metric on each dashboard: determine how you will measure the metric, the KPI, any observation biases, the location of the data, the type of source, the owner, and the security/compliance requirements.

    2.2 Assess data quality for availability, accuracy, and standardization.

    2.3 Assess data readiness and the frequency of measurement and reporting.

    Outputs

    Completed Tab 4 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    3 Design and Build Your Dashboards

    The Purpose

    Guide participants in customizing the Info-Tech IT Dashboards with the data identified in previous steps.

    This step may vary as some participants may not need to alter the Info-Tech IT Dashboards other than to add their own data.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of how to customize the dashboards to the participants’ organization.

    Activities

    3.1 Revisit the Info-Tech IT Dashboards and use the identified metrics to determine what should change in them.

    3.2 Build your dashboards by editing the Info-Tech IT Dashboards with your changes as planned in Step 3.1.

    Outputs

    Assessed Info-Tech IT Dashboards for your audience’s needs.

    Completed Tab 5 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    Finalized dashboards.

    4 Deliver Your Dashboard and Plan to Action Metrics

    The Purpose

    Guide participants in learning how to create a story around the dashboards.

    Guide participants in planning to action metrics and where to record results.

    Guide participants in how to address results of metrics and feedback from audience about dashboards.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Participants understand how to speak to their dashboards.

    Participants understand how to action metrics results and feedback about dashboards.

    Activities

    4.1 Craft your story.

    4.2 Practice delivering your story.

    4.3 Plan to action your metrics.

    4.4 Understand how to record and address your results.

    Outputs

    Completed Tabs 6 and 7 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    5 Next Steps and Wrap-Up

    The Purpose

    Finalize work outstanding from previous steps and answer any questions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Participants have thought about and documented how to customize the Info-Tech IT Dashboards to use in their organization, and they have everything they need to customize the dashboards with their own metrics and visuals (if necessary).

    Activities

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

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

    Outputs

    Completed IT Dashboards tailored to your organization.

    Completed IT Dashboard Workbook

    Further reading

    Establish High-Value IT Performance Dashboards and Metrics

    Spend less time struggling with visuals and more time communicating about what matters to your executives.

    Analyst Perspective

    A dashboard is a communication tool that helps executives make data-driven decisions

    CIOs naturally gravitate toward data and data analysis. This is their strength. They lean into this strength, using data to drive decisions, track performance, and set targets because they know good data drives good decisions.

    However, when it comes to interpreting and communicating this complex information to executives who may be less familiar with data, CIOs struggle, often falling back on showing IT activity level data instead of what the executives care about. This results in missed opportunities to tell IT’s unique story, secure funding, reveal important trends, or highlight key opportunities for the organization.

    Break through these traditional barriers by using Info-Tech’s ready-made IT dashboards. Spend less time agonizing over visuals and layout and more time concentrating on delivering IT information that moves the organization forward.

    Photo of Diana MacPherson
    Diana MacPherson
    Senior Research Analyst, CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    While most CIOs understand the importance of using metrics to measure IT’s accomplishments, needs, and progress, when it comes to creating dashboards to communicate these metrics, they:

    • Concentrate on the data instead of the audience.
    • Display information specific to IT activities instead of showing how IT addresses business goals and problems.
    • Use overly complicated, out of context graphs that crowd the dashboard and confuse the viewer.

    Common Obstacles

    CIOs often experience these challenges because they:

    • Have a natural bias toward data and see it as the whole story instead of a supporting character in a larger narrative.
    • Assume that the IT activity metrics that are easy to get and useful to them are equally interesting to all their stakeholders.
    • Do not have experience communicating visually to an audience unfamiliar with IT operations or lingo.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Use Info-Tech’s ready-made dashboards for executives to ensure you:

    • Speak to the right audience
    • About the right things
    • In the right quantity
    • Using the right measures
    • At the right time

    Info-Tech Insight

    The purpose of a dashboard is to drive decision making. A well designed dashboard presents relevant, clear, concise insights that help executives make data-driven decisions.

    Your challenge

    CIOs struggle to select the right metrics and dashboards to communicate IT’s accomplishments, needs, and progress to their executives. CIOs:

    • Fail to tailor metrics to their audience, often presenting graphs that are familiar and useful to them, but not their executives. This results in dashboards full of IT activities that executives neither understand nor find valuable.
    • Do not consider the timeliness of their metrics, which has the same effect as not tailoring their metrics: the executives do not care about the metrics they are shown.
    • Present too many metrics, which not only clutters the board but also dilutes the message the CIO needs to communicate.
    • Do not act on the results of their metrics and show progress, which makes metrics meaningless. Why measure something if you won’t act on the results?

    The bottom line: CIOs often communicate to the wrong audience, about the wrong things, in the wrong amount, using the wrong metrics, at the wrong time.

    In a survey of 500 executives, organizations that struggled with dashboards identified the reasons as:
    61% Inadequate context
    54% Information overload

    — Source: Exasol

    CXOs and CIOs agree that IT performance metrics need improvement

    When asked which performance indicators should be implemented in your business, CXOs and CIOs both agree that IT needs to improve its metrics across several activity areas: technology performance, cost and salary, and risk.

    A diagram that shows performance indicators and metrics from cxo and cio.

    The Info-Tech IT Dashboards center key metrics around these activities ensuring you align your metrics to the needs of your CXO audience.

    Info-Tech CEO/CIO Alignment Survey Benchmark Report n=666

    The Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by the top CIO priorities

    The top six areas that a CIO needs to prioritize and measure outcomes, no matter your organization or industry, are:

    • Managing to a budget: Reducing operational costs and increasing strategic IT spend
    • Customer/constituent satisfaction: Directly and indirectly impacting customer experience.
    • Risk management: Actively knowing and mitigating threats to the organization.
    • Delivering on business objectives: Aligning IT initiatives to the vision of the organization.
    • Employee engagement: Creating an IT workforce of engaged and purpose-driven people.
    • Business leadership relations: Establishing a network of influential business leaders.

    Deliver High-Value IT Dashboards to Your Executives

    A diagram that shows Delivering High-Value IT Dashboards to Your Executives

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Deliver High-Value Dashboards to Your Executives

    A diagram that shows High-Value Dashboard Process.

    Executives recognize the benefits of dashboards:
    87% of respondents to an Exasol study agreed that their organization’s leadership team would make more data-driven decisions if insights were presented in a simpler and more understandable way
    (Source: Exasol)

    The Info-Tech difference:

    We created dashboards for you so you don’t have to!

    1. Eliminate 80% of the dashboard design work by selecting from our ready-made Info-Tech IT Dashboards.
    2. Use our IT Dashboard Workbook to adjust the dashboards to your audience and organization.
    3. Follow our blueprint and IT Dashboard Workbook tool to craft, and deliver your dashboard to your CXO team, then action feedback from your audience to continuously improve.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for establishing high-value dashboards

    1. Test Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards Against Your Audience’s Needs

    Phase Steps

    1. Validate Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards for Your Audience
    2. Identify and Document Your Audience’s Needs

    Phase Outcomes

    1. Initial impressions of Info-Tech IT Dashboards
    2. Completed Tabs 2 of the IT Dashboard Workbook

    2. Translate Audience Needs into Metrics

    Phase Steps

    1. Review Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards for Your Audience
    2. Derive Metrics from Audience Needs
    3. Associate metrics to Dashboards

    Phase Outcomes

    1. Completed IT Tab 3 of IT Dashboard Workbook

    3. Ready Your Data for Dashboards

    Phase Steps

    1. Assess Data Inventory
    2. Assess Data Quality
    3. Assess Data Readiness
    4. Assess Data Frequency

    Phase Outcomes

    1. Assessed Info-Tech IT Dashboards for your audience’s needs
    2. Completed Tab 5 of the IT Dashboard Workbook
    3. Finalized dashboards

    4. Build and Deliver Your Dashboards

    Phase Steps

    1. Design Your Dashboard
    2. Update Your Dashboards
    3. Craft Your Story and Deliver Your Dashboards

    Phase Outcomes

    1. Completed IT Tab 5 and 6 of IT Dashboard Workbook and finalized dashboards

    5. Plan, Record, and Action Your Metrics

    Phase Steps

    1. Plan How to Record Metrics
    2. Record and Action Metrics

    Phase Outcomes

    1. Completed IT Dashboards tailored to your organization
    2. Completed IT Dashboard Workbook

    How to Use This Blueprint

    Choose the path that works for you

    A diagram that shows path of using this blueprint.

    The Info-Tech IT Dashboards address several needs:

    1. New to dashboards and metrics and not sure where to begin? Let the phases in the blueprint guide you in using Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards to create your own dashboards.
    2. Already know who your audience is and what you want to show? Augment the Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards framework with your own data and visuals.
    3. Already have a tool you would like to use? Use the Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards as a design document to customize your tool.

    Insight Summary

    The need for easy-to-consume data is on the rise making dashboards a vital data communication tool.

    70%: Of employees will be expected to use data heavily by 2025, an increase from 40% in 2018.
    — Source: Tableau

    Overarching insight

    A dashboard’s primary purpose is to drive action. It may also serve secondary purposes to update, educate, and communicate, but if a dashboard does not drive action, it is not serving its purpose.

    Insight 1

    Start with the audience. Resist the urge to start with the data. Think about who your audience is, what internal and external environmental factors influence them, what problems they need to solve, what goals they need to achieve, then tailor the metrics and dashboards to suit.

    Insight 2

    Avoid showing IT activity-level metrics. Instead use CIO priority-based metrics to report on what matters to the organization. The Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by the CIO priorities: risks, financials, talent, and strategic initiatives.

    Insight 3

    Dashboards show the what not the why. Do not assume your audience will draw the same conclusions from your graphs and charts as you do. Provide the why by interpreting the results, adding insights and calls to action, and marking key areas for discussion.

    Insight 4

    A dashboard is a communication tool and should reflect the characteristics of good communication. Be clear, concise, consistent, and relevant.

    Insight 5

    Action your data. Act and report progress on your metrics. Gathering metrics has a cost, so if you do not plan to action a metric, do not measure it.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    Photo of Dashboards

    Key deliverable: Dashboards

    Ready-made risk, financials, talent, and strategic initiatives dashboards that organize your data in a visually appealing way so you can concentrate on the metrics and communication.

    Photo of IT Dashboard Workbook

    IT Dashboard Workbook

    The IT Dashboard Workbook keeps all your metrics, data, and dashboard work in one handy file!

    Photo of IT Dashboard Guide

    IT Dashboard Guide

    The IT Dashboard Guide provides the Info-Tech IT Dashboards and information about how to use them.

    Blueprint benefits

    CIO Benefits

    • Reduces the burden of figuring out what metrics to show executives and how to categorize and arrange the visuals.
    • Increases audience engagement through tools and methods that guide CIOs through tailoring metrics and dashboards to audience needs.
    • Simplifies CIO messages so executives better understand IT needs and value.
    • Provides CIOs with the tools to demonstrate transparency and competency to executive leaders.
    • Provides tools and techniques for regular review and action planning of metrics results, which leads to improved performance, efficiency, and effectiveness.

    Business Benefits

    • Provides a richer understanding of the IT landscape and a clearer connection of how IT needs and issues impact the organization.
    • Increases understanding of the IT team’s contribution to achieving business outcomes.
    • Provides visibility into IT and business trends.
    • Speeds up decision making by providing insights and interpretations to complex situations.

    Measure the value of this blueprint

    Realize measurable benefits after using Info-Tech’s approach:

    Determining what you should measure, what visuals you should use, and how you should organize your visuals, is time consuming. Calculate the time it has taken you to research what metrics you should show, create the visuals, figure out how to categorize the visuals, and layout your visuals. Typically, this takes about 480 hours of time. Use the ready-made Info-Tech IT Dashboards and the IT Dashboard Workbook to quickly put together a set of dashboards to present your CXO. Using these tools will save approximately 480 hours.

    A study at the University of Minnesota shows that visual presentations are 43% more effective at persuading their audiences (Bonsignore). Estimate how persuasive you are now by averaging how often you have convinced your audience to take a specific course of action. After using the Info-Tech IT Dashboards and visual story telling techniques described in this blueprint, average again. You should be 43% more persuasive.

    Further value comes from making decisions faster. Baseline how long it takes, on average, for your executive team to make a decision before using Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards then time how long decisions take when you use your Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards. Your audience should reach decisions 21% faster according to studies at Stanford University and the Wharton School if business (Bonsignore).

    Case Study

    Visuals don’t have to be fancy to communicate clear messages.

    • Industry: Construction
    • Source: Anonymous interview participant

    Challenge

    Year after year, the CIO of a construction company attended business planning with the Board to secure funding for the year. One year, the CEO interrupted and said, “You're asking me for £17 million. You asked me for £14 million last year and you asked me for £12 million the year before that. I don't quite understand what we get for our money.”

    The CEO could not understand how fixing laptops would cost £17 million and for years no one had been able to justify the IT spend.

    Solutions

    The CIO worked with his team to produce a simple one-page bubble diagram representing each IT department. Each bubble included the total costs to deliver the service, along with the number of employees. The larger the bubble, the higher the cost. The CIO brought each bubble to life as he explained to the Board what each department did.

    The Board saw, for example, that IT had architects who thought about the design of a service, where it was going, the life cycle of that service, and the new products that were coming out. They understood what those services cost and knew how many architects IT had to provide for those services.

    Recommendations

    The CEO remarked that he finally understood why the CIO needed £17 million. He even saw that the costs for some IT departments were low for the amount of people and offered to pay IT staff more (something the CIO had requested for years).

    Each year the CIO used the same slide to justify IT costs and when the CIO needed further investment for things like security or new products, an upgrade, or end of life support, the sign-offs came very quickly because the Board understood what IT was doing and that IT wasn't a bottomless pit.

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

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

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

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

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

    Guided Implementation

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

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

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    A diagram that shows Guided Implementation in 5 phases.

    Workshop overview

    Day 1: Test Info-tech’s IT Dashboards Against Your Audience’s Needs and Translate Audience Needs Into Metrics

    Activities
    1.1 Review the info-Tech IT Dashboards and document impressions for your organization.
    1.2 Identify your audience’s attributes.
    1.3 Identify timeline and deadlines for dashboards.
    1.4 Identify and prioritize audience needs and desired outcomes.
    1.5 Associate metrics to each need.
    1.6 Identify a dashboard for each metric.

    Deliverables
    1. Initial impressions of Info-Tech IT Dashboards.
    2. Completed Tabs 2 and 3 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    Day 2: Inventory Your Data; Assess Data Quality and Readiness

    Activities
    2.1 Complete a data inventory for each metric on each dashboard: determine how you will measure the metric, the KPI, any observation biases, the location of the data, the type of source, and the owner and security/compliance requirements.
    2.2 Assess data quality for availability, accuracy, and standardization.
    2.3 Assess data readiness and frequency of measurement and reporting.

    Deliverables
    1. Completed Tab 4 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    Day 3: Design and Build Your Dashboards

    Activities
    3.1 Revisit the Info-Tech IT Dashboards and use the identified metrics to determine what should change on the dashboards.
    3.2 Build your dashboards by editing the Info-Tech IT Dashboards with your changes as planned in Step 3.1.

    Deliverables
    1. Assessed Info-Tech IT Dashboards for your audience’s needs.
    2. Completed Tab 5 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.
    3. Finalized dashboards.

    Day 4: Deliver Your Dashboard and Plan to Action Metrics

    Activities
    4.1 Craft your story.
    4.2 Practice delivering your story.
    4.3 Plan to action your metrics.
    4.4 Understand how to record and address your results.

    Deliverables
    1. Completed Tabs 6 and 7 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    Day 5: Next Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

    Activities
    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days
    5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

    Deliverables
    1. Completed IT Dashboards tailored to your organization.
    2. Completed IT Dashboard Workbook.

    Contact your account representative for more information.

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

    What is an IT dashboard?

    A photo of Risks - Protect the Organization. A photo of Financials: Transparent, fiscal responsibility
    A photo of talent attrat and retain top talent A photo of Strategic Initiatives: Deliver Value to Customers.

    An IT dashboard is…
    a visual representation of data, and its main purpose is to drive actions. Well-designed dashboards use an easy to consume presentation style free of clutter. They present their audience with a curated set of visuals that present meaningful metrics to their audience.

    Dashboards can be both automatically or manually updated and can show information that is dynamic or a snapshot in time.

    Info-Tech IT Dashboards

    Review the Info-Tech IT Dashboards

    We created dashboards so you don’t have to.

    A photo of Risks - Protect the Organization. A photo of Financials: Transparent, fiscal responsibility A photo of talent attrat and retain top talent A photo of Strategic Initiatives: Deliver Value to Customers.

    Use the link below to download the Info-Tech IT Dashboards and consider the following:

    1. What are your initial reactions to the dashboards?
    2. Are the visuals appealing? If so, what makes them appealing?
    3. Can you use these dashboards in your organization? What makes them usable?
    4. How would you use these dashboards to speak your own IT information to your audience?

    Download the Info-Tech IT Dashboards

    Why Use Dashboards When We Have Data?

    How graphics affect us

    Cognitively

    • Engage our imagination
    • Stimulate the brain
    • Heighten creative thinking
    • Enhance or affect emotions

    Emotionally

    • Enhance comprehension
    • Increase recollection
    • Elevate communication
    • Improve retention

    Visual clues

    • Help decode text
    • Attract attention
    • Increase memory

    Persuasion

    • 43% more effective than text alone

    — Source: (Vogel et al.)

    Phase 1

    Test Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards Against Your Audience’s Needs

    A diagram that shows phase 1 to 5.

    This phase will walk you through the following:

    • Documenting impressions for using Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards for your audience.
    • Documenting your audience and their needs and metrics for your IT dashboards

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Info-Tech IT Dashboard organization and audience

    We created a compelling way to organize IT dashboards so you don’t have to. The Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO Priorities, and these are consistent irrespective of industry or organization. This is a constant that you can organize your metrics around.

    A photo of Info-Tech IT Dashboards

    Dashboard Customization

    The categories represent a constant around which you can change the order; for example, if your CXO is more focused on Financials, you can switch the Financials dashboard to appear first.

    The Info-Tech IT Dashboards are aimed at a CXO audience so if your audience is the CXO, then you may decide to change very little, but you can customize any visual to appeal to your audience.

    Phase 1 will get you started with your audience.

    Always start with the audience

    …and not the data!

    Reliable, accurate data plays a critical role in dashboards, but data is only worthwhile if it is relevant to the audience who consumes it, and dashboards are only as meaningful as the data and metrics they represent.

    Instead of starting with the data, start with the audience. The more IT understands about the audience, the more relevant the metrics will be to their audience and the more aligned leadership will be with IT.

    Don’t forget yourself and who you are. Your audience will have certain preconceived notions about who you are and what you do. Consider these when you think about what you want your audience to know.

    46% executives identify lack of customization to individual user needs as a reason they struggle with dashboards.
    — Source: (Exasol)

    Resist the Data-First Temptation

    If you find yourself thinking about data and you haven’t thought about your audience, pull yourself back to the audience.

    Ask first Ask later
    Who is this dashboard for? What data should I show?
    How will the audience use the dashboard to make decisions? Where do I get the data?
    How can I show what matters to the audience? How much effort is required to get the data?

    Meaningful measures rely on understanding your audience and their needs

    It is crucial to think about who your audience is so that you can translate their needs into metrics and create meaningful visuals for your dashboards.

    A diagram that highlights step 1-3 of understanding your audience in the high-value dashboard process.

    Step 1.1

    Review and Validate Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards for Your Audience

    Activities:
    1.1.1 Examine Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 1.1 & 1.2 to Test Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards Against Your Audience’s Needs.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Info-Tech dashboards reviewed for your organization’s audience.

    1.1.1 Examine the Info-Tech IT Dashboards

    30 minutes

    1. If you haven’t already downloaded the Info-Tech IT Dashboards, click the link below to download.
    2. Complete a quick review of the dashboards and consider how your audience would receive them.
    3. Document your thoughts, with special emphasis on your audience in the Info-Tech Dashboard Impressions slide.

    A diagram that shows Info-Tech IT Dashboards

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboards

    Reviewing visuals can help you think about how your audience will respond to them

    Jot down your thoughts below. You can refer to this later as you consider your audience.

    Consider:

    • Who is your dashboard audience?
    • Are their needs different from the Info-Tech IT Dashboard audience’s? If so, how?
    • Will the visuals work for your audience on each dashboard?
    • Will the order of the dashboards work for your audience?
    • What is missing?

    Step 1.2

    Identify and Document Your Audience’s Needs

    Activities:
    1.2.1 Document your audience’s needs in the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 1.1 & 1.2 to Test Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards Against Your Audience’s Needs.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Audience details documented in IT Dashboard Workbook

    Identify Your Audience and dig deeper to understand their needs

    Connect with your audience

    • Who is your audience?
    • What does your audience care about? What matters to them?
    • How is their individual success measured? What are their key performance indicators (KPIs)?
    • Connect the challenges and pain points of your audience to how IT can help alleviate those pain points:
      • For example, poor financial performance could be due to a lack of digitization. Identify areas where IT can help alleviate this issue.
      • Try to uncover the root cause behind the need. Root causes are often tied to broad organizational objectives, so think about how IT can impact those objectives.

    Validate the needs you’ve uncovered with the audience to ensure you have not misinterpreted them and clarify the desired timeline and deadline for the dashboard.

    Document audiences and needs on Tab 2 of the IT Dashboard Workbook

    Typical Audience Needs
    Senior Leadership
    • Inform strategic planning and track progress toward objectives.
    • Understand critical challenges.
    • Ensure risks are managed.
    • Ensure budgets are managed.
    Board of Directors
    • Understand organizational risks.
    • Ensure organization is fiscally healthy.
    Business Partners
    • Support strategic workforce planning.
    • Surface upcoming risks to workforce.
    CFO
    • IT Spend
    • Budget Health and Risks

    Prioritize and select audience needs that your dashboard will address

    Prioritize needs by asking:

    • Which needs represent the largest value to the entire organization (i.e. needs that impact more of the organization than just the audience)?
    • Which needs will have the largest impact on the audience’s success?
    • Which needs are likely to drive action (e.g. if supporting a decision, is the audience likely to be amenable to changing the way they make that decision based on the data)?

    Select three to five of the highest priority needs for each audience to include on a dashboard.

    Prioritize needs on Tab 2 of the IT Dashboard Workbook

    A diagram that shows 3 tiers of high priority, medium priority, and low priority.

    1.2.1 Document Your Audience Needs in the IT Dashboard Workbook

    1 hour

    Click the link below to download the IT Dashboard Workbook and open the file. Select Tab 2. The workbook contains pre-populated text that reflects information about Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards. You may want to keep the pre-populated text as reference as you identify your own audience then remove after you have completed your updates.

    A table of documenting audience, including key attributes, desired timeline, deadline, needs, and priority.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    Phase 2

    Translate Audience Needs Into Metrics

    A diagram that shows phase 1 to 5.

    This phase will walk you through the following:

    • Revisiting the Info-Tech IT Dashboards for your audience.
    • Documenting your prioritized audience’s needs and the desired outcome of each in the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Linking audience needs to metrics has positive outcomes

    When you present metrics that your audience cares about, you:

    • Deliver real value and demonstrate IT’s value as a trusted partner.
    • Improve the relationship between the business and IT.
    • Enlighten the business about what IT does and how it is connected to the organization.

    29% of respondents to The Economist Intelligence Unit survey cited inadequate collaboration between IT and the business as one of the top barriers to the organization’s digital objectives.
    — Source: Watson, Morag W., et al.

    Dashboard Customization

    The Info-Tech IT Dashboards use measures for each dashboard that correspond with what the audience (CXO) cares about. You can find these measures in the IT Dashboard Workbook. If your audience is the CXO, you may have to change a little but you should still validate the needs and metrics in the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    Phase 2 covers the process of translating needs into metrics.

    Once you know what your audience needs, you know what to measure

    A diagram that highlights step 4-5 of knowing your audience needs in the high-value dashboard process.

    Step 2.1

    Document Desired Outcomes for Each Prioritized Audience Need

    Activities:
    2.1.1 Compare the Info-Tech IT Dashboards with your audience’s needs.
    2.1.2 Document prioritized audience needs and the desired outcome of each in the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 2.1 to 2.3 to translate audience needs into metrics.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Understanding of how well Info-Tech IT Dashboards address audience needs.
    • Documented desired outcomes for each audience need.

    2.1.1 Revisit Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards and Review for Your Audience

    30 minutes

    1. If you haven’t already downloaded the Info-Tech IT Dashboards, click the link below to download.
    2. Click the link below to download the Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook.
    3. Recall your first impressions of the dashboards that you recorded on earlier in Phase 1 and open up the audience and needs information you documented in Tab 2 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.
    4. Compare the dashboards with your audience’s needs that you documented on Tab 2.
    5. Record any updates to your thoughts or impressions on the next slide. Think about any changes to the dashboards that you would make so that you can reference it when you build the dashboards.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    A photo of Info-Tech IT Dashboards
    The Info-Tech IT Dashboards contain a set of monthly metrics tailored toward a CXO audience.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboards

    Knowing what your audience needs, do the metrics the visuals reflect address them?

    Any changes to the Info-Tech IT Dashboards?

    Consider:

    • Are your audience’s needs already reflected in the visuals in each of the dashboards? If so, validate this in the next activity by reviewing the prioritized needs, desired outcomes, and associated metrics already documented in the IT Dashboard Workbook.
    • Are there any visuals your audience would need that you don’t see reflected in the dashboards? Write them here to use in the next exercise.

    Desired outcomes make identifying metrics easier

    When it’s not immediately apparent what the link between needs and metrics is, brainstorm desired outcomes.

    A diagram that shows an example of desired outcomes

    2.1.2 Document your audience’s desired outcome per prioritized need

    Now that you’ve examined the Info-Tech IT Dashboards and considered the needs of your audience, it is time to understand the outcomes and goals of each need so that you can translate your audience’s needs into metrics.

    1 hour

    Click the link below to download the IT Dashboard Workbook and open the file. Select Tab 3. The workbook contains pre-populated text that reflects information about Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards. You may want to keep the pre-populated text as reference as you identify your own audience then remove it after you have completed your updates.

    A diagram that shows desired outcome per prioritized need

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    Deriving Meaningful Metrics

    Once you know the desired outcomes, you can identify meaningful metrics

    A diagram of an example of meaningful metrics.

    Common Metrics Mistakes

    Avoid the following oversights when selecting your metrics.

    A diagram that shows 7 metrics mistakes

    Step 2.2

    Derive Metrics From Audience Needs

    Activities:
    2.2.1 Derive metrics using the Info-Tech IT Dashboards and the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 2.1 to 2.3 to translate audience needs into metrics.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Documented metrics for audience needs.

    2.2.1 Derive metrics from desired outcomes

    Now that you have completed the desired outcomes, you can determine if you are meeting those desired outcomes. If you struggle with the metrics, revisit the desired outcomes. It could be that they are not measurable or are not specific enough.

    2 hours

    Click the link below to download the IT Dashboard Workbook and open the file. Select Tab 3. The workbook contains pre-populated text that reflects information about Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards. You may want to keep the pre-populated text as reference as you identify your own audience then remove it after you have completed your updates.

    A diagram that shows derive metrics from desired outcomes

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    Download IT Metrics Library

    Download HR Metrics Library

    Step 2.3

    Associate Metrics to Dashboards

    Activities:
    2.3.1 Review the metrics and identify which dashboard they should appear on.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 2.1 to 2.3 to translate audience needs into metrics.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Metrics associated to each dashboard.

    2.3.1 Associate metrics to dashboards

    30 minutes

    Once you have identified all your metrics from Step 2.2, identify which dashboard they should appear on. As with all activities, if the Info-Tech IT Dashboard meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information.

    A diagram that shows associate metrics to dashboards

    Phase 3

    Ready Your Data for Dashboards

    A diagram that shows phase 1 to 5.

    This phase will walk you through the following:

    • Inventorying your data
    • Assessing your data quality
    • Determining data readiness
    • Determining data measurement frequency

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Can you measure your metrics?

    Once appropriate service metrics are derived from business objectives, the next step is to determine how easily you can get your metric.

    A diagram that highlights step 5 of measuring your metrics in the high-value dashboard process.

    Make sure you select data that your audience trusts

    40% of organizations say individuals within the business do not trust data insights.
    — Source: Experian, 2020

    Phase 3 covers the process of identifying data for each metric, creating a data inventory, assessing the readiness of your data, and documenting the frequency of measuring your data. Once complete, you will have a guide to help you add data to your dashboards.

    Step 3.1

    Assess Data Inventory

    Activities:
    3.1.1 Download the IT Dashboard Workbook and complete the data inventory section on Tab 4.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 3.1 to 3.4 to ready your data for dashboards.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Documented data inventory for each metric.

    3.1.1 Data Inventory

    1 hour

    Click the link below to download the IT Dashboard Workbook and open the file. Select Tab 4. The pre-populated text is arranged into the tables according to the dashboard they appear on; you may need to scroll down to see all the dashboard tables.

    Create a data inventory by placing each metric identified on Tab 3 into the corresponding dashboard table. Complete each column as described below.

    A diagram that shows 9 columns of data inventory.

    Metrics Libraries: Use the IT Metrics Library and HR Metrics Library for ideas for metrics to use and how to measure them.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    Step 3.2

    Assess Data Quality

    Activities:
    3.2.1 Use the IT Dashboard Workbook to complete an assessment of data quality on Tab 4.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 3.1 to 3.4 to ready your data for dashboards.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Documented data quality assessment for each metric.

    3.2.1 Assess Data Quality

    1 hour

    Document the data quality on Tab 4 of the IT Dashboard Workbook by filling in the data availability, data accuracy, and data standardization columns as described below.

    A diagram that shows data availability, data accuracy, and data standardization columns.

    Data quality is a struggle for many organizations. Consider how much uncertainty you can tolerate and what would be required to improve your data quality to an acceptable level. Consider cost, technological resources, people resources, and time required.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    Step 3.3

    Assess Data Readiness

    Activities:
    3.3.1 Use the IT Dashboard Workbook to determine the readiness of your data.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 3.1 to 3.4 to ready your data for dashboards.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Documented data readiness for each metric

    3.3.1 Determine Data Readiness

    1 hour

    Once the data quality has been documented and examined, complete the Data Readiness section of Tab 4 in the Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook. Select a readiness classification using the definitions below. Use the readiness of your data to determine the level of effort required to obtain the data and consider the constraints and cost/ROI to implement new technology or revise processes and data gathering to produce the data.

    A diagram that shows data readiness section

    Remember: Although in most cases, simple formulas that can be easily understood are the best approach, both because effort is lower and data that is not manipulated is more trustworthy, do not abandon data because it is not perfect but instead plan to make it easier to obtain.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    Step 3.4

    Assess Data Frequency

    Activities:
    3.4.1 Use the IT Dashboard Workbook to determine the readiness of your data and how frequently you will measure your data.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 3.1 to 3.4 to assess data inventory, quality, and readiness.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Documented frequency of measurement for each metric.

    3.4.1 Document Planned Frequency of measurement

    10 minutes

    Document the planned frequency of measurement for all your metrics on Tab 4 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    For each metric, determine how often you will need to refresh it on the dashboard and select a frequency from the drop down. The Info-tech IT Dashboards assume a monthly refresh.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    Phase 4

    Build and Deliver Your Dashboards

    A diagram that shows phase 1 to 5.

    This phase will walk you through the following:

    • Designing your dashboards
    • Updating your dashboards
    • Crafting your story
    • Delivering your dashboards

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Using your dashboard to tell your story with visuals

    Now that you have linked metrics to the needs of your audience and you understand how to get your data, it is time to start building your dashboards.

    A diagram that highlights step 6 of creating meaningful visuals in the high-value dashboard process.

    Using visual language

    • Shortens meetings by 24%
    • Increases the ability to reach consensus by 21%
    • Strengthens persuasiveness by 43%

    — Source: American Management Association

    Phase 4 guides you through using the Info-Tech IT Dashboard visuals for your audience’s needs and your story.

    Step 4.1

    Design Your Dashboard

    Activities:
    4.1.1 Plan and validate dashboard metrics, data, level of effort and visuals.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 4.1 to 4.3 to build and deliver your dashboards.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Identified and validated metrics, data, and visuals for your IT dashboards.

    Use clear visuals that avoid distracting the audience

    Which visual is better to present?

    Sample A:
    A photo of Sample A visuals

    Sample B:
    A diagram Sample B visuals

    Select the appropriate visuals

    Identify the purpose of the visualization. Determine which of the four categories below aligns with the story and choose the appropriate visual to display the data.

    Relationship

    A photo of Scatterplots
    Scatterplots

    • Used to show relationships between two variables.
    • Can be difficult to interpret for audiences that are not familiar with them.

    Distribution

    A photo of Histogram
    Histogram

    • Use a histogram to show spread of a given numeric variable.
    • Can be used to organize groups of data points.
    • Requires continuous data.
    • Can make comparisons difficult.

    A photo of Scatterplot
    Scatterplot

    • Can show correlation between variables.
    • Show each data plot, making it easier to compare.

    Composition

    A photo of Pie chart
    Pie chart

    • Use pie charts to show different categories.
    • Avoid pie charts with numerous slices.
    • Provide numbers alongside slices, as it can be difficult to compare slices based on size alone.

    A photo of Table
    Table

    • Use tables when there are a large number of categories.
    • Presents information in a simple way.

    Comparison

    A photo of Bar graph
    Bar graph

    • Use to compare categories.
    • Easy to understand, familiar format.

    A photo of Line chart
    Line chart

    • Use to show trends or changes over time.
    • Clear and easy to analyze.

    (Calzon)

    Examples of data visualization

    To compare categories, use a bar chart:
    2 examples of bar chart
    Conclusion: Visualizing the spend in various areas helps prioritize.


    To show trends, use a line graph:
    An example of line graph.
    Conclusion: Overlaying a trend line on revenue per employee helps justify headcount costs.


    To show simple results, text is sometimes more clear:
    A diagram that shows examples of text and graphics.
    Conclusion: Text with meaningful graphics conveys messages quickly.


    To display relative percentages of values, use a pie chart:
    An example of pie chart.
    Conclusion: Displaying proportions in a pie chart gives an at-a-glance understanding of the amount any area uses.

    Choose effective colors and design

    Select colors that will enhance the story

    • Use color strategically to help draw the audience’s attention and highlight key information.
    • Choose two to three colors to use consistently throughout the dashboard, as too many colors will be distracting to the audience.
    • Use colors that connect with the audience (e.g., organization or department colors).
    • Don’t use colors that are too similar in shade or brightness level, as those with colorblindness might have difficulty discerning them.

    Keep the design simple and clear

    • Leave white space to separate sections and keep the dashboard simple.
    • Don’t measure everything; show just enough to address the audience’s needs.
    • Use blank space between data points to provide natural contrast (e.g., leaving space between each bar on a bar graph). Don’t rely on contrast between colors to separate data (Miller).
    • Label each data point directly instead of using a separate key, so anyone who has difficulty discerning color can still interpret the data (Miller).

    Example

    A example that shows colours and design of a chart.

    Checklist to build compelling visuals in your presentation

    Leverage this checklist to ensure you are creating the perfect visuals and graphs for your presentation.

    Checklist:

    • Do the visuals grab the audience’s attention?
    • Will the visuals mislead the audience/confuse them?
    • Do the visuals facilitate data comparison or highlight trends and differences in a more effective manner than words?
    • Do the visuals present information simply, cleanly, and accurately?
    • Do the visuals illustrate messages and themes from the accompanying text?

    4.1.1 Plan and validate your dashboard visuals

    1 hour

    Click the links below to download the Info-Tech IT Dashboards and the IT Dashboard Workbook. Open the IT Dashboard Workbook and select Tab 5. For each dashboard, represented by its own table, open the corresponding Info-Tech IT Dashboard as reference.

    A diagram of dashboard and its considerations when selecting visuals.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboards

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    Step 4.2

    Update Your Dashboards

    Activities:
    4.2.1 Update the visuals on the Info-Tech IT Dashboards with data and visuals identified in the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 4.1 to 4.3 to build and deliver your dashboards.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Dashboards updated with your visuals, metrics, and data identified in the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    4.2.1 Update visuals with your own data

    2 hours

    1. Get the data that you identified in Tab 4 and Tab 5 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.
    2. Click the link below to go to the Info-Tech IT Dashboards and follow the instructions to update the visuals.

    Do not worry about the Key Insights or Calls to Action; you will create this in the next step when you plan your story.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboards

    Step 4.3

    Craft Your Story and Deliver Your Dashboards

    Activities:
    4.3.1 Craft Your Story
    4.3.2 Finalize Your Dashboards
    4.3.3 Practice Delivering Your Story With Your Dashboards

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 4.1 to 4.3 to build and deliver your dashboards.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Documented situations, key insights, and calls to action for each dashboard/visual.
    • A story to tell for each dashboard.
    • Understanding of how to practice delivering the dashboards using stories.

    Stories are more easily understood and more likely to drive decisions

    IT dashboards are valuable tools to provide insights that drive decision making.

    • Monitor: Track and report on strategic areas IT supports.
    • Provide insights: sPresent important data and information to audiences in a clear and efficient way.

    “Data storytelling is a universal language that everyone can understand – from people in STEM to arts and psychology.” — Peter Jackson, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Exasol

    Storytelling provides context, helping the audience understand and connect with data and metrics.

    • 93% of respondents (business leaders and data professionals) agreed that decisions made as a result of successful data storytelling have the potential to help increase revenue.
    • 92% of respondents agreed that data storytelling was critical to communicate insights effectively.
    • 87% percent of respondents agreed that leadership teams would make more data-driven decisions if insights gathered from data were presented more simply.

    — Exasol

    For more visual guidance, download the IT Dashboard Guide

    Include all the following pieces in your message for an effective communication

    A diagram of an effective message, including consistent, clearn, relevant, and concise.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Time is a non-renewable resource. The message crafted must be considered a value-adding communication to your audience.

    Enable good communication with these components

    Be Consistent

    • The core message must be consistent regardless of audience, channel, or medium.
    • Test your communication with your team or colleagues to obtain feedback before delivering to a broader audience.
    • A lack of consistency can be interpreted as an attempt at deception. This can hurt credibility and trust.

    Be Clear

    • Say what you mean and mean what you say.
    • Choice of language is important: “Do you think this is a good idea? I think we could really benefit from your insights and experience here.” Or do you mean: “I think we should do this. I need you to do this to make it happen.”
    • Avoid jargon.

    Be Relevant

    • Talk about what matters to the audience.
    • Tailor the details of the message to the audience’s specific concerns.
    • IT thinks in processes but wider audiences focus mostly on 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.

    Be Concise

    • Keep communication short and to the point so key messages are not lost in the noise.
    • There is a risk of diluting your key message if you include too many other details.
    • If you provide more information than necessary, the clarity and consistency of the message can be lost.

    Draft the core messages to communicate

    1. Hook your audience: Use a compelling introduction that ensures your target audience cares about the message. Start with a story or metaphor and then support with the data on your dashboard. Avoid rushing in with data first.
    2. Demonstrate you can help: Let the audience know that based on the unique problem, you can help. There is value in engaging and working with you further.
    3. Write for the ear: Use concise and clear sentences, avoid technological language, and when you read it aloud ensure it sounds like how you would normally speak.
    4. Interpret visuals for your audience: Do not assume they will reach the same conclusions as you. For example, walk them through what a chart shows even if the axes are labeled, tell them what a trend line indicates or what the comparison between two data points means.
    5. Identify a couple of key insights: Think about one or two key takeaways you want your audience to leave with.
    6. Finish with a call to action: Your concluding statement should not be a thank-you but a call to action that ignites how your audience will behave after the communication. Dashboards exist to drive decisions, so if you have no call to action, you should ask if you need to include the visual.

    4.3.1 Craft Your Story

    1 hour

    Click the link below to download the IT Dashboard Workbook and open the file. Select Tab 6. The workbook contains grey text that reflects a sample story about the Info-Tech IT Dashboards. You may want to keep the sample text as reference, then remove after you have entered your information.

    A diagram of dashboard to craft your story.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    4.3.2 Finalize Your Dashboards

    30 minutes

    1. Take the Key Insights and Calls to Action that you documented in Tab 6 of the IT Dashboard Workbook and place them in their corresponding dashboard.
    2. Add any text to your dashboard as necessary but only if the visual requires more information. You can add explanations more effectively during the presentation.

    A diagram that shows strategic initiatives: deliver value to customers.

    Tip: Aim to be brief and concise with any text. Dashboards simplify information and too much text can clutter the visuals and obscure the message.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    4.3.3 Practice Delivering Your Story With Your Dashboards

    1 hour

    Ideally you can present your dashboard to your audience so that you are available to clarify questions and add a layer of interpretation that would crowd out boards if added as text.

    1. To prepare to tell your story, consult the Situation, Key Insights, and Call to Action sections that you documented for each dashboard in Tab 6 of the Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook.
    2. Practice your messages as you walk through your dashboards. The next two slides provide delivery guidance.
    3. Once you deliver your dashboards, update Tab 6 with audience feedback. Often dashboards are iterative and when your audience sees them, they are usually inspired to think about what else they would like to see. This is good and shows your audience is engaged!

    Don’t overwhelm your audience with information and data. You spent time to craft your dashboards so that they are clear and concise, so spend time practicing delivering a message that matches your clear, concise dashboards

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    Hone presentation skills before meeting with key stakeholders

    Using voice and body

    Think about the message you are trying to convey and how your body can support that delivery. Hands, stance, and frame all have an impact on what might be conveyed.

    If you want your audience to lean in and be eager about your next point, consider using a pause or softer voice and volume.

    Be professional and confident

    State the main points of your dashboard confidently. While this should be obvious, it needs to be stated explicitly. Your audience should be able to clearly see that you believe the points you are stating.

    Present in a way that is genuine to you and your voice. Whether you have an energetic personality or a calm and composed personality, the presentation should be authentic to you.

    Connect with your audience

    Look each member of the audience in the eye at least once during your presentation or if you are presenting remotely, look into the camera. Avoid looking at the ceiling, the back wall, or the floor. Your audience should feel engaged – this is essential to keeping their attention.

    Avoid reading the text from your dashboard, and instead paraphrase it while maintaining eye/camera contact.

    Info-Tech Insight

    You are responsible for the response of your audience. If they aren’t engaged, it is on you as the communicator.

    Communication Delivery Checklist

    • Have you practiced delivering the communication to team members or coaches?
    • Have you practiced delivering the communication to someone with little to no technology background?
    • Are you making yourself open to feedback and improvement opportunities?
    • If the communication is derailed from your plan, are you prepared to handle that change?
    • Can you deliver the communication without reading your notes word for word?
    • Have you adapted your voice throughout the communication to highlight specific components you want the audience to focus on?
    • Are you presenting in a way that is genuine to you and your personality?
    • Can you communicate the message within the time allotted?
    • Are you moving in an appropriate manner based on your communication (e.g., toward the screen, across the stage, hand gestures)
    • Do you have room for feedback on the dashboards? Solicit feedback with your audience after the meeting and record it in Tab 6 of the IT Dashboard Workbook.

    Phase 5

    Plan, record, and action your metrics

    A diagram that shows phase 1 to 5.

    This phase will walk you through the following:

    • Planning to track your metrics
    • Recording your metrics
    • Actioning your metrics

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Actioning your metrics to drive results

    To deliver real value from your dashboards, you need to do something with the results.

    Don’t fail on execution! The whole reason you labor to create inviting visuals and meaningful metrics is to action those metrics. The metrics results inform your entire story! It’s important to plan and do, but everything is lost if you fail to check and act.

    70%: of survey respondents say that managers do not get insights from performance metrics to improve strategic decision making.
    60%: of survey respondents say that operational teams do not get insights to improve operation decision making.

    (Bernard Marr)

    “Metrics aren’t a passive measure of progress but an active part of an organization’s everyday management….Applying the “plan–do–check–act” feedback loop…helps teams learn from their mistakes and identify good ideas that can be applied elsewhere”

    (McKinsey)

    Step 5.1

    Plan How to Record Metrics

    Activities:
    5.1.1 For each dashboard, add a baseline and target to existing metrics and KPIs.

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 5.1 to 5.2 to plan, record, and action your metrics.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Baselines and targets identified and recorded for each metric.

    5.1.1 Identify Baselines and Targets

    1 hour

    To action your metrics, you must first establish what your baselines and targets are so that you can determine if you are on track.

    To establish baselines:
    If you do not have a baseline. Run your metric to establish one.

    To establish targets:

    • Use historical data and trends of performance.
    • If you do not have historical data, establish an initial target based on stakeholder-identified requirements and expectations.
    • You can also run the metrics report over a defined period of time and use the baseline level of achievement to establish an initial target.
    • The target may not always be a number – it could be a trend. The initial target may be changed after review with stakeholders.

    Actions for Success:
    How will you ensure you can get this metric? For example, if you would like to measure delivered value, to make sure the metric is measurable, you will need to ensure that measures of success are documented for an imitative and then measured once complete.

    • If you need help with Action plans, the IT Metrics Library includes action plans for all of its metrics that may help

    A diagram of identify metrics and to identify baselines and targets.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    Step 5.2

    Record and Action Metrics

    Activities:
    5.2.1 Record and Action Results

    • Note, the Info-Tech IT Dashboards are organized by CIO priorities – Risk, Financials, Talent, and Strategic Initiatives – and address the needs of the CXO audience. The IT Dashboard Workbook is pre-populated with this information.
    • If this meets your audience’s needs, you do not have to edit this content and can instead use the pre-populated information. You may wish to review the information to ensure it is still valid for your audience.

    A diagram that shows step 5.1 to 5.2 to plan, record, and action your metrics.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Senior IT leadership
    • Dashboard SMEs

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Understanding of what and where to record metrics once run.

    5.2.1 Record and Action Results

    1 hour

    After analyzing your results, use this information to update your dashboards. Revisit Tab 6 of the IT Dashboard Workbook to update your story. Remember to record any audience feedback about the dashboards in the Audience Feedback section.

    Action your measures as well as your metrics

    What should be measured can change over time as your organization matures and the business environment changes. Understanding what creates business value for your organization is critical. If metrics need to be changed, record metrics actions under Identified Actions on Tab 7. A metric will need to be addressed in one of the following ways:

    • Added: A new metric is required or an existing metric needs large-scale changes (example: calculation method or scope).
    • Changed: A minor change is required to the presentation format or data. Note: a major change in a metric would be performed through the Add option.
    • Removed: The metric is no longer required, and it needs to be removed from reporting and data gathering. A final report date for that metric should be determined.
    • Maintained: The metric is still useful and no changes are required to the metric, its measurement, or how it’s reported.

    A diagram of record results and identify how to address results.

    Don’t be discouraged if you need to update your metrics a few times before you get it right. It can take some trial and error to find the measures that best indicate the health of what you are measuring.

    Download Info-Tech IT Dashboard Workbook

    Tips for actioning results

    Sometimes actioning your metrics results requires more analysis

    If a metric deviates from your target, you may need to analyze how to correct the issue then run the metric again to see if the results have improved.

    Identify Root Cause
    Root Cause Analysis can include problem exploration techniques like The 5 Whys, fishbone diagrams, or affinity mapping.

    Select a Solution
    Once you have identified a possible root cause, use the same technique to brainstorm and select a solution then re-run your metrics.

    Consider Tension Metrics
    Consider tension metrics when selecting a solution. Will improving one area affect another? A car can go faster but it will consume more fuel – a project can be delivered faster but it may affect the quality.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    1. Using this blueprint and the IT Dashboard Workbook, you validated and customized the dashboards for your audience and organization, which reduced or eliminated time spent searching for and organizing your own visuals.
    2. You documented your dashboards’ story so you are ready to present them to your audience.
    3. You assessed the data for your dashboards and you built a metrics action-tracking plan to maintain your dashboards’ metrics.

    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

    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:

    A photo of Info-Tech IT Dashboards
    Review the Info-Tech IT Dashboards
    Determine how you can use the Info-Tech IT Dashboards in your organization and the anticipated level of customization.

    A photo of the IT Dashboard Workbook
    Plan your dashboards
    Complete the IT Dashboard Workbook to help plan your dashboards using Info-Tech’s IT Dashboards.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Photo of John Corrado
    John Corrado
    Head of IT
    X4 Pharmaceuticals

    As head of IT, John is charged with the creation of strategic IT initiatives that align with X4s vision, mission, culture, and long-term goals and is responsible for the organization’s systems, security, and infrastructure. He works closely developing partnerships with X4tizens across the organization to deliver value through innovative programs and services.

    Photo of Grant Frost
    Grant Frost
    Chief Information & Security Officer
    Niagara Catholic School Board

    Grant Frost is an experienced executive, information technologist and security strategist with extensive experience in both the public and private sector. Grant is known for, and has extensive experience in, IT transformation and the ability to increase capability while decreasing cost in IT services.

    Photo of Nick Scozzaro
    Nick Scozzaro
    CEO and Co-Founder of MobiStream and ShadowHQ
    ShadowHQ

    Nick got his start in software development and mobility working at BlackBerry where he developed a deep understanding of the technology landscape and of what is involved in both modernizing legacy systems and integrating new ones. Working with experts across multiple industries, he innovated, learned, strategized, and ultimately helped push the boundaries of what was possible.

    Photo of Joseph Sanders
    Joseph Sanders
    Managing Director of Technology/Cyber Security Services
    Kentucky Housing Corporation

    In his current role Joe oversees all IT Operations/Applications Services that are used to provide services and support to the citizens of Kentucky. Joe has 30+ years of leadership experience and has held several executive roles in the public and private sector. He has been a keynote speaker for various companies including HP, IBM, and Oracle.

    Photo of Jochen Sievert
    Jochen Sievert
    Director Performance Excellence & IT
    Zeon Chemicals

    Jochen moved to the USA from Duesseldorf, Germany in 2010 to join Zeon Chemicals as their IT Manager. Prior to Zeon, Jochen has held various technical positions at Novell, Microsoft, IBM, and Metro Management Systems.

    Info-Tech Contributors

    Ibrahim Abdel-Kader, Research Analyst
    Donna Bales, Principal Research Director
    Shashi Bellamkonda, Principal Research Director
    John Burwash, Executive Counselor
    Tony Denford, Research Lead
    Jody Gunderman, Senior Executive Advisor
    Tom Hawley, Managing Partner
    Mike Higginbotham, Executive Counselor
    Valence Howden, Principal Research Director
    Dave Kish, Practice Lead
    Carlene McCubbin, Practice Lead
    Jennifer Perrier, Principal Research Director
    Gary Rietz, Executive Counselor
    Steve Schmidt, Senior Managing Partner
    Aaron Shum, Vice President, Security & Privacy
    Ian Tyler-Clarke, Executive Counselor

    Plus, an additional four contributors who wish to remain anonymous.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Photo of Build an IT Risk Taxonomy

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy

    Use this blueprint as a baseline to build a customized IT risk taxonomy suitable for your organization.

    Photo of Create a Holistic IT Dashboard

    Create a Holistic IT Dashboard

    This blueprint will help you identify the KPIs that matter to your organization.

    Photo of Develop Meaningful Service Metrics

    Develop Meaningful Service Metrics

    This blueprint will help you Identify the appropriate service metrics based on stakeholder needs.

    Photo of IT Spend & Staffing Benchmarking

    IT Spend & Staffing Benchmarking

    Use this benchmarking service to capture, analyze, and communicate your IT spending and staffing.

    Photo of Key Metrics for Every CIO

    Key Metrics for Every CIO

    This short research piece highlights the top metrics for every CIO, how those align to your CIO priorities, and action steps against those metrics.

    Photo of Present Security to Executive Stakeholders

    Present Security to Executive Stakeholders

    This blueprint helps you identify communication drivers and goals and collect data to support your presentation. It provides checklists for building and delivering a captivating security presentation.

    Bibliography

    “10 Signs You Are Sitting on a Pile of Data Debt.” Experian, n.d. Web.

    “From the What to the Why: How Data Storytelling Is Key to Success.” Exasol, 2021. Web.

    Bonsignore, Marian. “Using Visual Language to Create the Case for Change.” Amarican Management Association. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.

    Calzon, Bernardita. “Top 25 Dashboard Design Principles, Best Practices & How To’s.” Datapine, 5 Apr. 2023.

    “Data Literacy.” Tableau, n.d. Accessed 3 May 2023.

    “KPIs Don’t Improve Decision-Making In Most Organizations.” LinkedIn, n.d. Accessed 2 May 2023.

    Miller, Amanda. “A Comprehensive Guide to Accessible Data Visualization.” Betterment, 2020. Accessed May 2022.

    “Performance Management: Why Keeping Score Is so Important, and so Hard.” McKinsey. Accessed 2 May 2023.

    Vogel, Douglas, et al. Persuasion and the Role of Visual Presentation Support: The UM/3M Study. Management Information Systems Research Center School of Management University of Minnesota, 1986.

    Watson, Morag W., et al. ”IT’s Changing Mandate in an Age of Disruption.” The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, 2021.

    Tymans Group Consulting

    Multidisciplinary Infrastructure and IT Operations Experts

    Discover and implement all the ingredients that make your IT perform fast and rock solid.

    Yes, I want stable and performant IT Operations

    We bring passion, focus, and results to your infra and operations IT resilience.

    TY innovates resilience embedding in your organization

    Contact us for an open talk

    • Our Resilience Pack helps you on your way

      This pack contains the DIY guides that have helped many managers, specialists, business owners and even other consultants successfully implement what is needed to make your business resilient and your IT performant. You can do this! And where needed, you can get extra help from us.

      Read more

    • TY as your advisor

      This gives you our expertise on tap. Do you have an issue? Call us. You want to have a sparring partner to solve a problem? Call us. Do you need a sounding board? Call us.

      TY provides advisory services as well as traditional consulting. We also execute study and revision services for your policies, standards, procedures, and guidelines to ensure compliance with DORA, NIS2 and corporate requirements of both your own company and that of your clients. And we also check against our internal best ways of working.

      Additionally, it is an ideal companion to our Resilience Pack.

      Book a conversation

    • Focused Consulting and Implementing

      This is where you have our undivided attention, and we work with you one on one until resolution. Note that there is a waiting period for this service at this time.

      If you are interested, please first book a call so that we can determine if we are a good fit together.

      Book a conversation

    What our relations tell us

    • Citigroup Manager

      As a technical consultant, Gert is an All-Star performer...  He has got many wins under his belt... His willingness to work hard, knowledge of regional systems (especially Tokyo) and Microsoft Office is well respected within the Group 

    • Sandra

      Tx for all the efforts done! Great Job! And good luck for the ones amongst you that still need to work tomorrow Grtz Sandra VB
    • Patrick A.

      Hi Gert, I'm busy documenting .... Thanks for your real friendly and careful, yet effective support :-) Patrick A.
    • Lucie VH

      During my vacation, Gert took over the management of a number of ongoing problems. Even before I actually left for my trip, he took action and proposed a number of improvements. Gert coordinated between the different stakeholders and PTA's and resolved a number of acute issues. And he did this in a very pleasant, yet effective way.
    • Dawn

      No worries. It only freaked me out for a few minutes, then I saw that the system had blocked them from doing any real damage. Thanks for the cleanup and extra measures, though! As always, you rock!
    • After a successful DRP

      Thanks for all the efforts done ans special Tx Gert for Coordinating this again!
    • A CIO

      Yet again Gert, Thanks for handling this in such a top way!
    • A Sales Manager

      Awesome Gert, I will let the team know we can close this issue!
    • Investment bank manager

      Flexibility, Adaptability, problem Solving are Gert's strong points, Exceptionally beneficial in "crisis." I can attest that Gert will always see a problem through. if he needs to hand it off, it will aways have good handoff notes. His business knowledge is good and will part of the next project.

    • Wall Street Performance Review

      As with the classes for SFC, Gert organised formal classes for all of the Research IT teams.... I would class this job as well done, given everything that was going on with Rsearch IT. 

    • Stuart B on Gert Taeymans

      Excellent technical resource. Quick help on issues and provide explanations to regional teams. Often covers for us in the evenings or when things get particularly busy.

    • Asia support to roll out global system

      Gert time in Japan was a great success. He really helped the IT group through a really difficult tume during the roll out of {the global research publishing system} and had to cover all the bases that had not been properly coverd by the previous person in Japan. Gert's visit also coincided with Stuart's joining into the Asia IT Research group. Gert was very flexible  in the hours that he worked and the lenght of time he was out in Tokyo (in the end more than 4 weeks.)

      The feedback from both the users and the IT group was VERY positive on Gertt's contribution. He was more than capabable to put across technical points to the IT team, in their language.

    • IT Director

      Gert is a knowledgeable individual who takes on additional responsibility... rapidly addressng end-user issues and developing custom solutions when needed.

    Benefits of working with Tymans Group

    • We focus on actual deliverables

      TY delivers on the IT resilience what and how. Get actionable IT, management, governance, and productivity research, insights, blueprints with templates, easy-to-use tools, and clear instructions to help you execute effectively and become IT resilient.

    • Get insights from top IT professionals

      Our TY network base constantly informs us about our IT resilience research and validates it through client experiences. TY adds to that by applying this research to real-world situations in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Europe and the US.

    • Data-driven insights

      It is tempting to use your gut instinct. Don't. Everything TY does, is data-driven. From our research to our interactions with you, we use an analytical approach to help you move forward with your key IT resilience projects.

    Frequently asked questions

    • Does this work for less than 25 employees?

      Resilience is not size-dependent. That said, if you are supplying critical services to financial services firms, you may not have a choice. In that case, be prepared to up your game. Call TY in this case. We can help you fulfill third-party requirements, such as the DORA regulation.

      In other cases, if you plan to grow your company beyond 25 employees, then yes. Start with the basics through. Make sure you have a good understanding of your current challenges. 

      If you are just starting out and want to ensure that your company's processes are correct right out of the gate, it's better to give me a call so that we can start you off in the right direction without spending too much.

    • I'm a small business owner, can I do all this by myself?

      See also the above question about company size and target clients. If you have fewer than 25 employees and you are not supplying critical services to financial institutions, then maybe some of our guides are not for you. We can still help you organize your resilience, but it may be more cost-effective to use only our TY Advisory services.

      Once you grow beyond 25 employees, you will benefit from our processes. Just implement what you need. How do you know what you need? You probably already have an inkling of what is lacking in your organization. If you are unsure, please get in touch with us.

      In short, the answer is yes, and TY can help you. Once you know what you are looking for, that guide will allow you to handle it yourself. If you need help selecting the right guide, please get in touch with us.

    • Do you provide refunds?

      Before buying the DIY guides, please check out the free Executive Summary when available. If there is no Executive summary available, please contact me with any questions you have. 

      As these are downloadable products, I cannot provide any refunds, but I will help you with any exchange where you have a good reason. 

    • I bought the wrong item

      If you bought the wrong item, please contact me and we'll be happy to provide an alternative item.

    • I want more assistance

      Yes, more assistance is available.  Tymans Group can provide you with per-guide assistance or work with you on an overall strategy.

      Per-guide assistance ranges from a single phone or video consultation to guided implementation or workshop. Alternatively we can go to do-it-for-you implementation or even full-time consulting.

      Please contact me for a talk.

    I want more information to become more resilient.

    Continue reading

    Modernize Enterprise Storage

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}538|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: Storage & Backup Optimization
    • Parent Category Link: /storage-and-backup-optimization
    • Current storage solutions are nearing end of life, performance or capacity limits.
    • Data continues to grow at an exponential rate, and management complexity is growing even faster. Some kinds of data, like unstructured data, are leading factors in the exponential growth of data.
    • Emerging storage technologies and storage software/automation are disrupting the market and redefining the role of disk arrays, including how storage aligns with people and process.
    • Storage infrastructure budgets are not satisfying the exponential growth of data.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Start with the data, not storage. Answer what is being stored and why before investigating the where and how of storage solutions.
    • Governance and archiving are not IT projects. These can have tremendous benefits for managing data growth but must involve the larger business.
    • More capacity is not a long-term solution. Data is growing faster than decreasing storage costs. Data and capacity mitigation strategies will help in more effective and efficient infrastructure utilization and cost reduction.

    Impact and Result

    • It’s about the data. Start with what is being supported and why. Decide on what and how data is stored before you decide on where. Let the needs of your workloads and governance requirements of your business drive your storage infrastructure decisions and the technologies you adopt.
    • Identify current and future capacity needs for current and future data drivers. Evaluating the ability of current infrastructure to meet these needs will help you discover necessary additions to meet these requirements.
    • Identify governance requirements and constraints that exist across the organization and are specific to workloads. Technology has to conform to these requirements and constraints, not the other way around.
    • Align people and process with technology changes. To effectively utilize the changes in storage, appropriate changes must be made to existing people and process.

    Modernize Enterprise Storage Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should modernize enterprise storage, 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 the case for storage modernization

    Develop the business case for modernizing storage and assess your existing infrastructure for meeting data needs.

    • Modernize Enterprise Storage – Phase 1: Build the Case for Storage Modernization
    • Modernize Enterprise Storage Workbook

    2. Develop your storage technology needs and goals

    Review data governance, explore emerging storage technologies, and identify current and future storage needs.

    • Modernize Enterprise Storage – Phase 2: Develop Your Storage Technology Needs and Goals
    • Evaluate Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Your Infrastructure Roadmap
    • Evaluate Software-Defined Storage Solutions for Your Infrastructure Roadmap
    • Evaluate All Flash in Primary Storage for Your Infrastructure Roadmap
    • Infrastructure Roadmap Technology Assessment Tool

    3. Develop and communicate the roadmap, TCO, and RFP

    Communicate the roadmap with people, process, and technology initiatives, develop an RFP, and conduct a TCO.

    • Modernize Enterprise Storage – Phase 3: Develop and Communicate the Roadmap and RFP
    • Modernize Enterprise Storage Communications Report
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Modernize Enterprise Storage

    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 Business Case and Assess Current State

    The Purpose

    Identify a business case and need for storage modernization by assessing current and future storage needs.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A clear understanding of the business expectations and needs of storage infrastructure.

    Activities

    1.1 Identify current storage pain points.

    1.2 Discuss storage modernization drivers.

    1.3 Identify data growth drivers.

    1.4 Determine relative growth burden.

    Outputs

    Alignment of storage modernization with organizational pain points

    Desired outcomes of storage modernization

    An understanding of growth impact across drivers

    An understanding of capacity and expansion needs

    2 Review Governance and Emerging Technologies

    The Purpose

    Review existing data governance.

    Explore emerging technologies and trends in the storage space.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Review data governance objectives that must be met.

    Identify a shortlist of storage technologies and trends that may be of interest.

    Activities

    2.1 Shortlist interest in storage technologies.

    2.2 Prioritize shortlist of storage technologies.

    2.3 Identify solutions that meet data and governance needs.

    Outputs

    A starting point for research into new and emerging storage technologies

    Expressed interest in adopting storage technologies

    A list of storage solutions needed to deliver on future data and governance needs

    3 Identify Storage Needs and Develop Initiatives

    The Purpose

    Identify the people, process, and technology initiatives required to adopt new storage technologies.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Align your organizational people and process with new and disruptive technologies to best take advantage of what these new technologies have to offer.

    Activities

    3.1 Complete future storage structure planning tool.

    3.2 Identify storage modernization technology initiatives.

    3.3 Identify storage modernization people initiatives.

    3.4 Identify storage modernization process initiatives.

    Outputs

    A understanding of the future state of your storage infrastructure

    Technology initiatives needed to adopt storage structure

    People initiatives needed to adopt storage structure

    Process initiatives needed to adopt storage structure

    4 Build a Roadmap and RFP, Calculate TCO

    The Purpose

    Develop an executive communications report.

    Conduct a TCO analysis comparing on-premises and cloud storage solutions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Communicate storage modernization goals and plans to stakeholders.

    Activities

    4.1 Prioritize storage modernization initiatives.

    4.2 Complete project timeline and build roadmap.

    4.3 Compare TCO of on-premises and cloud storage solutions.

    Outputs

    Alignment of people, process, and technology with storage adoption

    Communicate storage modernization goals and plans to stakeholders and executives

    Compare cost of on-premises and cloud storage alternatives

    Embed Privacy and Security Culture Within Your Organization

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}379|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: 10 Average Days Saved
    • member rating average days saved: After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.
    • Parent Category Name: Governance, Risk & Compliance
    • Parent Category Link: /governance-risk-compliance

    Engagement with privacy and security within organizations has not kept pace with the increasing demands from regulations. As a result, organizations often find themselves saying they support privacy and security engagement but struggling to create behavioral changes in their staff.

    However, with new privacy and security requirements proliferating globally, we can’t help but wonder how much longer we can carry on with this approach.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    To truly take hold, privacy and security engagement must be supported by senior leadership, aligned with business objectives, and embedded within each of the organization’s operating groups and teams.

    Impact and Result

    • Develop a defined structure for privacy and security in the context of your organization, your obligations, and your objectives.
    • Align your business goals and strategy with privacy and security to obtain support from your senior leadership team.
    • Identify and implement a set of metrics to monitor the success of each of the six engagement enablers amongst your team.

    Embed Privacy and Security Culture Within Your Organization Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should develop a culture of privacy and security at your organization, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Define privacy and security in the context of the organization

    Use the charter template to document the primary outcomes and objectives for the privacy and security engagement program within the organization and map the organizational structure to each of the respective roles to help develop a culture of privacy and security.

    • Privacy and Security Engagement Charter

    2. Map your privacy and security enablers

    This tool maps business objectives and key strategic goals to privacy and security objectives and attributes identified as a part of the overall engagement program. Leverage the alignment tool to ensure your organizational groups are mapped to their corresponding enablers and supporting metrics.

    • Privacy and Security Business Alignment Tool

    3. Identify and track your engagement indicators

    This document maps out the organization’s continued efforts in ensuring employees are engaged with privacy and security principles, promoting a strong culture of privacy and security. Use the playbook to document and present the organization’s custom plan for privacy and security culture.

    • Privacy and Security Engagement Playbook

    Infographic

    Workshop: Embed Privacy and Security Culture Within Your Organization

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

    1 Determine Drivers and Engagement Objectives

    The Purpose

    Understand the current privacy and security landscape in the organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Targeted set of drivers from both a privacy and security perspective

    Activities

    1.1 Discuss key drivers for a privacy and security engagement program.

    1.2 Identify privacy requirements and objectives.

    1.3 Identify security requirements and objectives.

    1.4 Review the business context.

    Outputs

    Understanding of the role and requirements of privacy and security in the organization

    Privacy drivers and objectives

    Security drivers and objectives

    Privacy and security engagement program objectives

    2 Align Privacy and Security With the Business

    The Purpose

    Ensure that your privacy and security engagement program is positioned to obtain the buy-in it needs through business alignment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Direct mappings between a culture of privacy and security and the organization’s strategic and business objectives

    Activities

    2.1 Review the IT/InfoSec strategy with IT and the InfoSec team and map to business objectives.

    2.2 Review the privacy program and privacy strategic direction with the Privacy/Legal/Compliance team and map to business objectives.

    2.3 Define the four organizational groupings and map to the organization’s structure.

    Outputs

    Privacy and security objectives mapped to business strategic goals

    Mapped organizational structure to Info-Tech’s organizational groups

    Framework for privacy and security engagement program

    Initial mapping assessment within Privacy and Security Business Alignment Tool

    3 Map Privacy and Security Enablers to Organizational Groups

    The Purpose

    Make your engagement plan tactical with a set of enablers mapped to each of the organizational groups and privacy and security objectives.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Measurable indicators through the use of targeted enablers that customize the organization’s approach to privacy and security culture

    Activities

    3.1 Define the privacy enablers.

    3.2 Define the security enablers.

    3.3 Map the privacy and security enablers to organizational structure.

    3.4 Revise and complete Privacy and Security Business Alignment Tool inputs.

    Outputs

    Completed Privacy and Security Engagement Charter.

    Completed Privacy and Security Business Alignment Tool.

    4 Identify and Select KPIs and Metrics

    The Purpose

    Ensure that metrics are established to report on what the business wants to see and what security and privacy teams have planned for.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    End-to-end, comprehensive program that ensures continued employee engagement with privacy and security at all levels of the organization.

    Activities

    4.1 Segment KPIs and metrics based on categories or business, technical, and behavioral.

    4.2 Select KPIs and metrics for tracking privacy and security engagement.

    4.3 Assign ownership over KPI and metric tracking and monitoring.

    4.4 Determine reporting cadence and monitoring.

    Outputs

    KPIs and metrics identified at a business, technical, and behavioral level for employees for continued growth

    Completed Privacy and Security Engagement Playbook

    IBM i Migration Considerations

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}109|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: Strategy and Organizational Design
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-organizational-design

    IBM i remains a vital platform and now many CIOs, CTOs, and IT leaders are faced with the same IBM i challenges regardless of industry focus: how do you evaluate the future viability of this platform, assess the future fit and purpose, develop strategies, and determine the future of this platform for your organization?

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    For organizations that are struggling with the iSeries/IBM i platform, resourcing challenges are typically the culprit. An aging population of RPG programmers and system administrators means organizations need to be more pro-active in maintaining in-house expertise. Migrating off the iSeries/IBM i platform is a difficult option for most organizations due to complexity, switching costs in the short term, and a higher long-term TCO.

    Impact and Result

    The most common tactic is for the organization to better understand their IBM i options and adopt some level of outsourcing for the non-commodity platform retaining the application support/development in-house. To make the evident, obvious; the options here for the non-commodity are not as broad as with commodity server platforms. Options include co-location, onsite outsourcing, managed and public cloud services.

    IBM i Migration Considerations Research & Tools

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

    1. IBM i Migration Considerations – A brief deck that outlines key migration options for the IBM i platforms.

    This project will help you evaluate the future viability of this platform; assess the fit, purpose, and price; develop strategies for overcoming potential challenges; and determine the future of this platform for your organization.

    • IBM i Migration Considerations Storyboard

    2. Infrastructure Outsourcing IBM i Scoring Tool – A tool to collect vendor responses and score each vendor.

    Use this scoring sheet to help you define and evaluate IBM i vendor responses.

    • Infrastructure Outsourcing IBM i Scoring Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    IBM i Migration Considerations

    Don’t be overwhelmed by IBM i migration options.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    IBM i remains a vital platform and now many CIO, CTO, and IT leaders are faced with the same IBM i challenges regardless of industry focus; how do you evaluate the future viability of this platform, assess the future fit and purpose, develop strategies, and determine the future of this platform for your organization?

    Common Obstacles

    For organizations that are struggling with the iSeries/IBM i platform, resourcing challenges are typically the culprit. An aging population of RPG programmers and system administrators means organizations need to be more proactive in maintaining in-house expertise. Migrating off the iSeries/IBM i platform is a difficult option for most organizations due to complexity, switching costs in the short term, and a higher long-term TCO.

    Info-Tech Approach

    The most common tactic is for the organization to better understand its IBM i options and adopt some level of outsourcing for the non-commodity platform, retaining the application support/development in-house. To make the evident, obvious: the options here for the non-commodity are not as broad as with commodity server platforms. Options include co-location, onsite outsourcing, managed hosting, and public cloud services.

    Info-Tech Insight

    “For over twenty years, IBM was ‘king,’ dominating the large computer market. By the 1980s, the world had woken up to the fact that the IBM mainframe was expensive and difficult, taking a long time and a lot of work to get anything done. Eager for a new solution, tech professionals turned to the brave new concept of distributed systems for a more efficient alternative. On June 21, 1988, IBM announced the launch of the AS/400, their answer to distributed computing.” (Dale Perkins)

    Review

    We help IT leaders make the most of their IBM i environment.

    Problem Statement:

    The IBM i remains a vital platform for many businesses and continues to deliver exceptional reliability and performance and play a key role in the enterprise. With the limited resources at hand, CIOs and the like must continually review and understand their migration path with the same regard as any other distributed system roadmap.

    This research is designed for:

    • IT strategic direction decision makers
    • IT managers responsible for an existing iSeries or IBM i platform
    • Organizations evaluating platforms for mission-critical applications

    This research will help you:

    1. Evaluate the future viability of this platform.
    2. Assess the fit, purpose, and price.
    3. Develop strategies for overcoming potential challenges.
    4. Determine the future of this platform for your organization.

    The “fit for purpose” plot

    Thought Model

    We will investigate the aspect of different IBM i scenarios as they impact business, what that means, and how that can guide the questions that you are asking as you move to an aligned IBM i IT strategy. Our model considers:

    • Importance to Business Outcomes
      • Important to strategic objectives
      • Provides competitive advantage
      • Non-commodity IT service or process
      • Specialized in-house knowledge required
    • Vendor’s Performance Advantage
      • Talent or access to skills
      • Economies of scale or lower cost at scale
      • Access to technology

    Info-Tech Insights

    With multiple control points to be addressed, care must be taken in simplifying your options while addressing all concerns to ease operational load.

    Map different 'IBM i' scenarios with axes 'Importance to Business Outcomes - Low to High' and 'Vendor’s Performance Advantage - Low to High'. Quadrant labels are '[LI/LA] Potentially Outsource: Service management, Help desk, desk-side support, Asset management', '[LI/HA] Outsource: Application & Infra Support, Web Hosting, SAP Support, Email Services, Infrastructure', '[HI/LA] Insource (For Now): Application development tech support', and '[HI/HA] Potentially Outsource: Onshore or offshore application maintenance'.

    IBM i environments are challenging

    “The IBM i Reality” – Darin Stahl

    Most members relying on business applications/workloads running on non-commodity platforms (zSeries, IBM i, Solaris, AIX, etc.) are first motivated to get out from under the perceived higher costs for the hardware platform.

    An additional challenge for non-commodity platforms is that from an IT Operations Management perspective they become an island with a diminishing number of integrated operations skills and solutions such as backup/restore and monitoring tools.

    The most common tactic is for the organization to adopt some level of outsourcing for the non-commodity platform, retaining the application support and development in-house.

    Key challenges with current IBM i environments:
    1. DR Requirements
      Understand what the business needs are and where users and resources are located.
    2. Market Lack of Expertise
      Skilled team members are hard to find.
    3. Cost Management
      There is a perceived cost disadvantage to managing on-prem solutions.
    4. Aging Support Teams
      Current support teams are aging with little backfill in skill and experience.

    Understand your options

    Co-Location

    A customer transitions their hardware environment to a provider’s data center. The provider can then manage the hardware and “system.”

    Onsite Outsourcing

    A provider will support the hardware/system environment at the client’s site.

    Managed Hosting

    A customer transitions their legacy application environment to an off-prem hosted, multi-tenanted environment.

    Public Cloud

    A customer can “re-platform” the non-commodity workload into public cloud offerings or in a few offerings “re-host.”

    Co-Location

    Provider manages the data center hardware environment.

    Abstract

    Here a provider manages the system data center environment and hardware; however, the client’s in-house IBM i team manages the IBM i hardware environment and the system applications. The client manages all of the licenses associated with the platform as well as the hardware asset management considerations. This is typically part of a larger services or application transformation. This effectively outsources the data center management while maintaining all IBM i technical operations in-house.

    Advantages

    • On-demand bandwidth
    • Cost effective
    • Secure and compliant environment
    • On-demand remote “hands and feet” services
    • Improved IT DR services
    • Data center compliance

    Considerations

    • Application transformation
    • CapEx cost
    • Fluctuating network bandwidth costs
    • Secure connectivity
    • Disaster recovery and availability of vendor
    • Company IT DR and BC planning
    • Remote system maintenance (HW)

    Info-Tech Insights

    This model is extremely attractive for organizations looking to reduce their data center management footprint. Idea for the SMB.

    Onsite Sourcing

    A provider will support the hardware/system environment at the client’s site.

    Abstract

    Here a provider will support and manage the hardware/system environment at the client’s site. The provider may acquire the customer’s hardware and provide software licenses. This could also include hiring or “rebadging” staff supporting the platform. This type of arrangement is typically part of a larger services or application transformation. While low risk, it is not as cost-effective as other deployment models.

    Advantages

    • Managed environment within company premises
    • Cost effective (OpEx expense)
    • Economies of scale
    • On-demand “as-a-service” model
    • Improved IT DR staffing services
    • 24x7 monitoring and support

    Considerations

    • Outsourced IT talent
    • Terms and contract conditions
    • IT staff attrition
    • Increased liability
    • Modified technical support and engagement
    • Secure connectivity and communication
    • Internal problem and change management

    Info-Tech Insights

    Depending on the application lifecycle and viability, in-house skill and technical depth is a key consideration when developing your IBM i strategy.

    Managed Hosting

    Transition legacy application environment to an off-prem hosted multi-tenanted environment.

    Abstract

    This type of arrangement is typically part of an application migration or transformation. In this model, a client can “re-platform” the application into an off-premises-hosted provider platform. This would yield many of the cloud benefits however in a different scaling capacity as experienced with commodity workloads (e.g. Windows, Linux) and the associated application.

    Advantages

    • Turns CapEx into OpEx
    • Reduces in-house need for diminishing or scarce human resources
    • Allows the enterprise to focus on the value of the IBM i platform through the reduction of system administrative toil
    • Improved IT DR services
    • Data center compliance

    Considerations

    • Application transformation
    • Network bandwidth
    • Contract terms and conditions
    • Modified technical support and engagement
    • Secure connectivity and communication
    • Technical security and compliance
    • Limited providers; reduced options

    Info-Tech Insights

    There is a difference between a “re-host” and “re-platform” migration strategy. Determine which solution aligns to the application requirements.

    Public Cloud

    Leverage “public cloud” alternatives with AWS, Google, or Microsoft AZURE.

    Abstract

    This type of arrangement is typically part of a larger migration or application transformation. While low risk, it is not as cost-effective as other deployment models. In this model, client can “re-platform” the non-commodity workload into public cloud offerings or in a few offerings “re-host.” This would yield many of the cloud benefits however in a different scaling capacity as experienced with commodity workloads (e.g. Windows, Linux).

    Advantages

    • Remote workforce accessibility
    • OpEx expense model
    • Improved IT DR services
    • Reduced infrastructure and system administration
    • Vendor management
    • 24x7 monitoring and support

    Considerations

    • Contract terms and conditions
    • Modified technical support and engagement
    • Secure connectivity and communication
    • Technical security and compliance
    • Limited providers; reduced options
    • Vendor/cloud lock-in
    • Application migration/”re-platform”
    • Application and system performance

    Info-Tech Insights

    This model is extremely attractive for organizations that consume primarily cloud services and have a large remote workforce.

    Understand your vendors

    • To best understand your options, you need to understand what IBM i services are provided by the industry vendors.
    • Within the following slides, you will find a defined activity with a working template that will create “vendor profiles” for each vendor.
    • As a working example, you can review the following partners:
    • Connectria (United States)
    • Rowton IT Solutions Ltd (United Kingdom)
    • Mid-Range (Canada)

    Info-Tech Insights

    Creating vendor profiles will help quickly filter the solution providers that directly meet your IBM i needs.

    Vendor Profile #1

    Rowton IT

    Summary of Vendor

    “Rowton IT thrive on creating robust and simple solutions to today's complex IT problems. We have a highly skilled and motivated workforce that will guarantee the right solution.

    Working with select business partners, we can offer competitive and cost effective packages tailored to suit your budget and/or business requirements.

    Our knowledge and experience cover vast areas of IT including technical design, provision and installation of hardware (Wintel and IBM Midrange), technical engineering services, support services, IT project management, application testing, documentation and training.”

    IBM i Services

    • ✔ IBM Power Hardware Sales
    • ✔ Co-Managed Services
    • ✔ DR/High Available Config
    • ✔ Full Managed Services
    • ✖ Co-Location Services
    • ✔ Public Cloud Services (AWS)

    URL
    rowtonit.com

    Regional Coverage:
    United Kingdom

    Logo for RowtonIT.com.

    Vendor Profile #2

    Connectria

    Summary of Vendor

    “Every journey starts with a single step and for Connectria, that step happened to be with the world’s largest bank, Deutsche Bank. Followed quickly by our second client, IBM. Since then, we have added over 1,000 clients worldwide. For 25 years, each customer, large or small, has relied on Connectria to deliver on promises made to make it easy to do business with us through flexible terms, scalable solutions, and straightforward pricing. Join us on our journey.”

    IBM i Services

    • ✔ IBM Power Hardware Sales
    • ✔ Co-Managed Services
    • ✔ DR/High Available Config
    • ✔ Full Managed Services
    • ✔ Co-Location Services
    • ✔ Public Cloud Services (AWS)

    URL
    connectria.com

    Regional Coverage:
    United States

    Logo for Connectria.

    Vendor Profile #3

    Mid-Range

    Summary of Vendor

    “Founded in 1988 and profitable throughout all of those 31 years, we have a solid track record of success. At Mid-Range, we use our expertise to assess your unique needs, in order to proactively develop the most effective IT solution for your requirements. Our full-service approach to technology and our diverse and in-depth industry expertise keep our clients coming back year after year.

    Serving clients across North America in a variety of industries, from small and emerging organizations to large, established enterprises – we’ve seen it all. Whether you need hardware or software solutions, disaster recovery and high availability, managed services or hosting or full ERP services with our JD Edwards offerings – we have the methods and expertise to help.”

    IBM i Services

    • ✔ IBM Power Hardware Sales
    • ✔ Co-Managed Services
    • ✔ DR/High Available Config
    • ✔ Full Managed Services
    • ✔ Co-Location Services
    • ✔ Public Cloud Services (AWS)

    URL
    midrange.ca

    Regional Coverage:
    Canada

    Logo for Mid-Range.

    Activity

    Understand your vendor options

    Activities:
    1. Create your vendor profiles
    2. Score vendor responses
    3. Develop and manage your vendor agenda

    This activity involves the following participants:

    • IT strategic direction decision makers
    • IT managers responsible for an existing iSeries or IBM i platform

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Vendor Profile Template
    • Completed IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Scoring Tool

    Info-Tech Insights

    This check-point process creates transparency around agreement costs with the business and gives the business an opportunity to re-evaluate its requirements for a potentially leaner agreement.

    1. Create your vendor profiles

    Define what you are looking for:

    • Create a vendor profile for every vendor of interest.
    • Leverage our starting list and template to track and record the advantages of each vendor.

    Mindshift

    First National Technology Solutions

    Key Information Systems

    MainLine

    Direct Systems Support

    T-Systems

    Horizon Computer Solutions Inc.

    Vendor Profile Template

    [Vendor Name]

    Summary of Vendor

    [Vendor Summary]
    *Detail the Vendor Services as a Summary*

    IBM i Services

    • ✔ IBM Power Hardware Sales
    • ✔ Co-Managed Services
    • ✔ DR/High Available Config
    • ✔ Full Managed Services
    • ✔ Co-Location Services
    • ✔ Public Cloud Services (AWS)
    *Itemize the Vendor Services specific to your requirements*

    URL
    https://www.url.com/
    *Insert the Vendor URL*

    Regional Coverage:
    [Country\Region]
    *Insert the Vendor Coverage & Locations*

    *Insert the Vendor Logo*

    2. Score your vendor responses

    Use the IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Scoring Tool to manage vendor responses.
    Use Info-Tech’s IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Scoring Tool to systematically score your vendor responses.

    The overall quality of the IBM i questions can help you understand what it might be like to work with the vendor.

    Consider the following questions:

    • Is the vendor clear about what it’s able to offer? Is its response transparent?
    • How much effort did the vendor put into answering the questions?
    • Does the vendor seem like someone you would want to work with?

    Once you have the vendor responses, you will select two or three vendors to continue assessing in more depth leading to an eventual final selection.

    Screenshot of the IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Scoring Tool's Scoring Sheet. There are three tables: 'Scoring Scale', 'Results', and one with 'RFP Questions'. Note on Results table says 'Top Scoring Vendors', and note on questions table says 'List your IBM i questions (requirements)'.

    Info-Tech Insights

    Watch out for misleading scores that result from poorly designed criteria weightings.

    3. Develop your vendor agenda

    Vendor Conference Call

    Develop an agenda for the conference call. Here is a sample agenda:
    • Review the vendor questions.
    • Go over answers to written vendor questions previously submitted.
    • Address new vendor questions.

    Commonly Debated Question:
    Should vendors be asked to remain anonymous on the call or should each vendor mention their organization when they join the call?

    Many organizations worry that if vendors can identify each other, they will price fix. However, price fixing is extremely rare due to its consequences and most vendors likely have a good idea which other vendors are participating in the bid. Another thought is that revealing vendors could either result in a higher level of competition or cause some vendors to give up:

    • A vendor that hears its rival is also bidding may increase the competitiveness of its bid and response.
    • A vendor that feels it doesn’t have a chance may put less effort into the process.
    • A vendor that feels it doesn’t have real competition may submit a less competitive or detailed response than it otherwise would have.

    Vendor Workshop

    A vendor workshop day is an interactive way to provide context to your vendors and to better understand the vendors’ offerings. The virtual or in-person interaction also offers a great way to understand what it’s like to work with each vendor and decide whether you could build a partnership with them in the long run.

    The main focus of the workshop is the vendors’ service solution presentation. Here is a sample agenda for a two-day workshop:

    Day 1
    • Meet and greet
    • Welcome presentation with objectives, acquisition strategy, and company overview
    • Overview of the current IT environment, technologies, and company expectations
    • Question and answer session
    • Site walk
    Day 2
    • Review Day 1 activities
    • Vendor presentations and solution framing
    Use the IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Scoring Tool to manage vendor responses.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Effectively Acquire Infrastructure Services
    Acquiring a service is like buying an experience. Don’t confuse the simplicity of buying hardware with buying an experience.

    Outsource IT Infrastructure to Improve System Availability, Reliability, and Recovery
    There are very few IT infrastructure components you should be housing internally – outsource everything else.

    Build Your Infrastructure Roadmap
    Move beyond alignment: Put yourself in the driver’s seat for true business value.

    Define Your Cloud Vision
    Make the most of cloud for your organization.

    Document Your Cloud Strategy
    Drive consensus by outlining how your organization will use the cloud.

    Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan
    Close the gap between your DR capabilities and service continuity requirements.

    Create a Better RFP Process
    Improve your RFPs to gain leverage and get better results.

    Research Authors

    Photo of Darin Stahl, Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group.Darin Stahl, Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    Principal Research Advisor within the Infrastructure Practice and leveraging 38+ years of experience, his areas of focus include: IT Operations Management, Service Desk, Infrastructure Outsourcing, Managed Services, Cloud Infrastructure, DRP/BCP, Printer Management, Managed Print Services, Application Performance Monitoring (APM), Managed FTP, and non-commodity servers (zSeries, mainframe, IBM i, AIX, Power PC).

    Photo of Troy Cheeseman, Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group.Troy Cheeseman, Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group

    Troy has over 24 years of experience and has championed large, enterprise-wide technology transformation programs, remote/home office collaboration and remote work strategies, BCP, IT DRP, IT Operations and expense management programs, international right placement initiatives, and large technology transformation initiatives (M&A). Additionally, he has deep experience working with IT solution providers and technology (cloud) start-ups.

    Research Contributors

    Photo of Dan Duffy, President & Owner, Mid-Range.Dan Duffy, President & Owner, Mid-Range

    Dan Duffy is the President and Founder of Mid-Range Computer Group Inc., an IBM Platinum Business Partner. Dan and his team have been providing the Canadian and American IBM Power market with IBM infrastructure solutions including private cloud, hosting and disaster recovery, high availability and data center services since 1988. He has served on numerous boards and associations including the Toronto Users Group for Mid-Range Systems (TUG), the IBM Business Partners of the Americas Advisory Council, the Cornell Club of Toronto, and the Notre Dame Club of Toronto. Dan holds a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.

    Photo of George Goodall, Executive Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group.George Goodall, Executive Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    George Goodall is an Executive Advisor in the Research Executive Services practice at Info-Tech Research Group. George has over 20 years of experience in IT consulting, enterprise software sales, project management, and workshop delivery. His primary focus is the unique challenges and opportunities in organizations with small and constrained IT operations. In his long tenure at Info-Tech, George has covered diverse topics including voice communications, storage, and strategy and governance.

    Bibliography

    “Companies using IBM i (formerly known as i5/OS).” Enlyft, 21 July 2021. Web.

    Connor, Clare. “IBM i and Meeting the Challenges of Modernization.” Ensono, 22 Mar. 2022. Web.

    Huntington, Tom. “60+ IBM i User Groups and Communities to Join?” HelpSystems, 16 Dec. 2021. Web.

    Perkins, Dale. “The Road to Power Cloud: June 21st 1988 to now. The Journey Continues.” Mid-Range, 1 Nov. 2021. Web.

    Prickett Morgan, Timothy. “How IBM STACKS UP POWER8 AGAINST XEON SERVERS.” The Next Platform, 13 Oct. 2015. Web.

    “Why is AS/400 still used? Four reasons to stick with a classic.” NTT, 21 July 2016. Web.

    Appendix

    Public Cloud Provider Notes

    Appendix –
    Cloud
    Providers


    “IBM Power (IBM i and AIX) workloads are also available in the so-called ‘cloud.’” (Darin Stahl)

    AWS

    Appendix –
    Cloud
    Providers



    “IBM Power (IBM i and AIX) workloads are also available in the so-called ‘cloud.’” (Darin Stahl)

    Google

    • Google Cloud console supports IBM Power Systems.
    • This offering provides cloud instances running on IBM Power Systems servers with PowerVM.
    • The service uses a per-day prorated monthly subscription model for cloud instance plans with different capacities of compute, memory, storage, and network. Standard plans are listed below and custom plans are possible.
    • There is no IBM i offering yet that we are aware of.
    • For AIX on Power, this would appear to be a better option than AWS (Converge Enterprise Cloud with IBM Power for Google Cloud).

    Appendix –
    Cloud
    Providers



    “IBM Power (IBM i and AIX) workloads are also available in the so-called ‘cloud.’” (Darin Stahl)

    Azure

    • Azure has partners using the Azure Dedicated Host offerings to deliver “native support for IBM POWER Systems to Azure data centres” (PowerWire).
    • Microsoft has installed Power servers in an couple Azure data centers and Skytap manages the IBM i, AIX, and Linux environments for clients.
    • As far as I am aware there is no ability to install IBM i or AIX within an Azure Dedicated Host via the retail interfaces – these must be worked through a partner like Skytap.
    • The cloud route for IBM i or AIX might be the easiest working with Skytap and Azure. This would appear to be a better option than AWS in my opinion.

    Appendix –
    Cloud
    Providers



    “IBM Power (IBM i and AIX) workloads are also available in the so-called ‘cloud.’” (Darin Stahl)

    IBM

    Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}136|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.9/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $85,754 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 10 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Licensing
    • Parent Category Link: /licensing
    • License keys are not needed with optional features accessible upon install. Conducting quarterly checks of the Oracle environment is critical because if products or features are installed, even if they are not actively in use, it constitutes use by Oracle and requires a license.
    • Ambiguous license models and definitions abound: terminology and licensing rules can be vague, making it difficult to purchase licensing even with the best of intentions to keep compliant.
    • Oracle has aggressively started to force new Oracle License and Service Agreements (OLSA) on customers that slightly modify language and remove pre-existing allowances to tilt the contract terms in Oracle's favor.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Focus on needs first. Conduct a thorough requirements assessment and document the results. Well-documented license needs will be your core asset in navigating Oracle licensing and negotiating your agreement.
    • Communicate effectively. Be aware that Oracle will reach out to employees at your organization at various levels. Having your executives on the same page will help send a strong message.
    • Manage the relationship. If Oracle is managing you, there is a high probability you are over paying or providing information that may result in an audit.

    Impact and Result

    • Conducting business with Oracle is not typical compared to other vendors. To emerge successfully from a commercial transaction with Oracle, customers must learn the "Oracle way" of conducting business, which includes a best-in-class sales structure, highly unique contracts and license use policies, and a hyper-aggressive compliance function.
    • Map out the process of how to negotiate from a position of strength, examining terms and conditions, discount percentages, and agreement pitfalls.
    • Develop a strategy that leverages and utilizes an experienced Oracle DBA to gather accurate information, and then optimizes it to mitigate and meet the top challenges.

    Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you need to understand and document your Oracle licensing strategy, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Establish licensing requirements

    Begin your proactive Oracle licensing journey by understanding which information to gather and assessing the current state and gaps.

    • Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend – Phase 1: Establish Licensing Requirements
    • Oracle Licensing Purchase Reference Guide
    • Oracle Database Inventory Tool
    • Effective Licensing Position Tool
    • RASCI Chart

    2. Evaluate licensing options

    Review current licensing models and determine which licensing models will most appropriately fit your environment.

    • Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend – Phase 2: Evaluate Licensing Options

    3. Evaluate agreement options

    Review Oracle’s contract types and assess which best fit the organization’s licensing needs.

    • Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend – Phase 3: Evaluate Agreement Options
    • Oracle TCO Calculator

    4. Purchase and manage licenses

    Conduct negotiations, purchase licensing, and finalize a licensing management strategy.

    • Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend – Phase 4: Purchase and Manage Licenses
    • Oracle Terms & Conditions Evaluation Tool
    • Controlled Vendor Communications Letter
    • Vendor Communication Management Plan
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend

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

    1 Establish Licensing Requirements

    The Purpose

    Assess current state and align goals; review business feedback

    Interview key stakeholders to define business objectives and drivers

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Have a baseline for requirements

    Assess the current state

    Determine licensing position

    Examine cloud options

    Activities

    1.1 Gather software licensing data

    1.2 Conduct a software inventory

    1.3 Perform manual checks

    1.4 Reconcile licenses

    1.5 Create your Oracle licensing team

    1.6 Meet with stakeholders to discuss the licensing position, cloud offerings, and budget allocation

    Outputs

    Copy of your Oracle License Statement

    Software inventory report from software asset management (SAM) tool

    Oracle Database Inventory Tool

    RASCI Chart

    Oracle Licensing Effective License Position (ELP) Template

    Oracle Licensing Purchase Reference Guide

    2 Evaluate Licensing Options

    The Purpose

    Review licensing options

    Review licensing rules

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand how licensing works

    Determine if you need software assurance

    Discuss licensing rules, application to current environment.

    Examine cloud licensing

    Understand the importance of documenting changes

    Meet with desktop product owners to determine product strategies

    Activities

    2.1 Review full, limited, restricted, and AST use licenses

    2.2 Calculate license costs

    2.3 Determine which database platform to use

    2.4 Evaluate moving to the cloud

    2.5 Examine disaster recovery strategies

    2.6 Understand purchasing support

    2.7 Meet with stakeholders to discuss the licensing position, cloud offerings, and budget allocation

    Outputs

    Oracle TCO Calculator

    Oracle Licensing Purchase Reference Guide

    3 Evaluate Agreement Options

    The Purpose

    Review contract option types

    Review vendors

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand why a type of contract is best for you

    Determine if ULA or term agreement is best

    The benefits of other types and when you should change

    Activities

    3.1 Prepare to sign or renew your ULA

    3.2 Decide on an agreement type that nets the maximum benefit

    Outputs

    Type of contract to be used

    Oracle TCO Calculator

    Oracle Licensing Purchase Reference Guide

    4 Purchase and Manage Licenses

    The Purpose

    Finalize the contract

    Prepare negotiation points

    Discuss license management

    Evaluate and develop a roadmap for future licensing

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Negotiation strategies

    Licensing management

    Introduction of SAM

    Leverage the work done on Oracle licensing to get started on SAM

    Activities

    4.1 Control the flow of communication terms and conditions

    4.2 Use Info-Tech’s readiness assessment in preparation for the audit

    4.3 Assign the right people to manage the environment

    4.4 Meet with stakeholders to discuss the licensing position, cloud offerings, and budget allocation

    Outputs

    Controlled Vendor Communications Letter

    Vendor Communication Management Plan

    Oracle Terms & Conditions Evaluation Tool

    RASCI Chart

    Oracle Licensing Purchase Reference Guide

    Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}298|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: Disruptive & Emerging Technologies
    • Parent Category Link: /disruptive-emerging-technologies
    • New technology can hit like a meteor. Not only disruptive to IT, technology provides opportunities for organization-wide advantage.
    • Your role is endangered. If you don’t prepare for the most disruptive technologies, you could be overshadowed. Don’t let the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) set the technological innovation agenda
    • Predicting the future isn’t easy. Most IT leaders fail to realize how quickly technology increases in capability. Even for the tech savvy, predicting which specific technologies will become disruptive is difficult.
    • Communication is difficult when the sky is falling. Even forward-looking IT leaders struggle with convincing others to devote time and resources to monitoring technologies with a formal process.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Establish the core working group, select a leader, and select a group of visionaries to help brainstorm emerging technologies.
    • Brainstorm about creating a better future, begin brainstorming an initial longlist.
    • Train the group to think like futurists.
    • Evaluate the shortlist.
    • Define your PoC list and schedule.
    • Finalize, present the plan to stakeholders and repeat.

    Impact and Result

    • Create a disruptive technology working group.
    • Produce a longlist of disruptive technologies.
    • Evaluate the longlist to produce a shortlist of disruptive technologies.
    • Develop a plan for a proof-of-concept project for each shortlisted technology.

    Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology Research & Tools

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

    1. Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology – A guide to help IT leaders make the most of disruptive impacts.

    As a CIO, there is a need to move beyond day-to-day technology management with an ever-increasing need to forecast technology impacts. Not just from a technical perspective but to map out the technical understandings aligned to potential business impacts and improvements. Technology transformation and innovation is moving more quickly than ever before and as an innovation champion, the CIO or CTO should have foresight in specific technologies with the understanding of how the company could be disrupted in the near future.

    • Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology – Phases 1-3

    2. Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template – A guide to develop the plan for exploiting disruptive technology.

    The Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template acts as an implementation plan for developing a long-term strategy for monitoring and implementing disruptive technologies.

    • Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    3. Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool – A tool to keep track of the missed technology disruption from previous opportunities.

    The Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool will assist you to collect reasonability test notes when evaluating potential disruptive technologies.

    • Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool

    4. Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool – A tool to keep track of the research conducted by members of the working group.

    The Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool will help you to keep track of the independent research that is conducted by members of the disruptive technology exploitation working group.

    • Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool

    5. Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool

    The Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool will help you to codify the results of the disruptive technology working group's longlist winnowing process.

    • Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool

    6. Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool – A tool to systematize notional evaluations of the value and readiness of potential disruptive technologies.

    The Disruptive Technology Value Readiness & SWOT Analysis Tool will assist you to systematize notional evaluations of the value and readiness of potential disruptive technologies.

    • Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    7. Proof of Concept Template – A handbook to serve as a reference when deciding how to proceed with your proposed solution.

    The Proof of Concept Template will guide you through the creation of a minimum-viable proof-of-concept project.

    • Proof of Concept Template

    8. Disruptive Technology Executive Presentation Template – A template to help you create a brief progress report presentation summarizing your project and program progress.

    The Disruptive Technology Executive Presentation Template will assist you to present an overview of the disruptive technology process, outlining the value to your company.

    • Disruptive Technology Executive Presentation Template

    Infographic

    Workshop: Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology

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

    1 Pre-work: Establish the Disruptive Tech Process

    The Purpose

    Discuss the general overview of the disruptive technology exploitation process.

    Develop an initial disruptive technology exploitation plan.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Stakeholders are on board, the project’s goals are outlined, and the working group is selected.

    Activities

    1.1 Get execs and stakeholders on board.

    1.2 Review the process of analyzing disruptive tech.

    1.3 Select members for the working group.

    1.4 Choose a schedule and time commitment.

    1.5 Select a group of visionaries.

    Outputs

    Initialized disruptive tech exploitation plan

    Meeting agenda, schedule, and participants

    2 Hold the Initial Meeting

    The Purpose

    Understand how disruption will affect the organization, and develop an initial list of technologies to explore.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Knowledge of how to think like a futurist.

    Understanding of organizational processes vulnerable to disruption.

    Outline of potentially disruptive technologies.

    Activities

    2.1 Start the meeting with introductions.

    2.2 Train the group to think like futurists.

    2.3 Brainstorm about disruptive processes.

    2.4 Brainstorm a longlist.

    2.5 Research and brainstorm separate longlists.

    Outputs

    List of disruptive organizational processes

    Initial longlist of disruptive tech

    3 Create a Longlist and Assess Shortlist

    The Purpose

    Evaluate the specific value of longlisted technologies to the organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined list of the disruptive technologies worth escalating to the proof of concept stage.

    Activities

    3.1 Converge the longlists developed by the team.

    3.2 Narrow the longlist to a shortlist.

    3.3 Assess readiness and value.

    3.4 Perform a SWOT analysis.

    Outputs

    Finalized longlist of disruptive tech

    Shortlist of disruptive tech

    Value-readiness analysis

    SWOT analysis

    Candidate(s) for proof of concept charter

    4 Create an Action Plan

    The Purpose

    Understand how the technologies in question will impact the organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of the specific effects of the new technology on the business processes it is intended to disrupt.

    Business case for the proof-of-concept project.

    Activities

    4.1 Build a problem canvas.

    4.2 Identify affected business units.

    4.3 Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted.

    4.4 Map disrupted business processes.

    4.5 Recognize how the new technology will impact business processes.

    4.6 Make the case.

    Outputs

    Problem canvas

    Map of business processes: current state

    Map of disrupted business processes

    Business case for each technology

    Further reading

    Analyst Perspective

    The key is in anticipation.

    “We all encounter unexpected changes and our responses are often determined by how we perceive and understand those changes. We react according to the unexpected occurrence. Business organizations are no different.

    When a company faces a major technology disruption in its markets – one that could fundamentally change the business or impact its processes and technology – the way its management perceive and understand the disruption influences how they describe and plan for it. In other words, the way management sets the context of a disruption – the way they frame it – shapes the strategy they adopt. Technology leaders can vastly influence business strategy by adopting a proactive approach to understanding disruptive and innovative technologies by simply adopting a process to review and evaluate technology impacts to the company’s lines of business.”

    This is a picture of Troy Cheeseman

    Troy Cheeseman
    Practice Lead, Infrastructure & Operations Research
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • New technology can hit like a meteor. Not only disruptive to IT, technology provides opportunities for organization-wide advantage.
    • Your role is endangered. If you don’t prepare for the most disruptive technologies, you could be overshadowed. Don’t let the chief marketing officer (CMO) set the technological innovation agenda.

    Common Obstacles

    • Predicting the future isn’t easy. Most IT leaders fail to realize how quickly technology increases in capability. Even for the tech savvy, predicting which specific technologies will become disruptive is difficult.
    • Communication is difficult when the sky is falling. Even forward-looking IT leaders struggle with convincing others to devote time and resources to monitoring technologies with a formal process.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    • Identify, resolve, and evaluate. Use an annual process as described in this blueprint: a formal evaluation of new technology that turns analysis into action.
    • Lead the analysis from IT. Establish a team to carry out the annual process as a cure for the causes of “airline magazine syndrome” and to prevent it from happening in the future.
    • Train your team on the patterns of progress, track technology over time in a central database, and read Info-Tech’s analysis of upcoming technology.
    • Create your KPIs. Establish your success indicators to create measurable value when presenting to your executive.
    • Produce a comprehensive proof-of-concept plan that will allow your company to minimize risk and maximize reward when engaging with new technology.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Proactively monitoring, evaluating, and exploiting disruptive tech isn’t optional.
    This will protect your role, IT’s role, and the future of the organization.

    A diverse working group maximizes the insight brought to bear.
    An IT background is not a prerequisite.

    The best technology is only the best when it brings immediate value.
    Good technology might not be ready; ready technology might not be good.

    Review

    We help IT leaders make the most of disruptive impacts.

    This research is designed for:

    Target Audience: CIO, CTO, Head of Infrastructure

    This research will help you:

    • Develop a process for anticipating, analyzing, and exploiting disruptive technology.
    • Communicate the business case for investing in disruptive technology.
    • Categorize emerging technologies to decide what to do with them.
    • Develop a plan for taking action to exploit the technology that will most affect your organization.

    Problem statement:

    As a CIO, there is a need to move beyond day-to-day technology management with an ever-increasing need to forecast technology impacts. Not just from a technical perspective but to map out the technical understandings aligned to potential business impacts and improvements. Technology transformation and innovation is moving more quickly than ever before and as an innovation champion, the CIO or CTO should have foresight in specific technologies with the understanding of how the company could be disrupted in the near future. Foresight + Current Technology + Business Understanding = Understanding the Business Disruption. This should be a repeatable process, not an exception or reactionary response.

    Insight Summary

    Establish the core working group, select a leader, and select a group of visionaries to help brainstorm emerging technologies.

    The right team matters. A core working group will keep focus through the process and a leader will keep everyone accountable. Visionaries are out-of-the-box thinkers and once they understand how to think like a "futurists," they will drive the longlist and shortlist actions.

    Train the group to think like futurists

    To keep up with exponential technology growth you need to take a multi-threaded approach.

    Brainstorm about creating a better future; begin brainstorming an initial longlist

    Establish the longlist. The longlist helps create a holistic view of most technologies that could impact the business. Assigning values and quadrant scoring will shortlist the options and focus your PoC option.

    Converge everyone’s longlists

    Long to short...that's the short of it. Using SWOT, value readiness, and quadrant mapping review sessions will focus the longlist, creating a shortlist of potential POC candidates to review and consider.

    Evaluate the shortlist

    There is no such thing as a risk-free endeavor. Use a systematic process to ensure that the risks your organization takes have the potential to produce significant rewards.

    Define your PoC list and schedule

    Don’t be afraid to fail! Inevitably, some proof-of-concept projects will not benefit the organization. The projects that are successful will more than cover the costs of the failed projects. Roll out small scale and minimize losses.

    Finalize, present the plan to stakeholders, and repeat!

    Don't forget the C-suite. Effectively communicate and present the working group’s finding with a well-defined and succinct presentation. Start the process again!

    This is a screenshot of the Thought map for Exploit disruptive infrastructure Technology.
    1. Identify
      • Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
      • Train the group to think like futurists
      • Hold your initial meeting
    2. Resolve
    • Create and winnow a longlist
    • Assess and create the shortlist
  • Evaluate
    • Create process maps
    • Develop proof of concept charter
  • The Key Is in Anticipation!

    Use Info-Tech’s approach for analyzing disruptive technology in your own disruptive tech working group

    Phase 1: Identify Phase 2: Resolve Phase 3: Evaluate

    Phase Steps

    1. Establish the disruptive technology working group
    2. Think like a futurist (Training)
    3. Hold initial meeting or create an agenda for the meeting
    1. Create and winnow a longlist
    2. Assess shortlist
    1. Create process maps
    2. Develop proof of concept charter

    Phase Outcomes

    • Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
    • Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group who will provide insight and direction.
    • Introduce the core working group members.
    • Gain a better understanding of how technology advances.
    • Brainstorm a list of organizational processes.
    • Brainstorm an initial longlist.
    • Finalized longlist
    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist
    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist
    • Business process maps before and after disruption
    • Proof of concept charter
    • Key performance indicators
    • Estimation of required resources
    • Executive presentation

    Four key challenges make it essential for you to become a champion for exploiting disruptive technology

    1. New technology can hit like a meteor. It doesn’t only disrupt IT; technology provides opportunities for organization-wide advantage.
    2. Your role is endangered. If you don’t prepare for the most disruptive technologies, you could be overshadowed. Don’t let the CMO rule technological innovation.
    3. Predicting the future isn’t easy. Most IT leaders fail to realize how quickly technology increases in capability. Even for the tech savvy, predicting which specific technologies will become disruptive is difficult.
    4. Communication is difficult when the sky is falling. Even forward-looking IT leaders struggle with convincing others to devote time and resources to monitoring emerging technologies with a formal process.

    “Look, you have never had this amount of opportunity for innovation. Don’t forget to capitalize on it. If you do not capitalize on it, you will go the way of the dinosaur.”
    – Dave Evans, Co-Founder and CTO, Stringify

    Technology can hit like a meteor

    “ By 2025:

    • 38.6 billion smart devices will be collecting, analyzing, and sharing data.
    • The web hosting services market is to reach $77.8 billion in 2025.
    • 70% of all tech spending is expected to go for cloud solutions.
    • There are 1.35 million tech startups.
    • Global AI market is expected to reach $89.8 billion.”

    – Nick Gabov

    IT Disruption

    Technology disrupts IT by:

    • Affecting the infrastructure and applications that IT needs to use internally.
    • Affecting the technology of end users that IT needs to support and deploy, especially for technologies with a consumer focus.
    • Allowing IT to run more efficiently and to increase the efficiency of other business units.
    • Example: The rise of the smartphone required many organizations to rethink endpoint devices.

    Business Disruption

    Technology disrupts the business by:

    • Affecting the viability of the business.
    • Affecting the business’ standing in relation to competitors that better deal with disruptive technology.
    • Affecting efficiency and business strategy. IT should have a role in technology-related business decisions.
    • Example: BlackBerry failed to anticipate the rise of the apps ecosystem. The company struggled as it was unable to react with competitive products.

    Senior IT leaders are expected to predict disruptions to IT and the business, while tending to today’s needs

    You are expected to be both a firefighter and a forecaster

    • Anticipating upcoming disruptions is part of your job, and you will be blamed if you fail to anticipate future business disruptions because you are focusing on the present.
    • However, keeping IT running smoothly is also part of your job, and you will be blamed if today’s IT environment breaks down because you are focusing on the future.

    You’re caught between the present and the future

    • You don’t have a process that anticipates future disruptions but runs alongside and integrates with operations in the present.
    • You can’t do it alone. Tending to both the present and the future will require a team that can help you keep the process running.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Be prepared when disruptions start coming down, even though it isn’t easy. Use this research to reduce the effort to a simple process that can be performed alongside everyday firefighting.

    Make disruptive tech analysis and exploitation part of your innovation agenda

    A scatter plot graph is depicted, plotting IT Innovative Leadership (X axis), and Satisfaction with IT(Y axis). IT innovative leadership explains 75% of variation in satisfaction with IT

    Organizations without high satisfaction with IT innovation leadership are only 20% likely to be highly satisfied with IT

    “You rarely see a real-world correlation of .86!”
    – Mike Battista, Staff Scientist, Cambridge Brain Sciences, PhD in Measurement

    There is a clear relationship between satisfaction with IT and the IT department’s innovation leadership.

    Prevent “airline magazine syndrome” by proactively analyzing disruptive technologies

    “The last thing the CIO needs is an executive saying ‘I don’t what it is or what it does…but I want two of them!”
    – Tim Lalonde

    Airline magazine syndrome happens to IT leaders caught between the business and IT. It usually occurs in this manner:

    1. While on a flight, a senior executive reads about an emerging technology that has exciting implications for the business in an airline magazine.
    2. The executive returns and approaches IT, demanding that action be taken to address the disruptive technology – and that it should have been (ideally) completed already.

    Without a Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan:

    “I don’t know”

    With a Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan:

    “Here in IT, we have already considered that technology and decided it was overhyped. Let me show you our analysis and invite you to join our working group.”

    OR

    “We have already considered that technology and have started testing it. Let me show you our testing lab and invite you to join our working group.”

    Info-Tech Insight

    Airline magazine syndrome is a symptom of a wider problem: poor CEO-CIO alignment. Solve this problem with improved communication and documentation. Info-Tech’s disruptive tech iterative process will make airline magazine syndrome a thing of the past!

    IT leaders who do not keep up with disruptive technology will find their roles diminished

    “Today’s CIO dominion is in a decaying orbit with CIOs in existential threat mode.”
    – Ken Magee

    Protect your role within IT

    • IT is threatened by disruptive technology:
      • Trends like cloud services, increased automation, and consumerization reduce the need for IT to be involved in every aspect of deploying and using technology.
      • In the long term, machines will replace even intellectually demanding IT jobs, such as infrastructure admin and high-level planning.
    • Protect your role in IT by:
      • Anticipating new technology that will disrupt the IT department and your place within it.
      • Defining new IT roles and responsibilities that accurately reflect the reality of technology today.
      • Having a process for the above that does not diminish your ability to keep up with everyday operations that remain a priority today.

    Protect your role against other departments

    • Your role in the business is threatened by disruptive technology:
      • The trends that make IT less involved with technology allow other executives – such as the CMO – to make IT investments.
      • As the CMO gains the power and data necessary to embrace new trends, the CIO and IT managers have less pull.
    • Protect your role in the business by:
      • Being the individual to consult about new technology. It isn’t just a power play; IT leaders should be the ones who know technology thoroughly.
      • Becoming an indispensable part of the entire business’ innovation strategy through proposing and executing a process for exploiting disruptive technology.

    IT leaders who do keep up have an opportunity to solidify their roles as experts and aggregators

    “The IT department plays a critical role in [innovation]. What they can do is identify a technology that potentially might introduce improvements to the organization, whether it be through efficiency, or through additional services to constituents.”
    – Michael Maguire, Management Consultant

    The contemporary CIO is a conductor, ensuring that IT works in harmony with the rest of the business.

    The new CIO is a conductor, not a musician. The CIO is taking on the role of a business engineer, working with other executives to enable business innovation.

    The new CIO is an expert and an aggregator. Conductor CIOs increasingly need to keep up on the latest technologies. They will rely on experts in each area and provide strategic synthesis to decide if, and how, developments are relevant in order to tune their IT infrastructure.

    The pace of technological advances makes progress difficult to predict

    “An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense ‘intuitive linear’ view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century – it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).”
    – Ray Kurzweil

    Technology advances exponentially. Rather than improving by the same amount of capability each year, it multiplies in capability each year.

    Think like a futurist to anticipate technology before it goes mainstream.

    Exponential growth happens much faster than linear growth, especially when it hits the knee of the curve. Even those who acknowledge exponential growth underestimate how capabilities can improve.

    To predict new advances, turn innovation into a process

    “We spend 70 percent of our time on core search and ads. We spend 20 percent on adjacent businesses, ones related to the core businesses in some interesting way. Examples of that would be Google News, Google Earth, and Google Local. And then 10 percent of our time should be on things that are truly new.”
    – Eric Schmidt, Google

    • Don’t get caught in the trap of refining your core processes to the exclusion of innovation. You should always be looking for new processes to improve, new technology to pilot, and where possible, new businesses to get into.
    • Devote about 10% of your time and resources to exploring new technology: the potential rewards are huge.

    You and your team need to analyze technology every year to predict where it’s going.

    A bar graph is shown which depicts the proportion of technology use from 2018-2022. the included devices are: Tablets; PCs; TVs; Non-smartphones; Smartphones; M2M
    • Foundational technologies, such as computing power, storage, and networks, are improving exponentially.
    • Disruptive technologies are specific manifestations of foundational advancements. Advancements of greater magnitude give rise to more manifestations; therefore, there will be more disruptive technologies every year.
    • There is a lot of noise to cut through. Remember Google Glasses? As technology becomes ubiquitous and consumerization reigns, everybody is a technology expert. How do you decide which technologies to focus on?

    Protect IT and the business from disruption by implementing a simple, repeatable disruptive technology exploitation process

    “One of the most consistent patterns in business is the failure of leading companies to stay at the top of their industries when technologies or markets change […] Managers must beware of ignoring new technologies that can’t initially meet the needs of their mainstream customers.”
    – Joseph L. Bower and Clayton M. Christensen

    Challenge

    Solution

    New technology can hit like a meteor, but it doesn’t have to leave a crater:

    Use the annual process described in this blueprint to create a formal evaluation of new technology that turns analysis into action.

    Predicting the future isn’t easy, but it can be done:

    Lead the analysis from the office of the CIO. Establish a team to carry out the annual process as a cure for airline magazine syndrome.

    Your role is endangered, but you can survive:

    Train your team on the patterns of progress, track technology over time in a central database, and read Info-Tech’s analysis of upcoming technology.

    Communication is difficult when the sky is falling, so have a simple way to get the message across:

    Track metrics that communicate your progress, and summarize the results in a single, easy-to-read exploitation plan.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Use Info-Tech’s tools and templates, along with this storyboard, to walk you through creating and executing an exploitation process in six steps.

    Create measurable value by using Info-Tech’s process for evaluating the disruptive potential of technology

    This image contains a bar graph with the following Title: Which are the primary benefits you've either realized or expect to realize by deploying hyperconverged infrastructure in the near term.

    No business process is perfect.

    • Use Info-Tech’s Proof of Concept Template to create a disruptive technology proof of concept implementation plan.
    • Harness your company’s internal wisdom to systematically vet new technology. Engage only in calculated risk and maximize potential benefit.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Inevitably, some proof of concept projects will not benefit the organization. The projects that are successful will more than cover the costs of the failed projects. Roll out small scale and minimize losses.

    Establish your key performance indicators (KPIs)

    Key performance indicators allow for rigorous analysis, which generates insight into utilization by platform and consumption by business activity.

    • Brainstorm metrics that indicate when process improvement is actually taking place.
    • Have members of the group pitch KPIs; the facilitator should record each suggestion on a whiteboard.
    • Make sure to have everyone justify the inclusion of each metric: how does it relate to the improvement that the proof of concept project is intended to drive? How does it relate to the overall goals of the business?
    • Include a list of KPIs, along with a description and a target (ensuring that it aligns with SMART metrics).
    Key Performance Indicator Description Target Result

    Number of Longlist technologies

    Establish a range of Longlist technologies to evaluate 10-15
    Number of Shortlist technologies Establish a range of Shortlist technologies to evaluate 5-10
    number of "look to the past" likes/dislikes Minimum number of testing characteristics 6
    Number of POCs Total number of POCs Approved 3-5

    Communicate your plan with the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    Use the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template to summarize everything that the group does. Update the report continuously and use it to show others what is happening in the world of disruptive technology.

    Section Title Description
    1 Rationale and Summary of Exploitation Plan A summary of the current efforts that exist for exploring disruptive technology. A summary of the process for exploiting disruptive technology, the resources required, the team members, meeting schedules, and executive approval.
    2 Longlist of Potentially Disruptive Technologies A summary of the longlist of identified disruptive technologies that could affect the organization, shortened to six or less that have the largest potential impact based on Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.
    3 Analysis of Shortlist Individually analyze each technology placed on the shortlist using Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.
    4 Proof of Concept Plan Use the results from Section 3 to establish a plan for moving forward with the technologies on the shortlist. Determine the tasks required to implement the technologies and decide who will complete them and when.
    5 Hand-off Pass the project along to identified stakeholders with significant interest in its success. Continue to track metrics and prepare to repeat the disruptive technology exploitation process annually.

    Whether you need a process for exploiting disruptive technology, or an analysis of current trends, Info-Tech can help

    Two sets of research make up Info-Tech’s disruptive technology coverage:

    This image contains four screenshots from each of the following Info-Tech Blueprints: Exploit disruptive Infrastructure Technology; Infrastructure & operations priorities 2022

    This storyboard, and the associated tools and templates, will walk you through creating a disruptive technology working group of your own.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    Key deliverable:

    Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    The Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template acts as an implementation plan for developing a long-term strategy for monitoring and implementing disruptive technologies.

    Proof of Concept Template

    The Proof of Concept Template will guide you through the creation of a minimum-viable proof-of-concept project.

    Executive Presentation

    The Disruptive Technology Executive Presentation Template will assist you to present an overview of the disruptive technology process, outlining the value to your company.

    Disruptive Technology Value Readiness & SWOT Analysis Tool

    The Disruptive Technology Value Readiness & SWOT Analysis Tool will assist you to systematize notional evaluations of the value and readiness of potential disruptive technologies.

    Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool

    The Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool will help you to keep track of the independent research that is conducted by members of the disruptive technology exploitation working group.

    Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool

    The Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool will help you to codify the results of the disruptive technology working group's longlist winnowing process.

    Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool

    The Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool will assist you to collect reasonability test notes when evaluating potential disruptive technologies.

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

    Call #1: Explore the need for a disruptive technology working group.

    Call #3: Review the agenda for the initial meeting.

    Call #5: Review how you’re brainstorming and your sources of information.

    Call #7: Review the final shortlist and assessment.

    Call #9: Review the progress of your team.

    Call #2: Review the team name, participants, and timeline.

    Call #4: Assess the results of the initial meeting.

    Call #6: Review the final longlist and begin narrowing it down.

    Call #8: Review the next steps.

    Call #10: Review the communication plan.

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

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

    Workshop Overview

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

    Pre-Work Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
    Establish the Disruptive Tech Process Hold Your Initial Meeting Create a Longlist and Assess Shortlist Create Process Maps Develop a Proof of Concept Charter

    Activities

    1.1.a Get executives and stakeholders on board.

    1.1.b Review the process of analyzing disruptive tech.

    1.1.c Select members for the working group.

    1.1.d Choose a schedule and time commitment.

    1.1.e Select a group of visionaries.

    1.2.a Start the meeting with introductions.

    1.2.b Train the group to think like futurists.

    1.2.c Brainstorm about disruptable processes.

    1.2.d Brainstorm a longlist.

    1.2.e Research and brainstorm separate longlists.

    2.1.a Converge the longlists developed by the team.

    2.2.b Narrow the longlist to a shortlist.

    2.2.c Assess readiness and value.

    2.2.d Perform a SWOT analysis.

    3.1.a Build a problem canvas.

    3.1.b Identify affected business units.

    3.1.c Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted.

    3.1.d Map disrupted business processes.

    3.1.e Recognize how the new technology will impact business processes.

    3.1.f Make the case.

    3.2.a Develop key performance indicators (KPIs).

    3.2.b Identify key success factors.

    3.2.c Outline project scope.

    3.2.d Identify responsible team.

    3.2.e Complete resource estimation.

    Deliverables

    1. Initialized Disruptive Tech Exploitation Plan
    1. List of Disruptable Organizational Processes
    2. Initial Longlist of Disruptive Tech
    1. Finalized Longlist of Disruptive Tech
    2. Shortlist of Disruptive Tech
    3. Value-Readiness Analysis
    4. SWOT Analysis
    5. Candidate(s) for Proof of Concept Charter
    1. Problem Canvas
    2. Map of Business Processes: Current State
    3. Map of Disrupted Business Processes
    4. Business Case for Each Technology
    1. Completed Proof of Concept Charter

    Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology

    Disrupt or be disrupted.

    Identify

    Create your working group.

    PHASE 1

    Use Info-Tech’s approach for analyzing disruptive technology in your own disruptive tech working group

    1. Identify
      1. Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
      2. Train the group to think like futurists
      3. Hold your initial meeting
    2. Resolve
      1. Create and winnow a longlist
      2. Assess and create the shortlist
    3. Evaluate
      1. Create process maps
      2. Develop proof of concept charter

    The Key Is in Anticipation!

    Phase 1: Identify

    Create your working group.

    Activities:

    Step 1.1: Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
    Step 1.2: Train the group to think like futurists
    Step 1.3: Hold the initial meeting

    This step involves the following participants:

    IT Infrastructure Manager

    CIO or CTO

    Potential members and visionaries of the working group

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
    • Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group who will provide insight and direction.
    • Introduce the core working group members.
    • Gain a better understanding of how technology advances.
    • Brainstorm a list of organizational processes.
    • Brainstorm an initial longlist.

    Step 1.1

    Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries.

    Activities:

    • Articulate the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the entire organization
    • Gain support by articulating the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the IT department
    • Gain commitment from key stakeholders and executives
    • Help stakeholders understand what goes into formally exploiting disruptive tech by reviewing this process
    • Establish the core working group and select a leader
    • Create a schedule with a time commitment appropriate to your organization’s size; it doesn’t need to take long
    • Select a group of visionaries external to IT to help the working group brainstorm disruptive technologies

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Infrastructure Manager
    • CIO or CTO
    • Potential members and visionaries of the working group

    Outcomes of this step

    • Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
    • Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group that will provide insight and direction.

    1.1.A Articulate the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the entire organization

    A cost/benefit analysis will give stakeholders a picture of how disruptive technology could affect the business. Use the chart as a starting point and customize it based on your organization.

    Disruptive Technology Affects the Organization

    Benefits Costs

    Short Term

    • First-mover advantage from implementing new technology in the business before competitors – and before start-ups.
    • Better brand image as an organization focused on innovation.
    • Increased overall employee satisfaction by implementing new technology that increases employee capabilities or lowers effort.
    • Possibility of increased IT budget for integrating new technology.
    • Potential for employees to reject wide-scale use of unfamiliar technology.
    • Potential for technology to fail in the organization if it is not sufficiently tested.
    • Executive time required for making decisions about technology recommended by the team.

    Long Term

    • Increased internal business efficiencies from the integration of new technology (e.g. energy efficiency, fewer employees needed due to automation).
    • Better services or products for customers, resulting in increased long-term revenue.
    • Lowered costs of services or products and potential to grow market share.
    • Continued relevance of established organizations in a world changed by disruptive technologies.
    • Technology may not reach the capabilities initially expected, requiring waiting for increased value or readiness.
    • Potential for customers to reject new products resulting from technology.
    • Lack of focus on current core capabilities if technology is massively disruptive.

    1.1.B Gain support by articulating the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the IT department

    A cost/benefit analysis will give stakeholders a picture of how disruptive technology could affect the business. Use the chart as a starting point and customize it based on your organization.

    Disruptive Technology Affects IT

    BenefitsCosts

    Short Term

    • Perception of IT as a core component of business practices.
    • Increase IT’s capabilities to better serve employees (e.g. faster network speeds, better uptime, and storage and compute capacity that meet demands).
    • Cost for acquiring or implementing new technology and updating infrastructure to integrate with it.
    • Cost for training IT staff and end users on new IT technology and processes.
    • Minor costs for initial setup of disruptive technology exploitation process and time taken by members.

    Long Term

    • More efficient and powerful IT infrastructure that capitalizes on emerging trends at the right time.
    • Lower help desk load due to self-service and automation technology.
    • Increased satisfaction with IT due to implementation of improved enterprise technology and visible IT influence on improvements.
    • Increased end-user satisfaction with IT due to understanding and support of consumer technology that affects their lives.
    • New technology may result in lower need for specific IT roles. Cultural disruptions due to changing role of IT.
    • Perception of failure if technology is tested and never implemented.
    • Expectation that IT will continue to implement the newest technology available, even when it has been dismissed as not having value.

    1.1.C Gain commitment from key stakeholders and executives

    Gaining approval from executives and key stakeholders is the final obstacle. Ensure that you cover the following items to have the best chance for project approval.

    • Use a sample deck similar to this section for gaining buy-in, ensuring that you add/remove information to make it specific to your organization. Cover this section, including:
      • Who: Who will lead the team and who will be on it (working group)?
      • What: What resources will be required by the team (costs)?
      • Where/When: How often and where will the team meet (meeting schedule)?
      • Why: Why is there a need to exploit disruptive technology (benefits and examples)?
      • How: How is the team going to exploit disruptive technology (the process)?
    • Go through this blueprint prior to presenting the plan to stakeholders so that you have a strong understanding of the details behind each process and tool.
    • Frame the first iteration of the cycle as a pilot program. Use the completed results of the pilot to establish exploiting disruptive technology as a necessary company initiative.

    Insert the resources required by the disruptive tech exploitation team into Section 1.5 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template. Have executives sign-off on the project in Section 1.6.

    Disruption has undermined some of the most successful tech companies

    “The IT department plays a critical role in [innovation]. What they can do is identify a technology that potentially might introduce improvements to the organization, whether it be through efficiency or through additional services to constituents.”
    - Michael Maguire, Management Consultant

    VoIP’s transformative effects

    Disruptive technology:
    Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a modern means of making phone calls through the internet by sending voice packets using data, as opposed to the traditional circuit transmissions of the PSTN.

    Who won:
    Organizations that realized the cost savings that VoIP provided for businesses with a steady internet connection saved as much as 60% on telephony expenses. Even in the early stages, with a few more limitations, organizations were able to save a significant amount of money and the technology has continued to improve.

    Who lost?
    Telecom-related companies that failed to realize VoIP was a potential threat to their market, and organizations that lacked the ability to explore and implement the disruptive technology early.

    Digital photography — the new norm

    Disruptive technology:
    Digital photography refers to the storing of photographs in a digital format, as opposed to traditional photography, which exposes light to sensitive photographic film.

    Who won:
    Photography companies and new players that exploited the evolution of data storage and applied it to photography succeeded. Those that were able to balance providing traditional photography and exploiting and introducing digital photography, such as Nikon, left competitors behind. Smartphone manufacturers also benefited by integrating digital cameras.

    Who lost?
    Photography companies, such as Kodak, that failed to respond to the digital revolution found themselves outcompeted and insolvent.

    1.1.D Help stakeholders understand what goes into formally exploiting disruptive tech by reviewing this process

    There are five steps to formally exploiting disruptive technology, each with its own individual outputs and tools to take analysis to the next level.

    Step 1.2:
    Hold Initial Meeting

    Output:

    • Initial list of disruptable processes;
    • Initial longlist

    Step 2.1:

    Brainstorm Longlist

    Output:

    • Finalized longlist;
    • Shortlist

    Step 2.2:

    Assess Shortlist

    Output:

    • Final shortlist;
    • SWOT analysis;
    • Tech categorization

    Step 3.1:
    Create Process Maps

    Output:

    • Completed process maps

    Step 3.2:
    Develop a proof of concept charter

    Output:

    • Proof-of-concept template with KPIs

    Info-Tech Insight

    Before going to stakeholders, complete the entire blueprint to better understand the tools and outputs of the process.

    1.1.E Establish the core working group and select a leader

    • Selecting your core membership for the working group is a critical step to the group’s success. Ensure that you satisfy the following criteria:
      • This is a team of subject matter experts. They will be overseeing the learning and piloting of disruptive technologies. Their input will also be valuable for senior executives and for implementing these technologies.
      • Choose members that can take time away from firefighting tasks to dedicate time to meetings.
      • It may be necessary to reach outside of the organization now or in the future for expertise on certain technologies. Use Info-Tech as a source of information.
    Organization Size Working Group Size
    Small 02-Jan
    Medium 05-Mar
    Large 10-May
    • Once the team is established, you must decide who will lead the group. Ensure that you satisfy the following criteria:
      • A leader should be credible, creative, and savvy in both technology and business.
      • The leader should facilitate, acting as both an expert and an aggregator of the information gathered by the team.

    Choose a compelling name

    The working group needs a name. Be sure to select one with a positive connotation within your organization.

    Section 1.3 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    1.1.F Create a schedule with a time commitment appropriate to your organization’s size; it doesn’t need to take long

    Time the disruptive technology working group’s meetings to coincide and integrate with your organization’s strategic planning — at least annually.

    Size Meeting Frequency Time per Meeting Example Meeting Activities
    Small Annually One day A one-day meeting to run through phase 2 of the project (SWOT analysis and shortlist analysis).
    Medium Two days A two-day meeting to run through the project. The additional meeting involves phase 3 of this deck, developing a proof-of-concept plan.
    Large Two+ days Two meetings, each two days. Two days to create and winnow the longlist (phase 2), and two further days to develop a proof of concept plan.

    “Regardless of size, it’s incumbent upon every organization to have some familiarity of what’s happening over the next few years, [and to try] to anticipate what some of those trends may be. […] These trends are going to accelerate IT’s importance in terms of driving business strategy.”
    – Vern Brownell, CEO, D-Wave

    Section 1.4 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    1.1.G Select a group of visionaries external to IT to help the working group brainstorm disruptive technologies

    Selecting advisors for your group is an ongoing step, and the roster can change.

    Ensure that you satisfy the following criteria:

    • Look beyond IT to select a team representing several business units.
    • Check for self-professed “geeks” and fans of science fiction that may be happy to join.
    • Membership can be a reward for good performance.

    This group does not have to meet as regularly as the core working group. Input from external advisors can occur between meetings. You can also include them on every second or third iteration of the entire process.

    However, the more input you can get into the group, the more innovative it can become.

    “It is … important to develop design fictions based on engagement with directly or indirectly implicated publics and not to be designed by experts alone.”
    – Emmanuel Tsekleves, Senior Lecturer in Design Interactions, University of Lancaster

    Section 1.3 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    The following case study illustrates the innovative potential that is created when you include a diverse group of people

    INDUSTRY - Chip Manufacturing
    SOURCE - Clayton Christensen, Intel

    To achieve insight, you need to collaborate with people from outside of your department.

    Challenge

    • Headquartered in California, through the 1990s, Intel was the largest microprocessor chip manufacturer in the world, with revenue of $25 billion in 1997.
    • All was not perfect, however. Intel faced a challenge from Cyrix, a manufacturer of low-end chips. In 18 months, Cyrix’s share of the low-margin entry-level chip manufacturing business mushroomed from 10% to 70%.

    Solution

    • Troubled by the potential for significant disruption of the microprocessor market, Intel brought in external consultants to hold workshops to educate managers about disruptive innovation.
    • Managers would break into groups and discuss ways Intel could facilitate the disruption of its competitors. In one year, Intel hosted 18 workshops, and 2,000 managers went through the process.

    Results

    • Intel launched the Celeron chip to serve the lower end of the PC market and win market share back from Cyrix (which no longer exists as an independent company) and other competitors like AMD.
    • Within one year, Intel had captured 35% of the market.

    “[The models presented in the workshops] gave us a common language and a common way to frame the problem so that we could reach a consensus around a counterintuitive course of action.” – Andy Grove, then-CEO, Intel Corporation

    Phase 1: Identify

    Create your working group.

    Activities:

    Step 1.1: Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
    Step 1.2: Train the group to think like futurists
    Step 1.3: Hold the initial meeting

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Infrastructure Manager
    • CIO or CTO
    • Potential members and visionaries of the working group

    Outcomes of this phase:

    • Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
    • Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group who will provide insight and direction.
    • Introduce the core working group members.
    • Gain a better understanding of how technology advances.
    • Brainstorm a list of organizational processes.
    • Brainstorm an initial longlist.

    Step 1.2

    Train the group to think like futurists

    Activities:

    1. Look to the past to predict the future:
      • Step 1: Review the technology opportunities you missed
      • Step 2: Review and record what you liked about the tech
      • Step 3: Review and record your dislikes
      • Step 4: Record and test the reasonability
    2. Crash course on futurology principles
    3. Peek into the future

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Infrastructure Manager
    • CIO or CTO
    • Core working group members
    • Visionaries

    Outcomes of this step

    • Team members thinking like futurists
    • Better understanding of how technology advances
    • List of past examples and characteristics

    Info-Tech Insight

    Business buy-in is essential. Manage your business partners by providing a summary of the EDIT methodology and process. Validate the process value, which will allow you create a team of IT and business representatives.

    1.2 Train the group to think like futurists

    1 hour

    Ensure the team understands how technology advances and how they can identify patterns in upcoming technologies.

    1. Lead the group through a brainstorming session.
    2. Follow the next phases and steps.
    3. This session should be led by someone who can facilitate a thought-provoking discussion.
    4. This training deck finishes with a video.

    Input

    • Facilitated creativity
    • Training deck [following slides]

    Output

    • Inspiration
    • Anonymous ideas

    Materials

    • Futurist training “steps”
    • Pen and paper

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries
    • Facilitator

    1.2.A Look to the past to predict the future

    30 minutes

    Step 1

    Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

    Review what you missed.

    What did you like?

    What did you dislike?

    Test the reasonability.

    Think about a time you missed a technical disruptive opportunity.

    Start with a list of technologies that changed your business and processes.

    Consider those specifically you could have identified with a repeatable process.

    What were the most impactful points about the technology?

    Define a list of “characteristics” you liked.

    Create a shortlist of items.

    Itemize the impact to process, people, and technology.

    Why did you pass on the tech?

    Define a list of “characteristics” you did not like.

    Create a shortlist of items.

    Itemize the impact to process, people, and technology.

    Avoid the “arm chair quarterback” view.

    Refer to the six positive and negative points.

    Check against your data points at the end of each phase.

    Record the list of missed opportunities

    Record 6 characteristics

    Record 6 characteristics

    Completed “Think like a Futurists” tool

    Use the Disruptive Technology Research Look to the Past Tool to record your output.

    Input

    • Facilitated creativity
    • Speaker’s notes

    Output

    • Inspiration
    • Anonymous ideas
    • Recorded missed opportunities
    • Recorded positive points
    • Recorded dislikes
    • Reasonability test list

    Materials

    • Futurist training “steps”
    • Pen and paper
    • “Look to the Past” tool

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries
    • Facilitator

    Understand how the difference between linear and exponential growth will completely transform many organizations in the next decade

    “The last ten years have seen exponential growth in research on disruptive technologies and their impact on industries, supply chains, resources, training, education and employment markets … The debate is still open on who will be the winners and losers of future industries, but what is certain is that change has picked up pace and we are now in a new technology revolution whose impact is potentially greater than the industrial revolution.”
    – Gary L. Evans

    Exponential advancement will ensure that life in the next decade will be very different from life today.

    • Linear growth happens one step at a time.
    • The difference between linear and exponential is hard to notice, at first.
    • We are now at the knee of the curve.

    What about email?

    • Consider the amount of email you get daily
    • Double it
    • Triple it

    Exponential growth happens much faster than linear growth, especially when it hits the knee of the curve. Technology grows exponentially, and we are approaching the knee of the curve.

    This graph is adapted from research by Ray Kurzweil.

    Growth: Linear vs. Exponential

    This image contains a graph demonstrating examples of exponential and linear trends.

    1.2.B Crash course on futurology principles

    1 hour

    “An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense ‘intuitive linear’ view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).”
    - Ray Kurzweil

    Review the differences between exponential and linear growth

    The pace of technological advances makes progress difficult to predict.

    Technology advances exponentially. Rather than improving by the same amount of capability each year, it multiplies in capability each year.

    Think like a futurist to anticipate technology before it goes mainstream.

    Exponential growth happens much faster than linear growth, especially when it hits the knee of the curve. Even those who acknowledge exponential growth underestimate how capabilities can improve.

    The following case study illustrates the rise of social media providers

    “There are 7.7 billion people in the world, with at least 3.5 billion of us online. This means social media platforms are used by one in three people in the world and more than two-thirds of all internet users.”
    – Esteban Ortiz-Ospina

    This graph depicts the trend of the number of people using social media platforms between 2005 and 2019

    The following case study illustrates the rapid growth of Machine to Machine (M2M) connections

    A bar graph is shown which depicts the proportion of technology use from 2018-2022. the included devices are: Tablets; PCs; TVs; Non-smartphones; Smartphones; M2M

    Ray Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns

    “Ray Kurzweil has been described as ‘the restless genius’ by The Wall Street Journal, and ‘the ultimate thinking machine’ by Forbes. He was ranked #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States by Inc Magazine, calling him the ‘rightful heir to Thomas Edison,’ and PBS included Ray as one of 16 ‘revolutionaries who made America,’ along with other inventors of the past two centuries.”
    Source: KurzweilAI.net

    Growth is linear?

    “Information technology is growing exponentially. That’s really my main thesis, and our intuition about the future is not exponential, it’s really linear. People think things will go at the current pace …1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 30 steps later, you’re at 30.”

    Better IT strategy enables future business innovation

    “The reality of information technology like computers, like biological technologies now, is it goes exponentially … 2, 4, 8, 16. At step 30, you’re at a billion, and this is not an idle speculation about the future.” [emphasis added]

    “When I was a student at MIT, we all shared a computer that cost tens of millions of dollars. This computer [pulling his smartphone out of his pocket] is a million times cheaper, a thousand times more powerful — that’s a billion-fold increase in MIPS per dollar, bits per dollar… and we’ll do it again in 25 years.”
    Source: “IT growth and global change: A conversation with Ray Kurzweil,” McKinsey & Company

    1.2.C Peak into the future

    1 hour

    Leverage industry roundtables and trend reports to understand the art of the possible

    • Uncover important business and industry trends that can inform possibilities for technology disruption.
    • Market research is critical in identifying factors external to your organization and identifying technology innovation that will provide a competitive edge. It’s important to evaluate the impact each trend or opportunity will have in your organization and market.

    Visit Info-Tech’s Trends & Priorities Research Center

    Visit Info-Tech’s Industry Coverage Research to get started.

    Phase 1: Identify

    Create your working group

    Activities:

    Step 1.1: Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
    Step 1.2: Train the group to think like futurists
    Step 1.3: Hold the initial meeting

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Infrastructure Manager
    • CIO or CTO
    • Potential members and visionaries of the working group

    Outcomes of this phase:

    • Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
    • Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group who will provide insight and direction.
    • Introduce the core working group members.
    • Gain a better understanding of how technology advances.
    • Brainstorm a list of organizational processes.
    • Brainstorm an initial longlist.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Establish the longlist. The longlist help create a holistic view of most technologies that could impact the business. Assigning values and quadrant scoring will shortlist the options and focus your PoC option.

    Step 1.3

    Hold the initial meeting

    Activities:

    1. Create an agenda for the meeting
    2. Start the kick-off meeting with introductions and a recap
    3. Brainstorm about creating a better future
    4. Begin brainstorming an initial longlist
    5. Have team members develop separate longlists for their next meeting

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Infrastructure Manager
    • CIO or CTO
    • Core working group members
    • Visionaries

    Outcomes of this step

    • Introduce the core working group members
    • Gain a better understanding of how technology advances
    • Brainstorm a list of organizational processes
    • Brainstorm an initial longlist

    1.3.A Create an agenda for the meeting

    1 hour

    Kick-off this cycle of the disruptive technology process by welcoming your visionaries and introducing your core working group.

    The purpose of the initial meeting is to brainstorm where new technology will be the most disruptive within the organization. You’ll develop two longlists: one of business processes and one of disruptive technology. These longlists are in addition to the independent research your core working group will perform before Phase 2.

    • Find an outgoing facilitator. Sitting back will let you focus more on ideating, and an engaging presenter will help bring out ideas from your visionaries.
    • The training deck (see step 1.2c) includes presenting a video. We’ve included some of our top choices for you to choose from.
      • Feel free to find your own video or bring in a keynote speaker.
      • The object of the video is to get the group thinking about the future.
      • Customize the training deck as needed.
    • If a cycle has been completed, present your findings and all of the group’s completed deliverables in the first section.
    • This session is the only time you have with your visionaries. Get their ideas on what technologies will be disruptive to start forming a longlist.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The disruptive tech team is prestigious. If your organization is large enough or has the resources, consider having this meeting in an offsite location. This will drive excitement to join the working group if the opportunity arises and incentivize good work.

    Meeting Agenda (Sample)

    Time

    Activity

    8:00am-8:30am Introductions and previous meeting recap
    8:30am-9:30am Training deck
    9:30 AM-10:00am Brainstorming
    10:00am-10:15am Break
    10:15am-10:45am Develop good research techniques
    10:45am-12:00pm Begin compiling your longlist

    Info-Tech Insight

    The disruptive tech team is prestigious. If your organization is large enough or has the resources, consider having this meeting in an offsite location. This will drive excitement to join the working group if the opportunity arises and incentivize good work.

    1.3.B Start the kick-off meeting with introductions and a summary of what work has been done so far

    30 minutes

    1. Start the meeting off with an icebreaker activity. This isn’t an ordinary business meeting – or even group – so we recommend starting off with an activity that will emphasize this unique nature. To get the group in the right mindset, try this activity:
      1. Go around the group and have people present:
      2. Their names and roles
      3. Pose some or all of the following questions/prompts to the group:
        • “Tell me about something you have created.”
        • “Tell me about a time you created a process or program considered risky.”
        • “Tell me about a situation in which you had to come up with several new ideas in a hurry. Were they accepted? Were they successful?”
        • “Tell me about a time you took a risk.”
        • “Tell me about one of your greatest failures and what you learned from it.”
    2. Once everyone has been introduced, present any work that has already been completed.
      1. If you have already completed a cycle, give a summary of each technology that you investigated and the results from any piloting.
      2. If this is the first cycle for the working group, present the information decided in Step 1.1.

    Input

    • Disruptive technology exploitation plan

    Output

    • Networking
    • Brainstorming

    Materials

    • Meeting agenda

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries
    • Facilitator

    1.3.C Brainstorm about creating a better future for the company, the stakeholders, and the employees

    30 minutes

    Three sticky notes are depicted, at the top of each note are the following titles: What can we do better; How can we make a better future; How can we continue being successful

    1. Have everyone put up at least two ideas for each chart paper.
    2. Go around the room and discuss their ideas. You may generate some new ideas here.

    These generated ideas are organizational processes that can be improved or disrupted with emerging technologies. This list will be referenced throughout Phases 2 and 3.

    Input

    • Inspiration
    • Anonymous ideas

    Output

    • List of processes

    Materials

    • Chart paper and markers
    • Pen and paper

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries

    1.3.D Begin brainstorming a longlist of future technology, and discuss how these technologies will impact the business

    30 minutes

    • Use the Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool to organize technologies and ideas. Longstanding working groups can track technologies here over the course of several years, updating the tool between meetings.
    • Guide the discussion with the following questions, and make sure to focus on the processes generated from Step 1.2.d.

    Focus on

    The Technology

    • What is the technology and what does it do?
    • What processes can it support?

    Experts and Other Organizations

    • What are the vendors saying about the technology?
    • Are similar organizations implementing the technology?

    Your Organization

    • Is the technology ready for wide-scale distribution?
    • Can the technology be tested and implemented now?

    The Technology’s Value

    • Is there any indication of the cost of the technology?
    • How much value will the technology bring?

    Download the Disruptive Technology Database Tool

    Input

    • Inspiration
    • List of processes

    Output

    • Initial longlist

    Materials

    • Chart paper and markers
    • Pen and paper
    • Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries

    1.3.E Explore these sources to generate your disruptive technology longlist for the next meeting

    30 Minutes

    There are many sources of information on new and emerging technology. Explore as many sources as you can.

    Science fiction is a valid source of learning. It drives and is influenced by disruptive technology.

    “…the inventor of the first liquid-fuelled rocket … was inspired by H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel War of the Worlds (1898). More recent examples include the 3D gesture-based user interface used by Tom Cruise’s character in Minority Report (2002), which is found today in most touch screens and the motion sensing capability of Microsoft’s Kinect. Similarly, the tablet computer actually first appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and the communicator – which we’ve come to refer today as the mobile phone – was first used by Captain Kirk in Star Trek (1966).”
    – Emmanuel Tsekleves, senior lecturer, University of Lancaster

    Right sources: blogs, tech news sites, tech magazines, the tech section of business sites, popular science books about technology, conferences, trade publications, and vendor announcements

    Quantity over quality: early research is not the time to dismiss ideas.

    Discuss with your peers: spark new and innovative ideas

    Insert a brief summary of how independent research is conducted in Section 2.1 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

    1.3.E (Cont.) Explore these sources to generate your disruptive technology longlist for the next meeting

    30 Minutes

    There are many sources of information on new and emerging technology. Use this list to kick-start your search.

    Connect with practitioners that are worth their weight in Reddit gold. Check out topic-based LinkedIn groups and subreddits such as r/sysadmin and r/tech. People experienced with technology frequent these groups.

    YouTube is for more than cat videos. Many vendors use YouTube for distributing their previous webinars. There are also videos showcasing various technologies that are uploaded by lecturers, geeks, researchers, and other technology enthusiasts.

    Test your reasonability. Check your “Think Like a Futurist” Tool

    Resolve

    Evaluate Disruptive Technologies

    PHASE 2

    Phase 2: Resolve

    Evaluate disrupted technologies

    Activities:

    Step 2.1: Create and Winnow a Longlist
    Step 2.2: Assess Shortlist

    Info-Tech Insight

    Long to short … that’s the short of it. Using SWOT, value readiness, and quadrant mapping review sessions will focus the longlist, creating a shortlist of potential PoC candidates to review and consider.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group
    • Infrastructure Management

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Finalized longlist
    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

    Step 2.1

    Create and winnow a longlist

    Activities:

    1. Converge everyone’s longlists
    2. Narrow technologies from the longlist down to a shortlist using Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool
    3. Use the shortlisting tool to help participants visualize the potential
    4. Input the technologies on your longlist into the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool to produce a shortlist

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group members

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Finalized longlist
    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

    2.1 Organize a meeting with the core working group to combine your longlists and create a shortlist

    1 hour

    Plan enough time to talk about each technology on the list. Each technology was included for a reason.

    • Start with the longlist. Review the longlist compiled at the initial meeting, and then have everyone present the lists that they independently researched.
    • Focus on the company’s context. Make sure that the working group analyzes these disruptive technologies in the context of the organization.
    • Start to compile the shortlist. Begin narrowing down the longlist by excluding technologies that are not relevant.

    Meeting Agenda (Sample)

    TimeActivity
    8:00am-9:30amConverge longlists
    9:30am-10:00amBreak
    10:00am-10:45amDiscuss tech in organizational context
    10:45am-11:15amBegin compiling the shortlist

    Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    2.1.A Converge the longlists developed by your team

    90 minutes

    • Start with the longlist developed at the initial meeting. Write this list on the whiteboard.
    • If applicable, have a member present the longlist that was created in the last cycle. Remove technologies that:
      • Are no longer disruptive (e.g. have been implemented or rejected).
      • Have become foundational.
    • Eliminate redundancy: remove items that are very similar.
    • Have members “pitch” items on their lists:
      • Explain why their technologies will be disruptive (2-5 minutes maximum)
      • Add new technologies to the whiteboard
    • Record the following for metrics:
      • Each presented technology
      • Reasons the technology could be disruptive
      • Source of the information
    • Use Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool as a starting point.

    Insert the final longlist into Section 2.2 of your Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

    Input

    • Longlist developed at first meeting
    • Independent research
    • Previous longlist

    Output

    • Finalized longlist

    Materials

    • Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool
    • Whiteboard and markers
    • Virtual whiteboard

    Participants

    • Core working group

    Review the list of processes that were brainstormed by the visionary group, and ask for input from others

    • IT innovation is most highly valued by the C-suite when it improves business processes, reduces costs, and improves core products and services.
    • By incorporating this insight into your working group’s analysis, you help to attract the attention of senior management and reinforce the group’s necessity.
    • Any input you can get from outside of IT will help your group understand how technology can be disruptive.
      • Visionaries consulted in Phase 1 are a great source for this insight.
    • The list of processes that they helped to brainstorm in Step 1.2 reflects processes that can be impacted by technology.
    • Info-Tech’s research has shown time and again that both CEOs and CIOs want IT to innovate around:
      • Improving business processes
      • Improving core products and services
      • Reducing costs

    Improved business processes

    80%

    Core product and service improvement

    48%

    Reduced costs

    48%

    Increased revenues

    23%

    Penetration into new markets

    21%

    N=364 CXOs & CIOs from the CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostic Questions were asked on a 7-point scale of 1 = Not at all to 7 = Very strongly. Results are displayed as percentage of respondents selecting 6 or 7.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The disruptive tech team is prestigious. If your organization is large enough or has the resources, consider having this meeting in an offsite location. This will drive excitement to join the working group if the opportunity arises and incentivize good work.

    2.1.B Narrow technologies from the longlist down to a shortlist using Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool

    90 minutes

    To decide which technology has potential for your organization, have the working group or workshop participants evaluate each technology:

    1. Record each potentially disruptive technology in the longlist on a whiteboard.
    2. Making sure to carefully consider the meaning of the terms, have each member of the group evaluate each technology as “high” or “low” along each of the axes, innovation and transformation, on a piece of paper.
    3. The facilitator collects each piece of paper and inputs the results by technology into the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.
    Technology Innovation Transformation
    Conversational Commerce High High

    Insert the final shortlist into Section 2.2 of your Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

    Input

    • Longlist
    • Futurist brainstorming

    Output

    • Shortlist

    Materials

    • Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool
    • Whiteboard and markers
    • Virtual whiteboard

    Participants

    • Core working group

    Disruptive technologies are innovative and transformational

    Innovation

    Transformation

    • Elements:
      • Creative solution to a problem that is relatively new on the scene.
      • It is different, counterintuitive, or insightful or has any combination of these qualities.
    • Questions to Ask:
      • How new is the technology?
      • How different is the technology?
      • Have you seen anything like it before? Is it counterintuitive?
      • Does it offer an insightful solution to a persistent problem?
    • Example:
      • The sharing economy: Today, simple platforms allow people to share rides and lodgings cheaply and have disrupted traditional services.
    • Elements:
      • Positive change to the business process.
      • Highly impactful: impacts a wide variety of roles in a company in a nontrivial way or impacts a smaller number of roles more significantly.
    • Questions to Ask:
      • Will this technology have a big impact on business operations?
      • Will it add substantial value? Will it change the structure of the company?
      • Will it impact a significant number of employees in the organization?
    • Example:
      • Flash memory improved storage technology incrementally by building on an existing foundation.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Technology can be transformational but not innovative. Not every new technology is disruptive. Even where technology has improved the efficiency of the business, if it does this in an incremental way, it might not be worth exploring using this storyboard.

    2.1.C Use the shortlisting tool to help participants visualize the potential

    1 hour

    Use the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool, tabs 2 and 3.

    Assign quadrants

    • Input group members’ names and the entire longlist (up to 30 technologies) into tab 2 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.
    • On tab 3 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool, input the quadrant number that corresponds to the innovation and transformation scores each participant has assigned to each technology.

    Note

    This is an assessment meant to serve as a guide. Use discretion when moving forward with a proof-of-concept project for any potentially disruptive technology.

    Participant Evaluation Quadrant
    High Innovation, High Transformation 1
    High Innovation, Low Transformation 2
    Low Innovation, Low Transformation 3
    Low Innovation, High Transformation 4

    four quadrants are depicted, labeled 1-4. The quadrants are coloured as follows: 1- green; 2- yellow; 3; red; 4; yellow

    2.1.D Use the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool to produce a shortlist

    1 hour

    Use the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool, tabs 3 and 4.

    Use the populated matrix and the discussion list to arrive at a shortlist of four to six potentially disruptive technologies.

    • The tool populates each quadrant based on how many votes it received in the voting exercise.
    • Technologies selected for a particular quadrant by a majority of participants are placed in the quadrant on the graph. Where there was no consensus, the technology is placed in the discussion list.
    • Technologies in the upper right quadrant – high transformation and high innovation – are more likely to be good candidates for a proof-of-concept project. Those in the bottom left are likely to be poor candidates, while those in the remaining quadrants are strong on one of the axes and are unlikely candidates for further systematic evaluation.

    This image contains a screenshot from tab 3 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.

    Input the results of the vote into tab 3 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.

    This image contains a screenshot from tab 4 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.

    View the results on tab 4.

    Phase 2: Resolve

    Evaluate disrupted technologies

    Activities:

    Step 2.1: Create and Winnow a Longlist
    Step 2.2:- Assess Shortlist

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group
    • Infrastructure Management

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Finalized longlist
    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

    Assess Shortlist

    Activities:

    1. Assess the value of each technology to your organization by breaking it down into quality and cost
    2. Investigate the overall readiness of the technologies on the shortlist
    3. Interpret each technology’s value score
    4. Conduct a SWOT analysis for each technology on the shortlist
    5. Use Info-Tech’s disruptive technology shortlist analysis to visualize the tool’s outputs
    6. Select the shortlisted technologies you would like to move forward with

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group members
    • IT Management

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

    2.2 Evaluate technologies based on their value and readiness, and conduct a SWOT analysis for each one

    Use the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    • A technology monitor diagram prioritizes investment in technology by analyzing its readiness and value.
      • Readiness: how close the technology is to being practical and implementable in your industry and organization.
      • Value: how worthwhile the technology is, in terms of its quality and its cost.
    • Value and readiness questionnaires are included in the tool to help determine current and future values for each, and the next four slides explain the ratings further.
    • Categorize technology by its value-readiness score, and evaluate how much potential value each technology has and how soon your company can realize that value.
    • Use a SWOT analysis to qualitatively evaluate the potential that each technology has for your organization in each of the four categories (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).

    The technology monitor diagram appears in tab 9 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    This image depicts tab 9 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    2.2.A Assess the value of each technology to your organization by breaking it down into quality and cost

    1 hour

    Update the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool, tab 4.

    Populate the chart to produce a score for each technology’s overall value to the company conceptualized as the interaction of quality and cost.

    Overall Value

    Quality Cost

    Each technology, if it has a product associated with it, can be evaluated along eight dimensions of quality. Consider how well the product performs, its features, its reliability, its conformance, its durability, its serviceability, its aesthetics, and its perceived quality.

    IT budgets are broken down into capital and operating expenditures. A technology that requires a significant investment along either of these lines is unlikely to produce a positive return. Also consider how much time it will take to implement and operate each technology.

    The value assessment is part of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    This image contains a screenshot from tab 4 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Watch your costs: Technology that seems cheap at first can actually be expensive over time. Be sure to account for operational and opportunity costs as well.

    2.2.B Investigate the overall readiness of the technologies on the shortlist

    1 hour

    Update the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool, tab 4.

    Overall Readiness

    Age

    How much time has the technology had to mature? Older technology is more likely to be ready for adoption.

    Venture Capital

    The amount of venture capital gathered by important firms in the space is an indicator of market faith.

    Market Size

    How big is the market for the technology? It is more difficult to break into a giant market than a niche market.

    Market Players

    Have any established vendors (Microsoft, Facebook, Google, etc.) thrown their weight behind the technology?

    Fragmentation

    A large number of small companies in the space indicates that the market has yet to reach equilibrium.

    The readiness assessment is part of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    This image contains a screenshot of the Readiness Scoring tab of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

    Use a variety of sources to populate the chart

    Google is your friend: search each shortlisted technology to find details about its development and important vendors.

    Websites like Crunchbase, VentureBeat, and Mashable are useful sources for information on the companies involved in a space and the amount of money they have each raised.

    2.2.C Interpret each technology’s value score

    1 hour

    Insert the result of the SWOT analysis into tab 7 of Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

    Visualize the results of the quality-cost analysis

    • Quality and cost are independently significant; it is essential to understand how each technology stacks up on the axes.
    • Use tab 6 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool for an illustration of how quality and cost interact to produce each technology’s final position on the tech monitor graph.
    • Remember: the score is notional and reflects the values that you have assigned. Be sure to treat it accordingly.

    This image contains a screenshot of the Value Analysis tab of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    Green represents a technology that scores extremely high on one axis or the other, or quite high on both. These technologies are the best candidates for proof-of-concept projects from a value perspective.

    Red represents a technology that has scored very low on both axes. These technologies will be expensive, time consuming, and of poor quality.

    Yellow represents the fuzzy middle ground. These technologies score moderately on both axes. Be especially careful when considering the SWOT analysis of these technologies.

    2.2.D Conduct a SWOT analysis for each technology on the shortlist

    1 hour

    Use tab 6 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

    A formal process for analyzing disruptive technology is the only way to ensure that it is taken seriously.

    Write each technology as a heading on a whiteboard. Spend 10-15 minutes on each technology conducting a SWOT analysis together.

    Consider four categories for each technology:

    • Strengths: Current uses of the technology or supporting technology and ways in which it helps your organization.
    • Weaknesses: Current limitations of the technology and challenges or barriers to adopting it in your organization.
    • Opportunities: Potential uses of the technology, especially as it advances or improves.
    • Threats: Potential negative disruptions resulting from the technology, especially as it advances or improves.

    The list of processes generated at the cycle’s initial meeting is a great source for opportunities and threats.

    Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    This image contains screenshots of the technology tab of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

    2.2.E Use Info-Tech’s disruptive technology shortlist analysis to visualize the tool’s outputs

    1 hour

    Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool, tab 9

    The tool’s final tab displays the results of the value-readiness analysis and the SWOT analysis in a single location.

    This image contains a screenshot from tab 9 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    Insert the shortlist analysis report into Section 3 of your Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

    2.2.F Select the shortlisted technologies you would like to move forward with

    1 hour

    Present your findings to the working group.

    • The Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool aggregates your inputs in an easy-to-read, consistent way.
    • Present the tool’s outputs to members of the core working group.
    • Explain the scoring and present the graphic to the group. Go over each technology’s strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats it presents/poses to the organization.
    • Go through the proof-of-concept planning phase before striking any technologies from the list.

    This image contains a screenshot of the disruptive technology shortlist analysis from the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    Info-Tech Insight

    A technology’s exceptional value and immediate usability make it the best. A technology can be promising and compelling, but it is unsuitable unless it can bring immediate and exceptional value to your organization. Don’t get caught up in the hype.

    Evaluate

    Create an Action Plan to Exploit Disruptive Technologies

    PHASE 3

    Phase 3: Evaluate

    Create an Action Plan to Exploit Disruptive Technologies

    Activities:

    Step 3.1: Create Process Maps
    Step 3.2: Develop Proof of Concept Charter

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group
    • Infrastructure Management
    • Working group leader
    • CIO

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Business process maps before and after disruption
    • Proof of concept charter
    • Key performance indicators
    • Estimation of required resources

    Step 3.1

    Create Process Maps

    Activities:

    1. Creating a problem canvas by identifying stakeholders, jobs, pains, and gains
    2. Clarify the problem the proof-of-concept project will solve
    3. Identify jobs and stakeholders
    4. Outline how disruptive technology will solve the problem
    5. Map business processes
    6. Identify affected business units
    7. Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted
    8. Recognize how the new technology will impact business processes
    9. Make the case: Outline why the new business process is superior to the old

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Working group leader
    • CIO

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Business process maps before and after disruption

    3.1 Create an action plan to exploit disruptive technologies

    Clarify the problem in order to make the case. Fill in section 1.1 of Info-Tech’s Proof of Concept Template to clearly outline the problem each proof of concept is designed to solve.

    Establish roles and responsibilities. Use section 1.2 of the template to outline the roles and responsibilities that fall to each member of the team. Ensure that clear lines of authority are delineated and that the list of stakeholders is exhaustive: include the executives whose input will be required for project approval, all the way to the technicians on the frontline responsible for implementing it.

    Outline the solution to the problem. Demonstrate how each proof-of-concept project provides a solution to the problem outlined in section 1.1. Be sure to clarify what makes the particular technology under investigation a potential solution and record the results in section 1.3.

    This image contains a screenshot of the Proof of concept project template

    Use the Proof of Concept Project Template to track the information you gather throughout Phase 3.

    3.1.A Creating a problem canvas by identifying stakeholders, jobs, pains, and gains

    2 hours

    Instructions:

    1. On a whiteboard, draw the visual canvas supplied below.
    2. Select your issue area, and list jobs, pains, and gains in the associated sections.
    3. Record the pains, jobs, and gains in sections 1.1-1.3 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    Gains

    1. More revenue

    2. Job security

    3. ……

    Jobs

    1. Moving product

    2. Per sale value

    3. ……

    Pains

    1. Clunky website

    2. Bad site navigation

    3. ……

    Input

    • Inspiration
    • Anonymous ideas

    Output

    • List of processes

    Materials

    • Chart paper and markers
    • Pen and paper

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries

    3.1.B Clarify the problem the proof-of-concept project will solve

    2 hours

    What is the problem?

    • Every technology is designed to solve a problem faced by somebody somewhere. For each technology that your team has decided to move forward with, identify and clearly state the problem it would solve.
    • A clear problem statement is a crucial part of a new technology’s business case. It is impossible to earn buy-in from the rest of the organization without demonstrating the necessity of a solution.
    • Perfection is impossible to achieve: during the course of their work, everyone encounters pain points. Identify those pain points to arrive at the problem that needs to be solved.

    Example:

    List of pains addressed by conversational commerce:

    • Search functions can be clunky and unresponsive.
    • Corporate websites can be difficult to navigate.
    • Customers are uncomfortable in unfamiliar internet environments.
    • Customers do not like waiting in a long queue to engage with customer service representatives when they have concerns.

    “If I were given one hour to solve a problem, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.”
    – Albert Einstein

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 1.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.1.C Identify jobs and stakeholders

    1 hour

    Jobs

    Job: Anything that the “customer” (the target of the solution) needs to get done but that is complicated by a pain.

    Examples:
    The job of the conversational commerce interface is to make selling products easier for the company.
    From the customer perspective, the job of the conversational interface is to make the act of purchasing a product simpler and easier.

    Stakeholders

    Stakeholder: Anyone who is impacted by the new technology and who will end up using, approving, or implementing it.

    Examples:
    The executive is responsible for changing the company’s direction and approving investment in a new sales platform.
    The IT team is responsible for implementing the new technology.
    Marketing will be responsible for selling the change to customers.
    Customers, the end users, will be the ones using the conversational commerce user interface.

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 1.2 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Process deconstruction reveals strengths and weaknesses. Promising technology should improve stakeholders’ abilities to do jobs.

    3.1.D Outline how disruptive technology will solve the problem

    1 hour

    How will the technology in question make jobs easier?

    • How will the disruptive technology you have elected to move forward with create gains for the organization?
    • First, identify the gains that are supposed to come with the project. Consider the benefits that the various stakeholders expect to derive from the jobs identified.
    • Second, make note of how the technology in question facilitates the gains you have noted. Be sure to articulate the exclusive features of the new technology that make it an improvement over the current state.

    Note: The goal of this exercise is to make the case for a particular technology. Sell it!

    Expected Gain: Increase in sales.

    Conversational Commerce’s Contribution: Customers are more likely to purchase products using interfaces they are comfortable with.

    Expected Gain: Decrease in costs.

    Conversational Commerce’s Contribution: Customers who are satisfied with the conversational interface are less likely to interact with live agents, saving labor costs.

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 1.3 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.1.E Map business processes

    1 hour

    Map the specific business processes the new technology will impact.

    • Disruptive technologies will impact a wide variety of business processes.
    • Map business processes to visualize what parts of your organization (departments, silos, divisions) will be impacted by the new technology, should it be adopted after the proof of concept.
    • Identify how the disruption will take place.
    • Demonstrate the value of each technology by including the results of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool with your process map.

    This image contains a screenshot of the Proof of concept project template

    Use the Proof of Concept Project Template to track the information you gather throughout Phase 3.

    3.1.F Identify affected business units

    30 minutes per technology

    Disruptive technology will impact business units.

    • Using the stakeholders identified earlier in the project, map each technology to the business units that will be affected.
    • Make your list exhaustive. While some technologies will have a limited impact on the business as a whole, others will have ripple effects throughout the organization.
    • Examine affected units at all scales: How will the technology impact operations at the team level? The department level? The division level?

    “The disruption is not just in the technology. Sometimes a good business model can be the disruptor.”
    – Jason Hong, Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon

    Example:

    • Customer service teams: Conversational commerce will replace some of the duties of the customer service representative. They will have to reorganize to account for this development.
    • IT department: The IT department will be responsible for building/maintaining the conversational interface (or, more likely, they will be responsible for managing the contract with the vendor).
    • Sales analytics: New data from customers in natural language might provide a unique opportunity for the analytics team to develop new initiatives to drive sales growth.

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 2.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.1.G Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted

    15 minutes per technology

    Leverage the insights of the diverse working group.

    • Processes are designed to transform inputs into outputs. All business activities can be mapped into processes.
    • A process map illustrates the sequence of actions and decisions that transform an input into an output.
    • Effective mapping gives managers an “aerial” view of the company’s processes, making it easier to identify inefficiencies, reduce waste, and ultimately, streamline operations.
    • To identify business processes, have group members familiar with the affected business units identify how jobs are typically accomplished within those units.

    “To truly understand a business process, we need information from both the top-down and bottom-up points of view. Informants higher in the organizational hierarchy with a strategic focus are less likely to know process details or problems. But they might advocate and clearly articulate an end-to-end, customer-oriented philosophy that describes the process in an idealized form. Conversely, the salespeople, customer service representatives, order processors, shipping clerks, and others who actually carry out the processes will be experts about the processes, their associated documents, and problems or exception cases they encounter.”
    – Robert J. Glushko, Professor at UC Berkeley and Tim McGrath, Business Consultant

    Info-Tech Insight

    Opinions gathered from a group that reflect the process in question are far more likely to align with your organization’s reality. If you have any questions about a particular process, do not be afraid to go outside of the working group to ask someone who might know.

    3.1.G Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted (continued)

    15 minutes per technology

    Create a simple diagram of identified processes.

    • Use different shapes to identify different points in the process.
    • Rectangles represent actions, diamonds represent decisions.
    • On a whiteboard, map out the actions and decisions that take place to transform an input into an output.
    • Input the result into section 2.2 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    This image contains a screenshot of the Software Service Cross-Function Process tab from Edraw Visualization Solutions.

    Source: Edraw Visualization Solutions

    Example: simplified process map

    1. User: visits company website
    2. User: engages search function or browses links
    3. User: selects and purchases product from a menu
    4. Company: ships product to customer

    3.1.H Recognize how the new technology will impact business processes

    15 minutes per technology

    Using the information gleaned from the previous activities, develop a new process map that takes the new technology into account.

    Identify the new actions or decisions that the new technology will affect.

    User: visits company website; User: engages conversational; commerce platform; User: engages search function or browses links; User: makes a natural language query; User: selects and purchases product from a menu</p data-verified=

    User: selects and purchases product from a menu; Company: ships product to customer; Company: ships product to customer">

    Info-Tech Insight

    It’s ok to fail! The only way to know you’re getting close to the “knee of curve" is from multiple failed PoC tests. The more PoC options you have, the more likely it will be that you will have two to three successful results.

    3.1.I Make the case: Outline why the new business process is superior to the old

    15 minutes per technology

    Articulate the main benefits of the new process.

    • Using the revised process map, make the case for each new action.
    • Questions to consider: How does the new technology relieve end-user/customer pains? How does the new technology contribute to the streamlining of the business process? Who will benefit from the new action? What are the implications of those benefits?
    • Record the results of this exercise in section 2.4 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    This image contains an example of an outline comparing the benefits of new and the old business processes.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you cannot articulate how a new technology will benefit a business process, reconsider moving forward with the proof-of-concept project.

    Phase 3: Evaluate

    Create an Action Plan to Exploit Disruptive Technologies

    Activities:

    Step 3.1: Create Process Maps
    Step 3.2: Develop Proof of Concept Charter

    Develop Proof of Concept Charter

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group
    • Infrastructure Management
    • Working group leader
    • CIO

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Business process maps before and after disruption
    • Proof of concept charter
    • Key performance indicators
    • Estimation of required resources

    Step 3.2

    Develop Proof of Concept Charter

    Activities:

    1. Use SMART success metrics to define your objectives
    2. Develop key performance indicators (KPIs)
    3. Identify key success factors for the project
    4. Outline the project’s scope
    5. Identify the structure of the team responsible for the proof-of-concept project
    6. Estimate the resources required by the project
    7. Be aware of common IT project concerns
    8. Communicate your working group’s findings and successes to a wide audience
    9. Hand off the completed proof-of-concept project plan
    10. Disruption is constant: Repeat the evaluation process regularly to protect the business

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Working group leader
    • CIO

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Proof of concept charter
    • Key performance indicators
    • Estimation of required resources

    3.2 Develop a proof of concept charter

    Keep your proof of concept on track by defining five key dimensions.

    1. Objective: Giving an overview of the planned proof of concept will help to focus and clarify the rest of this section. What must the proof of concept achieve? Objectives should be: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. Outline and track key performance indicators.
    2. Key Success Factors: These are conditions that will positively impact the proof of concept’s success.
    3. Scope: High-level statement of scope. More specifically, state what is in scope and what is out of scope.
    4. Project Team: Identify the team’s structure, e.g. sponsors, subject-matter experts.
    5. Resource Estimation: Identify what resources (time, materials, space, tools, expertise, etc.) will be needed to build and socialize your prototype. How will they be secured?

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.A Use SMART success metrics to define your objectives

    Specific

    Measurable

    Actionable

    Realistic

    Time Bound

    Make sure the objective is clear and detailed.

    Objectives are measurable if there are specific metrics assigned to measure success. Metrics should be objective.

    Objectives become actionable when specific initiatives designed to achieve the objective are identified.

    Objectives must be achievable given your current resources or known available resources.

    An objective without a timeline can be put off indefinitely. Furthermore, measuring success is challenging without a timeline.

    Who, what, where, why?

    How will you measure the extent to which the goal is met?

    What is the action-oriented verb?

    Is this within my capabilities?

    By when: deadline, frequency?

    Examples:

    1. Increase in sales by $40,000 per month by the end of next quarter.
    2. Immediate increase in web traffic by 600 unique page views per day.
    3. Number of pilots approved per year.
    4. Number of successfully deployed solutions per year.

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.B Develop key performance indicators (KPIs)

    30 minutes per technology

    Key performance indicators allow for rigorous analysis, which generates insight into utilization by platform and consumption by business activity.

    • Use the process improvements identified in step 3.1 to brainstorm metrics that indicate when process improvement is actually taking place.
    • Have members of the group pitch KPIs; the facilitator should record each suggestion on a whiteboard.
    • Make sure to have everyone justify the inclusion of each metric: How does it relate to the improvement that the proof of concept project is intended to drive? How does it relate to the overall goals of the business?
    • Include a list of KPIs, along with a description and a target (ensuring that it aligns with SMART metrics) in section 3.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    “An estimated 70% of performance measurement systems fail after implementation. Carefully select your KPIs and avoid this trap!”
    Source: Collins et al. 2016

    Key Performance Indicator Description Target

    Result

    Conversion rate What percentage of customers who visit the site/open the conversational interface continue on to make a purchase? 40%
    Average order value

    How much does each customer spend per visit to the website?

    $212
    Repeat customer rate What percentage of customers have made more than one purchase over time? 65%
    Lifetime customer value Over the course of their interaction with the company, what is the typical value each customer brings? $1566

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.C Identify key success factors for the project

    30 minutes per technology

    Effective project management involves optimizing four key success factors (Clarke, 1999)

    • Communication: Communicate the expected changes to stakeholders, making sure that everyone who needs to know does know. Example: Make sure customer service representatives know their duties will be impacted by the conversational UI well before the proof-of-concept project begins.
    • Clarity: All involved in the project should be apprised of what the project is intended to accomplish and what the project is not intended to accomplish. Example: The conversational commerce project is not intended to be rolled out to the entire customer base all at once; it is not intended to disrupt normal online sales.
    • Compartmentalization: The working group should suggest some ways that the project can be broken down to facilitate its effective implementation. Example: Sales provides details of customers who might be amenable to a trial, IT secures a vendor, customer service writes a script.
    • Flexibility: The working group’s final output should not be treated as gospel. Ensure that the document can be altered to account for unexpected events. Example: The conversational commerce platform might drive sales of a particular product more than others, necessitating adjustments at the warehouse and shipping level.

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.D Outline the project’s scope

    10 minutes per technology

    Create a high-level outline of the project’s scope.

    • Questions to consider: Broadly speaking, what are the project’s goals? What is the desired future state? Where in the company will the project be rolled out? What are some of the company’s goals that the project is not designed to cover?
    • Be sure to avoid scope creep! Remember: The goal of the proof-of-concept project is to produce a minimum case for viability in a carefully defined area. Reserve a detailed accounting of costs and benefits for the post-proof-of-concept stage.
    • Example: The conversational user interface will only be rolled out in an e-commerce setting. Other business units (HR, for example) are beyond the scope of this particular project.

    “Although scope creep is not the only nemesis a project can have, it does tend to have the farthest reach. Without a properly defined project and/or allowing numerous changes along the way, a project can easily go over budget, miss the deadline, and wreak havoc on project success.”
    – University Alliance, Villanova University

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.E Identify the structure of the team responsible for the proof-of-concept project

    10 minutes per technology

    Brainstorm who will be involved in project implementation.

    • Refer back to the list of stakeholders identified in 3.1.a. Which stakeholders should be involved in implementing the proof-of-concept plan?
    • What business units do they represent?
    • Who should be accountable for the project? At a high level, sketch the roles of each of the participants. Who will be responsible for doing the work? Who will approve it? Who needs to be informed at every stage? Who are the company’s internal subject matter experts?

    Example

    Name/Title Role
    IT Manager Negotiate the contract for the software with vendor
    CMO Promote the conversational interface to customers

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.F Estimate the resources required by the project

    10 minutes per technology

    Time and Money

    • Recall: Costs can be operational, capital, or opportunity.
    • Revisit the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool. Record the capital and operational expenses expected to be associated with each technology, and add detail where possible (use exact figures from particular vendors instead of percentages).
    • Write the names and titles of each expected participant in the project on a whiteboard. Next to each name, write the number of hours they are expected to devote to the project and include a rough estimate of the cost of their participation to the company. Use full-time employee equivalent (FTE measures) as a base.
    • Outline how other necessary resources (space, tools, expertise, etc.) will be secured.

    Example: Conversational Commerce

    • OpEx: $149/month + 2.9¢/transaction* (2,000 estimated transactions)
    • CapEx: $0!
    • IT Manager: 5 hours at $100/hour
    • IT Technician: 40 hours at $45/hour
    • CMO: 1 hour at $300/hour
    • Customer Service Representative: 10 hours at $35/hour
    • *Estimated total cost for a one-month proof-of-concept project: $3,157

    *This number is a sample taken from the vendor Rhombus

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.G Be aware of common IT project concerns

    Of projects that did not meet business expectations or were cancelled, how significant were the following issues?

    A bar graph is depicted, comparing small, medium, and large businesses for the following datasets: Over budget; Project failed to be delivered on time; Breach of scope; Low quality; Failed to deliver expected benefit or value

    This survey data did not specifically address innovation projects.

    • Disruptive technology projects will be under increased scrutiny in comparison to other projects.
    • Be sure to meet deadlines and stay within budget.
    • Be cognizant that your projects can go out of scope, and there will be projects that may have to be cancelled due to low quality. Remember: Even a failed test is a learning opportunity!

    Info-Tech’s CIO-CEO Alignment Survey, N=225

    Organization size was determined by the number of IT employees within the organization

    Small = 10 or fewer IT staff, medium = 11 to 25 IT staff, and large/enterprise = 26 or greater IT staff

    3.2.H Communicate your working group’s findings and successes to a wide audience

    Advertise the group’s successes and help prevent airline magazine syndrome from occurring.

    • Share your group’s results internally:
      • Run your own analysis by senior management and then share it across the organization.
      • Maintain a list of technologies that the working group has analyzed and solicit feedback from the wider organization.
      • Post summaries of the technologies in a publicly available repository. The C-suite may not read it right away, but it will be easy to provide when they ask.
      • If senior management has declined to proceed with a certain technology, avoid wasting time and resources on it. However, include notes about why the technology was rejected.
    • These postings will also act as an advertisement for the group. Use the garnered interest to attract visionaries for the next cycle.
    • These postings will help to reiterate the innovative value of the IT department and help bring you to the decision-making table.

    “Some CIOs will have to battle the bias that they belong in the back office and shouldn’t be included in product architecture planning. CIOs must ‘sell’ IT’s strength in information architecture.”
    – Chris Curran, Chief Technologist, PwC (Curran, 2014)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Cast a wide net. By sharing your results with as many people as possible within your organization, you’ll not only attract more attention to your working group, but you will also get more feedback and ideas.

    3.2.I Hand off the completed proof-of-concept project plan

    The proof of concept template is filled out – now what?

    • The core working group is responsible for producing a vision of the future and outlining new technology’s disruptive potential. The actual implementation of the proof of concept (purchasing the hardware, negotiating the SLA with the vendor) is beyond the working group’s responsibilities.
    • If the proof of concept goes ahead, the facilitator should block some time to evaluate the completed project against the key performance indicators identified in the initial plan.
    • A cure for airline magazine syndrome: Be prepared when executives ask about new technology. Present them with the results of the shortlist analysis and the proof-of-concept plan. A clear accounting of the value, readiness, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats posed by each technology, along with its impact on business processes, is an invaluable weapon against poor technology choices.

    Use section 3.2.b to identify the decision-making stakeholder who has the most to gain from a successful proof-of-concept project. Self-interest is a powerful motivator – the project is more likely to succeed in the hands of a passionate champion.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Set a date for the first meeting of the new iteration of the disruptive technology working group before the last meeting is done. Don’t risk pushing it back indefinitely.

    3.2.J Hand off the completed proof-of-concept project plan

    Record the results of the proof of concept. Keep track of what worked and what didn’t.

    Repeat the process regularly.

    • Finalize the proof of concept template, but don’t stop there: Keep your ear to the ground; follow tech developments using the sources identified in step 1.2.
    • Continue expanding the potential longlist with independent research: Be prepared to expand your longlist. Remember, the more technologies you have on the longlist, the more potential airline magazine syndrome cures you have access to.
    • Have the results of the previous session’s proof of concept plan on hand: At the start of each new iteration, conduct a review. What technologies were successful beyond the proof of concept phase? Which parts of the process worked? Which parts did not? How could they be improved?

    Info-Tech Insight

    The key is in anticipation. This is not a one-and-done exercise. Technology innovation operates at a faster pace than ever before, well below the Moores Law "18 month" timeline as an example. Success is in making EDIT a repeatable process.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Define Your Digital Business Strategy
    After a major crisis, find your place in the digital economy.

    Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy
    Drive project throughput by throttling resource capacity.

    Adopt Design Thinking in Your Organization
    Innovation needs design thinking.

    Digital Maturity Improvement Service
    Prepare your organization for digital transformation – or risk falling behind.

    Research contributors and experts

    Nitin Babel

    Nitin Babel, Co-Founder, niki.ai

    Nitin Babel, MSc, co-created conversational commerce platform niki.ai in early 2015. Since then, the technology has been featured on the front page of the Economic Times, and has secured the backing of Ratan Tata, former chairman of the Tata Group, one of the largest companies in the world.

    Mark Hubbard

    Mark Hubbard, Senior Vice President, FirstOnSite

    Mark is the SVP for Information Technology in Canada with FirstOnSite, a full service disaster recovery and property restoration company. Mark has over 25 years of technology leadership guiding global organizations through the development of strategic and tactical plans to strengthen their technology platforms and implement business aligned technology strategies.

    Chris Green

    Chris Green, Enterprise Architect, Boston Private
    Chris is an IT architect with over 15 years’ experience designing, building, and implementing solutions. He is a results-driven leader and contributor, skilled in a broad set of methods, tools, and platforms. He is experienced with mobile, web, enterprise application integration, business process, and data design.

    Andrew Kope

    Andrew Kope, Head of Data Analytics
    Big Blue Bubble
    Andrew Kope, MSc, oversees a team that develops and maintains a user acquisition tracking solution and a real-time metrics dashboard. He also provides actionable recommendations to the executive leadership of Big Blue Bubble – one of Canada’s largest independent mobile game development studios.

    Jason Hong

    Jason Hong, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

    Jason Hong is a member of the faculty at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science. His research focus lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, privacy and security, and systems. He is a New America National Cyber Security Fellow (2015-2017) and is widely published in academic and industry journals.

    Tim Lalonde

    Tim Lalonde, Vice President, Mid-Range

    Tim Lalonde is the VP of Technical Operations at Mid-Range. He works with leading-edge companies to be more competitive and effective in their industries. He specializes in developing business roadmaps leveraging technology that create and support change from within — with a focus on business process re-engineering, architecture and design, business case development and problem-solving. With over 30 years of experience in IT, Tim’s guiding principle remains simple: See a problem, fix a problem.

    Jon Mavor

    Jon Mavor, Co-Founder and CTO, Envelop VR
    Jon Mavor is a programmer and entrepreneur, whose past work includes writing the graphics engine for the PC game Total Annihilation. As Chief Technology Officer of Envelop VR, a virtual reality start-up focused on software for the enterprise, Jon has overseen the launch of Envelop for Windows’s first public beta.

    Dan Pitt

    Dan Pitt, President, Palo Alto Innovation Advisors
    Dan Pitt is a network architect who has extensive experience in both the academy and industry. Over the course of his career, Dan has served as Executive Director of the Open Networking Foundation, Dean of Engineering at Santa Clara University, Vice President of Technology and Academic Partnerships at Nortel, Vice President of the Architecture Lab at Bay Networks, and, currently, as President of Palo Alto Innovation Advisors, where he advises and serves as an executive for technology start-ups in the Palo Alto area and around the world.

    Courtney Smith

    Courtney Smith, Co-Founder, Executive Creative Director
    PureMatter

    Courtney Smith is an accomplished creative strategist, storyteller, writer, and designer. Under her leadership, PureMatter has earned hundreds of creative awards and been featured in the PRINT International Design Annual. Courtney has juried over 30 creative competitions, including Creativity International. She is an invited member of the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts.

    Emmanuel Tsekleves

    Emmanuel Tsekleves, Senior Lecturer in Design Interactions, University of Lancaster
    Dr. Emmanuel Tsekleves is a senior lecturer and writer based out of the United Kingdom. Emmanuel designs interactions between people, places, and products by forging creative design methods along with digital technology. His design-led research in the areas of health, ageing, well-being, and defence has generated public interest and attracted media attention by the national press, such as the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Times, the Daily Mail, Discovery News, and several other international online media outlets.

    Bibliography

    Airini Ab Rahman. “Emerging Technologies with Emerging Effects; A Review”. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. PERINTIS eJournal, June 2017. Web.

    Anthony, Scott. “Kodak’s Downfall Wasn’t About Technology.” Harvard Business Review, 15 July 2016. Web.

    ARM. The Intelligent Flexible Cloud. 26 Feb. 2015. Web.

    Association of Computing Machinery. Communications of the ACM, n.d. Web.

    Barnett, Thomas. “Three Mobile Trends to Watch.” Cisco Blogs, 3 Feb. 2015. Web.

    Batelle, John. “The 70 Percent Solution.” CNN, 1 Dec 2005. Web.

    Booz Allen Hamilton. Managing Technological Change: 7 Ways to Talk Tech with Management, n.d. Web.

    Brynjolfsson, Erik, and Andrew McAfee. The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. W. W. Norton, 2014. Print.

    Christensen, Clayton M. “What is Disruptive Innovation?” Harvard Business Review, Dec 2015. Web.

    Christensen, Clayton M. and James Euchner. “Managing Disruption: An Interview With Clayton Christensen.” Research-Technology Management, 22 Dec 2015. vol. 54, no. 1. Web.

    Christensen, Clayton M., Rory McDonald, and Elizabeth J. Altman. “Disruptive Innovation: An Intellectual History and Directions for Future Research”. Wiley Online Library. Web.

    Christensen, Clayton M., Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan. “Know Your Customers’ Jobs to be Done.” Harvard Business Review, Sept. 2016. Web.

    Cisco. “Cisco Annual Internet Report.” n.d. Web.

    Cisco. Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2014-2019, 27 May 2015. Web.

    Clark, Steven. “Elon Musk hopes SpaceX will send humans to Mars in 2024.” Spaceflight Now, 2 June 2016. Web.

    Clarke, Angela. “A practical use of key success factors to improve the effectiveness of project management,” International Journal of Project Management, June 1999 (17): 139-145.

    Collins, Andrew L., Patrick Hester, Barry Ezell, and John Horst. “An improvement selection methodology for key performance indicators.” Environmental Systems and Decisions, June 2016, 36 (2): 196-208.

    Computer Sciences Corporation. CSC Global CIO Survey: 2014-2015: CIOs Emerge as Disruptive Innovators: An Annual Barometer of Global CIOs’ Plans, Priorities, Threats, and Opportunities, 2014. Web.

    Constine, John. “Voice is Chat’s Next Battleground.” TechCrunch, 19 Sept. 2016. Web.

    Cressman, Daryl. “Disruptive Innovation and the Idea of Technology”. Maastricht University, June 2019. Web.

    Crown Prosecution Service. A Guide to Process Mapping and Improvement. n.d. Web.

    Curran, Chris. “The CIO’s Role in the Internet of Things.” PwC, 13 Mar. 2014. Web.

    Darbha, Sheta, Mike Shevenell, and Jason Normandin. “Impact of Software-Defined Networking on Infrastructure Management.” CA Technology Exchange, 4.3, Nov. 2013, pp. 33-43. Web.

    Denecken, Sven. Conquering Disruption Through Digital Transformation: Technologies, Leadership Strategies, and Best Practices to Create Opportunities for Innovation. SAP, 2014. Web.

    DHL Trend Research and Cisco Consulting Services. Internet of Things in Logistics: A Collaborative Report by DHL and Cisco on Implications and Use Cases for the Logistics Industry, 2015. Web.

    Dirican, Cüneyt. “The Impacts of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence on Business and Economics.” Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 195, 2015, pp. 564-573. Web.

    Edraw Visualization Solutions. Examples of Flowcharts, Org Charts and More. “Cross-Function Flowchart Examples – Service Flowchart.”

    Emerson. Data Center 2025: Exploring the Possibilities, 2014. Web.

    Ericsson. Next-Generation Data Center Infrastructure, Feb. 2015. Web.

    Eurotech. Connecting M2M Applications to the Cloud to Bolster Hardware Sales, 2014. Web.

    Evans Gary, Llewellyn. “Disruptive Technology and the Board: The Tip of the Iceberg”. Economics and Business Review, n.d. Web.

    Evans Gary, Llewellyn. “Disruptive Technology and the Board: The Tip of the Iceberg”. Economics and Business Review, n.d. Web.

    Gage, Deborah. “The Venture Capital Secret: 3 Out of 4 Start-Ups Fail.” Wall Street Journal, 20 Sept. 2012. Web.

    Garvin, David A. “Competing on the Eight Dimensions of Quality.” Harvard Business Review, November 1987. Web.

    Gibbs, Colin. Augmented Reality in the Enterprise: Opportunities and Challenges. Gigaom Research, 26 Jan. 2015. Web.

    Glushko, Robert J. and Tim McGrath. Document Engineering: Analyzing and Designing Documents for Business Informatics and Web Services. MIT Press, 2005.

    Hadfield, Tom. “Facebook’s Messenger Bot Store could be the most important launch since the App Store.” TechCrunch, 17 March 2016. Web.

    Healey, Nic. “Microsoft's mixed reality vision: 80 million devices by 2020.” CNET, 1 June 2016. Web.

    Hewlett-Packard. Go Beyond Cost Reduction: Use Robotic Process Automation, Oct. 2015. Web.

    Hewlett-Packard. HP Composable Infrastructure: Bridging Traditional IT with the New Style of Business, June 2015. Web.

    Hewlett-Packard. HP Labs, n.d. Web.

    Hong, Jason. “Inside the Great Wall.” Communications of the ACM, 25 May 2016. Web.

    IBM Institute for Value. Your Cognitive Future: How Next-Gen Computing Changes the Way We Live and Work, 2015. Web.

    IBM. A New Way to Work: Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, Jan. 2015. Web.

    Infinity. The Evolution of the Data Centre [sic], 2015. Web.

    Intel Corporation. Intel Annual Report, 1997. Web.

    Isaac, Mike. “Facebook Bets on Bots for its Messenger App.” New York Times, 12 April 2016. Web.

    ISACA. COBIT 5: Enabling Processes. ISACA, 2012. Print.

    K-12 Blueprint. “Planning a Proof of Concept.” 2014. Web.

    Kaushik Rukmini, Meenakshi. “The Impact of Pandemic COVID -19 in Workplace.” European Journal of Business Management and Research, May 2020. Web.

    Knight, Will. “Conversational Interfaces Powerful speech technology from China’s leading Internet company makes it much easier to use a smartphone.” MIT Technology Review, n.d. Web.

    Kostoff, Ronald N., Robert Boylan, and Gene R. Simons. “Disruptive Technology Roadmaps.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2004. Vol. 71. Web.

    Kurzweil, Ray. “The Accelerating Power of Technology.” TED, Feb. 2005. Web.

    Kurzweil, Ray. Kurzweil: Accelerating Intelligence, 2015. Web.

    MacFarquhar, Larissa. “When Giants Fall: What Business Has Learned From Clayton Christensen,” New Yorker, 14 May 2012. Web.

    McClintock, Cat. “2016: The Year for Augmented Reality in the Enterprise.” PTC, n.d. Web.

    McKinsey & Company. IT Growth and Global Change: A Conversation with Ray Kurzweil. 29 Feb. 2012, YouTube. Web.

    Messina, Chris. “2016 Will be the Year of Conversational Commerce.” Medium, 19 Jan 2016. Web.

    Microsoft. Microsoft Research, n.d. Web.

    Miller, Ron. “Forget the Apple Watch, Think Drones in the Enterprise.” TechCrunch, 10 Sep. 2015. Web.

    Nokia Networks. FutureWorks [sic]: Teaching Networks to be Self-Aware: Technology Vision 2020. 2014. Web.

    Nokia Networks. Internet of Things. n.d. Web.

    O’Reilly, Charles, and Andrew J. M. Binns, “The Three Stages of Disruptive Innovation: Idea Generation, Incubation, and Scaling”. Sage Journals, n.d. Web.

    Pew Research Center. AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs: Experts Envision Automation and Intelligent Digital Agents Permeating Vast Areas of Our Work and Personal Lives by 2025, but they are Divided on Whether these Advances will Displace More Jobs than they Create. Aug. 2014. Web.

    Ramiller, Neil. “Airline Magazine Syndrome: Reading a Myth of Mismanagement.” Information Technology & People, Sept 2001. Print.

    Raymond James & Associates. The Internet of Things: A Study in Hype, Reality, Disruption, and Growth. 2014. Web.

    Richter, Felix. “No Growth in Sight for Global PC Market.” Statista, 14 March 2016. Web.

    Roy, Mekhala. “4 Examples of Digital Transformation Success in Business”. TechTarget, n.d. Web.

    Simon Weinreich, “How to Manage Disruptive Innovation - a conceptional methodology for value-oriented portfolio planning,” Sciencedirect. 31st CIRP Design Conference 2021.

    Spice Works. The Devices are Coming! How the “Internet of Things” will affect IT… and why resistance is futile. May 2014. Web.

    Spradlin, Dwayne. “Are You Solving the Right Problem?” Harvard Business Review, Sept. 2012. Web.

    Statista. “Number of smartphones sold to end users worldwide from 2007 to 2015 (in million units).” N.d. Web.

    Statista. “Worldwide tablet shipments from 2nd quarter 2010 to 2nd quarter 2016 (in million units).” N.d. Web.

    Sven Schimpf, “Disruptive Field Study; How Companies Identify, Evaluate, Develop and Implement Disruptive Technologies.” Fraunhofer Group for Innovation Research, 2020. Web.

    Tsekleves, Emmanuel. “Science fiction as fact: how desires drive discoveries.” The Guardian. 13 Aug. 2015. Web.

    Tsekleves, Emmanuel. “Science fiction as fact: how desires drive discoveries.” The Guardian, 13 Aug. 2015. Web.

    United States Department of Transportation. “National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey: Report to Congress.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, July 2008. Web.

    United States Department of Transportation. “National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey: Report to Congress.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, July 2008. Web.

    University Alliance (Villanova U). Managing Scope Creep in Project Management. N.d. Web.

    Vavoula, Giasemi N., and Mike Sharples. “Future Technology Workshop: A Collaborative Method for the Design of New Learning Technologies and Activities.” International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, Dec 2007. Vol. 2 no. 4. Web.

    Walraven Pieter. “It’s Operating Systems Vs. Messaging Apps In The Battle For Tech’s Next Frontier.” TechCrunch, 11 Aug 2015. Web.

    Webb, Amy. “The Tech Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2015.” Harvard Business Review, 5 Jan. 2015. Web.

    Wenger, Albert. “The Great Bot Rush of 2015-16.” Continuations, 16 Dec 2015. Web.

    White, Chris. “IoT Tipping Point Propels Digital Experience Era.” Cisco Blogs, 12 Nov. 2014. Web.

    World Economic Forum and Accenture. Industrial Internet of Things: Unleashing the Potential of Connected Products and Services. 2015. Web.

    Yu Dan and Hang Chang Chieh, "A reflective review of disruptive innovation theory," PICMET '08 - 2008 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering & Technology, 2008, pp. 402-414, doi: 10.1109/PICMET.2008.4599648.

    Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}92|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: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation
    • Organizations today continue to use traditional and often archaic methods of manual processing with physical paper documents.
    • These error-prone methods introduce cumbersome administrative work, causing businesses to struggle with payments and contract disputes.
    • The increasing scale and complexity of business processes has led to many third parties, middlemen, and paper hand-offs.
    • Companies remain bogged down by expensive and inefficient processes while losing sight of their ultimate stakeholder: the customer. A failure to focus on the customer is a failure to do business.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Simplify, automate, secure. Smart contracts enable businesses to simplify, automate, and secure traditionally complex transactions.
    • Focus on the customer. Smart contracts provide a frictionless experience for customers by removing unnecessary middlemen and increasing the speed of transactions.
    • New business models. Smart contracts enable the redesign of your organization and business-to-business relationships and transactions.

    Impact and Result

    • Simplify and optimize your business processes by using Info-Tech’s methodology to select processes with inefficient transactions, unnecessary middlemen, and excessive manual paperwork.
    • Use Info-Tech’s template to generate a smart contract use case customized for your business.
    • Customize Info-Tech’s stakeholder presentation template to articulate the goals and benefits of the project and get buy-in from business executives.

    Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should leverage smart contracts in your business, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    • Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts – Phases 1-2

    1. Understand smart contracts

    Understand the fundamental concepts of smart contract technology and get buy-in from stakeholders.

    • Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts – Phase 1: Understand Smart Contracts
    • Smart Contracts Executive Buy-in Presentation Template

    2. Develop a smart contract use case

    Select a business process, create a smart contract logic diagram, and complete a smart contract use-case deliverable.

    • Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts – Phase 2: Develop the Smart Contract Use Case
    • Smart Contracts Use-Case Template

    [infographic]

    Workshop: Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts

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

    1 Understand Smart Contracts

    The Purpose

    Review blockchain basics.

    Understand the fundamental concepts of smart contracts.

    Develop smart contract use-case executive buy-in presentation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of blockchain basics.

    Understanding the fundamentals of smart contracts.

    Development of an executive buy-in presentation.

    Activities

    1.1 Review blockchain basics.

    1.2 Understand smart contract fundamentals.

    1.3 Identify business challenges and smart contract benefits.

    1.4 Create executive buy-in presentation.

    Outputs

    Executive buy-in presentation

    2 Smart Contract Logic Diagram

    The Purpose

    Brainstorm and select a business process to develop a smart contract use case around.

    Generate a smart contract logic diagram.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Selected a business process.

    Developed a smart contract logic diagram for the selected business process.

    Activities

    2.1 Brainstorm candidate business processes.

    2.2 Select a business process.

    2.3 Identify phases, actors, events, and transactions.

    2.4 Create the smart contract logic diagram.

    Outputs

    Smart contract logic diagram

    3 Smart Contract Use Case

    The Purpose

    Develop smart contract use-case diagrams for each business process phase.

    Complete a smart contract use-case deliverable.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Smart contract use-case diagrams.

    Smart contract use-case deliverable.

    Activities

    3.1 Build smart contract use-case diagrams for each phase of the business process.

    3.2 Create a smart contract use-case summary diagram.

    3.3 Complete smart contract use-case deliverable.

    Outputs

    Smart contract use case

    4 Next Steps and Action Plan

    The Purpose

    Review workshop week and lessons learned.

    Develop an action plan to follow through with next steps for the project.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Reviewed workshop week with common understanding of lessons learned.

    Completed an action plan for the project.

    Activities

    4.1 Review workshop deliverables.

    4.2 Create action plan.

    Outputs

    Smart contract action plan

     

    The latest burning platform: Exit Plans in a shifting world

    • Large vertical image:
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A

    The current global situation, marked by significant trade tensions and retaliatory measures between major economic powers, has elevated the importance of more detailed, robust, and executable exit plans for businesses in nearly all industries. The current geopolitical headwinds create an unpredictable environment that can severely impact supply chains, technology partnerships, and overall business operations. What was once a prudent measure is now a critical necessity – a “burning platform” – for ensuring business continuity and resilience.

    Here I will delve deeper into the essential components of an effective exit plan, outline the practical steps for its implementation, and explain the crucial role of testing in validating its readiness.

    exit plan

    Continue reading

    pricing

    • TymansGroupVideosExcerpt: BasicFor freelancers$19/ month 10 presentations/monthSupport at $25/hour1 campaign/month Choose plan StandardFor medium sized teams$29/ month 50 presentations/month5 hours of free support10 campaigns/month Choose plan EnterpriseFor large companies$79/ month Unlimited presentationsUnlimited supportUnlimited campaigns Choose plan

    Pricing

    We price our services transparently. To know our prices, please submit your contact details below.

    You can work with TY in different ways, according to your needs.

    • Value-based contract — We first discuss together the issue you want resolved. Typically, these are broader topics; hence, we discover together what the real needs are. Based on that, we agree on a fixed price for us to deliver value to you. Billing is done at the start of the agreement. Fill out the form below and we're on our way.

    • Topic consulting without any long-term contract. While we prefer to do value-driven consulting, we understand this may be new to you, or that your procurement process requires a day rate. You decide how many days or hours of advice you want. It's pay-as-you-go. Great for short sessions, but more expensive as time ticks on. Billing is done at the start of the agreement.

    • Analysis and recommendation — this is a scope-defined body of work whereby TY undertakes an as-Is analysis and presents recommendations to create value. Billing is done at the start of the agreement. Fill out the form below and we're on our way.

    • Retained priority — here, we reserve an agreed body of work within a one-year timeframe. You call, we jump. Reaction time is a matter of hours. At the end of the period, unused portions can be transferred once to the following year. Contracts are typically renewed at the end of each year. Billing can be done in 4 quarterly installments or at the start of the agreement. The price/billing has 2 components: the availability premium and the actual work. For clients needing irregular, but ongoing and varied help, this is a great place to start. Fill out the form below and we're on our way. Retained Priority is available in €25,000, €35,000 and higher custom denominations. You receive at least 40% more value than you put in.

    • Full-time consulting — Here you have our undivided attention, with a minimum of 270 8-hour workdays in a single calendar-year. Billing is done on a monthly basis, you are bound to minimally a three-year contract. Overtime is available, and billed separately. Within your business hours, you take priority over any other contracts. Billing is done at the start of the agreement. Fill out the form below and we're on our way.

    Continue reading

    Select and Implement a Reporting and Analytics Solution

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}363|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $10,110 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 3 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Business Intelligence Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /business-intelligence-strategy
    • Statistics show that the top priority of 85% of CIOs is insight and intelligence. Yet an appetite for intelligence does not mean that business intelligence initiatives will be an automatic success. In fact, many industry studies found that only 30% to 50% of organizations considered their BI initiative to be a complete success. It is, therefore, imperative that organizations take the time to select and implement a BI suite that aligns with business goals and fosters end-user adoption.
    • The multitude of BI offerings creates a busy and sometimes overwhelming vendor landscape. When selecting a solution, you have to make sense of the many offerings and bridge the gap between what is out there and what your organization needs.
    • BI is more than software. A BI solution has to effectively address business needs and demonstrate value through content and delivery once the platform is implemented.
    • Another dimension of the success of BI is the quality and validity of the reports and insights. The overall success of the BI solution is only as good as the quality of data fueling them.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

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

    Impact and Result

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

    Select and Implement a Reporting and Analytics Solution Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

    1. Launch a BI selection project

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

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

    2. Select a BI solution

    Select the most suitable BI platform.

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

    3. Implement the BI solution

    Build a sustainable BI program.

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

    Workshop: Select and Implement a Reporting and Analytics Solution

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

    1 Launch a BI Selection Project

    The Purpose

    Identify the scope and objectives of the workshop.

    Discuss the benefits and opportunities related to a BI investment.

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

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

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Determine workshop scope.

    Identify the business drivers and benefits behind a BI investment.

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

    Determine project resourcing.

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

    Activities

    1.1 Identify business drivers for investing in process automation technology.

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

    1.3 Create a project plan.

    1.4 Identify project resourcing.

    1.5 Outline the project’s timeline.

    1.6 Determine key metrics.

    1.7 Determine project oversight.

    1.8 Complete a project charter.

    Outputs

    Completion of a project charter

    Launched BI selection project

    2 Analyze BI Requirements and Shortlist Vendors

    The Purpose

    Identify functional requirements for the organization’s BI suite.

    Determine technical requirements for the organization’s BI suite.

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

    Shortlist BI vendors.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Documented functional requirements.

    Documented technical requirements.

    Identified use-case scenarios for the future BI solution.

    Activities

    2.1 Interview business stakeholders.

    2.2 Interview IT staff.

    2.3 Consolidate interview findings.

    2.4 Build the solution’s requirements package.

    2.5 Identify use-case scenario alignment.

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

    2.7 Create custom shortlist.

    Outputs

    Documented requirements for the future solution.

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

    Shortlist of BI vendors.

    3 Plan the Implementation Process

    The Purpose

    Identify the steps for the organization’s implementation process.

    Select the right BI environment.

    Run a pilot project.

    Measure the value of your implementation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

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

    Keep track of and quantify BI success.

    Activities

    3.1 Select the right environment for the BI platform.

    3.2 Configure the BI implementation.

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

    3.4 Promote BI development in production.

    Outputs

    A successful BI implementation.

    BI is architected with the right availability.

    BI ROI is captured and quantified.

    Grow Your Own PPM Solution

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}436|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.6/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $47,944 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 29 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
    • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
    • As portfolio manager, you’re responsible for supporting the intake of new project requests, providing visibility into the portfolio of in-flight projects, and helping to facilitate the right approval and prioritization decisions.
    • You need a project portfolio management (PPM) tool that promotes the maintenance and flow of good data to help you succeed in these tasks. However, while throwing expensive technology at bad process rarely works, many organizations take this approach to solve their PPM problems.
    • Commercial PPM solutions are powerful and compelling, but they are also expensive, complex, and hard to use. When a solution is not properly adopted, the data can be unreliable and inconsistent, defeating the point of purchasing a tool in the first place.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Your choice of PPM solution must be in tune with your organizational PPM maturity to ensure that you are prepared to sustain the tool use without having the corresponding PPM processes collapse under its own weight.
    • A spreadsheet-based homegrown PPM solution can provide key capabilities of an optimized PPM solution with a high level of sophistication and complexity without the prohibitive capital and labor costs demanded by commercial PPM solution.
    • Focus on your PPM decision makers that will consume the reports and insights by investigating their specific reporting needs.

    Impact and Result

    • Think outside the commercial box. Develop an affordable, adoptable, and effective PPM solution using widely available tools based on Info-Tech’s ready-to-deploy templates.
    • Make your solution sustainable. When it comes to portfolio management, high level is better. A tool that is accurate and maintainable will provide more value than one that strives for precise data yet is ultimately unmaintainable.
    • Report success. A PPM tool needs to foster portfolio visibility in order to engage and inform the executive layer and support effective decision making.

    Grow Your Own PPM Solution Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should grow your own PPM solution, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Right-size your PPM solution

    Scope an affordable, adoptable, and effective PPM solution with Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017 workbook.

    • Grow Your Own PPM Solution – Phase 1: Right-Size Your PPM Solution
    • Portfolio Manager 2017 Cost-in-Use Estimation Tool
    • None

    2. Get to know Portfolio Manager 2017

    Learn how to use Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017 workbook and create powerful reports.

    • Grow Your Own PPM Solution – Phase 2: Meet Portfolio Manager 2017
    • Portfolio Manager 2017
    • Portfolio Manager 2017 (with Actuals)
    • None
    • None
    • None

    3. Implement your homegrown PPM solution

    Plan and implement an affordable, adoptable, and effective PPM solution with Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017 workbook.

    • Grow Your Own PPM Solution – Phase 3: Implement Your PPM Solution
    • Portfolio Manager 2017 Operating Manual
    • Stakeholder Engagement Workbook
    • Portfolio Manager Debut Presentation for Portfolio Owners
    • Portfolio Manager Debut Presentation for Data Suppliers

    4. Outgrow your own PPM solution

    Develop an exit strategy from your home-grown solution to a commercial PPM toolset. In this video, we show a rapid transition from the Excel dataset shown on this page to a commercial solution from Meisterplan. Christoph Hirnle of Meisterplan is interviewed starting at 9 minutes.

    • None
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Grow Your Own PPM Solution

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

    1 Scope a Homegrown PPM Solution for Your Organization

    The Purpose

    Assess the current state of project portfolio management capability at your organization. The activities in this module will inform the next modules by exploring your organization’s current strengths and weaknesses and identifying areas that require improvement.

    Set up the workbook to generate a fully functional project portfolio workbook that will give you a high-level view into your portfolio.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A high-level review of your current project portfolio capability is used to decide whether a homegrown PPM solution is an appropriate choice

    Cost-benefit analysis is done to build a business case for supporting this choice

    Activities

    1.1 Review existing PPM strategy and processes.

    1.2 Perform a cost-benefit analysis.

    Outputs

    Confirmation of homegrown PPM solution as the right choice

    Expected benefits for the PPM solution

    2 Get to Know Portfolio Manager 2017

    The Purpose

    Define a list of requirements for your PPM solution that meets the needs of all stakeholders.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A fully customized PPM solution in your chosen platform

    Activities

    2.1 Introduction to Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017: inputs, outputs, and the data model.

    2.2 Gather requirements for enhancements and customizations.

    Outputs

    Trained project/resource managers on the homegrown solution

    A wish list of enhancements and customizations

    3 Implement Your Homegrown PPM Solution

    The Purpose

    Determine an action plan regarding next steps for implementation.

    Implement your homegrown PPM solution. The activities outlined in this step will help to promote adoption of the tool throughout your organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A set of processes to integrate the new homegrown PPM solution into existing PPM activities

    Plans for piloting the new processes, process improvement, and stakeholder communication

    Activities

    3.1 Plan to integrate your new solution into your PPM processes.

    3.2 Plan to pilot the new processes.

    3.3 Manage stakeholder communications.

    Outputs

    Portfolio Manager 2017 operating manual, which documents how Portfolio Manager 2017 is used to augment the PPM processes

    Plan for a pilot run and post-pilot evaluation for a wider rollout

    Communication plan for impacted PPM stakeholders

    Design and Build an Effective Contract Lifecycle Management Process

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}214|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $5,039 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 20 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
    • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
    • Your vendor contracts are unorganized and held in various cabinets and network shares. There is no consolidated list or view of all the agreements, and some are misplaced or lost as coworkers leave.
    • The contract process takes a long time to complete. Coworkers are unsure who should be reviewing and approving them.
    • You are concerned that you are not getting favorable terms with your vendors and not complying with your agreement commitments.
    • You are unsure what risks your organization could be exposed to in your IT vendor contacts. These could be financial, legal, or security risks and/or compliance requirements.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Focus on what’s best for you. There are two phases to CLM. All stages within those phases are important, but choose to improve the phase that can be most beneficial to your organization in the short term. However, be sure to include reviewing risk and monitoring compliance.
    • Educate yourself. Understand the stages of CLM and how each step can rely on the previous one, like a stepping-stone model to success.
    • Consider the overall picture. Contract lifecycle management is the sum of many processes designed to manage contracts end to end while reducing corporate risk, improving financial savings, and managing agreement obligations. It can take time to get CLM organized and working efficiently, but then it will show its ROI and continuously improve.

    Impact and Result

    • Understand how to identify and mitigate risk to save the organization time and money.
    • Gain the knowledge required to implement a CLM that will be beneficial to all business units.
    • Achieve measurable savings in contract time processing, financial risk avoidance, and dollar savings.
    • Effectively review, store, manage, comply with, and renew agreements with a collaborative process

    Design and Build an Effective Contract Lifecycle Management Process Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how a contract management system will save money and time and mitigate contract risk, 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. Master the operational framework of contract lifecycle management.

    Understand how the basic operational framework of CLM will ensure cost savings, improved collaboration, and constant CLM improvement.

    • Design and Build an Effective Contract Lifecycle Management Process – Phase 1: Master the Operational Framework of CLM
    • Existing CLM Process Worksheet
    • Contract Manager

    2. Understand the ten stages of contract lifecycle management.

    Understand the two phases of CLM and the ten stages that make up the entire process.

    • Design and Build an Effective Contract Lifecycle Management Process – Phase 2: Understand the Ten Stages of CLM
    • CLM Maturity Assessment Tool
    • CLM RASCI Diagram
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Design and Build an Effective Contract Lifecycle Management 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 Review Your CLM Process and Learn the Basics

    The Purpose

    Identify current CLM processes.

    Learn the CLM operational framework.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Documented overview of current processes and stakeholders.

    Activities

    1.1 Review and capture your current process.

    1.2 Identify current stakeholders.

    1.3 Learn the operational framework of CLM.

    1.4 Identify current process gaps.

    Outputs

    Existing CLM Process Worksheet

    2 Learn More and Plan

    The Purpose

    Dive into the two phases of CLM and the ten stages of a robust system.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A deep understanding of the required components/stages of a CLM system.

    Activities

    2.1 Understand the two phases of CLM.

    2.2 Learn the ten stages of CLM.

    2.3 Assess your CLM maturity state.

    2.4 Identify and assign stakeholders.

    Outputs

    CLM Maturity Assessment

    CLM RASCI Diagram

    Further reading

    Design and Build an Effective Contract Lifecycle Management Process

    Mitigate risk and drive value through robust best practices for contract lifecycle management.

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research Is Designed For:

    • The CIO who depends on numerous key vendors for services
    • The CIO or Project Manager who wants to maximize the value delivered by vendors
    • The Director or Manager of an existing IT procurement or vendor management team
    • The Contracts Manager or Legal Counsel whose IT department holds responsibility for contracts, negotiation, and administration

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Implement and streamline the contract management process, policies, and procedures
    • Baseline and benchmark existing contract processes
    • Understand the importance and value of contract lifecycle management (CLM)
    • Minimize risk, save time, and maximize savings with vendor contracts

    This Research Will Also Assist

    • IT Service Managers
    • IT Procurement
    • Contract teams
    • Finance and Legal departments
    • Senior IT leadership

    This Research Will Help Them

    • Understand the required components of a CLM
    • Establish the current CLM maturity level
    • Implement a new CLM process
    • Improve on an existing or disparate process

    ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

    "Contract lifecycle management (CLM) is a vital process for small and enterprise organizations alike. Research shows that all organizations can benefit from a contract management process, whether they have as few as 25 contracts or especially if they have contracts numbering in the hundreds.

    A CLM system will:

    • Save valuable time in the entire cycle of contract/agreement processes.
    • Save the organization money, both hard and soft dollars.
    • Mitigate risk to the organization.
    • Avoid loss of revenue.

    If you’re not managing your contracts, you aren’t capitalizing on your investment with your vendors and are potentially exposing your organization to contract and monetary risk."

    - Ted Walker
    Principal Research Advisor, Vendor Management Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Situation

    • Most organizations have vendor overload and even worse, no defined process to manage the associated contracts and agreements. To manage contracts, some vendor management offices (VMOs) use a shared network drive to store the contracts and a spreadsheet to catalog and manage them. Yet other less-mature VMOs may just rely on a file cabinet in Procurement and a reminder in someone’s calendar about renewals. These disparate processes likely cost your organization time spent finding, managing, and renewing contracts, not to mention potential increases in vendor costs and risk and the inability to track contract obligations.

    Complication

    • Contract lifecycle management (CLM) is not an IT buzzword, and it’s rarely on the top-ten list of CIO concerns in most annual surveys. Until a VMO gets to a level of maturity that can fully develop a CLM and afford the time and costs of doing so, there can be several challenges to developing even the basic processes required to store, manage, and renew IT vendor contracts. As is always an issue in IT, budget is one of the biggest obstacles in implementing a standard CLM process. Until senior leadership realizes that a CLM process can save time, money, and risk, getting mindshare and funding commitment will remain a challenge.

    Resolution

    • Understand the immediate benefits of a CLM process – even a basic CLM implementation can provide significant cost savings to the organization; reduce time spent on creating, negotiating, and renewing contracts; and help identify and mitigate risks within your vendor contracts.
    • Budgets don’t always need to be a barrier to a standard CLM process. However, a robust CLM system can provide significant savings to the organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    • If you aren’t managing your contracts, you aren’t capitalizing on your investments.
    • Even a basic CLM process with efficient procedures will provide savings and benefits.
    • Not having a CLM process may be costing your organization money, time, and exposure to unmitigated risk.

    What you can gain from this blueprint

    Why Create a CLM

    • Improved contract organization
    • Centralized and manageable storage/archives
    • Improved vendor compliance
    • Risk mitigation
    • Reduced potential loss of revenue

    Knowledge Gained

    • Understanding of the value and importance of a CLM
    • How CLM can impact many departments within the organization
    • Who should be involved in the CLM steps and processes
    • Why a CLM is important to your organization
    • How to save time and money by maximizing IT vendor contracts
    • How basic CLM policies and procedures can be implemented without costly software expenditure

    The Outcome

    • A foundation for a CLM with best-practice processes
    • Reduced exposure to potential risks within vendor contracts
    • Maximized savings with primary vendors
    • Vendor compliance and corporate governance
    • Collaboration, transparency, and integration with business units

    Contract management: A case study

    CASE STUDY
    Industry Finance and Banking
    Source Apttus

    FIS Global

    The Challenge

    FIS’ business groups were isolated across the organization and used different agreements, making contract creation a long, difficult, and manual process.

    • Customers frustrated by slow and complicated contracting process
    • Manual contract creation and approval processes
    • Sensitive contract data that lacked secure storage
    • Multiple agreements managed across divisions
    • Lack of central repository for past contracts
    • Inconsistent and inaccessible

    The Solution: Automating and Streamlining the Contract Management Process

    A robust CLM system solved FIS’ various contract management needs while also providing a solution that could expand into full quote-to cash in the future.

    • Contract lifecycle management (CLM)
    • Intelligent workflow approvals (IWA)
    • X-Author for Excel

    Customer Results

    • 75% cycle time reduction
    • $1M saved in admin costs per year
    • 49% increase in sales proposal volume
    • Automation on one standard platform and solution
    • 55% stronger compliance management
    • Easy maintenance for various templates
    • Ability to quickly absorb new contracts and processes via FIS’s ongoing acquisitions

    Track the impact of CLM with these metrics

    Dollars Saved

    Upfront dollars saved

    • Potential dollars saved from avoiding unfavorable terms and conditions
    • Incentives that encourage the vendor to act in the customer’s best interest
    • Secured commitments to provide specified products and services at firm prices
    • Cost savings related to audits, penalties, and back support
    • Savings from discounts found

    Time Saved

    Time saved, which can be done in several areas

    • Defined and automated approval flow process
    • Preapproved contract templates with corporate terms
    • Reduced negotiation times
    • Locate contracts in minutes

    Pitfalls Avoided

    Number of pitfalls found and avoided, such as

    • Auto-renewal
    • Inconsistencies between sections and documents
    • Security and data not being deleted upon termination
    • Improper licensing

    The numbers are compelling

    71%

    of companies can’t locate up to 10% of their contracts.

    Source: TechnologyAdvice, 2019

    9.2%

    of companies’ annual revenue is lost because of poor contract management practices.

    Source: IACCM, 2019

    60%

    still track contracts in shared drives or email folders.

    Source: “State of Contract Management,” SpringCM, 2018

    CLM blueprint objectives

    • To provide a best-practice process for managing IT vendor contract lifecycles through a framework that organizes from the core, analyzes each step in the cycle, has collaboration and governance attached to each step, and integrates with established vendor management practices within your organization.
    • CLM doesn’t have to be an expensive managed database system in the cloud with fancy dashboards. As long as you have a defined process that has the framework steps and is followed by the organization, this will provide basic CLM and save the organization time and money over a short period of time.
    • This blueprint will not delve into the many vendors or providers of CLM solutions and their methodologies. However, we will discuss briefly how to use our framework and contract stages in evaluating a potential solution that you may be considering.

    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

    Design and Build an Effective CLM Process – project overview

    1. Master the Operational Framework

    2. Understand the Ten Stages of CLM

    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Understand the operational framework components.

    1.2 Review your current framework.

    1.3 Create a plan to implement or enhance existing processes.

    2.1 Understand the ten stages of CLM.

    2.2 Review and document your current processes.

    2.3 Review RASCI chart and assign internal ownership.

    2.4 Create an improvement plan.

    2.5 Track changes for measurable ROI.

    Guided Implementations
    • Review existing processes.
    • Understand what CLM is and why the framework is essential.
    • Create an implementation or improvement plan.
    • Review the ten stages of CLM.
    • Complete CLM Maturity Assessment.
    • Create a plan to target improvement.
    • Track progress to measure savings.
    Onsite Workshop

    Module 1: Review and Learn the Basics

    • Review and capture your current processes.
    • Learn the basic operational framework of contract management.

    Module 2 Results:

    • Understand the ten stages of effective CLM.
    • Create an improvement or implementation plan.
    Phase 1 Outcome:
    • A full understanding of what makes a comprehensive contract management system.
    Phase 2 Outcome:
    • A full understanding of your current CLM processes and where to focus your efforts for improvement or implementation.

    Workshop overview

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

    Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2
    Activities

    Task – Review and Learn the Basics

    Task – Learn More and Plan

    1.1 Review and capture your current process.

    1.2 Identify current stakeholders.

    1.3 Learn the operational framework of contract lifecycle management.

    1.4 Identify current process gaps.

    2.1 Understand the two phases of CLM.

    2.2 Learn the ten stages of CLM.

    2.3 Assess your CLM maturity.

    2.4 Identify and assign stakeholders.

    2.5 Discuss ROI.

    2.6 Summarize and next steps.

    Deliverables
    1. Internal interviews with business units
    2. Existing CLM Process Worksheet
    1. CLM Maturity Assessment
    2. RASCI Diagram
    3. Improvement Action Plan

    PHASE 1

    Master the Operational Framework of Contract Lifecycle Management

    Design and Build an Effective CLM Process

    Phase 1: Master the Operational Framework of Contract Lifecycle Management

    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: Master the Operational Framework of Contract Lifecycle Management
    Proposed Time to Completion: 1-4 weeks

    Step 1.1: Document your Current CLM Process

    Step 1.2: Read and Understand the Operational Framework

    Step 1.3: Review Solution Options

    Start with an analyst kick-off call:

    • Understand what your current process(es) is for each stage
    • Do a probative review of any current processes
    • Interview stakeholders for input

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Discuss the importance of the framework as the core of your plan
    • Review the gaps in your existing process
    • Understand how to prioritize next steps towards a CLM

    Finalize phase deliverable:

    • Establish ownership of the framework
    • Prioritize improvement areas or map out how your new CLM will look

    Then complete these activities…

    • Document the details of your process for each stage of CLM

    With these tools & templates:

    • Existing CLM Process Worksheet

    Phase 1 Results:

    • A full understanding of what makes a comprehensive contract management system.

    What Is Contract Lifecycle Management?

    • Every contract has a lifecycle, from creation to time and usage to expiration. Organizations using a legacy or manual contract management process usually ask, “What is contract lifecycle management and how will it benefit my business?”
    • Contract lifecycle management (CLM) creates a process that manages each contract or agreement. CLM eases the challenges of managing hundreds or even thousands of important business and IT contracts that affect the day-to-day business and could expose the organization to vendor risk.
    • Managing a few contracts is quite easy, but as the number of contracts grows, managing each step for each contract becomes increasingly difficult. Ultimately, it will get to a point where managing contracts properly becomes very difficult or seemingly impossible.

    That’s where contract lifecycle management (CLM) comes in.

    CLM can save money and improve revenue by:

    • Improving accuracy and decreasing errors through standardized contract templates and approved terms and conditions that will reduce repetitive tasks.
    • Securing contracts and processes through centralized software storage, minimizing risk of lost or misplaced contracts due to changes in physical assets like hard drives, network shares, and file cabinets.
    • Using policies and procedures that standardize, organize, track, and optimize IT contracts, eliminating time spent on creation, approvals, errors, and vendor compliance.
    • Reducing the organization’s exposure to risks and liability.
    • Having contracts renewed on time without penalties and with the most favorable terms for the business.

    The Operational Framework of Contract Lifecycle Management

    Four Components of the Operational Framework

    1. Organization
    2. Analysis
    3. Collaboration and Governance
    4. Integration/Vendor Management
    • By organizing at the core of the process and then analyzing each stage, you will maximize each step of the CLM process and ensure long-term contract management for the organization.
    • Collaboration and governance as overarching policies for the system will provide accountability to stakeholders and business units.
    • Integration and vendor management are encompassing features in a well-developed CLM that add visibility, additional value, and savings to the entire organization.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Putting a contract manager in place to manage the CLM project will accelerate the improvements and provide faster returns to the organizations. Reference Info-Tech’s Contract Manager Job Description template as needed.

    The operational framework is key to the success, return on investment (ROI), cost savings, and customer satisfaction of a CLM process.

    This image depicts Info-Tech's Operational Framework.  It consists of a series of five concentric circles, with each circle a different colour.  On the outer circle, is the word Integration.  The next outermost circle has the words Collaboration and Governance.  The next circle has no words, the next circle has the word Analysis, and the very centre circle has the word Organization.

    1. Organization

    • Every enterprise needs to organize its contract documents and data in a central repository so that everyone knows where to find the golden source of contractual truth.
    • This includes:
      • A repository for storing and organizing contract documents.
      • A data dictionary for describing the terms and conditions in a consistent, normalized way.
      • A database for persistent data storage.
      • An object model that tracks changes to the contract and its prevailing terms over time.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Paper is still alive and doing very well at slowing down the many stages of the contract process.

    2. Analysis

    Most organizations analyze their contracts in two ways:

    • First, they use reporting, search, and analytics to reveal risky and toxic terms so that appropriate operational strategies can be implemented to eliminate, mitigate, or transfer the risk.
    • Second, they use process analytics to reveal bottlenecks and points of friction as contracts are created, approved, and negotiated.

    3. Collaboration

    • Throughout the contract lifecycle, teams must collaborate on tasks both pre-execution and post-execution.
    • This includes document collaboration among several different departments across an enterprise.
    • The challenge is to make the collaboration smooth and transparent to avoid costly mistakes.
    • For some contracting tasks, especially in regulated industries, a high degree of control is required.
    • In these scenarios, the organization must implement controlled systems that restrict access to certain types of data and processes backed up with robust audit trails.

    4. Integration

    • For complete visibility into operational responsibilities, relationships, and risk, an organization must integrate its golden contract data with other systems of record.
    • An enterprise contracts platform must therefore provide a rich set of APIs and connectors so that information can be pushed into or pulled from systems for enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supplier relationship management (SRM), document management, etc.

    This is the ultimate goal of a robust contract management system!

    Member Activity: Document Current CLM Processes

    1.1 Completion Time: 1-5 days

    Goal: Document your existing CLM processes (if any) and who owns them, who manages them, etc.

    Instructions

    Interview internal business unit decision makers, stakeholders, Finance, Legal, CIO, VMO, Sales, and/or Procurement to understand what’s currently in place.

    1. Use the Existing CLM Process Worksheet to capture and document current CLM processes.
    2. Establish what processes, procedures, policies, and workflows, if any, are in place for pre-execution (Phase 1) contract stages.
    3. Do the same for post-execution (Phase 2) stages.
    4. Use this worksheet as reference for assessments and as a benchmark for improvement review six to 12 months later.
    This image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Existing CLM Process Discovery Worksheet

    INPUT

    • Internal information from all CLM stakeholders

    OUTPUT

    • A summary of processes and owners currently in place

    Materials

    • Existing CLM processes from interviews

    Participants

    • Finance, Legal, CIO, VMO, Sales, Procurement

    PHASE 2

    Understand the Ten Stages of Contract Lifecycle Management

    Design and Build an Effective CLM Process

    Phase 1: Master the Operational Framework of Contract Lifecycle Management

    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: Understand the Ten Stages of Contract Lifecycle Management

    Proposed Time to Completion: 1-10 weeks

    Step 2.1: Assess CLM Maturity

    Step 2.2: Complete a RASCI Diagram

    Start with an analyst kick-off call:

    • Review the importance of assessing the maturity of your current CLM processes
    • Discuss interview process for internal stakeholders
    • Use data from the Existing CLM Process Worksheet

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Review your maturity results
    • Identify stages that require immediate improvement
    • Prioritize improvement or implementation of process

    Then complete these activities…

    • Work through the maturity assessment process
    • Answer the questions in the assessment tool
    • Review the summary tab to learn where to focus improvement efforts

    Then complete these activities…

    • Using maturity assessment and existing process data, establish ownership for each process stage
    • Fill in the RASCI Chart based on internal review or existing processes

    With these tools & templates:

    • CLM Maturity Assessment Tool

    With these tools & templates:

    • CLM RASCI Diagram

    Phase 2 Results & Insights:

    • A full understanding of your current CLM process and where improvement is required
    • A mapping of stakeholders for each stage of the CLM process

    The Ten Stages of Contract Lifecycle Management

    There are ten key stages of contract lifecycle management.

    The steps are divided into two phases, pre-execution and post-execution.

      Pre-Execution (Phase 1)

    1. Request
    2. Create
    3. Review Risk
    4. Approve
    5. Negotiate
    6. Sign
    7. Post-Execution (Phase 2)

    8. Capture
    9. Manage
    10. Monitor Compliance
    11. Optimize

    Ten Process Stages Within the CLM Framework

    This image contains the CLM framework from earlier in the presentation, with the addition of the following ten steps: 1. Request; 2. Create Contract; 3. Review Risk; 4. Approve; 5. Negotiate; 6. Sign; 7. Capture; 8. Manage; 9. Monitor Compliance; 10. Optimize.

    Stage 1: Request or Initiate

    Contract lifecycle management begins with the contract requesting process, where one party requests for or initiates the contracting process and subsequently uses that information for drafting or authoring the contract document. This is usually the first step in CLM.

    Requests for contracts can come from various sources:

    • Business units within the organization
    • Vendors presenting their contract, including renewal agreements
    • System- or process-generated requests for renewal or extension

    At this stage, you need to validate if a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is currently in place with the other party or is required before moving forward. At times, adequate NDA components could be included within the contract or agreement to satisfy corporate confidentiality requirements.

    Stage 1: Request or Initiate

    Stage Input

    • Information about what the contract needs to contain, such as critical dates, term length, coverage, milestones, etc.
    • Some organizations require that justification and budget approval be provided at this stage.
    • Request could come from a vendor as a pre-created contract.
    • Best practices recommend that a contract request form or template is used to standardize all required information.

    Stage Output

    • Completed request form, stored or posted with all details required to move forward to risk review and contract creation.
    • Possible audit trails.

    Stage 2: Create Contract

    • At the creation or drafting stage, the document is created, generated, or provided by the vendor. The document will contain all clauses, scope, terms and conditions, and pricing as required.
    • In some cases, a vendor-presented contract that is already prepared will go through an internal review or redlining process by the business unit and/or Legal.
    • Both internal and external review and redlining are included in this stage.
    • Also at this stage, the approvers and signing authorities are identified and added to the contract. In addition, some audit trail features may be added.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    For a comprehensive list of terms and conditions, see our Software Terms & Conditions Evaluation Tool within Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements.

    Stage 2: Create Contract

    Stage Input

    • Contract request form, risk review/assessment.
    • Vendor- or contractor-provided contract/agreement, either soft copy, electronic form, or more frequently, “clickwrap” web-posted document.
    • Could also include a renewal notification from a vendor or from the CLM system or admin.

    Stage Output

    • Completed draft contract or agreement, typically in a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format with audit trail or comment tracking.
    • Redlined document for additional revision and or acceptance.
    • Amendment or addendum to existing contract.

    Stage 3: Review Risk 1 of 2

    The importance of risk review can not be understated. The contract or agreement must be reviewed by several stakeholders who can identify risks to the organization within the contract.

    Three important definitions:

    1. Risk is the potential for a negative outcome. A risk is crossing the street while wearing headphones and selecting the next track to play on your smartphone. A negative outcome is getting hit by an oncoming person who, unremarkably, was doing something similar at the same time.
    2. Risk mitigation is about taking the steps necessary to minimize both the likelihood of a risk occurring – look around both before and while crossing the street – and its impact if it does occur – fall if you must, but save the smartphone!
    3. Contract risk is about any number of situations that can cause a contract to fail, from trivially – the supplier delivers needed goods late – to catastrophically – the supplier goes out of business without having delivered your long-delayed orders.

    Stage 3: Review Risk 2 of 2

    • Contracts must be reviewed for business terms and conditions, potential risk situations from a financial or legal perspective, business commitments or obligations, and any operational concerns.
    • Mitigating contract risk requires a good understanding of what contracts are in place, how important they are to the success of the organization, and what data they contain.

    Collectively, this is known as contract visibility.

    • Risk avoidance and mitigation are also a key component in the ROI of a CLM system and should be tracked for analysis.
    • Risk-identifying forms or templates can be used to maintain consistency with corporate standards.

    Stage 3: Review Risk

    Stage Input

    • All details of the proposed contract so that a proper risk analysis can be done as well as appropriate review with stakeholders, including:
      • Finance
      • Legal
      • Procurement
      • Security
      • Line-of-business owner
      • IT stakeholders

    Stage Output

    • A list of identified concerns that could expose the business unit or organization.
    • Recommendations to minimize or eliminate identified risks.

    Stage 4: Approve

    The approval stage can be a short process if policies and procedures are already in place. Most organizations will have defined delegation of authority or approval authority depending on risk, value of the contract, and other corporate considerations.

    • Defined approval levels should be known within the organization and can be applied to the approval workflow, expediting the approval of drafted terms, conditions, changes, and cost/spend within the contract internally.
    • Tracking and flexibility needs to considered in the approval process.
    • Gates need to be in place to ensure that a required approver has approved the contract before it moves to the next approver.
    • Flexibility is needed in some situations for ad hoc approval tasks and should include audit trail as required.
    • Approvers can include business units, Finance, Legal, Security, and C-level leaders

    Stage 4: Approve

    Stage Input

    • Complete draft contract with all terms and conditions (T&Cs) and approval trail.
    • Amendment or addendum to existing contract.

    Stage Output

    • Approved draft contract ready to move to the next step of negotiating with the vendor.
    • Approved amendment or addendum to existing or renewal agreement.

    Stage 5: Negotiate

    • At this stage, there should be an approved draft of the contract that can be presented to the other party or vendor for review.
    • Typically organizations will negotiate their larger deals for terms and conditions with the goal of balancing the contractual allocation of risk with the importance of the vendor or agreement and its value to the business.
    • Several people on either side are typically involved and will discuss legal and commercial terms of the contract. Throughout the process, negotiators may leverage a variety of tools, including playbooks with preferred and fallback positions, clause libraries, document redlines and comparisons, and issue lists.
    • Audit trails or tracking of changes and acceptances is an important part of this stage. Tracking will avoid duplication and lost or missed changes and will speed up the entire process.
    • A final, clean document is created at this point and readied for execution.

    Stage 5: Negotiate

    Stage Input

    • Approved draft contract ready to move to the next step of negotiating with the vendor.
    • Approved amendment or addendum to existing or renewal agreement.

    Stage Output

    • A finalized and approved contract or amendment with agreed-upon terms and conditions ready for signatures.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Saving the different versions of a contract during negotiations will save time, provide reassurance of agreed terms as you move through the process, and provide reference for future negotiations with the vendor.

    Stage 6: Sign or Execute

    • At this stage in the process, all the heavy lifting in a contract’s creation is complete. Now it’s signature time.
    • To finalize the agreement, both parties need to the sign the final document. This can be done by an in-person wet ink signature or by what is becoming more prevalent, digital signature through an e-signature process.
    • Once complete, the final executed documents are exchanged or received electronically and then retained by each party.

    Stage 6: Sign or Execute

    Stage Input

    • A finalized and approved contract or amendment with agreed-upon terms and conditions ready for signatures.

    Stage Output

    • An executed contract or amendment ready to move to the next stage of CLM, capturing in the repository.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Process flow provisions should made for potential rejection of the contract by signatories, looping the contract back to the appropriate stage for rework or revision.

    Stage 7: Capture in Database/Repository 1 of 2

    • This is one of the most important stages of a CLM process. Executed agreements need to be stored in a single manageable, searchable, reportable, and centralized repository.
    • All documents should to be captured electronically, reviewed for accuracy, and then posted to the CLM repository.
    • The repository can be in various formats depending on the maturity, robustness, and budget of the CLM program.

    Most repositories are some type of database:

    • An off-the-shelf product
    • A PaaS cloud-based solution
    • A homegrown, internally developed database
    • An add-on module to your ERP system

    Stage 7: Capture in Database/Repository 2 of 2

    Several important features of an electronic repository should be considered:

    • Consistent metadata tagging of clauses, terms, conditions, dates, etc.
    • Centralized summary view of all contracts
    • Controlled access for those who need to review and manage the contracts

    Establishing an effective repository will be key to providing measurable value to the organization and saving large amounts of time for the business unit.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Planning for future needs by investing a little more money into a better, more robust repository could pay bigger dividends to the VMO and organization while providing a higher ROI over time as advanced functionality is deployed.

    Stage 8: Manage

    • Once an agreement is captured in the repository, it needs to be managed from both an operational and a commitment perspective.
    • Through a summary view or master list, contracts need to be operationally managed for end dates and renewals, vendor performance, discounts, and rebates.
    • Managing contracts for commitment and compliance will ensure all contract requirements, rights, service-level agreements (SLAs), and terms are fulfilled. This will eliminate the high costs of missed SLAs, potential breaches, or missed renewals.
    • Managing contracts can be improved by adding metadata to the records that allow for easier search and retrieval of contracts or even proactive notification.
    • The repository management features can and should be available to business stakeholders, or reporting from a CLM admin can also alert stakeholders to renewals, pricing, SLAs, etc.
    • Also important to this stage is reporting. This can be done by an admin or via a self-serve feature for stakeholders, or it could even be automated.

    Stage 9: Monitor Compliance 1 of 2

    • At this stage, the contracts or agreements need to be monitored for the polices within them and the purpose for which they were signed.
    • This is referred to as obligation management and is a key step to providing savings to the organization and mitigating risk.
    • Many contracts contain commitments by each party. These can include but are not limited to SLAs, service uptime targets, user counts, pricing threshold discounts and rebates, renewal notices to vendors, and training requirements.
    • All of these obligations within the contracts should be summarized and monitored to ensure that all commitments are delivered on. Managing obligations will mitigate risks, maximize savings and rebates to the organization, and minimize the potential for a breach within the contract.

    Stage 9: Monitor Compliance 2 of 2

    • Monitoring and measuring vendor commitments and performance will also be a key factor in maximizing the benefits of the contract through vendor accountability.
    • Also included in this stage is renewal and/or disposition of the contract. If renewal is due, it should go back to the business unit for submission to the Stage 1: Request process. If the business unit is not going to renew the contract, the contract must be tagged and archived for future reference.

    Stage 10: Optimize

    • The goal of this stage is to improve the other stages of the process as well as evaluate how each stage is integrating with the core operational framework processes.
    • With more data and improved insight into contractual terms and performance, a business can optimize its portfolio for better value, greater savings, and lower-risk outcomes.
    • For high-performance contract teams, the goal is a continuous feedback loop between the contract portfolio and business performance. If, for example, the data shows that certain negotiation issues consume a large chunk of time but yield no measurable difference in risk or performance, you may tweak the playbook to remedy those issues quickly.

    Additional optimization tactics:

    • Streamlining contract renewals with auto-renew
    • Predefined risk review process or template, continuous review/improvement of negotiation playbook
    • Better automation or flow of approval process
    • Better signature delegation process if required
    • Improving repository search with metadata tagging
    • Automating renewal tracking or notice process
    • Tracking the time a contract spends in each stage

    Establish Your Current CLM Maturity Position

    • Sometimes organizations have a well-defined pre-execution process but have a poor post-signature process.
    • Identifying your current processes or lack thereof will provide you with a starting point in developing a plan for your CLM. It’s possible that most of the stages are there and just need some improvements, or maybe some are missing and need to be implemented.
    • It’s not unusual for organizations to have a manual pre-execution process and an automated backend repository with compliance and renewal notices features.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Use the CLM Maturity Assessment Tool to outline where your organization is at each stage of the process.

    Member Activity: Assess Current CLM Maturity

    2.1 Completion Time 1-2 days

    Goal: Identify and measure your existing CLM processes, if any, and provide a maturity value to each stage. The resulting scores will provide a maturity assessment of your CLM.

    Instructions

    1. Use the Existing CLM Process Worksheet to document current CLM processes.
    2. Using the CLM worksheet info, answer the questions in the CLM Maturity Assessment Tool.
    3. Review the results and scores on Tab 3 to see where you need to focus your initial improvements.
    4. Save the initial assessment for future reference and reassess in six to 12 months to measure progress.

    This image contains a screenshot from Info-Tech's CLM Maturity Assessment Tool.

    INPUT

    • Internal information from all CLM stakeholders

    OUTPUT

    • A summary of processes and owners currently in place in the organization

    Materials

    • Existing CLM processes from interviews

    Participants

    • Finance, Legal, CIO, VMO, Sales, Procurement

    Member Activity: Complete RASCI Chart

    2.2 Completion Time 2-6 hours

    Goal: Identify who in your organization is primarily accountable and involved in each stage of the CLM process.

    Instructions

    Engage internal business unit decision makers, stakeholders, Finance, Legal, CIO, VMO, Sales, and Procurement as required to validate who should be involved in each stage.

    1. Using the information collected from internal reviews, assign a level in the CLM RASCI Diagram to each team member.
    2. Use the resulting RASCI diagram to guide you through developing or improving your CLM stages.

    This image contains a screenshot from Info-Tech's CLM RASCI Diagram.

    INPUT

    • Internal interview information

    OUTPUT

    • Understanding of who is involved in each CLM stage

    Materials

    • Interview data
    • RASCI Diagram

    Participants

    • Finance, Legal, CIO, VMO, Sales, Procurement

    Applying CLM Framework and Stages to Your Organization

    • Understand what CLM process you currently do or do not have in place.
    • Review implementation options: automated, semi-automated, and manual solutions.
    • If you are improving an existing process, focus on one phase at a time, perfect it, and then move to the other phase. This can also be driven by budget and time.
    • Create a plan to start with and then move to automating or semi-automating the stages.
    • Building onto or enhancing an existing system or processes can be a cost-effective method to produce near-term measurable savings
    • Focus on one phase at a time, then move on to the other phase.
    • While reviewing implementation of or improvements to CLM stages, be sure to track or calculate the potential time and cost savings and risk mitigation. This will help in any required business case for a CLM.

    CLM: An ROI Discussion 1 of 2

    • ROI can be easier to quantify and measure in larger organizations with larger CLM, but ROI metrics can be obtained regardless of the company or CLM size.
    • Organizations recognize their ROI through gains in efficiency across the entire business as well as within individual departments involved in the contracting process. They also do so by reducing the risk associated with decentralized and insecure storage of and access to their contracts, failure to comply with terms of their contracts, and missing deadlines associated with contracts.

    Just a few of the factors to consider within your own organization include:

    • The number of people inside and outside your company that touch your contracts.
    • The number of hours spent weekly, monthly, and annually managing contracts.
    • Potential efficiencies gained in better managing those contracts.
    • The total number of contracts that exist at any given time.
    • The average value and total value of those contract types.
    • The potential risk of being in breach of any of those contracts.
    • The number of places contracts are stored.
    • The level of security that exists to prevent unauthorized access.
    • The potential impact of unauthorized access to your sensitive contract data.

    CLM: An ROI Discussion 2 of 2

    Decision-Maker Apprehensions

    Decision-maker concerns arise from a common misunderstanding – that is, a fundamental failure to appreciate the true source of contract management value. This misunderstanding goes back many years to the time when analysts first started to take an interest in contract management and its automation. Their limited experience (primarily in retail and manufacturing sectors) led them to think of contract management as essentially an administrative function, primarily focused on procurement of goods. In such environments, the purpose of automation is focused on internal efficiency, augmented by the possibility of savings from reduced errors (e.g. failing to spot a renewal or expiry date) or compliance (ensuring use of standard terms).

    Today’s CLM systems and processes can provide ROI in several areas in the business.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Research on ROI of CLM software shows significant hard cost savings to an organization. For example, a $10 million company with 300 contracts valued at $3 million could realize savings of $83,400 and avoid up to $460,000 in lost revenues. (Derived from: ACCDocket, 2018)

    Additional Considerations 1 of 2

    Who should own and/or manage the CLM process within an organization? Legal, VMO, business unit, Sales?

    This is an often-discussed question. Research suggests that there is no definitive answer, as there are several variables.

    Organizations needs to review what makes the best business sense for them based on several considerations and then decide where CLM belongs.

    • Business unit budgets and time management
    • Available Administration personnel and time
    • IT resources
    • Security and access concerns
    • Best fit based on organizational structure

    35% of law professionals feel contract management is a legal responsibility, while 45% feel it’s a business responsibility and a final 20% are unsure where it belongs. (Source: “10 Eye-Popping Contract Management Statistics,” Apttus, 2018)

    Additional Considerations 2 of 2

    What type of CLM software or platform should we use?

    This too is a difficult question to answer definitively. Again, there are several variables to consider. As well, several solutions are available, and this is not a one-size-fits-all scenario.

    As with who should own the CLM process, organizations must review the various CLM software solutions available that will meet their current and future needs and then ask, “What do we need the system to do?”

    • Do you build a “homegrown” solution?
    • Should it be an add-on module to the current ERP or CRM system?
    • Is on-premises more suitable?
    • Is an adequate off-the-shelf (OTS) solution available?
    • What about the many cloud offerings?
    • Is there a basic system to start with that can expand as you grow?

    Info-Tech Insight

    When considering what type of solution to choose, prioritize what needs to been done or improved. Sometimes solutions can be deployed in phases as an “add-on” type modules.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • Documented current CLM process
    • Core operational framework to build a CLM process on
    • Understanding of best practices required for a sustainable CLM

    Processes Optimized

    • Internal RASCI process identified
    • Existing internal stage improvements
    • Internal review process for risk mitigation

    Deliverables Completed

    • Existing CLM Processes Worksheet
    • CLM Maturity Assessment
    • CLM RASCI Chart
    • CLM improvement plan

    Project Step Summary

    Client Project: CLM Assessment and Improvement Plan

    1. Set your goals – what do you want to achieve in your CLM project?
    2. Assess your organization’s current CLM position in relation to CLM best practices and stages.
    3. Map your organization’s RASCI structure for CLM.
    4. Identify opportunities for stage improvements or target all low stage assessments.
    5. Prioritize improvement processes.
    6. Track ROI metrics.
    7. Develop a CLM implementation or improvement plan.

    Info-Tech Insight

    This project can fit your organization’s schedule:

    • Do-it-yourself with your team.
    • Remote delivery (Info-Tech Guided Implementation).

    CLM Blueprint Summary and Conclusion

    • Contract management is a vital component of a responsible VMO that will benefit all business units in an organization, save time and money, and reduce risk exposure.
    • A basic well-deployed and well-managed CLM will provide ROI in the short term.
    • Setting an improvement plan with concise improvements and potential cost savings based on process improvements will help your business case for CLM get approval and leadership buy-in.
    • Educating and aligning all business units and stakeholders to any changes to CLM processes will ensure that cost savings and ROI are achieved.
    • When evaluating a CLM software solution, use the operational framework and the ten process stages in this blueprint as a reference guide for CLM vendor functionality and selection.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Master Contract Review and Negotiation

    Optimize spend with significant cost savings and negotiate from a position of strength.

    Manage Your Vendors Before They Manage You

    Maximize the value of vendor relationships.

    Bibliography

    Burla, Daniel. “The Must Know Of Transition to Dynamics 365 on Premise.” Sherweb, 14 April 2017. Web.

    Anand, Vishal, “Strategic Considerations in Implementing an End-to-End Contract Lifecycle Management Solution.” DWF Mindcrest, 20 Aug. 2016. Web.

    Alspaugh, Zach. “10 Eye-Popping Contract Management Statistics from the General Counsel’s Technology Report.” Apttus, 23 Nov. 2018. Web.

    Bishop, Randy. “Contract Management is not just a cost center.” ContractSafe, 9 Sept. 2019. Web.

    Bryce, Ian. “Contract Management KPIs - Measuring What Matters.” Gatekeeper, 2 May 2019. Web.

    Busch, Jason. “Contract Lifecycle Management 101.” Determine. 4 Jan. 2018. Web.

    “Contract Management Software Buyer's Guide.” TechnologyAdvice, 5 Aug. 2019. Web.

    Dunne, Michael. “Analysts Predict that 2019 will be a Big Year for Contract Lifecycle Management.” Apttus, 19 Nov. 2018. Web.

    “FIS Case Study.” Apttus, n.d. Web.

    Gutwein, Katie. “3 Takeaways from the 2018 State of Contract Management Report.” SpringCM, 2018. Web.

    “IACCM 2019 Benchmark Report.” IAACM, 4 Sept. 2019. Web.

    Linsley, Rod. “How Proverbial Wisdom Can Help Improve Contract Risk Mitigation.” Gatekeeper, 2 Aug. 2019. Web.

    Mars, Scott. “Contract Management Data Extraction.” Exari, 20 June 2017. Web.

    Rodriquez, Elizabeth. “Global Contract Life-Cycle Management Market Statistics and Trends 2019.” Business Tech Hub, 17 June 2017. Web.

    “State of Contract Management Report.” SpringCM, 2018. Web.

    Teninbaum, Gabriel, and Arthur Raguette. “Realizing ROI from Contract Management Technology.” ACCDocket.com, 29 Jan. 2018. Web.

    Wagner, Thomas. “Strategic Report on Contract Life cycle Management Software Market with Top Key Players- IBM Emptoris, Icertis, SAP, Apttus, CLM Matrix, Oracle, Infor, Newgen Software, Zycus, Symfact, Contract Logix, Coupa Software.” Market Research, 21 June 2019. Web.

    “What is Your Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) Persona?” Spend Matters, 19 Oct. 2017. Web.

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}190|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $194,553 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 32 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: IT Governance, Risk & Compliance
    • Parent Category Link: /it-governance-risk-and-compliance
    • IT governance is the number-one predictor of value generated by IT, yet many organizations struggle to organize their governance effectively.
    • Current IT governance does not address the changing goals, risks, or context of the organization, so IT spend is not easily linked to value.
    • The right people are not making the right decisions about IT.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Organizations do not have a governance framework in place that optimally aligns IT with the business objectives and direction.
    • Implementing IT governance requires the involvement of key business stakeholders who do not see IT’s value in corporate governance and strategy.
    • The current governance processes are poorly designed, making the time to decisions too long and driving non-compliance.

    Impact and Result

    • Use Info-Tech’s four-step process to optimize your IT governance framework.
    • Our client-tested methodology supports the enablement of IT-business alignment, decreases decision-making cycle times, and increases IT’s transparency and effectiveness in decisions around benefits realization, risks, and resources.
    • Successful completion of the IT governance redesign will result in the following outcomes:
      1. Align IT with the business context.
      2. Assess the current governance framework.
      3. Redesign the governance framework.
      4. Implement governance redesign.

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should redesign IT governance, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Align IT with the business context

    Align IT’s direction with the business using the Statement of Business Context.

    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results – Phase 1: Align IT With the Business Context
    • Make the Case for an IT Governance Redesign
    • Stakeholder Power Map Template
    • IT Governance Stakeholder Communication Planning Tool
    • PESTLE Analysis Template
    • Business SWOT Analysis Template
    • Statement of Business Context Template

    2. Assess the current governance framework

    Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current governance using the Current State Assessment.

    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results – Phase 2: Assess the Current Governance Framework
    • Current State Assessment of IT Governance

    3. Redesign the governance framework

    Build a redesign of the governance framework using the Future State Design template.

    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results – Phase 3: Redesign the Governance Framework
    • Future State Design for IT Governance
    • IT Governance Terms of Reference

    4. Implement governance redesign

    Create an implementation plan to jump-start the communication of the redesign and set it up for success.

    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results – Phase 4: Implement Governance Redesign
    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results Executive Presentation Template
    • IT Governance Implementation Plan
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

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

    1 Identify the Need for Governance

    The Purpose

    Identify the need for governance in your organization and engage the leadership team in the redesign process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Establish an engagement standard for the leadership of your organization in the IT governance redesign.

    Activities

    1.1 Identify stakeholders.

    1.2 Make the case for improved IT governance.

    1.3 Customize communication plan.

    Outputs

    Stakeholder Power Map

    Make the Case Presentation

    Communication Plan

    2 Align IT With the Business Context

    The Purpose

    Create a mutual understanding with the business leaders of the current state of the organization and the state of business it is moving towards.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    The understanding of the business context will provide an aligned foundation on which to redesign the IT governance framework.

    Activities

    2.1 Review documents.

    2.2 Analyze frameworks.

    2.3 Conduct brainstorming.

    2.4 Finalize the Statement of Business Context.

    Outputs

    PESTLE Analysis

    SWOT Analysis

    Statement of Business Context

    3 Assess the Current Governance Framework

    The Purpose

    Establish a baseline of the current governance framework.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop guidelines based off results from the current state that will guide the future state design.

    Activities

    3.1 Create committee profiles.

    3.2 Build governance structure map.

    3.3 Establish governance guidelines.

    Outputs

    Current State Assessment

    4 Redesign the Governance Framework

    The Purpose

    Redesign the governance structure and the committees that operate within it.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Build a future state of governance where the relationships and processes that are built drive optimal business results.

    Activities

    4.1 Build governance structure map.

    4.2 Create committee profiles.

    Outputs

    Future State Design

    IT Governance Terms of Reference

    5 Implement Governance Redesign

    The Purpose

    Build a roadmap for implementing the governance redesign.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create a transparent and relationship-oriented implementation strategy that will pave the way for a successful redesign implementation.

    Activities

    5.1 Identify next steps for the redesign.

    5.2 Establish communication plan.

    5.3 Lead executive presentation.

    Outputs

    Implementation Plan

    Executive Presentation

    Further reading

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    Avoid bureaucracy and achieve alignment with a minimalist approach.

    ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

    Governance optimization is achieved where decision making, authority, and context meet.

    "Governance is something that is done externally to IT and well as internally by IT, with the intention of providing oversight to direct the organization to meet goals and keep things on target.

    Optimizing IT governance is the most effective way to consistently direct IT spend to areas that provide the most value in producing or supporting business outcomes, yet it is rarely done well.

    IT governance is more than just identifying where decisions are made and who has the authority to make them – it must also provide the context and criteria under which decisions are made in order to truly provide business value" (Valence Howden, Director, CIO Practice Info-Tech Research Group)

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research is Designed For:

    • CIOs
    • CTOs
    • IT Directors

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Achieve and maintain executive and business support for optimizing IT governance.
    • Optimize your governance structure.
    • Build high-level governance processes.
    • Build governance committee charters and set accountability for decision making.
    • Plan the transition to the optimized governance structure and processes.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • Executive Leadership
    • IT Managers
    • IT Customers
    • Project Managers

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Improve alignment between business decisions and IT initiatives.
    • Establish a mechanism to validate, redirect, and reprioritize IT initiatives.
    • Realize greater value from more effective decision making.
    • Receive a better overall quality of service.

    Executive Summary

    Situation

    • IT governance is the #1 predictor of value generated by IT, yet many organizations struggle to organize their governance effectively.*
    • Current IT governance does not address the changing goals, risks, or context of the organization so IT spend is not easily linked to value.
    • The right people are not making the right decisions about IT.

    Complication

    • Organizations do not have a governance framework in place that optimally aligns IT with the business objectives and direction.
    • Implementing IT governance requires the involvement of key business stakeholders who do not see IT’s value in governance and strategy.
    • The current governance processes are poorly designed, creating long decision-making cycles and driving non-compliance with regulation.

    Resolution

    • Use Info-Tech’s four-step process for optimizing your IT governance framework. Our client-tested methodology supports the enablement of IT-business alignment, decreases decision-making cycle times, and increases IT’s transparency and effectiveness in making decisions around benefits realization, risks, and resources.
    • Successful completion of the IT governance redesign will result in the following outcomes:
      1. Align IT with the business context.
      2. Assess the current governance framework.
      3. Redesign the governance framework.
      4. Implement governance redesign.

    Info-Tech Insight

    • Establish IT-business fusion. In governance, alignment is not enough. Merge IT and the business through governance to ensure business success.
    • With great governance comes great responsibility. Involve relevant business leaders, who will be impacted by IT outcomes, to take on governing responsibility of IT.
    • Let IT manage and the business govern. IT governance should be a component of enterprise governance, allowing IT leaders to focus on managing.

    IT governance is...

    An enabling framework for decision-making context and accountabilities for related processes.

    A means of ensuring business-IT collaboration, leading to increased consistency and transparency in decision making and prioritization of initiatives.

    A critical component of ensuring delivery of business value from IT spend and driving high satisfaction with IT.

    IT governance is not...

    An annoying, finger-waving roadblock in the way of getting things done.

    Limited to making decisions about technology.

    Designed tacitly; it is purposeful, with business objectives in mind.

    A one-time project; you must review and revalidate the efficiency.

    Avoid common misconceptions of IT governance

    Don’t blur the lines between governance and management; each has a unique role to play. Confusing these results in wasted time and confusion around ownership.

    Governance

    A cycle of 'Governance Processes' and 'Management Processes'. On the left side of the cycle 'Governance Processes' begins with 'Evaluate', then 'Direct', then 'Monitor'. This leads to 'Management Processes' on the right side with 'Plan', 'Build', 'Run', and 'Monitor', which then feeds back into 'Evaluate'.

    Management

    IT governance sets direction through prioritization and decision making, and monitors overall IT performance.

    Governance aligns with the mission and vision of the organization to guide IT.

    Management is responsible for executing on, operating, and monitoring activities as determined by IT governance.

    Management makes decisions for implementing based on governance direction.

    The IT Governance Framework

    An IT governance framework is a system that will design structures, processes, authority definitions, and membership assignments that lead IT toward optimal results for the business.

    Governance is performed in three ways:
    1. Evaluate

      Governance ensures that business goals are achieved by evaluating stakeholder needs, criteria, metrics, portfolio, risk, and definition of value.
    2. Direct

      Governance sets the direction of IT by delegating priorities and determining the decisions that will guide the IT organization.
    3. Monitor

      Governance establishes a framework to monitor performance, compliance to regulation, and progress on expected outcomes.

    "Everyone needs good IT, but no one wants to talk about it. Most CFOs would rather spend time with their in-laws than in an IT steering-committee meeting. But companies with good governance consistently outperform companies with bad. Which group do you want to be in?" (Martha Heller, President, Heller Search Associates)

    Create impactful IT governance by embedding it within enterprise governance

    The business should engage in IT governance and IT should influence the direction of the business.

    Enterprise Governance

    IT Governance

    Authority for enterprise governance falls to the board and executive management.

    Responsibilities Include:
    • Provide strategic direction for the organization.
    • Ensure objectives are met.
    • Set the risk standards or profile.
    • Delegate resources responsibly.
    –› Engage in –›

    ‹– Influence ‹–

    Governance of IT is a component of enterprise governance.

    Responsibilities Include:
    • Build structure, authority, process, and membership designations in a governance framework.
    • Ensure the IT organization is aligned with business goals.
    • Influence the direction of the business to ensure business success.

    Identify signals of sub-optimal IT governance within any of these domains

    If you notice any of these signals, governance redesign is right for you!

    Inability to Realize Benefits

    1. IT is unable to articulate the value of its initiatives or spend.
    2. IT is regularly delegated unplanned projects.
    3. The is no standard approach to prioritization.
    4. Projects do not meet target metrics.

    Resource Misallocation

    1. Resources are wasted due to duplication or overlap in IT initiatives.
    2. IT projects fail at an unacceptable rate, leading to wasted resources.
    3. IT’s costs continue to increase without reciprocal performance increase.

    Misdiagnosed Risks

    1. Risk appetite is incorrectly identified or not identified at all.
    2. Disagreement on the approach to risk in the organization.
    3. Increasing rate of IT incidents related to risk.
    4. IT is failing to meet regulatory requirements.

    Dissatisfied Stakeholders

    1. There are no ways to measure stakeholder satisfaction with IT.
    2. Business strategies and IT strategies are misaligned.
    3. IT’s relationship with key stakeholders is unstable and there is a lack of mutual trust.

    A majority of organizations experience significant alignment gaps

    The majority of organizations and their key stakeholders experience highly visible gaps in the alignment of IT investments and organizational goals.

    There are two bars with percentages of their length marked out for different CXO responses. The possible responses are from '1, Critical Gap' to '7, No Gap'. The top bar says '57% of CXOs identify a major gap in IT's ability to support business goals', and shows 13% answered '1, Critical Gap', 22% answered '2', and 22% answered '3'. The bottom bar says '84% of CXOs often perceive that IT is investing in areas that do not support the business' and shows 38% answered '1, Critical Gap', 33% answered '2', and 13% answered '3'.

    88% of CIOs believe that their governance is not effective. (Info-Tech Diagnostics)

    Leverage governance as the catalyst for connecting IT and the business

    49% of firms are misaligned on current performance expectations for IT.

    • 49% Misaligned
    • 51% Aligned

    67% of firms are misaligned on the target role for IT.

    • 34% Highly Misaligned
    • 33% Somewhat Misaligned
    • 33% Aligned

    A well-designed IT governance framework will hep you to:

    1. Make sure IT keeps up with the evolving business context.
    2. Align IT with the mission and the vision of the organization.
    3. Optimize the speed and quality of decision making.
    4. Meet regulatory and compliance needs in the external environment.
    5. (Info-Tech Diagnostics)

    Align with business goals through governance to attain business-IT fusion

    Create a state of business-IT fusion, in which the two become one.

    Without business-IT fusion, IT will go in a different direction, leading to a divergence of purpose and outcomes. IT can transform into a fused partner of the business by ensuring that they govern toward the same goal.

    Firefighter
    • Delivers lower value
    • Duplication of effort
    • Unclear risk profile
    • High risk exposure
    Three sets of arrows, each pointing upward and arranged in an ascending stair pattern. The first, lowest set of arrows has a large blue arrow with a small green arrow veering off to the side, unaligned. The second, middle set of arrows has a large blue arrow with a medium green arrow overlaid on its center, somewhat aligned. The third, highest set of arrows has half of a large blue arrow, and the other half is a large green arrow, aligned. Business Partner
    • Increased speed of decision making
    • Aligned with business priorities
    • Optimized utility of people, financial, and time resources
    • Monitors and mitigates risk and compliance issues

    Redesign IT governance in accordance with COBIT and proven good practice

    Info-Tech’s approach to governance redesign is rooted in COBIT, the world-class and open-source IT governance standard.

    COBIT begins with governance, EDM – Evaluate, Direct, and Monitor.

    We build upon these standards with industry best practices and add a practical approach based on member feedback.

    This blueprint will help you optimize your governance framework.

    The upper image is a pyramid with 'Info-Tech Insights, Analysts, Experts, Clients' on top, 'IT Governance Best Practices' in the middle, and 'COBIT 5' on the bottom, indicating that Info-Tech's Governance guidance is based in COBIT 5. 'This project will focus on EDM01, Set/Maintain Governance Framework.'

    Use Info-Tech’s approach to implementing an IT governance redesign

    The four phases of Info-Tech’s governance redesign methodology will help you drive greater value for the business.

    1. Align IT With the Business Context
      Align IT’s direction with the business using the Statement of Business Context Template.
    2. Assess the Current Governance Framework
      Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current governance using the Current State Assessment of IT Governance.
    3. Redesign the Governance Framework
      Build a redesign of the governance framework using the Future State Design for IT Governance tool.
    4. Implement Governance Redesign
      Create an IT Governance Implementation Plan to jumpstart the communication of the redesign and set it up for success.
    5. Continuously assess your governance framework to ensure alignment.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s insights for an optimal redesign process

    Common Pitfalls

    Info-Tech Solutions

    Phase 1

    There must be an active understanding of the current and future state of the business for governance to address the changing needs of the business. –›
    1. Make the case for a governance redesign.
    2. Create a custom communication plan to facilitate support.
    3. Establish a collectively agreed upon statement of business context.

    Phase 2

    Take a proactive approach to revising your governance framework. Understand why you are making decisions before actually making them. –›
    1. Conduct the IT governance current state assessment.
    2. Create governance guidelines for redesign.

    Phase 3

    Keep the current and future goals in sight to build an optimized governance framework that maintains the minimum bar of oversight required. –›
    1. Redesign the future state of IT governance in your organization.

    Phase 4

    Don’t overlook the politics and culture of your organization in redesigning your governance framework. –›
    1. Rationalize steps in an implementation plan.
    2. Outline a communication strategy to navigate culture and politics.
    3. Construct an executive presentation to facilitate transparency for the governing framework.

    Leverage both COBIT and Info-Tech-defined metrics to evaluate the success of your redesign

    These metrics will help you determine the extent to which your governance is supporting your business goals, and whether the governance in place promotes business-IT fusion.

    Benefits Realization

    1. Percent of IT-enabled investments where benefit realization is monitored through the full economic life. (COBIT-defined metric)
    2. Percent of enterprise strategic goals and requirements supported by IT strategic goals. (COBIT-defined metric)
    3. Percent of IT services where expected benefits are realized or exceeded. (COBIT-defined metric)

    Resources

    1. Satisfaction level of business and IT executives with IT-related costs and capabilities. (COBIT-defined metric)
    2. Average time to turn strategic IT objectives into an agreed-upon and approved initiative. (COBIT-defined metric)
    3. Number of deviations from resource utilization plan.

    Risks

    1. Number of security incidents causing financial loss, business disruption, or public embarrassment. (COBIT-defined metric)
    2. Number of issues related to non-compliance with policies. (COBIT-defined metric)
    3. Percentage of enterprise risk assessments that include IT-related risks. (COBIT-defined metric)
    4. Frequency with which the risk profile is updated. (COBIT-defined metric)

    Stakeholders

    1. Change in score of alignment with the scope of the planned portfolio of programs and services (using CIO-CXO Alignment Diagnostic).
    2. Percent of executive management roles with clearly defined accountabilities for IT decisions. (COBIT-defined metric)
    3. Percent of business stakeholders satisfied that IT service delivery meets agreed-upon service levels. (COBIT-defined metric)
    4. Percent of key business stakeholders involved in IT governance.

    Capture monetary value by establishing and monitoring key metrics

    While benefits of governance are often qualitative, the power of effective governance can be demonstrated through quantitative financial gains.

    Scenario 1 – Realizing Expected Gains

    Scenario 2 – Mitigating Unexpected Losses

    Metric

    Track the percentage of initiatives that provided expected ROI year over year. The optimization of the governance framework should generate an increase in this metric. Monitor this metric for continuous improvement opportunities. Track the financial losses related to non-compliance with policy or regulation. An optimized governance framework should better protect the organization against policy breach and mitigate the possibility and impact of “rogue” actions.

    Formula

    ROI of all initiatives / number of initiatives in year 2 – ROI of all initiatives / number of initiatives in year 1

    The expected result should be positive.

    Cost of non-compliance in year 2 – cost of non-compliance in year 1

    The expected result should be negative.

    Redesign IT governance to achieve optimal business outcomes

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Healthcare
    Source: Info-Tech

    Situation

    The IT governance had been structured based on regulations and had not changed much since it was put in place. However, a move to become an integration and service focused organization had moved the organization into the world of web services, Agile development, and service-oriented architecture.

    Complication

    The existing process was well defined and entrenched, but did not enable rapid decision making and Agile service delivery. This was due to the number of committees where initiatives were reviewed, made worse by their lack of approval authority. This led to issues moving initiatives forward in the timeframes required to meet clinician needs and committed governmental deadlines.

    In addition, the revised organizational mandate had created confusion regarding the primary purpose and function of the organization and impacted the ability to prioritize spend on a limited budget.

    To complicate matters further, there was political sensitivity tied to the membership and authority of different governing committees.

    Result:

    The CEO decided that a project would be initiated by the Enterprise Architecture Group, but managed by an external consultant to optimize and restructure the governance within the organization.

    The purpose of using the external consultant was to help remove internal politics from the discussion. This allowed the organization to establish a shared view of the organization’s revised mission and IT’s role in its execution.

    The exercise led to the removal of one governing committee and the merger of two others, modification to committee authority and membership, and a refined decision-making context that was agreed to by all parties.

    The redesigned governance process led to a 30% reduction in cycle time from intake to decision, and a 15% improvement in alignment of IT spend with strategic priorities.

    Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research

    Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.

    A small monochrome icon of a wrench and screwdriver creating an X.

    This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.

    A small monochrome icon depicting a person in front of a blank slide.

    This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.

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

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Redesign IT Governance – project overview

    Align IT With the Business Context

    Assess the Current State

    Redesign Governance

    Implement Redesign

    Supporting Tool icon

    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Identify Stakeholders
    1.2 Make the Case
    1.3 Present to Executives
    1.4 Customize Comm. Plan
    1.5 Review Documents
    1.6 Analyze Frameworks
    1.7 Conduct Brainstorming
    1.8 Finalize the SoBC
    2.1 Create Committee Profiles

    2.2 Build a Governance Structure Map

    2.3 Establish Governance Guidelines

    3.1 Build Governance Structure Map

    3.2 Create Committee Profiles

    3.3 Leverage Process Specific Governance Blueprints

    4.1 Identify Next Steps for the Redesign

    4.2 Establish Communication Plan

    4.3 Lead Executive Presentation

    Guided Implementations

    • Move towards gaining buy-in from the business if necessary. Then identify the major components of the SoBC.
    • Review SoBC and discuss a strategy to engage key stakeholders in the redesign.
    • Explore the process of identifying the four major elements of governance. Build guidelines for the future state.
    • Review the current state of governance and discuss the implications and guidelines.
    • Identify the changes that will need to be made.
    • Review redesigned structure and authority.
    • Review redesigned process and membership.
    • Discuss and review the implementation plan.
    • Prepare the presentation for the executives. Provide support on any final questions.
    Associated Activity icon

    Onsite Workshop

    Module 1:
    Align IT with the business context
    Module 2:
    Assess the current governance framework
    Module 3:
    Redesign the governance framework
    Module 4:
    Implement governance redesign
    Phase 1 Results:
    • Align IT’s direction with the business.
    Phase 2 Results:
    • Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current governance and build guidelines.
    Phase 3 Results:
    • Establish a redesign of the governance framework.
    Phase 4 Results:
    • Create an implementation plan for the communication of the redesign.

    Workshop overview

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

    Workshop Day 1

    Workshop Day 2

    Workshop Day 3

    Workshop Day 4

    Workshop Day 5

    Task – Identify the Need for Governance Task – Align IT with the Business Context Task – Assess the Current State Task – Redesign Governance Framework Task – Implement Governance Redesign

    Activities

    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders
    • 1.2 Make the Case
    • 1.3 Present to Executives
    • 1.4 Customize Communication Plan
    • 2.1 Review Documents
    • 2.2 Analyze Frameworks
    • 2.3 Conduct Brainstorming
    • 2.4 Finalize the Statement of Business Context
    • 3.1 Create Committee Profiles
    • 3.2 Build Governance Structure Map
    • 3.3 Establish Governance Guidelines
    • 4.1 Build Governance Structure Map
    • 4.2 Create Committee Profiles
    • 4.3 Leverage Process Specific Governance Blueprints
    • 5.1 Identify Next Steps for the Redesign
    • 5.2 Establish Communication Plan
    • 5.3 Lead Executive Presentation

    Deliverables

    1. Make the Case Presentation
    2. Stakeholder Power Map Template
    3. Communication Plan
    1. PESTLE Analysis
    2. SWOT Analysis
    3. Statement of Business Context
    1. Current State Assessment
    1. Future State Design Tool
    2. IT Governance Terms of Reference
    1. Implementation Plan
    2. Executive Presentation

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    PHASE 1

    Align IT With the Business Context

    Phase 1 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 1: Align IT With the Business Context

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2-4 weeks
    Step 1.1: Identify the Need for Governance Step 1.2: Create the Statement of Business Context
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Understand the core concepts of IT governance.
    • Create a strategy for key stakeholder support.
    • Identify key communication milestones.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Identify and discuss the process of engaging senior leadership.
    • Review findings from business analysis.
    • Review diagnostic and interview outcomes.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Identify stakeholders.
    • Make the case to executives.
    • Build a communication plan.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Review business documents.
    • Review the PESTLE and SWOT analyses.
    • Analyze outcomes of CIO-CEO Alignment Diagnostic.
    • Complete the Statement of Business Context.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Make the Case for an IT Governance Redesign
    • Stakeholder Power Map Template
    • IT Governance Stakeholder Communication Planning Tool
    With these tools & templates:
    • PESTLE Analysis Template
    • Business SWOT Analysis Template
    • CIO-CEO Alignment Diagnostic
    • Statement of Business Context Template

    Phase 1: Align IT With the Business Context

    1 2 3 4
    Align IT With the Business Context Assess the Current Governance Framework Redesign the Governance Framework Implement Governance Redesign

    Activities:

    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders
    • 1.2 Customize Make the Case Presentation
    • 1.3 Present to Executives
    • 1.4 Customize Communication Plan
    • 1.5 Review Business Documents
    • 1.6 Analyze Business Frameworks
    • 1.7 Conduct Brainstorming Efforts
    • 1.8 Finalize the SoBC

    Outcomes:

    • Make the case for a governance redesign.
    • Create a custom communication plan to facilitate support for the redesign process.
    • Establish a collectively agreed upon statement of business context.

    Set up business-driven governance by gaining an understanding of the business context

    Fuse IT with the business by establishing a common context of what the business is trying to achieve. Align IT with the business by developing an understanding of the business state, creating a platform to build a well-aligned governance framework.

    "IT governance philosophies can no longer be a ‘black box’ … IT governance can no longer be ignored by senior executives." (Iskandar and Mohd Salleh, University of Malaya, International Journal of Digital Society)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Get consensus on the changing state of business. There must be an active understanding of the current and future state of the business for governance to address the changing needs of the business.

    The source for the governance redesign directive will dictate the route for attaining leadership buy-in

    "Without an awareness of IT governance, there is no chance that it will be followed … The higher the percentage of managers who can describe your governance, the higher the governance performance." (Jeanne Ross, Director, MIT Center for Information Systems Research)

    The path you will choose for your governance buy-in tactics will be based on the original directive to redesign governance.

    Enterprise Directive.
    In the case that the redesign is an enterprise directive, jump directly to building a communication plan.

    IT Directive.
    In the case that the redesign is an IT directive, make the case to get the business on board.

    Use the Make the Case presentation template to get buy-in from the business

    Supporting Tool icon 1A Convince senior management to redesign governance

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Identify Stakeholders
      Determine which business stakeholders will be impacted or involved in the redesign process.
    2. Customize the Presentation
      Identify specific pain points regarding IT-business alignment.
    3. Present to Executives
      Present the make the case presentation.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Use the Make the Case customizable deliverable to lead a boardroom-quality presentation proving the specific need for senior executive involvement in the governance redesign.

    Determine which business stakeholders will be impacted or involved in the redesign process

    Associated Activity icon 1.1 Identify the stakeholders for the IT governance redesign

    It is vital to identify key business and IT stakeholders before the IT governance redesign has begun. Consider whose input and influence will be necessary in order to align with the business context and redesign the governance framework accordingly.

    Business

    • Shareholders
    • Board
    • Chief Executive Officer
    • –› Example: the CEO wants to know how IT will support the achievement of strategic corporate objectives.
    • Chief Financial Officer
    • Chief Operating Officer
    • Business Executives
    • Business Process Owners
    • Strategy Executive Committee
    • Chief Risk Officer
    • Chief Information Security Officer
    • Architecture Board
    • Enterprise Risk Committee
    • Head of Human Resources
    • Compliance
    • Audit

    IT

    • Chief Information Officer
    • –› Example: the CIO would like validation from the business with regards to prioritization criteria.
    • Head Architect
    • Head of Development
    • Head of IT Operations
    • Head of IT Administration
    • Service Manager
    • Information Security Manager
    • Business Continuity Manager
    • Privacy Officer

    External

    • Government Agency
    • –› Example: some governments mandate that organizations develop and implement an IT governance framework.
    • Audit Firm

    Build a power map to prioritize stakeholders

    Associated Activity icon 1.1 2-4 hours

    Stakeholders may have competing concerns – that is, concerns that cannot be addressed with one solution. The governance redesigner must prioritize their time to address the concerns of the stakeholders who have the most power and who are most impacted by the IT governance redesign.

    Draw a stakeholder power map to visualize the importance of various stakeholders and their concerns, and to help prioritize your time with those stakeholders.

    • Power: How much influence does the stakeholder have? Enough to drive the project forward or into the ground?
    • Involvement: How interested is the stakeholder? How much involvement does the stakeholder have in the project already?
    • Impact: To what degree will the stakeholder be impacted? Will this significantly change the job?
    • Support: Is the stakeholder a supporter of the project? Neutral? A resistor?
    A power map of stakeholders with two axes and four quadrants. The vertical axis is 'Low Power' on the bottom and 'High Power' on top. The horizontal axis is 'Low Involvement' on the left and 'High Involvement' on the right. The top left quadrant is labeled 'Keep satisfied' and contains 'CFO', a Strongly Impacted Resistor, and 'COO', a Weakly Impacted Resistor. The top right quadrant is labeled 'Key Players' and contains 'CIO' and 'CEO', both Strongly Impacted Supporters. The bottom left quadrant is labeled 'Minimal effort' and contains 'Marketing Head', a Weakly Impacted Neutral, and 'Production Head', a Moderately Impacted Neutral. The bottom right quadrant is labeled 'Keep informed' and contains 'Director of Ops', a Strongly Impacted Supporter, and 'Chief Architect', a Strongly Impacted Neutral.

    Download Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Power Map Template to help you visualize your key stakeholders.

    Build a power map to prioritize stakeholders

    Associated Activity icon 1.1

    It is important to identify who will be impacted and who has power, and the level of involvement they have in the governance redesign. If they have power, will be highly impacted, and are not involved in governance, you have already lost – because they will resist later. You need to get them involved early.

    • Focus on key players – relevant stakeholders who have high power, are highly impacted, and should have a high level of involvement.
    • Engage the stakeholders that are impacted most and have the power to impede the success of redesigning IT governance.
      • For example, if a CFO, who has the power to block project funding, is heavily impacted and not involved, the IT governance redesign success will be put at risk.
    • Some stakeholders may have influence over others so you should focus your efforts on the influencer rather than the influenced.
      • For example, if an uncooperative COO is highly influenced by the Director of Operations, it is recommended to engage the latter.

    The same power map of stakeholders with two axes and four quadrants, but with focus points and notes. The vertical axis is 'Low Power' on the bottom and 'High Power' on top. The horizontal axis is 'Low Involvement' on the left and 'High Involvement' on the right. The top left quadrant is labeled 'Keep satisfied' and contains 'CFO', a Strongly Impacted Resistor, and 'COO', a Weakly Impacted Resistor, as well as a dotted line moving 'CFO' to the top right quadrant with the note 'A) needs to be engaged'. The top right quadrant is labeled 'Key Players' and contains 'CIO' and 'CEO', both Strongly Impacted Supporters, as well as the new required position of 'CFO'. The bottom left quadrant is labeled 'Minimal effort' and contains 'Marketing Head', a Weakly Impacted Neutral, and 'Production Head', a Moderately Impacted Neutral. The bottom right quadrant is labeled 'Keep informed' and contains 'Director of Ops', a Strongly Impacted Supporter, and 'Chief Architect', a Strongly Impacted Neutral, as well as a line from 'Director of Ops' to 'COO' in the top left quadrant with a note that reads 'B) Influences'.

    Identify specific pain points regarding business-IT alignment

    Associated Activity icon 1.2 2-4 hours

    INPUT: Signal Questions, CIO-CXO Alignment Diagnostic

    OUTPUT: List of Categorized Pain Points

    Materials: Make the Case for an IT Governance Redesign

    Participants: Identified Key Business Stakeholders

    1. Consider Signals for Redesign
      Refer to the Executive Brief for questions to identify pain points related to governance.
      • Benefits Realization
      • Resources
      • Risks
      • Stakeholders
    2. Conduct CIO-CEO Alignment Diagnostic
      Assess the current state of alignment between the CIO and the major stakeholders of the organization.

    See the CEO-CIO Alignment Program for more information.

    Conduct the CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostic

    Why CEO-CIO Alignment?

    The CEO-CIO Alignment Program helps you understand the gaps between what the CEO wants for IT and what the CIO wants for IT. The program will also evaluate the current state of IT, from a strategic and tactical perspective, based on the CEO’s opinion.

    The CEO-CIO Alignment Program helps to:

    • Evaluate how the executive leadership currently feels about the IT organization’s performance along the following dimensions:
      • IT budgeting and staffing
      • IT strategic planning
      • Degree of project success
      • IT-business alignment
    • Answer the question, “What does the CEO want from IT?”
    • Understand the CEO’s perception of and vision for IT in the business.
    • Define the current and target roles for IT. Understanding IT’s current and target roles, in the eyes of the CEO, is crucial to creating IT governance. By focusing the IT governance on achieving the target role, you will ensure that the senior leadership will support the implementation of the IT governance.

    To conduct the CEO-CIO Alignment Program, follow the steps outlined below.

    1. Select the senior business leader to participate in the program. While Info-Tech suggests that the CEO participate, you might have other senior stakeholders who should be involved.
    2. Send the survey link to your senior business stakeholder and ensure the survey’s completion.
    3. Complete your portion of the survey.
    4. Hold a meeting to discuss the results and document your findings.

    See the CEO-CIO Alignment Program for more information.

    Present the “Make the Case” for IT governance redesign

    Associated Activity icon 1.3 30 minutes

    1. Review Finalized Stakeholder List
      Consolidate a list of the most important and impactful stakeholders who need further convincing to participate in the governance redesign and implementation.
    2. Present the Deck
      Include the information gathered throughout the discovery into the presentation deck and hold a meeting to review the findings.

    Business

    • Shareholders
    • Board
    • Chief Executive Officer
    • Chief Financial Officer
    • Chief Operating Officer
    • Business Executives
    • Strategy Executive Committee
    • Chief Risk Officer
    • Architecture Board
    • Enterprise Risk Committee
    • Head of Human Resources
    • Compliance

    IT

    • Chief Information Officer

    External

    • Government Agency
    • Audit Firm

    Use the Make the Case for an IT Governance Redesign template for more information.

    Create a custom communication plan to facilitate support for the redesign process

    Supporting Tool icon 1B Create a plan to engage the key stakeholders

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Identify Stakeholders
      Determine which business stakeholders will be involved (refer to Activity 1.1).
    2. Customize Communication Plan
      Follow up with individual communication plans.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Create personal communication plans to provide individualized engagement, instead of assuming that everyone will respond to the same communication style.

    Download the IT Governance Stakeholder Communication Planning Tool for more information.

    Create a communication plan to engage key stakeholders

    Associated Activity icon 1.4 1 hour
    1. Input Stakeholders
      Determine which business stakeholders will be involved (refer to Activity 1.1). Then, insert their position on the power map, the rationale to inform them, the timing of communications, and what inputs they will be needed to provide.

      Stakeholder role

      Power map position

      Why inform them

      When to inform them

      What we need from them

      Chief Executive Officer
      Chief Financial Officer
      Chief Operating Officer
    2. Identify Communication Strategy
      Outline the most effective communication plan for that stakeholder. Identify how to best communicate to the stakeholders to make sure they are appropriately engaged in the redesign process.

      Vehicle

      Audience

      Purpose

      Frequency

      Owner

      Distribution

      Level of detail

      Status Report IT Managers Project progress and deliverable status Weekly CIO, John Smith Email Details for milestones, deliverables, budget, schedule, issues, next steps
      Status Report Marketing Manager Project progress Monthly CIO, John Smith Email High-level detail for major milestone update and impact to the marketing unit

    Establish a collectively agreed upon statement of business context (SoBC)

    Supporting Tool icon 1C Document the mutual understanding of the business context

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Review Business Documents
      Review business documents from broad areas of the business to assess the business context.
    2. Analyze Business Frameworks
      Analyze business frameworks to articulate the current and projected future business context.
    3. Brainstorm With Key Stakeholders
      Conduct stakeholder brainstorming efforts to gain insights from key business stakeholders.
    4. Finalize the SoBC
      Document and sign the SoBC with identified stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Use the Statement of Business Context customizable deliverable as a point of reference that will guide the direction of the governance redesign.

    Use the Statement of Business Context to identify the critical information needed to guide governance

    Components of the SoBC

    1. Mission
      • Who are you as an organization?
      • Who are your internal and external customers?
      • What are your core business functions?

      Example (Higher Education)
      Nurture global leaders and provide avenues for intellectual exploration.
    2. Vision
      • Is your vision statement future-facing?
      • Is your vision statement concise?
      • Is your vision statement achievable?
      • Does your vision statement involve change?

      Example
      Be a catalyst for creating the future leaders of tomorrow through dynamic and immersive educational experiences. The university will be recognized for being a prestigious innovative research hub and educational institution.
    Sample of Info-Tech's Statement of Business Context Template with the Mission and Vision Statements.

    Use the Statement of Business Context to identify the critical information needed to guide governance (cont.)

    More Components of the SoBC

    1. Strategic Objectives
      • What are the strategic initiatives of the organization?
      • Do you have a roadmap to accomplish your mission?
      • What are the primary goals of senior leaders for the organization?

      Example
      1. Meeting government regulation
      2. Revenue generation
      3. Top research quality
      4. High teaching quality
    Sample of Info-Tech's Statement of Business Context Template with Strategic Objectives.
    1. State of Business
      • Consider what the current state and future state are.
      • How does the operating model used define the state?
      • How do industry trends shape the business?
      • What internal changes impact the business model?

      Example
      Our organization aims to make quick decisions and navigate the fast-paced industry with agility, uniting the development and operational sides of the business.
    Sample of Info-Tech's Statement of Business Context Template with State of the Business.

    Leverage core concepts to determine the direction of the organization’s state of the business

    1. Mission
    2. Vision
    3. Strategic Objectives
    –›
    1. State of Business

    2. Work through if your organization’s state is small vs. large, public vs. private, and lean vs. DevOps vs. traditional.

    Small

    IT team is 30 people or less.

    Large

    IT team is more than 30 people.

    Public

    Wholly or partly funded by the government.

    Private

    No government funding is provided.
    Lean: The business aims to eliminate any waste of resources (time, effort, or money) by removing steps in the business process that do not create value. Devops/Agile: Our organization aims to make quick decisions and navigate the fast-paced industry with agility. Uniting the development and operational sides of the business. Hierarchical: Departments in the organization are siloed by function. The organization is top-down and hierarchical, and takes more time with decision making.

    ‹– Multi-State (any combination) –›

    Review business documents to assess business context

    Associated Activity icon 1.5 2-4 hours

    INPUT: Strategic Documents, Financial Documents

    OUTPUT: Mission, Vision, Strategic Objectives

    Materials: Corporate Documents

    Participants: IT Governance Redesign Owner

    Start assessing the state of the business context by leveraging easily accessible information. Many organization have strategic plans, documents, and presentations that already include a large portion of the information for the SoBC – use these sources first.

    Instructions

    1. Strategic Documents
      Leverage your organization’s strategic documents to gain understanding of the business context.

    2. Documents to Review:
    • Corporate strategy document.
    • Business unit strategy documents.
    • Annual general reports.
  • Financial Documents
    Leverage your organization’s financial documents to gain understanding of the business context.

  • Documents to Review:
    • Look for large capital expenditures.
    • Review operating costs.
    • Business cases submitted.

    Review strategic planning documents

    Overview

    Some organizations (and business units) create an authoritative strategy document. These documents contain the organization’s corporate aspirations and outline initiatives, reorganizations, and shifts in strategy. Additionally, some documents contain strategic analysis (Porter’s Five Forces, etc.).

    Action

    • Read through any of the following:
      • Corporate strategy document
      • Business unit strategy documents
      • Annual general reports
    • Watch out for key future-looking words:
      • We will be…
      • We are planning to…

    Overt Statements

    • Corporate objectives and initiatives are often explicitly stated in these documents. Look for statements that begin with phrases such as “Our corporate objectives are…”
    • Remember that different organizations use different terminology – if you cannot find the word “goal” or “objective” then look for “pillar,” “imperative,” “theme,” etc.
    • Ask a business partner to assist if you need some help.

    Covert, Outdated, and Non-Existent Statements

    • Some corporate objectives and initiatives will be mentioned in passing and will require clarification, for example:
      “As we continue to penetrate new markets, we will be diversifying our manufacturing geography to simplify distribution.”
    • Some corporate strategies may be outdated and therefore of limited use for understanding the state of business – validate the statement to ensure it is up to date.
    • Some organizations lack a strategic plan altogether. Use stakeholder interviews to identify imperatives and validate conflicting statements before moving on.

    Review financial documentation

    Overview

    Departmental budgets highlight the new projects that will launch in the next fiscal year. The overwhelming majority of these projects will have IT implications. Additionally, identifying where the department is spending money will allow you to identify business unit initiatives and operational change.

    Action

    • Scan budgets:
      • Look for large capital expenditures
      • Review operating costs
      • Review business cases submitted
    • Look for abnormalities or changes:
      • What does an increase in spending mean?
      • Does IT need to change as a result?

    Capital Budgets

    • Capital expenditures are driven by projects, which map to corporate goals and initiatives.
    • Look for large capital expenditures and cross-reference the outflows with any project plans that have been collected.
    • If an expenditure cannot be explained by project plans, request additional information.

    Operating Budgets

    • Major changes to operating costs typically reflect changes to a business unit. Some of these changes affect IT capabilities and can be classified as corporate initiatives.
    • Changes that should be classified as corporate initiatives are expansion or contraction of a labor force, outsourcing initiatives, and significant process changes.
    • Changes that should not be classified as corporate initiatives are changes in third-party fees, consulting engagements, and changes caused by inflation or growth.

    Analyze business frameworks to articulate context

    Associated Activity icon 1.6 2-4 hours

    INPUT: Industry Research, Organizational Research, Analysis Templates

    OUTPUT: PESTLE and SWOT Analysis

    Materials: Computer or Whiteboards and Markers

    Participants: IT Governance Redesign Owner

    If corporate documents denoting the key components of the SoBC are not easily available, or do not provide all information required, refer to business analysis frameworks to discover internal and external trends that impact the mission, vision, strategic objectives, and state of the business.

    1. Conduct a PESTLE Analysis
      The PESTLE analysis will support the organization in identifying external factors that impact the business. Keep watch for trends and changes in the industry.
    2. Political

      Economic

      Social

      Technological

      Legal

      Environmental

    3. Conduct a SWOT Analysis
      The SWOT analysis will be more specific to the organization and the industry in which it operates. Identify the unique strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your organization.
    4. Strengths

      Weaknesses

      Opportunities

      Threats

    Conduct a PESTLE analysis

    Associated Activity icon 1.6 Conduct a PESTLE analysis
    • Break participants into teams and divide the categories amongst them:
      • Political trends
      • Economic trends
      • Social trends
      • Technological trends
      • Legal trends
      • Environmental trends
    • Have each group identify relevant trends under their respective categories. You must relate each trend back to the business by considering:
      • How does this affect my business?
      • Why do we care?
    • Use the prompt questions on the next slide to help the brainstorming process.
    • Have each team present its list and have remaining teams give feedback and additional suggestions.

    Political. Examine political factors such as taxes, environmental regulations, and zoning restrictions.

    Economic Examine economic factors such as interest rates, inflation rate, exchange rates, the financial and stock markets, and the job market.

    Social. Examine social factors such as gender, race, age, income, disabilities, educational attainment, employment status, and religion.

    Technological. Examine technological factors such as servers, computers, networks, software, database technologies, wireless capabilities, and availability of software as a service.

    Legal. Examine legal factors such as trade laws, labor laws, environmental laws, and privacy laws.

    Environmental. Examine environmental factors such as green initiatives, ethical issues, weather patterns, and pollution.

    Download Info-Tech’s PESTLE Analysis Template to help get started.

    Review these questions to help you conduct a PESTLE analysis

    For each prompt below, always try to answer the question: how does this affect my business?

    Political

    • Will a change in government (at any level) affect your organization?
    • Do inter-government or trade relations affect you?
    • Are there shareholder needs or demands that must be considered?

    Economical

    • How are your costs changing (moving off-shore, fluctuations in markets, etc.)?
    • Do currency fluctuations have an effect on your business?
    • Can you attract and pay for top-quality talent (e.g. desirable location, reasonable cost of living, changes to insurance requirements)?

    Social

    • What are the demographics of your customers or employees?
    • What are the attitudes of your customers or staff (do they require social media, collaboration, transparency of costs, etc.)?
    • What is the general lifecycle of an employee (i.e. is there high turnover)?
    • Is there a market of qualified staff?
    • Is your business seasonal?

    Technological

    • Do you require constant technology upgrades (faster network, new hardware, etc.)?
    • What is the appetite for innovation within your industry or business?
    • Are there demands for increasing data storage, quality, BI, etc.?
    • Are you looking at cloud technologies?
    • What is the stance on “bring your own device”?
    • Are you required to do a significant amount of development work in-house?

    Legal

    • Are there changes to trade laws?
    • Are there changes to regulatory requirements, e.g. data storage policies or privacy policies?
    • Are there union factors that must be considered?

    Environmental

    • Is there a push towards being environmentally friendly?
    • Does the weather have any effect on your business (hurricanes, flooding, etc.)?

    Conduct a SWOT analysis on the business

    Associated Activity icon 1.6 Conduct a business SWOT analysis

    Break the group into two teams.

    Assign team A internal strengths and weaknesses.

    Assign team B external opportunities and threats.

    • Have the teams brainstorm items that fit in their assigned grids. Use the prompt questions on the next slide to help you with your SWOT analysis.
    • Pick someone from each group to fill in the grids on the whiteboard.
    • Conduct a group discussion about the items on the list. Identify implications for IT and opportunities to innovate as you did for the other business and external drivers.
    Helpful
    to achieve the objective
    Harmful
    to achieve the objective
    Internal Origin
    attributes of the organization
    Strength Weaknesses
    External Origin
    attributes of the environment
    Opportunities Threats

    Download Info-Tech’s Business SWOT Analysis Template to help get started.

    Review these questions to help you conduct your SWOT analysis on the business

    Strengths (Internal)

    • What competitive advantage does your organization have?
    • What do you do better than anyone else?
    • What makes you unique (human resources, product offering, experience, etc.)?
    • Do you have location advantages?
    • Do you have price, cost, or quality advantages?
    • Does your organizational culture offer an advantage (hiring the best people, etc.)?

    Weaknesses (Internal)

    • What areas of your business require improvement?
    • Are there gaps in capabilities?
    • Do you have financial vulnerabilities?
    • Are there leadership gaps (succession, poor management, etc.)?
    • Are there reputational issues?
    • Are there factors that are making you lose sales?

    Opportunities (External)

    • Are there market developments or new markets?
    • Industry or lifestyle trends, e.g. move to mobile?
    • Are there geographical changes in the market?
    • Are there new partnerships or M&A opportunities?
    • Are there seasonal factors that can be used to the advantage of the business?
    • Are there demographic changes that can be used to the advantage of the business?

    Threats (External)

    • Are there obstacles that the organization must face?
    • Are there issues with respect to sourcing of staff or technologies?
    • Are there changes in market demand?
    • Are your competitors making changes that you are not making?
    • Are there economic issues that could affect your business?

    Conduct brainstorming efforts to gain insights from key business stakeholders

    Associated Activity icon 1.7 2-4 hours

    INPUT: SoBC Template

    OUTPUT: Completed SoBC

    Materials: Computer, Phone, or Other Mechanism of Connection

    Participants: CEO, CFO, COO, CMO, CHRO, and Business Unit Owners

    There are two ways to gather primary knowledge on the key components of the SoBC:

    1. Stakeholder Interviews
      Approach each individual to have a conversation about the key components of the SoBC. Go through the SoBC and fill it in together.
    2. Stakeholder Survey
      In the case that you are in a very large organization, create a stakeholder survey. Input the key components of the SoBC into an online survey maker and send it off the key stakeholders.

    Use the SoBC as the guide to both the interview and the survey. Be clear about the purpose of understanding the business context when connecting with key business stakeholders to participate in the brainstorming. This is a perfect opportunity to establish or develop a relationship with the stakeholders who will need to buy into the redesigned governance framework since it will involve and impact them significantly.

    Go directly to the information source – the key stakeholders

    Overview

    Talking to key stakeholders will allow you to get a holistic view of the business strategy. You will be able to ask follow-up questions to get a better understanding of abstract or complex concepts. Interviews also allow you to have targeted discussions with specific stakeholders who have in-depth subject-matter knowledge.

    Action

    • Talk to key stakeholders:
      • Structure focused, i.e. CEO or CFO
      • Customer focused, i.e. CMO or Head of Sales
      • Operational focused, i.e. COO
      • Lower-level employees or managers
    • Listen for key pains that IT could alleviate.

    Overcome the Unstructured Nature of Interviews

    • Interviewees will often explicitly state objectives and initiatives.
    • However, interviews are less formal and less structured than objective-oriented strategy documents. Objectives are often stated using informal language.
      “We’re talking rev gen here. That’s the name of the game. If we can get a foothold in India, there’s huge upside potential.” (VP Marketing)
    • Further analysis might translate this into a corporate imperative: increase revenue by growing our market share in India to 8% by January of next year.
    • If an imperative is unclear, ask the stakeholder for more detail.
    • Understand how key stakeholders evaluate, direct, and monitor their own areas of the business; this will give you insight as to their style.

    Receive final sign-off to proceed with developing the IT governance redesign

    Associated Activity icon 1.8 30 minutes

    Document any project assumptions or constraints. Before proceeding with the IT governance activities, validate the statement of business context with senior stakeholders. When consensus has been reached, have them sign the final page of the document.

    How to ensure sign-off:

    • Schedule a meeting with the senior stakeholders and conduct a review of the document. This meeting presents a great opportunity to deliver your interpretation of management expectations and make any modifications.
    • Obtaining stakeholder approval in person ensures there is no miscommunication or misunderstandings around the tasks that need to be accomplished to develop a successful IT governance.
    • This is an iterative process; if senior stakeholders have concerns over certain aspects of the document, revise and review again.
    • Final sign-off should only take place when mutual understanding has been reached.

    Download the SoBC Template and complete for final approval.

    Info-Tech Tip

    In most circumstances, you should have the SoBC validated with the following stakeholders:

    • CIO
    • CEO
    • CFO
    • Business Unit Leaders

    Understand the business context to set the foundation for governance redesign

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Healthcare
    Source: Info-Tech

    Challenge

    The new business direction to become an integrator shifted focus to faster software iteration and on enabling integration and translation technologies, while moving away from creating complete, top-to-bottom IT solutions to be leveraged by clinicians and patients.

    Internal to the IT organization, this created a different in perspective on what was important to prioritize: foundational elements, web services, development, or data compliance issues. There was no longer agreement on which initiatives should move forward.

    Solution

    A series of mandatory meetings were held with key decision makers and SMEs within the organization in order to re-orient everyone on the overall purpose, goals, and outcomes of the organization.

    All attendees were asked to identify what they saw as the mission and vision of the organization.

    Finally, clinicians and patient representatives were brought in to describe how they were going to use the services the organization was providing and how it would enable better patient outcomes.

    Results

    Identifying the purpose of the work the IT organization was doing and how the services were going to be used realigned the different perspectives in the context of the healthcare outcomes they enabled.

    This activity provided a unifying view of the purpose and the state of the business. Understanding the business context prepared the organization to move forward with the governance redesign.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of an Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    1.1

    Sample of activity 1.1 'Determine which business stakeholders will be impacted or involved in the redesign process'. Identify Relevant Stakeholders

    Build a list of relevant stakeholders and identify their position on the stakeholder power map.

    1.4

    Sample of activity 1.4 'Create a communication plan to engage key stakeholders'. Communication Plan

    Build customized communication plans to engage the key stakeholders in IT governance redesign.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    1.7

    Sample of activity 1.7 'Review business documents to assess business context'. Gather Business Information

    Review business documents, leverage business analysis tools, and brainstorm with key executives to document the Statement of Business Context.

    1.8

    Sample of activity 1.8 'Receive final sign-off to proceed with developing the IT Governance redesign'. Finalize the Statement of Business Context

    Get final approval and acceptance on the Statement of Business Context that will guide your redesign.

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    PHASE 2

    Assess the Current Governance Framework

    Phase 2 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 2: Assess the Current Governance Framework

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks
    Step 2.1: Outline the Current State AssessmentStep 2.2: Review the Current State Assessment
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Connect the current business state identified in Phase 1 with the current state of governance.
    • Identify the key elements of current governance.
    • Begin building the structure and committee profiles.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Review the current governing bodies that were identified.
    • Review the current structure that was identified.
    • Determine the strengths, weaknesses, and guidelines from the implications in the current state assessment.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Identify stakeholders.
    • Make the case to executives.
    • Build a communication plan.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Create committee profiles.
    • Build governance structure map.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Current State Assessment of IT Governance
    With these tools & templates:
    • Current State Assessment of IT Governance

    Phase 2: Assess the Current Governance Framework

    1 2 3 4
    Align IT With the Business Context Assess the Current Governance Framework Redesign the Governance Framework Implement Governance Redesign

    Activities:

    • 2.1 Create Committee Profiles
    • 2.2 Build a Governance Structure Map
    • 2.3 Establish Governance Guidelines

    Outcomes:

    • Use the Current State Assessment of IT Governance to determine governance guidelines.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t be passive; take action! Take an active approach to revising your governance framework. Understand why you are making decisions before actually making them.

    Explore the current governance that exists within your organization

    Your current governance framework will give you a strong understanding of the way the key stakeholders in your business currently view IT governance.

    "Much of the focus of governance today has been on the questions:
    • Are we doing [things] the right way?
    • And are we getting them done well?"
    –› "We need to shift to…
    • Are we doing the right things?
    • Are we getting the benefits?
    • What are the outcomes?
    • What do we want to achieve?
    • How do we make intelligent decisions about what will help us achieve those outcomes?"
    (John Thorp, Author of The Information Paradox)

    Leverage this understanding of IT governance to determine where governance is occurring and how it transpires.

    Conduct a current state assessment

    Supporting Tool icon 2A Assess the current governance framework

    Use this tool to critically assess each governing body to determine the areas of improvement that are necessary in order to achieve optimal business results.

    1. Identify All Governing Bodies
      Some bodies govern intentionally, and some govern through habit and practice. Outline all bodies that take on an element of governance.
    2. Create a Governance Structure Map
      Configure the structural relationships for the governing bodies using the structure map.
    3. Reveal Strengths and Weaknesses
      Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the governance structure, authority definitions, processes, and membership.
    4. Establish Governance Guidelines
      Based on the SoBC, express clear and applicable guidelines to improve on the weaknesses while retaining the strengths of your governance framework.

    Download the Current State Assessment of IT Governance to work toward these outcomes

    Conduct a current state assessment to identify governance guidelines

    Supporting Tool icon 2A Assess the current governance framework

    How to use the Current State Assessment of IT Governance deliverable: Follow the steps below to create a cohesive understanding of the current state of IT governance and the challenges that the current system poses.

    Part A – Committee Profiles

    1. Identify Governing Bodies
    2. Leverage Committee Templates
    3. Create Committee Profiles
      Use the Committee Profile Template

    Part B – Structure Map

    1. Assess Inputs and Outputs to Express Structural Relationships
    2. Create Structure Map
      Use the Governance Structure Map

    Part C – Governance Guidelines

    1. Choose Operating Model Template
    2. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses
    3. Establish Governance Guidelines
      Use the Governance Guideline Template

    What makes up the “governance framework”?

    There are four major elements of the governance framework:

    1. Structure
      Structural relationships are shown by mapping the connections between committees.
    2. Authority
      Each committee will have a purpose and area of decision making that it is accountable for.
    3. Process
      The process includes the inputs, outputs, and activities required for the committee to function.
    4. Membership The individuals or roles who sit on each committee. Take into account members’ knowledge, capability, and political influence.

    Create governing board or committee profiles

    Supporting Tool icon 2A.1 Assess the current governance framework

    Part A – Committee Profiles

    1. Identify Governing Bodies

      Establish where governance happens and who is governing. For different organizations, the governance framework will contain a variety of governing bodies or people. Use a list format to identify governing bodies that exist in your organization.
    2. Leverage Committee Templates

      Use the templates provided. Create a profile for each governing body that currently operates in your IT governance framework as listed in step 1.
    3. Create Committee Profiles

      Identify what they are governing and how they are governing.
      Using the profiles created in step 2, identify each body’s membership roles, purpose, decision areas, inputs, and outputs. Refer to the example text in the template to guide you, but feel free to adjust the text to reflect the reality of your governing body. Screenshot of the 'Committee Template - Executive Management Committee'.
      Consider the following domains of governance:
      (refer to Executive Brief)
      • Benefits realization
      • Risks
      • Resources
      Refer to our examples for some common governing bodies.

    Consistently define the components of governance in the committee profiles

    Membership

    Membership Roles
    Insert information here that reflects who the individuals are that sit on that governing body and what their role is. Include other important information about the individuals’ knowledge, skills, or capabilities that are relevant.

    Authority

    Purpose
    Define why the committee was established in the first place.

    Decision Areas
    Explain the specific areas of decision making this group is responsible for overseeing.

    Process

    Inputs
    Consider the information and materials that are needed to make decisions.

    Outputs
    Describe the outcomes of the committee. Think about decisions that were made through the governance process.

    Screenshot of the components of governance section from the 'Committee Template'.

    Map out relationships on the Governance Map

    Supporting Tool icon 2A.2 Assess the current governance framework

    Part B – Structure Map

    Structure
    1. Assess Inputs and Outputs

      Governing Bodies

      Inputs

      Outputs

      Committee #1
      Committee #2
      Committee #3
      CFO
      IT Director
      CIO
      To understand relationships between governing bodies, list the inputs and outputs for each unique committee that rely on other committees in the table provided.
    2. Create Structure Map
      Sample of the 'Current State Structure Map'. Using the outline provided, create your own governance structure map to represent the way the governing bodies interact and feed into each other. This is crucial to ensure that the governing structure is streamlined. It will ensure that communication occurs efficiently and that there are no barriers to making decisions swiftly.

    Outline the governance structure in the governance structure map

    Associated Activity icon 2.2 30 minutes
    The 'Current State Structure Map' from the last slide, but with added description. There are three tiers of groups. At the bottom is 'Run', described as 'The lowest level of governance will be an oversight of more specific initiatives and capabilities within IT.' 'Design and Build', described as 'The second tier of groups will oversee prioritization of a certain area of governance as well as second-tier decisions that feed into strategic decisions.' At the top is 'Strategy', described as 'These groups will focus on decisions that directly connect to the strategic direction of the organization.' The specific groups laid out in the map are 'Risk and Compliance Committee' which straddle the line between 'Run' and 'Design and Build', 'Portfolio Review Board' and 'IT Steering Committee (ITSC)' both of which straddle the line between 'Design and Build' and 'Strategy', 'Executive Management Committee (EMC)' which is in 'Strategy', and 'Other' in all tiers.

    Identify strengths and weaknesses of the governance framework

    Supporting Tool icon 2A.3 Assess the current governance framework

    Part C – Governance Guidelines

    1. Choose Business State Template Choose the template that represents the identified future state of business in the Statement of Business Context. Mini sample of the 'State of Business' table from the 'Statement of Business Context'.
    2. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses Input the major strengths and weaknesses of your governance that were highlighted in the brainstorming activity. Mini sample of a Strengths and Weaknesses table.
    3. Establish Governance Guidelines Draw your own implications from the strength and weaknesses that will drive the design of your governance in its future state. These guidelines should be concise and easy to implement. Mini sample of an expanded Strengths and Weaknesses table including a row for 'Implication/Guideline'. Note: Refer to the example guidelines in the Current State Assessment of IT Governance after you have considered your own specific guidelines. The examples are supplementary for your convenience.

    Distinguish your business state from the others to ensure implications act as accurate guidelines

    Business State Options

    1

    Small

    IT team is 30 people or less.

    Large

    IT team is more than 30 people.

    2

    Public

    Wholly or partly funded by the government.

    Private

    No government funding is provided.

    3

    Lean: The business aims to eliminate any waste of resources (time, effort, or money) by removing steps in the business process that do not create value.Devops: Our organization aims to make quick decisions and navigate the fast-paced industry with agility. Uniting the development and operational sides of the business. Hierarchical: Departments in the organization are siloed by function. The organization is top-down and hierarchical, and takes more time with decision making.

    ‹– Multi-State (any combination) –›

    Multi-State Example A: If you are small organization that is publicly funded and you are shifting towards a lean methodology, combine the implications of all those groups in a way that fits your organization.

    Multi-State Example B: Your organization is shifting from a more traditional state of operating to combining the development and operations groups. Use hierarchical implications to govern one group and DevOps implications for the other.

    Identify strengths and weaknesses of the governance framework

    Associated Activity icon 2.3 2 hours

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Input Strengths of Governance
      Include useful components of the current framework; that may include elements that are operating well, fit the future state, or are required due to regulations or statutes.
    2. Determine Weaknesses and Challenges
      Discuss the pain points of the current governance framework by looking through the lenses of structure, authority, process, or membership.

    Consider:

    • Where is governance not meeting expectations?
    • Are we doing the right things?
    • Are we getting the benefits?
    • What are the outcomes?
    • What do we want to achieve?
    • How do we make intelligent decisions about what will help us achieve those outcomes?
    *Example

    Structure

    Authority

    Process

    Membership

    Strength

    • We must maintain a legal compliance committee due to the high level of legislation in the industry
    • The ITSC gathers and prioritizes investment options, saving time for the EMC
    • The EMC only make decisions on investments that are greater than $200,000
    • The legal board has a narrow focus, allowing it to maintain its necessary purpose efficiently
    • The information flow from ITSC to the EMC allows the EMC to spend their time effectively
    • The CIO sits on the EMC and the ITSC
    • The EMC is made up of senior leadership who have stakes in all areas of the business

    Weakness

    • Wrong number (too many/little groups)
    • Relationship is misaligned (input/output problems)
    • The tier it sits on the map is misguided
    • Duplication of the same tier of decisions in different groups
    • Approval for one specific topic occurs in more than one group
    • Lack of clarity in which group makes which decisions
    • Intake – where the information is coming from is the wrong source/inaccurate
    • Time to decision (too slow)
    • Poor results of governance (redoing projects, low value)
    • There is lack of knowledge in committee membership
    • Misplaced seniority (too Jr./Sr.)
    • Lack of representation in group (breadth across the business or depth of specific area)

    Derive governance implications from strengths and weaknesses

    Associated Activity icon 2.3 2-4 hours

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Copy and paste your strengths and weaknesses from part B into the template that reflects your business state.
    2. Draw your own implications from the strengths and weaknesses that will drive the design of your governance in its future state. These guidelines should be concise and practical.
    *Example

    Structure

    Authority

    Process

    Membership

    Strength

    Weakness

    Implication / Guideline

    • Make sure that the decision-making authority for most areas are at the lower tier
    • Governing bodies should be lower in the organization
    • One overarching governing body – directing priorities
    • High authority at a lower point of the organization
    • Highest tier is responsible for major budget shifts
    • High-level tier - reporting and feed in from lower level groups
    • Prioritization and sequencing occur at the mid-tier
    • Lowest governing tiers will have direct links to the customer to allow for interaction
    • Project or initiative owner as the leader of the body

    Note: Use the examples of guidelines provided in the Current State Assessment of IT Governance to help formulate your own.

    Conduct a current state assessment to identify guidelines for the future state of governance

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Healthcare
    Source: Anonymous

    Challenge

    Over time, the organization had to create a large amount of governing committees and subcommittees in order to comply with governance frameworks applied to them and to meet regulatory compliance requirements.

    The current structure was no longer optimal to meet the newly identified mandate of the organization. However, the organization did not want to start from scratch and scrap the elements that worked, such as the dates and times that had been embedded into the organization.

    Solution

    A current state assessment was planned and executed in order to review what was currently being done and identify what could be retained and what should be added, changed, or removed to improve the governance outcomes.

    The scope involved examining how current and near-term governance needs were, or were not, met through the existing structure, bodies, and their processes.

    The organization investigated governance approaches of organizations with similar governance needs and with similar constraints to model their own.

    Results

    The outputs of this exercise included:

    • A list of effective practices and committee guidelines that could be leveraged with little to no change in the future state.
    • A list of opportunities to streamline the structure and processes.

    These guidelines were used to drive recommendations for improvements to the governance structures and processes in the organization.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of an Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    2.1

    Sample of activity 2.1 'Outline the governance structure in the governance structure map'. Create Current State Structure and Profiles

    Take the time to clearly articulate the current governance framework of your organization. Outline the structure and build the committee profiles for the governing bodies in your organization.

    2.3

    Sample of activity 2.3 'Identify strengths and weaknesses of the governance framework'. Determine Strengths, Weaknesses, and Guidelines

    Evaluate the strengths of your governance framework, the weaknesses that it exhibits, and the guidelines that will help maintain the strengths and alleviate the pains.

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    PHASE 3

    Redesign the Governance Framework

    Phase 3 Guided Implementation

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 3: Redesign the Governance Framework

    Proposed Time to Completion: 4 weeks
    Step 3.1: Understand the Redesign Process Step 3.2: Review Governance Structure Step 3.3: Review Governance Committees
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Review the guidelines from the current state assessment.
    • Begin modifying the governance structure, authorities, processes, and memberships.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Determine the impact of the guidelines on the structural layout of the framework.
    • Determine the impact of the guidelines on the authority element of the framework.
    Finalize phase deliverable:
    • Determine the impact of the guidelines on the processes within the framework.
    • Determine the impact of the guidelines on the membership element of the framework.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Break down guidelines to make sure they are actionable and realistic.
    • Identify what to add, modify, or remove.
    • Review additional sources of information.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Build and review the governance structure map.
    • Identify additions, changes, or reductions in governing bodies and their areas of authority.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Use the template provided to build committee profiles for each identified committee.
    • Identify the membership, purpose, decision areas, inputs, and outputs of each.
    • Build committee charters if needed.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Current State Assessment
    • Future State Design for IT Governance
    With these tools & templates:
    • Future State Design for IT Governance
    With these tools & templates:
    • Future State Design for IT Governance
    • IT Governance Terms of Reference

    Phase 3: Redesign the Governance Framework

    1 2 3 4
    Align IT With the Business Context Assess the Current Governance Framework Redesign the Governance Framework Implement Governance Redesign

    Activities:

    • 3.1 Build a Governance Structure Map
    • 3.2 Create Committee Profiles
    • 3.3 Leverage Process-Specific Governance Blueprints

    Outcomes:

    • Use the Future State Design for IT Governance template to build the optimal governance framework for your organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Keep the current and future goals in sight to build an optimized governance framework that maintains the minimum bar of oversight required.

    Anticipate the outcomes of the Future State Design for IT Governance tool

    Supporting Tool icon 3A Redesign the governance frameworks

    Use this tool to guide your organization toward transformative outcomes gleaned from an optimized governance framework.

    1. Implement Structural Guidelines
      Determine what governing bodies to add, change, or remove from your governance structure.
    2. Create a Governance Structure Map
      Configure the structural relationships for the redesigned governing bodies using the structure map.
    3. Build Effective Committees
      Use the IT Governance Terms of Reference to build profiles for each newly created committee and to alter any existing committees.
    4. Determine Follow-up Governance Support
      Access external material on governance from other Info-Tech blueprints that will help with specific governance areas.

    Download the Future State Design for IT Governance template to work toward these outcomes.

    Use the Future State Design for IT Governance tool to create a custom governance framework for your organization

    Supporting Tool icon 3A Redesign the governance frameworks

    How to use the Future State Design for IT Governance deliverable: Follow the steps below to redesign the future state of IT governance. Use the guidelines to respond to challenges identified in the current governance framework based on the current state assessment.

    Part A – Structure Map

    Part B – Committee Profiles

    1a. Input Structural Guidelines 1b. Input Authority Guidelines 1a. Input Process Guidelines 1b. Input Member Guidelines
    2. Guiding Questions
    Do governing bodies operate at a tier that matches the guidelines?

    Do governing bodies focus on the decisions that align with the guidelines?
    2. Guiding Questions
    Do the process inputs and outputs reflect the structure and authority guidelines?

    Do governing bodies engage the right people who have the roles, capacity, and knowledge to govern?
    3. Add / Change (Tier/Authority) / Remove
    Governing Bodies – Structure
    3. Adapt / Refine
    Governing Bodies – Profiles
    4. Use the Structure Map to Show Redesign Use the IT Governance Terms of Reference for Redesign

    Connect key learnings to initiate governance redesign

    The future state design will reflect the state of business that was identified in Phase 1 along with the guidelines defined in Phase 2 to build a governance framework that promotes business-IT fusion.

    Statement of Business Context –› Current State Assessment

    Identified Future Business State

    Structure
    Authority

    Leverage the structure and authority guidelines to build the governance structure.

    Defined Governance Guidelines

    Process
    Membership

    Leverage the process and membership guidelines to build the governance committees.

    Future State Design

    Use structure and authority guidelines to build a new governance structure map

    Supporting Tool icon 3A.1 Redesign the governance frameworks

    Part A – Structure Map

    Structure
    Authority
    1a. Structural Guidelines1b. Authority Guidelines
    Input the guidelines from the current state assessment to guide the redesign.

    2. Leverage Guiding Questions

    Use the guiding questions provided to assess the needed changes.
    Guiding Questions


    Do governing bodies operate at a tier that matches the guidelines?


    Do governing bodies focus on the decisions that align with the guidelines?
    Build the “where/why” of governance. Consider at what tier each committee will reside and what area of governance will be part of its domain. Modify the current structure; do not start from scratch.

    3. Add / Change (Tier/Authority) / Remove

    Determine changes to structure or authority that will be occurring for each of the current governing bodies. Work within the current structure as much as possible.A mini sample of an 'Add/Change/Remove' table for governing bodies.

    4. Use the Structure Map to Show Redesign

    Create your own governance structure map to represent the way the governing bodies interact and feed into each other. A mini sample of the 'Current State Structure Map' from before.

    Maintain as much of the existing framework as possible in the redesign

    Associated Activity icon 3.1 2-4 hours

    Future State Design

    • Structure
    • Authority

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Keep the number of added or removed committees as low as possible, while still optimizing. The less change to the structure, the easier it will be to implement.

    Refer to the example to help guide your committee redesign.

      Determine:
    1. Do the guidelines impact committees you already have? Will you have to modify the tier or the authority of those committees?
    2. Do the guidelines require you to build a new committee to meet needs?
    3. Do the guidelines require you to remove a committee that isn’t necessary?

    All Governing Bodies

    Add

    Change

    Remove

    ITSC Structure

    Authority
    Delegate the authority of portfolio investment decisions over $200K to this body
    Portfolio Review Board This committee no longer needs to exist since its authority of portfolio investment decisions over $200K has been redelegated
    Risk and Compliance Committee Create a new governing body to address increasing risk and compliance issues that face the organization

    Outline the new governance structure in the governance structure map in the Future State Design for IT Governance tool

    Associated Activity icon 3.1 The 'Current State Structure Map' from before, but with some abbreviated terms. There are three tiers of groups. At the bottom is 'Run', described as 'The lowest level of governance will be an oversight of more specific initiatives and capabilities within IT.' 'Design and Build', described as 'The second tier of groups will oversee prioritization of a certain area of governance as well as second-tier decisions that feed into strategic decisions.' At the top is 'Strategy', described as 'These groups will focus on decisions that directly connect to the strategic direction of the organization.' The specific groups laid out in the map are 'Risk and Compliance Committee' which straddle the line between 'Run' and 'Design and Build', 'Portfolio Review Board' and 'ITSC' both of which straddle the line between 'Design and Build' and 'Strategy', 'EMC' which is in 'Strategy', and 'Other' in all tiers.

    Use process and membership guidelines along with the IT Governance Terms of Reference to build committees

    Supporting Tool icon 3A.2 Redesign the governance frameworks

    Part B – Committee Profiles

    Process
    Membership
    1a. Process Guidelines 1b. Authority Guidelines
    Input the guidelines from the current state assessment to guide the redesign.

    2. Leverage Guiding Questions

    Use the guiding questions provided to assess the needed changes.
    Guiding Questions
    Do the process inputs and outputs reflect the structure and authority guidelines?

    Do governing bodies engage the right people who have the roles, capacity, and knowledge to govern?
    Build the “what/how” of governance. Build out the process and procedures that each committee will use.

    3. Adapt / Refine Governing Body Profiles

    Using your customized guidelines, create a profile for each committee.

    We have provided templates for some common committees. To make these committee profiles reflective of your organization, use the information you have gathered in your Current State Assessment of IT Governance guidelines.

    For a more detailed approach to building out specific charters for each committee refer to the IT Governance Terms of Reference.

    A mini sample of the 'Committee Template - Executive Management Committee'.

    A mini sample of the 'IT Governance Terms of Reference'.

    Use the IT Governance Terms of Reference to establish operational procedures for governing bodies

    Associated Activity icon 3.2 3-6 hours

    Future State Design

    • Process
    • Membership

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    The people on the committee matter. Governance committee membership does not have to correspond with the organizational structure, but it should correspond with the purpose and decision areas of the governance structure.

    Refer to the example to help guide your committee redesign.

      Determine:
    1. Do the guidelines alter the members needed to achieve the outcomes?
    2. Do the guidelines change the purpose and decision areas of the committee?
    3. How do the new structure’s guidelines impact the inputs and outputs of the governing body?

    Screenshot of the 'Committee Template - Executive Management Committee'.

    Add depth to the committee profiles using the IT Governance Terms of Reference

    Supporting Tool icon 3A.3 Redesign the governance frameworks

    Refer to the sections outlined below to build a committee charter for your governance committees. Four examples are provided in the tool and can be edited for your convenience. They are: Executive Management Committee, IT Steering Committee, Portfolio Review Board, and Risk and Compliance Committee.

    1. Purpose
    2. Goals
    3. Responsibilities
    4. Committee Members
    5. RACI
    6. Procedures
    7. Agenda

    Be sure to embed the domains of governance in the charters so that committees focus on the appropriate elements of benefits realization, risk optimization, and resource optimization.

    Download the IT Governance Terms of Reference for more in-depth committee charters.

    Three pillars of planning effective governance meetings

    The effectiveness of the governance is reliant on the ability to work within operational dependencies that will exist in the governance framework. Consider these questions to guide the duration, frequency, and sequencing of your governing body meetings.

    Frequency

    • What is the quantity of decisions that must be made?
    • Is a rapid or urgent response typically required?

    Duration

    • How long should your meeting run based on your meeting frequency and the volume of work to be accomplished?

    Sequencing

    • Are there other decisions that rely on the outcomes of this meeting?
    • Are there any decisions that must be made first for others to occur?
    A venn diagram of the three pillars of planning effective governance meetings, 'Frequency', 'Duration', and 'Sequencing'.

    Leverage process-specific governance blueprints

    Associated Activity icon 3.3

    If there are specific areas of IT governance that you require further support on, refer to Info-Tech’s library of DIY blueprints, Guided Implementations, and workshops for further support. We cover IT governance in the following areas:

    Enterprise Architecture Governance

    Service Portfolio Governance

    Security Governance

    Titlecard of 'Create a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Governance Framework' blueprint. Titlecard of 'Lead Strategic Decision Making With Service Portfolio Management' blueprint. Titlecard of 'Build a Security Governance and Management Plan' blueprint.

    Consider the challenges and solutions when identifying a multi-state reality for your business state

    A multi-state business will face unique challenges in navigating the redesign process with the goal of combining all related business states in governance.

    1. Divergent Governance Models
      Separate the governance groups that need to function differently, and bring them back together at the highest level.
    2. Reflecting the Organizational Structure
      Unlike single-state governance, multi-state organizations should model the governance framework in reflection of the organizational structure.
    3. Combining Implications
      Prioritize which implications are the most important and make sure they work first, then see what else fits (e.g. start with regulation, then insert lean guidelines).

    The multi-state business will not fit into one “box” – consider implications from the overlapping business states.

    As business needs change, ensure that you establish triggers to reassess the design of your governance framework.

    Leverage the outcomes of the Current State Assessment and Statement of Business Context to build the future state

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Healthcare
    Source: Info-Tech

    Challenge

    Identifying the committees and processes that should be in place in the target state required a lot of different inputs.

    A number of high-profile senior management team members were still resistant to the overall idea of applying governance to their initiatives since they were clinician driven.

    The approach and target state, including the implementation plan, had to be approved and built out.

    Solution

    The information pulled together from the current state assessment, including best practices and jurisdictional scans, were tied together with the updated mandate and future state, and a list of recommended improvements were documented.

    The improvements were presented to the optimization committee and the governance committee members to ensure agreement on the approach and confirm the timeline for agreed improvements.

    Results

    A future state mapping of the new committee structure was created, as well as the revised membership requirements, responsibilities, and terms of reference.

    The approved recommendations were prioritized and turned into an implementation plan, with each improvement being assigned an owner who would be responsible for driving the effort to completion.

    Integration points in other processes, like SDLC, where change would be required were highlighted and included in the implementation plan.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of an Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    3.1

    Sample of activity 3.1 'Maintain as much of the existing framework as possible in the redesign'. Redesign the Governance Structure

    Identify committees that need to be added, ones that must be changed, and the no-longer-needed governing bodies in an optimized and streamlined structure. Draw it out in the governance structure map.

    3.2

    Sample of activity 3.2 'Utilize the IT Governance Terms of Reference to establish operational procedures for governing bodies'. Redesign the Governing Bodies

    Use the IT Governance Terms of Reference and the Committee Template to build a committee profile for each governing body identified. Use these activities to build out and establish the processes of the modified governing groups.

    Improve IT Governance to Drive Business Results

    PHASE 4

    Implement Governance Redesign

    Phase 4 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 4: Implement Governance Redesign

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2-3 weeks
    Step 4.1: Identify Steps for Implementation Step 4.2: Finalized Implementation Plan
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Identify major steps required to implement the governance redesign.
    • Outline the components and milestones of the implementation plan.
    • Review materials needed for the executive presentation.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Review the major milestones identified in the implementation plan.
    • Discuss potential challenges and stakeholder objections.
    • Strategize for the executive presentation.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Then complete these activities…
    • Identify next steps for the redesign.
    • Establish a communication plan.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Review the implementation plan.
    • Assess any challenging milestones and build implementation strategies.
    • Finalize the executive presentation.
    With these tools & templates:
    • IT Governance Implementation Plan
    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results Executive Presentation Template
    With these tools & templates:
    • IT Governance Implementation Plan
    • Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results Executive Presentation Template

    Phase 4: Implement Governance Redesign

    1 2 3 4
    Align IT With the Business Context Assess the Current Governance Framework Redesign the Governance Framework Implement Governance Redesign

    Activities:

    • 4.1 Identify Next Steps for the Redesign
    • 4.2 Establish a Communication Plan
    • 4.3 Lead the Executive Presentation

    Outcomes:

    • Rationalize steps in the Implementation Plan tool.
    • Construct an executive presentation to facilitate transparency for the governing framework.

    Anticipate and overcome implementation obstacles for the redesign

    Often high-level organizational changes create challenges. We will help you break down the barriers to optimal IT governance by addressing key obstacles.

    Key Obstacles

    Solutions

    Identifying Steps The prioritization must be driven by the common view of what is important for the organization to succeed. Prioritize the IT governance next steps according to the value they are anticipated to provide to the business.
    Communicating the Redesign The redesign of IT governance will bring impactful changes to diverse stakeholders across the organization. This phase will help you plan communication strategies for the different stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t overlook the politics and culture of your organization while redesigning your governance framework.

    Create an implementation roadmap to organize a plan for the redesign

    Supporting Tool icon 4A Create an implementation and communication plan

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Identify Tasks
      Decide on the order of tasks for your implementation plan. Consider the dependencies of actions and plan the sequence accordingly.
    2. Determine Communication Method
      Identify the most appropriate and impactful method of communicating at each milestone identified in step 1.

    Download the IT Governance Implementation Plan to organize your customized implementation and communication plan.

    Screenshot of a table in the 'IT Governance Implementation Plan'.

    Outline next steps for governance redesign

    Associated Activity icon 4.1

    INPUT: Tasks Identified in the Future State Design

    OUTPUT: Identified Tasks for Implementation as Well as the Audience

    Materials: N/A

    Participants: IT Governance Redesign Owner

    INSTRUCTIONS

    Keep these questions in mind as you analyze and assess what steps to take first in the redesign implementation.

    1. What needs to happen?
      Use the identified changes from the redesign as your guiding list of tasks that need to occur. If they are larger tasks, break them down into smaller parts to make the milestones more achievable.
    2. What are the dependencies?
      Throughout the implementation of the redesign, certain tasks will need to occur to enable other tasks to be performed. Make sure to clearly identify what dependencies exist in the implementation process and clearly identify the order of the tasks.
    3. Who do the changes impact?
      Consider the groups and individuals that will be impacted by changes to the governance framework. This includes key business stakeholders, IT leaders, members of governing boards, and anyone who provides an input or requires an output from one of the committees.

    Use a big-bang approach to implement the IT governance redesign

    While there are other methods to implementing change, the big-bang approach is the most effective for governance redesign and will maintain the momentum of the change as well as the support needed to make it successful.

    Phased

    Parallel

    Big Bang

    Implementation of redesign occurs in steps over a significant period of time.

    Three arrows, each beginning where the previous one ends, separated.

    Components of the redesign are brought into the governance framework, while maintaining some of the old components.

    Three arrows, each beginning slightly after the previous one begins, overlapping.

    Implementation of redesign occurs all at once. This requires significant preparation.

    One large arrow, spanning the length of the other grouped arrows, circled to emphasize.
    • Some committees will be operating under a new structure while others are not, which will undermine the changes being made.
    • This method proliferates a lack of transparency and trust.
    • Releasing IT governance in parallel leads to members sitting on too many boards and spending too much time on governance.
    • There will be a lack of clarity on a committee’s authority.
    • This approach will lead to consistency and transparency in the new process.
    • The change will be clear and fully embedded in the organization with stronger boundaries and well-defined expectations.

    Determine the most effective and impactful communication mediums for relevant stakeholders

    Associated Activity icon 4.2 1 hour

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Consider the Individual or Group
      Consider the group and individuals identified in step 4.1. Determine the most appropriate mechanism for communicating with that person or group. Keep in mind: If they are local, how much influence they have and if they are already engaged in the redesign process.
    2. Consider the Message
      The type of message that you are communicating will vary in impact and importance depending on the task. Make sure that the communication medium reflects your message. Keep in mind: If the you are communicating an important or more personal issue, the medium should be more personal as well.

    Screenshot of the same table in the 'IT Governance Implementation Plan'.

    Communicate the changes that result from the redesign

    Plan the message first, then deliver it to your stakeholders through the most appropriate medium to avoid message avoidance or confusion.

    Communication Medium

    Face-to-Face Communication

    Face-to-face communication helps to ensure that the audience is receiving and understanding a clear message, and allows them to voice their concerns and clarify any confusion or questions.

    • Use one-on-one meetings for key stakeholders and large organizational meetings to introduce large changes in the redesign.
    Emails

    Use email to communicate information to broad audiences. In addition, use email as the mass feedback mechanism.

    • Use email to follow up on meetings, or to invite people to next ones, but not as the sole medium of communication.
    Internal Website or Drive

    Use an internal website or drive as an information repository.

    • Store meeting minutes, policies, procedures, terms of reference, and feedback online to ensure transparency.

    Message Delivery

    1. Plan Your Message
      Emphasize what the audience really needs to know and how the change will impact them.
    2. Test Your Message
      If possible, test your communications with a small audience (2-3 people) first to get feedback and adjust messages before delivering them more broadly.
    3. Deliver and Repeat Your Message
      “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them.”
    4. Gather Feedback and Evaluate Communications
      Evaluate the effectiveness of the communications (through surveys, stakeholder interviews, or metrics) to ensure the message was delivered and received successfully and communication goals were met.

    Construct an executive presentation to facilitate transparency for the governing framework

    Supporting Tool icon 4B Present the redesign to the key business stakeholders

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Identify Stakeholders
      Determine which business stakeholders have been the most involved in the redesign process.
    2. Customize Presentation
      Use the deliverables that you have built throughout this redesign to communicate the changes to the structure, authority, processes, and memberships in the governance framework.
    3. Present to Executives
      Present the executive presentation to the key business stakeholders who have been involved in the redesign process.

    Info-Tech best Practice

    Use the Executive Presentation customizable deliverable to lead a boardroom-quality presentation outlining the process and outcomes of the IT governance redesign.

    Present the executive presentation

    Associated Activity icon 4.3 1 hour

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Input SoBC Outcomes
      Input the outcomes of the SoBC. Specify the state of the business you have identified through the process of Phase 1.
    2. Input Current State Framework and Guidelines
      Input the outcomes of the current state assessment. Explain the process you used to identify the current governance framework and how you determined the strengths, weaknesses, and guidelines.
    3. Input Redesigned Governance Framework
      Input the governance redesign outcomes. Explain the process you used to modify and reconstruct the governance framework to drive optimal business results. Show the new structure and committee profiles.

    Use the Redesign IT Governance to Drive Optimal Business Results Executive Presentation Template for more information.

    Implement the governance redesign to optimize governance and, in turn, business results

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Healthcare
    Source: Info-Tech

    Challenge

    Members of the project management group and in the larger SDLC process identified a lack of clarity on how to best govern active projects and initiatives that were moving through the governance process during the changes to the governance framework.

    These projects had already begun under the old frameworks and applying the redesigned governance framework would lead to work duplication and wasted time.

    Solution

    The organization decided that instead of applying the redesign to all initiatives across the organization, it would only be applied to new initiatives and ones that were still working within the first part of the “gating” process, where revised intake information could still be provided.

    Active initiatives that fell into the grandfathered category were identified and could proceed based on the old process. Yet, those that did not receive this status were provided carry-over lead time to revise their documentation during the changes.

    Results

    The implementation plan and timeframes were approved and an official change-over date identified.

    A communication plan was provided, including the grandfathered approach to be used with in-flight initiatives.

    A review cycle was also established for three months after launch to ensure the process was working as expected and would be repeated annually.

    The revised process improved the cycle time by 30% and improved the ability of the organization to govern high-speed requests and decisions.

    Summary of accomplishment

    Insights

    • IT governance requires business leadership.
      Instead of IT managing and governing IT, engage business leaders to take responsibility for governing IT.
    • With great governance comes great responsibility.
      Involve relevant business leaders, who will be impacted by IT outcomes, to share governing authority of IT.
    • Establish IT-business fusion.
      In governance, alignment is not enough. Merge IT and the business through governance to ensure business success.

    Knowledge Gained

    • There must be an active understanding of the current and future state of the business for governance to address the changing needs of the business.
    • Take a proactive approach to revising your governance framework. Understand why you are making decisions before actually making them.
    • Keep the current and future goals in sight to build an optimized governance framework that maintains the minimum bar of oversight required.

    Processes Optimized

    • EDM01 – Establishing a Governance Framework
    • Understanding the four elements of governance:
      • Structure
      • Authority
      • Process
      • Members
    • Embedding the benefits realization criteria, risk optimization, and resource optimization in governance.

    Deliverables Completed

    • Statement of Business Context
    • Current State Assessment of IT Governance
    • Future State Design for IT Governance
    • IT Governance Implementation Plan

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of an Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    4.1

    Sample of activity 4.1 'Outline next steps for governance redesign'. Build and Deploy the Implementation Plan

    Construct a list of tasks and consider the individuals or groups that those tasks will impact when implementing the governance redesign. Ensure consistent and transparent communication for successful outcomes.

    4.3

    Sample of activity 4.3 'Present the Executive Presentation'. Build the Executive Presentation

    Insert the state of business, current state, and future state design outcomes into a presentation to inform the key business stakeholders on the process and outcomes of the governance redesign.

    Research contributors and experts

    Deborah Eyzaguirre, IT Business Relationship Manager, UNT System

    Herbert Kraft, MIS Manager, Prairie Knights Casino

    Roslyn Kaman, CFO, Miles Nadal JCC

    Nicole Haggerty, Associate Professor of Information Systems, Ivey Business School

    Chris Austin, CTO, Ivey Business School

    Adriana Callerio, IT Director Performance Management, Molina Healthcare Inc.

    Joe Evers, Consulting Principal, JcEvers Consulting Corp

    Huw Morgan, IT Research Executive

    Joy Thiele, Special Projects Manager, Dunns Creek Baptist Church

    Rick Daoust, CIO, Cambrian College

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Bibliography

    A.T. Kearney. “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Governance.” A.T. Kearney, 2008. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Bertolini, Phil. “The Transformational Effect of IT Governance.” Government Finance Review, Dec. 2012. Web. Nov. 2016.

    CGI. “IT Governance and Managed Services – Creative a win-win relationship” CGI Group Inc., 2015. Web. Dec. 2016.

    De Haes, Steven, and Wim Van Grembergen. “An Exploratory Study into the Design of an IT Governance Minimum Baseline through Delphi Research.” Communications of the Association for Information Systems: Vol. 22 , Article 24. 2008. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Deloitte LLP. “The Role of Senior Leaders in IT Governance.” The Wall Street Journal, 22 Jun. 2015. Web. Oct. 2016.

    Dragoon, Alice. “Four Governance Best Practices.” CIO From IDG, 15 Aug. 2003. Web. Dec. 2016.

    du Preez, Gert. “Company Size Matters: Perspectives on IT Governance.” PricewaterhouseCoopers, Aug. 2011. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Hagen, Christian, et. al. “Building a Capability-Driven IT Organization.” A.T. Kearney, Jun. 2011. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Heller, Martha. “Five Best Practices for IT Governance.” CFO.com, 27 Aug. 2012. Web. Oct. 2016.

    Hoch, Detlev, and Payan, Miguel. “Establishing Good IT Governance in the Public Sector.” McKinsey Dusseldorf, Mar. 2008. Web. Oct. 2016.

    Horne, Andrew, and Brian Foster. “IT Governance Is Killing Innovation.” Harvard Business Review, 22 Aug. 2013. Web. Dec. 2016.

    ISACA. “COBIT 5: Enabling Processes.” ISACA, 2012. Web. Oct. 2016.

    IT Governance Institute. “An Executive View of IT Governance.” IT Governance Institute, in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers. 2009. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Bibliography continued

    IT Governance Institute. “IT Governance Roundtable: Defining IT Governance.” IT Governance Institute, 2009. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Macgregor, Stuart. “The linchpin between Corporate Governance and IT Governance.” The Open Group’s EA Forum Johannesburg and Cape Town, Nov. 2013. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Mallette, Debra. “Implementing IT Governance An Introduction.” ISACA San Francisco Chapter, 23 Sep. 2009. Web. Oct. 2016.

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “IT Governance Introduction.” MIT Centre for Information System Research, 2016. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Mueller, Lynn, et. al. “IBM IT Governance Approach – Business Performance through IT Execution.” IBM Redbooks, Feb. 2008. Web. Nov. 2016.

    National Computing Centre. “IT Governance: Developing a successful governance strategy.” The National Computing Centre, Nov. 2005. Web. Oct. 2016.

    Pittsburgh ISACA Chapter. “Practical Approach to COBIT 5.0.” Pittsburgh ISACA Chapter, 17 Sep. 2012. Web. Nov. 2016.

    PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Great by governance: Improve IT performance and Value While Managing Risks.” PricewaterhouseCoopers, Nov. 2014. Web. Dec. 2016.

    PricewaterhouseCoopers. “IT Governance in Practice: Insights from leading CIOs.” PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2006. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Routh, Richard L. “IT Governance Part 1 of 2.” Online video clip. YouTube. The Institute of CIO Excellence, 01 Aug. 2012. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Salleh, Noor Akma Mohd, et. al. “IT Governance in Airline Industry: A Multiple Case Study.” International Journal of Digital Society, Dec. 2010. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Bibliography continued

    Speckert, Thomas, et. al. “IT Governance in Organizations Facing Decentralization – Case Study in Higher Education.” Department of Computer and Systems Sciences. Stockholm University, 2014. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Thorp, John. The Information Paradox—Realizing the Business Benefits of Information Technology. Revised Edition, McGraw Hill, 2003 (written jointly with Fujitsu).

    Vandervost, Guido, et. al. “IT Governance for the CxO.” Deloitte, Nov. 2013. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Weill, Peter, and Jeanne W. Ross. “IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results.” Boston: Harvard Business School, 2004. Print. Oct. 2016.

    Wong, Daron, et. al. “IT Governance in Oil and Gas: CIO Roundtable, Priorities for Surviving and Thriving in Lean Times.” Online video clip. YouTube. IT Media Group, Jun. 2016. Web. Nov. 2016.

    Develop Your Value-First Business Process Automation Strategy

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}236|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: Optimization
    • Parent Category Link: /optimization

    Business process automation (BPA) has gained momentum, especially as pilots result in positive outcomes such as improved customer experience, efficiencies, and cost savings. Stakeholders want to invest more in BPA solutions and scale initial successes across different business and IT functions.

    But it’s critical to get it right and not fall into the hype so that the costs don’t outweigh the benefits.

    Ultimately, all BPA initiatives should align with a common vision.

    Build the right BPA strategy – smarter, not faster

    Organizations should adopt a methodical approach to growing their BPA, taking cost, talent availability, and goals into account.

    1. Recognize the true value of automation. Successful BPA improves more than cost savings and revenue generation. Employee satisfaction, organizational reputation, brand, and better-performing products and services are other sought-after benefits.
    2. Consider all relevant factors as you build a strategy. Take into account the impact BPA initiatives will have on users, risk and change appetites, customer satisfaction, and business priorities.
    3. Mature your practice as you scale your BPA technologies. Develop skills, resources, and governance practices as you scale your automation tools. Deploy BPA with quality in mind, then continuously monitor, review, and maintain the automation for success.
    4. Learn from your initial automations. Maximize what you learn from your minimum viable automations (MVA) and use that knowledge to build and scale your automation implementation across the organization.

    Develop Your Value-First Business Process Automation Strategy Research & Tools

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

    1. Business Process Automation Strategy Deck – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to position business process automation as a key capability and assess the organization’s readiness for its adoption.

    This blueprint helps you develop a strategy justify the scaling and maturing of your business process automation (BPA) practices and capabilities to fulfill your business priorities.

    • Develop Your Value-First Business Process Automation Strategy – Phases 1-4

    2. Business Process Automation Strategy Template – A template to help you build a clear and compelling strategy document for stakeholders.

    Document your business process automation strategy in the language your stakeholders understand. Tailor this document to fit your BPA objectives and initiatives.

    • Business Process Automation Strategy Template

    3. Business Process Automation Maturity Assessment Tool – A tool to help gauge the maturity of your BPA practice.

    Evaluate the maturity of the key capabilities of your BPA practice to determine its readiness to support complex and scaled BPA solutions.

    • Business Process Automation Maturity Assessment Tool

    Infographic

    Workshop: Develop Your Value-First Business Process Automation Strategy

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

    1 Understand the Context

    The Purpose

    Understand the business priorities and your stakeholders' needs that are driving your business process automation initiatives while abiding by the risk and change appetite of your organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Translate business priorities to the context of business process automation.

    Arrive at a common definition of business value.

    Come to an understanding of the needs, concerns, and problems of BPA stakeholders.

    Discover organizational risk and change tolerance and appetite.

    Activities

    1.1 Set the Business Context

    1.2 Understand Your Stakeholder Needs

    1.3 Build Your Risk & Change Profile

    Outputs

    Business problem, priorities, and business value definition

    Customer and end-user assessment (e.g. personas, customer journey)

    Risk and change profile

    2 Define Your BPA Objectives and Opportunities

    The Purpose

    Set reasonable and achievable expectations for your BPA initiatives and practices, and select the right BPA opportunities to meet these expectations.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Align BPA objectives and metrics to your business priorities.

    Create guiding principles that support your organization’s and team’s culture.

    Define a vision of your target-state BPA practice

    Create a list of BPA opportunities that will help build your practice and meet business priorities.

    Activities

    2.1 Define Your BPA Expectations

    2.2 List Your Guiding Principles

    2.3 Envision Your BPA Target State

    2.4 Build Your Opportunity Backlog

    Outputs

    BPA problem statement, objectives, and metrics

    BPA guiding principles

    Desired scaled BPA target state

    Prioritized BPA opportunities

    3 Assess Your BPA Maturity

    The Purpose

    Evaluate the current state of your BPA practice and its readiness to support scaled and complex BPA solutions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    List key capabilities to implement and optimize to meet the target state of your BPA practice.

    Brainstorm solutions to address the gaps in your BPA capabilities.

    Activities

    3.1 Assess Your BPA Maturity

    Outputs

    BPA maturity assessment

    4 Roadmap Your BPA Initiatives

    The Purpose

    Identify high-priority key initiatives to support your BPA objectives and goals, and establish the starting point of your BPA strategy.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create an achievable roadmap of BPA initiatives designed to deliver good practices and valuable automations.

    Perform a risk assessment of your BPA initiatives and create mitigations for high-priority risks.

    Find the starting point in the development of your BPA strategy.

    Activities

    4.1 Roadmap Your BPA Initiatives

    4.2 Assess and Mitigate Your Risks

    4.3 Complete Your BPA Strategy

    Outputs

    List of BPA initiatives and roadmap

    BPA initiative risk assessment

    Initial draft of your BPA strategy

    Analyze Your Service Desk Ticket Data

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}483|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $6,499 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 3 Average Days Saved
    • 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

    Explore the Secrets of Oracle Cloud Licensing

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}142|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.5/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: 5 Average Days Saved
    • member rating average days saved: After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.
    • Parent Category Name: Licensing
    • Parent Category Link: /licensing
    • Organizations are considering moving workloads to the cloud; however, they often struggle to understand Oracle's licensing and services models.
    • Complexity of licensing and high price tags can make the renewal process an overwhelming experience.
    • Oracle’s SaaS applications are the most mature, but Oracle’s on-premises E-Business Suite still has functionality gaps in comparison to Oracle’s cloud apps.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Understand the Oracle agenda. Oracle has established a unique approach to their cloud offerings – they want all of your workloads on the Red Stack.
    • Communicate effectively. Be aware that Oracle will reach out to members at your organization at various levels. Having your executives on the same page is critical to successfully managing Oracle.
    • Negotiate hard. Oracle needs the deal more than the customer. Oracle's top leaders are heavily incentivized to drive massive cloud adoption and increase Oracle's share price. Use this to your advantage.

    Impact and Result

    • Conducting business with Oracle is not typical compared to other vendors. To emerge successfully from a commercial transaction with Oracle, customers must learn the “Oracle way” of conducting business, which includes a best-in-class sales structure, highly unique contracts, and license use policies coupled with a hyper-aggressive compliance function.
    • Leverage cloud spend to retire support on shelf-ware licenses, or gain virtualization rights for an on-premises environment.
    • Map out the process of how to negotiate from a position of strength, examining terms and conditions, discount percentages, and agreement pitfalls.
    • Carefully review key clauses in the Oracle Cloud Services Agreement to avoid additional spend and compliance risks.

    Explore the Secrets of Oracle Cloud Licensing Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should explore the secrets of Oracle 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. Evaluate licensing requirements

    Review current licensing options and models to determine which cloud products will most appropriately fit the organization's environment.

    • Oracle Cloud Services Agreement Terms and Conditions Evaluation Tool
    [infographic]

    Security Strategy

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}42|cart{/j2store}
    • Related Products: {j2store}42|crosssells{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.4/10
    • member rating average dollars saved: $33,431
    • member rating average days saved: 29
    • Parent Category Name: Security and Risk
    • Parent Category Link: /security-and-risk

    The challenge

    You may be experiencing one or more of the following:

    • You may not have sufficient security resources to handle all the challenges.
    • Security threats are prevalent. Yet many businesses struggle to embed systemic security thinking into their culture.
    • The need to move towards strategic planning of your security landscape is evident. How to get there is another matter.

    Our advice

    Insight

    To have a successful information security strategy, take these three factors into account:

    • Holistic: your view must include people, processes, and technology.
    • Risk awareness: Base your strategy on the actual risk profile of your company. And then add the appropriate best practices.
    • Business-aligned: When your strategic security plan demonstrates alignment with the business goals and supports it, embedding will go much more straightforward.

    Impact and results 

    • We have developed a highly effective approach to creating your security strategy. We tested and refined this for more than seven years with hundreds of different organizations.
    • We ensure alignment with business objectives.
    • We assess organizational risk and stakeholder expectations.
    • We enable a comprehensive current state assessment.
    • And we prioritize initiatives and build out a right-sized security roadmap.

     

    The roadmap

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

    Get up to speed

    Read up on why you should build your customized information security strategy. Review our methodology and understand the four ways we can support you.

    Assess the security requirements

    It all starts with risk appetite, yes, but security is something you want to get right. Determine your organizations' security pressures and business goals, and then determine your security program's goals.

    • Build an Information Security Strategy – Phase 1: Assess Requirements
    • Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool (xls)
    • Information Security Pressure Analysis Tool (xls)

    Build your gap initiative

    Our best-of-breed security framework makes you perform a gap analysis between where you are and where you want to be (your target state). Once you know that, you can define your goals and duties.

    • Build an Information Security Strategy – Phase 2: Assess Gaps
    • Information Security Program Gap Analysis Tool (xls)

    Plan the implementation of your security strategy 

    With your design at this level, it is time to plan your roadmap.

    • Build an Information Security Strategy – Phase 3: Build the Roadmap

    Let it run and continuously improve. 

    Learn to use our methodology to manage security initiatives as you go. Identify the resources you need to execute the evolving strategy successfully.

    • Build an Information Security Strategy – Phase 4: Execute and Maintain
    • Information Security Strategy Communication Deck (ppt)
    • Information Security Charter (doc)

     

    Establish Data Governance

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}123|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $48,494 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 31 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management
    • Organizations are faced with challenges associated with changing data landscapes, evolving business models, industry disruptions, regulatory and compliance obligations, as well as changing and maturing user landscapes and demands for data.
    • Although the need for a data governance program is often evident, organizations often miss the mark.
    • Your data governance efforts should be directly aligned to delivering measurable business value by supporting key strategic initiatives, value streams, and underlying business capabilities.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Your organization’s value streams and their associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you may experience elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.
    • Ensure your data governance program delivers measurable business value by aligning the associated data governance initiatives with the business architecture.
    • Data governance must continuously align with the organization’s enterprise governance function. It should not be perceived as a pet project of IT, but rather as an enterprise-wide, business-driven initiative.

    Impact and Result

    Info-Tech’s approach to establishing and sustaining effective data governance is anchored in the strong alignment of organizational value streams and their business capabilities with key data governance dimensions and initiatives. Info-Tech's approach will help you:

    • Align your data governance with enterprise governance, business strategy, and the organizational value streams to ensure the program delivers measurable business value.
    • Understand your current data governance capabilities and build out a future state that is right-sized and relevant.
    • Define data governance leadership, accountability, and responsibility.
    • Ensure data governance is supported by an operating model that effectively manages change and communication and fosters a culture of data excellence.

    Establish Data Governance Research & Tools

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

    1. Data Governance Research – A step-by-step document to ensure that the people handling the data are involved in the decisions surrounding data usage, data quality, business processes, and change implementation.

    Data governance is a strategic program that will help your organization control data by managing the people, processes, and information technology needed to ensure that accurate and consistent data policies exist across varying lines of the business, enabling data-driven insight. This research will provide an overview of data governance and its importance to your organization, assist in making the case and securing buy-in for data governance, identify data governance best practices and the challenges associated with them, and provide guidance on how to implement data governance best practices for a successful launch.

    • Establish Data Governance – Phases 1-3

    2. Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook – A structured tool to assist with establishing effective data governance practices.

    This workbook will help your organization understand the business and user context by leveraging your business capability map and value streams, develop data use cases using Info-Tech's framework for building data use cases, and gauge the current state of your organization's data culture.

    • Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

    3. Data Use Case Framework Template – An exemplar template to highlight and create relevant use cases around the organization’s data-related problems and opportunities.

    This business needs gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization. This template provides a framework for data requirements and a mapping methodology for creating use cases.

    • Data Use Case Framework Template

    4. Data Governance Initiative Planning and Roadmap Tool – A visual roadmapping tool to assist with establishing effective data governance practices.

    This tool will help your organization plan the sequence of activities, capture start dates and expected completion dates, and create a roadmap that can be effectively communicated to the organization.

    • Data Governance Initiative Planning and Roadmap Tool

    5. Business Data Catalog – A comprehensive template to help you to document the key data assets that are to be governed based on in-depth business unit interviews, data risk/value assessments, and a data flow diagram for the organization.

    Use this template to document information about key data assets such as data definition, source system, possible values, data sensitivity, data steward, and usage of the data.

    • Business Data Catalog

    6. Data Governance Program Charter Template – A program charter template to sell the importance of data governance to senior executives.

    This template will help get the backing required to get a data governance project rolling. The program charter will help communicate the project purpose, define the scope, and identify the project team, roles, and responsibilities.

    • Data Governance Program Charter Template

    7. Data Governance Policy

    This policy establishes uniform data governance standards and identifies the shared responsibilities for assuring the integrity of the data and that it efficiently and effectively serves the needs of your organization.

    • Data Governance Policy

    8. Data Governance Exemplar – An exemplar showing how you can plan and document your data governance outputs.

    Use this exemplar to understand how to establish data governance in your organization. Follow along with the sections of the blueprint Establish Data Governance and complete the document as you progress.

    • Data Governance Exemplar
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Establish Data Governance

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

    1 Establish Business Context and Value

    The Purpose

    Identify key business data assets that need to be governed.

    Create a unifying vision for the data governance program.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand the value of data governance and how it can help the organization better leverage its data.

    Gain knowledge of how data governance can benefit both IT and the business.

    Activities

    1.1 Establish business context, value, and scope of data governance at the organization

    1.2 Introduction to Info-Tech’s data governance framework

    1.3 Discuss vision and mission for data governance

    1.4 Understand your business architecture, including your business capability map and value streams

    1.5 Build use cases aligned to core business capabilities

    Outputs

    Sample use cases (tied to the business capability map) and a repeatable use case framework

    Vision and mission for data governance

    2 Understand Current Data Governance Capabilities and Plot Target-State Levels

    The Purpose

    Assess which data contains value and/or risk and determine metrics that will determine how valuable the data is to the organization.

    Assess where the organization currently stands in data governance initiatives.

    Determine gaps between the current and future states of the data governance program.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Gain a holistic understanding of organizational data and how it flows through business units and systems.

    Identify which data should fall under the governance umbrella.

    Determine a practical starting point for the program.

    Activities

    2.1 Understand your current data governance capabilities and maturity

    2.2 Set target-state data governance capabilities

    Outputs

    Current state of data governance maturity

    Definition of target state

    3 Build Data Domain to Data Governance Role Mapping

    The Purpose

    Determine strategic initiatives and create a roadmap outlining key steps required to get the organization to start enabling data-driven insights.

    Determine timing of the initiatives.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Establish clear direction for the data governance program.

    Step-by-step outline of how to create effective data governance, with true business-IT collaboration.

    Activities

    3.1 Evaluate and prioritize performance gaps

    3.2 Develop and consolidate data governance target-state initiatives

    3.3 Define the role of data governance: data domain to data governance role mapping

    Outputs

    Target-state data governance initiatives

    Data domain to data governance role mapping

    4 Formulate a Plan to Get to Your Target State

    The Purpose

    Consolidate the roadmap and other strategies to determine the plan of action from Day One.

    Create the required policies, procedures, and positions for data governance to be sustainable and effective.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Prioritized initiatives with dependencies mapped out.

    A clearly communicated plan for data governance that will have full business backing.

    Activities

    4.1 Identify and prioritize next steps

    4.2 Define roles and responsibilities and complete a high-level RACI

    4.3 Wrap-up and discuss next steps and post-workshop support

    Outputs

    Initialized roadmap

    Initialized RACI

    Further reading

    Establish Data Governance

    Deliver measurable business value.

    Executive Brief

    Analyst Perspective

    Establish a data governance program that brings value to your organization.

    Picture of analyst

    Data governance does not sit as an island on its own in the organization – it must align with and be driven by your enterprise governance. As you build out data governance in your organization, it’s important to keep in mind that this program is meant to be an enabling framework of oversight and accountabilities for managing, handling, and protecting your company’s data assets. It should never be perceived as bureaucratic or inhibiting to your data users. It should deliver agreed-upon models that are conducive to your organization’s operating culture, offering clarity on who can do what with the data and via what means. Data governance is the key enabler for bringing high-quality, trusted, secure, and discoverable data to the right users across your organization. Promote and drive the responsible and ethical use of data while helping to build and foster an organizational culture of data excellence.

    Crystal Singh

    Director, Research & Advisory, Data & Analytics Practice

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    The amount of data within organizations is growing at an exponential rate, creating a need to adopt a formal approach to governing data. However, many organizations remain uninformed on how to effectively govern their data. Comprehensive data governance should define leadership, accountability, and responsibility related to data use and handling and be supported by a well-oiled operating model and relevant policies and procedures. This will help ensure the right data gets to the right people at the right time, using the right mechanisms.

    Common Obstacles

    Organizations are faced with challenges associated with changing data landscapes, evolving business models, industry disruptions, regulatory and compliance obligations, and changing and maturing user landscape and demand for data. Although the need for a data governance program is often evident, organizations miss the mark when their data governance efforts are not directly aligned to delivering measurable business value. Initiatives should support key strategic initiatives, as well as value streams and their underlying business capabilities.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Info-Tech’s approach to establishing and sustaining effective data governance is anchored in the strong alignment of organizational value streams and their business capabilities with key data governance dimensions and initiatives. Organizations should:

    • Align their data governance with enterprise governance, business strategy and value streams to ensure the program delivers measurable business value.
    • Understand their current data governance capabilities so as to build out a future state that is right-sized and relevant.
    • Define data leadership, accountability, and responsibility. Support these with an operating model that effectively manages change and communication and fosters a culture of data excellence.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operating costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and increased business risk.

    Your challenge

    This research is designed to help organizations build and sustain an effective data governance program.

    • Your organization has recognized the need to treat data as a corporate asset for generating business value and/or managing and mitigating risk.
    • This has brought data governance to the forefront and highlighted the need to build a performance-driven enterprise program for delivering quality, trusted, and readily consumable data to users.
    • An effective data governance program is one that defines leadership, accountability, and responsibility related to data use and handling. It’s supported by a well-oiled operating model and relevant policies and procedures, all of which help build and foster a culture of data excellence where the right users get access to the right data at the right time via the right mechanisms.

    As you embark on establishing data governance in your organization, it’s vital to ensure from the get-go that you define the drivers and business context for the program. Data governance should never be attempted without direction on how the program will yield measurable business value.

    “Data processing and cleanup can consume more than half of an analytics team’s time, including that of highly paid data scientists, which limits scalability and frustrates employees.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

    Image is a circle graph and 30% of it is coloured with the number 30% in the middle of the graph

    “The productivity of employees across the organization can suffer.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

    Respondents to McKinsey’s 2019 Global Data Transformation Survey reported that an average of 30% of their total enterprise time was spent on non-value-added tasks because of poor data quality and availability. – Petzold, et al., 2020

    Common obstacles

    Some of the barriers that make data governance difficult to address for many organizations include:

    • Gaps in communicating the strategic value of data and data governance to the organization. This is vital for securing senior leadership buy-in and support, which, in turn, is crucial for sustained success of the data governance program.
    • Misinterpretation or a lack of understanding about data governance, including what it means for the organization and the individual data user.
    • A perception that data governance is inhibiting or an added layer of bureaucracy or complication rather than an enabling and empowering framework for stakeholders in their use and handling of data.
    • Embarking on data governance without firmly substantiating and understanding the organizational drivers for doing so. How is data governance going to support the organization’s value streams and their various business capabilities?
    • Neglecting to define and measure success and performance. Just as in any other enterprise initiative, you have to be able to demonstrate an ROI for time, resources and funding. These metrics must demonstrate the measurable business value that data governance brings to the organization.
    • Failure to align data governance with enterprise governance.
    Image is a circle graph and 78% of it is coloured with the number 78% in the middle of the graph

    78% of companies (and 92% of top-tier companies) have a corporate initiative to become more data-driven. – Alation, 2020

    Image is a circle graph and 58% of it is coloured with the number 58% in the middle of the graph

    But despite these ambitions, there appears to be a “data culture disconnect” – 58% of leaders overestimate the current data culture of their enterprises, giving a grade higher than the one produced by the study. – Fregoni, 2020

    The strategic value of data

    Power intelligent and transformative organizational performance through leveraging data.

    Respond to industry disruptors

    Optimize the way you serve your stakeholders and customers

    Develop products and services to meet ever-evolving needs

    Manage operations and mitigate risk

    Harness the value of your data

    The journey to being data-driven

    The journey to declaring that you are a data-driven organization requires a pit stop at data enablement.

    The Data Economy

    Data Disengaged

    You have a low appetite for data and rarely use data for decision making.

    Data Enabled

    Technology, data architecture, and people and processes are optimized and supported by data governance.

    Data Driven

    You are differentiating and competing on data and analytics; described as a “data first” organization. You’re collaborating through data. Data is an asset.

    Data governance is essential for any organization that makes decisions about how it uses its data.

    Data governance is an enabling framework of decision rights, responsibilities, and accountabilities for data assets across the enterprise.

    Data governance is:

    • Executed according to agreed-upon models that describe who can take what actions with what information, when, and using what methods (Olavsrud, 2021).
    • True business-IT collaboration that will lead to increased consistency and confidence in data to support decision making. This, in turn, helps fuel innovation and growth.

    If done correctly, data governance is not:

    • An annoying, finger-waving roadblock in the way of getting things done.
    • Meant to solve all data-related business or IT problems in an organization.
    • An inhibitor or impediment to using and sharing data.

    Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework

    An image of Info-Tech's Data Governance Framework

    Create impactful data governance by embedding it within enterprise governance

    A model is depicted to show the relationship between enterprise governance and data governance.

    Organizational drivers for data governance

    Data governance personas:

    Conformance: Establishing data governance to meet regulations and compliance requirements.

    Performance: Establishing data governance to fuel data-driven decision making for driving business value and managing and mitigating business risk.

    Two images are depicted that show the difference between conformance and performance.

    Data Governance is not a one-person show

    • Data governance needs a leader and a home. Define who is going to be leading, driving, and steering data governance in your organization.
    • Senior executive leaders play a crucial role in championing and bringing visibility to the value of data and data governance. This is vital for building and fostering a culture of data excellence.
    • Effective data governance comes with business and IT alignment, collaboration, and formally defined roles around data leadership, ownership, and stewardship.
    Four circles are depicted. There is one person in the circle on the left and is labelled: Data Governance Leadership. The circle beside it has two people in it and labelled: Organizational Champions. The circle beside it has three people in it and labelled: Data Owners, Stewards & Custodians. The last circle has four people in it and labelled: The Organization & Data Storytellers.

    Traditional data governance organizational structure

    A traditional structure includes committees and roles that span across strategic, tactical, and operational duties. There is no one-size-fits-all data governance structure. However, most organizations follow a similar pattern when establishing committees, councils, and cross-functional groups. Most organizations strive to identify roles and responsibilities at a strategic and operational level. Several factors will influence the structure of the program, such as the focus of the data governance project and the maturity and size of the organization.

    A triangular model is depicted and is split into three tiers to show the traditional data governance organizational structure.

    A healthy data culture is key to amplifying the power of your data.

    “Albert Einstein is said to have remarked, ‘The world cannot be changed without changing our thinking.’ What is clear is that the greatest barrier to data success today is business culture, not lagging technology. “– Randy Bean, 2020

    What does it look like?

    • Everybody knows the data.
    • Everybody trusts the data.
    • Everybody talks about the data.

    “It is not enough for companies to embrace modern data architectures, agile methodologies, and integrated business-data teams, or to establish centers of excellence to accelerate data initiatives, when only about 1 in 4 executives reported that their organization has successfully forged a data culture.”– Randy Bean, 2020

    Data literacy is an essential part of a data-driven culture

    • In a data-driven culture, decisions are made based on data evidence, not on gut instinct.
    • Data often has untapped potential. A data-driven culture builds tools and skills, builds users’ trust in the condition and sources of data, and raises the data skills and understanding among their people on the front lines.
    • Building a data culture takes an ongoing investment of time, effort, and money. This investment will not achieve the transformation you want without data literacy at the grassroots level.

    Data-driven culture = “data matters to our company”

    Despite investments in data initiative, organizations are carrying high levels of data debt

    Data debt is “the accumulated cost that is associated with the sub-optimal governance of data assets in an enterprise, like technical debt.”

    Data debt is a problem for 78% of organizations.

    40% of organizations say individuals within the business do not trust data insights.

    66% of organizations say a backlog of data debt is impacting new data management initiatives.

    33% of organizations are not able to get value from a new system or technology investment.

    30% of organizations are unable to become data-driven.

    Source: Experian, 2020

    Absent or sub-optimal data governance leads to data debt

    Only 3% of companies’ data meets basic quality standards. (Source: Nagle, et al., 2017)

    Organizations suspect 28% of their customer and prospect data is inaccurate in some way. (Source: Experian, 2020)

    Only 51% of organizations consider the current state of their CRM or ERP data to be clean, allowing them to fully leverage it. (Source: Experian, 2020)

    35% of organizations say they’re not able to see a ROI for data management initiatives. (Source: Experian, 2020)

    Embrace the technology

    Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you:

    • Data catalog
    • Business data glossary
    • Data lineage
    • Metadata management

    While data governance tools and technologies are no panacea, leverage their automated and AI-enabled capabilities to augment your data governance program.

    Logos of data governance tools and technology.

    Measure success to demonstrate tangible business value

    Put data governance into the context of the business:

    • Tie the value of data governance and its initiatives back to the business capabilities that are enabled.
    • Leverage the KPIs of those business capabilities to demonstrate tangible and measurable value. Use terms and language that will resonate with senior leadership.

    Don’t let measurement be an afterthought:

    Start substantiating early on how you are going to measure success as your data governance program evolves.

    Build a right-sized roadmap

    Formulate an actionable roadmap that is right-sized to deliver value in your organization.

    Key considerations:

    • When building your data governance roadmap, ensure you do so through an enterprise lens. Be cognizant of other initiatives that might be coming down the pipeline that may require you to align your data governance milestones accordingly.
    • Apart from doing your planning with consideration for other big projects or launches that might be in-flight and require the time and attention of your data governance partners, also be mindful of the more routine yet still demanding initiatives.
    • When doing your roadmapping, consider factors like the organization’s fiscal cycle, typical or potential year-end demands, and monthly/quarterly reporting periods and audits. Initiatives such as these are likely to monopolize the time and focus of personnel key to delivering on your data governance milestones.

    Sample milestones:

    Data Governance Leadership & Org Structure Definition

    Define the home for data governance and other key roles around ownership and stewardship, as approved by senior leadership.

    Data Governance Charter and Policies

    Create a charter for your program and build/refresh associated policies.

    Data Culture Diagnostic

    Understand the organization’s current data culture, perception of data, value of data, and knowledge gaps.

    Use Case Build and Prioritization

    Build a use case that is tied to business capabilities. Prioritize accordingly.

    Business Data Glossary

    Build and/or refresh the business’ glossary for addressing data definitions and standardization issues.

    Tools & Technology

    Explore the tools and technology offering in the data governance space that would serve as an enabler to the program. (e.g. RFI, RFP).

    Key takeaways for effective business-driven data governance

    Data governance leadership and sponsorship is key.

    Ensure strategic business alignment.

    Build and foster a culture of data excellence.

    Evolve along the data journey.

    Make data governance an enabler, not a hindrance.

    Insight summary

    Overarching insight

    Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face the impact of elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.

    Insight 1

    Data governance should not sit as an island in your organization. It must continuously align with the organization’s enterprise governance function. It shouldn’t be perceived as a pet project of IT, but rather as an enterprise-wide, business-driven initiative.

    Insight 2

    Ensure your data governance program delivers measurable business value by aligning the associated data governance initiatives with the business architecture. Leverage the measures of success or KPIs of the underlying business capabilities to demonstrate the value data governance has yielded for the organization.

    Insight 3

    Data governance remains the foundation of all forms of reporting and analytics. Advanced capabilities such as AI and machine learning require effectively governed data to fuel their success.

    Tactical insight

    Tailor your data literacy program to meet your organization’s needs, filling your range of knowledge gaps and catering to your different levels of stakeholders. When it comes to rolling out a data literacy program, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Your data literacy program is intended to fill the knowledge gaps about data, as they exist in your organization. It should be targeted across the board – from your executive leadership and management through to the subject matter experts across different lines of the business in your organization.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for establishing data governance

    1. Build Business and User Context 2. Understand Your Current Data Governance Capabilities 3. Build a Target State Roadmap and Plan
    Phase Steps
    1. Substantiate Business Drivers
    2. Build High-Value Use Cases for Data Governance
    1. Understand the Key Components of Data Governance
    2. Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture
    1. Formulate an Actionable Roadmap and Right-Sized Plan
    Phase Outcomes
    • Your organization’s business capabilities and value streams
    • A business capability map for your organization
    • Categorization of your organization’s key capabilities
    • A strategy map tied to data governance
    • High-value use cases for data governance
    • An understanding of the core components of an effective data governance program
    • An understanding your organization’s current data culture
    • A data governance roadmap and target-state plan comprising of prioritized initiatives

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    Screenshot of Info-Tech's Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook data-verified=

    Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

    Use the Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook as you plan, build, roll-out, and scale data governance in your organization.

    Screenshot of Info-Tech's Data Use Case Framework Template

    Data Use Case Framework Template

    This template takes you through a business needs gathering activity to highlight and create relevant use cases around the organization’s data-related problems and opportunities.

    Screenshot of Info-Tech's Business Data Glossary data-verified=

    Business Data Glossary

    Use this template to document the key data assets that are to be governed and create a data flow diagram for your organization.

    Screenshot of Info-Tech's Data Culture Diagnostic and Scorecard data-verified=

    Data Culture Diagnostic and Scorecard

    Leverage Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic to understand how your organization scores across 10 areas relating to data culture.

    Key deliverable:

    Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

    Measure the value of this blueprint

    Leverage this blueprint’s approach to ensure your data governance initiatives align and support your key value streams and their business capabilities.

    • Aligning your data governance program and its initiatives to your organization’s business capabilities is vital for tracing and demonstrating measurable business value for the program.
    • This alignment of data governance with value streams and business capabilities enables you to use business-defined KPIs and demonstrate tangible value.
    Screenshot from this blueprint on the Measurable Business Value

    In phases 1 and 2 of this blueprint, we will help you establish the business context, define your business drivers and KPIs, and understand your current data governance capabilities and strengths.

    In phase 3, we will help you develop a plan and a roadmap for addressing any gaps and improving the relevant data governance capabilities so that data is well positioned to deliver on those defined business metrics.

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

    Establish Data Governance project overview

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

    1. Build Business and User context2. Understand Your Current Data Governance Capabilities3. Build a Target State Roadmap and Plan
    Best-Practice Toolkit
    1. Substantiate Business Drivers
    2. Build High-Value Use Cases for Data Governance
    1. Understand the Key Components of Data Governance
    2. Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture
    1. Formulate an Actionable Roadmap and Right-Sized Plan
    Guided Implementation
    • Call 1
    • Call 2
    • Call 3
    • Call 4
    • Call 5
    • Call 6
    • Call 7
    • Call 8
    • Call 9
    Phase Outcomes
    • Your organization’s business capabilities and value streams
    • A business capability map for your organization
    • Categorization of your organization’s key capabilities
    • A strategy map tied to data governance
    • High-value use cases for data governance
    • An understanding of the core components of an effective data governance program
    • An understanding your organization’s current data culture
    • A data governance roadmap and target-state plan comprising of prioritized initiatives

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    An outline of what guided implementation looks like.

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization. A typical GI is between 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

    Workshop overview

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

    Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
    Establish Business Context and Value Understand Current Data Governance Capabilities and Plot Target-State Levels Build Data Domain to Data Governance Role Mapping Formulate a Plan to Get to Your Target State
    Activities
    • Establish business context, value, and scope of data governance at the organization
    • Introduction to Info-Tech’s data governance framework
    • Discuss vision and mission for data governance
    • Understand your business architecture, including your business capability map and value streams
    • Build use cases aligned to core business capabilities
    • Understand your current data governance capabilities and maturity
    • Set target state data governance capabilities
    • Evaluate and prioritize performance gaps
    • Develop and consolidate data governance target-state initiatives
    • Define the role of data governance: data domain to data governance role mapping
    • Identify and prioritize next steps
    • Define roles and responsibilities and complete a high-level RACI
    • Wrap-up and discuss next steps and post-workshop support
    Deliverables
    1. Sample use cases (tied to the business capability map) and a repeatable use case framework
    2. Vision and mission for data governance
    1. Current state of data governance maturity
    2. Definition of target state
    1. Target-state data governance initiatives
    2. Data domain to data governance role mapping
    1. Initialized roadmap
    2. Initialized RACI

    Phase 1

    Build Business and User Context

    Three circles are in the image that list the three phases and the main steps. Phase 1 is highlighted.

    “When business users are invited to participate in the conversation around data with data users and IT, it adds a fundamental dimension — business context. Without a real understanding of how data ties back to the business, the value of analysis and insights can get lost.” – Jason Lim, Alation

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    • Identify Your Business Capabilities
    • Define your Organization’s Key Business Capabilities
    • Develop a Strategy Map that Aligns Business Capabilities to Your Strategic Focus

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Data Governance Leader/Data Leader (CDO)
    • Senior Business Leaders
    • Business SMEs
    • Data Leadership, Data Owners, Data Stewards and Custodians

    Step 1.1

    Substantiate Business Drivers

    Activities

    1.1.1 Identify Your Business Capabilities

    1.1.2 Categorize Your Organization’s Key Business Capabilities

    1.1.3 Develop a Strategy Map Tied to Data Governance

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Leverage your organization’s existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map, guided by info-Tech’s approach
    • Determine which business capabilities are considered high priority by your organization
    • Map your organization’s strategic objectives to value streams and capabilities to communicate how objectives are realized with the support of data

    Outcomes of this step

    • A foundation for data governance initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

    Info-Tech Insight

    Gaining a sound understanding of your business architecture (value streams and business capabilities) is a critical foundation for establishing and sustaining a data governance program that delivers measurable business value.

    1.1.1 Identify Your Business Capabilities

    Confirm your organization's existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map:

    • If you have an existing business capability map, meet with the relevant business owners/stakeholders to confirm that the content is accurate and up to date. Confirm the value streams (how your organization creates and captures value) and their business capabilities are reflective of the organization’s current business environment.
    • If you do not have an existing business capability map, follow this activity to initiate the formulation of a map (value streams and related business capabilities):
      1. Define the organization’s value streams. Meet with senior leadership and other key business stakeholders to define how your organization creates and captures value.
      2. Define the relevant business capabilities. Meet with senior leadership and other key business stakeholders to define the business capabilities.

    Note: A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. Business capabilities are business terms defined using descriptive nouns such as “Marketing” or “Research and Development.” They represent stable business functions, are unique and independent of each other, and typically will have a defined business outcome.

    Input

    • List of confirmed value streams and their related business capabilities

    Output

    • Business capability map with value streams for your organization

    Materials

    • Your existing business capability map or the template provided in the Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook accompanying this blueprint

    Participants

    • Key business stakeholders
    • Data stewards
    • Data custodians
    • Data Governance Working Group

    For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

    Define or validate the organization’s value streams

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities. These value realization activities, in turn, depend on data.

    If the organization does not have a business architecture function to conduct and guide Activity 1.1.1, you can leverage the following approach:

    • Meet with key stakeholders regarding this topic, then discuss and document your findings.
    • When trying to identify the right stakeholders, consider: Who are the decision makers and key influencers? Who will impact this piece of business architecture related work? Who has the relevant skills, competencies, experience, and knowledge about the organization?
    • Engage with these stakeholders to define and validate how the organization creates value.
    • Consider:
      • Who are your main stakeholders? This will depend on the industry in which you operate. For example, customers, residents, citizens, constituents, students, patients.
      • What are your stakeholders looking to accomplish?
      • How does your organization’s products and/or services help them accomplish that?
      • What are the benefits your organization delivers to them and how does your organization deliver those benefits?
      • How do your stakeholders receive those benefits?

    Align data governance to the organization's value realization activities.

    Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face the possibilities of elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, negative impact to reputation and brand, and/or increased exposure to business risk.

    Example of value streams – Retail Banking

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

    Example value stream descriptions for: Retail Banking

    Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

    Model example of value streams for retail banking.

    For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.

    Example of value streams – Higher Education

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

    Example value stream descriptions for: Higher Education

    Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

    Model example of value streams for higher education

    For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Higher Education.

    Example of value streams – Local Government

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

    Example value stream descriptions for: Local Government

    Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

    Model example of value streams for local government

    For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.

    Example of value streams – Manufacturing

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

    Example value stream descriptions for: Manufacturing

    Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

    Model example of value streams for manufacturing

    For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.

    Example of value streams – Retail

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

    Example value stream descriptions for: Retail

    Model example of value streams for retail

    Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

    For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

    Define the organization’s business capabilities in a business capability map

    A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. Business capabilities represent stable business functions and typically will have a defined business outcome.

    Business capabilities can be thought of as business terms defined using descriptive nouns such as “Marketing” or “Research and Development.”

    If your organization doesn’t already have a business capability map, you can leverage the following approach to build one. This initiative requires a good understanding of the business. By working with the right stakeholders, you can develop a business capability map that speaks a common language and accurately depicts your business.

    Working with the stakeholders as described above:

    • Analyze the value streams to identify and describe the organization’s capabilities that support them.
    • Consider: What is the objective of your value stream? (This can highlight which capabilities support which value stream.)
    • As you initiate your engagement with your stakeholders, don’t start a blank page. Leverage the examples on the next slides as a starting point for your business capability map.
    • When using these examples, consider: What are the activities that make up your particular business? Keep the ones that apply to your organization, remove the ones that don’t, and add any needed.

    Align data governance to the organization's value realization activities.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

    For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

    Example business capability map – Retail Banking

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Tip:

    Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

    Example business capability map for: Retail Banking

    Model example business capability map for retail banking

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.

    Example business capability map – Higher Education

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Tip:

    Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

    Example business capability map for: Higher Education

    Model example business capability map for higher education

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Higher Education.

    Example business capability map – Local Government

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Tip:

    Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

    Example business capability map for: Local Government

    Model example business capability map for local government

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.

    Example business capability map – Manufacturing

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Tip:

    Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

    Example business capability map for: Manufacturing

    Model example business capability map for manufacturing

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.

    Example business capability map - Retail

    A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

    Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Tip:

    Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

    Example business capability map for: Retail

    Model example business capability map for retail

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

    1.1.2 Categorize Your Organization’s Key Capabilities

    Determine which capabilities are considered high priority in your organization.

    1. Categorize or heatmap the organization’s key capabilities. Consult with senior and other key business stakeholders to categorize and prioritize the business’ capabilities. This will aid in ensuring your data governance future state planning is aligned with the mandate of the business. One approach to prioritizing capabilities with business stakeholders is to examine them through the lens of cost advantage creators, competitive advantage differentiators, and/or by high value/high risk.
    2. Identify cost advantage creators. Focus on capabilities that drive a cost advantage for your organization. Highlight these capabilities and prioritize programs that support them.
    3. Identify competitive advantage differentiators. Focus on capabilities that give your organization an edge over rivals or other players in your industry.

    This categorization/prioritization exercise helps highlight prime areas of opportunity for building use cases, determining prioritization, and the overall optimization of data and data governance.

    Input

    • Strategic insight from senior business stakeholders on the business capabilities that drive value for the organization

    Output

    • Business capabilities categorized and prioritized (e.g. cost advantage creators, competitive advantage differentiators, high value/high risk)

    Materials

    • Your existing business capability map or the business capability map derived in the previous activity

    Participants

    • Key business stakeholders
    • Data stewards
    • Data custodians
    • Data Governance Working Group

    For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

    Example of business capabilities categorization or heatmapping – Retail

    This exercise is useful in ensuring the data governance program is focused and aligned to support the priorities and direction of the business.

    • Depending on the mandate from the business, priority may be on developing cost advantage. Hence the capabilities that deliver efficiency gains are the ones considered to be cost advantage creators.
    • The business’ priority may be on maintaining or gaining a competitive advantage over its industry counterparts. Differentiation might be achieved in delivering unique or enhanced products, services, and/or experiences, and the focus will tend to be on the capabilities that are more end-stakeholder-facing (e.g. customer-, student-, patient,- and/or constituent-facing). These are the organization’s competitive advantage creators.

    Example: Retail

    Example of business capabilities categorization or heatmapping – Retail

    For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

    1.1.3 Develop a Strategy Map Tied to Data Governance

    Identify the strategic objectives for the business. Knowing the key strategic objectives will drive business-data governance alignment. It’s important to make sure the right strategic objectives of the organization have been identified and are well understood.

    1. Meet with senior business leaders and other relevant stakeholders to help identify and document the key strategic objectives for the business.
    2. Leverage their knowledge of the organization’s business strategy and strategic priorities to visually represent how these map to value streams, business capabilities, and, ultimately, to data and data governance needs and initiatives. Tip: Your map is one way to visually communicate and link the business strategy to other levels of the organization.
    3. Confirm the strategy mapping with other relevant stakeholders.

    Guide to creating your map: Starting with strategic objectives, map the value streams that will ultimately drive them. Next, link the key capabilities that enable each value stream. Then map the data and data governance to initiatives that support those capabilities. This is one approach to help you prioritize the data initiatives that deliver the most value to the organization.

    Input

    • Strategic objectives as outlined by the organization’s business strategy and confirmed by senior leaders

    Output

    • A strategy map that maps your organizational strategic objectives to value streams, business capabilities, and, ultimately, to data program

    Materials

    Participants

    • Key business stakeholders
    • Data stewards
    • Data custodians
    • Data Governance Working Group

    Download Info-Tech’s Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

    Example of a strategy map tied to data governance

    • Strategic objectives are the outcomes that the organization is looking to achieve.
    • Value streams enable an organization to create and capture value in the market through interconnected activities that support strategic objectives.
    • Business capabilities define what a business does to enable value creation in value streams.
    • Data capabilities and initiatives are descriptions of action items on the data and data governance roadmap and which will enable one or multiple business capabilities in its desired target state.

    Info-Tech Tip:

    Start with the strategic objectives, then map the value streams that will ultimately drive them. Next, link the key capabilities that enable each value stream. Then map the data and data governance initiatives that support those capabilities. This process will help you prioritize the data initiatives that deliver the most value to the organization.

    Example: Retail

    Example of a strategy map tied to data governance for retail

    For this strategy map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

    Step 1.2

    Build High-Value Use Cases for Data Governance

    Activities

    1.2.1 Build High-Value Use Cases

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Leveraging your categorized business capability map to conduct deep-dive sessions with key business stakeholders for creating high-value uses cases
    • Discussing current challenges, risks, and opportunities associated with the use of data across the lines of business
    • Exploring which other business capabilities, stakeholder groups, and business units will be impacted

    Outcomes of this step

    • Relevant use cases that articulate the data-related challenges, needs, or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed ,will deliver value to the organization

    Info-Tech Tip

    One of the most important aspects when building use cases is to ensure you include KPIs or measures of success. You have to be able to demonstrate how the use case ties back to the organizational priorities or delivers measurable business value. Leverage the KPIs and success factors of the business capabilities tied to each particular use case.

    1.2.1 Build High-Value Use Cases

    This business needs-gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

    1. Bring together key business stakeholders (data owner, stewards, SMEs) from a particular line of business as well as the relevant data custodian(s) to build cases for their units. Leverage the business capability map you created for facilitating this act.
    2. Leverage Info-Tech’s framework for data requirements and methodology for creating use cases, as outlined in the Data Use Case Framework Template and seen on the next slide.
    3. Have the stakeholders move through each breakout session outlined in the Use Case Worksheet. Use flip charts or a whiteboard to brainstorm and document their thoughts.
    4. Debrief and document results in the Data Use Case Framework Template
    5. Repeat this exercise with as many lines of the business as possible, leveraging your business capability map to guide your progress and align with business value.

    Tip: Don’t conclude these use case discussions without substantiating what measures of success will be used to demonstrate the business value of the effort to produce the desired future state, as relevant to each particular use case.

    Input

    • Value streams and business capabilities as defined by business leaders
    • Business stakeholders’ subject area expertise
    • Data custodian systems, integration, and data knowledge

    Output

    • Use cases that articulate data-related challenges, needs or opportunities that are tied to defined business capabilities and hence if addressed will deliver measurable value to the organization.

    Materials

    • Your business capability map from activity 1.1.1
    • Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template
    • Whiteboard or flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely)
    • Markers/pens

    Participants

    • Key business stakeholders
    • Data stewards and business SMEs
    • Data custodians
    • Data Governance Working Group

    Download Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template

    Info-Tech’s Framework for Building Use Cases

    Objective: This business needs-gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

    Leveraging your business capability map, build use cases that align with the organization’s key business capabilities.

    Consider:

    • Is the business capability a cost advantage creator or an industry differentiator?
    • Is the business capability currently underserved by data?
    • Does this need to be addressed? If so, is this risk- or value-driven?

    Info-Tech’s Data Requirements and Mapping Methodology for Creating Use Cases

    1. What business capability (or capabilities) is this use case tied to for your business area(s)?
    2. What are your data-related challenges in performing this today?
    3. What are the steps in this process/activity today?
    4. What are the applications/systems used at each step today?
    5. What data domains are involved, created, used, and/or transformed at each step today?
    6. What does an ideal or improved state look like?
    7. What other business units, business capabilities, activities, and/or processes will be impacted or improved if this issue was solved?
    8. Who are the stakeholders impacted by these changes? Who needs to be consulted?
    9. What are the risks to the organization (business capability, revenue, reputation, customer loyalty, etc.) if this is not addressed?
    10. What compliance, regulatory, and/or policy concerns do we need to consider in any solution?
    11. What measures of success or change should we use to prove the value of the effort (such as KPIs, ROI)? What is the measurable business value of doing this?

    The resulting use cases are to be prioritized and leveraged for informing the business case and the data governance capabilities optimization plan.

    Taken from Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template

    Phase 2

    Understand Your Current Data Governance Capabilities

    Three circles are in the image that list the three phases and the main steps. Phase 2 is highlighted.

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    • Understand the Key Components of Data Governance
    • Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Data Leadership
    • Data Ownership & Stewardship
    • Policies & Procedures
    • Data Literacy & Culture
    • Operating Model
    • Data Management
    • Data Privacy & Security
    • Enterprise Projects & Services

    Step 2.1

    Understand the Key Components of Data Governance

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Understanding the core components of an effective data governance program and determining your organization’s current capabilities in these areas:
      • Data Leadership
      • Data Ownership & Stewardship
      • Policies & Procedures
      • Data Literacy & Culture
      • Operating Model
      • Data Management
      • Data Privacy & Security
      • Enterprise Projects & Services

    Outcomes of this step

    • An understanding the core components of an effective data governance program
    • An understanding your organization’s current data governance capabilities

    Review: Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework

    An image of Info-Tech's Data Governance Framework

    Key components of data governance

    A well-defined data governance program will deliver:

    • Defined accountability and responsibility for data.
    • Improved knowledge and common understanding of the organization’s data assets.
    • Elevated trust and confidence in traceable data.
    • Improved data ROI and reduced data debt.
    • An enabling framework for supporting the ethical use and handling of data.
    • A foundation for building and fostering a data-driven and data-literate organizational culture.

    The key components of establishing sustainable enterprise data governance, taken from Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework:

    • Data Leadership
    • Data Ownership & Stewardship
    • Operating Model
    • Policies & Procedures
    • Data Literacy & Culture
    • Data Management
    • Data Privacy & Security
    • Enterprise Projects & Services

    Data Leadership

    • Data governance needs a dedicated head or leader to steer the organization’s data governance program.
    • For organizations that do have a chief data officer (CDO), their office is the ideal and effective home for data governance.
    • Heads of data governance also have titles such as director of data governance, director of data quality, and director of analytics.
    • The head of your data governance program works with all stakeholders and partners to ensure there is continuous enterprise governance alignment and oversight and to drive the program’s direction.
    • While key stakeholders from the business and IT will play vital data governance roles, the head of data governance steers the various components, stakeholders, and initiatives, and provides oversight of the overall program.
    • Vital data governance roles include: data owners, data stewards, data custodians, data governance steering committee (or your organization’s equivalent), and any data governance working group(s).

    The role of the CDO: the voice of data

    The office of the chief data officer (CDO):

    • Has a cross-organizational vision and strategy for data.
    • Owns and drives the data strategy; ensures it supports the overall organizational strategic direction and business goals.
    • Leads the organizational data initiatives, including data governance
    • Is accountable for the policy, strategy, data standards, and data literacy necessary for the organization to operate effectively.
    • Educates users and leaders about what it means to be “data-driven.”
    • Builds and fosters a culture of data excellence.

    “Compared to most of their C-suite colleagues, the CDO is faced with a unique set of problems. The role is still being defined. The chief data officer is bringing a new dimension and focus to the organization: ‘data.’ ”

    – Carruthers and Jackson, 2020

    Who does the CDO report to?

    Example reporting structure.
    • The CDO should be a true C- level executive.
    • Where the organization places the CDO role in the structure sends an important signal to the business about how much it values data.

    “The title matters. In my opinion, you can’t have a CDO without executive authority. Otherwise no one will listen.”

    – Anonymous European CDO

    “The reporting structure depends on who’s the ‘glue’ that ties together all these uniquely skilled individuals.”

    – John Kemp, Senior Director, Executive Services, Info-Tech Research Group

    Data Ownership & Stewardship

    Who are best suited to be data owners?

    • Wherever they may sit in your organization, data owners will typically have the highest stake in that data.
    • Data owners need to be suitably senior and have the necessary decision-making power.
    • They have the highest interest in the related business data domain, whether they are the head of a business unit or the head of a line of business that produces data or consumes data (or both).
    • If they are neither of these, it’s unlikely they will have the interest in the data (in terms of its quality, protection, ethical use, and handling, for instance) necessary to undertake and adopt the role effectively.

    Data owners are typically senior business leaders with the following characteristics:

    • Positioned to accept accountability for their data domain.
    • Hold authority and influence to affect change, including across business processes and systems, needed to improve data quality, use, handling, integration, etc.
    • Have access to a budget and resources for data initiatives such as resolving data quality issues, data cleansing initiatives, business data catalog build, related tools and technology, policy management, etc.
    • Hold the influence needed to drive change in behavior and culture.
    • Act as ambassadors of data and its value as an organizational strategic asset.

    Right-size your data governance organizational structure

    • Most organizations strive to identify roles and responsibilities at a strategic and operational level. Several factors will influence the structure of the program such as the focus of the data governance project as well as the maturity and size of the organization.
    • Your data governance structure has to work for your organization, and it has to evolve as the organization evolves.
    • Formulate your blend of data governance roles, committees, councils, and cross-functional groups, that make sense for your organization.
    • Your data governance organizational structure should not add complexity or bureaucracy to your organization’s data landscape; it should support and enable your principle of treating data as an asset.

    There is no one-size-fits-all data governance organizational structure.

    Example of a Data Governance Organizational Structure

    Critical roles and responsibilities for data governance

    Data Governance Working Groups

    Data governance working groups:

    • Are cross-functional teams
    • Deliver on data governance projects, initiatives, and ad hoc review committees.

    Data Stewards

    Traditionally, data stewards:

    • Serve on an operational level addressing issues related to adherence to standards/procedures, monitoring data quality, raising issues identified, etc.
    • Are responsible for managing access, quality, escalating issues, etc.

    Data Custodians

    • Traditionally, data custodians:
    • Serve on an operational level addressing issues related to data and database administration.
    • Support the management of access, data quality, escalating issues, etc.
    • Are SMEs from IT and database administration.

    Example: Business capabilities to data owner and data stewards mapping for a selected data domain

    Info-Tech Insight

    Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.

    Enabling business capabilities with data governance role definitions

    Example: Business capabilities to data owner and data stewards mapping for a selected data domain

    Operating Model

    Your operating model is the key to designing and operationalizing a form of data governance that delivers measurable business value to your organization.

    “Generate excitement for data: When people are excited and committed to the vision of data enablement, they’re more likely to help ensure that data is high quality and safe.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

    Operating Model

    Defining your data governance operating model will help create a well-oiled program that sustainably delivers value to the organization and manages risks while building and fostering a culture of data excellence along the way. Some organizations are able to establish a formal data governance office, whether independent or attached to the office of the chief data officer. Regardless of how you are organized, data governance requires a home, a leader, and an operating model to ensure its sustainability and evolution.

    Examples of focus areas for your operating model:

    • Delivery: While there are core tenets to every data governance program, there is a level of variability in the implementation of data governance programs across organizations, sectors, and industries. Every organization has its own particular drivers and mandates, so the level and rigor applied will also vary.
    • The key is to determine what style will work best in your organization, taking into consideration your organizational culture, executive leadership support (present and ongoing), catalysts such as other enterprise-wide transformative and modernization initiatives, and/or regulatory and compliances drivers.

    • Communication: Communication is vital across all levels and stakeholder groups. For instance, there needs to be communication from the data governance office up to senior leadership, as well as communication within the data governance organization, which is typically made up of the data governance steering committee, data governance council, executive sponsor/champion, data stewards, and data custodians and working groups.
    • Furthermore, communication with the wider organization of data producers, users, and consumers is one of the core elements of the overall data governance communications plan.

    Communication is vital for ensuring acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users as well as for sharing success stories of the program.

    Operating Model

    Tie the value of data governance and its initiatives back to the business capabilities that are enabled.

    “Leading organizations invest in change management to build data supporters and convert the skeptics. This can be the most difficult part of the program, as it requires motivating employees to use data and encouraging producers to share it (and ideally improve its quality at the source)[.]” – Petzold, et al., 2020

    Operating Model

    Examples of focus areas for your operating model (continued):

    • Change management and issue resolution: Data governance initiatives will very likely bring about a level of organizational disruption, with governance recommendations and future state requiring potentially significant business change. This may include a redesign of a substantial number of data processes affecting various business units, which will require tweaking the organization’s culture, thought processes, and procedures surrounding its data.
    • Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the steps necessary to adapt and reduce potential confrontation. By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.

      Attempting to implement change without an effective communications plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.

    • Performance measuring, monitoring and reporting: Measuring and reporting on performance, successes, and realization of tangible business value are a must for sustaining, growing, and scaling your data governance program.
    • Aligning your data governance to the organization's value realization activities enables you to leverage the KPIs of those business capabilities to demonstrate tangible and measurable value. Use terms and language that will resonate with your senior business leadership.

    Info-Tech Tip:

    Launching a data governance program will bring with it a level of disruption to the culture of the organization. That disruption doesn’t have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.

    Policies, Procedures & Standards

    “Data standards are the rules by which data are described and recorded. In order to share, exchange, and understand data, we must standardize the format as well as the meaning.” – U.S. Geological Survey

    Policies, Procedures & Standards

    • When defining, updating, or refreshing your data policies, procedures, and standards, ensure they are relevant, serve a purpose, and/or support the use of data in the organization.
    • Avoid the common pitfall of building out a host of policies, procedures, and standards that are never used or followed by users and therefore don’t bring value or serve to mitigate risk for the organization.
    • Data policies can be thought of as formal statements and are typically created, approved, and updated by the organization’s data decision-making body (such as a data governance steering committee).
    • Data standards and procedures function as actions, or rules, that support the policies and their statements.
    • Standards and procedures are designed to standardize the processes during the overall data lifecycle. Procedures are instructions to achieve the objectives of the policies. The procedures are iterative and will be updated with approval from your data governance committee as needed.
    • Your organization’s data policies, standards, and procedures should not bog down or inhibit users; rather, they should enable confident data use and handling across the overall data lifecycle. They should support more effective and seamless data capture, integration, aggregation, sharing, and retention of data in the organization.

    Examples of data policies:

    • Data Classification Policy
    • Data Retention Policy
    • Data Entry Policy
    • Data Backup Policy
    • Data Provenance Policy
    • Data Management Policy

    Data Domain Documentation

    Select the correct granularity for your business need

    Diagram of data domain documentation
    Sources: Dataversity; Atlan; Analytics8

    Data Domain Documentation Examples

    Data Domain Documentation Examples

    Data Culture

    “Organizational culture can accelerate the application of analytics, amplify its power, and steer companies away from risky outcomes.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

    A healthy data culture is key to amplifying the power of your data and to building and sustaining an effective data governance program.

    What does a healthy data culture look like?

    • Everybody knows the data.
    • Everybody trusts the data.
    • Everybody talks about the data.

    Building a culture of data excellence.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic to understand your organization’s culture around data.

    Screenshot of Data Culture Scorecard

    Contact your Info-Tech Account Representative for more information on the Data Culture Diagnostic

    Cultivating a data-driven culture is not easy

    “People are at the heart of every culture, and one of the biggest challenges to creating a data culture is bringing everyone into the fold.” – Lim, Alation

    It cannot be purchased or manufactured,

    It must be nurtured and developed,

    And it must evolve as the business, user, and data landscapes evolve.

    “Companies that have succeeded in their data-driven efforts understand that forging a data culture is a relentless pursuit, and magic bullets and bromides do not deliver results.” – Randy Bean, 2020

    Hallmarks of a data-driven culture

    There is a trusted, single source of data the whole company can draw from.

    There’s a business glossary and data catalog and users know what the data fields mean.

    Users have access to data and analytics tools. Employees can leverage data immediately to resolve a situation, perform an activity, or make a decision – including frontline workers.

    Data literacy, the ability to collect, manage, evaluate, and apply data in a critical manner, is high.

    Data is used for decision making. The company encourages decisions based on objective data and the intelligent application of it.

    A data-driven culture requires a number of elements:

    • High-quality data
    • Broad access and data literacy
    • Data-driven decision-making processes
    • Effective communication

    Data Literacy

    Data literacy is an essential part of a data-driven culture.

    • Building a data-driven culture takes an ongoing investment of time, effort, and money.
    • This investment will not realize its full return without building up the organization’s data literacy.
    • Data literacy is about filling data knowledge gaps across all levels of the organization.
    • It’s about ensuring all users – senior leadership right through to core users – are equipped with appropriate levels of training, skills, understanding, and awareness around the organization’s data and the use of associated tools and technologies. Data literacy ensures users have the data they need and they know how to interpret and leverage it.
    • Data literacy drives the appetite, demand, and consumption for data.
    • A data-literate culture is one where the users feel confident and skilled in their use of data, leveraging it for making informed or evidence-based decisions and generating insights for the organization.

    Data Management

    • Data governance serves as an enabler to all of the core components that make up data management:
      • Data quality management
      • Data architecture management
      • Data platform
      • Data integration
      • Data operations management
      • Data risk management
      • Reference and master data management (MDM)
      • Document and content management
      • Metadata management
      • Business intelligence (BI), reporting, analytics and advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML)
    • Key tools such as the business data glossary and data catalog are vital for operationalizing data governance and in supporting data management disciplines such as data quality management, metadata management, and MDM as well as BI, reporting, and analytics.

    Enterprise Projects & Services

    • Data governance serves as an enabler to enterprise projects and services that require, use, share, sell, and/or rely on data for their viability and, ultimately, their success.
    • Folding or embedding data governance into the organization’s project management function or project management office (PMO) serves to ensure that, for any initiative, suitable consideration is given to how data is treated.
    • This may include defining parameters, following standards and procedures around bringing in new sources of data, integrating that data into the organization’s data ecosystem, using and sharing that data, and retaining that data post-project completion.
    • The data governance function helps to identify and manage any ethical issues, whether at the start of the project and/or throughout.
    • It provides a foundation for asking relevant questions as it relates to the use or incorporation of data in delivering the specific project or service. Do we know where the data obtained from? Do we have rights to use that data? Are there legislations, policies, or regulations that guide or dictate how that data can be used? What are the positive effects, negative impacts, and/or risks associated with our intended use of that data? Are we positioned to mitigate those risks?
    • Mature data governance creates organizations where the above considerations around data management and the ethical use and handling of data is routinely implemented across the business and in the rollout and delivery of projects and services.

    Data Privacy & Security

    • Data governance supports the organization’s data privacy and security functions.
    • Key tools include the data classification policy and standards and defined roles around data ownership and data stewardship. These are vital for operationalizing data governance and supporting data privacy, security, and the ethical use and handling of data.
    • While some organizations may have a dedicated data security and privacy group, data governance provides an added level of oversight in this regard.
    • Some of the typical checks and balances include ensuring:
      • There are policies and procedures in place to restrict and monitor staff’s access to data (one common way this is done is according to job descriptions and responsibilities) and that these comply with relevant laws and regulations.
      • There’s a data classification scheme in place where data has been classified on a hierarchy of sensitivity (e.g. top secret, confidential, internal, limited, public).
      • The organization has a comprehensive data security framework, including administrative, physical, and technical procedures for addressing data security issues (e.g. password management and regular training).
      • Risk assessments are conducted, including an evaluation of risks and vulnerabilities related to intentional and unintentional misuse of data.
      • Policies and procedures are in place to mitigate the risks associated with incidents such as data breaches.
      • The organization regularly audits and monitors its data security.

    Ethical Use & Handling of Data

    Data governance will support your organization’s ethical use and handling of data by facilitating definition around important factors, such as:

    • What are the various data assets in the organization and what purpose(s) can they be used for? Are there any limitations?
    • Who is the related data owner? Who holds accountability for that data? Who will be answerable?
    • Where was the data obtained from? What is the intended use of that data? Do you have rights to use that data? Are there legislations, policies, or regulations that guide or dictate how that data can be used?
    • What are the positive effects, negative impacts, and/or risks associated with the use of that data?

    Ethical Use & Handling of Data

    • Data governance serves as an enabler to the ethical use and handling of an organization’s data.
    • The Open Data Institute (ODI) defines data ethics as: “A branch of ethics that evaluates data practices with the potential to adversely impact on people and society – in data collection, sharing and use.”
    • Data ethics relates to good practice around how data is collected, used and shared. It’s especially relevant when data activities have the potential to impact people and society, whether directly or indirectly (Open Data Institute, 2019).
    • A failure to handle and use data ethically can negatively impact an organization’s direct stakeholders and/or the public at large, lead to a loss of trust and confidence in the organization's products and services, lead to financial loss, and impact the organization’s brand, reputation, and legal standing.
    • Data governance plays a vital role in building and managing your data assets, knowing what data you have, and knowing the limitations of that data. Data ownership, data stewardship, and your data governance decision-making body are key tenets and foundational components of your data governance. They enable an organization to define, categorize, and confidently make decisions about its data.

    Step 2.2

    Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

    Activities

    2.2.1 Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Conduct a data culture survey or leverage Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic to increase your understanding of your organization’s data culture

    Outcomes of this step

    • An understanding of your organizational data culture

    2.2.1 Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

    Conduct a Data Culture Survey or Diagnostic

    The objectives of conducting a data culture survey are to increase the understanding of the organization's data culture, your users’ appetite for data, and their appreciation for data in terms of governance, quality, accessibility, ownership, and stewardship. To perform a data culture survey:

    1. Identify members of the data user base, data consumers, and other key stakeholders for surveying.
    2. Conduct an information session to introduce Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic survey. Explain the objective and importance of the survey and its role in helping to understand the organization’s current data culture and inform the improvement of that culture.
    3. Roll out the Info-Tech Data Culture Diagnostic survey to the identified users and stakeholders.
    4. Debrief and document the results and scorecard in the Data Strategy Stakeholder Interview Guide and Findings document.

    Input

    • Email addresses of participants in your organization who should receive the survey

    Output

    • Your organization’s Data Culture Scorecard for understanding current data culture as it relates to the use and consumption of data
    • An understanding of whether data is currently perceived to be an asset to the organization

    Materials

    Screenshot of Data Culture Scorecard

    Participants

    • Participants include those at the senior leadership level through to middle management, as well as other business stakeholders at varying levels across the organization
    • Data owners, stewards, and custodians
    • Core data users and consumers

    Contact your Info-Tech Account Representative for details on launching a Data Culture Diagnostic.

    Phase 3

    Build a Target State Roadmap and Plan

    Three circles are in the image that list the three phases and the main steps. Phase 3 is highlighted.

    “Achieving data success is a journey, not a sprint.” Companies that set a clear course, with reasonable expectations and phased results over a period of time, get to the destination faster.” – Randy Bean, 2020

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    • Build your Data Governance Roadmap
    • Develop a target state plan comprising of prioritized initiatives

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Data Governance Leadership
    • Data Owners/Data Stewards
    • Data Custodians
    • Data Governance Working Group(s)

    Step 3.1

    Formulate an Actionable Roadmap and Right-Sized Plan

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Build your data governance roadmap
    • Develop a target state plan comprising of prioritized initiatives

    Outcomes of this step

    • A foundation for data governance initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

    Build a right-sized roadmap

    Formulate an actionable roadmap that is right sized to deliver value in your organization.

    Key considerations:

    • When building your data governance roadmap, ensure you do so through an enterprise lens. Be cognizant of other initiatives that might be coming down the pipeline that may require you to align your data governance milestones accordingly.
    • Apart from doing your planning with consideration for other big projects or launches that might be in-flight and require the time and attention of your data governance partners, also be mindful of the more routine yet still demanding initiatives.
    • When doing your roadmapping, consider factors like the organization’s fiscal cycle, typical or potential year-end demands, and monthly/quarterly reporting periods and audits. Initiatives such as these are likely to monopolize the time and focus of personnel key to delivering on your data governance milestones.

    Sample milestones:

    Data Governance Leadership & Org Structure Definition

    Define the home for data governance and other key roles around ownership and stewardship, as approved by senior leadership.

    Data Governance Charter and Policies

    Create a charter for your program and build/refresh associated policies.

    Data Culture Diagnostic

    Understand the organization’s current data culture, perception of data, value of data, and knowledge gaps.

    Use Case Build and Prioritization

    Build a use case that is tied to business capabilities. Prioritize accordingly.

    Business Data Glossary/Catalog

    Build and/or refresh the business’ glossary for addressing data definitions and standardization issues.

    Tools & Technology

    Explore the tools and technology offering in the data governance space that would serve as an enabler to the program. (e.g. RFI, RFP).

    Recall: Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework

    An image of Info-Tech's Data Governance Framework

    Build an actionable roadmap

    Data Governance Leadership & Org Structure Division

    Define key roles for getting started.

    Use Case Build & Prioritization

    Start small and then scale – deliver early wins.

    Literacy Program

    Start understanding data knowledge gaps, building the program, and delivering.

    Tools & Technology

    Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you.

    Key components of your data governance roadmap

    By now, you have assessed current data governance environment and capabilities. Use this assessment, coupled with the driving needs of your business, to plot your data Governance roadmap accordingly.

    Sample data governance roadmap milestones:

    • Define data governance leadership.
    • Define and formalize data ownership and stewardship (as well as the role IT/data management will play as data custodians).
    • Build/confirm your business capability map and data domains.
    • Build business data use cases specific to business capabilities.
    • Define business measures/KPIs for the data governance program (i.e. metrics by use case that are relevant to business capabilities).
    • Data management:
      • Build your data glossary or catalog starting with identified and prioritized terms.
      • Define data domains.
    • Design and define the data governance operating model (oversight model definition, communication plan, internal marketing such as townhalls, formulate change management plan, RFP of data governance tool and technology options for supporting data governance and its administration).
    • Data policies and procedures:
      • Formulate, update, refresh, consolidate, rationalize, and/or retire data policies and procedures.
      • Define policy management and administration framework (i.e. roll-out, maintenance, updates, adherence, system to be used).
    • Conduct Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic or survey (across all levels of the organization).
    • Define and formalize the data literacy program (build modules, incorporate into LMS, plan lunch and learn sessions).
    • Data privacy and security: build data classification policy, define classification standards.
    • Enterprise projects and services: embed data governance in the organization’s PMO, conduct “Data Governance 101” for the PMO.

    Defining data governance roles and organizational structure at Organization

    The approach employed for defining the data governance roles and supporting organizational structure for .

    Key Considerations:

    • The data owner and data steward roles are formally defined and documented within the organization. Their involvement is clear, well-defined, and repeatable.
    • There are data owners and data stewards for each data domain within the organization. The data steward role is given to someone with a high degree of subject matter expertise.
    • Data owners and data stewards are effective in their roles by ensuring that their data domain is clean and free of errors and that they protect the organization against data loss.
    • Data owners and data stewards have the authority to make final decisions on data definitions, formats, and standard processes that apply to their respective data sets. Data owners and data stewards have authority regarding who has access to certain data.
    • Data owners and data stewards are not from the IT side of the organization. They understand the lifecycle of the data (how it is created, curated, retrieved, used, archived, and destroyed) and they are well-versed in any compliance requirements as it relates to their data.
    • The data custodian role is formally defined and is given to the relevant IT expert. This is an individual with technical administrative and/or operational responsibility over data (e.g. a DBA).
    • A data governance steering committee exists and is comprised of well-defined roles, responsibilities, executive sponsors, business representatives, and IT experts.
    • The data governance steering committee works to provide oversight and enforce policies, procedures, and standards for governing data.
    • The data governance working group has cross-functional representation. This comprises business and IT representation, as well as project management and change management where applicable: data stewards, data custodians, business subject matter experts, PM, etc.).
    • Data governance meetings are coordinated and communicated about. The meeting agenda is always clear and concise, and meetings review pressing data-related issues. Meeting minutes are consistently documented and communicated.

    Sample: Business capabilities to data owner and data stewards mapping for a selected data domain

    Info-Tech Insight

    Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.

    Enable business capabilities with data governance role definitions.

    Sample: Business capabilities to data owner and data stewards mapping for a selected data domain

    Consider your technology options:

    Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you:

    • Data catalog
    • Business data glossary
    • Data lineage
    • Metadata management

    Logos of data governance tools and technology.

    These are some of the data governance tools and technology players. Check out SoftwareReviews for help making better software decisions.

    Make the data steward the catalyst for organizational change and driving data culture

    The data steward must be empowered and backed politically with decision-making authority, or the role becomes stale and powerless.

    Ensuring compliance can be difficult. Data stewards may experience pushback from stakeholders who must deliver on the policies, procedures, and processes that the data steward enforces.

    Because the data steward must enforce data processes and liaise with so many different people and departments within the organization, the data steward role should be their primary full-time job function – where possible.

    However, in circumstances where budget doesn’t allow a full-time data steward role, develop these skills within the organization by adding data steward responsibilities to individuals who are already managing data sets for their department or line of business.

    Info-Tech Tip

    A stewardship role is generally more about managing the cultural change that data governance brings. This requires the steward to have exceptional interpersonal skills that will assist in building relationships across departmental boundaries and ensuring that all stakeholders within the organization believe in the initiative, understand the anticipated outcomes, and take some level of responsibility for its success.

    Changes to organizational data processes are inevitable; have a communication plan in place to manage change

    Create awareness of your data governance program. Use knowledge transfer to get as many people on board as possible.

    Data governance initiatives must contain a strong organizational disruption component. A clear and concise communication strategy that conveys milestones and success stories will address the various concerns that business unit stakeholders may have.

    By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.

    Governance recommendations will require significant business change. The redesign of a substantial number of data processes affecting various business units will require an overhaul of the organization’s culture, thought processes, and procedures surrounding its data. Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the necessary steps to adapt and reduce potential confrontation.

    Because a data governance initiative will involve data-driven business units across the organization, the governance team must present a compelling case for data governance to ensure acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users.

    Attempting to implement change without an effective communication plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Launching a data governance initiative is guaranteed to disrupt the culture of the organization. That disruption doesn’t have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.

    Create a common data governance vision that is consistently communicated to the organization

    A data governance program should be an enterprise-wide initiative.

    To create a strong vision for data governance, there must be participation from the business and IT. A common vision will articulate the state the organization wishes to achieve and how it will reach that state. Visioning helps to develop long-term goals and direction.

    Once the vision is established, it must be effectively communicated to everyone, especially those who are involved in creating, managing, disposing, or archiving data.

    The data governance program should be periodically refined. This will ensure the organization continues to incorporate best methods and practices as the organization grows and data needs evolve.

    Info-Tech Tips

    • Use information from the stakeholder interviews to derive business goals and objectives.
    • Work to integrate different opinions and perspectives into the overall vision for data governance.
    • Brainstorm guiding principles for data and understand the overall value to the organization.

    Develop a compelling data governance communications plan to get all departmental lines of business on board

    A data governance program will impact all data-driven business units within the organization.

    A successful data governance communications plan involves making the initiative visible and promoting staff awareness. Educate the team on how data is collected, distributed, and used, what internal processes use data, and how that data is used across departmental boundaries.

    By demonstrating how data governance will affect staff directly, you create a deeper level of understanding across lines of business, and ultimately, a higher level of acceptance for new processes, rules, and guidelines.

    A clear and concise communications strategy will raise the profile of data governance within the organization, and staff will understand how the program will benefit them and how they can share in the success of the initiative. This will end up providing support for the initiative across the board.

    A proactive communications plan will:

    • Assist in overcoming issues with data control, stalemates between stakeholder units, and staff resistance.
    • Provide a formalized process for implementing new policies, rules, guidelines, and technologies, and managing organizational data.
    • Detail data ownership and accountability for decision making, and identify and resolve data issues throughout the organization.
    • Encourage acceptance and support of the initiative.

    Info-Tech Tip

    Focus on literacy and communication: include training in the communication plan. Providing training for data users on the correct procedures for updating and verifying the accuracy of data, data quality, and standardized data policies will help validate how data governance will benefit them and the organization.

    Leverage the data governance program to communicate and promote the value of data within the organization

    The data governance program is responsible for continuously promoting the value of data to the organization. The data governance program should seek a variety of ways to educate the organization and data stakeholders on the benefit of data management.

    Even if data policies and procedures are created, they will be highly ineffective if they are not properly communicated to the data producers and users alike.

    There needs to be a communication plan that highlights how the data producer and user will be affected, what their new responsibilities are, and the value of that change.

    To learn how to manage organizational change, refer to Info-Tech’s Master Organizational Change Management Practices.

    Understand what makes for an effective policy for data governance

    It can be difficult to understand what a policy is, and what it is not. Start by identifying the differences between a policy and standards, guidelines, and procedures.

    Diagram of an effective policy for data governance

    The following are key elements of a good policy:

    Heading Descriptions
    Purpose Describes the factors or circumstances that mandate the existence of the policy. Also states the policy’s basic objectives and what the policy is meant to achieve.
    Scope Defines to whom and to what systems this policy applies. Lists the employees required to comply or simply indicates “all” if all must comply. Also indicates any exclusions or exceptions, i.e. those people, elements, or situations that are not covered by this policy or where special consideration may be made.
    Definitions Define any key terms, acronyms, or concepts that will be used in the policy. A standard glossary approach is sufficient.
    Policy Statements Describe the rules that comprise the policy. This typically takes the form of a series of short prescriptive and proscriptive statements. Sub-dividing this section into sub-sections may be required depending on the length or complexity of the policy.
    Non-Compliance Clearly describe consequences (legal and/or disciplinary) for employee non-compliance with the policy. It may be pertinent to describe the escalation process for repeated non-compliance.
    Agreement Confirms understanding of the policy and provides a designated space to attest to the document.

    Leverage myPolicies, Info-Tech’s web-based application for managing your policies and procedures

    Most organizations have problems with policy management. These include:

    1. Policies are absent or out of date
    2. Employees largely unaware of policies in effect
    3. Policies are unmonitored and unenforced
    4. Policies are in multiple locations
    5. Multiple versions of the same policy exist
    6. Policies managed inconsistently across different silos
    7. Policies are written poorly by untrained authors
    8. Inadequate policy training program
    9. Draft policies stall and lose momentum
    10. Weak policy support from senior management

    Technology should be used as a means to solve these problems and effectively monitor, enforce, and communicate policies.

    Product Overview

    myPolicies is a web-based solution to create, distribute, and manage corporate policies, procedures, and forms. Our solution provides policy managers with the tools they need to mitigate the risk of sanctions and reduce the administrative burden of policy management. It also enables employees to find the documents relevant to them and build a culture of compliance.

    Some key success factors for policy management include:

    • Store policies in a central location that is well known and easy to find and access. A key way that technology can help communicate policies is by having them published on a centralized website.
    • Link this repository to other policies’ taxonomies of your organization. E.g. HR policies to provide a single interface for employees to access guidance across the organization.
    • Reassess policies annually at a minimum. myPolicies can remind you to update the organization’s policies at the appropriate time.
    • Make the repository searchable and easily navigable.
    • myPolicies helps you do all this and more.
    myPolicies logo myPolicies

    Enforce data policies to promote consistency of business processes

    Data policies are short statements that seek to manage the creation, acquisition, integrity, security, compliance, and quality of data. These policies vary amongst organizations, depending on your specific data needs.

    • Policies describe what to do, while standards and procedures describe how to do something.
    • There should be few data policies, and they should be brief and direct. Policies are living documents and should be continuously updated to respond to the organization’s data needs.
    • The data policies should highlight who is responsible for the data under various scenarios and rules around how to manage it effectively.

    Examples of Data Policies

    Trust

    • Data Cleansing and Quality Policy
    • Data Entry Policy

    Availability

    • Acceptable Use Policy
    • Data Backup Policy

    Security

    • Data Security Policy
    • Password Policy Template
    • User Authorization, Identification, and Authentication Policy Template
    • Data Protection Policy

    Compliance

    • Archiving Policy
    • Data Classification Policy
    • Data Retention Policy

    Leverage data management-related policies to standardize your data management practices

    Info-Tech’s Data Management Policy:

    This policy establishes uniform data management standards and identifies the shared responsibilities for assuring the integrity of the data and that it efficiently and effectively serves the needs of the organization. This policy applies to all critical data and to all staff who may be creators and/or users of such data.

    Info-Tech’s Data Entry Policy:

    The integrity and quality of data and evidence used to inform decision making is central to both the short-term and long-term health of an organization. It is essential that required data be sourced appropriately and entered into databases and applications in an accurate and complete manner to ensure the reliability and validity of the data and decisions made based on the data.

    Info-Tech’s Data Provenance Policy:

    Create policies to keep your data's value, such as:

    • Only allow entry of data from reliable sources.
    • Employees entering and accessing data must observe requirements for capturing/maintaining provenance metadata.
    • Provenance metadata will be used to track the lifecycle of data from creation through to disposal.

    Info-Tech’s Data Integration and Virtualization Policy:

    This policy aims to assure the organization, staff, and other interested parties that data integration, replication, and virtualization risks are taken seriously. Staff must use the policy (and supporting guidelines) when deciding whether to integrate, replicate, or virtualize data sets.

    Select the right mix of metrics to successfully supervise data policies and processes

    Policies are only as good as your level of compliance. Ensure supervision controls exist to oversee adherence to policies and procedures.

    Although they can be highly subjective, metrics are extremely important to data governance success.

    • Establishing metrics that measure the performance of a specific process or data set will:
      • Create a greater degree of ownership from data stewards and data owners.
      • Help identify underperforming individuals.
      • Allow the steering committee to easily communicate tailored objectives to individual data stewards and owners.
    • Be cautious when establishing metrics. The wrong metrics can have negative repercussions.
      • They will likely draw attention to an aspect of the process that doesn’t align with the initial strategy.
      • Employees will work hard and grow frustrated as their successes aren’t accurately captured.

    Policies are great to have from a legal perspective, but unless they are followed, they will not benefit the organization.

    • One of the most useful metrics for policies is currency. This tracks how up to date the policy is and how often employees are informed about the policy. Often, a policy will be introduced and then ignored. Policies must be continuously reviewed by management and employees.
    • Some other metrics include adherence (including performance in tests for adherence) and impacts from non-adherence.

    Review metrics on an ongoing basis with those data owners/stewards who are accountable, the data governance steering committee, and the executive sponsors.

    Establish data standards and procedures for use across all organizational lines of business

    A data governance program will impact all data-driven business units within the organization.

    • Data management procedures are the methods, techniques, and steps to accomplish a specific data objective. Creating standard data definitions should be one of the first tasks for a data governance steering committee.
    • Data moves across all departmental boundaries and lines of business within the organization. These definitions must be developed as a common set of standards that can be accepted and used enterprise wide.
    • Consistent data standards and definitions will improve data flow across departmental boundaries and between lines of business.
    • Ensure these standards and definitions are used uniformly throughout the organization to maintain reliable and useful data.

    Data standards and procedural guidelines will vary from company to company.

    Examples include:

    • Data modeling and architecture standards.
    • Metadata integration and usage procedures.
    • Data security standards and procedures.
    • Business intelligence standards and procedures.

    Info-Tech Tip

    Have a fundamental data definition model for the entire business to adhere to. Those in the positions that generate and produce data must follow the common set of standards developed by the steering committee and be accountable for the creation of valid, clean data.

    Changes to organizational data processes are inevitable; have a communications plan in place to manage change

    Create awareness of your data governance program, using knowledge transfer to get as many people on board as possible.

    By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.

    Governance recommendations will require significant business change. The redesign of a substantial number of data processes affecting various business units will require an overhaul of the organization’s culture, thought processes, and procedures surrounding its data. Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the necessary steps to adapt and reduce potential confrontation.

    Because a data governance initiative will involve data-driven business units across the organization, the governance team must present a compelling case for data governance to ensure acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users.

    Attempting to implement change without an effective communications plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.

    Data governance initiatives will very likely bring about a level of organizational disruption. A clear and concise communications strategy that conveys milestones and success stories will address the various concerns that business unit stakeholders may have.

    Info-Tech Tip

    Launching a data governance program will bring with it a level of disruption to the culture of the organization. That disruption doesn’t have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.

    Additional Support

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

    Picture of analyst

    Contact your account representative for more information.

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

    To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team. Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.

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

    Screenshot of example data governance strategy map.

    Build Your Business and User Context

    Work with your core team of stakeholders to build out your data governance strategy map, aligning data governance initiatives with business capabilities, value streams, and, ultimately, your strategic priorities.

    Screenshot of Data governance roadmap

    Formulate a Plan to Get to Your Target State

    Develop a data governance future state roadmap and plan based on an understanding of your current data governance capabilities, your operating environment, and the driving needs of your business.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

    Key to building and fostering a data-driven culture.

    Create a Data Management Roadmap

    Streamline your data management program with our simplified framework.

    The First 100 Days as CDO

    Be the voice of data in a time of transformation.

    Research Contributors

    Name Position Company
    David N. Weber Executive Director - Planning, Research and Effectiveness Palm Beach State College
    Izabela Edmunds Information Architect Mott MacDonald
    Andy Neill Practice Lead, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
    Dirk Coetsee Research Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
    Graham Price Executive Advisor, Advisory Executive Services Info-Tech Research Group
    Igor Ikonnikov Research Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
    Jean Bujold Senior Workshop Delivery Director Info-Tech Research Group
    Rajesh Parab Research Director, Data & Analytics Info-Tech Research Group
    Reddy Doddipalli Senior Workshop Director Info-Tech Research Group
    Valence Howden Principal Research Director, CIO Info-Tech Research Group

    Bibliography

    Alation. “The Alation State of Data Culture Report – Q3 2020.” Alation, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Allott, Joseph, et al. “Data: The next wave in forestry productivity.” McKinsey & Company, 27 Oct. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Bean, Randy. “Why Culture Is the Greatest Barrier to Data Success.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 30 Sept. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Brence, Thomas. “Overcoming the Operationalization Challenge with Data Governance at New York Life.” Informatica, 18 March 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Bullmore, Simon, and Stuart Coleman. “ODI Inside Business – a checklist for leaders.” Open Data Institute, 19 Oct. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Canadian Institute for Health Information. “Developing and implementing accurate national standards for Canadian health care information.” Canadian Institute for Health Information. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Carruthers, Caroline, and Peter Jackson. “The Secret Ingredients of the Successful CDO.” IRM UK Connects, 23 Feb. 2017.

    Dashboards. “Useful KPIs for Healthy Hospital Quality Management.” Dashboards. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Dashboards. “Why (and How) You Should Improve Data Literacy in Your Organization Today.” Dashboards. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Datapine. “Healthcare Key Performance Indicators and Metrics.” Datapine. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Datapine. “KPI Examples & Templates: Measure what matters the most and really impacts your success.” Datapine. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Diaz, Alejandro, et al. “Why data culture matters.” McKinsey Quarterly, Sept. 2018. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Everett, Dan. “Chief Data Officer (CDO): One Job, Four Roles.” Informatica, 9 Sept. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Experian. “10 signs you are sitting on a pile of data debt.” Experian. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Fregoni, Silvia. “New Research Reveals Why Some Business Leaders Still Ignore the Data.” Silicon Angle, 1 Oct. 2020.

    Informatica. Holistic Data Governance: A Framework for Competitive Advantage. Informatica, 2017. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Knight, Michelle. “What Is a Data Catalog?” Dataversity, 28 Dec. 2017. Web.

    Lim, Jason. “Alation 2020.3: Getting Business Users in the Game.” Alation, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    McDonagh, Mariann. “Automating Data Governance.” Erwin, 29 Oct. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    NewVantage Partners. Data-Driven Business Transformation: Connecting Data/AI Investment to Business Outcomes. NewVantage Partners, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Olavsrud, Thor. “What is data governance? A best practices framework for managing data assets.” CIO.com, 18 March 2021. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Open Data Institute. “Introduction to data ethics and the data ethics canvas.” Open Data Institute, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Open Data Institute. “The UK National Data Strategy 2020: doing data ethically.” Open Data Institute, 17 Nov. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Open Data Institute. “What is the Data Ethics Canvas?” Open Data Institute, 3 July 2019. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Pathak, Rahul. “Becoming a Data-Driven Enterprise: Meeting the Challenges, Changing the Culture.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 28 Sept. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Redman, Thomas, et al. “Only 3% of Companies’ Data Meets Basic Quality Standards.” Harvard Business Review. 11 Sept 2017.

    Petzold, Bryan, et al. “Designing data governance that delivers value.” McKinsey & Company, 26 June 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Smaje, Kate. “How six companies are using technology and data to transform themselves.” McKinsey & Company, 12 Aug. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Talend. “The Definitive Guide to Data Governance.” Talend. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    “The Powerfully Simple Modern Data Catalog.” Atlan, 2021. Web.

    U.S. Geological Survey. “Data Management: Data Standards.” U.S. Geological Survey. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Waller, David. “10 Steps to Creating a Data-Driven Culture.” Harvard Business Review, 6 Feb. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    “What is the Difference Between A Business Glossary, A Data Dictionary, and A Data Catalog, and How Do They Play A Role In Modern Data Management?” Analytics8, 23 June 2021. Web.

    Wikipedia. “RFM (market research).” Wikipedia. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Windheuser, Christoph, and Nina Wainwright. “Data in a Modern Digital Business.” Thoughtworks, 12 May 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Wright, Tom. “Digital Marketing KPIs - The 12 Key Metrics You Should Be Tracking.” Cascade, 3 March 2021. Accessed 25 June 2021.

    Incident Management for Small Enterprise

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}482|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $6,531 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 3 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Incident & Problem Management
    • Parent Category Link: /incident-and-problem-management
    • Technical debt and disparate systems are big constraints for most small enterprise (SE) organizations. What may have worked years ago is no longer fit for purpose or the business is growing faster than the current tools in place can handle.
    • Super specialization of knowledge is also a common factor in smaller teams caused by complex architectures. While helpful, if that knowledge isn’t documented it can walk out the door with the resource and the rest of the team is left scrambling.
    • Lessons learned may be gathered for critical incidents but often are not propagated, which impacts the ability to solve recurring incidents.
    • Over time, repeated incidents can have a negative impact on the customer’s perception that the service desk is a credible and essential service to the business.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Go beyond the blind adoption of best-practice frameworks. No simple formula exists for improving incident management maturity. Identify the challenges in your incident lifecycle and draw on best-practice frameworks pragmatically to build a structured response to those challenges.
    • Track, analyze, and review results of incident response regularly. Without a comprehensive understanding of incident trends and patterns you can be susceptible to recurring incidents that increase in damage over time. Make the case for problem management, and successfully reduce the volume of unplanned work by scheduling it into regular IT activity.
    • Recurring incidents will happen; use runbooks for a consistent response each time. Save your organization response time and confusion by developing your own specific incident use cases. Incident response should follow a standard process, but each incident will have its own escalation process or call tree that identifies key participants.

    Impact and Result

    • Effective and efficient management of incidents involves a formal process of identifying, classifying, categorizing, responding, resolving, and closing of each incident. The key for smaller organizations, where technology or resources is a constraint, is to make the best practices usable for your unique environment.
    • Develop a plan that aligns with your organizational needs, and adapt best practices into light, sustainable processes, with the goal to improve time to resolve, cost to serve, and ultimately, end-user satisfaction.
    • Successful implementation of incident management will elevate the maturity of the service desk to a controlled state, preparing you for becoming proactive with problem management.

    Incident Management for Small Enterprise Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

    1. Identify and log incidents

    This phase will provide an overview of the incident lifecycle and an activity on how to classify the various types of incidents in your environment.

    • Service Desk Standard Operating Procedure
    • Incident Management Workflow Library (Visio)
    • Incident Management Workflow Library (PDF)

    2. Prioritize and define SLAs

    This phase will help you develop a categorization scheme for incident handling that ensures success and keeps it simple. It will also help you identify the most important runbooks necessary to create first.

    • Service Desk Ticket Categorization Schemes
    • IT Incident Runbook Prioritization Tool
    • IT Incident Management Runbook Blank Template

    3. Respond, recover, and close incidents

    This phase will help you identify how to use a knowledgebase to resolve incidents quicker. Identify what needs to be answered during a post-incident review and identify the criteria needed to invoke problem management.

    • Knowledgebase Article Template
    • Root-Cause Analysis Template
    • Post-Incident Review Questions Tracking Tool
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Incident Management for Small Enterprise

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

    1 Assess the Current State

    The Purpose

    Assess the current state of the incident management lifecycle within the organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand the incident lifecycle and how to classify them in your environment.

    Identify the roles and responsibilities of the incident response team.

    Document the incident workflows to identify areas of opportunities.

    Activities

    1.1 Outline your incident lifecycle challenges.

    1.2 Identify and classify incidents.

    1.3 Identify roles and responsibilities for incident handling.

    1.4 Design normal and critical incident workflows for target state.

    Outputs

    List of incident challenges for each phase of the incident lifecycle

    Incident classification scheme mapped to resolution team

    RACI chart

    Incident Workflow Library

    2 Define the Target State

    The Purpose

    Design or improve upon current incident and ticket categorization schemes, priority, and impact.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    List of the most important runbooks necessary to create first and a usable template to go forward with

    Activities

    2.1 Improve incident categorization scheme.

    2.2 Prioritize and define SLAs.

    2.3 Understand the purpose of runbooks and prioritize development.

    2.4 Develop a runbook template.

    Outputs

    Revised ticket categorization scheme

    Prioritization matrix based on impact and urgency

    IT Incident Runbook Prioritization Tool

    Top priority incident runbook

    3 Bridge the Gap

    The Purpose

    Respond, recover, and close incidents with root-cause analysis, knowledgebase, and incident runbooks.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    This module will help you to identify how to use a knowledgebase to resolve quicker.

    Identify what needs to be answered during a post-incident review.

    Identify criteria to invoke problem management.

    Activities

    3.1 Build a targeted knowledgebase.

    3.2 Build a post-incident review process.

    3.3 Identify metrics to track success.

    3.4 Build an incident matching process.

    Outputs

    Working knowledgebase template

    Root-cause analysis template and post-incident review checklist

    List of metrics

    Develop criteria for problem management

    IT Talent Trends 2022

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}541|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 8.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.
    • member rating average days saved: Read what our members are saying
    • Parent Category Name: People & Leadership
    • Parent Category Link: /people-and-leadership

    Business and IT leaders aiming to build and keep successful teams in 2022 must:

    • Optimize IT in the face of a competitive labor market.
    • Build or maintain a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
    • Manage the monumental shift to the new normal of remote work.
    • Weather the Great Resignation and come out on top.
    • Correctly assess development areas for their teams.
    • Justify investing in IT talent.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • If 2021 was about beginning to act on employee needs, 2022 will be about strategically examining each trend to ensure that the organization's promises to take action are more than lip service.
    • Employees have always been able to see through disingenuous attempts to engage them, but in 2022 the stakes are higher due to increased talent mobility.

    Impact and Result

    This report includes:

    • A concise, executive-ready trend report.
    • Data and insights from IT organizations from around the world.
    • Steps to take for each of the trends depending on your current maturity level.
    • Examples and case studies.
    • Links to in-depth Info-Tech research and tools.

    IT Talent Trends 2022 Research & Tools

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

    1. IT Talent Trends Report for 2022 – A report to help you incorporate new ways of working into your business to build and keep the best team.

    Discover Info-Tech’s 2022 talent trends for IT leaders, which will provide insight into taking a strategic approach to navigate the post-pandemic IT talent landscape.

    • IT Talent Trends Report for 2022

    Infographic

    Further reading

    IT Talent Trends 2022

    The last two years have been a great experiment … but it’s not over yet.

    Incorporate new ways of working into your business to build and keep the best team.

    Over the past two years, organizations have ventured into unprecedented ways of working and supporting their employees, as they tried to maintain productivity through the pandemic. This experiment has made lasting changes to both business models and employee expectations, and these effects will continue to be seen long after we return to a “new normal.”

    While the pandemic forced us to work differently for the past two years, looking forward, successful organizations will incorporate new ways of working into their business models – beyond simply having a remote work policy.

    How we work, source roles, and develop talent continue to evolve as we navigate a different world with employees being more vocal in their desires, and leaders continue to play a key role.

    The IT talent market will never be the same, and organizations must reevaluate their employee experience from the bottom up to successfully weather the shift to the new normal.

    IT Talent Trends 2022

    Strategic Recruiting Finds Good Talent

    Finding talent in a strained talent market requires a marketing approach. Posting a job description isn’t enough.

    The (Not So) Great Resignation

    IT is faring better than other functions; however, specific industries need to pay attention.

    Grow Your DEI Practices Into Meaningful Actions

    Good intentions are not enough.

    Remote Work Is Here – Can Your Culture Adapt?

    The Great Experiment is over. Are leaders equipped to capitalize on its promises?

    Management Skills Drive Success in a Remote World

    Despite the need for remote team management training, it is still not happening.

    The pandemic has clarified employees’ needs and amplified their voices

    If 2021 was about beginning to act on employee needs, 2022 will be about strategically examining each trend to ensure that the actions taken by the organization are more than lip service.

    Employees have always been able to see through disingenuous attempts to engage them, but in 2022 the stakes are higher due to increased talent mobility.

    Trends that were just starting to come into focus last year have established themselves as critical determinants of the employee experience in 2022.

    2021

    DEI: A Top Talent ObjectiveRemote Work Is Here to StayUncertainty Unlocks PerformanceA Shift in Skills PrioritiesA Greater Emphasis on Wellbeing
    Arrow pointing down.Joiner pointing down.Joiner pointing down.

    2022

    Strategic Recruiting Finds Good Talent

    Finding talent in a strained talent market requires a marketing approach. Posting a job description isn’t enough.

    The (Not So) Great Resignation

    IT is faring better than other functions; however, specific industries need to pay attention.

    Grow Your DEI Practices Into Meaningful Actions

    Good intentions are not enough.

    Remote Work Is Here – Can Your Culture Adapt?

    The Great Experiment is over. Are leaders equipped to capitalize on its promises?

    Management Skills Drive Success in a Remote World

    Despite the need for remote team management training, it is still not happening.

    What employees are looking for is changing

    Superficial elements of traditional office culture were stripped away by the quick shift to a remote environment, giving employees the opportunity to reevaluate what truly matters to them in a job.

    The biggest change from 2019 (pre-pandemic) to today is increases in the importance of culture, flexible/remote work, and work-life balance.

    Organizations that fail to keep up with this shift in priorities will see the greatest difficulty in hiring and retaining staff.

    As an employee, which of the following would be important to you when considering a potential employer?

    2019 2021
    Flexible Work Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Flexible Work: 2019, Very 46%, Somewhat 49%, Not at All 5%.
    n=275
    Arrow pointing right. Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Flexible Work: 2021, Very 76%, Somewhat 21%, Not at All 2%.
    n=206
    Work-Life Balance Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Work-Life Balance: 2019, Very 67%, Somewhat 30%, Not at All 3%.
    n=277
    Arrow pointing right. Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Work-Life Balance: 2021, Very 80%, Somewhat 18%, Not at All 1%.
    n=206
    Culture Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Culture: 2019, Very 68%, Somewhat 31%, Not at All 1%.
    n=277
    Arrow pointing right. Pie graph representing response percentages from employees regarding importance of these factors. Culture: 2021, Very 81%, Somewhat 19%, Not at All 0%.
    n=206
    Source: Info-Tech Talent Trends Survey data collected in 2019 and 2021 Purple Very Important
    Blue Somewhat Important
    Green Not at All Important

    IT’s top talent priorities in 2022

    IT’s top Talent priorities reflect a post-pandemic focus on optimizing talent to fulfill strategic objectives: Top challenges for IT departments, by average rank, with 1 being the top priority.

    Important

    In the 2022 IT Talent Trends Survey, IT departments’ top priorities continue to be learning and innovation in support of organizational objectives. —› Enabling leaning and development within IT
    —› Enabling departmental innovation
    5.01
    5.54
    With employees being clearer and more vocal about their needs than ever before, employee experience has risen to the forefront of IT’s concern as a key enabler of strategic objectives. —› Providing a great employee experience for IT 5.66
    Supporting departmental change 6.01
    With organizations finally on the way to financial stability post pandemic, recruiting is a major focus. —› Recruiting (e.g. quickly filling vacant roles in IT with quality external talent) 6.18
    However, IT’s key efforts are threatened by critical omissions: Fostering a positive employee relations climate in the department 6.32
    Despite a focus on learning and development, leadership skills are not yet a top focus. —› Developing the organization's IT leaders 6.33
    Rapidly moving internal IT employees to staff strategic priorities 6.96
    Facilitating data-driven people decisions within IT 7.12
    Controlling departmental labor costs and maximizing the value of the labor spend 7.13
    Despite the need to provide a great employee experience, the focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion is low. —› Fostering an environment of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the department 7.31
    Despite prioritizing recruiting, IT departments see candidate experience as a last priority, either not focusing on it or relegating it to HR. —› Providing a great candidate experience for IT candidates 8.43
    (n=227)

    IT Talent Trends 2022

    Look beneath the surface of the trends to navigate them successfully

    Above Ground
    Focusing on what you see 'Above the line" won't solve the problem.

    Talent isn't a checklist.

    Strategic Recruiting Finds Good Talent

    Finding talent in a strained talent market requires a marketing approach. Posting a job description isn't enough.
    • The number of job openings increased to 11.4 million on the last business day of October, up from 10.6 million in September (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Dec. 2021)

    The (Not So) Great Resignation

    IT is faring better than other functions; however, specific industries need to pay attention.
    • In September, in the US, 4.4 million people left their jobs. That number dropped to 4.2 million in October. (US Labor Stats, Dec. 2021)
    • 30% of workers will likely switch jobs if they have to return to the office full time. (McKinsey, Dec. 2021)

    Grow Your DEI Practices Into Meaningful Actions

    Good intentions are not enough.
    • 95% of organizations are focusing on DEI. (2022 HR Trends Report)
    • 48% of IT departments have delivered training on DEI over the past year.

    Remote Work is Here. Can Your Culture Adapt?

    The Great Experiment is over. Are you equipped to capitalize on its promises?
    • 85% of organizations saw the same or higher productivity during the pandemic.
    • 91% of organizations are continuing remote work.

    Management Skills Drive Success in a Remote World

    Despite the need for remote team management training, it is still not happening.
    • 72% of IT departments report high effectiveness at managing remote staff.
    • Learning and development is IT's top priority.
    Cross-section of the Earth and various plants with their root systems, highlighting the world above ground and below.
    Beneath the Surface
    For each trend, a strategic approach to get "under the line" will help form your response.

    Talent needs a holistic approach, as under the line everything is connected. If you are experiencing challenges in one area, analyzing data (e.g. engagement, exit surveys, effectiveness of DEI program and leader training) can help drive overall experience.

    • 100% of job seekers cite culture as somewhat to very important.
    • Only 40% of employers advertise culture in job postings.
    • 70% of IT departments state voluntary turnover is less than 10%
    • Top reasons for resignation are salary, development, and opportunity for innovative work.
    • Resignation rates were higher in fields that had experienced extreme stress due to the pandemic (HBR, Dec. 2021)
    • Senior leadership is overestimating their own commitment to DEI.
    • Most IT departments are not driving their own DEI initiatives.
    • Without effectively measuring DEI practices, organizations will see 1.6x more turnover. (2022 HR Trends Report)
    • Senior leadership is not open to remote work in 23% of organizations.
    • Without leadership support, employees will not buy into remote work initiatives.
    • A remote work policy will not bring organizational benefits without employee buy-in.
    • 75% of senior managers believe remote team management is highly effective, but only 60% of frontline staff agree.
    • Training focuses on technical skills, to the exclusion of soft skills, including management and leadership.
    Solutions
    Recommendations depending on your department's maturity level.
    Attention is required for candidate experience underpinned by a realistic employee value proposition. Gather and review existing data (e.g. early retirements, demographics) to understand your turnover rate. Use employee engagement tools to gauge employee sentiment among impacted groups and build out an engagement strategy to meet those needs. Conduct a cultural assessment to reveal hidden biases that may stand in the way of remote work efficacy. Provide management training on performance management and development coaching.

    Logo for Info-Tech.Logo for ITRG.

    This report is based on organizations just like yours

    Survey timeline = October 2021
    Total respondents = 245 IT professionals

    Geospatial map of survey responses shaded in accordance with the percentages listed below.
    01 United States 45% 08 Middle East 2%
    02 Canada 23% 09 Other (Asia) 2%
    03 Africa 8% 10 Germany 1%
    04 Great Britain 6% 11 India 1%
    05 Latin America, South America or Caribbean 4% 12 Netherlands 1%
    06 Other (Europe) 4% 13 New Zealand 1%
    07 Australia 2% (N-245)

    A bar chart titled 'Please estimate your organization's revenue in US$ (Use operating budget if you are a public-sector organization)' measuring survey responses. '$0 - less than 1M, 7%', '$1M - less than 5M, 4%', '$5M - less than 10M, 4%', '$10M - less than 25M, 6%', '$25M - less than 50M, 5%', '$50M - less than 100M, 13%', '$100M - less than 500M, 24%', '$500M - less than 1B, 9%', '1B - less than 5B, 22%', '$5B+, 8%'. (n=191)

    This report is based on organizations just like yours

    Industry

    Bar chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by industry. The largest percentages are from 'Government', 'Manufacturing', 'Media, information, Telecom & Technology', and 'Financial Services (including banking & insurance)'.

    Info-Tech IT Maturity Model

    Stacked bar chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by IT maturity level. Innovator is 7.11%, Business Partner is 16.44%, Trusted Operator is 24.89%, Firefighter is 39.11%, and Unstable is 12.44%.
    (n=225)

    Innovator – Transforms the Business
    Reliable Technology Innovation

    Business Partner – Expands the Business
    Effective Execution Projects, Strategic Use of Analytics and Customer Technology

    Trusted Operator – Optimizes Business
    Effective Fulfillment of Work Orders, Functional Business Applications, and Reliable Data Quality

    Firefighter – Supports the Business
    Reliable Infrastructure and IT Service Desk

    Unstable – Struggles to Support
    Inability to Provide Reliable Business Services

    This report is based on people just like you

    Which of the following ethnicities (ethnicity refers to a group with a shared or common identity, culture, and/or language) do you identify with? Select all that apply. What gender do you identify most with?
    A pie chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by ethnicity. Answers are 'White (e.g. European, North America), 59%', 'Asian (e.g. Japan, India, Philippines, Uzbekistan), 12%', 'Black (e.g. Africa, Caribbean, North America), 12%', 'Latin/Hispanic (e.g. Cuba, Guatemala, Spain, Brazil), 7%', 'Middle Eastern (e.g. Lebanon, Libya, Iran), 4%', 'Indigenous (e.g. First Nations, Inuit, Metis, Maori), 3%', 'Indo-Caribbean (e.g. Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, St. Vincent), 3%'.
    (N=245)
    A pie chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by gender. Answers are 'Male, 67%', 'Female, 24%', 'Prefer not to answer, 5%', 'No Specification, 4%', 'Intersex, 0%'.
    (n=228)

    This report is based on people just like you

    What is your sub-department of IT? Which title best describes your position?
    Bar chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by sub-department. The top three answers are 'Senior Leadership', 'Infrastructure and Operations', and 'Application Development'.
    (n=227)
    Bar chart measuring percentage of survey respondents by title. The top four answers are 'Director-level, 29%', 'Manager, 22%', 'C-Level Officer, 18%', and 'VP-level, 11%.'
    (N=245)

    IT Talent Trends 2022

    Each trend is introduced with key questions you can ask yourself to see how your department fares in that area.

    The report is based on statistics from a survey of 245 of your peers.

    It includes recommendations of next steps and a key metric to track your success.

    It lists Info-Tech resources that you, as a member, can leverage to begin your journey to improve talent management in your department.

    Strategic Recruiting Finds Good Talent

    Finding talent in a strained talent market requires a marketing approach. Posting a job description isn’t enough.

    The (Not So) Great Resignation

    IT is faring better than other functions; however, specific industries need to pay attention.

    Grow Your DEI Practices Into Meaningful Actions

    Good intentions are not enough.

    Remote Work Is Here – Can Your Culture Adapt?

    The Great Experiment is over. Are leaders equipped to capitalize on its promises?

    Management Skills Drive Success in a Remote World

    Despite the need for remote team management training, it is still not happening.

    The report is based on data gathered from Info-Tech Research Group’s 2022 IT Talent Trends Survey. The data was gathered in September and October of 2021.

    Strategic Recruiting Finds Good Talent

    Trend 1 | The Battle to Find and Keep Talent

    As the economy has stabilized, more jobs have become available, creating a job seeker’s market. This is a clear sign of confidence in the economy, however fragile, as new waves of the pandemic continue.

    Info-Tech Point of View

    Recruiting tactics are an outcome of a well-defined candidate experience and employee value proposition.

    Introduction

    Cross-section of a plant and its roots, above and below ground. During our interviews, members that focused on sharing their culture with a strong employee value proposition were more likely to be successful in hiring their first-choice candidates.
    Questions to ask yourself
    • Do you have a well-articulated employee value proposition?
    • Are you using your job postings to market your company culture?
    • Have you explored multiple channels for posting jobs to increase your talent pool of candidates?

    47% of respondents are hiring external talent to fill existing gaps, with 40% using external training programs to upgrade current employees. (Info-Tech IT Talent Trends 2022 Survey)

    In October, the available jobs (in the USA) unexpectedly rose to 11 million, higher than the 10.4 million experts predicted. (CNN Business, 2021)

    Where has all the talent gone?

    IT faces multiple challenges when recruiting for specialized talent

    Talent scarcity is focused in areas with specialized skill sets such as security and architecture that are dynamic and evolving faster than other skill sets.

    “It depends on what field you work in,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson. “There were labor shortages in those fields pre-pandemic and two years forward, there is even more demand for people with those skills” (CNBC, 19 Nov. 2021).

    37% of IT departments are outsourcing roles to fill internal skill shortages. (Info-Tech Talent Trends 2022 Survey)

    Roles Difficult to Fill

    Horizontal bar chart measuring percentage of survey responses about which roles are most difficult to fill. In order from most difficult to least they are 'Security (n=177)', 'Enterprise Architecture (n=172)', 'Senior Leadership (n=169)', 'Data & Business Intelligence (n=171)', 'Applications Development (n=177)', 'Infrastructure & Operations (n=181)', 'Business Relationship Management (n=149)', 'Project Management (n=175)', 'Vendor Management (n=133)', 'Service Desk (n=184)'.(Info-Tech Talent Trends 2022 Survey)

    Case Study: Using culture to drive your talent pool

    This case study is happening in real time. Please check back to learn more as Goddard continues to recruit for the position.

    Recruiting at NASA

    Goddard Space Center is the largest of NASA’s space centers with approximately 11,000 employees. It is currently recruiting for a senior technical role for commercial launches. The position requires consulting and working with external partners and vendors.

    NASA is a highly desirable employer due to its strong culture of inclusivity, belonging, teamwork, learning, and growth. Its culture is anchored by a compelling vision, “For the betterment of Humankind,” and amplified by a strong leadership team that actively lives their mission and vision daily.

    Firsthand lists NASA as #1 on the 50 most prestigious internships for 2022.

    Rural location and no flexible work options add to the complexity of recruiting

    The position is in a rural area of Eastern Shore Virginia with a population of approximately 60,000 people, which translates to a small pool of candidates. Any hire from outside the area will be expected to relocate as the senior technician must be onsite to support launches twice a month. Financial relocation support is not offered and the position is a two-year assignment with the option of extension that could eventually become permanent.

    Photo of Steve Thornton, Acting Division Chief, Solutions Division, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA.

    “Looking for a Talent Unicorn; a qualified, experienced candidate with both leadership skills and deep technical expertise that can grow and learn with emerging technologies.”

    Steve Thornton
    Acting Division Chief, Solutions Division,
    Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

    Case Study: Using culture to drive your talent pool

    A good brand overcomes challenges

    Culture takes the lead in NASA's job postings, which attract a high number of candidates. Postings begin with a link to a short video on working at NASA, its history, and how it lives its vision. The video highlights NASA's diversity of perspectives, career development, and learning opportunities.

    NASA's company brand and employer brand are tightly intertwined, providing a consistent view of the organization.

    The employer vision is presented in the best place to reach NASA's ideal candidate: usajobs.gov, the official website of the United States Government and the “go-to” for government job listings. NASA also extends its postings to other generic job sites as well as LinkedIn and professional associations.

    Photo of Robert Leahy, Chief Information Officer, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA.

    Interview with Robert Leahy
    Chief Information Officer
    Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

    “Making sure we have the tools and mechanisms are two hiring challenges we are going to face in the future as how we work evolves and our work environment changes. What will we need to consider with our job announcements and the criteria for selecting employees?”

    Liteshia Dennis,
    Office Chief, Headquarter IT Office, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

    The ability to attract and secure candidates requires a strategy

    Despite prioritizing recruiting, IT departments see candidate experience as THE last Priority, either not focusing on it or relegating it to HR

    Candidate experience is listed as one of the bottom IT challenges, but without a positive experience, securing the talent you want will be difficult.

    Candidate experience starts with articulating your unique culture, benefits, and opportunities for development and innovative work as well as outlining flexible working options within an employer brand. Defining an employee value proposition is key to marketing your roles to potential employees.

    81% of respondents' rate culture as very important when considering a potential employer. (Info-Tech IT Talent Trends 2022 Survey)

    Tactics Used in Job Postings to Position the Organization Favorably as a Potential Employer

    Horizontal bar chart measuring percentage of survey responses about tactics used in job postings. The top tactics are 'Culture, 40%', 'Benefits, 40%', 'Opportunity for Innovative Work, 30%', and 'Professional Development, 30%'.(Info-Tech IT Talent Trends 2022 Survey)

    Case Study: Increasing talent pool at Info-Tech Research Group

    Strong sales leads to growth in operation capacity

    Info-Tech Research Group is an IT research & advisory firm helping IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. Our actionable tools and analyst guidance ensure IT organizations achieve measurable results.

    The business has grown rapidly over the last couple of years, creating a need to recruit additional talent who were highly skilled in technical applications and approaches.

    In response, approval was given to expand headcount within Research for fiscal year 2022 and to establish a plan for continual expansion as revenue continues to grow.

    Looking for deep technical expertise with a passion for helping our members

    Hiring for our research department requires talent who are typically subject matter experts within their own respective IT domains and interested in and capable of developing research and advising clients through calls and workshops.

    This combination of skills, experience, and interest can be challenging to find, especially in an IT labor market that is more competitive than ever.

    Photo of Tracy-Lynn Reid, Practice Lead.

    Interview with Practice Lead Tracy-Lynn Reid

    Focus on Candidate Experience increases successful hire rate

    The senior leadership team established a project to focus on recruiting for net-new and open roles. A dedicated resource was assigned and used guidance from our research to enhance our hiring process to reduce time to hire and expand our candidate pool. Senior leaders stayed actively involved to provide feedback.

    The hiring process was improved by including panel interviews with interview protocols and a rubric to evaluate all candidates equitably.

    The initial screening conversation now includes a discussion on benefits, including remote and flexible work offerings, learning and development budget, support for post-secondary education, and our Buy-a-Book program.

    As a result, about 70% of the approved net-new headcount was hired within 12 weeks, with recruitment ongoing.

    Modernize Data Architecture for Measurable Business Results

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}387|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.5/10 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: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management
    • Data architecture projects have often failed in the past, causing businesses today to view the launch of a new project as a costly initiative with unclear business value.
    • New technologies in big data and analytics are requiring organizations to modernize their data architecture, but most organizations have failed to spend the time and effort refining the appropriate data models and blueprints that enable them to do so.
    • As the benefits for data architecture are often diffused across an organization’s information management practice, it can be difficult for the business to understand the value and necessity of data architecture.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • At the heart of tomorrow’s insights-driven enterprises is a modern data environment anchored in fit-for-purpose data architectures.
    • The role of traditional data architecture is transcending beyond organizational boundaries and its focus is shifting from “keeping the lights on” (i.e. operational data and BI) to providing game-changing insights gleaned from untapped big data.

    Impact and Result

    • Perform a diagnostic assessment of your present day architecture and identify the capabilities of your future “to be” environment to position your organization to capitalize on new opportunities in the data space.
    • Use Info-Tech’s program diagnostic assessment and guidance for developing a strategic roadmap to support your team in building a fit-for purpose data architecture practice.
    • Create a data delivery architecture that harmonizes traditional and modern architectural opportunities.

    Modernize Data Architecture for Measurable Business Results Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

    1. Develop a data architecture vision

    Plan your data architecture project and align it with the business and its strategic vision.

    • Modernize Data Architecture for Measurable Business Results – Phase 1: Develop a Data Architecture Vision
    • Modernize Data Architecture Project Charter
    • Data Architecture Strategic Planning Workbook

    2. Assess data architecture capabilities

    Evaluate the current and target capabilities of your data architecture, using the accompanying diagnostic assessment to identify performance gaps and build a fit-for-purpose practice.

    • Modernize Data Architecture for Measurable Business Results – Phase 2: Assess Data Architecture Capabilities
    • Data Architecture Assessment and Roadmap Tool
    • Initiative Definition Tool

    3. Develop a data architecture roadmap

    Translate your planned initiatives into a sequenced roadmap.

    • Modernize Data Architecture for Measurable Business Results – Phase 3: Develop a Data Architecture Roadmap
    • Modernize Data Architecture Roadmap Presentation Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Modernize Data Architecture for Measurable Business Results

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

    1 Develop a Data Architecture (DA) Vision

    The Purpose

    Discuss key business drivers and strategies.

    Identify data strategies.

    Develop a data architecture vision.

    Assess data architecture practice capabilities. 

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A data architecture vision aligned with the business.

    A completed assessment of the organization’s current data architecture practice capabilities.

    Identification of "to be" data architecture practice capabilities.

    Identification of key gaps. 

    Activities

    1.1 Explain approach and value proposition

    1.2 Discuss business vision and key drivers

    1.3 Discover business pain points and needs

    1.4 Determine data strategies

    1.5 Assess DA practice capabilities

    Outputs

    Data strategies

    Data architecture vision

    Current and target capabilities for the modernized DA practice

    2 Assess DA Core Capabilities (Part 1)

    The Purpose

    Assess the enterprise data model (EDM).

    Assess current and target data warehouse, BI/analytics, and big data architectures.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A completed assessment of the organization’s current EDM, data warehouse, BI and analytics, and big data architectures.

    Identification of "to be" capabilities for the organization’s EDM, data warehouse, BI and analytics, and big data architectures.

    Identification of key gaps.

    Activities

    2.1 Present an overarching DA capability model

    2.2 Assess current and target EDM capabilities

    2.3 Assess current/target data warehouse, BI/analytics, and big data architectures

    2.4 Identify gaps and high level strategies

    Outputs

    Target capabilities for EDM

    Target capabilities for data warehouse architecture, BI architecture, and big data architecture

    3 Assess DA Core Capabilities (Part 2)

    The Purpose

    Assess EDM.

    Assess current/target MDM, metadata, data integration, and content architectures.

    Assess dynamic data models.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A completed assessment of the organization’s current MDM, metadata, data integration, and content architectures.

    Identification of “to be” capabilities for the organization’s MDM, metadata, data integration, and content architectures.

    Identification of key gaps.

    Activities

    3.1 Present an overarching DA capability model

    3.2 Assess current and target MDM, metadata, data integration, and content architectures

    3.3 Assess data lineage and data delivery model

    3.4 Identify gaps and high level strategies

    Outputs

    Target capabilities for MDM architecture, metadata architecture, data integration architecture, and document & content architecture

    Target capabilities for data lineage/delivery

    4 Analyze Gaps and Formulate Strategies

    The Purpose

    Map performance gaps and document key initiatives from the diagnostic assessment.

    Identify additional gaps and action items.

    Formulate strategies and initiatives to address priority gaps. 

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Prioritized gap analysis.

    Improvement initiatives and related strategies.

    Activities

    4.1 Map performance gaps to business vision, pain points, and needs

    4.2 Identify additional gaps

    4.3 Consolidate/rationalize/prioritize gaps

    4.4 Formulate strategies and actions to address gaps

    Outputs

    Prioritized gaps

    Data architecture modernization strategies

    5 Develop a Data Architecture Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Plot initiatives and strategies on a strategic roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A roadmap with prioritized and sequenced initiatives.

    Milestone plan.

    Executive report. 

    Activities

    5.1 Transform strategies into a plan of action

    5.2 Plot actions on a prioritized roadmap

    5.3 Identify and discuss next milestone plan

    5.4 Compile an executive report

    Outputs

    Data architecture modernization roadmap

    Data architecture assessment and roadmap report (from analyst team)

    Prepare for Cognitive Service Management

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}335|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: 10 Average Days Saved
    • member rating average days saved: After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.
    • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Organizational Design
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-organizational-design
    • The evolution of natural language processing and machine learning applications has led to specialized AI-assisted toolsets that promise to improve the efficiency and timeliness of IT operations.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • These are early days. These AI-assisted toolsets are generating a considerable amount of media attention, but most of them are relatively untested. Early adopters willing to absorb experimentation costs are in the process of deploying the first use cases. Initial lessons are showing that IT operations in most organizations are not yet mature enough to take advantage of AI-assisted toolsets.
    • Focus on the problem, not the tool. Explicit AI questions should be at the end of the list. Start by asking what business problem you want to solve.
    • Get your house in order. The performance of AI-assisted tools depends on mature IT operations processes and reliable data sets. Standardize service management processes and build a knowledgebase of structured content to prepare for AI-assisted IT operations.

    Impact and Result

    • Don’t fall prey to the AI-bandwagon effect. AI-assisted innovations will support shift-left service support strategies through natural language processing and machine learning applications. However, the return on your AI investment will depend on whether it helps you meet an actual business goal.
    • AI-assisted tools presuppose the existence of mature IT operations functions, including standardized processes, high-quality structured content focused on the incidents and requests that matter, and a well-functioning ITSM web portal.
    • The success of AI ITSM projects hinges on adoption. If your vision is to power end-user interactions with chatbots and deploy intelligent agents on tickets coming through the web portal, be sure to develop a self-service culture that empowers end users to help themselves and experiment with new tools and technologies. Without end-user adoption, the promised benefits of AI projects will not materialize.

    Prepare for Cognitive Service Management Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should prepare for cognitive service management, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Review emerging AI technology

    Get an overview of emerging AI applications to understand how they will strengthen a shift-left service support strategy.

    2. Sort potential IT operations AI use cases

    Review potential use cases for AI applications to prioritize improvement initiatives and align them to organizational goals.

    • Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool
    • Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    3. Prepare for a cognitive service management project

    Develop an ITSM AI strategy to prepare your organization for the coming of cognitive service management, and build a roadmap for implementation.

    • Customer Journey Map (PDF)
    • Customer Journey Map (Visio)
    • Infrastructure Roadmap Technology Assessment Tool
    • Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool
    [infographic]

    The Rapid Application Selection Framework

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}608|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.2/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $37,512 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 22 Average Days Saved
    • 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]

    Integrate Physical Security and Information Security

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}383|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: Security Processes & Operations
    • Parent Category Link: /security-processes-and-operations

    Physical security is often managed by facilities, not by IT security, resulting in segmented security systems. Integrating physical and information security introduces challenges in:

    • Understanding the value proposition of investment in governing and managing integrated systems, including migration costs, compared to separated security systems.
    • Addressing complex risks and vulnerabilities of an integrated security system.
    • Operationalizing enhanced capabilities created by adoption of emerging and disruptive technologies.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Integrate security in people, process, and technology to improve your overall security posture. Having siloed systems running security is not beneficial. Many organizations are realizing the benefits of consolidating into a single platform across physical security, cybersecurity, HR, legal, and compliance.
    • Plan and engage stakeholders. Assemble the right team to ensure the success of your integrated security ecosystem, decide the governance model, and clearly define the roles and responsibilities.
    • Enhance strategy and risk management. Strategically, we want a physical security system that is interoperable with most technologies, flexible with minimal customization, functional, and integrated, despite the challenges of proprietary configurations, complex customization, and silos.

    Impact and Result

    Info-Tech's approach is a modular, incremental, and repeatable process to integrate physical and information security to:

    • Ensure the integration will meet the business' needs and determine effort and technical requirements.
    • Establish GRC processes that include integrated risk management and compliance.
    • Design and deploy an integrated security architecture.
    • Establish security metrics of effectiveness and efficiency for senior management and leadership.

    Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Research & Tools

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

    1. Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Storyboard – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to integrate physical security and information security.

    Info-Tech provides a three-phased framework for integrating physical security and information security: Plan, Enhance, and Monitor & Optimize.

    • Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Storyboard

    2. Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool – A tool to map organizational goals to IT goals, facilities goals, OT goals (if applicable), and integrated security goals.

    This tool serves as a repository for information about security integration elements, compliance, and other factors that will influence your integration of physical security and information security.

    • Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool

    3. Integrate Physical Security and Information Security RACI Chart Tool – A tool to identify and understand the owners of various security integration stakeholders across the organization.

    Populating a RACI chart (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) is a critical step that will assist you in organizing roles for carrying out integration steps. Complete this tool to assign tasks to suitable roles.

    • Integrate Physical Security and Information Security RACI Chart Tool

    4. Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Communication Deck – A tool to present your findings in a prepopulated document that summarizes the work you have completed.

    Complete this template to effectively communicate your integrated security plan to stakeholders.

    • Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Communication Deck
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Integrate Physical Security and Information Security

    Securing information security, physical security, or personnel security in silos may not secure much

    Analyst Perspective

    Ensure integrated security success with close and continual collaboration

    From physical access control systems (PACS) such as electronic locks and fingerprint biometrics to video surveillance systems (VSS) such as IP cameras to perimeter intrusion detection and prevention to fire and life safety and beyond: physical security systems pose unique challenges to overall security. Additionally, digital transformation of physical security to the cloud and the convergence of operational technology (OT), internet of things (IoT), and industrial IoT (IIoT) increase both the volume and frequency of security threats.

    These threats can be safety, such as the health impact when a gunfire attack downed wastewater pumps at Duke Energy Substation, North Carolina, US, in 2022. The threats can also be economic, such as theft of copper wire, or they can be reliability, such as when a sniper attack on Pacific Gas & Electric’s Metcalf Substation in California, US, damaged 17 out of 21 power transformers in 2013.

    Considering the security risks organizations face, many are unifying physical, cyber, and information security systems to gain the long-term overall benefits a consolidated security strategy provides.

    Ida Siahaan
    Ida Siahaan

    Research Director, Security and Privacy Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Physical security is often managed by facilities, not by IT security, resulting in segmented security systems. Meanwhile, integrating physical and information security introduces challenges in:

    • Value proposition of investment in governing and managing integrated systems including the migration costs compared to separated security systems.
    • Addressing complex risks and vulnerabilities of an integrated security system.
    • Operationalizing on enhanced capabilities created by adoption of emerging and disruptive technologies.

    Common Obstacles

    Physical security systems integration is complex due to various components such as proprietary devices and protocols and hybrid systems of analog and digital technology. Thus, open architecture with comprehensive planning and design is important.

    However, territorial protection by existing IT and physical security managers may limit security visibility and hinder security integration.

    Additionally, integration poses challenges in staffing, training and awareness programs, and dependency on third-party technologies and their migration plans.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Info-Tech’s approach is a modular, incremental, and repeatable process to integrate physical and information security that enables organizations to:

    • Determine effort and technical requirements to ensure the integration will meet the business needs.
    • Establish GRC processes including integrated risk management and compliance.
    • Design and deploy integrated security architecture.
    • Establish metrics to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of the security program.

    Info-Tech Insight

    An integrated security architecture, including people, process, and technology, will improve your overall security posture. These benefits are leading many organizations to consolidate their siloed systems into a single platform across physical security, cybersecurity, HR, legal, and compliance.

    Existing information security models are not comprehensive

    Current security models do not cover all areas of security, especially if physical systems and personnel are involved and safety is also an important property required.

    • The CIA triad (confidentiality, integrity, availability) is a well-known information security model that focuses on technical policies related to technology for protecting information assets.
    • The US Government’s Five Pillars of Information Assurance includes CIA, authentication, and non-repudiation, but it does not cover people and processes comprehensively.
    • The AAA model, created by the American Accounting Association, has properties of authentication, authorization, and accounting but focuses only on access control.
    • Donn Parker expanded the CIA model with three more properties: possession, authenticity, and utility. This model, which includes people and processes, is known as the Parkerian hexad. However, it does not cover physical and personnel security.

    CIA Triad

    The CIA Triad for Information Security: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability


    Parkerian Hexad

    The Parkerian Hexad for Security: Confidentiality, Possession, Utility, Availability, Authenticity and Integrity

    Sources: Parker, 1998; Pender-Bey, 2012; Cherdantseva and Hilton, 2015

    Adopt an integrated security model

    Adopt an integrated security model which consists of information security, physical security, personnel security, and organizational security.

    The security ecosystem is shifting from segregation to integration

    Security ecosystem is shifting from the past proprietary model to open interfaces and future open architecture

    Sources: Cisco, n.d.; Preparing for Technology Convergence in Manufacturing, Info-Tech Research Group, 2018

    Physical security includes:

    • Securing physical access,
      e.g. facility access control, alarms, surveillance cameras
    • Securing physical operations
      (operational technology – OT), e.g. programmable logic controllers (PLCs), SCADA

    Info-Tech Insight

    Why is integrating physical and information security gaining more and more traction? Because the supporting technologies are becoming more matured. This includes, for example, migration of physical security devices to IP-based network and open architecture.

    Reactive responses to physical security incidents

    April 1995

    Target: Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma, US. Method: Bombing. Impact: Destroyed structure of 17 federal agencies, 168 casualties, over 800 injuries. Result: Creation of Interagency Security Committee (ISC) in Executive Order 12977 and “Vulnerability Assessment of Federal Facilities” standard.
    (Source: Office of Research Services, 2017)

    April 2013

    Target: Pacific Gas & Electric’s Metcalf Substation, California, US. Method: Sniper attack. Impact: Out of 21 power transformers, 17 were damaged. Result: Creation of Senate Bill No. 699 and NERC- CIP-014 standard.
    (Source: T&D World, 2023)

    Sep. 2022

    Target: Nord Stream gas pipelines connecting Russia to Germany, Baltic sea. Method: Detonations. Impact: Methane leaks (~300,000 tons) at four exclusive economic zones (two in Denmark and two in Sweden). Result: Sweden’s Security Service investigation.
    (Source: CNBC News, 2022)

    Dec. 2022

    Target: Duke Energy Substation, North Carolina, US. Method: Gunfire. Impact: Power outages of ~40,000 customers and wastewater pumps in sewer lift stations down. Result: State of emergency was declared.
    (Source: CBS News, 2022)

    Info-Tech Insight

    When it comes to physical security, we have been mostly reactive. Typically the pattern starts with physical attacks. Next, the impacted organization mitigates the incidents. Finally, new government regulatory measures or private sector or professional association standards are put in place. We must strive to change our pattern to become more proactive.

    Physical security market forecast and top physical security challenges

    Physical security market forecast
    (in billions USD)

    A forecast by MarketsandMarkets projected growth in the physical security market, using historical data from 2015 until 2019, with a CAGR of 6.4% globally and 5.2% in North America.

    A forecast by MarketsandMarkets projected growth in the physical security market, using historical data from 2015 until 2019, with a CAGR of 6.4% globally and 5.2% in North America.

    Source: MarketsandMarkets, 2022

    Top physical security challenges

    An Ontic survey (N=359) found that threat data management (40%) was the top physical security challenge in 2022, up from 33% in 2021, followed by physical security threats to the C-suite and company leadership (35%), which was a slight increase from 2021. An interesting decrease is data protection and privacy (32%), which dropped from 36% in 2021.

    An Ontic survey (N=359) found that threat data management (40%) was the top physical security challenge in 2022, up from 33% in 2021, followed by physical security threats to the C-suite and company leadership (35%), which was a slight increase from 2021. An interesting decrease is data protection and privacy (32%), which dropped from 36% in 2021.

    Source: Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence, 2022

    Info-Tech Insight

    The physical security market is growing in systems and services, especially the integration of threat data management with cybersecurity.

    Top physical security initiatives and operations integration investments

    We know the physical security challenges and how the physical security market is growing, but what initiatives are driving this growth? These are the top physical security initiatives and top investments for physical security operations integration:

    Top physical security initiatives

    The number one physical security initiative is integrating physical security systems. Other initiatives with similar concerns included data and cross-functional integration

    A survey by Brivo asked 700 security professionals about their top physical security initiatives. The number one initiative is integrating physical security systems. Other initiatives with similar concerns included data and cross-functional integration.

    Source: Brivo, 2022

    Top investments for physical security operations integration

    The number one investment is on access control systems with software to identify physical threat actors. Another area with similar concern is integration of digital physical security with cybersecurity.

    An Ontic survey (N=359) on areas of investment for physical security operations integration shows the number one investment is on access control systems with software to identify physical threat actors. Another area with similar concern is integration of digital physical security with cybersecurity.

    Source: Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence, 2022

    Evaluate security integration opportunities with these guiding principles

    Opportunity focus

    • Identify the security integration problems to solve with visible improvement possibilities
    • Don’t choose technology for technology’s sake
    • Keep an eye to the future
    • Use strategic foresight

    Piece by piece

    • Avoid taking a big bang approach
    • Test technologies in multiple conditions
    • Run inexpensive pilots
    • Increase flexibility
    • Build a technology ecosystem

    Buy-in

    • Collaborate with stakeholders
    • Gain and sustain support
    • Maintain transparency
    • Increase uptake of open architecture

    Key Recommendations:

    Focus on your master plan

    Build a technology ecosystem

    Engage stakeholders

    Info-Tech Insight

    When looking for a quick win, consider learning the best internal or external practice. For example, in 1994 IBM reorganized its security operation by bringing security professionals and non-security professionals in one single structure, which reduced costs by approximately 30% in two years.

    Sources: Create and Implement an IoT Strategy, Info-Tech Research Group, 2022; Baker and Benny, 2013; Erich Krueger, Omaha Public Power District (contributor); Doery Abdou, March Networks Corporate (contributor)

    Case Study

    4Wall Entertainment – Asset Owner

    Industry: Architecture & Engineering
    Source: Interview

    4Wall Entertainment is quite mature in integrating its physical and information security; physical security has always been under IT as a core competency.

    4Wall Entertainment is a provider of entertainment lighting and equipment to event venues, production companies, lighting designers, and others, with a presence in 18 US and UK locations.

    After many acquisitions, 4Wall Entertainment needed to standardize its various acquired systems, including physical security systems such as access control. In its integrated security approach, IT owns the integrated security, but they interface with related entities such as HR, finance, and facilities management in every location. This allows them to obtain information such as holidays, office hours, and what doors need to be accessed as inputs to the security system and to get sponsorship in budgeting.

    In the past, 4Wall Entertainment tried delegating specific physical security to other divisions, such as facilities management and HR. This approach was unsuccessful, so IT took back the responsibility and accountability.

    Currently, 4Wall Entertainment works with local vendors, and its biggest challenge is finding third-party vendors that can provide nationwide support.

    In the future, 4Wall Entertainment envisions physical security modernization such as camera systems that allow more network accessibility, with one central system to manage and IoT device integration with SIEM and MDR.

    Results

    Lessons learned in integrating security from 4Wall Entertainment include:

    • Start with forming relationships with related divisions such as HR, finance, and facilities management to build trust and encourage sponsorship across management.
    • Create policies, procedures, and standards to deploy in various systems, especially when acquiring companies with low maturity in security.
    • Select third-party providers that offer the required functionalities, good customer support, and standard systems interoperability.
    • Close skill gaps by developing training and awareness programs for users, especially for newly acquired systems and legacy systems, or by acquiring expertise from consulting services.
    • Complete cost-benefit analysis for solutions on legacy systems to determine whether to keep them and create interfacing with other systems, upgrade them, or replace them entirely with newer systems.
    • Delegate maintenance of specific highly regulated systems, such as fire alarms and water sprinklers, to facilities management.
    Integration of Physical and Information Security Framework. Inputs: Integrated Items, Stakeholders, and Security Components. Phases, Outcomes and Benefits: Plan, Enhance and Monitor & Optimize.

    Tracking progress of physical and information security integration

    Physical security is often part of facilities management. As a result, there are interdependencies with both internal departments (such as IT, information security, and facilities) and external parties (such as third-party vendors). IT leaders, security leaders, and operational leaders should keep the big picture in mind when designing and implementing integration of physical and information security. Use this checklist as a tool to track your security integration journey.

    Plan

    • Engage stakeholders and justify value for the business.
    • Define roles and responsibilities.
    • Establish/update governance for integrated security.
    • Identify integrated elements and compliance obligations.

    Enhance

    • Determine the level of security maturity and update security strategy for integrated security.
    • Assess and treat risks of integrated security.
    • Establish/update integrated physical and information security policies and procedures.
    • Update incident response, disaster recovery, and business continuity plan.

    Monitor & Optimize

    • Identify skill requirements and close skill gaps for integrating physical and information security.
    • Design and deploy integrated security architecture and controls.
    • Establish, monitor, and report integrated security metrics on effectiveness and efficiency.

    Benefits of the security integration framework

    Today’s matured technology makes security integration possible. However, the governance and management of single integrated security presents challenges. These can be overcome using a multi-phased framework that enables a modular, incremental, and repeatable integration process, starting with planning to justify the value of investment, then enhancing the integrated security based on risks and open architecture. This is followed by using metrics for monitoring and optimization.

    1. Modular

      • Implementing a consolidated security strategy is complex and involves the integration of process, software, data, hardware, and network and infrastructure.
      • A modular framework will help to drive value while putting in appropriate guardrails.
    2. Incremental

      • Integration of physical security and information security involves many components such as security strategy, risk management, and security policies.
      • An incremental framework will help track, manage, and maintain each step while providing appropriate structure.
    3. Repeatable

      • Integration of physical security and information security is a journey that can be approached with a pilot program to evaluate effectiveness.
      • A repeatable framework will help to ensure quick time to value and enable immediate implementation of controls to meet operational and security requirements.

    Potential risks of the security integration framework

    Just as medicine often comes with side effects, our Integration of Physical and Information Security Framework may introduce risks too. However, as John F. Kennedy, thirty-fifth president of the United States, once said, "There are risks and costs to a program of action — but they are far less than the long-range cost of comfortable inaction."

    Plan Phase

    • Lack of transparency in the integration process can lead to lack of trust among stakeholders.
    • Lack of support from leadership results in unclear governance or lack of budget or human resources.
    • Key stakeholders leave the organization during the engagement and their replacements do not understand the organization’s operation yet.

    Enhance Phase

    • The risk assessment conducted focuses too much on IT risk, which may not always be applicable to physical security systems nor OT systems.
    • The integrated security does not comply with policies and regulations.

    Monitor and Optimize Phase

    • Lack of knowledge, training, and awareness.
    • Different testing versus production environments.
    • Lack of collected or shared security metrics.

    Data

    • Data quality issues and inadequate data from physical security, information security, and other systems, e.g. OT, IoT.
    • Too much data from too many tools are complex and time consuming to process.

    Develop an integration of information security, physical security, and personnel security that meets your organization’s needs

    Integrate security in people, process, and technology to improve your overall security posture

    Having siloed systems running security is not beneficial. Many organizations are realizing the benefits of consolidating into a single platform across physical security, cybersecurity, HR, legal, and compliance.

    Plan and engage stakeholders

    Assemble the right team to ensure the success of your integrated security ecosystem, decide the governance model, and clearly define the roles and responsibilities.

    Enhance strategy and risk management

    Strategically, we want a physical security system that is interoperable with most technologies, flexible with minimal customization, functional, and integrated, despite the challenges of proprietary configurations, complex customization, and silos.

    Monitor and optimize

    Find the most optimized architecture that is strategic, realistic, and based on risk. Next, perform an evaluation of the security systems and program by understanding what, where, when, and how to measure and to report the relevant metrics.

    Focus on master plan

    Identify the security integration problems to solve with visible improvement possibilities, and don’t choose technology for technology’s sake. Design first, then conduct market research by comparing products or services from vendors or manufacturers.

    Build a technology ecosystem

    Avoid a big bang approach and test technologies in multiple conditions. Run inexpensive pilots and increase flexibility to build a technology ecosystem.

    Deliverables

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

    Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool

    Map organizational goals to IT goals, facilities goals, OT goals (if applicable), and integrated security goals. Identify your security integration elements and compliance.

    Integrate Physical Security and Information Security RACI Chart Tool

    Identify various security integration stakeholders across the organization and assign tasks to suitable roles.

    Key deliverable:

    Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Communication Deck

    Present your findings in a prepopulated document that summarizes the work you have completed.

    Plan

    Planning is foundational to engage stakeholders. Start with justifying the value of investment, then define roles and responsibilities, update governance, and finally identify integrated elements and compliance obligations.

    Plan

    Engage stakeholders

    • To initiate communication between the physical and information security teams and other related divisions, it is important to identify the entities that would be affected by the security integration and involve them in the process to gain support from planning to delivery and maintenance.
    • Possible stakeholders:
      • Executive leadership, Facilities Management leader and team, IT leader, Security & Privacy leader, compliance officer, Legal, Risk Management, HR, Finance, OT leader (if applicable)
    • A successful security integration depends on aligning your security integration initiatives and migration plan to the organization’s objectives by engaging the right people to communicate and collaborate.

    Info-Tech Insight

    It is important to speak the same language. Physical security concerns safety and availability, while information security concerns confidentiality and integrity. Thus, the two systems have different goals and require alignment.

    Similarly, taxonomy of terminologies needs to be managed,1 e.g. facility management with an emergency management background may have a different understanding from a CISO with an information security background when discussing the same term. For example:

    In emergency management prevention means “actions taken to eliminate the impact of disasters in order to protect lives, property and the environment, and to avoid economic disruption.”2

    In information security prevention is “preventing the threats by understanding the threat environment and the attack surfaces, the risks, the assets, and by maintaining a secure system.”3

    Sources: 1 Owen Yardley, Omaha Public Power District (contributor); 2 Translation Bureau, Government of Canada, n.d.; 3 Security Intelligence, 2020


    Map organizational goals to integrated security goals

    Input

    • Corporate, IT, and Facilities strategies

    Output

    • Your goals for the integrated security strategy

    Materials

    • Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool

    Participants

    • Executive leadership
    • Facilities Management leader and team
    • IT leader
    • Security & Privacy leader
    • Compliance officer
    • Legal
    • Risk Management
    • HR & Finance
    • OT leader (if applicable)
    1. As a group, brainstorm organization goals.
      • Review relevant corporate, IT, and facilities strategies.
    2. Record the most important business goals in the “Goals Cascade” tab of the Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool. Try to limit the number of business goals to no more than ten goals. This limitation will be critical to helping focus on your integrated security goals.
    3. For each goal, identify one to two security alignment goals. These should be objectives for the security strategy that will support the identified organization goals.

    Download the Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.

    Record organizational goals

    A table to identify Organization, IT, OT(if applicable), Facilities, and Security Goals Definitions.

    Refer to the Integration of Physical and Information Security Framework when filling in the table.

    1. Record your identified organizational goals in the “Goals Cascade” tab of the Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.
    2. For each organizational goal, identify IT alignment goals.
    3. For each organizational goal, identify OT alignment goals (if applicable).
    4. For each organizational goal, identify Facilities alignment goals.
    5. For each organizational goal, select an integrated security goal from the drop-down menu.

    Justify value for the business

    Facilities in most cases have a team that is responsible for physical security installations such as access key controllers. Whenever there is an issue, they contact the provider to fix the error. However, with smart buildings and smart devices, the threat surface grows to include information security threats, and Facilities may not possess the knowledge and skills required to deal with them. At the same time, delegating physical security to IT may add more tasks to their already-too-long list of responsibilities. Consolidating security to a focused security team that covers both physical and information security can help.1 We need to develop the security integration business case beyond physical security "gates, guns, and guards" mentality.2

    An example of a cost-benefit analysis for security integration:

    Benefits

    Metrics

    Operational Efficiency and Cost Savings

    • Reduction in deployment, maintenance, and staff time in manual operations of physical security devices such as logs collection from analog cameras to be automated into digital.
    • Reduction in staffing costs by bringing physical security SOC and information security SOC in one single structure.

    Reliability Improvements

    • Reduction in field crew time by identifying hardware that can be virtualized to have a centralized remote control.
    • Improvement of operating reliability through continuous and real-time monitoring of equipment such as door access control systems and camera surveillance systems.

    Customers & Users Benefits

    • Improvement of customer safety for essential services such as access to critical locations only by authorized personnel.
    • Improvement of reliability of services and address human factor in adoption of change by introducing change as a friendly activity.

    Cost

    Metrics

    Equipment and Infrastructure

    • Upgrade of existing physical security equipment, e.g. replacement of separated access control, video management system (VMS), and physical access control system (PACS) with a unified security platform.
    • Implementation of communication network equipment and labor to install, configure, and maintain the new network component.

    Software and Commission

    • The software and maintenance fee as well as upgrade implementation project cost.
    • Labor cost of field commissioning and troubleshooting.
    • Integration with security systems, e.g. event and log management, continuous monitoring, and investigation.

    Support and Resources

    • Cost to hire/outsource security FTEs for ongoing management and operation of security devices, e.g. SOC, MSSP.
    • Cost to hire/outsource FTEs to analyze, design, and deploy the integrated security architecture, e.g. consulting fee.

    Sources: 1 Andrew Amaro, KLAVAN Security Services (contributor); 2 Baker and Benny, 2013;
    Industrial Control System Modernization, Info-Tech Research Group, 2023; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2021

    Plan

    Define roles and responsibilities

    Input

    • List of relevant stakeholders

    Output

    • Roles and responsibilities for the integration of physical and information security program

    Materials

    • Integrate Physical Security and Information Security RACI Chart Tool

    Participants

    • Executive leadership
    • Facilities Management leader and team
    • HR & Finance
    • IT leader and team
    • OT leader and team
    • Security & Privacy leader and team

    Many factors impact an organization’s level of effectiveness as it relates to integration of physical and information security. How the team interacts, what skill sets exist, the level of clarity around roles and responsibilities, and the degree of executive support and alignment are only a few. Thus, we need to identify stakeholders that are:

    • Responsible: The person(s) who does the work to accomplish the activity; they have been tasked with completing the activity and/or getting a decision made.
    • Accountable: The person(s) who is accountable for the completion of the activity. Ideally, this is a single person and is often an executive or program sponsor.
    • Consulted: The person(s) who provides information. This is usually several people, typically called subject matter experts (SMEs).
    • Informed: The person(s) who is updated on progress. These are resources that are affected by the outcome of the activities and need to be kept up to date.

    Download the Integrate Physical Security and Information Security RACI Chart Tool

    Define RACI chart

    Define Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed (RACI) stakeholders.

    1. Customize the Work Units to best reflect your operation with applicable stakeholders.
    2. Customize the Action rows as required.

    Integrate Physical Security and Information Security RACI Chart

    Sources: ISC, 2015; ISC, 2021

    Info-Tech Insight

    The roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined. For example, IT Security should be responsible for the installation and configuration of all physical access controllers and devices, and facility managers should be responsible for the physical maintenance including malfunctioning such as access device jammed or physically broken.

    Plan

    Establish/update governance for integrated security

    HR & Finance

    HR provides information such as new hires and office hours as input to the security system. Finance assists in budgeting.

    Security & Privacy

    The security and privacy team will need to evaluate solutions and enforce standards on various physical and information security systems and to protect data privacy.

    Business Leaders

    Business stakeholders will provide clarity for their strategy and provide input into how they envision security furthering those goals.

    IT Executives

    IT stakeholders will be a driving force, ensuring all necessary resources are available and funded.

    Facilities/ Operations

    Operational plans will include asset management, monitoring, and support to meet functional goals and manage throughout the asset lifecycle.

    Infrastructure & Enterprise Architects

    Each solution added to the environment will need to be chosen and architected to meet business goals and security functions.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Assemble the right team to ensure the success of your integrated security ecosystem and decide the governance model, e.g. security steering committee (SSC) or a centralized single structure.

    Adapted from Create and Implement an IoT Strategy, Info-Tech Research Group, 2022

    What does the SSC do?

    Ensuring proper governance over your security program is a complex task that requires ongoing care and feeding from executive management to succeed.

    Your SSC should aim to provide the following core governance functions for your security program:

    1. Define Clarity of Intent and Direction

      How does the organization’s security strategy support the attainment of the business, IT, facilities management, and physical and information security strategies? The SSC should clearly define and communicate strategic linkage and provide direction for aligning security initiatives with desired outcomes.
    2. Establish Clear Lines of Authority

      Security programs contain many important elements that need to be coordinated. There must be clear and unambiguous authority, accountability, and responsibility defined for each element so lines of reporting/escalation are clear and conflicting objectives can be mediated.
    3. Provide Unbiased Oversight

      The SSC should vet the organization’s systematic monitoring processes to ensure there is adherence to defined risk tolerance levels and that monitoring is appropriately independent from the personnel responsible for implementing and managing the security program.
    4. Optimize Security Value Delivery

      Optimized value delivery occurs when strategic objectives for security are achieved and the organization’s acceptable risk posture is attained at the lowest possible cost. This requires constant attention to ensure controls are commensurate with any changes in risk level or appetite.

    Adapted from Improve Security Governance With a Security Steering Committee , Info-Tech Research Group, 2018

    Plan

    Identify integrated elements and compliance obligations

    To determine what elements need to be integrated, it’s important to scope the security integration program and to identify the consequences of integration for compliance obligations.

    INTEGRATED ELEMENTS

    What are my concerns?

    Process integrations

    Determine which processes need to be integrated and how

    • Examples: Security prevention, detection, and response; risk assessment

    Software and data integration

    Determine which software and data need to be integrated and how

    • Examples: Threat management tools, SIEM, IDPS, security event logs

    Hardware integration

    Determine which hardware needs to be integrated and how

    • Examples: Sensors, alarms, cameras, keys, locks, combinations, and card readers

    Network and infrastructure

    Determine which network and infrastructure components need to be integrated and how

    • Example: Network segmentation for physical access controllers.

    COMPLIANCE

    How can I address my concerns?

    Regulations

    Adhere to mandatory laws, directives, industry standards, specific contractual obligations, etc.

    • Examples: NERC CIP (North American Utilities), Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive (EU), Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (UK), Occupational Safety and Health Act, 1970 (US), Emergency Management Act, 2007 (Canada)

    Standards

    Adhere to voluntary standards and obligations

    • Examples: NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), The Risk Management Process for Federal Facilities: An Interagency Security Committee Standard (US), Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), Service Organization Control (SOC 1 and 2)

    Guidelines

    Adopt guidelines that can improve the integrated security program

    • Examples: Best Practices for Planning and Managing Physical Security Resources (US Interagency Security Committee), Information Security Manual - Guidelines for Physical Security (Australian Cyber Security Centre), 1402-2021-Guide for Physical Security of Electric Power Substations (IEEE)

    Record integrated elements

    Scope and Boundaries from the Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.

    Refer to the “Scope” tab of the Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool when filling in the following elements.

    1. Record your integrated elements, i.e. process integration, software and data integration, hardware integration, network and infrastructure, and physical scope of your security integration, in the “Scope” tab of the Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.
    2. For each of your scoping give the rationale for including them in the Comments column. Careful attention should be paid to any elements that are not in scope.

    Record your compliance obligations

    Refer to the “Compliance Obligations” tab of the Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.

    1. Identify your compliance obligations. These can include both mandatory and voluntary obligations. Mandatory obligations include:
      • Laws
      • Government regulations
      • Industry standards
      • Contractual agreements
      Voluntary obligations include standards that the organization has chosen to follow for best practices and any obligations that are required to maintain certifications. Organizations will have many different compliance obligations. For the purposes of your integrated security, include those that include physical security requirements.
    2. Record your compliance obligations, along with any notes, in your copy of the Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.
    3. Refer to the “Compliance DB” tab for lists of standards/regulations/ guidelines.
    The “Compliance Obligations” tab of the Integrate Physical Security and Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.

    Remediate third-party compliance gaps

    If you have third-party compliance gaps, there are four primary ways to eliminate them:

    1. Find a New, Compliant Partner

      Terminate existing contract and find another organization to partner with.
    2. Bring the Capability In-House

      Expense permitting, this may be the best way to protect yourself.
    3. Demand Compliance

      Tell the third party they must become compliant. Make sure you set a deadline.
    4. Accept Noncompliance and Assume the Risk

      Sometimes remediation just isn’t cost effective and you have no choice.

    Follow Contracting Best Practices to Mitigate the Risk of Future Third-Party Compliance Gaps

    1. Perform Initial Due Diligence: Request proof of third-party compliance prior to entering into a contract.
    2. Perform Ongoing Due Diligence: Request proof of third-party contractor compliance annually.
    3. Contract Negotiation: Insert clauses requesting periodic assertions of compliance.

    View a sample contract provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

    Source: Take Control of Compliance Improvement to Conquer Every Audit, Info-Tech Research Group, 2015

    Pitfalls to avoid when planning security integration

    • No Resources Lineups

      Integration of security needs support from leadership, proper planning, and clear and consistent communication across the organization.
    • Not Addressing Holistic Security

      Create policies and procedures and follow standards that are holistic and based on threats and risks, e.g. consolidated access control policies.
    • Lack of Governance

      While the IT department is a critical partner in cybersecurity, the ownership of such a role sits squarely in the organizational C-suite, with regular reporting to the board of directors (if applicable).
    • Overlooking Business Continuity Effort

      IT and physical security are integral to business continuity and disaster recovery strategies.
    • Not Having Relevant Training and Awareness

      Provide a training and awareness program based on relevant attack vectors. Trained employees are key assets to the development of a safe and secure environment. They must form the base of your security culture.
    • Overbuilding or Underbuilding

      Select third-party providers that offer systems interoperability with other security tools. The intent is to promote a unified approach to security to avoid a cumbersome tooling zoo.

    Sources: Real Time Networks, 2022; Andrew Amaro, KLAVAN Security Services (contributor)

    Enhance

    Enhancing is the development of an integrated security strategy, policies, procedures, BCP, DR, and IR based on the organization’s risks.

    Enhance

    Determine the level of security maturity and update the security strategy

    • Before updating your security strategies, you need to understand the organization’s business strategies, IT strategies, facilities strategies, and physical and information security strategies. The goal is to align your integrated security strategies to contribute to your organization’s success.
    • The integrated security leaders need to understand the direction of the organization. For example:
      • Growth expectation
      • Expansions or mergers anticipation
      • Product or service changes
      • Regulatory requirements
    • Wise security investments depend on aligning your security initiatives to the organization’s objectives by supporting operational performance and ensuring brand protection and shareholder values.
    Integrated security strategies. Consists of an organization’s business strategies, IT strategies, facilities strategies, and physical and information security strategies.

    Sources: Amy L. Meger, Platte River Power Authority (contributor); Baker and Benny, 2013; IFSEC Global, 2023; Security Priorities 2023, Info-Tech Research Group, 2023; Build an Information Security Strategy, Info-Tech Research Group, 2020; ISC, n.d.

    Understanding security maturity

    Maturity models are very effective for determining security states. This table provides examples of general descriptions for physical and information security maturity levels.

    Determine which framework is suitable and select the description that most accurately reflects the ideal state for security in your organization.

    Level 1

    Level 2

    Level 3

    Level 4

    Level 5

    Minimum security with simple physical barriers. Low-level security to prevent and detect some unauthorized external activity. Medium security to prevent, detect, and assess most unauthorized external activity and some unauthorized internal activity. High-level security to prevent, detect, and assess most unauthorized external and internal activity. Maximum security to prevent, detect, assess, and neutralize all unauthorized external and internal activity.

    Physical security maturity level1

    Initial/Ad hoc security programs are reactive. Developing security programs can be effective at what they do but are not holistic. A defined security program is holistic, documented, and proactive. Managed security programs have robust governance and metrics processes. An optimized security program is based on strong risk management practices, including the production of key risk indicators (KRIs).

    Information security maturity level2

    Sources: 1 Fennelly, 2013; 2 Build an Information Security Strategy, Info-Tech Research Group, 2020

    Enhance

    Assess and treat integrated security risks

    The risk assessment conducted consists of analyzing existing inherent risks, existing pressure to the risks such as health and safety laws and codes of practice, new risks from the integration process, risk tolerance, and countermeasures.

    • Some organizations already integrate security into corporate security that consists of risk management, compliance, governance, information security, personnel security, and physical security. However, some organizations are still separating security components, especially physical security and information security, which limits security visibility and the organization’s ability to complete a comprehensive risks assessment.
    • Many vendors are also segregating physical security and information security solutions because their tools do well only on certain aspects. This forces organizations to combine multiple tools, creating a complex environment.
    • Additionally, risks related to people such as mental health issues must be addressed properly. The prevalence of hybrid work post-pandemic makes this aspect especially important.
    • Assess and treat risks based on the organization’s requirements, including its environments. For example, the US federal facility security organization is required to conduct risk assessments at least every five years for Level I (lowest risk) and Level II facilities and at least every three years for Level III, IV, and V (highest risk) facilities.

    Sources: EPA, n.d.; America's Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA), 2018; ISC, 2021

    “In 2022, 95% of US companies are consolidating into a single platform across physical security, cybersecurity, HR, legal and compliance.”

    Source: Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence, 2022; N=359

    Example risk levels

    The risk assessment conducted is based on a combination of physical and information security factors such as certain facilities factors. The risk level can be used to determine the baseline level of protection (LOP). Next, the baseline LOP is customized to the achievable LOP. The following is an example for federal facilities determined by Interagency Security Committee (ISC).

    Risk factor, points and score. Facility security level (FSL), level of risk, and baseline level of protection.

    Source: ISC, 2021

    Example assets

    It is important to identify the organization’s requirements, including its environments (IT, IoT, OT, facilities, etc.), and to measure and evaluate its risks and threats using an appropriate risk framework and tools with the critical step of identifying assets prior to acquiring solutions.

    Organizational requirements including its environments(IT, loT, OT, facilities, etc.)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Certain exceptions must be identified in risk assessment. Usually physical barriers such as gates and intrusion detection sensors are considered as countermeasures,1 however, under certain assessment, e.g. America's Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA),2 physical barriers are also considered assets and as such must also be assessed.

    Compromising a fingerprint scanner

    An anecdotal example of why physical security alone is not sufficient.

    Biometrics: secure access and data security.

    Image by Rawpixel.com on Freepik

    Lessons learned from using fingerprints for authentication:

    • Fingerprint scanners can be physically circumvented by making a copy an authorized user’s fingerprint with 3D printing or even by forcefully amputating an authorized user’s finger.
    • Authorized users may not be given access when the fingerprint cannot be recognized, e.g. if the finger is covered by bandage due to injury.
    • Integration with information security may help detect unauthorized access, e.g. a fingerprint being scanned in a Canadian office when the same user was scanned at a close time interval from an IP in Europe will trigger an alert of a possible incident.

    Info-Tech Insight

    In an ideal world, we want a physical security system that is interoperable with all technologies, flexible with minimal customization, functional, and integrated. In the real world, we may have physical systems with proprietary configurations that are not easily customized and siloed.

    Source: Robert Dang, Info-Tech Research Group

    Use case: Microchip implant

    Microchip implants can be used instead of physical devices such as key cards for digital identity and access management. Risks can be assessed using quantitative or qualitative approaches. In this use case a qualitative approach is applied to impact and likelihood, and a quantitative approach is applied to revenue and cost.

    Asset: Microchip implant

    Benefits

    Impact

    • Improve user satisfaction by removing the need to carry key cards, IDs, etc.
    • Improve operating reliability by reducing the likelihood of losing physical devices such as key cards.
    • Improve reliability of services through continuous and real-time connection with other systems such as payment system.

    Likelihood

    • Improve user satisfaction: High
    • Improve operating reliability: High
    • Improve reliability of services: High

    Revenue

    • Acquire new customers or retain existing customers by making daily lives easier with no need to carry key cards, IDs, etc.
    • Cost reduction in staffing of security personnel, e.g. reducing the staffing of building guards or receptionist.

    Risks

    Impact

    • Security: issues such as biohacking of wearable technology and interconnected devices.
    • Safety: issues such as infections or reactions in the body's immune system.
    • Privacy: issues such as unauthorized surveillance and tracking of activities.

    Likelihood

    • Biohacking: Medium
    • Infections: Low
    • Surveillance: High

    Cost

    • Installation costs and hardware costs.
    • Overall lifecycle cost including estimated software and maintenance costs.
    • Estimated cost of training and estimated increase in productivity.

    Sources: Business Insider, 2018; BBC News, 2022; ISC, 2015

    Enhance

    Update integrated security policies and procedures

    Global policies with local implementation

    This model works for corporate groups with a parent company. In this model, global security policies are developed by a parent company and local policies are applied to the unique business that is not supported by the parent company.

    Update of existing security policies

    This model works for organizations with sufficient resources. In this model, integrated security policies are derived from various policies. For example, physical security in smart buildings/devices (sensors, automated meters, HVAC, etc.) and OT systems (SCADA, PLCs, RTUs, etc.) introduce unique risk exposures, necessitating updates to security policies.

    Customization of information security policies

    This model works for smaller organizations with limited resources. In this model, integrated security policies are derived from information security policies. The issue is when these policies are not applicable to physical security systems or other environments, e.g. OT systems.

    Sources: Kris Krishan, Waymo (contributor); Isabelle Hertanto, Info-Tech Research Group (contributor); Physical and Environmental Security Policy Template, Info-Tech Research Group, 2022.

    Enhance

    Update BCP, DR, IR

    • Physical threats such as theft of material, vandalism, loitering, and the like are also part of business continuity threats.
    • These threats can be carried out by various means such as vehicles breaching perimeter security, bolt cutters used for cutting wire and cable, and ballistic attack.
    • Issues may occur when security operations are owned separately by physical security or information security, thus lacking consistent application of best practices.
    • To overcome this issue, organizations need to update BCP, DR, and IR holistically based on a cost-benefit analysis and the level of security maturity, which can be defined based on the suitable framework.

    Sources: IEEE, 2021; ISC, 2021

    “The best way to get management excited about a disaster plan is to burn down the building across the street.”

    Source: Dan Erwin, Security Officer, Dow Chemical Co., in Computerworld, 2022

    Optimize

    Optimizing means working to make the most effective and efficient use of resources, starting with identifying skill requirements and closing skill gaps, followed by designing and deploying integrated security architecture and controls, and finally monitoring and reporting integrated security metrics.

    Optimize

    Identify skill requirements and close skill gaps

    • The pandemic changed how people work and where they choose to work, and most people still want a hybrid work model. Our survey in July 2022 (N=516) found that 55.8% of employees have the option to work offsite 2-3 days per week, 21.0% can work offsite 1 day per week, and 17.8% can work offsite 4 days per week.
    • The investment (e.g. on infrastructure and networks) to initiate remote work was huge, and the costs didn’t end there; organizations needed to maintain the secure remote work infrastructure to facilitate the hybrid work model.
    • Moreover, roles are evolving due to convergence and modernization. These new roles require an integrative skill set. For example, the grid security and ops team might consist of an IT security specialist, a SCADA technician/engineer, and an OT/IIOT security specialist, where OT/IIOT security specialist is a new role.
    Identify skill 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 (including certification), hire, contract, or outsource to close each skill gap.

    Strategic investment in internal security team

    Internal security governance and management using in-house developed tools or off-the-shelf solutions, e.g. security information and event management (SIEM).

    Security management using third parties

    Internal security management using third-party security services, e.g. managed security service providers (MSSPs).

    Outsourcing security management

    Outsourcing the entire security functions, e.g. using managed detection and response (MDR).

    Sources: Info-Tech Research Group’s Security Priorities 2023, Close the InfoSec Skills Gap, Build an IT Employee Engagement Program, and Grid Modernization

    Select the right certifications

    What are the options?

    • One issue in security certification is the complexity of relevancy in topics with respect to roles and levels.
    • The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) takes the approach of analyzing existing certifications of ICS/SCADA professionals' cybersecurity skills by orientation, scope, and supporting bodies that are grouped into specific certifications, relevant certifications, and safety certifications (ENISA, 2015).
    • This approach can also be applied to integrated security certifications.

    Physical security certification

    • Examples: Industrial Security Professional Certification (NCMS-ISP); Physical Security Professional (ASIS-PSP); Physical Security Certification (CDSE-PSC); ISC I-100, I-200, I-300, and I-400

    Cyber physical system security certification

    • Examples: Certified SCADA Security Architect (CSSA), EC-Council ICS/SCADA Cybersecurity Training Course

    Information security certification

    • Examples: Network and Information Security (NIS) Driving License, ISA/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Certificate Program, GIAC Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional (GICSP)

    Safety Certifications

    • Examples: Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP), European Network of Safety and Health Professional Organizations (ENSHPO)
    Table showing options for Certification orientation, scope and supporting bodies.

    Optimize

    Design and deploy integrated security architecture and controls

    • A survey by Brivo found that 38% of respondents have partly centralized security platforms, 25% have decentralized platforms, and 36% have centralized platforms (Brivo, 2022; N=700).
    • If your organization’s security program is still decentralized or partly centralized and your organization is planning to establish an integrated security program, then the recommendation is to perform a holistic risk assessment based on probability and impact assessments on threats and vulnerabilities.
    • The impacted factors, for example, are customers served, criticality of services, equipment present inside the building, personnel response time for operational recovery and the mitigation of hazards, and costs.
    • Frameworks such as Sherwood Applied Business Security Architecture (SABSA), Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT), and The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) can be used to build security architecture that aligns security goals with business goals.
    • Finally, analyze the security design against the design criteria.

    Sources: ISA and Honeywell Integrated Security Technology Lab, n.d.; IEEE, 2021

    “As long as organizations treat their physical and cyber domains as separate, there is little hope of securing either one.”

    Source: FedTech magazine, 2009

    Analyze architecture design

    Cloud, on-premises, or hybrid? During the pandemic, many enterprises were under tight deadlines to migrate to the cloud. Many did not refactor data and applications correctly for cloud platforms during migration, with the consequence of high cloud bills. This happened because the migrated applications cannot take advantage of on-premises capabilities such as autoscaling. Thus, in 2023, it is plausible that enterprises will bring applications and data back on-premises.

    Below is an example of a security design analysis of platform architecture. Design can be assessed using quantitative or qualitative approaches. In this example, a qualitative approach is applied using high-level advantages and disadvantages.

    Design criteria

    Cloud

    Hybrid

    On-premises

    Effort

    Consumer effort is within a range, e.g. < 60%

    Consumer effort is within a range e.g. < 80%

    100% organization

    Reliability

    High reliability

    High reliability

    Medium reliability that depends on data centers

    Cost

    High cost when data and applications are not correctly designed for cloud

    Optimized cost when data and applications are correctly designed either for cloud or native

    Medium cost when data and applications take advantage of on-prem capabilities

    Info-Tech Insight

    It is important for organizations to find the most optimized architecture to support them, for example, a hybrid architecture of cloud and on-premises based on operations and cost-effectiveness. To help design a security architecture that is strategic, realistic, and based on risk, see Info-Tech’s Identify the Components of Your Cloud Security Architecture research.

    Sources: InfoWorld, 2023; Identify the Components of Your Cloud Security Architecture , Info-Tech Research Group, 2021

    Analyze equipment design

    Below is an example case of a security design analysis of electronic security systems. Design can be assessed using quantitative or qualitative approaches. In this example a qualitative approach is applied using advantages and disadvantages.

    Surveillance design criteria

    Video camera

    Motion detector

    Theft of security system equipment

    Higher economic loss Lower economic loss

    Reliability

    Positive detection of intrusion Spurious indication and lower reliability

    Energy savings and bandwidth

    Only record when motion is detected Detect and process all movement

    Info-Tech Insight

    Once the design has been analyzed, the next step is to conduct market research to analyze the solutions landscape, e.g. to compare products or services from vendors or manufacturers.

    Sources: IEEE, 202; IEC, n.d.; IEC, 2013

    Analyze off-the-shelf solutions

    Criteria to consider when comparing solutions:

    Criteria to consider when comparing solutions: 1 - Visibility and asset management. 2 - Threat detection, mitigation and response. 3 - Risk assessment and vulnerability management. 4 - Usability, architecture, Cost.

    Visibility and Asset Management

    Passively monitoring data using various protocol layers, actively sending queries to devices, or parsing configuration files of physical security devices, OT, IoT, and IT environments on assets, processes, and connectivity paths.

    Threat Detection, Mitigation, and Response (+ Hunting)

    Automation of threat analysis (signature-based, specification-based, anomaly-based, flow-based, content-based, sandboxing) not only in IT but also in relevant environments, e.g. physical, IoT, IIoT, and OT on assets, data, network, and orchestration with threat intelligence sharing and analytics.

    Risk Assessment and Vulnerability Management

    Risk scoring approach (qualitative, quantitative) based on variables such as behavioral patterns and geolocation. Patching and vulnerability management.

    Usability, Architecture, Cost

    The user and administrative experience, multiple deployment options, extensive integration capabilities, and affordability.

    Source: Secure IT/OT Convergence, Info-Tech Research Group, 2022

    Optimize

    Establish, monitor, and report integrated security metrics

    Security metrics serve various functions in a security program.1 For example:

    • As audit requirements. For integrated security, the requirements are derived from mandatory or voluntary compliance, e.g. NERC CIP.
    • As an indicator of maturity level. For integrated security, maturity level is used to measure the state of security, e.g. C2M2, CMMC.
    • As a measurement of effectiveness and efficiency. Security metrics consist of operational metrics, financial metrics, etc.

    Safety

    Physical security interfaces with the physical world. Thus, metrics based on risks related to safety are crucial. These metrics motivate personnel by making clear why they should care about security.
    Source: EPRI, 2017

    Business Performance

    The impact of security on the business can be measured with various metrics such as operational metrics, service level agreements (SLAs), and financial metrics.
    Source: BMC, 2022

    Technology Performance

    Early detection leads to faster remediation and less damage. Metrics such as maximum tolerable downtime (MTD) and mean time to recovery (MTR) indicate system reliability.
    Source: Dark Reading, 2022

    Security Culture

    Measure the overall quality of security culture with indicators such as compliance and audit, vulnerability management, and training and awareness.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Security failure can be avoided by evaluating the security systems and program. Security evaluation requires understanding what, where, when, and how to measure and to report the relevant metrics.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Secure IT/OT Convergence

    The previously entirely separate OT ecosystem is migrating into the IT ecosystem, primarily to improve access via connectivity and to leverage other standard IT capabilities for economic benefit.

    Hence, IT and OT need to collaborate, starting with communication to build trust and to overcome their differences and followed by negotiation on components such as governance and management, security controls on OT environments, compliance with regulations and standards, and establishing metrics for OT security.

    Preparing for Technology Convergence in Manufacturing

    Information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) teams have a long history of misalignment and poor communication.

    Stakeholder expectations and technology convergence create the need to leave the past behind and build a culture of collaboration.

    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 a security roadmap.

    Bibliography

    "1402-2021 - IEEE Guide for Physical Security of Electric Power Substations." IEEE, 2021. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.

    "2022 State of Protective Intelligence Report." Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence, 2022. Accessed 16 Jan. 2023.

    "8 Staggering Statistics: Physical Security Technology Adoption." Brivo, 2022. Accessed 5 Jan. 2023.

    "America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018." The United States' Congress, 2018. Accessed 19 Jan. 2023.

    Baker, Paul and Daniel Benny. The Complete Guide to Physical Security. Auerbach Publications. 2013

    Bennett, Steve. "Physical Security Statistics 2022 - Everything You Need to Know." WebinarCare, 4 Dec. 2022. Accessed 30 Dec. 2022.

    "Best Practices for Planning and Managing Physical Security Resources: An Interagency Security Committee Guide." Interagency Security Committee (ISC), Dec. 2015. Accessed 23 Jan. 2023.

    Black, Daniel. "Improve Security Governance With a Security Steering Committee." Info-Tech Research Group, 23 Nov. 2018. Accessed 30 Jan. 2023.

    Borg, Scott. "Don't Put Up Walls Between Your Security People." FedTech Magazine, 17 Feb. 2009. Accessed 15 Dec. 2022.

    Burwash, John. “Preparing for Technology Convergence in Manufacturing.” Info-Tech Research Group, 12 Dec. 2018. Accessed 7 Dec. 2022.

    Carney, John. "Why Integrate Physical and Logical Security?" Cisco. Accessed 19 Jan. 2023.

    "Certification of Cyber Security Skills of ICS/SCADA Professionals." European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), 2015. Accessed 27 Sep. 2022.

    Cherdantseva, Yulia and Jeremy Hilton. "Information Security and Information Assurance. The Discussion about the Meaning, Scope and Goals." Organizational, Legal, and Technological Dimensions of IS Administrator, Almeida F., Portela, I. (eds.), pp. 1204-1235. IGI Global Publishing, 2013.

    Cobb, Michael. "Physical security." TechTarget. Accessed 8 Dec. 2022.

    “Conduct a Drinking Water or Wastewater Utility Risk Assessment.” United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), n.d. Web.

    Conrad, Sandi. "Create and Implement an IoT Strategy." Info-Tech Research Group, 28 July 2022. Accessed 7 Dec. 2022.

    Cooksley, Mark. "The IEC 62443 Series of Standards: A Product Manufacturer's Perspective." YouTube, uploaded by Plainly Explained, 27 Apr. 2021. Accessed 26 Aug. 2022.

    "Cyber and physical security must validate their value in 2023." IFSEC Global, 12 Jan. 2023. Accessed 20 Jan. 2023.

    "Cybersecurity Evaluation Tool (CSET®)." Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Accessed 23 Jan. 2023.

    "Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 2.0." The United States' Department of Defense (DOD), 2021. Accessed 29 Dec. 2022.

    “Cyber Security Metrics for the Electric Sector: Volume 3.” Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), 2017.

    Czachor, Emily. "Mass power outage in North Carolina caused by gunfire, repairs could take days." CBS News, 5 Dec. 2022. Accessed 20 Jan. 2023.

    Dang, Robert, et al. “Secure IT/OT Convergence.” Info-Tech Research Group, 9 Dec. 2022. Web.

    "Emergency Management Act (S.C. 2007, c. 15)." The Government of Canada, 2007. Accessed 19 Jan. 2023.

    "Emergency management vocabulary." Translation Bureau, Government of Canada. Accessed 19 Jan. 2023.

    Fennelly, Lawrence. Effective physical security. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2013.

    Ghaznavi-Zadeh, Rassoul. "Enterprise Security Architecture - A Top-down Approach." The Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.

    "Good Practices for Security of Internet of Things." European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), 2018. Accessed 27 Sep. 2022.

    "Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974." The United Kingdom Parliament. Accessed 23 Jan. 2023.

    Hébert, Michel, et al. “Security Priorities 2023.” Info-Tech Research Group, 1 Feb. 2023. Web.

    "History and Initial Formation of Physical Security and the Origin of Authority." Office of Research Services (ORS), National Institutes of Health (NIH). March 3, 2017. Accessed 19 Jan. 2023.

    "IEC 62676-1-1:2013 Video surveillance systems for use in security applications - Part 1-1: System requirements - General." International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), 2013. Accessed 9 Dec. 2022.

    "Incident Command System (ICS)." ICS Canada. Accessed 17 Jan. 2023.

    "Information Security Manual - Guidelines for Physical Security." The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), Dec. 2022. Accessed 13 Jan. 2023.

    "Integrated Physical Security Framework." Anixter. Accessed 8 Dec. 2022.

    "Integrating Risk and Security within a TOGAF® Enterprise Architecture." TOGAF 10, The Open Group. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.

    Latham, Katherine. "The microchip implants that let you pay with your hand." BBC News, 11 Apr. 2022. Accessed 12 Jan. 2023.

    Linthicum, David. "2023 could be the year of public cloud repatriation." InfoWorld, 3 Jan. 2023. Accessed 10 Jan. 2023.

    Ma, Alexandra. "Thousands of people in Sweden are embedding microchips under their skin to replace ID cards." Business Insider, 14 May 2018. Accessed 12 Jan. 2023.

    Mendelssohn, Josh and Dana Tessler. "Take Control of Compliance Improvement to Conquer Every Audit." Info-Tech Research Group, 25 March 2015. Accessed 27 Jan. 2023.

    Meredith, Sam. "All you need to know about the Nord Stream gas leaks - and why Europe suspects 'gross sabotage'." CNBC, 11 Oct. 2022. Accessed 20 Jan. 2023.

    Nicaise, Vincent. "EU NIS2 Directive: what’s changing?" Stormshield, 20 Oct. 2022. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022.

    "NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 Security and Privacy Controls for Information Systems and Organizations." The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 13 Jul. 2022. Accessed 27 Jan. 2023.

    "North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) Series." NERC. Accessed 23 Jan. 2023.

    "North America Physical Security Market - Global Forecast to 2026." MarketsandMarkets, June 2021. Accessed 30 Dec. 2022.

    "NSTISSI No. 4011 National Training Standard For Information Systems Security (InfoSec) Professionals." The United States Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS), 20 Jun. 1994. Accessed 23 Jan. 2023.

    "Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSH) Act of 1970." The United States Department of Labor. Accessed 23 Jan. 2023.

    Palter, Jay. "10 Mistakes Made in Designing a Physical Security Program." Real Time Networks, 7 Sep. 2022. Accessed 6 Jan. 2023.

    Parker, Donn. Fighting Computer Crime. John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

    Pathak, Parag. "What Is Threat Management? Common Challenges and Best Practices." Security Intelligence, 2020. Accessed 5 Jan. 2023.

    Pender-Bey, Georgie. "The Parkerian Hexad." Lewis University, 2012. Accessed 24 Jan. 2023.

    Philippou, Oliver. "2023 Trends to Watch: Physical Security Technologies." Omdia. Accessed 20 Jan. 2023.

    Phinney, Tom. "IEC 62443: Industrial Network and System Security." ISA and Honeywell Integrated Security Technology Lab. Accessed 30 Jan. 2023.

    "Physical Security Market, with COVID-19 Impact Analysis - Global Forecast to 2026." MarketsandMarkets, Jan. 2022. Accessed 30 Dec. 2022.

    "Physical Security Professional (PSP)" ASIS International. Accessed 17 Jan. 2023.

    "Physical Security Systems (PSS) Assessment Guide" The United States' Department of Energy (DOE), Dec. 2016. Accessed 23 Jan. 2023.

    "Policies, Standards, Best Practices, Guidance, and White Papers." Interagency Security Committee (ISC). Accessed 23 Jan. 2023.

    "Profiles, Add-ons and Specifications." ONVIF. Accessed 9 Dec. 2022.

    "Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF)." The Australian Attorney-General's Department (AGD). Accessed 13 Jan. 2023.

    "Satellites detect methane plume in Nord Stream leak." The European Space Agency (ESA), 6 oct. 2022. Accessed 23 Jan. 2023.

    ""Satellites detect methane plume in Nord Stream leak." The European Space Agency (ESA), 6 oct. 2022. Accessed 23 Jan. 2023.

    Satgunananthan, Niru. "Challenges in Security Convergence?" LinkedIn, 8 Jan. 2022. Accessed 20 Dec. 2022.

    Sooknanan, Shastri and Isaac Kinsella. "Identify the Components of Your Cloud Security Architecture." Info-Tech Research Group, 12 March 2021. Accessed 26 Jan. 2023.

    "TC 79 Alarm and electronic security systems." International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), n.d. Accessed 9 Dec. 2022.

    "The Risk Management Process for Federal Facilities: An Interagency Security Committee Standard." Interagency Security Committee (ISC), 2021. Accessed 26 Jan. 2023.

    "The Short Guide to Why Security Programs Can Fail." CyberTalk, 23 Sep. 2021. Accessed 30 Dec. 2022.

    Verton, Dan. "Companies Aim to Build Security Awareness." Computerworld, 27 Nov. 2022. Accessed 26 Jan. 2023.

    "Vulnerability Assessment of Federal Facilities." The United States' Department of Justice, 28 Jun. 1995. Accessed 19 Jan. 2023.

    "What is IEC 61508?" 61508 Association. Accessed 23 Jan. 2023.

    Wolf, Gene. "Better Include Physical Security With Cybersecurity." T&D World 5 Jan. 2023. Accessed 19 Jan. 2023.

    Wood, Kate, and Isaac Kinsella. “Build an Information Security Strategy.” Info-Tech Research Group, 9 Sept. 2020. Web.

    Woolf, Tim, et al. "Benefit-Cost Analysis for Utility-Facing Grid Modernization Investments: Trends, Challenges, and Considerations." Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Feb. 2021. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022.

    "Work Health and Safety Act 2011." The Australian Government. Accessed 13 Jan. 2023.

    Wu, Jing. “Industrial Control System Modernization: Unlock the Value of Automation in Utilities.” Info-Tech Research Group, 6 April 2023. Web.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Amy L. Meger, IGP

    Information and Cyber Governance Manager
    Platte River Power Authority

    Andrew Amaro

    Chief Security Officer (CSO) & Founder
    KLAVAN Security

    Bilson Perez

    IT Security Manager
    4Wall Entertainment

    Dan Adams

    VP of Information Technology
    4Wall Entertainment

    Doery Abdou

    Senior Manager
    March Networks Corporate

    Erich Krueger

    Manager of Security Engineering
    Omaha Public Power District

    Kris Krishan

    Head of IT
    Waymo

    Owen Yardley

    Director, Facilities Security Preparedness
    Omaha Public Power District

    Optimize Your Software Selection Process: Why 5 and 30 Are the Magic Numbers

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}607|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: Selection & Implementation
    • Parent Category Link: /selection-and-implementation
    • Software selection takes forever. The process of choosing even the smallest apps can drag on for years: sometimes in perpetuity. Software selection teams are sprawling, leading to scheduling slowdowns and scope creep. Moreover, cumbersome or ad hoc selection processes lead to business-driven software selection.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Maximize project effectiveness with a five-person team. Project satisfaction and effectiveness is stagnant or decreases once the team grows beyond five people.
    • Tight project timelines are critical. Keep stakeholders engaged with a defined application selection timeline that moves the project forward briskly – 30 days is optimal.
    • Empower both IT and end users with a standardized selection process to consistently achieve high satisfaction coming out of software selection projects.

    Impact and Result

    • Shatter stakeholder expectations with truly rapid application selections.
    • Put the “short” back in shortlist by consolidating the vendor shortlist up-front and reducing downstream effort.
    • Identify high-impact software functionality by evaluating fewer use cases.
    • Lock in hard savings and do not pay list price by using data-driven tactics.

    Optimize Your Software Selection Process: Why 5 and 30 Are the Magic Numbers Research & Tools

    Discover the Magic Numbers

    Increase project satisfaction with a five-person core software selection team that will close out projects within 30 days.

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

    • Optimize Your Software Selection Process: Why 5 and 30 Are the Magic Numbers Storyboard

    1. Align and eliminate elapsed time

    Ensure a formal selection process is in place and make a concerted effort to align stakeholder calendars.

    2. Reduce low-impact activities

    Reduce time spent watching vendor dog and pony shows, while reducing the size of your RFPs or skipping them entirely.

    3. Focus on high-impact activities

    Narrow the field to four contenders prior to in-depth comparison and engage in accelerated enterprise architecture oversight.

    4. Use these rapid and essential selection tools

    Focus on key use cases rather than lists of features.

    • The Software Selection Workbook
    • The Vendor Evaluation Workbook
    • The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual

    5. Engage Two Viable Vendors in Negotiation

    Save more by bringing two vendors to the final stage of the project and surfacing a consolidated list of demands prior to entering negotiation.

    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Optimize Your Software Selection Process: Why 5 and 30 Are the Magic Numbers

    Select your applications better, faster, and cheaper.

    How to Read This Software Selection Insight Primer

    1. 43,000 Data Points
    2. This report is based on data gathered from a survey of 43,000 real-world IT practitioners.

    3. Aggregating Feedback
    4. The data is compiled from SoftwareReviews (a sister company of Info-Tech Research Group), which collects and aggregates feedback on a wide variety of enterprise technologies.

    5. Insights Backed by Data
    6. The insights, charts, and graphs in this presentation are all derived from data submitted by real end users.

    The First Magic Number Is Five

    The optimal software selection team comprises five people

    • Derived from 43,000 data points. Analysis of thousands of software selection projects makes it clear a tight core selection team accelerates the selection process.
    • Five people make up the core team. A small but cross-functional team keeps the project moving without getting bogged down on calendar alignment and endless back-and-forth.
    • It is a balancing act. Having too few stakeholders on the core selection team will lead to missing valuable information, while having too many will lead to delays and politically driven inefficiencies.

    There Are Major Benefits to Narrowing the Selection Team Size to Five

    Limit the risk of ineffective “decision making by committee”

    Expedite resolution of key issues and accelerate crucial decisions

    Achieve alignment on critical requirements

    Streamline calendar management

    Info-Tech Insight

    Too many cooks spoil the broth: create a highly focused selection team that can devote the majority of its time to the project while it’s in flight to demonstrate faster time to value.

    Arm Yourself With Data to Choose the Right Plays for Selection

    Software selection takes forever. The process of choosing even the smallest apps can drag on for years: sometimes in perpetuity.

    Organizations keep too many players on the field, leading to scheduling slowdowns and scope creep.

    Keeping the size of the core selection team down, while liaising with more stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs), leads to improved results.

    Maximize project effectiveness with a five-person team. Project satisfaction and effectiveness are stagnant or decrease once the team grows beyond five people.

    Cumbersome or ad hoc selection processes lead to business-driven software selection.

    Increase stakeholder satisfaction by using a consistent selection framework that captures their needs while not being a burden.

    Empower both IT and end users with a standardized selection process to consistently achieve high satisfaction coming out of software selection projects.

    The image contains a graph that is titled: A compact selection team can save you weeks. The graph demonstrates time saved with a five person team in comparison to larger teams.

    Project Satisfaction and Effectiveness Are Stagnant Once the Team Grows Beyond Five People

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate project satisfaction and effectiveness being stagnant with a team larger than five.
    • There is only a marginal difference in selection effectiveness when more people are involved, so why include so many? It only bogs down the process!
    • Full-time resourcing: At least one member of the five team members must be allocated to the selection initiative as a full-time resource.

    Info-Tech Insight

    It sounds natural to include as many players as possible in the core selection group; however, expanding the group beyond five people does not lead to an increase in satisfaction. Consider including a general stakeholder feedback working session instead.

    Shorten Project Duration by Capping the Selection Team at Five People

    However, it is important to make all stakeholders feel heard

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate that an increase in time and effort connects with an increase in total number of people involved.

    Exclusion is not the name of the game.

    • Remember, we are talking about the core selection team.
    • Help stakeholders understand their role in the project.
    • Educate stakeholders about your approach to selection.
    • Ensure stakeholders understand why the official selection team is being capped at five people.
    • Soliciting requirements and feedback from a broader array of stakeholders is still critical.

    Large Organizations Benefit From Compact Selection Teams Just as Much as Small Firms

    Think big even if your organization is small

    Small organizations

    Teams smaller than five people are common due to limited resources.

    Medium organizations

    Selection project satisfaction peaks with teams of fewer than two people. Consider growing the team to about five people to make stakeholders feel more included with minimal drops in satisfaction.

    Large organizations

    Satisfaction peaks when teams are kept to three to five people. With many SMEs available, it is critical to choose the right players for your team.

    The image contains a multi bar graph to demonstrate the benefits of compact selection teams depending on the size of the company, small, medium, or large.

    Keep the Core Selection Team to Five People Regardless of the Software Category

    Smaller selection teams yield increased satisfaction across software categories

    Info-Tech Insight

    Core team size remains the same regardless of the application being selected. However, team composition will vary depending on the end users being targeted.

    Think beyond application complexity

    • Our instinct is to vary the size of the core selection team based on perceived application complexity.
    • The data has demonstrated that a small team yields increased satisfaction for applications across a wide array of application complexity profiles.
    • The real differentiator for complex applications will be the number of stakeholders that the core selection team liaise with, particularly for defining strong requirements.

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate satisfaction across software categories increases with smaller selection teams.

    The Second Magic Number Is 30

    Finish the project while stakeholders are still fully engaged in order to maximize satisfaction

    • 30- to 60-day project timelines are critical. Keep stakeholders engaged with a defined application selection timeline that moves the project forward briskly.
    • Strike while the iron is hot. Deliver applications in a timely manner after the initial request. Don’t let IT become the bottleneck for process optimization.
    • Minimize scope creep: As projects drag on in perpetuity, the scope of the project balloons to something that cannot possibly achieve key business objectives in a timely fashion.

    Aggressively Timeboxing the Project Yields Benefits Across Multiple Software Categories

    After four weeks, stakeholder satisfaction is variable

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate that aggressively timeboxing the project yields benefits across multiple software categories.
    Only categories with at least 1,000 responses were included in the analysis.

    Achieve peak satisfaction by allotting 30 days for an application selection project.

    • Spending two weeks or less typically leads to higher levels of satisfaction for each category because it leaves more time for negotiation, implementation, and making sure everything works properly (especially if there is a time constraint).
    • Watch out for the “satisfaction danger zone” once project enters the 6- to 12-week mark. Completing a selection in four weeks yields greater satisfaction.

    Spend Your Time Wisely to Complete the Selection in 30 Days

    Save time in the first three phases of the selection project

    Awareness

    Education & Discovery

    Evaluation

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Save time duplicating existing market research. Save time and maintain alignment with focus groups.

    Save time across tedious demos and understanding the marketplace.

    Save time gathering detailed historical requirements. Instead, focus on key issues.

    Info-Tech Insight – Awareness

    Timebox the process of impact analysis. More time should be spent performing the action than building a business case.

    Info-Tech Insight – Education

    Save time duplicating existing market research. Save time and maintain alignment with focus groups.

    Info-Tech Insight – Evaluation

    Decision committee time is valuable. Get up to speed using third-party data and written collateral. Use committee time to conduct investigative interviews instead. Salesperson charisma and marketing collateral quality should not be primary selection criteria. Sadly, this is the case far too often.

    Limit Project Duration to 30 Days Regardless of the Application Being Selected

    Timeboxing application selection yields increased satisfaction across software categories

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate selection effort in weeks by satisfaction. The graph includes informal and formal methods on the graph across the software categories.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Office collaboration tools are a great case study for increasing satisfaction with decreased time to selection. Given the sharp impetus of COVID-19, many organizations quickly selected tools like Zoom and Teams, enabling remote work with very high end-user satisfaction.

    There are alternative approaches for enterprise-sized applications:

    • New applications that demand rigorous business process improvement efforts may require allotting time for prework before engaging in the 30-day selection project.
    • To ensure that IT is using the right framework, understand the cost and complexity profile of the application you’re looking to select.

    The Data Also Shows That There Are Five Additional Keys to Improving Your Selection Process

    1. ALIGN & ELIMINATE ELAPSED TIME
    • Ensure a formal selection process is in place.
    • Balance the core selection team’s composition.
    • Make a concerted effort to align stakeholder calendars.
    2. REDUCE TIME SPENT ON LOW-IMPACT ACTIVITIES
    • Reduce time spent on internet research. Leverage hard data and experts.
    • Reduce RFP size or skip RFPs entirely.
    • Reduce time spent watching vendor dog and pony shows.
    3. FOCUS ON HIGH- IMPACT ACTIVITIES
    • Narrow the field to four contenders prior to in-depth comparison.
    • Identify portfolio overlap with accelerated enterprise architecture oversight.
    • Focus on investigative interviews and proof of concept projects.
    4. USE RAPID & ESSENTIAL ASSESSMENT TOOLS
    • Focus on key use cases, not lists of features.
    • You only need three essential tools: Info-Tech’s Vendor Evaluation Workbook, Software Selection Workbook, and Business Stakeholder Manual.
    5. ENGAGE TWO VIABLE VENDORS IN NEGOTIATION
    • Save more during negotiation by selecting two viable alternatives.
    • Surface a consolidated list of demands prior to entering negotiation.
    • Communicate your success with the organization.

    1. Align & Eliminate Elapsed Time

    ✓ Ensure a formal selection process is in place.

    ✓ Reduce time by timeboxing the project to 30 days.

    ✓ Align the calendars of the five-person core selection team.

    Improving Your IT Department’s Software Selection Capability Yields Big Results

    Time spent building a better process for software selection is a great investment

    • Enterprise application selection is an activity that every IT department must embark on, often many times per year.
    • The frequency and repeatability of software selection means it is an indispensable process to target for optimization.
    • A formal process is not always synonymous with a well-oiled process.
    • Even if you have a formal selection process already in place, it’s imperative to take a concerted approach to continuous improvement.

    It is critical to improve the selection process before formalizing

    Leverage Info-Tech’s Rapid Application Selection Framework to gain insights on how you can fine-tune and accelerate existing codified approaches to application selection.

    Before Condensing the Selection Team, First Formalize the Software Selection Process

    Software selection processes are challenging

    Vendor selection is politically charged, requiring Procurement to navigate around stakeholder biases and existing relationships.

    Stakeholders

    The process is time consuming and often started too late. In the absence of clarity around requirements, it is easy to default to looking at price instead of best functional and architectural fit.

    Timing

    Defining formal process and methodology

    Formal selection methodologies are repeatable processes that anybody can consistently follow to quickly select new technology.

    Repeatable

    The goal of formalizing the approach is to enable IT to deliver business value consistently while also empowering stakeholders to find tools that meet their needs. Remember! A formal selection process is synonymous with a bureaucratic, overblown approach.

    Driving Value

    Most Organizations Are Already Using a Formal Software Selection Methodology

    Don’t get left behind!

    • A common misconception for software selection is that only large organizations have formal processes.
    • The reality is that organizations of all sizes are making use of formal processes for software selection.
    • Moreover, using a standardized method to evaluate new technology is most likely common practice among your competitors regardless of their size.
    • It is important to remember that the level of rigor for the processes will vary based not only on project size but also on organization size.
    Only categories with at least 1,000 responses were included in the analysis.

    The image contains a double bar graph that compares the sizes of companies using formal or informal evaluation and selection methodology.

    Use a Formal Evaluation and Selection Methodology to Achieve Higher Satisfaction

    A formal selection process does not equal a bloated selection process

    • No matter what process is being used, you should consider implementing a formal methodology to reduce the amount of time required to select the software. This trend continues across different levels of software (commodity, complex, and enterprise).
    • It is worth noting that using a process can actually add more time to the selection process, so it is important to know how to use it properly.
    • Don’t use just one process: you should use a combination, but don’t use more than three when selecting your software.
    The image contains a double bar graph to demonstrate the difference between formal and informal evaluation to achieve a higher satisfaction.

    Hit a Home Run With Your Business Stakeholders

    Use a data-driven approach to select the right application vendor for their needs – fast

    The image contains a screenshot of the data-drive approach. The approach includes: awareness, education & discovery, evaluation, selection, negotiation & configuration.

    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. The Rapid Application Selection Framework approach is best for commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications; selecting complex applications is better handled by the methodology described in Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process.

    Lock Down the Key Players Before Setting Up the Relevant Timeline

    You are the quarterback of your selection team

    Don’t get bogged down “waiting for the stars to align” in terms of people’s availability: if you wait for the perfect alignment, the project may never get done.

    If a key stakeholder is unavailable for weeks or months due to PTO or other commitments, don’t jeopardize project timelines to wait for them to be free. Find a relevant designate that can act in their stead!

    You don’t need the entire team on the field at once. Keep certain stakeholders on the bench to swap in and out as needed.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Assemble the key stakeholders for project kick-off to synchronize the application selection process and limit elapsed time. Getting all parties on the same page increases output satisfaction and eliminates rework. Save time and get input from key stakeholders at the project kick-off.

    Assemble a Cross-Functional Team for Best Results

    A blend of both worlds gets the best of both worlds from domain expertise (technical and business)

    The image contains a graph labelled: Likeliness to recommend. It is described in the text below.

    How to manage the cross-functional selection team:

    • There should be a combination of IT and businesspeople involved in the selection process, and ideally the ratio would be balanced.
    • No matter what you are looking for, you should never include more than five people in the selection process.
    • You can keep key stakeholders and other important individuals informed with what is going on, but they don’t necessarily have to be involved in the selection process.

    Leverage a Five-Person Team With Players From Both IT and the Business

    For maximum effectiveness, assign at least one resource to the project on a full-time basis

    IT Leader

    Technical IT

    Business Analyst/ Project Manager

    Business Lead

    Process Expert

    This team member is an IT director or CIO who will provide sponsorship and oversight from the IT perspective.

    This team member will focus on application security, integration, and enterprise architecture.

    This team member elicits business needs and translates them into technology requirements.

    This team member will provide sponsorship from the business needs perspective.

    This team member will contribute their domain-specific knowledge around the processes that the new application supports.

    Info-Tech Insight

    It is critical for the selection team to determine who has decision rights. Organizational culture will play the largest role in dictating which team member holds the final say for selection decisions.

    Ensure That Your Project Has the Right Mix of the Core Team and Ancillary Stakeholders

    Who is involved in selecting the new application?

    • Core selection team:
      • The core team ideally comprises just five members.
      • There will be representatives from IT and the specific business function that is most impacted by the application.
      • The team is typically anchored by a business analyst or project management professional.
      • This is the team that is ultimately accountable for ensuring that the project stays on track and that the right vendor is selected.
    • Ancillary stakeholders:
      • These stakeholders are brought into the selection project on an as-needed basis. They offer commentary on requirements and technical know-how.
      • They will be impacted by the project outcome but they do not bear ultimate accountability for selecting the application.
    The image contains an outer circle that lists Ancillary Stakeholders, and an inner selection team that lists core selection teams.

    Tweak the Team Composition Based on the Application Category in Question

    All applications are different. Some categories may require a slightly different balance of business and IT users.

    When to adjust the selection team’s business to IT ratio:

    • Increase the number of business stakeholders for customer-centric applications like customer relationship management and customer service management.
    • Keep projects staffed with more technical resources when selecting internal-facing tools like network monitoring platforms, next-generation firewalls, and endpoint protection systems.
    The image contains a graph to demonstrate how to tweak the team composition based on the application category.

    When to adjust the selection team’s business to IT ratio:

    • Increase the number of business stakeholders for customer-centric applications like customer relationship management and customer service management.
    • Keep projects staffed with more technical resources when selecting internal-facing tools like network monitoring platforms, next-generation firewalls, and endpoint protection systems.

    Balance the Selection Team With Decision Makers and Front-Line Resources

    Find the right balance!

    • Make sure to include key decision makers to increase the velocity of approvals.
    • However, it is critical to include the right number of front-line resources to ensure that end-user needs are adequately reflected in the requirements and decision criteria used for selection.

    The image contains a graph on the team composition with number of decision makers involved.

    Info-Tech Insight

    When selecting their software, organizations have an average of two to four business and IT decision makers/influencers on the core selection team.

    Optimize Meeting Cadence to Complete Selection in 30 Days

    Project Cadence:

    • Execute approximately one phase per week.
    • Conduct weekly checkpoints to move through your formal selection framework.
    • Allot two to four hours per touchpoint.

    The image contains a calendar with the five phases spread put over five weeks.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Use weekly touchpoints with the core selection team to eliminate broken telephone. Hold focus groups and workshops to take a more collaborative, timely, and consensus-driven approach to zero in on critical requirements.

    2. Reduce Time Spent on Low-Impact Activities

    ✓ Reduce time spent on internet research. Leverage hard data and experts.

    ✓ Reduce RFP size or skip RFPs entirely.

    ✓ Reduce time spent watching vendor dog and pony shows.

    Reduce Time Spent on Internet Research by Leveraging Hard Data and Experts

    REDUCE BIAS

    Taking a data-driven approach to vendor selection ensures that decisions are made in a manner that reduces human bias and exposure to misaligned incentives.

    SCORING MODELS

    Create a vendor scoring model that uses several different scored criteria (alignment to needs, alignment to architecture, cost, relationship, etc.) and weight them.

    AGGREGATE EXPERIENCES

    When you leverage services such as SoftwareReviews, you’re relying on amalgamated data from hundreds of others that have already been down this path: benefit from their experience!

    PEER-DRIVEN INSIGHTS

    Formally incorporate a review of Category Reports from SoftwareReviews into your vendor selection process to take advantage of peer-driven expert insights.

    Contact Us

    Info-Tech is just a phone call away. Our expert analysts can guide you to successful project completion at no additional cost to you.

    Bloated RFPs Are Weighing You Down

    Avoid “RFP overload” – parse back deliverables for smaller projects

    1. Many IT and procurement professionals are accustomed to deliverable-heavy application selection projects.
    2. Massive amounts of effort is spent creating onerous RFIs, RFPs, vendor demo scripts, reference guides, and Pugh matrices – with only incremental (if any) benefits.
    3. For smaller projects, focus on creating a minimum viable RFP that sketches out a brief need statement and highlights three or four critical process areas to avoid RFP fatigue.

    Draft a lightweight RFI (or minimum viable RFP) to give vendors a snapshot of your needs while managing effort

    An RFI or MV-RFP is a truncated RFP document that highlights core use cases to vendors while minimizing the amount of time the team has to spend building it.

    You may miss out on the right vendor if:

    • The RFP is too long or cumbersome for the vendor to respond.
    • Vendors believe their time is better spent relationship selling.
    • The RFP is unclear and leads them to believe they won’t be successful.
    • The vendor was forced to guess what you were looking for.

    How to write a successful RFI/MV-RFP:

    • Expend your energy relative to the complexity of the required solution or product you’re seeking.
    • A good MV-RFP is structured as follows: a brief description of your organization, business context, and key requirements. It should not exceed a half-dozen pages in length.
    • Be transparent.
    • This could potentially be a long-term relationship, so don’t try to trick suppliers.
    • Be clear in your expectations and focus on the key aspects of what you’re trying to achieve.

    Use the appropriate Info-Tech template for your needs (RFI, RFQ, or RFP). The Request for Information Template is best suited to the RASF approach.

    If Necessary, Make Sure That You Are Going About RFPs the Right Way

    RFPs only add satisfaction when done correctly

    The image contains a graph to demonstrate RFP and satisfaction.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Prescriptive yet flexible: Avoid RFP overload when selecting customer experience–centric applications, but a formal approach to selection is still beneficial.

    When will an RFP increase satisfaction?

    • Satisfaction is increased when the RFP is used in concert with a formal selection methodology. An RFP on its own does not drive significant value.
    • RFPs that focus on an application’s differentiating features lead to higher satisfaction with the selection process.
    • Using the RFP to evaluate mandatory or standard and/or mandatory features yields neutral results.

    Reduce Time Spent Watching Vendor Dog and Pony Shows

    Salesperson charisma and marketing collateral quality should not be primary selection criteria. Sadly, this is the case far too often.

    Use data to take control back from the vendor

    • Taking a data-driven approach to vendor selection ensures that decisions are made in a manner that reduces human bias and exposure to misaligned incentives.
    • When you leverage services such as SoftwareReviews, you’re relying on amalgamated data from hundreds of others that have already been down this path: benefit from their collective experience!

    Kill the “golf course effect” and eliminate stakeholder bias

    • A leading cause of selection failure is human bias. While rarely malicious, the reality is that decision makers and procurement staff can become unduly biased over time by vendor incentives. Conference passes, box seats, a strong interpersonal relationship – these are all things that may be valuable to a decision maker but have no bearing on the efficacy of an enterprise application.
    • A strong selection process mitigates human bias by using a weighted scoring model and basing decisions on hard data: cost, user satisfaction scores, and trusted third-party data from services such as SoftwareReviews.

    Conduct a Day of Rapid-Fire Investigative Interviews

    Zoom in on high-value use cases and answers to targeted questions

    Make sure the solution will work for your business

    Give each vendor 60 to 90 minutes to give a rapid-fire presentation. We suggest the following structure:

    • 20 minutes: company introduction and vision
    • 20 minutes: one high-value scenario walkthrough
    • 20-40 minutes: targeted Q&A from the business stakeholders and procurement team

    To ensure a consistent evaluation, vendors should be asked analogous questions, and a tabulation of answers should be conducted.

    How to challenge the vendors in the investigative interview

    • Change the visualization/presentation.
    • Change the underlying data.
    • Add additional data sets to the artifacts.
    • Collaboration capabilities.
    • Perform an investigation in terms of finding BI objects and identifying previous changes and examine the audit trail.

    Rapid-Fire Vendor Investigative Interview

    Invite vendors to come onsite (or join you via videoconference) to demonstrate the product and to 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.

    Spend Your Time Wisely and Accelerate the Process

    Join the B2B software selection r/evolution

    Awareness

    Education & Discovery

    Evaluation

    Selection

    Negotiation & Configuration

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Reduce Time

    Save time
    duplicating existing market research. Save time and maintain alignment with focus groups.

    Save time across tedious demos and understanding the marketplace.

    Save time gathering detailed historical requirements. Instead, focus on key issues.

    Use your time to validate how the solution will handle mission-critical requirements.

    Spend time negotiating with two viable alternatives to reduce price by up to 50%.

    Use a tier-based model to accelerate commodity and complex selection projects.

    Eliminate elapsed process time with focus groups and workshops.

    3. Focus on High-Impact Activities

    ✓ Narrow the field to four contenders prior to in-depth comparison.

    ✓ Identify portfolio overlap with accelerated enterprise architecture oversight.

    ✓ Focus on investigative interviews and proof of concept projects.

    Narrow the Field to a Maximum of Four Contenders

    Focus time spent on the players that we know can deliver strong value

    1. ACCELERATE SELECTION

    Save time by exclusively engaging vendors that support the organization’s differentiating requirements.

    2. DECISION CLARITY

    Prevent stakeholders from getting lost in the weeds with endless lists of vendors.

    3.CONDENSED DEMOS

    Limiting the project to four contenders allows you to stack demos/investigative interviews into the same day.

    4. LICENSING LEVERAGE

    Keep track of key differences between vendor offerings with a tight shortlist.

    Rapid & Effective Selection Decisions

    Consolidating the Vendor Shortlist Up-Front Reduces Downstream Effort

    Put the “short” back in shortlist!

    • Radically reduce effort by narrowing the field of potential vendors earlier in the selection process. Too many organizations don’t funnel their vendor shortlist until nearing the end of the selection process. The result is wasted time and effort evaluating options that are patently not a good fit.
    • Leverage external data (such as SoftwareReviews) and expert opinion to consolidate your shortlist into a smaller number of viable vendors before the investigative interview stage and eliminate time spent evaluating dozens of RFP responses.
    • Having fewer RFP responses to evaluate means you will have more time to do greater due diligence.

    Rapid Enterprise Architecture Evaluations Are High-Impact Activities

    When accelerating selection decisions, finding the right EA is a balancing act

    • Neglecting enterprise architecture as a shortcut to save time often leads to downstream integration problems and decreases application satisfaction.
    • On the other hand, overly drawn out enterprise architecture evaluations can lead to excessively focusing on technology integration versus having a clear and concise understanding of critical business needs.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Targeting an enterprise architecture evaluation as part of your software selection process that does not delay the selection while also providing sufficient insight into platform fit is critical.

    Key activities for rapid enterprise architecture evaluation include:

    1. Security analysis
    2. Portfolio overlap review + integration assessment
    3. Application standards check

    The data confirms that it is worthwhile to spend time on enterprise architecture

    • Considering software architecture fit up-front to determine if new software aligns with the existing application architecture directly links to greater satisfaction.
    • Stakeholders are most satisfied with their software value when there is a good architectural platform fit.
    • Stakeholders that ranked Architectural Platform Fit lower during the selection process were ultimately more unsatisfied with their software choice.

    The image contains a screenshot of data to demonstrate that it is worthwhile to spend time on enterprise architecture.

    Identify Portfolio Overlap With an Accelerated Enterprise Architecture Assessment

    Develop a clear view of any overlap within your target portfolio subset and clear rationalization/consolidation options

    • Application sprawl is a critical pain point in many organizations. It leads to wasted time, money, and effort as IT (and the business) maintain myriad applications that all serve the same functional purpose.
    • Opportunities are missed to consolidate and streamline associated business process management, training, and end-user adoption activities.
    • Identify which applications in your existing architecture serve a duplicate purpose: these applications are the ones you will want to target for consolidation.
    • As you select a new application, identify where it can be used to serve the goal for application rationalization (i.e. can we replace/retire existing applications in our portfolio by standardizing the new one?).

    Keep the scope manageable!

    • Highlight the major functional processes that are closely related to the application you’re selecting and identify which applications support each.
    • The template below represents a top-level view of a set of customer experience management (CXM) applications. Identify linkages between sets of applications and if they’re uni- or bi-directional.
    The image contains a screenshot of images that demonstrate portfolio overlap with an accelerated enterprise architecture assessment.

    Rapidly Evaluate the Security & Risk Profile for a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Evaluation

    There are four considerations for determining the security and risk profile for the new application

    1. Financial Risk
    • Consider the financial impact the new application has on the organization.
      • How significant is the investment in technology?
    • If this application fails to meet its business goals and deliver strong return on investment, will there be a significant amount of financial resources to mitigate the problem?
  • Data Sensitivity Risk
    • Understand the type of data that will be handled/stored by the application.
      • For example, a CRM will house customer personally identifiable information (PII) and an ECM will store confidential business documentation.
    • Determine the consequences of a potential breach (i.e. legal and financial).
  • Application Vulnerability Risk
    • Consider whether the application category has a historically strong security track record.
      • For example, enterprise cloud storage solutions may have a different level of vulnerability than an HRIS platform.
  • Infrastructure Risk
    • Determine whether the new application requires changes to infrastructure or additional security investments to safeguard expanded infrastructure.
    • Consider the ways in which the changes to infrastructure increase the vectors for security breaches.

    Spend More Time Validating Key Issues With Deep Technical Assessments

    The image contains a screenshot of an image of an iceberg. The top part of the iceberg is above water and labelled 40%. The rest of the iceberg is below water and is labelled 60%.

    Conversations With the Vendor

    • Initial conversations with the vendor build alignment on overall application capabilities, scope of work, and pricing.

    Pilot Projects and Trial Environments

    • Conduct a proof of concept project to ensure that the application satisfies your non-functional requirements.
    • Technical assessments not only demonstrate whether an application is compatible with your existing systems but also give your technical resources the confidence that the implementation process will be as smooth as possible.
    • Marketing collateral glosses over actual capabilities and differentiation. Use unbiased third-party data and detailed system training material.

    4. Use Rapid & Essential Assessment Tools

    ✓ Focus on key use cases, not lists of features.

    ✓ You only need three essential tools:

    1. Info-Tech’s Vendor Evaluation Workbook
    2. The Software Selection Workbook
    3. A Business Stakeholder Manual

    Focus on Key Use Cases, Not an Endless Laundry List of Table Stakes Features

    Focus on Critical Requirements

    Failure to differentiate must-have and nice-to-have use cases leads to applications full of non-critical features.

    Go Beyond the Table Stakes

    Accelerate the process by skipping common requirements that we know that every vendor will support.

    Streamline the Quantity of Use Cases

    Working with a tighter list of core use cases increases time spent evaluating the most impactful functionality.

    Over-Customization Kills Projects

    Eliminating dubious “sacred cow” requirements reduces costly and painful platform customization.

    Only Make Use of Essential Selection Artifacts

    Vendor selection projects often demand extensive and unnecessary documentation

    The Software Selection Workbook

    Work through the straightforward templates that tie to each phase of the Rapid Application Selection Framework, from assessing the business impact to requirements gathering.

    The image contains a screenshot of The Software Selection Workbook.

    The Vendor Evaluation Workbook

    Consolidate the vendor evaluation process into a single document. Easily compare vendors as you narrow the field to finalists.

    The image contains a screenshot of The Vendor Evaluation Workbook.

    The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual

    Quickly explain the Rapid Application Selection Framework to your team while also highlighting its benefits to stakeholders.

    The image contains a screenshot of The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual.

    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.
    The image contains a screenshot of the calendar over 30 days that outlines the five calls.

    Click here to book your selection engagement

    Software Selection Workshop

    With 40 hours of advisory assistance delivered online, select better software, faster.

    • 40 hours of expert analyst guidance.
    • Project and stakeholder management assistance.
    • Save money, align stakeholders, speed up the process, and make better decisions.
    • Better, faster results, guaranteed; $20K standard engagement fee.
    The image contains a screenshot of the calendar over 30 days that outlines the five calls.

    CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR WORKSHOP ENGAGEMENT

    5. Select Two Viable Options & Engage Both in Negotiation

    ✓ Save more during negotiation by selecting two viable alternatives.

    ✓ Surface a consolidated list of demands prior to entering negotiation.

    ✓ Communicate your success with the organization.

    Save More During Negotiation by Selecting Two Viable Alternatives

    VENDOR 1

    Build in a realistic plan B that allows you to apply leverage to the incumbent or primary vendor of choice.

    VENDOR 2

    If the top contender is aware that they do not have competition, they will be less inclined to make concessions.

    Maintain momentum with two options

    • Should you realize that the primary contender is no longer a viable option (i.e. security concerns), keeping a second vendor in play enables you to quickly pivot without slowing down the selection project.

    Secure best pricing by playing vendors off each other

    • Vendors are more likely to give concessions on the base price once they become aware that a direct competitor has entered the evaluation.

    Truly commit to a thorough analysis of alternatives

    • By evaluating competitive alternatives, you’ll get a more comprehensive view on market standards for a solution and be able to employ a range of negotiation tactics.

    Focus on 5-10 Specific Contract Change Requests

    Accelerate negotiation by picking your battles

    ANALYZE

    DOCUMENT

    CONSOLIDATE

    PRESENT

    • Parse the contract, order form, and terms & conditions for concerning language.
    • Leverage expertise from internal subject matter experts in addition to relevant legal council.
    • Document all concerns and challenges with the language in the vendor contract in a single spreadsheet.
    • Make vendors more receptive to your cause by going one step beyond writing what the change should be. Provide the reasoning behind the change and even the relevant context.
    • Identify the change requests that are most important for the success of the selection project.
    • Compile a list of the most critical change requests.
    • Consider including nice-to-have requests that you can leverage as strategic concessions.
    • Present the consolidated list of critical change requests to the vendor rather than sharing the entire range of potential changes to the contract.
    • Make sure to include context and background for each request.
    • Eliminate potential delays by proactively establishing a timeline for the vendor’s response.

    Share Stories of Cost Savings With the Organization

    Secure IT’s seat at the table

    Hard cost savings speak louder than words. Executive leadership will see IT as the go-to team for driving business value quickly, yet responsibly.

    Build hype around the new software

    Generate enthusiasm by highlighting the improved user experience provided by the new software that was has just been selected.

    Drive end-user adoption

    Position the cost savings as an opportunity to invest in onboarding. An application is only as valuable as your employees’ ability to effectively use it.

    Keep the process rolling

    Use the momentum from the project and its successful negotiation to roll out the accelerated selection approach to more departments across the organization.

    Overall: The Magic Number Saves You Time and Money

    Software selection takes forever. The process of choosing even the smallest apps can drag on for years: sometimes in perpetuity.

    Organizations keep too many players on the field, leading to scheduling slowdowns and scope creep.

    Keeping the size of the core selection team down, while liaising with more stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs), leads to improved results.

    Maximize project effectiveness with a five-person team. Project satisfaction and effectiveness are stagnant or decrease once the team grows beyond five people.

    Cumbersome or ad hoc selection processes lead to business-driven software selection.

    Increase stakeholder satisfaction by using a consistent selection framework that captures their needs while not being a burden.

    Empower both IT and end users with a standardized selection process to consistently achieve high satisfaction coming out of software selection projects.

    The image contains a graph that is titled: A compact selection team can save you weeks. The graph demonstrates time saved with a five person team in comparison to larger teams.

    Key Takeaways for Improving Your Selection Process

    1. ALIGN & ELIMINATE ELAPSED TIME

    • Ensure a formal selection process is in place and reduce time by timeboxing the project to 30 days.
    • Align the calendars of the five-person core selection team to maximize efficiency.

    2. REDUCE TIME SPENT ON LOW-IMPACT ACTIVITIES

    • Go beyond the table stakes and accelerate the process by skipping common requirements that we know that every vendor will support.
    • Only make use of essential selection artifacts.

    3. FOCUS ON HIGH- IMPACT ACTIVITIES

    • Skip the vendor dog and pony shows with investigative interviews.
    • Minimize time spent on novel-sized RFPs; instead highlight three or four critical process areas.

    4. USE RAPID & ESSENTIAL ASSESSMENT TOOLS

    • Consolidating the vendor shortlist up-front reduces downstream effort.
    • Application sprawl is a critical pain point in many organizations that leads to wasted time and money.

    5. ENGAGE TWO VIABLE VENDORS IN NEGOTIATION

    • Build in a realistic plan B that allows you to apply leverage to the incumbent or primary vendor of choice.
    • Pick your battles and focus on 5-10 specific contract change requests.

    Appendix

    This study is based on a survey of 43,000 real-world IT practitioners.

    • SoftwareReviews (a sister company of Info-Tech Research Group) collects and aggregates feedback on a wide variety of enterprise technologies.
    • The practitioners are actual end users of hundreds of different enterprise application categories.
    • The following slides highlight the supplementary data points from the comprehensive survey.

    Methodology

    A comprehensive study based on the responses of thousands of real-world practitioners.

    Qualitative & Secondary

    Using comprehensive statistical techniques, we surveyed what our members identified as key drivers of success in selecting enterprise software. Our goal was to determine how organizations can accelerate selection processes and improve outcomes by identifying where people should spend their time for the best results.

    Large-n Survey

    To determine the “Magic Numbers,” we used a large-n survey: 40,000 respondents answered questions about their applications, selection processes, organizational firmographics, and personal characteristics. We used this data to determine what drives satisfaction not only with the application but with the selection process itself.

    Quantitative Drill-Down

    We used the survey to narrow the list of game-changing practices. We then conducted additional quantitative research to understand why our respondents may have selected the responses they did.

    Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}126|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $61,999 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 20 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management
    • Continuous and disruptive database design updates while trying to have one design pattern to fit all use cases.
    • Sub-par performance while loading, retrieving, and querying data.
    • You want to shorten time-to-market of the projects aimed at data delivery and consumption.
    • Unnecessarily complicated database design limits usability of the data and requires knowledge of specific data structures for their effective use.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Evolve your data architecture. Data pipeline is an evolutionary break away from the enterprise data warehouse methodology.
    • Avoid endless data projects. Building centralized all-in-one enterprise data warehouses takes forever to deliver a positive ROI.
    • Facilitate data self-service. Use-case optimized data delivery repositories facilitate data self-service.

    Impact and Result

    • Understand your high-level business capabilities and interactions across them – your data repositories and flows should be just a digital reflection thereof.
    • Divide your data world in logical verticals overlaid with various speed data progression lanes, i.e. build your data pipeline – and conquer it one segment at a time.
    • Use the most appropriate database design pattern for a given phase/component in your data pipeline progression.

    Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Build your data pipeline using the most appropriate data design patterns.

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

    1. Understand data progression

    Identify major business capabilities, business processes running inside and across them, and datasets produced or used by these business processes and activities performed thereupon.

    • Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics – Phase 1: Understand Data Progression

    2. Identify data pipeline components

    Identify data pipeline vertical zones: data creation, accumulation, augmentation, and consumption, as well as horizontal lanes: fast, medium, and slow speed.

    • Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics – Phase 2: Identify Data Pipeline Components

    3. Select data design patterns

    Select the right data design patterns for the data pipeline components, as well as an applicable data model industry standard (if available).

    • Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics – Phase 3: Select Data Design Patterns
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics

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

    1 Understand Data Progression

    The Purpose

    Identify major business capabilities, business processes running inside and across them, and datasets produced or used by these business processes and activities performed thereupon.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Indicates the ownership of datasets and the high-level data flows across the organization.

    Activities

    1.1 Review & discuss typical pitfalls (and their causes) of major data management initiatives.

    1.2 Discuss the main business capabilities of the organization and how they interact.

    1.3 Discuss the business processes running inside and across business capabilities and the datasets involved.

    1.4 Create the Enterprise Business Process Model (EBPM).

    Outputs

    Understanding typical pitfalls (and their causes) of major data management initiatives.

    Business capabilities map

    Business processes map

    Enterprise Business Process Model (EBPM)

    2 Identify Data Pipeline Components

    The Purpose

    Identify data pipeline vertical zones: data creation, accumulation, augmentation, and consumption, as well as horizontal lanes: fast, medium, and slow speed.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Design the high-level data progression pipeline.

    Activities

    2.1 Review and discuss the concept of a data pipeline in general, as well as the vertical zones: data creation, accumulation, augmentation, and consumption.

    2.2 Identify these zones in the enterprise business model.

    2.3 Review and discuss multi-lane data progression.

    2.4 Identify different speed lanes in the enterprise business model.

    Outputs

    Understanding of a data pipeline design, including its zones.

    EBPM mapping to Data Pipeline Zones

    Understanding of multi-lane data progression

    EBPM mapping to Multi-Speed Data Progression Lanes

    3 Develop the Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Select the right data design patterns for the data pipeline components, as well as an applicable data model industry standard (if available).

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Use of appropriate data design pattern for each zone with calibration on the data progression speed.

    Activities

    3.1 Review and discuss various data design patterns.

    3.2 Discuss and select the data design pattern selection for data pipeline components.

    3.3 Discuss applicability of data model industry standards (if available).

    Outputs

    Understanding of various data design patterns.

    Data Design Patterns mapping to the data pipeline.

    Selection of an applicable data model from available industry standards.

    Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}417|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $52,224 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 38 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: DR and Business Continuity
    • Parent Category Link: /business-continuity
    • Disaster recovery plan (DRP) documentation is often driven by audit or compliance requirements rather than aimed at the team that would need to execute recovery.
    • Between day-to-day IT projects and the difficulty of maintaining 300+ page manuals, DRP documentation is not updated and quickly becomes unreliable.
    • Inefficient publishing strategies result in your DRP not being accessible during disaster or key staff not knowing where to find the latest version.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • DR documentation fails when organizations try to boil the ocean with an all-in-one plan aimed at auditors, business leaders, and IT. It’s too long, too hard to maintain, and ends up being little more than shelf-ware.
    • Using flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams aimed at an IT audience is more concise and effective in a disaster, quicker to create, and easier to maintain.
    • Create your DRP in layers to keep the work manageable. Start with a recovery workflow to ensure a coordinated response, and build out supporting documentation over time.

    Impact and Result

    • Create visual and concise DR documentation that strips out unnecessary content and is written for an IT audience – the team that would actually be executing the recovery. Your business leaders can take the same approach to create separate business response plans. Don’t mix the two in an all-in-one plan that is not effective for either audience.
    • Determine a documentation distribution strategy that supports ease of maintenance and accessibility during a disaster.
    • Incorporate DRP maintenance into change management procedures to systematically update and refine the DR documentation. Don’t save up changes for a year-end blitz, which turns document maintenance into an onerous project.

    Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should adopt a visual-based DRP, 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. Streamline DRP documentation

    Start by documenting your recovery workflow. Create supporting documentation in the form of checklists, flowcharts, topology diagrams, and contact lists. Finally, summarize your DR capabilities in a DRP Summary Document for stakeholders and auditors.

    • Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan – Phase 1: Streamline DRP Documentation

    2. Select the optimal DRP publishing strategy

    Select criteria for assessing DRP tools, and evaluate whether a business continuity management tool, document management solution, wiki site, or manually distributing documentation is best for your DR team.

    • Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan – Phase 2: Select the Optimal DRP Publishing Strategy
    • DRP Publishing and Document Management Solution Evaluation Tool
    • BCM Tool – RFP Selection Criteria

    3. Keep your DRP relevant through maintenance best practices

    Learn how to integrate DRP maintenance into core IT processes, and learn what to look for during testing and during annual reviews of your DRP.

    • Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan – Phase 3: Keep Your DRP Relevant Through Maintenance Best Practices
    • Sample Project Intake Form Addendum for Disaster Recovery
    • Sample Change Management Checklist for Disaster Recovery
    • DRP Review Checklist
    • DRP-BCP Review Workflow (Visio)
    • DRP-BCP Review Workflow (PDF)

    4. Appendix: XMPL Case Study

    Model your DRP after the XMPL case study disaster recovery plan documentation.

    • Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan – Appendix: XMPL Case Study
    • XMPL DRP Summary Document
    • XMPL Notification, Assessment, and Declaration Plan
    • XMPL Systems Recovery Playbook
    • XMPL Recovery Workflows (Visio)
    • XMPL Recovery Workflows (PDF)
    • XMPL Data Center and Network Diagrams (Visio)
    • XMPL Data Center and Network Diagrams (PDF)
    • XMPL DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool
    • XMPL DRP Workbook
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Document and Maintain Your 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 Streamline DRP Documentation

    The Purpose

    Teach your team how to create visual-based documentation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Learn how to create visual-based DR documentation.

    Activities

    1.1 Conduct a table-top planning exercise.

    1.2 Document your high-level incident response plan.

    1.3 Identify documentation to include in your playbook.

    1.4 Create an initial collection of supplementary documentation.

    1.5 Discuss what further documentation is necessary for recovering from a disaster.

    1.6 Summarize your DR capabilities for stakeholders.

    Outputs

    Documented high-level incident response plan

    List of documentation action items

    Collection of 1-3 draft checklists, flowcharts, topology diagrams, and contact lists

    Action items for ensuring that the DRP is executable for both primary and backup DR personnel

    DRP Summary Document

    2 Select the Optimal DRP Publishing Strategy

    The Purpose

    Learn the considerations for publishing your DRP.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Identify the best strategy for publishing your DRP.

    Activities

    2.1 Select criteria for assessing DRP tools.

    2.2 Evaluate categories for DRP tools.

    Outputs

    Strategy for publishing DRP

    3 Learn How to Keep Your DRP Relevant Through Maintenance Best Practices

    The Purpose

    Address the common pain point of unmaintained DRPs.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create an approach for maintaining your DRP.

    Activities

    3.1 Alter your project intake considerations.

    3.2 Integrate DR considerations into change management.

    3.3 Integrate documentation into performance measurement and performance management.

    3.4 Learn best practices for maintaining your DRP.

    Outputs

    Project Intake Form Addendum Template

    Change Management DRP Checklist Template

    Further reading

    Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan

    Put your DRP on a diet – keep it fit, trim, and ready for action.

    ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

    The traditional disaster recovery plan (DRP) “red binder” is dead. It takes too long to create, it’s too hard to maintain, and it’s not usable in a crisis.

    “This blueprint outlines the following key tactics to streamline your documentation effort and produce a better result:

    • Write for an IT audience and focus on how to recover. You don’t need 30 pages of fluff describing the purpose of the document.
    • Use flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams over traditional manuals. This drives documentation that is more concise, easier to maintain, and effective in a crisis.
    • Create your DRP in layers to get tangible results faster, starting with a recovery workflow that outlines your DR strategy, and then build out the specific documentation needed to support recovery.”
    (Frank Trovato, Research Director, Infrastructure, Info-Tech Research Group)

    This project is about DRP documentation after you have clarified your DR strategy; create these necessary inputs first

    These artifacts are the cornerstone for any disaster recovery plan.

    • Business Impact Analysis
    • DR Roles and Responsibilities
    • Recovery Workflow

    Missing a component? Start here. ➔ Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

    This blueprint walks you through building these inputs.
    Our approach saves clients on average US$16,825.22. (Clients self-reported an average saving of US$16,869.21 while completing the Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan blueprint through advisory calls, guided implementations, or workshops (Info-Tech Research Group, 2017, N=129).)

    How this blueprint will help you document your DRP

    This Research is Designed For:

    • IT managers in charge of disaster recovery planning (DRP) and execution.
    • Organizations seeking to optimize their DRP using best-practice methodology.
    • Business continuity professionals that are involved with disaster recovery.

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Divide the process of creating DR documentation into manageable chunks, providing a defined scope for you to work in.
    • Identify an appropriate DRP document management and distribution strategy.
    • Ensure that DR documentation is up to date and accessible.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • IT managers preparing for a DR audit.
    • IT managers looking to incorporate components of DR into an IT operations document.

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Follow a structured approach in building DR documentation using best practices.
    • Integrate DR into day-to-day IT operations.

    Executive summary

    Situation

    • DR documentation is often driven by audit or compliance requirements, rather than aimed at the team that would need to execute recovery.
    • Traditional DRPs are text-heavy, 300+ page manuals that are simply not usable in a crisis.
    • Compounding the problem, DR documentation is rarely updated, so it’s just shelf-ware.

    Complication

    • DRP is often given lower priority as day-to-day IT projects displace DR documentation efforts.
    • Inefficient publishing strategies result in your DRP not being accessible during disasters or key staff not knowing where to find the latest version.
    • Organizations that create traditional DRPs end up with massive manuals that are difficult to maintain, so they quickly become unreliable.

    Resolution

    • Create visual and concise DR documentation that strips out unnecessary content and is written for an IT audience – the team that would actually be executing the recovery. Your business leaders can take the same approach to create separate business response plans – don’t mix the two into an all-in-one plan that is not effective for either audience.
    • Determine a documentation distribution strategy that supports ease of maintenance and accessibility during a disaster.
    • Incorporate DRP maintenance into change management and project intake procedures to systematically update and refine the DR documentation. Don’t save up changes for a year-end blitz, which turns document maintenance into an onerous project.

    Info-Tech Insight

    1. DR documentation fails when organizations try to boil the ocean with an all-in-one plan aimed at auditors, business leaders, and IT. It’s too long, too hard to maintain, and ends up being little more than shelf-ware.
    2. Using flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams aimed at an IT audience is more concise and effective in a disaster, quicker to create, and easier to maintain.
    3. Create your DRP in layers to keep the work manageable. Start with a recovery workflow to ensure a coordinated response, and build out supporting documentation over time.

    An effective DRP that mitigates a wide range of potential outages is critical to minimizing the impact of downtime

    The criticality of having an effective DRP is underestimated.

    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: $100,000
    • 35% reported to have recovered within 12 hours.
    • 17% of infrastructure failures took more than 24 hours to recover.
    • 13% of application failures took more than 24 hours to recover.
    Size of Impact Increasing Across Industries
    • The cost of downtime is rising across the board and not just for organizations that traditionally depend on IT (e.g. e-commerce).
    • Downtime cost increase since 2010:
      • Hospitality: 129% increase
      • Transportation: 108% increase
      • Media organizations: 104% increase
    Potential Lost Revenue
    A line graph of Potential Lost Revenue with vertical axis 'LOSS ($)' and horizontal axis 'TIME'. The line starts with low losses near the origin where 'Incident Occurs', gradually accelerates to higher losses as time passes, then decelerates before 'All Revenue Lost'. Note: 'Delay in recovery causes exponential revenue loss'.
    (Adapted from: Rothstein, Philip Jan. Disaster Recovery Testing: Exercising Your Contingency Plan (2007 Edition).)

    The impact of downtime increases significantly over time, not just in terms of lost revenue (as illustrated here) but also goodwill/reputation and health/safety. An effective DR solution and overall resiliency that mitigate a wide range of potential outages are critical to minimizing the impact of downtime.

    Without an effective DRP, your organization is gambling on being able to define and implement a recovery strategy during a time of crisis. At the very least, this means extended downtime – potentially weeks – and substantial impact.

    Only 38% of those with a full or mostly complete DRP believe their DRPs would be effective in a real crisis

    Organizations continue to struggle with creating DRPs, let alone making them actionable.

    Why are so many living with either an incomplete or ineffective DRP? For the same reasons that IT documentation in general continues to be a pain point:

    • It is an outdated model of what documentation should be – the traditional manual with detailed (lengthy) descriptions and procedures.
    • Despite the importance of DR, low priority is placed on creating a DRP and the day-to-day SOPs required to support a recovery.
    • There is a lack of effective processes for ensuring documentation stays up to date.
    A bar graph documenting percentages of survey responses about the completeness of their DRP. 'Only 20% of survey respondents indicated they have a complete DRP'. 13% said 'No DRP'. 33% said 'Partial DRP'. 34% said 'Mostly Completed'. 20% said 'Full DRP'.
    (Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=165)
    A bar graph documenting percentages of survey responses about the level of confidence in their DRP. 'Only 38% of those who have a mostly completed or full DRP actually feel it would be effective in a crisis'. 4% said 'Low'. 58% said 'Unsure'. 38% said 'Confident'.
    (Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=69 (includes only those who indicated DRP is mostly completed or completed))

    Improve usability and effectiveness with visual-based and more-concise documentation

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

    If you need a three-inch binder to hold your DRP, imagine having to flip through it to determine next steps during a crisis.

    DR documentation needs to be concise, scannable, and quickly understood to be effective. Visual-based documentation meets these requirements, so it’s no surprise that it also leads to higher DR success.

    DR success scores are based on:

    • Meeting recovery time objectives (RTOs).
    • Meeting recovery point objectives (RPOs).
    • IT staff’s confidence in their ability to meet RTOs/RPOs.
    A line graph of DR documentation types and their effectiveness. The vertical axis is 'DR Success', from Low to High. The horizontal axis is Documentation Type, from 'Traditional Manual' to 'Primarily flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams'. The line trends up to higher success with visual-based and more-concise documentation.(Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=95)

    “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)

    Maintainability is another argument for visual-based, concise documentation

    There are two end goals for your DR documentation: effectiveness and maintainability. Without either, you will not have success during a disaster.

    Organizations using a visual-based approach were 30% more likely to find that DR documentation is easy to maintain. “Easy to maintain” leads to a 46% higher rate of DR success.
    Two bar graphs documenting survey responses regarding maintenance ease of DR documentation types. The first graph compares Traditional Manual vs Visual-based. For 'Traditional Manual' 72% responded they were Difficult to maintain while 28% responded they were Easy to maintain; for 'Visual-based' 42% responded they were Difficult to maintain while 58% responded they were Easy to maintain. Visual-based DR documentation received 30% more votes for Easy to Maintain. The second graph compares success rates of 'Difficult to Maintain' vs 'Easy to Maintain' DR documentation with Difficult being 31% and Easy being 77%, a 46% difference. 'Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=96'.

    Not only are visual-based disaster recovery plans more effective, but they are also easier to maintain.

    Overcome documentation inertia with a tiered model that allows you to eat the elephant one bite at a time

    Start with a recovery workflow to at least ensure a coordinated response. Then use that workflow to determine required supporting documentation.

    Recovery Workflow: Starting the project with overly detailed documentation can slow down the entire process. Overcome planning inertia by starting with high-level incident response plans in a flowchart format. For examples and additional information, see XMPL Medical’s Recovery Workflows.

    Recovery Procedures (Systems Recovery Playbook): For each step in the high-level flowchart, create recovery procedures where necessary using additional flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams as appropriate. Leverage Info-Tech’s Systems Recovery Playbook example as a starting point.

    Additional Reference Documentation: Reference existing IT documentation, such as network diagrams and configuration documents, as well as more detailed step-by-step procedures where necessary (e.g. vendor documentation), particularly where needed to support alternate recovery staff who may not be as well versed as the primary system owners.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Organizations that use flowcharts, checklist, and diagrams over traditional, dense DRP manuals are far more likely to meet their RTOs/RPOs because their documentation is more usable and easier to maintain.

    Use a DRP summary document to satisfy executives, auditors, and clients

    Stakeholders don’t have time to sift through a pile of paper. Summarize your overall continuity capabilities in one, easy-to-read place.

    DRP Summary Document

    • Summarize BIA results
    • Summarize DR strategy (including DR sites)
    • Summarize backup strategy
    • Summarize testing and maintenance plans

    Follow Info-Tech’s methodology to make DRP documentation efficient and effective

    Phases

    Phase 1: Streamline DRP documentation Phase 2: Select the optimal DRP publishing strategy Phase 3: Keep your DRP relevant through maintenance best practices

    Phases

    1.1

    Start with a recovery workflow

    2.1

    Decide on a publishing strategy

    3.1

    Incorporate DRP maintenance into core IT processes

    1.2

    Create supporting DRP documentation

    3.2

    Conduct an annual focused review

    1.3

    Write the DRP Summary

    Tools and Templates

    End-to-End Sample DRP DRP Publishing Evaluation Tool Project In-take/Request Form

    Change Management Checklist

    Follow XMPL Medical’s journey through DR documentation

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Healthcare
    Source Created by amalgamating data from Info-Tech’s client base

    Streamline your documentation and maintenance process by following the approach outlined in XMPL Medical’s journey to an end-to-end DRP.

    Outline of the Disaster Recovery Plan

    XMPL’s disaster recovery plan includes its business impact analysis and a subset of tier 1 and tier 2 patient care applications.

    Its DRP includes incident response flowcharts, system recovery checklists, and a communication plan. Its DRP also references IT operations documentation (e.g. asset management documents, system specs, and system configuration docs), but this material is not published with the example documentation.

    Resulting Disaster Recovery Plan

    XMPL’s DRP includes actionable documents in the form of high-level disaster response plan flowcharts and system recovery checklists. During an incident, the DR team is able to clearly see the items for which they are responsible.

    Disaster Recovery Plan
    • Recovery Workflow
    • Business Impact Analysis
    • DRP Summary
    • System Recovery Checklists
    • Communication, Assessment, and Disaster Declaration Plan

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    XMPL Medical’s disaster recovery plan illustrates an effective DRP. Model your end-to-end disaster recovery plan after XMPL’s completed templates. The specific data points will differ from organization to organization, but the structure of each document will be similar.

    Model your disaster recovery documentation off of our example

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Healthcare
    Source Created by amalgamating data from Info-Tech’s client base

    Recovery Workflow:

    • Recovery Workflows (PDF, VSDX)

    Recovery Procedures (Systems Recovery Playbook):

    • DR Notification, Assessment, and Disaster Declaration Plan
    • Systems Recovery Playbook
    • Network Topology Diagrams

    Additional Reference Documentation:

    • DRP Workbook
    • Business Impact Analysis
    • DRP Summary Document

    Use Info-Tech’s DRP Maturity Scorecard to evaluate your progress

    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

    Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan – Project Overview

    1. Streamline DRP Documentation 2. Select the Optimal DRP Publishing Strategy 3. Keep Your DRP Relevant
    Supporting Tool icon
    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Start with a recovery workflow

    1.2 Create supporting DRP documentation

    1.3 Write the DRP summary

    2.1 Create Committee Profiles

    3.1 Build Governance Structure Map

    3.2 Create Committee Profiles

    Guided Implementations
    • Review Info-Tech’s approach to DRP documentation.
    • Create a high-level recovery workflow.
    • Create supporting DRP documentation.
    • Write the DRP summary.
    • Identify criteria for selecting a DRP publishing strategy.
    • Select a DRP publishing strategy.
    • Optional: Select requirements for a BCM tool and issue an RFP.
    • Optional: Review responses to RFP.
    • Learn best practices for integrating DRP maintenance into day-to-day IT processes.
    • Learn best practices for DRP-focused reviews.
    Associated Activity icon
    Onsite Workshop
    Module 1:
    Streamline DRP documentation
    Module 2:
    Select the optimal DRP publishing strategy
    Module 3:
    Learn best practices for keeping your DRP relevant
    Phase 1 Outcome:
    • A complete end-to-end DRP
    Phase 2 Outcome:
    • Selection of a publishing and management tool for your DRP documentation
    Phase 3 Outcome:
    • Strategy for maintaining your DRP documentation

    Workshop Overview Associated Activity icon

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

    Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2 Workshop Day 3 Workshop Day 4 Workshop Day 5
    Info-Tech Analysts Finalize Deliverables
    Activities
    Assess DRP Maturity and Review Current Capabilities

    0.1 Assess current DRP maturity through Info-Tech’s Maturity Scorecard.

    0.2 Identify the IT systems that support mission-critical business activities, and select 2 or 3 key applications to be the focus of the workshop.

    0.3 Identify current recovery strategies for selected applications.

    0.4 Identify current DR challenges for selected applications.

    Document Your Recovery Workflow

    1.1 Create a recovery workflow: review tabletop planning, walk through DR scenarios, identify DR gaps, and determine how to fill them.

    Create Supporting Documentation

    1.2 Create supporting DRP documentation.

    1.3 Write the DRP summary.

    Establish a DRP Publishing, Management, and Maintenance Strategy

    2.1 Decide on a publishing strategy.

    3.1 Incorporate DRP maintenance into core IT.

    3.2 Considerations for reviewing your DRP regularly.

    Deliverables
    1. Baseline DRP metric (based on DRP Maturity Scorecard)
    1. High-level DRP workflow
    2. DRP gaps and risks identified
    1. Recovery workflow and/or checklist for sample of IT systems
    2. Customized DRP Summary Template
    1. Strategy for selecting a DRP publishing tool
    2. DRP management and maintenance strategy
    3. Workshop summary presentation deck

    Workshop Goal: Learn how to document and maintain your DRP.

    Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research

    Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.

    A small monochrome icon of a wrench and screwdriver creating an X.

    This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.

    A small monochrome icon depicting a person in front of a blank slide.

    This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.


    Phase 1: Streamline DRP Documentation

    Step 1.1: Start with a recovery workflow

    PHASE 1
    PHASE 2
    PHASE 3
    1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1 3.1 3.2
    Start with a Recovery Workflow Create Supporting Documentation Write the DRP Summary Select DRP Publishing Strategy Integrate into Core IT Processes Conduct an Annual Focused Review

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Review a model DRP.
    • Review your recovery workflow.
    • Identify documentation required to support the recovery workflow.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • DRP Owner
    • System SMEs
    • Alternate DR Personnel

    Outcomes of this step

    • Understanding the visual-based, concise approach to DR documentation.
    • Creating a recovery workflow that provides a roadmap for coordinating incident response and identifying required supporting documentation.

    Info-Tech Insights

    A DRP is a collection of procedures and supporting documents that allow an organization to recover its IT services to minimize system downtime for the business.

    1.1 — Start with a recovery workflow to ensure a coordinated response and identify required supporting documentation

    The recovery workflow clarifies your DR strategy and ensures the DR team is on the same page.

    Recovery Workflow

    The recovery workflow maps out the incident response plan from event detection, assessment, and declaration to systems recovery and validation.

    This documentation includes:

    • Clarifying initial incident response steps.
    • Clarifying the order of systems recovery and which recovery actions can occur concurrently.
    • Estimating actual recovery timeline through each stage of recovery.
    Recovery Procedures (Playbook)
    Additional Reference Documentation

    “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)

    Review business impact analysis (BIA) results to plan your recovery workflow

    The BIA defines system criticality from the business’s perspective. Use it to guide system recovery order.

    Specifically, review the following from your BIA:

    • The list of tier 1, 2, and 3 applications. This will dictate the recovery order in your recovery workflow.
    • Application dependencies. This will outline what needs to be included as part of an application recovery workflow.
    • The recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) for each application. This will also guide the recovery, and enable you to identify gaps where the recovery workflow does not meet RTOs and RPOs.

    CASE STUDY: The XMPL DRP documentation is based on this Business Impact Analysis Tool.

    Haven’t conducted a BIA? Use Info-Tech’s streamlined approach.

    Info-Tech’s publication Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan takes a very practical approach to BIA work. Our process gives IT leaders a mechanism to quickly get agreement on system recovery order and DR investment priorities.

    Conduct a tabletop planning exercise to determine your recovery workflow

    Associated Activity icon 1.1.1 Tabletop Planning Exercise

    1. Define a scenario to drive the tabletop planning exercise:
      • Use a scenario that forces a full failover to your DR environment, so you can capture an end-to-end recovery workflow.
      • Avoid scenarios that impact health and safety such as tornados or a fire. You want to focus on IT recovery.
      • Example scenarios: Burst water pipe that causes data-center-wide damage or a gas leak that forces evacuation and power to be shut down for at least two days.

    Note: You may have already completed this exercise as part of Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Use scenarios to provide context for DR planning, and to test your plans, but don’t create a separate plan for every possibility.

    The high-level recovery plan will be the same whether the incident is a fire, flood, or tornado. While there might be some variances and outliers, these scenarios can be addressed by adding decision points and/or separate, supplementary instructions.

    Walk through the scenario and capture the recovery workflow

    Associated Activity icon 1.1.2 Tabletop Planning Exercise
    1. Capture the following information for tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 systems:
      1. On white cue cards, record the steps and track start and end times for each step (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).

    Note:

    • Ensure the language is sufficiently genericized (e.g. refer to events, not specifically a burst water pipe).
    • Review isolated failures (e.g. hardware, software). Typically, the recovery procedure documented for individual systems covers the essence of the recovery workflow whether it’s just the one system that failed or it’s part of a site-wide recovery.

    Note: You may have already completed this exercise as part of Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan.

    Document your current-state recovery workflow based on the results of the tabletop planning

    Supporting Tool icon 1.1.2 Incident Response Plan Flowcharts, Tabs 2 and 3

    After you finish the tabletop planning exercise, the steps on the set of cue cards define your recovery workflow. Capture this in a flowchart format.

    Use the sample DRP to guide your own flowchart. Some notes on the example are:

    • XMPL’s Incident Management to DR flowchart shows the connection between its standard Service Desk processes and DR processes.
    • XMPL’s high-level workflows outline its recovery of tier 1, 2, and 3 systems.
    • Where more detail is required, include links to supporting documentation. In this example, XMPL Medical includes links to its Systems Recovery Playbook.
    Preview of an Info-Tech Template depicting a sample flowchart.

    This sample flowchart is included in XMPL Recovery Workflows.

    Step 1.2: Create Supporting DRP Documentation

    PHASE 1
    PHASE 2
    PHASE 3
    1.11.21.32.13.13.2
    Start with a Recovery WorkflowCreate Supporting DocumentationWrite the DRP SummarySelect DRP Publishing StrategyIntegrate into Core IT ProcessesConduct an Annual Focused Review

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Create checklists for your playbook.
    • Document more complex procedures with flowcharts.
    • Gather and/or write network topology diagrams.
    • Compile a contact list.
    • Ensure there is enough material for backup personnel.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • DRP Owner
    • System SMEs
    • Backup DR Personnel

    Outcomes of this step

    • Actionable supporting documentation for your disaster recovery plan.
    • Contact list for IT personnel, business personnel, and vendor support.

    1.2 — Create supporting documentation for your disaster recovery plan

    Now that you have a high-level incident response plan, collect the information you need for executing that plan.

    Recovery Workflow

    Write your recovery procedures playbook to be effective and usable. Your playbook documentation should include:

    • Supplementary flowcharts
    • Checklists
    • Topology diagrams
    • Contact lists
    • DRP summary

    Reference vendors’ technical information in your flowcharts and checklists where appropriate.

    Recovery Procedures (Playbook)

    Additional Reference Documentation

    Info-Tech Insight

    Write for your audience. The playbook is for IT; include only the information they need to execute the plan. DRP summaries are for executives and auditors; do not include information intended for IT. Similarly, your disaster recovery plan is not for business units; keep BCP content out of your DRP.

    Use checklists to streamline step-by-step procedures

    Supporting Tool icon 1.2.1 XMPL Medical’s System Recovery Checklists

    Checklists are ideal when staff just need a reminder of what to do, not how to do it.

    XMPL Medical used its high-level flowcharts as a roadmap for creating its Systems Recovery Playbook.

    • Since its Playbook is intended for experienced IT staff, the writing style in the checklists is concise. XMPL includes links to reference material to support recovery, especially for alternate staff who might need additional instruction.
    • XMPL includes key parameters (e.g. IP addresses) rather than assume those details would be memorized, especially in a stressful DR scenario.
    • Similarly, include links to other useful resources such as VM templates.
    Preview of the Info-Tech Template 'Systems Recovery Playbook'.

    Included in the XMPL Systems Recovery Playbook are checklists for recovering XMPL’s virtual desktop infrastructure, mission-critical applications, and core infrastructure components.

    Use flowcharts to document processes with concurrent tasks not easily captured in a checklist

    Supporting Tool icon 1.2.2 XMPL Medical’s Phone Services Recovery Flowchart

    Recovery procedures can consist of flowcharts, checklists, or both, as well as diagrams. The main goal is to be clear and concise.

    • XMPL Medical created a flowchart to capture its phone services recovery procedure to capture concurrent tasks.
    • Additional instructions, where required, could still be captured in a Playbook checklist or other supporting documentation.
    • The flowchart could have also included key settings or other details as appropriate, particularly if the DR team chose to maintain this recovery procedure just in a flowchart format.
    Preview of the Info-Tech Template 'Recovery Workflows'.

    Included in the XMPL DR documentation is an example flowchart for recovering phone systems. This flowchart is in Recovery Workflows.

    Reference this blueprint for more SOP flowchart examples: Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

    Use topology diagrams to capture network layout, integrations, and system information

    Supporting Tool icon 1.2.4 XMPL Medical’s Data Center and Network Diagrams

    Topology diagrams, key checklists, and configuration settings are often enough for experienced networking staff to carry out their DR tasks.

    • XMPL Medical includes these diagrams with its DRP. Instead of recreating these diagrams, the XMPL Medical DR Manager asked their network team for these diagrams:
      • Primary data center diagram
      • DR site diagram
      • High-level network diagrams
    • Often, organizations already have network topology diagrams for reference purposes.

    “Our network engineers came to me and said our standard SOP template didn't work for them. They're now using a lot of diagrams and flowcharts, and that has worked out better for them.” (Assistant Director-IT Operations, Healthcare Industry)

    Preview of the Info-Tech Template 'Systems Recovery Playbook'.

    You can download a PDF and a VSD version of these Data Center and Network Diagrams from Info-Tech’s website.

    Create a list of organizational, IT, and vendor contacts that may be required to assist with recovery

    If there is something strange happening to your IT infrastructure, who you gonna call?

    Many DR managers have their team on speed dial. However, having the contact info of alternate staff, BCP leads, and vendors can be very helpful during a disaster. XMPL Medical lists the following information in its DRP Workbook:

    • The DR Teams, SMEs critical to disaster recovery, their backups, and key contacts (e.g. BC Management team leads, vendor contacts) that would be involved in:
      • Declaring a disaster.
      • Coordinating a response at an organizational level.
      • Executing recovery.
    • The people that have authority to declare a disaster.
    • Each person’s spending authority.
    • The rules for delegating authority.
    • Primary and alternate staff for each role.
    Example list of alternate staff, BCP leads, and vendors.

    Confirm with your DR team that you have all of the documentation that you need to recover during a disaster

    Associated Activity icon 1.2.7 Group Discussion

    DISCUSS: Is there enough information in your DRP for both primary and backup DR personnel?

    • Is it clear who is responsible for each DR task, including notification steps?
    • Have alternate staff for each role been identified?
    • Does the recovery workflow capture all of the high-level steps?
    • Is there enough documentation for alternate staff (e.g. network specs)?

    Step 1.3: Write the DRP Summary

    PHASE 1
    PHASE 2
    PHASE 3
    1.11.21.32.13.13.2
    Start with a Recovery WorkflowCreate Supporting DocumentationWrite the DRP SummarySelect DRP Publishing StrategyIntegrate into Core IT ProcessesConduct an Annual Focused Review

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Write a DRP summary document.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • DRP Owner

    Outcomes of this step

    • High-level outline of your DRP capabilities for stakeholders such as executives, auditors, and clients.

    Summarize your DR capabilities using a DRP summary document

    Supporting Tool icon 1.3.1 DRP Summary Document

    The sample included on Info-Tech’s website is customized for the XMPL Medical Case Study – use the download as a starting point for your own summary document.

    DRP Summary Document

    XMPL’s DRP Summary is organized into the following categories:

    • DR requirements: This includes a summary of scope, business impact analysis (BIA), risk assessment, and high-level RTOs and achievable RTOs.
    • DR strategy: This includes a summary of XMPL’s recovery procedures, DR site, and backup strategy.
    • Testing and maintenance: This includes a summary of XMPL’s DRP testing and maintenance strategy.

    Be transparent about existing business risks in your DRP summary

    The DRP summary document is business facing. Include information of which business leaders (and other stakeholders) need to be aware.

    • Discrepancies between desired and achievable RTOs? Organizational leadership needs to know this information. Only then can they assign the resources and budget that IT needs to achieve the desired DR capabilities.
    • What is the DRP’s scope? XMPL Medical lists the IT components that will be recovered during a disaster, and components which will not. For instance, XMPL’s DRP does not recover medical equipment, and XMPL has separate plans for business continuity and emergency response coordination.
    Application tier Desired RTO (hh:mm) Desired RPO (hh:mm) Achievable RTO (hh:mm) Achievable RPO (hh:mm)
    Tier 1 4:00 1:00 *90:00 1:00
    Tier 2 8:00 1:00 *40:00 1:00
    Tier 3 48:00 24:00 *96:00 24:00

    The above table to is a snippet from the XMPL DR Summary Document (section 2.1.3.2).

    In the example, the DR team is unable to recover tier 1, 2, and 3 systems within the desired RTO. As such, they clearly communicate this information in the DRP summary, and include action items to address these gaps.

    Phase 2: Select the Optimal DRP Publishing Strategy

    Step 2.1: Select a DRP Publishing Strategy

    PHASE 1
    PHASE 2
    PHASE 3
    1.11.21.32.13.13.2
    Start with a Recovery WorkflowCreate Supporting DocumentationWrite the DRP SummarySelect DRP Publishing StrategyIntegrate into Core IT ProcessesConduct an Annual Focused Review

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Select criteria for assessing DRP tools.
    • Evaluate categories for DRP tools.
    • Optional: Write an RFP for a BCM tool.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • DRP Owner

    Outcomes of this step

    • Identified strategies for publishing your DRP (i.e. making it available to your DR team).

    Info-Tech Insights

    Diversify your publishing strategy to ensure you can access your DRP in a disaster. For example, if you are using a BCM tool or SharePoint Online as your primary documentation repository, also push the DRP to your DR team’s smartphones as a backup in case the disaster affects internet access.

    2.1 — Select a DR publishing and document management strategy that fits your organization

    Publishing and document management considerations:

    Portability/External Access: Assume your primary site is down and inaccessible. Can you still access your documentation? As shown in this chart, traditional strategies of either keeping a copy at another location (e.g. at the failover site) or with staff (e.g. on a USB drive) still dominate, but these aren’t necessarily the best options.
    A bar chart titled 'Portability Strategy Popularity'. 'External Website (wiki site, cloud-based DRP tool, etc.)' scored 16%. 'Failover Site (network drive or redundant SharePoint, etc.)' scored 53%. 'Distribute to Staff (use USB drive, personal email, etc.)' scored 50%. 'Not Accessible Offsite' scored 7%.
    Note: Percentages total more than 100% due to respondents using more than one portability strategy.
    (Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=118)
    Maintainability/Usability: How easy is it to create, update, and use the documentation? Is it easy to link to other documents as shown in the flowchart and checklist examples? Is there version control? Lack of version control can create a maintenance nightmare as well as issues in a crisis if staff are questioning whether they have the right version.
    Cost/Effort: Is the cost and effort appropriate? For example, a large enterprise may need a formal solution (e.g. DRP tools or SharePoint), but the cost might be hard to justify for a smaller company.

    Pros and cons of potential strategies

    This section will review the following strategies, their pros and cons, and how they meet publishing and document management requirements:

    • DRP tools (e.g. eBRP, Recovery Planner, LDRPS)
    • In-house solutions combining SharePoint and MS Office (or equivalent)
    • Wiki site
    • “Manual” approaches such as storing documents on a USB drive

    Avoid 42 hours of downtime due to a non-diversified publishing strategy

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Municipality
    Source Interview

    Situation

    • A municipal government has recently completed an end-to-end disaster recovery plan.
    • The team is feeling good about the fact that they were able to identify:
      • Relative criticality of applications.
      • Dependencies for each application.
      • Incident response plans for the current state and desired state.
      • System recovery procedures.

    Challenge

    • While the DR plan itself was comprehensive, the team only published the DR onto the government’s network drives.
    • A power generation issue caused power to be shut down, which in turn cascaded into downtime for the network.
    • Once the network was down, their DRP was inaccessible.

    Insights

    • Each piece of documentation that was created could have contributed to recovery efforts. However, because they were inaccessible, there was a delayed response to the incident. The result was 42 hours of downtime for end users.
    • Having redundant publishing strategies is just like having redundant IT infrastructure. In the event of downtime, not only do you need to have DR documentation, but you also need to make sure that it is accessible.

    Decide on a DR publishing strategy by looking at portability, maintainability, cost, and required effort

    Supporting Tool icon 2.1.1 DRP Publishing and Management Evaluation Tool

    Use the information included in Step 2.1 to guide your analysis of DRP publishing solutions.

    The tool enables you to compare two possible solutions based on these key considerations discussed in this section:

    • Portability/external access
    • Maintainability/usability
    • Cost
    • Effort

    The right choice will depend on factors such as current in-house tools, maturity around document management, the size of your IT department, and so on.

    For example, a small shop may do very well with the USB drive strategy, whereas a multi-national company will need a more formal strategy to manage consistent DRP distribution.

    Preview of Info-Tech's 'DRP Publishing and Management Solution Evaluation Tool'.

    The DRP Publishing and Management Solution Evaluation Tool helps you to evaluate the tools included in this section.

    Don’t think of a business continuity management (BCM) tool as a silver bullet; know what you’re getting out of it

    Portability/External Access:
    • Pros: Typically a SaaS option provides built-in external access with appropriate security and user administration to vary access rights.
    • Cons: Degree of external access is often dependent on the vendor.
    Maintainability/Usability:
    • Pros: Built-in templates encourage consistency and guide initial content development by indicating what details need to be captured.
    • Pros: Built-in document management (e.g. version control, metadata support), centralized access/navigation to required documents, and some automation (e.g. update contacts throughout the system).
    • Cons: Not a silver bullet. You still have to do the work to define and capture your processes.
    • Cons: Requires end-user and administrator training.
    Cost/Effort:
    • Pros: For large enterprises, the convenience of built-in document management and templates can outweigh the cost.
    • Cons: Expect leading DRP tools to cost $20K or more per year.

    About this approach:
    BCM tools are solutions that provide templates, tools, and document management to create BC and DR documentation.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The business case for a BCM tool is built by answering the following questions:

    • Will the BCM tool solve an unmet need?
    • Will the tool be more effective and efficient than an in-house solution?
    • Will the solution provide enhanced capabilities that an in-house solution cannot provide?

    If you cannot get a satisfactory answer to each of these questions, then opt for an in-house solution.

    “We explored a DRP tool, and it was something we might have used, but it was tens of thousands of pounds per year, so it didn’t stack up financially for us at all.” (Rik Toms, Head of Strategy – IP and IT, Cable and Wireless Communications)

    For in-house solutions, leverage tools such as SharePoint to provide document management capabilities

    Portability/External Access:
    • Pros: SharePoint is commonly web-enabled and supports external access with appropriate security and user administration.
    • Cons: Must be installed at redundant sites or be cloud-based to be effective in a crisis that takes down your primary data center.
    Maintainability/Usability:
    • Pros: Built-in document management (e.g. version control, metadata support) as well as centralized access/navigation to required documents.
    • Pros: No tool learning curve – SharePoint and MS Office would be existing solutions already used on a daily basis.
    • Cons: No built-in automation (e.g. automated updates to contacts throughout the system).
    • Cons: Consistency depends on creating templates and implementing processes for document updates, review, and approval.
    Cost/Effort:
    • Pros: Using existing tools, so this is a sunk cost in terms of capex.
    • Cons: Additional effort required to create templates and manage the documentation library.

    About this approach:
    DRPs and SOPs most often start as MS Office documents, even if there is a DRP tool available. For organizations that elect to bypass a formal DRP tool, and most do, the biggest gap they have to overcome is document management.

    Many organizations are turning to SharePoint to meet this need. For those that already have SharePoint in place, it makes sense to further leverage SharePoint for DR documentation and day-to-day SOPs.

    For SharePoint to be a practical solution, the documentation must still be accessible if the primary data center is down, e.g. by having redundant SharePoint instances at multiple in-house locations, or using a cloud-based SharePoint solution.

    “Just about everything that a DR planning tool does, you can do yourself using homegrown solutions or tools that you're already familiar with such as Word, Excel, and SharePoint.” (Allen Zuk, President and CEO, Sierra Management Consulting)

    A healthcare company uses SharePoint as its DRP and SOP documentation management solution

    CASE STUDY Healthcare

    • This organization is responsible for 50 medical facilities across three states.
    • It explored DRP tools, but didn’t find the right fit, so it has developed an in-house solution based in SharePoint. While DRP tools have improved, the organization no longer needs that type of solution. Its in-house solution is meeting its needs.
    • It has SharePoint instances at multiple locations to ensure availability if one site is down.

    Documentation Strategy

    • Created an IT operations library in SharePoint for DR and SOPs, from basic support to bare-metal restore procedures.
    • SOPs are linked from SharePoint to the virtual help desk for greater accessibility.
    • Where practical, diagrams and flowcharts are used, e.g. DR process flowcharts and network services SOPs dominated by diagrams and flowcharts.

    Management Strategy

    • Directors and the CIO have made finishing off SOPs their performance improvement objective for the year. The result is staff have made time to get this work done.
    • Status updates are posted monthly, and documentation is a regular agenda item in leadership meetings.
    • Regular tabletop testing validates documentation and ensures familiarity with procedures, including where to find required information.

    Results

    • Dependency on a few key individuals has been reduced. All relevant staff know what they need to do and where to access required documentation.
    • SOPs are enabling DR training as well as day-to-day operations training for new staff.
    • The organization has a high confidence in its ability to recovery from a disaster within established timelines.

    Explore using a wiki site as an inexpensive alternative to SharePoint and other content management solutions

    Portability/External Access:
    • Pros: Wiki sites can support external access as with any web solution.
    • Cons: Must be installed at redundant sites, hosted, or cloud-based to be effective in a crisis that takes down your primary data center.
    Maintainability/Usability:
    • Pros: Built-in document management (version control, metadata support, etc.) as well as centralized access/navigation to required information.
    • Pros: Authorized users can make updates dynamically, depending on how much restriction you have on the site.
    • Cons: No built-in automation (e.g. automated updates to contacts throughout the system).
    • Cons: Consistency depends on creating templates and implementing processes for document updates, review, and approval.
    Cost/Effort:
    • Pros: An inexpensive option compared to traditional content management solutions such as SharePoint.
    • Cons: Learning curve if wikis are new to your organization.

    About this approach:
    Wiki sites are websites where users collaborate to create and edit the content. Wikipedia is an example.

    While wiki sites are typically used for collaboration and dynamic content development, the traditional collaborative authoring model can be restricted to provide structure and an approval process.

    Several tools are available to create and manage wiki sites (and other collaboration solutions), as outlined in the following research:

    Info-Tech Insight

    If your organization is not already using wiki sites, this technology can introduce a culture shock. Start slow by using a wiki site within a specific department or for a particular project. Then evaluate how well your staff adapt to this technology as well as its potential effectiveness in your organization. Refer to our collaboration strategy research for additional guidance.

    For small IT shops, distributing documentation to key staff (e.g. via a USB drive) can still be effective

    Portability/External Access:
    • Pros: Appropriate staff have the documentation with them; there is no need to log into a remote site or access a tool to get at the information.
    • Cons: Relies on staff to be diligent about ensuring they have the latest documentation and keep it with them (not leave it in their desk drawer).
    Maintainability/Usability:
    • Pros: With this strategy, MS Office (or equivalent) is used to create and maintain the documentation, so there is no learning curve.
    • Pros: Simple, straightforward methodology – keep the master on a network drive, and download a copy to your USB drive.
    • Cons: No built-in automation (e.g. automated updates to contact information) or document management (e.g. version control).
    • Cons: Consistency depends on creating templates and implementing rigid processes for document updates, review, and approval.
    Cost/Effort:
    • Pros: Little to no cost and no tool management required.
    • Cons: “Manual” document management requires strict attention to process for version control, updates, approvals, and distribution.

    About this approach:
    With this strategy, your ERT and key IT staff keep a copy of your DRP and relevant documentation with them (e.g. on a USB drive). If the primary site experiences a major event, they have ready access to the documentation.

    Fifty percent of respondents in our recent survey use this strategy. A common scenario is to use a shared network drive or a solution such as SharePoint as the master centralized repository, but distribute a copy to key staff.

    Info-Tech Insight

    This approach can have similar disadvantages as using hard copies. Ensuring the USB drives are up to date, and that all staff who might need access have a copy, can become a burdensome process. More often, USB drives are updated periodically, so there is the risk that the information will be out of date or incomplete.

    Avoid extensive use of paper copies of DR documentation

    DR documents need to be easy to update, accessible from anywhere, and searchable. Paper doesn’t meet these needs.

    Portability/External Access:
    • Pros: Does not rely on technology or power.
    • Cons: Requires all staff who might be involved in a DR to have a copy, and to have it with them at all times, to truly have access at any time from anywhere.
    Maintainability/Usability:
    • Pros: In terms of usability, again there is no dependence on technology.
    • Cons: Updates need to be printed and distributed to all relevant staff every time there is a change to ensure staff have access to the latest, most accurate documentation if a disaster occurred. You can’t schedule disasters, so information needs to be current all the time.
    • Cons: Navigation to other information is manual – flipping through pages, etc. No searching or hyperlinks.
    Cost/Effort:
    • Pros: No technology system to maintain, aside from what you use for printing.
    • Cons: Printing expenses are actually among the highest incurred by organizations, and this adds to it.
    • Cons: Labor intensive due to need to print and physically distribute documentation updates.

    About this approach:
    Traditionally DRPs are printed and distributed to managers and/or kept in a central location at both the primary site and a secondary site. In addition, wallet cards are distributed that contain key information such as contact numbers.

    A wallet card or even a few printed copies of your high-level DRP for general reference can be helpful, but paper is not a practical solution for your overall DR documentation library, particularly when you include SOPs for recovery procedures.

    One argument in favor of paper is there is no dependency on power during a crisis. However, in a power outage, staff can use smartphones and potentially laptops (with battery power) to access electronically stored documentation to get through first response steps. In addition, your DR site should have backup power to be an appropriate recovery site.

    Optional: Partial list of BCM tool vendors

    A partial list of BCM tool vendors, including: Business Protector, catalyst, clearview, ContinuityLogic. Fusion, Logic Manager, Quantivate, RecoveryPlanner.com, MetricStream, SimpleRisk, riskonnect, Strategic BCP - ResilienceONE, RSA, and Sungard Availability Services.

    The list is only a partial list of BCM tool vendors. The order in which vendors are presented, and inclusion in this list, does not represent an endorsement.

    Optional: Use our list of requirements as a foundation for selecting and reviewing BCM tools

    Supporting Tool icon 2.1.2 BCM Tool – RFP Selection Criteria

    If a BCM tool is the best option for your environment, expedite the evaluation process with our BCM Tool – RFP Selection Criteria.

    Through advisory services, workshops, and consulting engagements, we have created this BCM Tool Requirements List. The featured requirements includes the following categories:

    1. Integrations
    2. Planning and Monitoring
    3. Administration
    4. Architecture
    5. Security
    6. Support and Training
    Preview of the Info-Tech template 'BCM Tool – RFP Selection Criteria'.

    This BCM Tool – RFP Selection Criteria can be appended to an RFP. You can leverage Info-Tech’s RFP Template if your organization does not have one.

    Info-Tech can write full RFPs

    As part of a consulting engagement, Info-Tech can write RFPs for BCM tools and provide a customized scoring tool based on your environment’s unique requirements.

    Phase 3: Keep Your DRP Relevant Through Maintenance Best Practices

    Step 3.1: Integrate DRP maintenance into core IT processes

    PHASE 1
    PHASE 2
    PHASE 3
    1.11.21.32.13.13.2
    Start with a Recovery WorkflowCreate Supporting DocumentationWrite the DRP SummarySelect DRP Publishing StrategyIntegrate into Core IT ProcessesConduct an Annual Focused Review

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Integrate DRP maintenance with Project Management.
    • Integrate DRP considerations into Change Management.
    • Integrate with Performance Management.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • DRP Owner
    • Head of Project Management Office
    • Head of Change Advisory Board
    • CIO

    Outcomes of this step

    • Updated project intake form.
    • Updated change management practice.
    • Updated performance appraisals.

    3.1 — Incorporate DRP maintenance into core IT processes

    Focusing on these three processes will help ensure that your plan stays current, accurate, and usable.

    The Info-Tech / COBIT5 'IT Management and Governance Framework' with three processes highlighted: 'MEA01 Performance Measurement', 'BAI06 Change Management', and 'BAI01 Project Management'.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Prioritize quick wins that will have large benefits. The advice presented in this section offers easy ways to help keep your DRP up to date. These simple solutions can save a lot of time and effort for your DRP team as opposed to more intricate changes to the processes above.

    Assess how new projects impact service criticality and DR requirements upfront during project intake

    Icon for process 'BAI01 Project Management'.
    Supporting Tool icon 3.1.1 Sample Project Intake Form Addendum

    Understand the RTO/RPO requirements and IT impacts for new or enhanced services to ensure appropriate provisioning and overall DRP updates.

    • Have submitters include service continuity requirements. This information can be inserted into your business impact analysis. Use similar language that you use in your own BIA.
      • The submitter should know how critical the resulting project will be. Any items that the submitter doesn’t know, the Project Steering Committee should investigate.
    • Have IT assess the impact on the DRP. The submitter will not know how the DRP will be impacted directly. Ask the project committee to consider how DRP documentation and the DR environment will need to be changed due to the project under consideration.

    Note: The goal is not to make DR a roadblock, but rather to ensure project requirements will be met – including availability and DR requirements.

    Preview of the Info-Tech template 'Project Intake Form'.

    This Project Intake Form asks the submitter to fill out the availability and criticality requirements for the project.

    Leverage your change management process to identify required DRP updates as they occur

    Icon for process 'BAI06 Change Management'.

    Avoid the year-end rush to update your DRP. Keeping it up to date as changes occur saves time in the long run and ensures your plan is accurate when you need it.

    • As part of your change management process, identify potential updates to:
      • System documentation (e.g. configuration settings).
      • Recovery procedures (e.g. if a system has been virtualized, that changes the recovery procedure).
      • Your DR environment (e.g. system configuration updates for standby systems).
    • Keep track of how often a system has changed. Relevant DRP documentation might be due for a deeper review:
      • After a system has been changed ten times (even from routine changes), notify your DRP Manager to flag the relevant DRP documentation for review.
      • As part of formal DRP reviews, pay closer attention to DRP documentation for the flagged systems.
    Preview of the Info-Tech template 'Disaster Recovery Change Management'.

    This template asks the submitter to fill out the availability and criticality requirements for the project.

    For change management best practices beyond DRP considerations, please see Optimize Change Management.

    Integrate documentation into performance measurement and performance management

    Icon for process 'MEA01 Performance Measurement'.

    Documentation is a necessary evil – few like to create it and more immediate tasks take priority. If it isn’t scheduled and prioritized, it won’t happen.

    Why documentation is such a challenge

    How management can address these challenges

    We all know that IT staff typically do not like to write documentation. That’s not why they were hired, and good documentation is not what gets them promoted. Include documentation deliverables in your IT staff’s performance appraisal to stress the importance of ensuring documentation is up to date, especially where it might impact DR success.
    Similarly, documentation is secondary to more urgent tasks. Time to write documentation is often not allocated by project managers. Schedule time for developing documentation, just like any other project, or it won’t happen.
    Writing manuals is typically a time-intensive task. Focus on what is necessary for another experienced IT professional to execute the recovery. As discussed earlier, often a diagram or checklist is good enough and actually far more usable in a crisis.

    “Our directors and our CIO have tied SOP work to performance evaluations, and SOP status is reviewed during management meetings. People have now found time to get this work done.” (Assistant Director – IT Operations, Healthcare Industry)

    Step 3.2: Conduct an Annual Focused Review

    PHASE 1
    PHASE 2
    PHASE 3
    1.11.21.32.13.13.2
    Start with a Recovery WorkflowCreate Supporting DocumentationWrite the DRP SummarySelect DRP Publishing StrategyIntegrate into Core IT ProcessesConduct an Annual Focused Review

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    1. Identify components of your DRP to refresh.
    2. Identify organizational changes requiring further focus.
    3. Test your DRP and identify problems.
    4. Correct problems identified with DRP.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • DRP Owner
    • System SMEs
    • Backup DR Personnel

    Outcomes of this step

    • An actionable, up-to-date DRP.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Testing is a waste of time and resources if you do not fix what’s broken. Tabletop testing is effective at uncovering gaps in your DR processes, but if you don’t address those gaps, then your DRP will still be unusable in a disaster.

    Set up a safety net to capture changes that slipped through the cracks with a focused review process

    Evaluate documentation supporting high-priority systems, as well as documentation supporting IT systems that have been significantly changed.

    • Ideally you’re maintaining documentation as you go along. But you need to have an annual review to catch items that may have slipped through.
    • Don’t review everything. Instead, review:
      • IT systems that have had 10+ changes: small changes and updates can add up over time. Ensure:
        • The plans for these systems are updated for changes (e.g. configuration changes).
        • SMEs and backup personnel are familiar with the changes.
      • Tier 1 / Gold Systems: Ensure that you can still recover tier 1 systems with your existing DRP documentation.
    • Track documentation issues that you discovered with your ticketing system or service desk tool to ensure necessary documentation changes are made.
    1. Annual Focused Review
    2. Tier 1 Systems
    3. Significantly Changed Systems
    4. Organizational Changes

    Identify larger changes, both organizational and within IT, that necessitate DRP updates

    During your focused review, consider how organizational changes have impacted your DRP.

    The COBIT 5 Enablers provide a foundation for this analysis. Consider:

    • Changes in regulatory requirements: Are there new requirements for IT that are not reflected in your DRP? Is the organization required to comply with any additional regulations?
    • Changes to organizational structures, business processes, and how employees work: Can employees still be productive once tier 1 services are restored or have RTOs changed? Has organizational turnover impacted your DRP?
    • SMEs leaving or changing roles: Can IT still execute your DRP? Are there still people for all the key roles?
    • Changes to IT infrastructure and applications: Can the business still access the information they need during a disaster? Is your BIA still accurate? Do new services need to be considered tier 1?

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    COBIT 5 Enablers
    What changes need to be reflected in your DRP?

    A cycle visualization titled 'Disaster Recovery Plan'. Starting at 'Changes in Regulatory Requirements', it proceeds clockwise to 'Organizational Structure', 'Changes in Business Processes', and 'How Employees Work', before it returns to DRP. Then 'Changes to Applications', 'Changes to Infrastructure', 'SMEs Leaving or Changing Roles', and then back to the DRP.

    Create a plan during your annual focused review to test your DRP throughout the year

    Regardless of your documentation approach, training and familiarity with relevant procedures is critical.

    • Start with tabletop exercises and progress to technology-based testing (simulation, parallel, and full-scale testing).
    • Ask staff to reference documentation while testing, even if they do not need to. This practice helps to confirm documentation accuracy and accessibility.
    • Incorporate cross-training in DR testing. This gives important experience to backup personnel and will further validate that documents are complete and accurate.
    • Track any discovered documentation issues with your ticketing system or project tracking tools to ensure necessary documentation changes are made.

    Example Test Schedule:

    1. Q1: Tabletop testing shadowed by backup personnel
    2. Q2: Tabletop testing led by backup personnel
    3. Q3: Technology-based testing
    4. Annual Focused Review: Review Results

    Reference this blueprint for guidance on DRP testing plans: Reduce Costly Downtime Through DR Testing

    Appendix A: XMPL Case Study

    Follow XMPL Medical’s journey through DR documentation

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Healthcare
    Source Created by amalgamating data from Info-Tech’s client base

    Streamline your documentation and maintenance process by following the approach outlined in XMPL Medical’s journey to an end-to-end DRP.

    Outline of the Disaster Recovery Plan

    XMPL’s disaster recovery plan includes its business impact analysis and a subset of tier 1 and tier 2 patient care applications.

    Its DRP includes incident response flowcharts, system recovery checklists, and a communication plan. Its DRP also references IT operations documentation (e.g. asset management documents, system specs, and system configuration docs), but this material is not published with the example documentation.

    Resulting Disaster Recovery Plan

    XMPL’s DRP includes actionable documents in the form of high-level disaster response plan flowcharts and system recovery checklists. During an incident, the DR team is able to clearly see the items for which they are responsible.

    Disaster Recovery Plan
    • Recovery Workflow
    • Business Impact Analysis
    • DRP Summary
    • System Recovery Checklists
    • Communication, Assessment, and Disaster Declaration Plan

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    XMPL Medical’s disaster recovery plan illustrates an effective DRP. Model your end-to-end disaster recovery plan after XMPL’s completed templates. The specific data points will differ from organization to organization, but the structure of each document will be similar.

    Model your disaster recovery documentation off of our example

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Healthcare
    Source Created by amalgamating data from Info-Tech’s client base

    Recovery Workflow:

    • Recovery Workflows (PDF, VSDX)

    Recovery Procedures (Systems Recovery Playbook):

    • DR Notification, Assessment, and Disaster Declaration Plan
    • Systems Recovery Playbook
    • Network Topology Diagrams

    Additional Reference Documentation:

    • DRP Workbook
    • Business Impact Analysis
    • DRP Summary Document

    Use our structure to create your practical disaster recovery plan.

    Appendix B: Summary, Next Steps, and Bibliography

    Insight breakdown

    Use visual-based documentation instead of a traditional DRP manual.

    • Flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams are more concise, easier to maintain, and more effective in a crisis.
    • Write for an IT audience and focus on how to recover. You don’t need 30 pages of fluff describing the purpose of the document.

    Create your DRP in layers to keep the work manageable.

    • Start with a recovery workflow to ensure a coordinated response, and build out supporting documentation over time.

    Prioritize quick wins to make DRP maintenance easier and more likely to happen.

    • Incorporate DRP maintenance into change management and project intake procedures to systematically update and refine the DR documentation. Don’t save up changes for a year-end blitz, which turns document maintenance into an onerous project.

    Summary of accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • How to create visual-based DRP documentation
    • How to integrate DRP maintenance into core IT processes

    Processes Optimized

    • DRP documentation creation
    • DRP publishing tool selection
    • DRP documentation maintenance

    Deliverables Completed

    • DRP documentation
    • Strategy for publishing your DRP
    • Modified project-intake form
    • Change management checklist for DR considerations

    Project step summary

    Client Project: Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan

    • Create a recovery workflow.
    • Create supporting DRP documentation.
    • Write a summary for your DRP.
    • Decide on a publishing strategy.
    • Incorporate DRP maintenance into core IT processes.
    • Conduct an annual focused review.

    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

    Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan
    Close the gap between your DR capabilities and service continuity requirements.

    Reduce Costly Downtime Through DR Testing
    Improve the accuracy of your DRP and your team’s ability to efficiently execute recovery procedures through regular DR testing.

    Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind
    Go beyond satisfying auditors to drive process improvement, consistent IT operations, and effective knowledge transfer.

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

    Bibliography

    A Structured Approach to Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and the Requirements of ISO 31000. The Association of Insurance and Risk Managers, Alarm: The Public Risk Management Association, and The Institute of Risk Management, 2010.

    “APO012: Manage Risk.” COBIT 5: Enabling Processes. ISACA, 2012.

    Bird, Lyndon, Ian Charters, Mel Gosling, Tim Janes, James McAlister, and Charlie Maclean-Bristol. Good Practice Guidelines: A Guide to Global Good Practice in Business Continuity. Global ed. Business Continuity Institute, 2013.

    COBIT 5: A Business Framework for the Governance and Management of Enterprise IT. ISACA, 2012.

    “EDM03: Ensure Risk Optimisation.” COBIT 5: Enabling Processes. ISACA, 2012.

    Risk Management. ISO 31000:2009.

    Rothstein, Philip Jan. Disaster Recovery Testing: Exercising Your Contingency Plan. Rothstein Associates: 1 Oct. 2007.

    Societal Security – Business continuity management systems – Guidance. ISO 22313:2012.

    Societal Security – Business continuity management systems – Requirements. ISO 22301:2012.

    Understanding and Articulating Risk Appetite. KPMG, 2008.

    Business Process Controls and Internal Audit

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}37|cart{/j2store}
    • Related Products: {j2store}37|crosssells{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Security and Risk
    • Parent Category Link: security-and-risk
    Establish an Effective System of Internal IT Controls to Mitigate Risks.

    Identify Opportunities to Mature the Security Architecture

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}385|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: Secure Cloud & Network Architecture
    • Parent Category Link: /secure-cloud-network-architecture
    • Organizations do not have a solid grasp on the complexity of their infrastructure and are unaware of the overall risk to their infrastructure posed by inadequate security.
    • Organizations do not understand how to properly create and deliver value propositions of technical security solutions.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

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

    Impact and Result

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

    Identify Opportunities to Mature the Security Architecture Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

    1. Identify the organization’s ideal security architecture

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

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

    2. Create a security program roadmap

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

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

    Enterprise Storage Solution Considerations

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}507|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: Storage & Backup Optimization
    • Parent Category Link: /storage-and-backup-optimization
    • Enterprise storage technology and options are challenging to understand.
    • There are so many options. How do you decide what the best solution is for your storage challenge??
    • Where do you start when trying to solve your enterprise storage challenge?

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Take the time to understand the various data storage formats, disk types, and associated technology, as well as the cloud-based and on-premises options. This will help you select the right tool for your needs.

    Impact and Result

    Look to existing use cases based on actual Info-Tech analyst calls to help in your decision-making process.

    Enterprise Storage Solution Considerations Research & Tools

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

    1. Enterprise Storage Solution Considerations – Narrow your focus with the right product type and realize efficiencies.

    Explore the building blocks of enterprise storage so you can select the best solution, narrow your focus with the correct product type, explore the features that should be considered when evaluating enterprise storage offerings, and examine use cases based on actual Info-Tech analyst calls to find a storage solution for your situation.

    • Enterprise Storage Solution Considerations Storyboard

    2. Modernize Enterprise Storage Workbook – Understand your data requirements.

    The first step in solving your enterprise storage challenge is identifying your data sources, data volumes, and growth rates. This information will give you insight into what data sources could be stored on premises or in the cloud, how much storage you will require for the coming five to ten years, and what to consider when exploring enterprise storage solutions. This tool can be a valuable asset for determining your current storage drivers and future storage needs, structuring a plan for future storage purchases, and determining timelines and total cost of ownership.

    • Modernize Enterprise Storage Workbook
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Enterprise Storage Solution Considerations

    Narrow your focus with the right product type and realize efficiencies.

    Analyst Perspective

    The vendor landscape is continually evolving, as are the solutions they offer. The options and features are increasing and appealing.

    The image contains a picture of P.J. Ryan.

    To say that the current enterprise storage landscape looks interesting would be an understatement. The solutions offered by vendors continue to grow and evolve. Flash and NVMe are increasing the speed of storage media and reducing latency. Software-defined storage is finding the most efficient use of media to store data where it is best served while managing a variety of vendor storage and older storage area networks and network-attached storage devices.

    Storage as a service is taking on a new meaning with creative solutions that let you keep the storage appliance on premises or in a colocated data center while administration, management, and support are performed by the vendor for a nominal monthly fee.

    We cannot discuss enterprise storage without mentioning the cloud. Bring a thermometer because you must understand the difference between hot, warm, and cold storage when discussing the cloud options. Very hot and very cold may also come into play.

    Storage hardware can assume a higher total cost of ownership with support options that replace the controllers on a regular basis. The options with this type of service are also varied, but the concept of not having to replace all disks and chassis nor go through a data migration is very appealing to many companies.

    The cloud is growing in popularity when it comes to enterprise storage, but on-premises solutions are still in demand, and whether you choose cloud or on premises, you can be guaranteed an array of features and options to add stability, security, and efficiency to your enterprise storage.

    P.J. Ryan
    Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Info-Tech Insight

    The vendor landscape is continually evolving, as are the solutions they offer.

    Storage providers are getting acquired by bigger players, “outside the box” thinking is disrupting the storage support marketplace, “as a service” storage offerings are evolving, and what is a data lake and do I need one? The traditional storage vendors are not alone in the market, and the solutions they offer are no longer traditional either. Explore the landscape and understand your options before you make any enterprise storage solution purchases.

    Understand the building blocks of storage so you can select the best solution.

    There are multiple storage formats for data, along with multiple hardware form factors and disk types to hold those various data formats. Software plays a significant role in many of these storage solutions, and cloud offerings take advantage of all the various formats, form factors, and disks. The challenge is matching your data type with the correct storage format and solution.

    Look to existing use cases to help in your decision-making process.

    Explore previous experiences from others by reading use cases to determine what the best solution is for your challenge. You’re probably not the first to encounter the challenge you’re facing. Another organization may have previously reached out for assistance and found a viable solution that may be just what you also need.

    Enterprise storage has evolved, with more options than ever

    Data is growing, data security will always be a concern, and vendors are providing more and more options for enterprise storage.

    “By 2025, it’s estimated that 463 exabytes of data will be created each day globally – that’s the equivalent of 212,765,957 DVDs per day!” (Visual Capitalist)

    “Modern criminal groups target not only endpoints and servers, but also central storage systems and their backup infrastructure.” (Continuity Software)

    Cloud or on premises? Maybe a hybrid approach with both cloud and on premises is best for you. Do you want to remove the headaches of storage administration, management, and support with a fully managed storage-as-a-service solution? Would you like to upgrade your controllers every three or four years without a major service interruption? The options are increasing and appealing.

    High-Level Considerations

    1. Understand Your Data

    Understand how much data you have and where it is located. This will be crucial when evaluating enterprise storage solutions.

    2. Plan for Growth

    Your enterprise storage considerations should include your data needs now and in the future.

    3. Understand the Mechanics

    Take the time to understand the various data storage formats, disk types, and associated technology, as well as the cloud-based and on-premises options. This will help you select the right tool for your needs.

    Storage formats, disk drives, and technology

    Common data storage formats, technology, and drive types are outlined below. Understanding how data is stored as well as the core building blocks for larger systems will help you decide which solution is best for your storage needs.

    Format

    What it is

    Disk Drives and Technology

    File Storage

    File storage is hierarchical storage that uses files, folders, subfolders, and directories. You enter a specific filename and path to access the file, such as P:\users\johndoe\strategy\cloud.doc. If you ever saved a file on a server, you used file storage. File storage is usually managed by some type of file manager, such as File Explorer in Windows. Network-attached storage (NAS) devices use file storage.

    Hard Disk Drives (HDD)

    HDD use a platter of spinning disks to magnetically store data. The disks are thick enough to make them rigid and are referred to as hard disks.

    HDD is older technology but is still in demand and offered by vendors.

    Object Storage

    Object storage is when data is broken into distinct units, called objects. These objects are stored in a flat, non-hierarchical structure in a single location or repository. Each object is identified by its associated ID and metadata. Objects are accessed by an application programming interface (API).

    Flash

    Flash storage uses flash memory chips to store data. The flash memory chips are written with electricity and contain no moving parts. Flash storage is very fast, which is how the technology got its name (“Flash vs. SSD Storage,” Enterprise Storage Forum, 2018).

    Block Storage

    Block storage is when data is divided up into fixed-size blocks and stored with a unique identifier. Blocks can be stored in different environments, such as Windows or Linux. Storage area networks (SANs) use block storage.

    Solid-State Drive (SSD)

    SSD is a storage mechanism that also does not use any moving parts. Most SSD drives use flash storage, but other options are available for SSD.

    Nonvolatile Memory Express (NVMe)

    NVMe is a communications standard developed specially for SSDs by a consortium of vendors including Intel, Samsung, SanDisk, Dell, and Seagate. It operates across the PCIe bus (hence the “Express” in the name), which allows the drives to act more like the fast memory that they are rather than the hard disks they imitate (PCWorld).

    Narrow your focus with the right product type

    On-premises enterprise storage solutions fit into a few distinct product types.

    Network-Attached Storage

    Storage Area Network

    Software-Defined Storage

    Hyperconverged Infrastructure

    NAS refers to a storage device that is connected directly to your network. Any user or device with access to your network can access the available storage provided by the NAS. NAS storage is easily scalable and can add data redundancy through RAID technology. NAS uses the file storage format.

    NAS storage may or may not be the first choice in terms of enterprise storage, but it does have a solid market appeal as an on-premises primary backup storage solution.

    A SAN is a dedicated network of pooled storage devices. The dedicated network, separate from the regular network, provides high speed and scalability without concern for the regular network traffic. SANs use block storage format and can be divided into logical units that can be shared between servers or segregated from other servers. SANs can be accessed by multiple servers and systems at the same time. SANs are scalable and offer high availability and redundancy through RAID technology.

    SANs can use a variety of disk types and sizes and are quite common among on-premises storage solutions.

    “Software-defined storage (SDS) is a storage architecture that separates storage software from its hardware. Unlike traditional network-attached storage (NAS) or storage area network (SAN) systems, SDS is generally designed to perform on any industry-standard or x86 system, removing the software’s dependence on proprietary hardware.” (RedHat)

    SDS uses software-based policies and rules to grow and protect storage attached to applications.

    SDS allows you to use server-based storage products to add management, protection, and better usage.

    Hyperconverged storage uses virtualization and software-defined storage to combine the storage, compute, and network resources along with a hypervisor into one appliance.

    Hyperconverged storage can scale out by adding more nodes or appliances, but scaling up, or adding more resources to each appliance, can have limitations. There is flexibility as hyperconverged storage can work with most network and compute manufacturers.

    Cloud storage

    • Cloud storage is online storage offered by a cloud provider. Cloud storage is available almost anywhere and is set up with high availability features such as data duplication, redundancy, backup, and power failure protection.
    • Cloud storage is very scalable and typically is offered as object storage, block storage, or file storage. Cloud storage vendors may have their own naming scheme for object, block, or file storage.
    • Cloud-hosted data is marketed according to the frequency of access and length of time in storage. There are typically three main levels of storage: hot, warm, or cold. Vendors may have their own naming convention for hot, warm, and cold storage. Some may also add more layers such as very hot or very cold.
      • Hot storage is for data that is frequently accessed and modified. It is available on demand and is the most costly of the storage levels.
      • Cold storage is for data that will sit for a long period of time and not need to be accessed. Cold storage is usually only available after several hours or days. Cold storage is very low cost and, in some cases, even free, but retrieval or restoration for the free services can be costly.
      • Warm storage sits in between hot and cold storage. It is for data that is infrequently needed. The cost of warm storage is also in between hot and cold storage costs, and access times are measured in terms of minutes or hours.
      • It is not uncommon for data to start in hot storage and, as it ages, move to warm and eventually cold storage.

    “Enterprise cloud storage offers nearly unlimited scalability. Enterprises can add storage quickly and easily as it is needed, eliminating the risk and cost of over-provisioning.”

    – Spectrum Enterprise

    “Hot data will operate on fresh data. Cold data will operate on less frequent data and [is] used mainly for reporting and planning. Warm data is a balance between the two.”

    – TechBlost

    Enterprise storage features

    The features listed below, while not intended to cover all features offered by all vendors, should be considered and could act as a baseline for discussions with storage providers when evaluating enterprise storage offerings.

    • Scalability
      • What are the options to expand, and how easy or difficult it is to expand capacity in the future?
    • Security
      • Does the solution offer data encryption options as well as ransomware protections?
    • Integration options
      • Can the solution support seamless connectivity with other solutions and applications, such as cloud-based storage or backup software?
    • Storage reduction
      • Does the solution offer space-reduction options such as deduplication or data compression?
    • Replication
      • Does the solution offer replication options such as device to device on premises, device to device when geographically separated, device to cloud, or a combination of these scenarios?
    • Performance
      • “Enterprise storage systems have two main ‘speed’ measurements: throughput and IOPS. Throughput is the data transfer rate to and from storage media, measured in bytes per second; IOPS measures the number of reads and writes – input/output (I/O) operations – per second.” (Computer Weekly)
    • Protocol support
      • Does the solution support object-based, block-based, and file-based storage protocols?
    • Storage Efficiency
      • How efficient is the solution? Can they prove it?
      • Storage efficiencies must be available and baselined.
    • Management platform
      • A management/reporting platform should be a component included in the system.
    • Multi-parity
      • Does the solution offer multi-level block “parity” for RAID 6 protection equivalency, which would allow for the simultaneous failure of two disks?
    • Proactive support
      • Features such as call home, dial in, or remote support must be available on the system.
    • Financial considerations
      • The cost is always a concern, but are there subscription-based or “as-a-service” options?
      • Internally, is it better for this expenditure to be a capital expenditure or an ongoing operating expense?

    What’s new in enterprise storage

    • Data warehouses are not a new concept, but the data storage evolution and growth of data means that data lakes and data lakehouses are growing in popularity.
      • “A data lake is a centralized repository that allows you to store all your structured and unstructured data at any scale. You can store your data as-is, without having to first structure the data” (Amazon Web Services).
      • Analytics with a data lake is possible, but manipulation of the data is hindered due to the nature of the data. A data lakehouse adds data management and analytics to a data lake, similar to the data warehouse functionality added to databases.
    • Options for on-premises hardware support is changing.
      • Pure Storage was the first to shake up the SAN support model with its Evergreen support option. Evergreen//Forever support allows for storage controller upgrades without having to migrate data or replace your disks or chassis (Pure Storage).
      • In response to the Pure Storage Evergreen offering, Dell, HPE, NetApp, and others have come out with similar programs that offer controller upgrades while maintaining the data, disks, and chassis.
    • “As a service” is available as a hybrid solution.
      • Storage as a service (STaaS) originally referred to hosted, fully cloud-based offerings without the need for any on-premises hardware.
      • The latest STaaS offerings provide on-premises or colocated hardware with pay-as-you-go subscription pricing for data consumption. Administration, management, and support are included. The vendor will supply support and manage everything on your behalf.
      • Most of the major storage vendors offer a variation of storage as a service.

    “Because data lakes mostly consist of raw unprocessed data, a data scientist with specialized expertise is typically needed to manipulate and translate the data.”

    – DevIQ

    “A Lakehouse is also a type of centralized data repository, integrated from heterogeneous sources. As can be expected from its name, It shares features with both datawarehouses and data lakes.”

    – Cesare

    “Storage as a service (STaaS) eliminates Capex, simplifies management and offers extensive flexibility.”

    – TechTarget

    Major vendors

    The current vendor landscape for enterprise storage solutions represents a range of industry veterans and the brands they’ve aggregated along the way, as well as some relative newcomers who have come to the forefront within the past ten years.

    Vendors like Dell EMC and HPE are longstanding veterans of storage appliances with established offerings and a back catalogue of acquisitions fueling their growth. Others such as Pure Storage offer creative solutions like all-flash arrays, which are becoming more and more appealing as flash storage becomes more commoditized.

    Cloud-based vendors have become popular options in recent years. Cloud storage provides many options and has attracted many other vendors to provide a cloud option in addition to their on-premises solutions. Some software and hardware vendors also partner with cloud vendors to offer a complete solution that includes storage.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Explore your current vendor’s solutions as a starting point, then use that understanding as a reference point to dive into other players in the market

    Key Players

    • Amazon
    • Cisco
    • Dell EMC
    • Google
    • Hewlett Packard Enterprise
    • Hitachi Vantara
    • IBM
    • Microsoft
    • NetApp
    • Nutanix
    • Pure Storage

    Enterprise Storage Use Cases

    Block, object, or file storage? NAS, SAN, SDS, or HCI? Cloud or on prem? Hot, warm, or cold?
    Which one do you choose?
    The following use cases based on actual Info-Tech analyst calls may help you decide.

    1. Offsite backup solution
    2. Infrastructure consolidation
    3. DR/BCP datacenter duplication
    4. Expansion of existing storage
    5. Complete backup solution
    6. Existing storage solution going out of support soon
    7. Video storage
    8. Classify and offload storage

    Offsite backup solution

    “Offsite” may make you think of geographical separation or even cloud-based storage, but what is the best option and why?

    Use Case: How a manufacturing company dealt with retired applications

    • A leading manufacturing company had to preserve older applications no longer in use.
    • The company had completed several acquisitions and ended up with multiple legacy applications that had been merged or migrated into replacement solutions. These legacy applications were very important to the original companies, and although the data they held had been migrated to a replacement solution, executives felt they should hold on to these applications for a period of time, just in case.
    • A modern archiving solution was considered, but a research advisor from Info-Tech Research joined a call with the manufacturing company and helped the client realize that the solution was a modified backup. The application data had already been preserved through the migration, so data could be accessed in the production environment.
    • The data could be exported from the legacy application into a nonsequential database, compressed, and stored in cloud-based cold storage for less than $5 per terabyte per month. The manufacturing company staff realized that they could apply this same approach to several of their legacy applications and save tens of thousands of dollars in the process.
    • Cold storage is inexpensive until you start retrieving that data frequently. The manufacturing company knew they did not have a requirement to retrieve the application and data for a very long time, so cloud-based cold storage was ideal.

    “Data retrieval from cold storage is harder and slower than it is from hot storage. … Because of the longer retrieval time, online cold storage plans are often much cheaper. … The downside is that you’d incur additional costs when retrieving the data.”

    – Ben Stockton, Cloudwards

    Infrastructure consolidation

    Hyperconverged infrastructure combines storage, virtual infrastructure, and associated management into one piece of equipment.

    Use Case: How one company dealt with equipment and storage needs

    • One Info-Tech client had recently started in the role of IT director and realized he had inherited aging infrastructure along with a serious data challenge. The storage appliances were old and out of support. The appliances were performing inadequately, and the client was in need of more data due to ongoing growth, but he also realized that the virtual environment was running on very old servers that were no longer supported. The IT director reached out to Info-Tech to find solutions to the virtualization challenge, but the storage problem also came up throughout the course of the conversation with an analyst.
    • The analyst quickly realized that the IT director was an ideal candidate for a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) storage solution, which would also provide the necessary virtual environment.
    • The analyst explained the benefits of having a single appliance that would provide virtualization needs as well as storage needs. The built-in management features would ease the burden of administration, and the software-defined nature of the HCI would allow for the migration of data as well as future expansion options.
    • Hyperconverged infrastructure is offered by many vendors under a variety of names. Most are similar but some may have a better interface or other features. The expansion process is simple, and HCI is a good fit for many organizations looking to consolidate virtual infrastructure and storage.

    “HCI environments use a hypervisor, usually running on a server that uses direct-attached storage (DAS), to create a data center pool of systems and resources.”

    – Samuel Greengard, Datamation

    Datacenter duplication

    SAN providers offer a varied range of options for their products, and those options are constantly evolving.

    Use Case: Independent school district provides better data access using SAN technology

    • An independent school district was expanding by adding a second data center in a new school. This new data center would be approximately 20 miles away from the original data center used by the district. The intent was not to replace the original data center but to use both centers to store data and provide services concurrently. The district’s ideal scenario would be that users would not know or care which data center they were reaching, and there would be no difference in the service received from each data center. The school district reached out to Info-Tech when planning discussions reached the topic of data duplication and replication software.
    • An Info-Tech analyst joined a call with the school district and guided the conversation toward the existing environment to understand what options might be available. The analyst quickly discovered that all the district’s servers were virtual, and all associated data was stored on a single SAN.
    • The analyst informed the school district staff about SAN options, including SAN-to-SAN replication. If the school district had a sufficient link between the two data centers, SAN-to-SAN replication would work for them and provide the two identical copies of data at two locations.
    • The analyst continued to offer explanations of other features that some vendors offer with their SANs, such as the ability to turn on or off deduplication and compression, as well as disk options such as flash or NVMe.
    • The school district was moving to the request for proposal (RFP) stage but hoped to have SAN-to-SAN replication implemented before the next academic year started.

    “SAN-to-SAN replication is a low-cost, highly efficient way to manage mounting quantities of stored data.”

    – Secure Infrastructure & Services

    Expansion of existing storage

    That old storage area network may still have some useful life left in it.

    Use Case: Municipality solves data storage aging and growth challenge

    • A municipality in the United States reached out to Info-Tech for guidance on its storage challenge. The municipality had accumulated multiple SANs from different vendors over the years. These SANs were running out of storage, and more data storage was needed. The municipality’s data was growing at a rapid pace, thanks to municipal growth and expansion of services. The IT team was also concerned with modernizing their storage and not hindering their long-term growth by making the wrong purchase decision for their current storage needs.
    • An analyst from Info-Tech discussed several options with the municipality but in the end advised that software-defined storage may be the best solution.
    • Software-defined storage (SDS) would allow the municipality to gain better visibility into existing storage while making more efficient use of existing and new storage. SDS could take over the management of the existing storage from multiple vendors and add additional storage as required. SDS would also be able to integrate cloud-based storage if that was the direction taken by the municipality in the future.
    • The municipality moved forward with an SDS solution and added some additional storage capacity. They used some of their existing SANs but retired the more troublesome ones. The SDS system managed all the storage instances and data management. The administration of the storage environment was easier for the storage admins, and long-term savings were achieved through better storage management.

    “Often enterprises have added storage on an ad hoc basis as they needed it for various applications. That can result in a mishmash of heterogenous storage hardware from a wide variety of vendors. SDS offers the ability to unify management of these different storage devices, allowing IT to be more efficient.”

    – Cynthia Harvey, Enterprise Storage Forum (“What Is Software Defined Storage?”, 2018)

    Complete backup solution

    Many backup software solutions can provide backups to multiple locations, making two-location backups simple.

    Use Case: How an oil refinery modernized its backup solution

    • A large oil refinery needed a better solution for the storage of backups. The refinery was replacing its backup software solution but also wanted to improve the backup storage situation and move away from tape-based storage. All other infrastructure was reasonably modern and not in need of replacement at this time.
    • A research analyst from Info-Tech helped the client realize that the solution was a modified backup. The general guidance for backups is have a least one copy offsite, so the cloud was the obvious focal point. The analyst also explained that it would be beneficial to have a recent copy of the backup available on site for common restoration requests in addition to having the offsite copy for disaster recovery (DR) purposes.
    • The refinery staff conducted a data analysis to determine how much data was being backed up on a daily basis. The solution proposed by the analyst included network-attached storage (NAS) with adequate storage to hold 30 days' worth of on-premises data. The backup software would also simultaneously copy each backup to a cloud-based storage repository. The backup software was smart enough to only back up and transfer data that had changed since the previous backup, so transfer time and capacity was not a factor.
    • The NAS would allow for the restoration of any local, on-premises data while the cloud storage would provide a safe location offsite for backup data. It could also serve as the backup location for other cloud-based services that required a backup.

    “Data protection demands that enterprises have multiple methods of keeping data safe and replicating it in case of disaster or loss.”

    – Drew Robb, Enterprise Storage Forum, 2021

    Storage going out of support

    SAN solutions have come a long way with improvements in how data is stored and what is used to store the data.

    Use Case: How one organization replaced its old storage with a similar solution

    • A government organization was looking for a solution for its aging storage area network appliances. The SANs were old and would be no longer supported by the manufacturer within four months. The SANs had slower spinning disks and their individual capacity was at its limit through the addition of extra shelves and disks over the years.
    • The organization reached out to Info-Tech for guidance. An analyst arranged a call with them, and they discussed the storage situation in detail, including desired benefits from a storage solution and growth requirements. They also discussed cloud storage, but the government organization was not in a position to move its data to the cloud for a variety of reasons.
    • Although the individual SANs were at their storage capacity limit, the total amount of data was well within the limits of many modern on-premises storage solutions. SSD and flash or NVMe storage can store large amounts of data in small footprints and form factors.
    • The analyst reviewed several vendors with the client and discussed some advantages and disadvantages of each. They explored the features offered as well as scalability options.
    • SANs have been around for a long time but the features and capabilities that come with them has evolved. They are still a very viable solution for many organizations in a variety of scenarios.

    “A rapidly growing portion of SAN deployments leverages all-flash storage to gain its high performance, consistent low latency, and lower total cost when compared to spinning disk.”

    – NetApp

    Video storage

    Cloud storage would not be sufficient if you were using a dial up connection, just as on-premises storage solutions would not suffice if they were using floppy disks.

    Use Case: Body cams and public cameras in municipalities are driving storage growth

    • Municipal law enforcement agencies are wearing body cameras more frequently, for their own protection as well as for the protection of the public. Camera footage can be useful in legal situations as well. Municipalities are also installing more and more public cameras for the purposes of public safety. The recorded video footage from these cameras can result in large data files, which in turn drive data storage requirements.
    • Info-Tech analysts are joining calls about video data storage with increasing frequency. The concerns are repetitive, and the guidance is similar on most of these calls.
    • The “object” storage format is ideal for video and media data. Most cloud-based storage solutions use object storage, but it is also available with on-premises solutions such as NAS or SAN. The challenges clients are expressing are typically related to inadequate bandwidth for cloud-based storage or other storage formats instead of “object” storage. Cloud-based storage can also grow beyond the budgeted numbers, causing an increase in the monthly cloud cost. Older, slower on-premises hardware sometimes reveals itself as the latency culprit.
    • Object storage is well suited for the unstructured data that is video footage. It uses metadata to tag the video file for future retrieval and is easily expandable, which also makes it cost effective.
    • Video data stored in a cloud-based repository will work fine as long as the bandwidth is adequate. On-premises storage of video data is also quite adequate on the right storage format, with fast disks and a reasonably up-to-date network infrastructure.

    “The captured video is stored for days, weeks, months and sometimes years and consumes a lot of space. Data storage plays a new and important role in these systems. Object storage is ideal to store the video data.”

    – Object-Storage.Info

    Classify and offload primary storage

    Some software products have storage options available as a result of agreements with other storage vendors. Several backup and archive software products fall into this category.

    Use Case: Enterprise storage can help reduce data sprawl

    • A large engineering firm was trying to manage its data sprawl. The team sampled a small percentage of their data and quickly realized that when they applied their findings on the 1% of data to their entire data estate, the sheer volume of personal files, older files, and unclassified data was going to be a challenge.
    • They found a solution in archiving software. The archiving software would tag data based on several factors. The software would move older files away from primary storage to an alternate storage platform but still leave a stub of the moved file in place and maintain limited access to those files. This would reduce primary storage requirements and allow the firm to eliminate multiple file servers
    • The engineering firm reached out to Info-Tech and participated in an analyst call. During that call, they laid out their plans, and the analyst made them aware of cloud storage. The positive and negative aspects of cloud storage were discussed, and the firm fully understood that the colder the storage tier, the slower the recovery. The firm's stance was if the files had not been accessed in the past six months, waiting a day or two for retrieval would not be a concern, and the firm was content with cold storage in the cloud.
    • The firm had not purchased the archiving software at the time of the analyst call, and the analyst also explained to them that the archiving software may have an existing agreement with a cloud provider for storage options, which could be more cost effective than purchasing cloud storage separately.
    • Cold cloud-based storage was the preferred solution for this firm, but this use case also highlights the option that some software products carry regarding storage. Several backup and archive products have a cloud storage option that should be investigated, as they may be cost-effective options.

    “Cold storage is perfect for archiving your data. Online backup providers offer low-cost, off-site data backups at the expense of fast speeds and easy access, even though data retrieval often comes at an added cost. If you need to keep your data long-term, but don’t need to access it often, this is the kind of storage you need.”

    – Ben Stockton, Cloudwards

    Understand your data requirements

    Activity

    The first step in solving your enterprise storage challenge is identifying your data sources or drivers, data volume size, and growth rates. This information will give you insight into what data sources could be stored on premises or in the cloud, how much storage you will require for the coming five to ten years, and what to consider when exploring enterprise storage solutions.

    • Info-Tech’s Modernize Enterprise Storage Workbook can be a valuable asset for determining your current storage drivers and future storage needs, structuring a plan for future storage purchases, and determining timelines and total cost of ownership.
    • An example of the Storage Capacity Calculator tab from that workbook is displayed on the right. Using the Storage Capacity Requirements Calculator requires minimal steps.
    1. Enter the current date and planning timeline (horizon) in months
    2. Identify the top sources of data within the business – the current data drivers. Areas of focus could include business applications, file shares, backup, and archives.
    3. For each of these data drivers, include your best estimate of:
    • Current data volume
    • Growth rate
  • Identify the top future data drivers, such as new applications or initiatives that will result from current business plans and priorities, and record the following details:
    • Initial data volumes
    • Projected growth rates
    • Planned implementation date
  • The spreadsheet will automatically calculate the data volume at the planning horizon based on the growth rate.
  • Download the Modernize Enterprise Storage Workbook and take the first step toward understanding your data requirements.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Modernize Enterprise Storage Workbook.

    Download the Modernize Enterprise Storage Workbook

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Modernize Enterprise Storage

    Current and emerging storage technologies are disrupting the status quo – prepare your infrastructure for the exponential rise in data and its storage requirements.

    Modernize Enterprise Storage Workbook

    This workbook will complement the discussions and activities found in the Modernize Enterprise Storage blueprint. Use this workbook in conjunction with the blueprint to develop a strategy for storage modernization.

    Bibliography

    Bakkianathan, Raghunathan. “What is the difference between Hot Warm and Cold data storage?” TechBlost, n.d.. Accessed 14 July 2022.
    Cesare. “Data warehouse vs Data lake vs Lakehouse… and DeltaLake?“ Medium, 14 June 2021. Accessed 26 July 2022.
    Davison, Shawn and Ryan Sappenfield. “Data Lake Vs Lakehouse Vs Data Mesh: The Evolution of Data Transformation.” DevIQ, May 2022. Accessed 23 July 2022.
    Desjardins, Jeff. “Infographic: How Much Data is Generated Each Day?” Visual Capitalist, 15 April 2019. Accessed 26 July 2022.
    Greengard, Samuel. “Top 10 Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) Solutions.” Datamation, 22 December 2020. Accessed 23 July 2022.
    Harvey, Cynthia. “Flash vs. SSD Storage: Is there a Difference?” Enterprise Storage Forum, 10 July 2018. Accessed 23 July 2022.
    Harvey, Cynthia. “What Is Software Defined Storage? Features & Benefits.” Enterprise Storage Forum, 22 February 2018. Accessed 23 July 2022.
    Hecht, Gil. “4 Predictions for storage and backup security in 2022.” Continuity Software, 09 January 2022. Accessed 22 July 2022.
    Jacobi, Jonl. “NVMe SSDs: Everything you need to know about this insanely fast storage.” PCWorld, 10 March 2019. Accessed 22 July 2022
    Pritchard, Stephen. “Briefing: Cloud storage performance metrics.” Computer Weekly, 16 July 2021. Accessed 23 July 2022
    Robb, Drew. “Best Enterprise Backup Software & Solutions 2022.” Enterprise Storage Forum, 09 April 2021. Accessed 23 July 2022.
    Sheldon, Robert. “On-premises STaaS shifts storage buying to Opex model.” TechTarget, 10 August 2020. Accessed 22 July 2022.
    “Simplify Your Storage Ownership, Forever.” PureStorage. Accessed 20 July 2022.
    Stockton, Ben. “Hot Storage vs Cold Storage in 2022: Instant Access vs Long-Term Archives.” Cloudwards, 29 September 2021. Accessed 22 July 2022.
    “The Cost Savings of SAN-to-SAN Replication.” Secure Infrastructure and Services, 31 March 2016. Accessed 16 July 2022.
    “Video Surveillance.” Object-Storage.Info, 18 December 2019. Accessed 25 July 2022.
    “What is a Data Lake?” Amazon Web Services, n.d. Accessed 17 July 2022.
    “What is enterprise cloud storage?” Spectrum Enterprise, n.d. Accessed 28 July 2022.
    “What is SAN (Storage Area Network).” NetApp, n.d. Accessed 25 July 2022.
    “What is software-defined storage?” RedHat, 08 March 2018. Accessed 16 July 2022.

    Architect Your Big Data Environment

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}202|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: Big Data
    • Parent Category Link: /big-data
    • Organizations may understand the transformative potential of a big data initiative, but they struggle to make the transition from the awareness of its importance to identifying a concrete use case for a pilot project.
    • The big data ecosystem is crowded and confusing, and a lack of understanding of it may cause paralysis for organizations.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Don’t panic, and make use of the resources you already have. The skills, tools, and infrastructure for big data can break any budget quickly, but before making rash decisions, start with the resources you have in-house.
    • Big data as a service (BDaaS) is making big waves. BDaaS removes many of the hurdles associated with implementing a big data strategy and vastly lowers the barrier of entry.

    Impact and Result

    • Follow Info-Tech’s methodology for understanding the types of modern approaches to big data tools, and then determining which approach style makes the most sense for your organization.
    • Based on your big data use case, create a plan for getting started with big data tools that takes into account the backing of the use case, the organization’s priorities, and resourcing available.
    • Put a repeatable framework in place for creating a comprehensive big data tool environment that will help you decide on the necessary tools to help you realize the value from your big data use case and scale for the future.

    Architect Your Big Data Environment Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should find your optimal approach to big data tools, 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. Plant the foundations of your big data tool architecture

    Identify your big data use case and your current data-related capabilities.

    • Architect Your Big Data Environment – Phase 1: Plant the Foundations of Your Big Data Tool Architecture
    • Big Data Execution Plan Presentation
    • Big Data Architecture Planning Tool

    2. Weigh your big data architecture decision criteria

    Determine your capacity for big data tools, as well as the level of customizability and security needed for your solution to help justify your implementation style decision.

    • Architect Your Big Data Environment – Phase 2: Weigh Your Big Data Architecture Decision Criteria

    3. Determine your approach to implementing big data tools

    Analyze the three big data implementation styles, select your approach, and complete the execution plan for your big data initiative.

    • Architect Your Big Data Environment – Phase 3: Determine Your Approach To Implementing Big Data Tools
    [infographic]

    Social Media Management Software Selection Guide

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}570|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
    • Social media has changed the way businesses interact with their customers. It is essential to engage with your customers regularly and in a timely manner.
    • Businesses must stay on top of the latest news and update the public regarding the status of downtime or any mishaps.
    • Customers are present in multiple social media platforms, and it is important for businesses to engage with all audiences without alienating one group.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • There are many social media platforms, and any post, image, or other content must be uploaded on all the platforms with minimal delay.
    • It is often difficult to manage replies and responses to all social media platforms promptly.
    • Measuring key performance metrics is crucial to obtain targeted ROI. Calculating ROI across multiple platforms with various audiences is a challenge.

    Impact and Result

    • A business’ social media presence is an extension of the organization, and the social media management strategy must align with the organization's values.
    • Choose a social media management platform that is right for you by aligning your needs without falling for bells and whistles. Vendors offer a lot of features that are not helpful for most day-to-day activities.
    • Ensure the social media management platform has support and integrations for all the platforms that you require.

    Social Media Management Software Selection Guide Research & Tools

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

    1. Social Media Management Software Selection Guide – A deck outlining the features of SMMP tools and top vendors in the marketspace.

    This research offers insight into web analytic tools, key trends in the marketspace, and advanced web analytics techniques. It also provides an overview of the ten top vendors in the marketspace.

    • Social Media Management Software Selection Guide Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Social Media Management Software Selection Guide

    Identify the best tools for your social media management needs.

    Analyst Perspective

    Connecting through social media is an essential way to understand and engage with your customers.

    Social media management platforms (SMMP) allow businesses to engage with customers more efficiently. Ten years ago, Facebook and Twitter dominated the social media space, but many alternatives have emerged that attract a wide variety of audiences today. Every social media platform has a unique demographic; for instance, LinkedIn attracts an audience looking to develop their professional career, while Snapchat attracts those who want to share their everyday casual experience.

    It is important for businesses and brands to engage with all kinds of audiences without alienating a certain group. Domino's, for example, can sell pizzas to business professionals and teenagers alike, so connecting with both customer segments via personalized and meaningful posts in their preferred platform is a great way to grow their business.

    To successfully implement a social media management platform, organizations need to ensure they have their requirements and business needs shortlisted and choose vendors that ensure the best return on investment (ROI).

    An image of Sai Krishna Rajaramagopalan
    Sai Krishna Rajaramagopalan
    Research Specialist, Customer Experience & Application Insights
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • Social media has changed the way businesses interact with customers. It is essential to engage with your them regularly and in a timely manner.
    • Businesses must stay on top of the latest news and update the public regarding any downtime or mishaps.
    • Customers are present on multiple social media platforms, and businesses need to engage all audiences without neglecting or alienating any one group.

    Common Obstacles

    • There are many social media platforms, and any post, image, or other content must be uploaded on every platform with minimal delay.
    • It is often difficult to manage audience interaction on all social media platforms in a timely manner.
    • Measuring key performance metrics is crucial to obtaining the targeted ROI. Calculating ROI across multiple platforms with varying audiences is a challenge.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • Social media presence is an extension of the organization, and the social media management strategy must align with organizational values.
    • Understand your feature requirements and don't for bells and whistles. Vendors offer many features that are not helpful during 80% of day-to-day activities. Choose the SMMP that is right for your organization's needs.
    • Ensure the SMMP has support and integrations for all the platforms that you require.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Choosing a good SMMP is only the first step. Having great social media managers who understand their audience is essential in maintaining a healthy relationship with your audience.

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2

    Call #1: Understand what a social media management platform (SMMP) is.
    Call #2: Build the business case to select an SMMP.

    Call #3: Define your key SMMP requirements.
    Call #4: Build procurement items, such as a request for proposal (RFP).
    Call #5: Evaluate the SMMP solution landscape and shortlist viable options.

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

    The SMMP selection process should be broken into segments:

    1. SMMP 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

    “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

    What exactly is an SMMP platform?

    A social media management platform is a software solution that enables businesses and brands to manage multiple social media accounts. It facilitates making posts, monitoring metrics, and engaging with your audience.

    An SMMP platform offers many key features, including but not limited to the following capabilities:

    • Integrate with popular social media platforms
    • Post images, text, videos on multiple platforms at once
    • Schedule posts
    • Track and monitor activity on social media accounts
    • Send replies and view likes and comments across all accounts
    • Reporting and analytics
    • Send alerts and notifications regarding key events
    • Multilingual support and translation

    Info-Tech Insight

    Social media management platforms have continuously expanded their features list. It is, however, essential not to get lost in endless features to remain competitive and ensure the best ROI.

    Key trends – short-form videos drive the most engagement

    Short-form videos

    Short-form videos are defined as videos less than two minutes long. Shorter videos take substantially less time and effort to consume, making them very attractive for marketing brands to end users. According to a study conducted by Vidyard, more than 50% of viewers end up watching an entire video if it's less than one minute. Another study finds that over 93% of the surveyed brands sold their product or service to a customer through a social media video.

    Popular social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube etc. have caught on to this trend and introduced short-form videos, more commonly called "shorts". It's also common for content creators and brands to cut and upload short clips from longer videos to drive more engagement with viewers.

    Key Trends

    Short-form videos have higher viewership and view time compared to long videos.

    58%

    About 58% of viewers watch the video to the end if it’s under one minute long. A two-minute video manages to keep around 50% of its viewers till the end.
    Source: Oberlo, 2020

    30%

    Short-form videos have the highest ROI of any social media marketing at 30%.
    Source: Influencer Marketing Hub, 2023

    Key trends – influencer marketing

    Influencer marketing

    Influencer marketing is the collaboration of brands with online influencers and content creators across various social media platforms to market their products and services. Influencers are not necessarily celebrities; they can be any individual with a dedicated community. This makes influencers abundant. For instance, compare the number of popular football players with the number of YouTubers on the planet.

    Unlike traditional marketing methods, influencer marketing is effective across different budget levels. This is because the engagement level of small influencers with 10,000 followers is higher than the engagement level of large influencers with millions of followers. If a brand is budget conscious, working with smaller influencers still gives a good ROI. For every dollar spent on influencer marketing, the average ROI is $5.78.

    Key Trends

    61%

    A recent study by Matter found that 61% of consumers trust influencers' recommendations over branded social media content.
    Source: Shopify, 2022

    According to data gathered by Statista, the influencer marketing industry has more than doubled since 2019. It was worth $16.4 billion in 2022.
    Source: Statista, 2023

    Executive Brief Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Retail
    SOURCE: "5 Influencer Marketing Case Studies," HubSpot

    H&M

    H&M was looking to build awareness and desirability around the brand to drive clothing sales during the holiday season. They decided to partner with influencers and align content with each celebrity's personality and lifestyle to create authentic content and messaging for H&M. H&M selected four lesser-known celebrities with highly engaged and devoted social media followings: Tyler Posey, Peyton List, Jana Kramer, and Hannah Simone.

    They posted teaser clips across various platforms to create buzz about the campaign a couple of days before the full, one-minute videos were released. Presenting the content two different times enabled H&M to appeal to more viewers and increase the campaign's visibility. Two of the celebrities, List and Kramer, garnered more views and engagement on the short clip than the full video, highlighting that a great short clip can be more effective than long-form content.

    Results

    The campaign achieved 12 million views on YouTube, 1.3 million likes, 14,000 comments, and 19,000 shares. The average engagement with consumers across all four celebrities was 10%.

    A screenshot of Tyler Posey's sponsored video.

    Tyler Posey's sponsored video achieved:

    • 25% engagement rate on Instagram
    • 14% engagement rate across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

    Key trends – social commerce is the future of e-commerce

    Social commerce

    Social commerce is the selling of goods and services through social media. This may involve standalone stores on social media platforms or promotions on these platforms which link to traditional e-commerce platforms.

    Social media platforms contain more data about consumers than traditional platforms, which allows more accurate targeting of ads and promotions. Additionally, social commerce can place ads on popular influencer stories and posts, taking advantage of influencer marketing without directly involving the influencers.

    Popular platforms have opened their own built-in stores. Facebook created Marketplace and Facebook Shops. TikTok soon followed with the TikTok Shopping suite. These stores allow platforms to lower third-party costs and have more control over which products are featured. This also creates a transactional call to action without leaving social media.

    Key Trends

    2020 saw a sizable increase in social commerce occurring on social media networks, with users making purchases directly from their social accounts.

    30.8%

    Sales through social commerce are expected to grow about 30.8% per year from 2020 to 2025. The growth rate is expected to increase to 35% in 2026.
    Source: Oberlo, 2020

    46%

    China has the highest social commerce adoption rate in the world, with 46% of all internet users making at least one purchase. The US is second with a 36% adoption rate.
    Source: Influencer Marketing Hub, 2022

    Executive Brief Case Study

    BestBuy

    The Twitter Shop Module allows select brands to showcase products at the top of Twitter business profiles. Users can scroll through a carousel of products on a brand's profile and tap on individual products to read more and make purchases without leaving the platform.

    While the results of Twitter's Shop Module experiment are still pending, brands aren't waiting around to sell on the platform. Best Buy and others continue to link to well-formatted product pages directly in their Tweets.

    Clear, direct calls to action such as "Pick yours up today" encourage interested audiences to click through, learn more, and review options for purchase. In this social commerce example, Best Buy also makes optimal use of a Tweet's character limit. In just a few words, the brand offers significant savings for a high-quality product, then doubles down with a promotional trade-in offer. Strong imagery is the icing on the cake.

    INDUSTRY: Retail
    SOURCE: "5 genius social commerce examples," Sprout Social, 2021

    Image shows a social media post by Best Buy.

    Key trends – social media risk management is crucial

    Crisis management

    Crisis management is the necessary intervention from an organization when negative news spreads across social media platforms. With how interconnected people are due to social media, news can quickly spread across different platforms.

    Organizations must be prepared for difficult situations such as negative feedback for a product or service, site outages, real-world catastrophes or disasters, and negative comments toward the social media handle. There are tools that organizations can use to receive real-time updates and be prepared for extreme situations.

    While the causes are often beyond control, organizations can prepare by setting up a well-constructed crisis management strategy.

    Key Trends

    75%

    75% of respondents to PwC's Global Crisis Survey said technology has facilitated the coordination of their organization's crisis response team.
    Source: PwC, 2021

    69%

    69% of business leaders reported experiencing a crisis over a period of five years, with the average number of crises being three.
    Source: PwC, 2019

    Executive Brief Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Apparel
    SOURCE: “Social Media Crisis Management 3 Examples Done Right,” Synthesio

    Nike

    On February 20, 2019, Zion Williamson, a star player from Duke University, suffered a knee injury when a malfunctioning Nike shoe fell apart. This accident happened less than a minute into a highly anticipated game against North Carolina. Media outlets and social media users quickly began talking. ESPN had broadcast the game nationally. On Twitter, former President Barack Obama, who was watching the game courtside, expressed his well-wishes to Williamson, as did NBA giants like LeBron James.

    This accident was so high profile that Nike stock dropped 1.7% the following day. Nike soon released a statement expressing its concern and well-wishes for Williamson. The footwear megabrand reassured the world that its teams were "working to identify the issue." The following day, Nike sent a team to Durham, North Carolina, where the game took place. This team then visited Nike's manufacturing site in China and returned with numerous suggestions.

    About a month later, Williamson returned to the court with custom shoes, which he told reporters were "incredible." He thanked Nike for creating them.

    An image of a post by Time about Zion Williamson's injury.

    Get to know the key players in the SMMP landscape

    These next slides provide a top-level overview of the popular players you will encounter in the SMMP shortlisting process.

    A collection of the logos for the SMPP key players, discussed later in this blueprint.

    Evaluate software category leaders through vendor rankings and awards

    SoftwareReviews

    An Image of SoftwareReviews data quadrant analysis

    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.

    An image of SoftwareReviews Emotional Footprint.

    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

    CLICK HERE to ACCESS

    Comprehensive software reviews

    to make better IT decisions

    We collect and analyze the most detailed reviews on enterprise software from real users to give you an unprecedented view into the product and vendor before you buy.

    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.

    The logo for HubSpot

    Est. 2006 | MA, USA | NYSE: HUBS

    bio

    From attracting visitors to closing customers, HubSpot brings the entire marketing funnel together for less hassle, more control, and an inbound marketing strategy.

    An image of SoftwareReviews analysis for HubSpot

    SoftwareReviews' SMMP Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Extensive functionality
    • Great for midmarket and large enterprises
    • Offers free trial

    Areas to improve:

    • Comparatively expensive
    • Steep price increase between various tiers of offering

    The logo for HubSpot

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    HubSpot offers a robust social media management platform that enables organizations to run all social media campaigns from a central location. HubSpot is suitable for a range of midmarket and enterprise use cases. HubSpot offers a free base version of the platform that freelancers and start-ups can take advantage of. The free version can also be used to trial the product prior to deciding on purchase.

    However, HubSpot is relatively expensive compared to its competitors. The free tools are not sustainable for growing businesses and some essential features are locked behind professional pricing. The price increase from one tier to another – specifically from starter to professional – is steep, which may discourage organizations looking for a "cheap and cheerful" product.

    History

    An image of the timeline for HubSpot

    Starter

    • Starts at $45
    • Per month
    • Small businesses

    Professional

    • Starts at $800
    • Per month
    • Medium/large businesses

    Enterprise

    • Starts at $3600
    • Per month
    • Large enterprises

    The logo for Sprout Social

    Est. 2010 | IL, USA | NASDAQ: SPT

    bio

    People increasingly turn to social media to engage with your business. Sprout Social provides powerful tools to personally connect with customers, solve issues, and create brand advocates.

    An image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Sprout Social

    SoftwareReviews' SMMP Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Automated response feature
    • Great price for base offering

    Areas to improve:

    • Advanced features are very expensive
    • No free trial offered

    The logo for Sprout Social

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    Sprout Social offers strong social feed management and social customer service capabilities. It also provides powerful analytical tools to monitor multiple social media accounts. The listening functionality helps discover trends and identify gaps and opportunities. It is also one of the very few platforms to provide automated responses to incoming communications, easing the process of managing large and popular brands.

    Although the starting price of each tier is competitive, advanced analytics and listening come at a steep additional cost. Adding one additional user to the professional tier costs $299 which is a 75% increase in cost. Sprout Social does not offer a free tier for small businesses to trial.

    History

    An image of the timeline for Sprout Social

    Standard

    • Starts at $249
    • Per month
    • Small businesses
    • Five social profiles

    Professional

    • Starts at $399
    • Per month
    • Medium/large businesses

    Advanced

    • Starts at $499
    • Per month
    • Medium/large businesses

    Enterprise

    • Opaque pricing
    • Request a quote
    • Large enterprises

    The logo for Hootsuite

    Est. 2008 | BC, CANADA |PRIVATE

    bio

    Manage social networks, schedule messages, engage your audiences, and measure ROI right from the dashboard.

    SoftwareReviews' SMMP Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Automatic scheduling functionality
    • Competitor analysis
    • 30-day free trial

    Areas to improve:

    • Advanced functionalities require additional purchase and are expensive

    The logo for Hootsuite

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    Hootsuite is one of the largest players in the social media management space with over 18 million users. The solution has great functionality covering all the popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. One popular and well-received feature is the platform’s ability to schedule posts in bulk. Hootsuite also provides an automatic scheduling feature that uses algorithms to determine the optimal time to post to maximize viewership and engagement. Additionally, the platform can pull analytics for all competitors in the same marketspace as the user to compare performance.

    Hootsuite offers buyers a 30-day free trial to familiarize with the platform and provides unlimited post scheduling across all their plans. Features like social listening, employee advocacy, and ROI reporting, however, are not included in these plans and require additional purchase.

    History

    An image of the timeline for Hootsuite

    Professional

    • Starts at $49*
    • Per month
    • 1 user and 10 social accounts

    Team

    • Starts at $249*
    • Per month
    • 3 users and 20 social accounts

    Business

    • Starts at $739*
    • Per month
    • 5 users and 35 social accounts

    Enterprise

    • Custom built and priced
    • Starts at 5 users and 50 social accounts

    The logo for Sprinklr

    Est. 2009 | NY, USA | NYSE: CXM

    bio

    With social engagement & sales, you can deliver a positive experience that's true to your brand - no matter where your customers are digitally - from a single, unified platform.

    An image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Sprinklr

    SoftwareReviews' SMMP Rankings

    Strengths

    • Extensive social analytics functionality
    • Advertising and sales capabilities

    Areas to improve:

    • Not suitable for small to medium businesses
    • Opaque pricing

    The logo for Sprinklr

    Sprinklr is a vendor focused on enterprise-grade capabilities that offers a comprehensive unified customer experience management (CXM) platform.

    Their product portfolio offers an all-in-one solution set with an extensive list of features to accommodate all marketing and communication needs. Sprinklr comes integrated with products consisting of advertising, marketing, engagement, and sales capabilities. Some of the key functionality specific to social media includes sentiment analysis, social reporting, advanced data filtering, alerts and notifications, competitor analysis, post performance, and hashtag analysis.

    History

    An image of the timeline for Sprinklr

    Sprinklr – Opaque Pricing:
    "Request a Demo"

    The logo for Zoho Social

    Est. 1996 | TN, INDIA | PRIVATE

    bio

    Zoho Social is a complete social media management tool for growing businesses & agencies. It helps schedule posts, monitor mentions, create unlimited reports, and more. Zoho Social is from Zoho.com—a suite of 40+ products trusted by 30+ million users.

    An image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Zoho Social” data-verified=

    SoftwareReviews' SMMP Rankings

    Strengths:

    • Provides integration capabilities with other Zoho products
    • Competitive pricing

    Areas to improve:

    • Base functionality is limited
    • The two starting tiers are limited to one user

    The logo for Zoho Social

    *Pricing correct as of August 2021. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    Zoho differentiates itself from competitors by highlighting integration with other products under the Zoho umbrella – their adjacent tool sets allow organizations to manage emails, projects, accounts, and webinars. Zoho also offers the choice of purchasing their social media management tool without any of the augmented CRM capabilities, which is priced quite competitively.

    The social media management tools are offered in three plans. Each plan allows the ability to publish and schedule posts across nine platforms, access summary reports and analytics, and access a Bit.ly integration & URL shortener. The standard and professional plans are limited to one brand and one team member, with the option to add team members or social channels for an additional cost.

    YouTube support is exclusive to the premium offering.

    History

    An image of the timeline for Zoho Social

    Standard

    • Starts at $10*
    • Per month, billed annually
    • 9 channels and 1 team member

    Professional

    • Starts at $30*
    • Per month, billed annually
    • Option to add team members for additional cost

    Premium

    • Starts at $40*
    • Per month, billed annually
    • Starts at 10 channels and 3 team members

    The logo for MavSocial

    Est. 2012 | CA, USA | PRIVATE

    bio

    MavSocial is a multi-award-winning, fully integrated social media management & advertising solution for brands and agencies.

    An image of SoftwareReviews analysis for MavSocial

    SoftwareReviews' SMMP Rankings

    Strengths

    • Content management capabilities
    • Offers millions of stock free images

    Areas to improve:

    • Limited market footprint compared to competitors
    • Not ideal for large enterprises

    The logo for MavSocial

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    In addition to social media management, MavSocial is also an excellent content management tool. A centralized platform is offered that can store many photos, videos, infographics, and more, which can be accessed anytime. The solution comes with millions of free stock images to use. MavSocial is a great hybrid social media and content management solution for small and mid-sized businesses and larger brands that have dedicated teams to manage their social media. MavSocial also offers campaign planning and management, scheduling, and social inbox functionality. The entry-level plan starts at $78 per month for three users and 30 profiles. The enterprise plan offers fully configurable and state-of-the-art social media management tools, including the ability to manage Facebook ads.

    History

    An image of the timeline for MavSocial

    Pro

    • Starts at $78*
    • Per month
    • Max. 3 users and 30 Profiles

    Business

    • Starts at $249*
    • Per month
    • 5 users, 40 profiles
    • Ability to expand users and profiles

    Enterprise

    • Starts at $499*
    • Per month
    • Fully customized

    The logo for Khoros

    Est. 2019 | TX, USA | PRIVATE

    bio

    Use the Khoros platform (formerly Spredfast + Lithium) to deliver an all-ways connected experience your customers deserve.

    An image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Khoros

    SoftwareReviews' SMMP Rankings

    Strengths

    • Offers a dedicated social strategic service team
    • Extensive functionality

    Areas to improve:

    • Opaque pricing
    • Not suitable for small or medium businesses

    The logo for Khoros

    Khoros is the result of the merger between two social marketing platforms - Spredfast and Lithium. The parent companies have over a decade of experience offering social management tools. Khoros is widely used among many large brands such as StarHub and Randstad. Khoros is another vendor that is primarily focused on large enterprises and does not offer plans for small/medium businesses. Khoros offers a broad range of functionality such as social media marketing, customer engagement, and brand protection with visibility and controls over social media presence. Khoros also offers a social strategic services team to manage content strategy, brand love, reporting, trend tracking, moderation, crisis and community management; this team can be full service or a special ops extension of your in-house crew.

    History

    An image of the timeline for Khoros

    Khoros – Opaque Pricing:
    "Request a Demo"

    The logo for Sendible

    Est. 2009 | UK | PRIVATE

    bio

    Sendible allows you to manage social networks, schedule messages, engage your audiences, and measure ROI right from one easy-to-use dashboard.

    An image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Sendible

    SoftwareReviews' SMMP Rankings

    Strengths

    • Great integration capabilities
    • Competitive pricing
    • Scheduling functionality

    Areas to improve:

    • Limited footprint compared to competitors
    • Better suited for agencies

    The logo for Sendible

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    Sendible primarily markets itself to agencies rather than individual brands or businesses. Sendible's key value proposition is its integration capabilities. It can integrate with 17 different tools including Meta, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google My Business (GMB), YouTube, WordPress, Canva, Google Analytics, and Google Drive. In addition to normal reporting functionality, the Google Analytics integration allows customers to track clickthrough and user behavior for traffic coming from social media channels.

    All plans include the functionality to schedule at least ten posts. Sendible offers excellent collaboration tools, allowing teams to work on assigned tasks and have content approved before they are scheduled to ensure quality control. Sendible offers four plans, with the option to save an additional 15% by signing up for annual payments.

    History

    An image of the timeline for Sendible

    Creator

    • Starts at $29
    • Price per month
    • For freelancers
    • One brand

    Traction

    • Starts at $89
    • Price per month
    • Start-up agencies & brands. 4+ brands

    Scale

    • Starts at $199
    • Price per month
    • For growing agencies & brands

    Custom

    • Opaque pricing
    • Request a quote
    • For large teams & agencies

    The logo for Agorapulse

    Est. 2010 | FRANCE | PRIVATE

    bio

    Agorapulse is an affordable social media dashboard that helps businesses and agencies easily publish content and manage their most important conversations on their social networks.

    An image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Agorapulse

    SoftwareReviews' SMMP Rankings

    Strengths

    • ROI calculation for Facebook
    • Competitor analysis
    • Social inbox functionality

    Areas to improve:

    • Targeted toward agencies
    • Advanced features can't be purchased under lower tier plans

    The logo for Agorapulse

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    Although Agorapulse offers the solution for both agencies and business, they primarily focus on agencies. In addition to the standard social media management functionality, Agorapulse also offers features such as competitor analysis and Facebook contest apps at an affordable price point. They also offer social inbox functionality, allowing the ability to manage the inbox and reply to any message or comment across all social profiles through a single platform.

    The solution is offered in three plans. The pro plan allows ten social profiles and two users. Additional social profiles and users can only be purchased under the premium plan. All plans include ROI calculation for Facebook, but if you want this functionality for other platforms, that's exclusive to the enterprise plan.

    History

    An image of the timeline for Agorapulse

    Pro

    • Starts at $79
    • Price per month
    • 10 social profiles and 2 users

    Premium

    • Starts at $199
    • Price per month
    • 20 social profiles and 2 brands

    Enterprise

    • Opaque pricing
    • 40+ social profiles and 8+ users

    The logo for Buffer

    Est. 2010 | CA, USA | PRIVATE

    bio

    A better way to manage social media for your business. Buffer makes it easy to manage your business' social media accounts. Schedule posts, analyze performance, and collaborate with your team — all in one place.

    An image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Buffer

    SoftwareReviews' SMMP Rankings

    Strengths

    • Competitive pricing
    • Scheduling functionality
    • Mobile app

    Areas to improve:

    • Not suited for medium to large enterprises
    • Limited functionality

    The logo for Buffer

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

    Buffer is a social media platform targeted toward small businesses. It is a great cost-effective option for those who want to manage a few social media profiles, with a free plan that lets one user access three social channels. At $5 per month, it's a great entry point for smaller companies to invest in social media management tools, offering functionality like post scheduling and link shortening and optimization tools for hashtags, tags, and mentions across platforms. All plans provide a browser extension, access to a mobile app, two-factor authentication, social media and email support, and access to the Buffer community. Customers can also trial any of the plans for 14 days before purchasing.

    history

    An image of the timeline for Buffer

    Essentials

    • Starts at $5
    • Per month per channel
    • Basic functionality

    Team

    • Starts at $10
    • Per month per channel
    • Adds reporting capabilities

    Agency

    • Starts at $100
    • Per month per channel

    Leverage Info-Tech's research to plan and execute your SMMP implementation

    Use Info-Tech Research Group's three-phase implementation process to guide your own planning.

    • Assess
    • Prepare
    • Govern & Course Correct

    An image of the title page for Info-Tech's governance and management of enterprise software implementation

    Establish and execute an end-to-end, Agile framework to succeed with the implementation of a major enterprise application.

    Visit this link

    Ensure your implementation team has a high degree of trust and communication

    If external partners are needed, dedicate an internal resource to managing vendor and partner relationships.

    Communication

    Teams must have a communication strategy. This can be broken into:

    • Regularity: Having a set time each day to communicate progress and a set day to conduct retrospectives.
    • Ceremonies: Introducing awards and continually emphasizing delivery of value can encourage relationship building and constructive motivation.
    • Escalation: Voicing any concerns and having someone responsible for addressing those concerns.

    Proximity

    Distributed teams create complexity as communication can break down. This can be mitigated by:

    • Location: Placing teams in proximity can close the barrier of geographical distance and time zone differences.
    • Inclusion: Making a deliberate attempt to pull remote team members into discussions and ceremonies.
    • Communication tools: Having the right technology (e.g. video conference) can help bring teams closer together virtually.

    Trust

    Members should trust other members to contribute to the project and complete required tasks on time. Trust can be developed and maintained by:

    • Accountability: Having frequent quality reviews and feedback sessions. As work becomes more transparent, people become more accountable.
    • Role clarity: Having a clear definition of everyone's role.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • What a social media management platform (SMMP) is
    • The history of SMMP
    • The future of SMMP
    • Key trends in SMMP

    Processes Optimized

    • Requirements gathering
    • Requests for proposal (RFPs) and contract reviews
    • SMMP vendor selection
    • SMMP implementation

    SMMP Vendors Analyzed

    • Sprout Social
    • HubSpot
    • Zoho Social
    • Khoros
    • Agorapulse
    • Hootsuite
    • Sprinklr
    • MavSocial
    • Sendible
    • Buffer

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Select and Implement a Social Media Management Platform

    • SMMPs reduce complexity and increase the results of enterprise social media initiatives.

    Social Media

    • The Social Media workshop provides clear, measurable improvements to your social media strategy.

    Improve Requirements Gathering

    • An improvement in requirements analysis will strengthen the relationship between business and IT, as more and more applications satisfy stakeholder needs. More importantly, the applications delivered by IT will meet all the must-have and at least some of the nice-to-have requirements, allowing end users to successfully execute their day-to-day responsibilities.

    Bibliography

    "30+ Influencer Marketing Statistics You Should Know (2022)." Shopify, www.shopify.com/blog/influencer-marketing-statistics.
    "A Brief History of Hootsuite." BrainStation®, 2015, https://brainstation.io/magazine/a-brief-history-of-hootsuite#:~:text=In%202008%2C%20Vancouver%2Dbased%20digital,accounts%20from%20a%20single%20interface.&text=In%202009%2C%20BrightKit's%20name%20changed,a%20capital%20%E2%80%9CS%E2%80%9D).
    "About Us." Sprout Social, https://sproutsocial.com/about/#history
    "About Zoho - Our Story, List of Products." Zoho, www.zoho.com/aboutus.html.
    Adam Rowe, et al. "Sprout Social vs Hootsuite - Which Is Best?: Tech.co 2022." Tech.co, 15 Nov. 2022, https://tech.co/digital-marketing/sprout-social-vs-hootsuite
    "Agorapulse Customer Story: Twilio Segment." Segment, https://segment.com/customers/agorapulse/
    "Agorapulse - Funding, Financials, Valuation & Investors." Crunchbase, www.crunchbase.com/organization/agorapulse/company_financials.
    "Agorapulse Release Notes." Agorapulse Release Notes, https://agorapulse.releasenotes.io/
    "Buffer - Funding, Financials, Valuation & Investors." Crunchbase, www.crunchbase.com/organization/buffer/company_financials.
    Burton, Shannon. "5 Genius Social Commerce Examples You Can Learn From." Sprout Social, 28 Oct. 2021, https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-commerce-examples/ .
    Chris Gillespie. "How Long Should a Video Be." Vidyard, 17 May 2022, www.vidyard.com/blog/video-length/.
    "Consumers Continue to Seek Influencers Who Keep It Real." Matter Communications, 22 Feb 2023. https://www.matternow.com/blog/consumers-seek-influencers-who-keep-it-real/
    "Contact Center, Communities, & Social Media Software." Khoros, https://khoros.com/about.
    Fennell, Kylie, et al. "Blog." MavSocial, https://mavsocial.com/blog/.
    Fuchs, Jay. "24 Stats That Prove Why You Need a Crisis Management Strategy in 2022." HubSpot Blog, HubSpot, 16 Mar. 2022, https://blog.hubspot.com/service/crisis-management-stats
    Geyser, Werner. "Key Social Commerce Statistics You Should Know in 2022." Influencer Marketing Hub, http://influencermarketinghub.com/social-commerce-stats/
    "Global Crisis Survey 2021: Building resilience for the next normal." PwC, 2021. https://www.pwc.com/ia/es/prensa/pdfs/Global-Crisis-Survey-FINAL-March-18.pdf
    "Global Influencer Marketing Value 2016-2022." Statista, 6 Jan 2023, www.statista.com/statistics/1092819/global-influencer-market-size/.
    "Key Social Commerce Statistics You Should Know in 2023." Influencer Marketing Hub, December 29, 2022. https://influencermarketinghub.com/social-commerce-stats/
    "Khoros - Funding, Financials, Valuation & Investors." Crunchbase, www.crunchbase.com/organization/spredfast/company_financials.
    Lin, Ying. "Social Commerce Market Size (2020–2026) ", Oberlo, Oberlo, www.oberlo.com/statistics/social-commerce-market-size#:~:text=Social%20commerce%20statistics%20show%20that,fastest%20and%20slowest%20growth%20rates.
    Mediakix, "5 Influencer Marketing Case Studies." HubSpot, n.d. https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/505330/Influencer-Marketing-5-Case-Studies-Ebook.pdf.
    "Our Story: HubSpot - Internet Marketing Company." HubSpot, www.hubspot.com/our-story .
    PricewaterhouseCoopers. "69% Of Business Leaders Have Experienced a Corporate Crisis in the Last Five Years Yet 29% of Companies Have No Staff Dedicated to Crisis Preparedness." PwC, 2019. www.pwc.com/gx/en/news-room/press-releases/2019/global-crisis-survey.html.
    Ferris, Robert. "Duke Player Zion Williamson Injured When Nike Shoe Blows Apart during Game." CNBC, CNBC, 21 Feb. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/02/21/duke-player-zion-williamson-injured-when-nike-shoe-blows-apart-in-game.html.
    "Social Engagement & Sales Platform." Sprinklr, www.sprinklr.com/social-engagement/.
    "Social Media Analytics & Reporting for Growing Brands." Buffer, https://buffer.com/analyze
    "Social Media Management and Advertising Tool." MavSocial, 30 July 2022, https://mavsocial.com/
    "Social Media Management Software." HubSpot, www.hubspot.com/products/marketing/social-inbox.
    "Social Media Management Software - Zoho Social." Zoho, www.zoho.com/social/
    "Social Media Management Tool for Agencies & Brands." Sendible, www.sendible.com/.
    "Social Media Management Tools." Sprout Social, 6 Sept. 2022, https://sproutsocial.com/social-media-management/
    "Social Media Marketing & Management Platform For Enterprises." Khoros, khoros.com/platform/social-media-management.
    "Social Media Monitoring Tool." Agorapulse, www.agorapulse.com/features/social-media-monitoring/.
    "Top 12 Moments in SPRINKLR's History." Sprinklr, www.sprinklr.com/blog/12-moments-sprinklr-history/.
    Twitter, BestBuy, https://twitter.com/BestBuyCanada
    "The Ultimate Guide to Hootsuite." Backlinko, 10 Oct. 2022, https://backlinko.com/hub/content/hootsuite
    Widrich, Leo. "From 0 to 1,000,000 Users: The Journey and Statistics of Buffer." Buffer Resources, Buffer Resources, 8 Dec. 2022, buffer.com/resources/from-0-to-1000000-users-the-journey-and-statistics-of-buffer/.
    Yeung, Carmen. "Social Media Crisis Management 3 Examples Done Right." Synthesio, 19 Nov. 2021, www.synthesio.com/blog/social-media-crisis-management/.

    Initiate Digital Accessibility for IT

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}520|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: Lead
    • Parent Category Link: /lead
    • Determining IT requirements (legal and business needs) is overwhelming.
    • Prioritizing people in the process is often overlooked.
    • Mandating changes instead of motivating change isn’t sustainable.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Compliance is the minimum; the people and behavior changes are the harder part and have the largest impact on accessibility. Preparing for and building awareness of the reasons for accessibility makes the necessary behavior changes easier. Communicate, communicate, and communicate some more.
    • Accessibility is a practice, not a project. Therefore, accessibility is an organizational initiative, however, IT support is critical. Use change management theory to guide the new behaviors, processes, and thinking to adopt accessibility beyond compliance. Determining where to start is challenging, the tendency is to start with tech or compliance, however, starting with the people is key. It must be culture.
    • Think about accessibility like you think about IT security. Use IT security concepts that you and your team are already familiar with to initiate the accessibility program.

    Impact and Result

    • Take away the overwhelm that many feel when they hear ‘accessibility’ and make the steps for your organization approachable.
    • Clearly communicate why accessibility is critical and how it supports the organization’s key objectives and initiatives.
    • Understand your current state related to accessibility and identify areas for key initiatives to become part of the IT strategic roadmap.
    • Build your accessibility plan while prioritizing the necessary culture change
    • Use change management and communication practices to elicit the behavior shift needed to sustain accessibility.

    Initiate Digital Accessibility for IT Research & Tools

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

    1. Initiate Digital Accessibility for IT – Use this blueprint to narrow down the requirements for your organization and team while also clearly communicating why accessibility is critical and how it supports the organization’s key objectives and initiatives.

    A step-by-step approach to walk you through understanding the IT accessibility compliance requirements, building your roadmap, and communicating with your department. This storyboard will help you figure out what’s needed from IT to support the business and launch accessibility with your team.

    • Initiate Digital Accessibility for IT – Phases 1-2

    2. IT Manager Meeting Template – A clear, concise, and compelling communication to introduce accessibility for your organization to IT managers and to facilitate their participation in building the roadmap.

    Accessibility compliance can be overwhelming at first. Use this template to simplify the requirements for the IT managers and build out a roadmap.

    • IT Manager Meeting Template

    3. Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool – This tool helps to decrease the overwhelm of accessibility compliance. Narrow down the list of controls needed to the ones that apply to your organization and to IT.

    Using the EN 301 549 V3.2.1 (2021-03) as a basis for digital accessibility conformance. Use this tool to build a priorities list of requirements that are applicable to your organization.

    • Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

    4. Departmental Meeting Template – Cascade your communication down to the IT department with this facilitation guide for introducing accessibility and the roadmap to the entire IT team.

    Use this pre-built slide deck to customize your accessibility communication to the IT department. It will help you build a shared vision for accessibility, a current state picture, and plans to build to the target future state.

    • Departmental Meeting Template
    • Accessibility Quick Cards

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Initiate Digital Accessibility For IT

    Make accessibility accessible.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Accessibility is a practice, not a project.

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

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

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

    This is a picture of Heather Leier-Murray

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

    Disability is part of being human

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

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

    Common Obstacles

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

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

    Info-Tech's Approach

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Your challenge

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

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

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

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

    Accessibility is an organizational initiative

    Is IT ready and capable to enable it?

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

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

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

    How organizations prioritize digital accessibility

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

    Source: Angel Business Communications, 2022

    Why organizations address accessibility

    Top three reasons:

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

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

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

    Info-Tech's approach to Initiate Digital Accessibility

    An image of the Business Case for Accessibility

    The Info-Tech difference:

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

    Determining conformance seems overwhelming

    Unfortunately, it's the easier part.

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

    Motivating behavior change

    This is the hard part.

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

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

    A picture of Jordyn Zimmerman

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

    This is an image of the Info-Tech Accessibility Maturity Framework Table.

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

    The Accessibility Business Case for IT

    Think of accessibility like you think of IT security

    Use IT security concepts to build your accessibility program.

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

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

    This is a picture of Cam Beaudoin

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

    1. Planning IT's accessibility requirements

    2. Change enablement of accessibility

    Phase Steps

    1. Determine accessibility requirements of IT
    2. Build the IT accessibility plan
    1. Build awareness
    2. Support new behaviors
    3. Continuous reinforcement

    Phase Outcomes

    List of business needs and priorities related to accessibility

    IT accessibility requirements for conformance

    Assessment of state of accessibility conformance

    Prioritization of accessibility initiatives for IT

    Remediation plan for IT related to accessibility conformance

    Accessibility commitment statement

    Team understanding of what, why, and how

    Accessibility Quick Cards

    Sustainment plan

    Insight summary

    Overarching insight

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

    Insight 1

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

    Insight 2

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

    Insight 3

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

    Insight 4

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

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    IT Manager Meeting Template

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

    Departmental Meeting Template

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

    Accessibility Quick Cards

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

    Key deliverable:

    Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

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

    Blueprint benefits

    IT Benefits

    Business Benefits

    • Know and understand your role and responsibility in accessibility implementation within the organization.
    • Provide effective support and excellent business service experience to internal stakeholders related to accessibility.
    • You will be set up to effectively support your team through the necessary behavior, process, and thinking changes.
    • Proactively prepare for accessibility requests that will be coming in.
    • Move beyond compliance to support your organization's sustainment of accessibility.
    • Don't lose out on a trillion-dollar market.
    • Don't miss opportunities to work with organizations because you're not accessible.
    • Enable and empower current employees with disabilities.
    • Minimize potential for negative brand reputation due to a lack of consideration for people with disabilities.
    • Decrease the risk of legal action being brought upon the organization.

    Measure the value of this blueprint

    Improve IT effectiveness and employee buy-in to change.

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

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

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

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

    A screenshot of the slide titled Establish Baseline Metrics.

    Suggested Metrics
    • Overall end-customer satisfaction
    • Requests for accommodation or assistive technology fulfilled
    • Employee engagement
    • Overall compliance status

    Info-Tech's IT Metrics Library

    Executive brief case study

    INDUSTRY: Technology


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

    Microsoft

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

    "Accessibility in Action Badge"

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

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

    Results

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

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided implementation

    What does a typical guided implementation (GI) on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2

    Call #1: Discuss motivation for the initiative and foundational knowledge requirements.
    Call #2: Discuss stakeholder analysis and business needs of IT.

    Call #3: Identify current maturity and IT accountabilities.
    Call #4: Discuss introduction to senior IT leaders and drivers.
    Call #5: Discuss manager meeting outline and slides.

    Call #6: Review key messages and next steps to prepare for departmental meeting.
    Call #7: Discuss post-meetings next steps and timelines.

    Call #8: Review sustainment plan and plan next steps.

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

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

    Workshop overview

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

    Pre-Work

    Day 1

    Day 2

    Day 3

    Day 4

    Day 5

    Understand Your Legislative Environment

    Understand Your Current State

    Define the
    IT Target State

    Build the IT Accessibility Plan

    Prepare for Change Enablement

    Next Steps and
    Wrap-Up

    Activities

    0.1 Make a list of the legislation you need to comply with
    0.2 Seek legal counsel or and/or professional services' input on compliance
    0.3 Complete the Accessibility Maturity Assessment
    0.4 Conduct stakeholder analysis

    1.1 Define the risks of inaction
    1.2 Review maturity assessment
    1.3 Conduct stakeholder focus group

    2.1 Define IT compliance accountabilities
    2.2 Define IT accessibility goals/objectives/ metrics
    2.3 Indicate the target-state maturity

    3.1 Assess current accessibility compliance and mitigation
    3.2 Decide on priorities
    3.3 Write an IT accessibility commitment statement

    4.1 Prepare the roadmap
    4.2 Prepare 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. Legislative requirements for your organization
    2. List of stakeholders
    3. Completed maturity assessment.
    1. Defined risks of inaction
    2. Stakeholder analysis completed with business needs identified
    1. IT accessibility goals/objectives
    2. Target maturity
    1. Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool completed
    2. Accessibility commitment statement
    3. Current compliance and mitigation assessed
    1. IT accessibility roadmap
    2. Communication plan
    1. IT accessibility roadmap
    2. Communication plan

    Phase 1

    Planning IT's Accessibility Requirements.

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    1.1 Determine accessibility requirements of IT

    1.2 Build IT accessibility plan

    2.1 Build awareness

    2.2 Support new behaviors

    2.3 Continuous reinforcement

    Initiate Digital Accessibility For IT

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

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

    This phase involves the following participants:

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

    Step 1.1

    Determine the accessibility requirements of IT.

    Activities

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

    Prepare to support the organization with accessibility

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

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

    While defining future state, consider your drivers

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

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

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

    31.6% of companies remain in the compliant stage where they are focused on DEI compliance and not on integrating DEI throughout the organization or on creating continual improvement, from Harvard Business Review 2022.

    Info-Tech accessibility maturity framework

    This is an image of Info-Tech's accessibility maturity framework

    Info-Tech Insight

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

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

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

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

    Align the benefits of program drivers to organizational goals or outcomes

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

    This is an image of a table describing the maturity level; Description; Advantages, and Disadvantages for the three drivers: Compliance; Experience; and Incorporation.

    Accessibility maturity levels

    Driver Description Benefits
    Initial Compliance
    • Accessibility processes are mostly undocumented.
    • Accessibility happens mostly on a reactive or ad hoc basis.
    • No one is aware of who is responsible for accessibility or what role they play.
    • Heavily focused on complying with regulations and standards to decrease legal risk.
    • The organization is aware of the need for accessibility.
    • Legal risk is decreased.
    Developing Experience
    • The organization is starting to take steps to increase accessibility beyond compliance.
    • Lots of opportunity for improvement.
    • Defining and refining processes.
    • Working toward building a library of assistive tools.
    • Awareness of the need for accessibility is growing.
    • Process review for accessibility increases process efficiency through avoiding rework.
    Defined Experience
    • Accessibility processes are repeatable.
    • There is a tendency to resort to old habits under stress.
    • Tools are in place to facilitate accommodation.
    • Employees know accommodations are available to them.
    • Accessibility is becoming part of daily work.
    Managed Experience
    • Defined by effective accessibility controls, processes, and metrics.
    • Mostly anticipating preferences.
    • Roles and responsibilities are defined.
    • Disability is included as part of DEI.
    • Employees understand their role in accessibility.
    • Engagement is positively impacted.
    • Attraction and retention are positively impacted.
    Optimized Incorporation
    • Not the goal for every organization.
    • Characterized by a dramatic shift in organizational culture and a feeling of belonging.
    • Ongoing continuous improvement.
    • Seamless interactions with the organization for everyone.
    • Using feedback to inform future initiatives.
    • More likely to be innovative and inclusive, reach more people positively, and meet emerging global legal requirements.
    • Better equipped for success.

    Cheat sheet: Identify stakeholders

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

    Identify stakeholders through the following questions:

    Take a 360-degree view of potential internal and external stakeholders who might be impacted by the initiative.

    • Who in areas of influence will be adversely affected by potential environmental and social impacts of what you are doing?
    • At which stage will stakeholders be most affected (e.g. procurement, implementation, operations, decommissioning)?
    • Will other stakeholders emerge as the phases are started and completed?
    • Who is sponsoring the initiative?
    • Who benefits from the initiative?
    • Who is negatively impacted by the initiative?
    • Who can make approvals?
    • Who controls resources?
    • Who has specialist skills?
    • Who implements the changes?
    • Who are the owners, governors, customers, and suppliers of impacted capabilities or functions?
    • Executives
    • Peers
    • Direct reports
    • Partners
    • Customers
    • Subcontractors
    • Suppliers
    • Contractors
    • Lobby groups
    • Regulatory agencies

    Categorize your stakeholders with a stakeholder prioritization map

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

    There are four areas in the map, and the stakeholders within each area should be treated differently.

    This is an image of a quadrant analysis for mediators; players; spectators; and noisemakers.
    • Players – Players have a high interest in the initiative and high influence to affect change over the initiative. Their support is critical, and a lack of support can cause significant impediment to the objectives.
    • Mediators – Mediators have a low interest but significant influence over the initiative. They can help to provide balance and objective opinions to issues that arise.
    • Noisemakers – Noisemakers have low influence but high interest. They tend to be very vocal and engaged, either positively or negatively, but have little ability to enact their wishes.
    • Spectators – Generally, spectators are apathetic and have little influence over or interest in the initiative.

    Strategize to engage stakeholders by type

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

    By properly identifying your stakeholder groups, you can develop corresponding actions to manage stakeholders in each group. This can dramatically reduce wasted effort trying to satisfy spectators and noisemakers while ensuring the needs of the mediators and players are met.

    Type Quadrant Actions
    Players High influence, high interest Actively Engage
    Keep them engaged through continuous involvement. Maintain their 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 include them in important decision-making steps. In turn, they can help you influence other stakeholders.
    Noisemakers Low influence, high interest Keep InformedTry 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 MonitorThey are followers. Keep them in the loop by providing clarity on objectives and status updates.

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

    1.5 hours

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

    Input

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

    Output

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

    Materials

    • Stakeholder Management Analysis Tool (optional)

    Participants

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

    Proactively consider how accessibility could be received

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

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

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

    This is an image of the 10 change chakras

    Determine your level of maturity

    Use Info-Tech's Accessibility Maturity Assessment.

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

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

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

    A series of three screenshots from the Accessibility Maturity Assessment

    Download the Accessibility Maturity Assessment

    1.1.2 Complete the Accessibility Maturity Assessment (optional)

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

    Input

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

    Output

    • Identified accessibility maturity level

    Materials

    • Accessibility Maturity Assessment
    • Accessibility Business Case Template

    Participants

    • Project leader/sponsor
    • IT leadership team

    1.1.3 Determine IT compliance responsibilities

    1-3 hours

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

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

    Input

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

    Output

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

    Materials

    • Accessibility Maturity Assessment
    • Accessibility Business Case Template

    Participants

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

    Download the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

    1.1.4 Conduct future-state analysis*

    Identify your target state of maturity.

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

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

    Input

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

    Output

    • Target maturity level documented

    Materials

    • Paper and pens
    • Handouts of maturity levels

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT senior leaders

    What does a good goal look like?

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

    Use the SMART framework to build effective goals.

    S

    Specific: Is the goal clear, concrete, and well defined?

    M

    Measurable: How will you know when the goal is met?

    A

    Achievable: Is the goal possible to achieve in a reasonable time?

    R

    Relevant: Does this goal align with your responsibilities and with departmental and organizational goals?

    T

    Time-based: Have you specified a time frame in which you aim to achieve the goal?

    1.1.5 Create a list of goals and objectives*

    Use the outcomes from activity 1.2.1.

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

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

    Input

    • Outcomes of activity 1.2.1
    • Organizational and departmental goals

    Output

    • Accessibility goals and objectives identified

    Materials

    • n/a

    Participants

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

    Establish baseline metrics

    Baseline metrics will be improved through:

    1. Progressing through the accessibility maturity model.
    2. Addressing accessibility earlier in processes with input from people with disabilities.
    3. Motivating behavior changes and culture that supports accessibility and disability inclusion.
    4. Ensuring compliance with regulations and standards.
    5. Focusing on experience and building a disability inclusive culture.
    Metric Definition Calculation
    Overall end-customer satisfaction The percentage of end customers who are satisfied with the IT department. Number of end customers who are satisfied / Total number of end customers
    Requests for accommodation or assistive technology fulfilled The percentage of accommodation/assistive technology requests fulfilled by the IT department. Number of requests fulfilled / Total number of requests
    Employee engagement The percentage of employees who are engaged within an organization. Number of employees who are engaged / Total number of employees
    Overall compliance status The percentage of accessibility controls in place in the IT department. The number of compliance controls in place / Total number of applicable accessibility controls

    1.1.6 Finalize key metrics*

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

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

    Input

    • Accessibility challenges and benefits
    • Goals from activity 1.2.2

    Output

    • Three to five key metrics to track

    Materials

    • n/a

    Participants

    • IT leadership team
    • Project lead/sponsor

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

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

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

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

    It includes:

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

    IT Manager Meeting Template

    Download the IT Manager Meeting Template

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    1.1.7 Prepare a meeting for IT managers

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

    Know your audience:

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

    Download the IT Manager Meeting Template

    Input

    • Activity results

    Output

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

    Materials

    • IT Manager Meeting Template

    Participants

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

    Step 1.2

    Build the IT accessibility action plan.

    Activities

    1.2.1 Assess current accessibility compliance and mitigation

    1.2.2 Decide on your priorities

    1.2.3 Add priorities to the roadmap

    1.2.4 Write an IT accessibility commitment statement

    Planning IT's accessibility requirements

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

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

    Involve managers in assessing current compliance

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    This is an image of the Compliance Tracing Tool, with a green box drawn around the columns for Current Compliance, and Mitigation.

    1.2.1 Assess current accessibility compliance and mitigation

    1-3 hours

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

    Input

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

    Output

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

    Materials

    • Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT senior leaders
    • IT managers

    Download the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

    Involve managers in building accountability into the accessibility plan

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

    Use the spreadsheet from activity 1.3.1.

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

    An image of the Compliance Tracking tool, with the timeline column highlighted in green.

    1.2.2 Decide on your priorities

    1-3 hours

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

    Input

    • List from activity 1.2.1
    • Business needs from activity 1.1.1

    Output

    • List of IT compliance requirements with accountability timelines

    Materials

    • Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT senior leaders
    • IT managers

    Download the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

    Review your timeline

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

    A screenshot of the Accessibility Compliance Dashboard.

    Download the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

    Empty roadmap template

    An image of an empty Roadmap Template.

    1.2.3 Add priorities to the roadmap

    1 hour

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

    Input

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

    Output

    • Visual roadmap of accessibility compliance controls

    Materials

    • n/a

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT senior leaders
    • IT managers

    Communicate commitment

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

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Sample accessibility commitment statements

    theScore

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

    Apple Canada

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

    Google Canada

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

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

    1.2.4 Write an IT accessibility commitment statement

    45 minutes

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

    Input

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

    Output

    • IT accessibility commitment statement

    Materials

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

    Participants

    • CIO
    • IT senior leaders
    • IT managers

    Phase 2

    Change Enablement for Accessibility.

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    1.1 Determine accessibility requirements of IT

    1.2 Build IT accessibility plan

    2.1 Build awareness

    2.2 Support new behaviors

    2.3 Continuous reinforcement

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

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

    This phase involves the following participants:

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

    Be experience driven

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Accessibility Maturity Framework

    an image of the Info-Tech Accessibility Maturity Framework

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    What is an organizational change?

    Before communicating, understand the degree of change.

    Incremental Change:

    • Changes made to improve current processes or systems (e.g. optimizing current technology).

    Transitional Change:

    • Changes that involve dismantling old systems and/or processes in favor of new ones (e.g. new product or services added).

    Transformational Change:

    • Significant change in organizational strategy or culture resulting in substantial shift in direction.

    Examples:

    • New or changed policy
    • Switching from on-premises to cloud-first infrastructure
    • Implementing ransomware risk controls
    • Implementing a Learning and Development Plan

    Examples:

    • Moving to an insourced or outsourced service desk
    • Developing a BI and analytics function
    • Integrating risk into organization risk
    • Developing a strategy (technology, architecture, security, data, service, infrastructure, application)

    Examples:

    • Organizational redesign
    • Acquisition or merger of another organization
    • Implementing a digital strategy
    • A new CEO or board taking over the organization's direction

    Consider the various impacts of the change

    Invest time at the start to develop a detailed understanding of the impact of the change. This will help to create a plan that will simplify the change and save time. Evaluate the impact from a people, process, and technology perspective.

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

    People

    Process Technology
    • Team structure
    • Reporting structure
    • Career paths
    • Job skills
    • Responsibilities
    • Company vision/mission
    • Number of FTE
    • Culture
    • Training required
    • Budget
    • Work location
    • Daily workflow
    • Working conditions
    • Work hours
    • Reward structure
    • Required number of completed tasks
    • Training required
    • Required tools
    • Required policies
    • Required systems
    • Training required

    Change depends on how well people understand it

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

    Anticipate responses to change:

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

    an image showing staff personas at different stages through the change process.

    Quickly assess the size of change by answering these questions:

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

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

    Ensure effective communication by focusing on four key elements

    1. Audience
    • Stakeholders (either groups or individuals) who will receive the communication.
  • Message
    • Information communicated to impacted stakeholders. Must be rooted in a purpose or intent.
  • Messenger
    • Person who delivers the communication to the audience. The communicator and owner are two different things.
  • Channel
    • Method or channel used to communicate to the audience.
  • Step 2.1

    Build awareness and define key messages for IT.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT leadership team
    • Marketing/communications (optional)

    Outcomes of this step

    • Key accessibility messages

    Determine the desired outcome of communicating within IT

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

    Communicating within IT

    • Obtain buy-in
    • Inform about the IT change
    • Create a training plan
    • Inform about department changes
    • Inform about organization changes
    • Inform about a crisis
    • Obtain adoption related to the change
    • Distribute key messages to change agents

    Departmental Meeting Template

    Departmental Meeting Template

    Accessibility Quick Cards

    Accessibility Quick Cards

    Establish and define key messages based on organizational objectives

    What are key messages?

    1. Key messages guide all internal communications to ensure they are consistent, unified, and straightforward.
    2. Distill key messages down from organizational objectives and use them to reinforce the organization's strategic direction. Key messages should inspire employees to act in a way that will help the organization reach its objectives.

    How to establish key messages

    Ground key messages in organizational strategy and culture. These should be the first places you look to determine the organization's key messages:

    • Refer to organizational strategy documents. What needs to be reinforced in internal communications to ensure the organization can achieve its strategy? This is a key message.
    • Look at the organization's values. How do values guide how work should be done? Do employees need to behave in a certain way or keep a certain value top of mind? This is a key message.

    The intent of key messages is to convey important information in a way that is relatable and memorable, to promote reinforcement, and ultimately, to drive action.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Empathizing with the audience is key to anticipating and addressing objections as well as identifying benefits. Customize messaging based on audience attributes such as work model (e.g. hybrid), anticipated objections, what's in it for me?, and specific expectations.

    2.1.1 Clarify the key messages

    30 minutes

    1. Brainstorm the key stakeholders and target audiences you will likely need to communicate with to sustain the accessibility initiative (depending on the size of your group, you might break into pairs or smaller groups and each work on one target audience).
    2. Based on the outcome expected from engaging the target audience in communications, define one to five key messages that should be expressed about accessibility.
    3. The key messages should highlight benefits anticipated, concerns anticipated, details about the change, plan of action, or next steps. The goal here is to ensure the target audience is included in the communication process.
    4. The key messages should be focused on how the target audience receives a consistent message, especially if different communication messengers are involved.
    5. Document the key messages on Tab 3 of the Communications Planner Tool.

    Download the Communications Planner Tool

    Input

    • The change
    • Target audience
    • Communication outcomes

    Output

    • Key messages to support a consistent approach

    Materials

    • Communications Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard

    Participants

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

    Step 2.2

    Support new behaviors.

    Activities

    2.2.1 Prepare for IT department meeting

    2.2.2 Practice delivery of your presentation

    2.2.3 Hold department meeting

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Entire IT department

    Outcomes of this step

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

    Key questions to answer with change communication

    To effectively communicate change, answer questions before they're asked, whenever possible. To do this, outline at each stage of the change process what's happening next for the audience, as well as answer other anticipated questions. Pair key questions with core messages.

    Examples of key questions by change stage include:

    The outline for each stage of the change process, showing what happens next.

    2.2.1 Prepare for the IT departmental meeting

    2 hours

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

    Download the Departmental Presentation Template

    Input

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

    Output

    • Prepared presentation to introduce accessibility to the entire IT department

    Materials

    • Departmental Presentation Template

    Participants

    • CIO/ head of IT/ CAO/ initiative leader

    Hone presentation skills before meeting with key stakeholders

    Using voice and body

    Think about the message you are trying to convey and how your body can support that delivery. Hands, stance, frame – all have an impact on what might be conveyed.

    If you want your audience to lean in and be eager about your next point, consider using a pause or softer voice and volume.

    Be professional and confident

    State the main points of your presentation confidently. While this should be obvious, it is essential. Your audience should be able to clearly see that you believe the points you are stating.

    Present in a way that is genuine to you and your voice. Whether you have an energetic personality or calm and composed personality, the presentation should be authentic to you.

    Connect with your audience

    Look each member of the audience in the eye at least once during your presentation. Avoid looking at the ceiling, the back wall, or the floor. Your audience should feel engaged – this is essential to keeping their attention.

    Avoid reading from your slides. If there is text on a slide, paraphrase it while maintaining eye contact.

    Info-Tech Insight

    You are responsible for the response of your audience. If they aren't engaged, it is on you as the communicator.

    2.2.2 Practice delivery of your presentation and schedule department meeting

    45 minutes

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

    Input

    • Presentation deck from activity 2.2.1
    • Best practices for delivering

    Output

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

    Materials

    • Recorder
    • Timer

    Participants

    • CIO/ head of IT/ initiative leader

    2.2.3 Lead the IT department meeting

    1–2 hours

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

    Input

    • Presentation deck from activity 2.2.1

    Output

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

    Materials

    Participants

    • CIO/ head of IT/ initiative leader

    Download the Accessibility Quick Cards template

    Step 2.3

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

    Activities

    2.3.1 Establish a frequency and timeframe for communications

    2.3.2 Obtain feedback and improve

    2.3.3 Sustainment plan

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

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

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

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

    An image of the five steps, with steps four and five highlighted in a green box. The five headings are: Identify and Prioritize; Prepare for initiative; Create a communication plan; Implement change; Sustain the desired outcome

    Don't forget: Cascade messages down through the organization to ensure those who need to deliver messages have time to internalize the change before communicating it to others. Include a mix of personal and organizational messages, but where possible, separate personal and organizational content into different communications.

    2.3.1 Establish a frequency and timeframe

    30 minutes

    1. For each row in Tab 3, determine how frequently that communication needs to take place and when that communication needs to be completed by.
      • Frequency: How often the communication will be delivered to the audience (e.g. one-time, monthly, as needed).
      • Timeframe: When the communication will be delivered to the audience (e.g. a planned period or a specific date).
    2. When selecting the timeframe, consider what dependencies need to take place prior to that communication. For example, IT employees should not be communicated with on anything that has not yet been approved by the CEO. Also consider when other communications might be taking place so that the message is not lost in the noise.
    3. For frequency, the only time that a communication needs to take place once is when presenting up to senior leaders of the organizations. And even then, it will sometimes require more than one conversation. Be mindful of this.

    Input

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

    Output

    • Frequency and timeframe of the communication

    Materials

    • Communications Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard

    Participants

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

    Download the Communications Planner Tool

    Ensure feedback mechanisms are in place

    Soliciting and acting on feedback involves employees in the decision-making process and demonstrates to them that their contributions matter.

    Make sure you have established feedback mechanisms to collect feedback on both the messages delivered and how they were delivered. Some ways to collect feedback include:

    • Evaluating intranet comments and interactions (e.g. likes, etc.) if this function is enabled.
    • Measuring comprehension and satisfaction through surveys and polls.
    • Looking for themes in the feedback and questions employees bring forward to managers during in-person briefings.

    Feedback Mechanisms:

    • CIO business vision survey
    • Engagement surveys
    • Focus groups
    • Suggestion boxes
    • Team meetings
    • Random sampling
    • Informal feedback
    • Direct feedback
    • Audience body language
    • Repeating the message back

    Gather feedback on plan and iterate

    Who

    The project team gathers feedback from:

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

    What

    Gather feedback on:

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

    How

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

    Use Info-Tech's Standard Focus Group Guide

    2.3.2 Obtain feedback and improve

    20 minutes

    1. Evenly distribute the number of rows in the communication plan to all those involved. Consider a metric that would help inform whether the communication outcome was achieved.
    2. For each row, identify a feedback mechanism (slide 75) that could be used to enable the collection and confirm a successful outcome.
    3. Come back as a group and validate the feedback mechanisms selected.
    4. The important aspect here is not just to measure if the desired outcome was achieved. If the desired outcome is not achieved, consider what you might do to change or enable better communication to that target audience.
    5. Every communication can be better. Feedback, whether it be tactical or strategic, will help inform methods to improve future communication activities.

    Input

    • Communication outcome
    • Target audience
    • Communication channel

    Output

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

    Materials

    • Communications Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard

    Participants

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

    Download the Communications Planner Tool

    Identify owners and assign other roles

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

    R

    Responsible
    Carries out the work to implement the component (e.g. payroll manager).

    A

    Accountable
    Owner of the component and held accountable for its implementation (e.g. VP of finance).

    C

    Consulted
    Asked for feedback and input to modify sustainment tactics (e.g. sustainment planning team).

    I

    Informed
    Told about progress of implementation (senior leadership team, impacted staff).

    Identify required resources and secure budget

    Sustainment is critical to success of accessibility

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

    Resources

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

    For example:

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

    Budget

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

    Monitor accessibility maturity

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Download the Accessibility Maturity Assessment

    An image of the maturity level bar graph.

    Evaluate and iterate the program on an ongoing basis

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

    2.3.3 Sustain the change

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

    Input

    • Activity outputs from this blueprint

    Output

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

    Materials

    • n/a

    Participants

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

    Related Info-Tech Research

    The Accessibility Business Case for IT

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

    Lead Staff through Change

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

    IT Diversity and Inclusion Tactics

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

    Implement and Mature Your User Experience Design Practice

    • Create a practice that is focused on human outcomes; it starts and ends with the people you are designing for. This includes:
      • Establishing a practice with a common vision.
      • Enhancing the practice through four design factors.
      • Communicating a roadmap to improve your business through design.

    Works cited

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

    Build a Software Quality Assurance Program

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}284|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.6/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $20,972 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 14 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Testing, Deployment & QA
    • Parent Category Link: /testing-deployment-and-qa
    • Today’s rapidly scaling and increasingly complex products create mounting pressure on delivery teams to release new systems and changes quickly and with sufficient quality.
    • Many organizations lack the critical capabilities and resources needed to satisfy their growing testing backlog, risking product success.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Testing is often viewed as a support capability rather than an enabler of business growth. It receives focus and investment only when it becomes a visible problem.
    • The rise in security risks, aggressive performance standards, constantly evolving priorities, and misunderstood quality policies further complicate QA as it drives higher expectations for effective practices.
    • QA starts with good requirements. Tests are only as valuable as the requirements they are validating and verifying. Early QA improves the accuracy of downstream tests and reduces costs of fixing defects late in delivery.
    • Quality is an organization-wide accountability. Upstream work can have extensive ramifications if all roles are not accountable for the decisions they make.
    • Quality must account for both business and technical requirements. Valuable change delivery is cemented in a clear understanding of quality from both business and IT perspectives.

    Impact and Result

    • Standardize your definition of a product. Come to an organizational agreement of what attributes define a high-quality product. Accommodate both business and IT perspectives in your definition.
    • Clarify the role of QA throughout your delivery pipeline. Indicate where and how QA is involved throughout product delivery. Instill quality-first thinking in each stage of your pipeline to catch defects and issues early.
    • Structure your test design, planning, execution, and communication practices to better support your quality definition and business and IT environments and priorities. Adopt QA good practices to ensure your tests satisfy your criteria for a high-quality and successful product.

    Build a Software Quality Assurance Program Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build a strong foundation for quality, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Define your QA process

    Standardize your product quality definition and your QA roles, processes, and guidelines according to your business and IT priorities.

    • Build a Strong Foundation for Quality – Phase 1: Define Your QA Process
    • Test Strategy Template

    2. Adopt QA good practices

    Build a solid set of good practices to define your defect tolerances, recognize the appropriate test coverage, and communicate your test results.

    • Build a Strong Foundation for Quality – Phase 2: Adopt QA Good Practices
    • Test Plan Template
    • Test Case Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build a Software Quality Assurance 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 Define Your QA Process

    The Purpose

    Discuss your quality definition and how quality is interpreted from both business and IT perspectives.

    Review your case for strengthening your QA practice.

    Review the standardization of QA roles, processes, and guidelines in your organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Grounded understanding of quality that is accepted across IT and between the business and IT.

    Clear QA roles and responsibilities.

    A repeatable QA process that is applicable across the delivery pipeline.

    Activities

    1.1 List your QA objectives and metrics.

    1.2 Adopt your foundational QA process.

    Outputs

    Quality definition and QA objectives and metrics.

    QA guiding principles, process, and roles and responsibilities.

    2 Adopt QA Good Practices

    The Purpose

    Discuss the practices to reveal the sufficient degree of test coverage to meet your acceptance criteria, defect tolerance, and quality definition.

    Review the technologies and tools to support the execution and reporting of your tests.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    QA practices aligned to industry good practices supporting your quality definition.

    Defect tolerance and acceptance criteria defined against stakeholder priorities.

    Identification of test scenarios to meet test coverage expectations.

    Activities

    2.1 Define your defect tolerance.

    2.2 Model and prioritize your tests.

    2.3 Develop and execute your QA activities.

    2.4 Communicate your QA activities.

    Outputs

    Defect tolerance levels and courses of action.

    List of test cases and scenarios that meet test coverage expectations.

    Defined test types, environment and data requirements, and testing toolchain.

    Test dashboard and communication flow.

    Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}234|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.5/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $31,716 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 10 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
    • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
    • Contract reviews are tedious, and reviewers may lack the skills and experience to effectively complete the process.
    • Vendors have a repository of contract terms and conditions that are road-tested and often biased in their favor.
    • Vendors change their contracts frequently through hyperlinked documents without notifying customers, and the onus is on you to stay compliant.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Focus on the terms and conditions, not just the price. Too often, organizations focus on the price contained within their contracts, neglecting to address core terms and conditions that can end up costing multiples of the initial price.
    • Lawyers can’t ensure you get the best business deal. Lawyers tend to look at general terms and conditions for legal risk and may not understand IT-specific components and business needs.

    Impact and Result

    • Align contract language to meet IT and business needs.
    • Communicate more effectively with Legal and the vendors.
    • Identify and reduce contractual and performance risk.
    • Understand the relationship between contract provisions.
    • Negotiate more effectively.

    Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should employ a systematic process for reviewing contracts, 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 contract terms and conditions

    Review and assess your IT contracts for vendor-biased terms and conditions, and gain tips for getting vendors to take on their fair share of risk and become more accountable.

    • Contract Review Tool
    • Contract Playbook
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively

    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 Contract Terms and Conditions

    The Purpose

    Understand IT contract clauses, improve risk identification, and be more effective at negotiating contract terms.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Increased awareness of how contract provisions relate to each other.

    Demystification of legalese and legal concepts.

    Increased ability to seek assistance from internal parties (e.g. Legal, Risk, and Procurement).

    Activities

    1.1 Review the Contract Review Tool.

    1.2 Review the Contract Playbook template.

    1.3 Review 35 contract provisions and reinforce key learnings with exercises (spread across three days)

    Outputs

    Partial completion of the template

    Exercise results and debrief

    Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}205|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: Business Intelligence Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /business-intelligence-strategy
    • Understanding the impact of the machine learning/AI component that is built into most of the enterprise products and tools and its role in the implementation of the solution.
    • Understanding the most important aspects that the organization needs to consider while planning the implementation of the AI-powered product.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Organizations are faced with multiple challenges trying to adopt AI solutions. Challenges include data issues, ethics and compliance considerations, business process challenges, and misaligned leadership goals.
    • When choosing the right product to meet business needs, organizations need to know what questions to ask vendors to ensure they fully understand the implications of buying an AI/ML product.
    • To guarantee the success of your off-the-shelf AI implementation and ensure it delivers value, you must start with a clear definition of the business case and an understanding of your data.

    Impact and Result

    To guarantee success of the off-the-shelf AI implementation and deliver value, in addition to formulating a clear definition of the business case and understanding of data, organizations should also:

    • Know what questions to ask vendors while evaluating AI-powered products.
    • Measure the impact of the project on business and IT processes.

    Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI Research & Tools

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

    1. Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI Deck – A step-by-step approach that will help guarantee the success of your Off-the-Shelf AI implementation and ensure it delivers business value

    Use this practical and actionable framework that will guide you through the planning of your Off-the-Shelf AI product implementation.

    • Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI Storyboard

    2. Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis – A tool that will guide the analysis and planning of the implementation

    Use this analysis tool to ensure the success of the implementation.

    • Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI

    A practical guide to ensure return on your Off-the-Shelf AI investment

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge
    • Understanding the impact of the machine learning/AI component that is built into most of the enterprise products and tools and its role in the implementation of the solution.
    • What are the most important aspects that organizations needs to consider while planning the implementation of the AI-powered product?
    Common Obstacles
    • Organizations are faced with multiple challenges trying to adopt an AI solution. Challenges include data issues, ethics and compliance considerations, business process challenges, and misaligned leadership goals.
    • When choosing the right product to meet business needs, organizations need to know what questions to ask vendors to ensure they fully understand the implications of buying an AI/ML product.
    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Info-Tech’s approach includes a framework that will guide organizations through the process of the Off-the-Shelf AI product selection.

    To guarantee success of the Off-the-Shelf AI implementation and deliver value, organization should start with clear definition of the business case and an understanding of data.

    Other steps include:

    • Knowing what questions to ask vendors to evaluate AI-powered products.
    • Measuring the impact of the project on your business and IT processes.
    • Assessing impact on the organization and ensure team readiness.

    Info-Tech Insight

    To guarantee the success of your Off-the-Shelf AI implementation and ensure it delivers value, you must start with a clear definition of the business case and an understanding of your data.

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

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Getting value out of AI and machine learning investments

    92.1%

    of companies say they are achieving returns on their data and AI investments

    91.7%

    said they were increasing investments in data and AI

    26.0%

    of companies have AI systems in widespread production
    However, CIO Magazine identified nine main hurdles to AI adoption based on the survey results:
    • Data issues
    • Business process challenges
    • Implementation challenges and skill shortages
    • Costs of tools and development
    • Misaligned leadership goals
    • Measuring and proving business value
    • Legal and regulatory risks
    • Cybersecurity
    • Ethics
    • (Source: CIO, 2019)
    “Data and AI initiatives are becoming well established, investments are paying off, and companies are getting more economic value from AI.” (Source: NewVantage, 2022.)

    67% of companies are currently using machine learning, and 97% are using or planning to use it in the next year.” (Source: Deloitte, 2020)

    AI vs. ML

    Machine learning systems learn from experience and without explicit instructions. They learn patterns from data then analyze and make predictions based on past behavior and the patterns learned.

    Artificial intelligence is a combination of technologies and can include machine learning. AI systems perform tasks mimicking human intelligence such as learning from experience and problem solving. Most importantly, AI is making its own decisions without human intervention.

    The AI system can make assumptions, test these assumptions, and learn from the results.

    (Level of decision making required increases from left to right)
    Statistical Reasoning
    Infer relationships between variables

    Statistical models are designed to find relationships between variables and the significance of those relationships.

    Machine Learning:
    Making accurate predictions

    Machine learning is a subset of AI that discovers patterns from data without being explicitly programmed to do so.

    Artificial Intelligence
    Dynamic adaptation to novelty

    AI systems choose the optimal combination of methods to solve a problem. They make assumptions, reassess the model, and reevaluate the data.

    “Machine learning is the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience.” (Tom Mitchell, 1997)

    “At its simplest form, artificial intelligence is a field, which combines computer science and robust datasets, to enable problem-solving.” (IBM, “What is artificial intelligence?”)

    Types of Off-the-Shelf AI products and solutions

    ML/AI-Powered Products Off-the-Shelf Pre-built and Pre-trained AI/ML Models
    • AI/ML capabilities built into the product and might require training as part of the implementation.
    • Off-the-Shelf ML/AI Models, pre-built, pre-trained, and pre-optimized for a particular task. For example, language models or image recognition models that can be used to speed up and simplify ML/AI systems development.
    Examples of OTS tools/products: Examples of OTS models:

    The data inputs for these models are defined, the developer has to conform to the provided schema, and the data outputs are usually fixed due to the particular task the OTS model is built to solve.

    Insight summary

    Overarching insight:

    To guarantee the success of your Off-the-Shelf AI implementation and ensure it delivers value, you must start with a clear definition of the business case and an understanding of your data.

    Business Goals

    Question the value that AI adds to the tool you are evaluating. Don’t go after the tool simply because it has an AI label attached to it. AI/ML capabilities might add little value but increase implementation complexity. Define the problem you are solving and document business requirements for the tool or a model.

    Data

    Know your data. Determine data requirements to:

    • Train the model during the implementation and development.
    • Run the model in production.

    People/Skills

    Define the skills required for the implementation and assemble the team that will support the project from requirements to deployment and support, through its entire lifecycle. Don’t forget about production support and maintenance.

    Choosing an AI-Powered Tool

    No need to reinvent the wheel and build a product you can buy, but be prepared to work around tool limitations, and make sure you understand the data and the model the tool is built on.

    Choosing an AI/ML Model

    Using Off-the-Shelf-AI models enables an agile approach to system development. Faster POC and validation of ideas and approaches, but the model might not be customizable for your requirements.

    Guaranteeing Off-the-Shelf AI Implementation Success

    Info-Tech Insight

    To guarantee the success of your Off-the-Shelf AI implementation and ensure it delivers value, you must start with a clear definition of the business case and an understanding of your data.

    Why do you need AI in your toolset?
    Business Goals

    Clearly defined problem statement and business requirements for the tool or a model will help you select the right solution that will deliver business value even if it does not have all the latest bells and whistles.

    Small chevron pointing right.
    Do you know the data required for implementation?
    Data

    Expected business outcome defines data requirements for implementation. Do you have the right data required to train and run the model?

    Large chevron pointing right.
    Is your organization ready for AI?
    People/Team/ Skills

    New skills and expertise are required through all phases of the implementation: design, build, deployment, support, and maintenance, as well as post-production support, scaling, and adoption.

    Data Architecture/ Infrastructure

    New tool or model will impact your cloud and integration strategy. It will have to integrate with the existing infrastructure, in the cloud or on prem.

    Large chevron pointing right.
    What questions do you need to ask when choosing the solution?
    Product/ Tool or Model Selection

    Do you know what model powers the AI tool? What data was used to train the tool and what data is required to run it? Ask the right questions.

    Small chevron pointing right.
    Are you measuring impact on your processes?
    Business and IT Processes

    Business processes need to be defined or updated to incorporate the output of the tool back into the business processes to deliver value.

    IT governance and support processes need to accommodate the new AI-powered tool.

    Small chevron pointing right.
    Realize and measure business value of your AI investment
    Value

    Do you have a clear understanding of the value that AI will bring to your organization?Optimization?Increased revenue?Operational efficiency?

    Introduction of Off-the-Shelf AI Requires a Strategic Approach

    Business Goals and Value Data People/Team/ Skills Infrastructure Business and IT Processes
    AI/ML–powered tools
    • Define a business problem that can be solved with either an AI-powered tool or an AI/ML pre-built model that will become part of the solution.
    • Define expectations and assumptions around the value that AI can bring.
    • Document business requirements for the tool or model.
    • Define the scope for a prototype or POC.
    • Define data requirements.
    • Define data required for implementation.
    • Determine if the required data can be acquired or captured/generated.
    • Document internal and external sources of data.
    • Validate data quality (define requirements and criteria for data quality).
    • Define where and how the data is stored and will be stored. Does it have to be moved or consolidated?
    • Define all stakeholders involved in the implementation and support.
    • Define skills and expertise required through all phases of the implementation: design, build, deployment, support, and maintenance.
    • Define skills and expertise required to grow AI practice and achieve the next level of adoption, scaling, and development of the tool or model POC.
    • Define infrastructure requirements for either Cloud, Software-as-a-Service, or on-prem deployment of a tool or model.
    • Define how the tool is integrated with existing systems and into existing infrastructure.
    • Determine the cost to deploy and run the tool/model.
    • Define processes that need to be updated to accommodate new functionality.
    • Define how the outcome of the tool or a model (e.g. predictions) are incorporated back into the business processes.
    • Define new business and IT processes that need to be defined around the tool (e.g. chatbot maintenance; analysis of the data generated by the tool).
    Off-the-shelf AI/ML pre-built models
    • Define the business metrics and KPIs to measure success of the implementation against.
    • Determine if there are requirements for a specific data format required for the tool or a model.
    • Determine if there is a need to classify/label the data (supervised learning).
    • Define privacy and security requirements.
    • Define requirements for employee training. This can be vendor training for a tool or platform training in the case of a pre-built model or service.
    • Define if ML/AI expertise is required.
    • Is the organization ready for ML/AI? Conduct an AI literacy survey and understand team’s concerns, fears, and misconceptions and address them.
    • Define requirements for:
      • Data migration.
      • Security.
      • AI/ML pipeline deployment and maintenance.
    • Define requirements for operation and maintenance of the tool or model.
    • Confirm infrastructure readiness.
    • How AI and its output will be used across the organization.

    Define Business Goals and Objectives

    Why do you need AI in your toolset? What value will AI deliver? Have a clear understanding of business benefits and the value AI delivers through the tool.

    • Define a business problem that can be solved with either an AI-powered tool or AI/ML pre-built model.
    • Define expectations and assumptions around the value that AI can bring.
    • Document business requirements for a tool or model.
    • Start with the POC or a prototype to test assumptions, architecture, and components of the solution.
    • Define business metrics and KPIs to measure success of the implementation.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Question the value that AI adds to the tool you are evaluating. Don’t go after the tool simply because it has an AI label attached to it. AI/ML capabilities might add little value but increase implementation complexity. Define the problem you are solving and document business requirements for the tool or a model.

    Venn diagram of 'Applied Artificial Intelligence (AAI)' with a larger circle at the top, 'Machine Learning (ML)', and three smaller ovals intersecting, 'Computer Vision', 'Natural Language Processing (NLP)', and 'Robotic Process Automation (RPA)'.

    AAI solutions and technologies are helping organizations make faster decisions and predict future outcomes such as:

    • Business process automation
    • Intelligent integration
    • Intelligent insights
    • Operational efficiency improvement
    • Increase revenue
    • Improvement of existing products and services
    • Product and process innovation

    1. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool to define business drivers and document business requirements

    2-3 hours
    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Business Drivers tab, a table with columns 'AI/ML Tool or Model', 'Use Case', 'Business problem / goal for AI/ML use case', 'Description', 'Business Owner (Primary Stakeholder)', 'Priority', 'Stakeholder Groups Impacted', 'Requirements Defined? Yes/No', 'Related Data Domains', and 'KPIs'. Use the Business Drivers tab to document:
    • Business objectives of the initiative that might drive the AI/ML use case.
    • The business owner or primary stakeholder who will help to define business value and requirements.
    • All stakeholders who will be involved or impacted.
    • KPIs that will be used to assess the success of the POC.
    • Data required for the implementation.
    • Use the Business Requirements tab to document high-level requirements for a tool or model.
    • These requirements will be used while defining criteria for a tool selection and to validate if the tool or model meets your business goals.
    • You can use either traditional BRD format or a user story to document requirements.
    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Business Requirements tab, a table with columns 'Requirement ID', 'Requirement Description / user story', 'Requirement Category', 'Stakeholder / User Role', 'Requirement Priority', and 'Complexity (point estimates)'.

    Download the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool

    1. Define business drivers and document business requirements

    Input

    • Strategic plan of the organization
    • Data strategy that defines target data capabilities required to support enterprise strategic goals
    • Roadmap of business and data initiatives to support target state of data capabilities

    Output

    • Prioritized list of business use cases where an AI-powered tool or AI/ML can deliver business value
    • List of high-level requirements for the selected use case

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Off-the-Shelf-AI Analysis Tool, “Business Drivers” and “Business Requirements” tabs

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Senior business and IT stakeholders
    • Data owner(s)
    • Data steward(s)
    • Enterprise Architect
    • Data Architect
    • Data scientist/Data analyst

    Understand data required for implementation

    Do you have the right data to implement and run the AI-powered tool or AI/ML model?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Know your data. Determine data requirements to:

    • Train the model during the implementation and development, and
    • Run the model in production
    AvailabilityArrow pointing rightQualityArrow pointing rightPreparationArrow pointing rightBias, Privacy, SecurityArrow pointing rightData Architecture
    • Define what data is required for implementation, e.g. customer data, financial data, product sentiment.
    • If the data is not available, can it be acquired, gathered, or generated?
    • Define the volume of data required for implementation and production.
    • If the model has to be trained, do you have the data required for training (e.g. dictionary of terms)? Can it be created, gathered, or acquired?
    • Document internal and external sources of data.
    • Evaluate data quality for all data sources based on the requirements and criteria defined in the previous step.
    • For datasets with data quality issues, determine if the data issues can be resolved (e.g. missing values are inferred). If not, can this issue be resolved by using other data sources?
    • Engage a Data Governance organization to address any data quality concerns.
    • Determine if there are requirements for a specific data format required for the tool or model.
    • Determine if there is a need to classify/label or tag the data. What are the metadata requirements?
    • Define whether or not the implementation team needs to aggregate or transform the data before it can be used.
    • Define privacy requirements, as these might affect the availability of the data for ML/AI.
    • Define data bias concerns and considerations. Do you have datasheets for datasets that will be used in this project? What datasets cannot be used to prevent bias?
    • What are the security requirements and how will they affect data storage, product selection, and infrastructure requirements for the tool and overall solution?
    • Define where and how the data is currently stored and will be stored.
    • Does it have to be migrated or consolidated? Does it have to be moved to the cloud or between systems?
    • Is a data lake or data warehouse a requirement for this implementation as defined by the solution architecture?

    2. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool to document data requirements

    2-3 hours

    Use the Data tab to document the following for each data source or dataset:
    • Data Domain – e.g. Customer data
    • Data Concept – e.g. Customer
    • Data Internally Accessible – Identify datasets that are required for the implementation even if the data might not be available internally. Work on determining if the data ca be acquired externally or collected internally.
    • Source System – define the primary source system for the data, e.g. Salesforce
    • Target System (if applicable) – Define if the data needs to be migrated/transferred. For example, you might use a datalake or data warehouse for the AI/ML solution or migrate data to the cloud.
    • Classification/Taxonomy/Ontology
    • Data Steward
    • Data Owner
    • Data Quality – Data quality indicator
    • Refresh Rate – Frequency of data refresh. Indicate if the data can be accessed in real time or near-real time

    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Data tab, a spreadsheet table with the columns listed to the left and below.
    • Retention – Retention policy requirements
    • Compliance Requirements – Define if data has to comply with any of the regulatory requirements, e.g. GDPR
    • Privacy, Bias, and Ethics Considerations – Privacy Act, PIPEDA, etc. Identify if the dataset contains sensitive information that should be excluded from the model, such as gender, age, race etc. Indicate fairness metrics, if applicable.

    Download the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool

    2. Document data requirements

    Input

    • Documented business use cases from Step 1.
    • High-level business requirements from Step 1.
    • Data catalog, data dictionaries, business glossary
    • Data flows and data architecture

    Output

    • High-level data requirements
    • List of data sources and datasets that can be used for the implementation
    • Datasets that need to be collected or acquired externally

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool, “Data” tab

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Business and IT stakeholders
    • Data owner(s)
    • Data steward(s)
    • Enterprise Architect
    • Data Architect
    • Data scientist/Data analyst

    Is Your Organization Ready for AI?

    Assess organizational readiness and define stakeholders impacted by the implementation. Build the team with the right skillset to drive the solution.

    • Implementation of the AI/ML-powered Off-the-Shelf Tool or an AI/ML model will require a team with a combination of skills through all phases of the project, from design of the solution to build, production, deployment, and support.
    • Document the skillsets required and determine the skills gap. Before you start hiring, depending on the role, you might find talent within the organization to join the implementation team with little to no training.
    • AI/ML resources that may be needed on your team driving AI implementation (you might consider bringing part-time resources to fill the gaps or use vendor developers) are:
      • Data Scientist
      • Machine Learning Engineer
      • Data Engineer
      • Data Architect
      • AI/ML Ops engineer
    • Define training requirements. Consider vendor training for a tool or platform.
    • Plan for future scaling and the growing of the solution and AI practice. Assess the need to apply AI in other business areas. Work with the team to analyze use cases and prioritize AI initiatives. As the practice grows, grow your team expertise.
    • Identify the stakeholders who will be affected by the AI implementation.
    • Work with them to understand and address any concerns, fears, or misconceptions around the role of AI and the consequences of bringing AI into the organization.
    • Develop a communication and change management plan to educate everyone within the organization on the application and benefits of using AI and machine learning.

    Info-Tech Insight:

    Define the skills required for the implementation and assemble the team that will support the project through its entire lifecycle. Don’t forget about production, support, and maintenance.

    3. Build your implementation team

    1-2 hours

    Input: Solution conceptual design, Current resource availability

    Output: Roles required for the implementation of the solution, Resources gap analysis, Training and hiring plan

    Materials: Whiteboard/Flip charts, Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool, “People and Team” tab

    Participants: Project lead, HR, Enterprise Architect

    1. Review your solution conceptual design and define implementation team roles.
    2. Document requirements for each role.
    3. Review current org chart and job descriptions and identify skillset gaps. Draft an action plan to fill in the roles.
    4. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's People and Team tab to document team roles for the entire implementation, including design, build/implement, deployment, support and maintenance, and future development.

    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's People and Team tab, a table with columns 'Design', 'Implement', 'Deployment', 'Support and Maintenance', and 'Future Development'.

    Download the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool

    Cloud, SaaS or On Prem – what are my options and what is the impact?

    Depending on the architecture of the solution, define the impact on the current infrastructure, including system integration, AI/ML pipeline deployment, maintenance, and data storage

    • Data Architecture: use the current data architecture to design the architecture for an AI-powered solution. Assess changes to the data architecture with the introduction of a new tool to make sure it is scalable enough to support the change.
    • Define infrastructure requirements for either Cloud, Software-as-a-Service, or on-prem deployment of a tool or model.
    • Define how the tool will be integrated with existing systems and into existing infrastructure.
    • Define requirements for:
      • Data migration and data storage
      • Security
      • AI/ML pipeline deployment, production monitoring, and maintenance
    • Define requirements for operation and maintenance of the tool or model.
    • Work with your infrastructure architect and vendor to determine the cost of deploying and running the tool/model.
    • Make a decision on the preferred architecture of the system and confirm infrastructure readiness.

    Download the Create an Architecture for AI blueprint

    4. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool to document infrastructure decisions

    2-3 hours

    Input: Solution conceptual design

    Output: Infrastructure requirements, Infrastructure readiness assessment

    Materials: Whiteboard/Flip charts, Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool, “Infrastructure” tab

    Participants: Infrastructure Architect, Solution Architect, Enterprise Architect, Data Architect, ML/AI Ops Engineer

    1. Work with Infrastructure, Data, Solution, and Enterprise Architects to define your conceptual solution architecture.
    2. Define integration and storage requirements.
    3. Document security requirements for the solution in general and the data specifically.
    4. Define MLOps requirements and tools required for ML/AI pipeline deployment and production monitoring.
    5. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Infrastructure tab to document requirements and decisions around Data and Infrastructure Architecture.

    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Infrastructure tab, a table with columns 'Cloud, SaaS or On-Prem', 'Data Migration Requirements', 'Data Storage Requirements', 'Security Requirements', 'Integrations Required', and 'AI/ML Pipeline Deployment and Maintenance Requirements'.

    Download the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool

    What questions do you need to ask vendors when choosing the solution?

    Take advantage of Info-Tech’s Rapid Application Selection Framework (RASF) to guide tool selection, but ask vendors the right questions to understand implications of having AI/ML built into the tool or a model

    Data Model Implementation and Integration Deployment Security and Compliance
    • What data (attributes) were used to train the model?
    • Do you have datasheets for the data used?
    • How was data bias mitigated?
    • What are the data labeling/classification requirements for training the model?
    • What data is required for production? E.g. volume; type of data, etc.
    • Were there any open-source libraries used in the model? If yes, how were vulnerabilities and security concerns addressed?
    • What algorithms are implemented in the tool/model?
    • Can model parameters be configured?
    • What is model accuracy?
    • Level of customization required for the implementation to meet our requirements.
    • Does the model require training? If yes, can you provide details? Can you estimate the effort required?
    • Integration capabilities and requirements.
    • Data migration requirements for tool operation and development.
    • Administrator console – is this functionality available?
    • Implementation timeframe.
    • Is the model or tool deployable on premises or in the cloud? Do you support hybrid cloud and multi-cloud deployment?
    • What cloud platforms are your product/model integrated with (AWS, Azure, GCP)?
    • What are the infrastructure requirements?
    • Is the model containerized/ scalable?
    • What product support and product updates are available?
    • Regulatory compliance (GDPR, PIPEDA, HIPAA, PCI DSS, CCPA, SOX, etc.)?
    • How are data security risks addressed?

    Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool, “Vendor Questionnaire” tab to track vendor responses to these questions.

    Are you measuring impact on your processes?

    Make sure that you understand the impact of the new technology on the existing business and IT processes.

    And make sure your business processes are ready to take advantage of the benefits and new capabilities enabled by AI/ML.

    Process automation, optimization, and improvement enabled by the technology and AI/ML-powered tools allow organizations to reduce manual work, streamline existing business processes, improve customer satisfaction, and get critical insights to assist decision making.

    To take full advantage of the benefits and new capabilities enabled by the technology, make sure that business and IT processes reflect these changes:

    • Processes that need to be updated.
    • How the outcome of the tool or a model (e.g. predictions) is incorporated into the existing business processes and the processes that will monitor the accuracy of the outcome and monitor performance of the tool or model.
    • New business and IT processes that need to be defined for the tool (e.g. chatbot maintenance, analysis of the data generated by the tool, etc.).

    5. Document the Impact on Business and IT Processes

    2-3 hours

    Input: Solution design, Existing business and IT processes

    Output: Documented updates to the existing processes, Documented new business and IT processes

    Materials: Whiteboard/Flip charts, Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool, “Business and IT Processes” tab

    Participants: Project lead, Business stakeholders, Business analyst

    1. Review current business processes affected by the implementation of the AI/ML- powered tool or model. Define the changes that need to be made. The changes might include simplification of the process due to automation of some of the steps. Some processes will need to be redesigned and some processes might become obsolete.
    2. Document high-level steps for any new processes that need to be defined around the AI/ML-powered tool. An example of such a process would be defining new IT and business processes to support a new chatbot.
    3. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Business and IT Processes tab, to document process changes.

    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Business and IT Processes tab, a table with columns 'Existing business process affected', 'New business process', 'Stakeholders involved', 'Changes to be made', and 'New Process High-Level Steps'.

    Download the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool

    AI-powered Tools – Considerations

    PROS:
    • Enhanced functionality, allows the power of AI without specialized skills (e.g., Mathematica – recognizing patterns in data).
    • Might be a cheaper option compared to building a solution in-house (chatbot, for ex.).

    Info-Tech Insight:

    No need to reinvent the wheel and build the product you can buy, but be prepared to work around tool limitations, and make sure you understand the data and the model the tool is built on.

    CONS:
    • Dependency on the service provider.
    • The tool might not meet all the business requirements without customization.
    • Bias can be built into the tool:
      • Work with the vendor to understand what data was used to train the model.
      • From the perspective of ethics and bias, learn what model is implemented in the tool and what data attributes the model uses.

    Pre-built/pre-trained models – what to keep in mind when choosing

    PROS:
    • Lower cost and less time to development compared to creating and training models from scratch (e.g. using image recognition models or pre-trained language models like BERT).
    • If the pre-trained and optimized model perfectly fits your needs, the model accuracy might be high and sufficient for your scenario.
    • Off-the-Shelf AI models are useful for creating prototypes or POCs, for testing a hypothesis, and for validating ideas and requirements.
    • Usage of Off-the-Shelf models shortens the development cycle and reduces investment risks.
    • Language models are particularly useful if you don’t have data to train your own model (a “small data” scenario).
    • Infrastructure and model training cost reduction.
    CONS:
    • Might be a challenge to deploy and maintain the system in production.
    • Lack of flexibility: you might not be able to configure input or output parameters to your requirements. For example, a pre-built sentiment analysis model might return four values (“positive,” “negative,” “neutral,” and “mixed”), but your solution will require only two or three values.
    • Might be a challenge to comply with security and privacy requirements.
    • Compliance with privacy and fairness requirements and considerations: what data was used to pretrain the model?
    • If open-source libraries were used to create the model, how will vulnerabilities, risks, and security concerns be addressed?

    Info-Tech Insight:

    Using Off-the-Shelf AI models enables an agile approach to system development – faster POC and validation of ideas and approaches, but the model might not be customizable for your requirements.

    Metrics

    Metrics and KPIs for this project will depend on the business goals and objectives that you will identify in Step 1 of the tool selection process.

    Metrics might include:

    • Reduction of time spent on a specific business process. If the tool is used to automate certain steps of a business process, this metric will measure how much time was saved, in minutes/hours, compared to the process time before the introduction of the tool.
    • Accuracy of prediction. This metric would measure the accuracy of estimations or predictions compared to the same estimations done before the implementation of the tool. It can be measured by generating the same prediction or estimation using the AI-powered tool or using any methods used before the introduction of the tool and comparing the results.
    • Accuracy of the search results. If the AI-powered tool is a search engine, compare a) how much time it would take a user to find an article or a piece of content they were searching for using new tool vs. previous techniques, b) how many steps it took the user to locate the required article in the search results, and c) the location of the correct piece of content in the search result list (at the top of the search result list or on the tenth page).
    • Time spent on manual tasks and activities. This metric will measure how much time, in minutes/hours, is spent by the employees or users on manual tasks if the tool automates some of these tasks.
    • Reduction of business process steps (if the steps are being automated). To derive this metric, create a map of the business process before the introduction of the AI-powered tool and after, and determine if the tool helped to simplify the process by reducing the number of process steps.

    Bibliography

    Adryan, Boris. “Is it all machine learning?” Badryan, Oct. 20, 2015. Accessed Feb. 2022.

    “AI-Powered Data Management Platform.” Informatica, N.d. Accessed Feb 2022.

    Amazon Rekognition. “Automate your image and video analysis with machine learning.” AWS. N.d. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Artificial Intelligence (AI).” IBM Cloud Education, 3 June 2020. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Artificial intelligence (AI) vs machine learning (ML).” Microsoft Azure Documentation. Accessed Feb. 2022.

    “Avante Garde in the Realm of AI” SearchUnify Cognitive Platform. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Azure Cognitive Services.” Microsoft. N.d. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Becoming an AI-fueled organization. State of AI in the enterprise, 4th edition,” Deloitte, 2020. Accessed Feb. 2022.

    “Coveo Predictive Search.” Coveo, N.d. Accessed Feb 2022.

    ”Data and AI Leadership. Executive Survey 2022. Executive Summary of Findings.” NewVantage Partners. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Einstein Discovery in Tableau.” Tableau, N.d. Accessed Feb 2022.

    Korolov, Maria. “9 biggest hurdles to AI adoption.” CIO, Feb 26, 2019. Accessed Feb 2022.

    Meel, Vidushi. “What Is Deep Learning? An Easy to Understand Guide.” visio.ai. Accessed Feb. 2022.

    Mitchell, Tom. “Machine Learning,” McGraw Hill, 1997.

    Stewart, Matthew. “The Actual Difference Between Statistics and Machine Learning.” Towards Data Science, Mar 24, 2019. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Sentiment analysis with Cognitive Services.” Microsoft Azure Documentation. Accessed February 2022.

    “Three Principles for Designing ML-Powered Products.” Spotify Blog. Oct 2019, Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Video Intelligence API.” Google Cloud Platform. N.d. Accessed Feb 2022

    Start Making Data-Driven People Decisions

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}427|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: Leadership Development Programs
    • Parent Category Link: /leadership-development-programs
    • 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
    [infographic]

    Tech Trend Update: If Digital Ethics Then Data Equity

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}100|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.
    • member rating average days saved: Read what our members are saying
    • Parent Category Name: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation

    COVID-19 is driving the need for quick technology solutions, including some that require personal data collection. Organizations are uncertain about the right thing to do.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Data equity approaches personal data like money, putting the owner in control and helping to protect against unethical systems.

    Impact and Result

    There are some key considerations for businesses grappling with digital ethics:

    1. If partnering, set expectations.
    2. If building, invite criticism.
    3. If imbuing authority, consider the most vulnerable.

    Tech Trend Update: If Digital Ethics Then Data Equity Research & Tools

    Tech Trend Update: If Digital Ethics Then Data Equity

    Understand how to use data equity as an ethical guidepost to create technology that will benefit everyone.

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

    • Tech Trend Update: If Digital Ethics Then Data Equity Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}556|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
    • A company’s web presence is its front face to the world. Ensuring you have the right suite of tools for web content management, experience design, and web analytics is critical to putting your best foot forward: failing to do so will result in customer attrition and lost revenue.
    • Web Experience Management (WEM) suites are a rapidly maturing and dynamic market, with a landscape full of vendors with cutting edge solutions and diverse offerings. As a result, finding a solution that is the best fit for your organization can be a complex process.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • WEM products are not a one-size-fits-all investment: unique evaluations and customization are required in order to deploy a solution that fits your organization.
    • WEM technology often complements core CRM and marketing management products – it does not supplant it, and must augment the rest of your customer experience management portfolio.
    • Phase your WEM implementation: Start with core capabilities such as content management, then add additional capabilities for site analytics and dynamic experience.

    Impact and Result

    • Align marketing needs with identified functional requirements.
    • Implement a best-fit WEM that increases customer acquisition and retention, and provides in-depth capabilities for site analysis.
    • Optimize procurement and operations costs for the WEM platform.

    Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

    1. Launch the WEM project and collect requirements

    Conduct a market overview, structure the project, and gather requirements.

    • Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution – Phase 1: Launch the WEM Project and Collect Requirements
    • WEM Project Charter Template
    • WEM Use-Case Fit Assessment Tool

    2. Select a WEM solution

    Analyze and shortlist vendors in the space and select a WEM solution.

    • Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution – Phase 2: Select a WEM Solution
    • WEM Vendor Shortlist & Detailed Feature Analysis Tool
    • WEM Vendor Demo Script Template
    • WEM RFP Template

    3. Plan the WEM implementation

    Plan the implementation and evaluate project metrics.

    • Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution – Phase 3: Plan the WEM Implementation
    • WEM Work Breakdown Structure Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution

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

    1 Launch of the WEM Selection Project

    The Purpose

    Discuss the general project overview for the WEM selection.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Launch of your WEM selection project.

    Development of your organization’s WEM requirements.

    Activities

    1.1 Facilitation of activities from the Launch the WEM Project and Collect Requirements phase, including project scoping and resource planning.

    1.2 Conduct overview of the WEM market landscape, trends, and vendors.

    1.3 Conduct process mapping for selected marketing processes.

    1.4 Interview business stakeholders.

    1.5 Prioritize WEM functional requirements.

    Outputs

    WEM Procurement Project Charter

    WEM Use-Case Fit Assessment

    2 Plan the Procurement and Implementation Process

    The Purpose

    Plan the procurement and the implementation of the WEM solution.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Selection of a WEM solution.

    A plan for implementing the selected WEM solution.

    Activities

    2.1 Complete marketing process mapping with business stakeholders.

    2.2 Interview IT staff and project team, identify technical requirements for the WEM suite, and document high-level solution requirements.

    2.3 Perform a use-case scenario assessment, review use-case scenario results, identify use-case alignment, and review the WEM Vendor Landscape vendor profiles and performance.

    2.4 Create a custom vendor shortlist and investigate additional vendors for exploration in the marketplace.

    2.5 Meet with project manager to discuss results and action items.

    Outputs

    Vendor Shortlist

    WEM RFP

    Vendor Evaluations

    Selection of a WEM Solution

    WEM projected work break-down

    Implementation plan

    Framework for WEM deployment and CRM/Marketing Management Suite Integration

    Craft a Customer-Driven Market Strategy With Unbiased Data

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}611|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: Selection & Implementation
    • Parent Category Link: /selection-and-implementation
    • Market strategies are informed by gut feel and endless brainstorming instead of market data to take their product from concept to customer.
    • Hiring independent market research firms results in a lack of unbiased third-party data. Research firms tell vendors what they want to hear instead of offering an agnostic view of software trends.
    • Dissatisfied customers don’t tell you directly why they are leaving, so there is no feedback loop back into product improvements.
    • Often a market strategy is built after a product is developed to force the product’s fit in the market. The product marketing team has no say in the product vision or future improvements.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Adopt the 5 P’s to building a winning market strategy: Proposition, Product, Pricing, Placement, and Promotion.
    • You can’t be everything to everyone. Testing your proposition in the market to see what sticks is a risky move. Promise future value using past successes by gaining a deeper understanding of which customers and submarkets truly align to your product.
    • Customers have learned to avoid shiny new objects but still expect rapid feature releases. Differentiating features require a closer look at the underpinning vendor capabilities. Having intentional feature releases requires a feedback loop into the product roadmap and increases influence by the product marketing team.
    • Price transparency and sensitivity should drive what you offer to customers. Negotiating solely on price is a race to the bottom.

    Impact and Result

    • Leverage this report to gain insights on the software selection process and what top vendors do best.
    • Gain a bird’s-eye view on customer purchasing behavior using over 40,000 data points on satisfaction and importance collected directly from the source.
    • Build a winning market strategy influenced by real customer data that drives vendor success.

    Craft a Customer-Driven Market Strategy With Unbiased Data Research & Tools

    Read the storyboard

    Read our storyboard to find out why you should leverage SoftwareReviews data to craft your market strategy, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand unbiased customer data on software purchasing triggers.

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

    • Craft a Customer-Driven Market Strategy With Unbiased Data Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Optimize the Mentoring Program to Build a High-Performing Learning Organization

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}596|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: Employee Development
    • Parent Category Link: /train-and-develop
    • Many organizations have introduced mentoring programs without clearly defining and communicating the purpose and goals around having a program; they simply jumped on the mentoring bandwagon.
    • As a result, these programs have little impact. They don’t add value for mentors, mentees, or the organization.
    • It can be difficult to design a program that is well-suited to your organization, will be adopted by employees, and will drive the results you are looking for.
    • In particular, it is difficult to successfully match mentors and mentees so both derive maximum value from the endeavor.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • As workforce composition shifts, there is a need for mentoring programs to move beyond the traditional senior–junior format option; organizational culture and goals will dictate the best approach.
    • An organization’s mentoring program doesn’t need to be restricted to one format; individual preferences and goals should also factor in. Be open to choosing format on a case-by-case basis.
    • Be sure to gain upper management buy-in and support early to ensure mentoring becomes a valued part of your organization.
    • Ensure that goal setting, communication, ongoing support for participants, and evaluation all play a role in your mentoring program.

    Impact and Result

    • Mentoring can have a significant positive impact on mentor, mentee, and organization.
    • Mentees gain guidance and advice on their career path and skill development. Mentors often experience re-engagement with their job and the satisfaction of helping another person.
    • Mentoring participants benefit from obtaining different perspectives of both the business and work-related problems. Participation in a mentoring program has been linked to greater access to promotions, pay raises, and increased job satisfaction.
    • Mentoring can have a number of positive outcomes for the organization, including breaking down silos, transferring institutional knowledge, accelerating leadership skills, fostering open communication and dialogue, and resolving conflict.

    Optimize the Mentoring Program to Build a High-Performing Learning Organization Research & Tools

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

    1. Align the mentoring program with the organizational culture and goals

    Build a best-fit program that creates a learning culture.

    • Storyboard: Optimize the Mentoring Program to Build a High Performing Learning Organization

    2. Assess the organizational culture and current mentoring program

    Align mentoring practices with culture to improve the appropriateness and effectiveness of the program.

    • Mentoring Program Diagnostic

    3. Align mentoring practices with culture to improve the appropriateness and effectiveness of the program.

    Track project progress and have all program details defined in a central location.

    • Mentoring Project Plan Template
    • Peer Mentoring Guidelines
    • Mentoring Program Guidelines

    4. Gather feedback from the mentoring program participants

    Evaluate the success of the program.

    • Mentoring Project Feedback Surveys Template

    5. Get mentoring agreements in place

    Improve your mentoring capabilities.

    • Mentee Preparation Checklist
    • Mentoring Agreement Template
    [infographic]

    Kick-Start IT-Led Business Innovation

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}87|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.2/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $38,844 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 8 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation
    • The CIO is not considered a strategic partner. The business may be satisfied with IT services, but no one is looking to IT to solve business problems or drive the enterprise forward.
    • Even if IT staff do generate ideas that will improve operational efficiency or enable the business, few are ever assessed or executed upon.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Business demand for new technology is creating added pressure to innovate and executive stakeholders expect more from IT. If IT is not viewed as a source of innovation, its perceived value will decrease and the threat of shadow IT will grow. Do not wait to start finding and capitalizing on opportunities for IT-led innovation.

    Impact and Result

    • Start innovating right away. All you need are business pains and people willing to ideate around them.
    • Assemble a small team and arm them with proven techniques for identifying unique opportunities for innovation, developing impactful solutions, and prototyping quickly and effectively. Incubate a reservoir of ideas, both big and small, so that you are ready to execute on innovative projects when the timing is right.
    • Once you have demonstrated IT’s ability to innovate, mature your capability with a permanent innovation process and program.

    Kick-Start IT-Led Business Innovation Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should create innovation processes, 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 innovation

    Sponsor a mandate for innovation and assemble a small team to start sourcing ideas with IT staff.

    • Kick-Start IT-Led Business Innovation – Phase 1: Launch Innovation
    • Innovation Working Group Charter

    2. Ideate

    Identify critical opportunities for innovation and brainstorm effective solutions.

    • Kick-Start IT-Led Business Innovation – Phase 2: Ideate
    • Idea Document
    • Idea Reservoir Tool

    3. Prototype

    Prototype ideas rapidly to gain user feedback, refine solutions, and make a compelling case for project investment.

    • Kick-Start IT-Led Business Innovation – Phase 3: Prototype
    • Prototyping Workbook
    • Prototype Assessment

    4. Mature innovation capability

    Formalize the innovation process and implement a program to create a strong culture of innovation in IT.

    • Kick-Start IT-Led Business Innovation – Phase 4: Mature Innovation Capability

    Infographic

    Workshop: Kick-Start IT-Led Business Innovation

    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 Innovation

    The Purpose

    Introduce innovation.

    Assess overall IT maturity to understand what you want to achieve with innovation.

    Define the innovation mandate.

    Introduce ideation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A set of shared objectives for innovation will be defined.

    A mandate will be created to help focus innovation efforts on what is most critical to the advancement of IT's maturity.

    The group will be introduced to ideation and prepared to begin addressing critical IT or business pains.

    Activities

    1.1 Define workshop goals and objectives.

    1.2 Introduce innovation.

    1.3 Assess IT maturity.

    1.4 Define the innovation mandate.

    1.5 Introduce ideation.

    Outputs

    Workshop goals and objectives.

    An understanding of innovation.

    IT maturity assessment.

    Sponsored innovation mandate.

    An understanding of ideation.

    2 Ideate, Part I

    The Purpose

    Identify and prioritize opportunities for IT-led innovation.

    Map critical processes to identify the pains that should be ideated around.

    Brainstorm potential solutions.

    Assess, pitch, and prioritize ideas that should be investigated further.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    The team will learn best practices for ideation.

    Critical pain points that might be addressed through innovation will be identified and well understood.

    A number of ideas will be generated that can solve identified pains and potentially feed the project pipeline.

    The team will prioritize the ideas that should be investigated further and prototyped after the workshop.

    Activities

    2.1 Identify processes that present opportunities for IT-led innovation.

    2.2 Map selected processes.

    2.3 Finalize problem statements.

    2.4 Generate ideas.

    2.5 Assess ideas.

    2.6 Pitch and prioritize ideas.

    Outputs

    A list of processes with high opportunity for IT-enablement.

    Detailed process maps that highlight pain points and stakeholder needs.

    Problem statements to ideate around.

    A long list of ideas to address pain points.

    Detailed idea documents.

    A shortlist of prioritized ideas to investigate further.

    3 Ideate, Part II

    The Purpose

    Ideate around a more complex problem that presents opportunity for IT-led innovation.

    Map the associated process to define pain points and stakeholder needs in detail.

    Brainstorm potential solutions.

    Assess, pitch, and prioritize ideas that should be investigated further.

    Introduce prototyping.

    Map the user journey for prioritized ideas.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    The team will be ready to facilitate ideation independently with other staff after the workshop.

    A critical problem that might be addressed through innovation will be defined and well understood.

    A number of innovative ideas will be generated that can solve this problem and help IT position itself as a source of innovative projects.

    Ideas will be assessed and prioritized for further investigation and prototyping after the workshop.

    The team will learn best practices for prototyping.

    The team will identify the assumptions that need to be tested when top ideas are prototyped.

    Activities

    3.1 Select an urgent opportunity for IT-led innovation.

    3.2 Map the associated process.

    3.3 Finalize the problem statement.

    3.4 Generate ideas.

    3.5 Assess ideas.

    3.6 Pitch and prioritize ideas.

    3.7 Introduce prototyping.

    3.8 Map the user journey for top ideas.

    Outputs

    Selection of a process which presents a critical opportunity for IT-enablement.

    Detailed process map that highlights pain points and stakeholder needs.

    Problem statement to ideate around.

    A long list of ideas to solve the problem.

    Detailed idea documents.

    A shortlist of prioritized ideas to investigate further.

    An understanding of effective prototyping techniques.

    A user journey for at least one of the top ideas.

    4 Implement an Innovation Process and Program

    The Purpose

    Establish a process for generating, managing, prototyping, prioritizing, and approving new ideas.

    Create an action plan to operationalize your new process.

    Develop a program to help support the innovation process and nurture your innovators.

    Create an action plan to implement your innovation program.

    Decide how innovation success will be measured.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    The team will learn best practices for managing innovation.

    The team will be ready to operationalize an effective process for IT-led innovation. You can start scheduling ideation sessions as soon as the workshop is complete.

    The team will understand the current innovation ecosystem: drivers, barriers, and enablers.

    The team will be ready to roll out an innovation program that will help generate wider engagement with IT-led innovation.

    You will be ready to measure and report on the success of your program.

    Activities

    4.1 Design an IT-led innovation process.

    4.2 Assign roles and responsibilities.

    4.3 Generate an action plan to roll out the process.

    4.4 Determine critical process metrics to track.

    4.5 Identify innovation drivers, enablers, and barriers.

    4.6 Develop a program to nurture a culture of innovation.

    4.7 Create an action plan to jumpstart each of your program components.

    4.8 Determine critical metrics to track.

    4.9 Summarize findings and gather feedback.

    Outputs

    A process for IT-led innovation.

    Defined process roles and responsibilities.

    An action plan for operationalizing the process.

    Critical process metrics to measure success.

    A list of innovation drivers, enablers, and barriers.

    A program for innovation that will leverage enablers and minimize barriers.

    An action plan to roll out your innovation program.

    Critical program metrics to track.

    Overview of workshop results and feedback.

    Adding the Right Value: Building Cloud Brokerages That Enable

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}110|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: Strategy and Organizational Design
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-organizational-design

    In many cases, the answer is to develop a cloud brokerage to manage the complexity. But what should your cloud broker be delivering, and how?

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • To avoid failure, you need to provide security and compliance, but basic user satisfaction means becoming a frictionless intermediary.
    • Enabling brokers provide knowledge and guidance for the best usage of cloud.
    • While GCBs fill a critical role as a control point for IT consumption, they can easily turn into a friction point for IT projects. It’s important to find the right balance between enabling compliance and providing frictionless usability.

    Impact and Result

    • Avoid disintermediation.
    • Maintain compliance.
    • Leverage economies of scale.
    • Ensure architecture discipline.

    Adding the Right Value: Building Cloud Brokerages That Enable Research & Tools

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

    1. Build a Cloud Brokerage Deck – A guide to help you start designing a cloud brokerage that delivers value beyond gatekeeping.

    Define the value, ecosystem, and metrics required to add value as a brokerage. Develop a brokerage value proposition that aligns with your audience and capabilities. Define and rationalize the ecosystem of partners and value-add activities for your brokerage. Define KPIs that allow you to maximize and balance both usability and compliance.

    • Adding the Right Value: Building Cloud Brokerages That Enable Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Adding the Right Value: Building Cloud Brokerages That Enable

    Considerations for implementing an institutional-focused cloud brokerage.

    Your Challenge

    Increasingly, large institutions and governments are adopting cloud-first postures for delivering IT resources. Combined with the growth of cloud offerings that are able to meet the certifications and requirements of this segment that has been driven by federal initiatives like Cloud-First in Canada and Cloud Smart in the United States, these two factors have left institutions (and the businesses that serve them) with the challenge of delivering cloud services to their users while maintaining compliance, control, and IT sanity.

    In many cases, the answer is to develop a cloud brokerage to manage the complexity. But what should your cloud broker be delivering and how?

    Navigating the Problem

    Not all cloud brokerages are the same. And while they can be an answer to cloud complexity, an ineffective brokerage can drain value and complicate operations even further. Cloud brokerages need to be designed:

    1. To deliver the right type of value to its users.
    2. To strike the balance between effective governance & security and flexibility & ease of use.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    By defining your end goals, framing solutions based on the type of value and rigor your brokerage needs to deliver, and focusing on the right balance of security and flexibility, you can deliver a brokerage that delivers the best of all worlds.

    1. Define the brokerage value you want to deliver.
    2. Build the catalog and partner ecosystem.
    3. Understand how to maximize adoption and minimize disintermediation while maintaining architectural discipline and compliance.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Sometimes a brokerage delivery model makes sense, sometimes it doesn’t! Understanding the value addition you want your brokerage to provide before creating it allows you to not only avoid pitfalls and maximize benefits but also understand when a brokerage model does and doesn’t make sense in the first place.

    Project Overview

    Understand what value you want your brokerage to deliver

    Different institutions want brokerage delivery for different reasons. It’s important to define up front why your users need to work through a brokerage and what value that brokerage needs to deliver.

    What’s in the catalog? Is it there to consolidate and simplify billing and consumption? Or does it add value further up the technology stack or value chain? If so, how does that change the capabilities you need internally and from partners?

    Security and compliance are usually the highest priority

    Among institutions adopting cloud, a broker that can help deliver their defined security and compliance standards is an almost universal requirement. Especially in government institutions, this can mean the need to meet a high standard in both implementation and validation.

    The good news is that even if you lack the complete set of skills in-house, the high certification levels available from hyperscale providers combined with a growing ecosystem of service providers working on these platforms means you can usually find the right partner(s) to make it possible.

    The real goal: frictionless intermediation and enablement

    Ultimately, if end users can’t get what they need from you, they will go around you to get it. This challenge, which has always existed in IT, is further amplified in a cloud service world that offers users a cornucopia of options outside the brokerage. Furthermore, cloud users expect to be able to consume IT seamlessly. Without frictionless satisfaction of user demand your brokerage will become disintermediated, which risks your highest priorities of security and compliance.

    Understand the evolution: Info-Tech thought model

    While initial adoption of cloud brokerages in institutions was focused on ensuring the ability of IT to extend its traditional role as gatekeeper to the realm of cloud services, the focus has now shifted upstream to enabling ease of use and smart adoption of cloud services. This is evidenced clearly in examples like the US government’s renaming of its digital strategy from “Cloud First” to “Cloud Smart” and has been mirrored in other regions and institutions.

    Info-Tech Insights

    To avoid failure, you need to provide security and compliance.

    Basic user satisfaction means becoming a frictionless intermediary.

    Exceed expectations! Enabling brokers provide knowledge and guidance for the best usage of cloud.

    • Security & Compliance
    • Frictionless Intermediation
    • Cloud-Enabling Brokerage

    Define the role of a cloud broker

    Where do brokers fit in the cloud model?

    • NIST Definition: An entity that manages the use, performance, and delivery of cloud services and negotiates relationships between cloud providers and cloud consumers.
    • Similar to a telecom master agent, a cloud broker acts as the middle-person and end-user point of contact, consolidating the management of underlying providers.
    • A government or institutional cloud broker (GCB) is responsible for the delivery of all cloud services consumed by the departments or agencies it supports or that are mandated to use it.

    Balancing governance and agility

    Info-Tech Insight

    While GCBs fill a critical role as a control point for IT consumption, they can easily turn into a friction point for IT projects. It’s important to find the right balance between enabling compliance and providing frictionless usability.

    Model brokerage drivers and benefits

    Reduced costs: Security through standardization: Frictionless consumption: Avoid disinter-mediation; Maintain compliance; Leverage economies of scale; Ensure architecture discipline

    Maintain compliance and ensure architecture discipline: Brokerages can be an effective gating point for ensuring properly governed and managed IT consumption that meets the specific regulations and compliances required for an institution. It can also be a strong catalyst and enabler for moving to even more effective cloud consumption through automation.

    Avoid disintermediation: Especially in institutions, cloud brokers are a key tool in the fight against disintermediation – that is, end users circumventing your IT department’s procurement and governance by consuming an ad hoc cloud service.

    Leverage economies of scale: Simply put, consolidation of your cloud consumption drives effectiveness by making the most of your buying power.

    Info-Tech Insights

    Understanding the importance of each benefit type to your brokerage audience will help you define the type of brokerage you need to build and what skills and partners will be required to deliver the right value.

    The brokerage landscape

    The past ten years have seen governments and institutions evolve from basic acceptance of cloud services to the usage of cloud as the core of most IT initiatives.

    • As part of this evolution, many organizations now have well-defined standards and guidance for the implementation, procurement, and regulation of cloud services for their use.
    • Both Canada (Strategic Plan for Information Management and Information Technology) and the United States (Cloud Smart – formerly known as Cloud First) have recently updated their guidance on adoption of cloud services. The Australian Government has also recently updated its Cloud Computing Policy.
    • AWS and Azure both now claim Full FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) certification.
    • This has not only enabled easy adoption of these core hyperscale cloud service by government but also driven the proliferation of a large ecosystem of FedRAMP-authorized cloud service providers.
    • This trend started with government at the federal level but has cascaded downstream to provincial and municipal governments globally, and the same model seems likely to be adopted by other governments and other institution types over time.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The ecosystem of platforms and tools has grown significantly and examples of best practices, especially in government, are readily available. Once you’ve defined your brokerage’s value stance, the building blocks you need to deliver often don’t need to be built from scratch.

    Address the unique challenges of business-led IT in institutions

    With the business taking more accountability and management of their own technology, brokers must learn how to evolve from being gatekeepers to enablers.

    This image This lists the Cons of IT acting as a gatekeeper providing oversight, and the Pros of IT acting as an Enabler in an IT Partnership.  the Cons are: Restrict System Access; Deliver & Monitor Applications; Own Organizational Risk; Train the Business.  The Pros are: Manage Role-Based Access; Deliver & Monitor Platforms; Share Organizational Risk; Coach & Mentor the Business

    Turn brokerage pitfalls into opportunities

    The greatest risks in using a cloud broker come from its nature as a single point of distribution for service and support. Without resources (or automation) to enable scale, as well as responsive processes for supporting users in finding the right services and making those services available through the brokerage, you will lose alignment with your users’ needs, which inevitably leads to disintermediation, loss of IT control, and broken compliance

    Info-Tech Insights

    Standardization and automation are your friend when building a cloud brokerage! Sometimes this means having a flexible catalog of options and configurations, but great brokerages can deliver value by helping their users redefine and evolve their workloads to work more effectively in the cloud. This means providing guidance and facilitating the landing/transformation of users’ workloads in the cloud, the right way.

    Challenges Impact
    • Single point of failure
    • Managing capacity
    • Alignment of brokerage with underlying agencies
    • Additional layer of complexity
    • Inability to deliver service
    • Disintermediation
    • Broken security/compliance
    • Loss of cost control/purchasing power

    Validate your cloud brokerage strategy using Info-Tech’s approach

    Value Definition

    • Define your brokerage type and value addition

    Capabilities Mapping

    • Understand the partners and capabilities you need to be able to deliver

    Measuring Value

    • Define KPIs for both compliant delivery and frictionless intermediation

    Provide Cloud Excellence

    • Move from intermediation to enablement and help users land on the cloud the right way

    Define the categories for your brokerage’s benefit and value

    Depending on the type of brokerage, the value delivered may be as simple as billing consolidation, but many brokerages go much deeper in their value proposition.

    This image depicts a funnel, where the following inputs make up the Broker Value: Integration, Interface and Management Enhancement; User Identity and Risk Management/ Security & Compliance; Cost & Workload Efficiency, Service Aggregation

    Define the categories of brokerage value to add

    • Purchasing Agents save the purchaser time by researching services from different vendors and providing the customer with information about how to use cloud computing to support business goals.
    • Contract Managers may also be assigned power to negotiate contracts with cloud providers on behalf of the customer. In this scenario, the broker may distribute services across multiple vendors to achieve cost-effectiveness, while managing the technical and procurement complexity of dealing with multiple vendors.
      • The broker may provide users with an application program interface (API) and user interface (UI) that hides any complexity and allows the customer to work with their cloud services as if they were being purchased from a single vendor. This type of broker is sometimes referred to as a cloud aggregator.
    • Cloud Enablers can also provide the customer with additional services, such as managing the deduplication, encryption, and cloud data transfer and assisting with data lifecycle management and other activities.
    • Cloud Customizers integrate various underlying cloud services for customers to provide a custom offering under a white label or its own brand.
    • Cloud Agents are essentially the software version of a Contract Manager and act by automating and facilitating the distribution of work between different cloud service providers.

    Info-Tech Insights

    Remember that these categories are general guidelines! Depending on the requirements and value a brokerage needs to deliver, it may fit more than one category of broker type.

    Brokerage types and value addition

    Info-Tech Insights

    Each value addition your brokerage invests in delivering should tie to reinforcing efficiency, compliance, frictionlessness, or enablement.

    Value Addition Purchasing Agent Contract Manager Cloud Enabler Cloud Customizer Cloud Agent
    Underlying service selection

    Standard Activity

    Standard Activity Standard Activity Standard Activity Common Activity
    Support and info Standard Activity

    Common Activity

    Standard Activity Standard Activity Common Activity
    Contract lifecycle (pricing/negotiation) Standard Activity Common Activity Standard Activity
    Workload distribution (to underlying services) (aggregation) Common Activity Standard Activity Standard Activity Standard Activity
    Value-add or layered on services Standard Activity Common Activity
    Customization/integration of underlying services Standard Activity
    Automated workload distribution (i.e. software) Standard Activity

    Start by delivering value in these common brokerage service categories

    Security & Compliance

    • Reporting & Auditing
    • SIEM & SOC Services
    • Patching & Monitoring

    Cost Management

    • Right-Sizing
    • Billing Analysis
    • Anomaly Detection & Change Recommendations

    Data Management

    • Data Tiering
    • Localization Management
    • Data Warehouse/Lake Services

    Resilience & Reliability

    • Backup & Archive
    • Replication & Sync
    • DR & HA Management
    • Ransomware Prevention/Mitigation

    Cloud-Native & DevOps Enablement

    • Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
    • DevOps Tools & Processes
    • SDLC Automation Tools

    Design, Transformation, and Integration

    • CDN Integration
    • AI Tools Integration
    • SaaS Customizations

    Activity: Brokerage value design

    Who are you and who are you building this for?

    • Internal brokerage (i.e. you are a department in an organization that is tasked with providing IT resources to other internal groups)
      • No profit motivation
      • Primary goal is to maintain compliance and avoid disintermediation
    • Third-party brokerage (i.e. you are an MSP that needs to build a brokerage to provide a variety of downstream services and act as the single point of consumption for an organization)
      • Focus on value-addition to the downstream services you facilitate for your client
      • Increased requirement to quickly add new partners/services from downstream as required by your client

    What requirements and pains do you need to address?

    • Remember that in the world of cloud, users ultimately can go around IT to find the resources and tools they want to use. In short, if you don’t provide ease and value, they will get it somewhere else.
    • Assess the different types of cloud brokerages out there as a guide to what sort of value you want to deliver.

    Why are you creating a brokerage? There are several categories of driver and more than one may apply.

    • Compliance and security gating/validation
    • Cost consolidation and governance
    • Value-add or feature enhancement of raw/downstream services being consumed

    It’s important to clearly understand how best you can deliver unique value to ensure that they want to consume from you.

    This is an image of a Venn diagram between the following: Who are you trying to serve?; Why and how are you uniquely positioned to deliver?; What requirements do they have and what pain points can you help solve?.  Where all three circles overlap is the Brokerage Value Proposition.

    Understand the ecosystem you’ll require to deliver value

    GCB

    • Enabling Effectiveness
    • Cost Governance
    • Adoption and User Satisfaction
    • Security & Compliance

    Whatever value proposition and associated services your brokerage has defined, either internal resources or additional partners will be required to run the platform and processes you want to offer on top of the defined base cloud platforms.

    Info-Tech Insights

    Remember to always align your value adds and activities to the four key themes:

    • Efficiency
    • Compliance
    • Frictionlessness
    • Cloud Enablement

    Delivering value may require an ecosystem

    The additional value your broker delivers will depend on the tools and services you can layer on top of the base cloud platform(s) you support.

    In many cases, you may require different partners to fulfil similar functions across different base platforms. Although this increases complexity for the brokerage, it’s also a place where additional value can be delivered to end users by your role as a frictionless intermediary.

    Base Partner/Platform

    • Third-party software & platforms
    • Third-party automations & integrations
    • Third-party service partners
    • Internal value-add functions

    Build the ecosystem you need for your value proposition

    Leverage partners and automation to bake compliance in.

    Different value-add types (based on the category/categories of broker you’re targeting) require different additional platforms and partners to augment the base cloud service you’re brokering.

    Security & Config

    • IaC Tools
    • Cloud Resource Configuration Validation
    • Templating Tools
    • Security Platforms
    • SDN and Networking Platforms
    • Resilience (Backup/Replication/DR/HA) Platforms
    • Data & Storage Management
    • Compliance and Validation Platforms & Partners

    Cost Management

    • Subscription Hierarchy Management
    • Showback and Chargeback Logic
    • Cost Dashboarding and Thresholding
    • Governance and Intervention

    Adoption & User Satisfaction

    • Service Delivery SLAs
    • Support Process & Tools
    • Capacity/Availability Management
    • Portal Usability/UX

    Speed of Evolution

    • Partner and Catalog/Service Additions
    • Broker Catalog Roadmapping
    • User Request Capture (new services)
    • User Request Capture (exceptions)

    Build your features and services lists

    Incorporate your end user, business, and IT perspectives in defining the list of mandatory and desired features of your target solution.

    See our Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process blueprint for information on procurement practices, including RFP templates.

    End User

    • Visual, drag-and-drop models to define data models, business logic, and user interfaces
    • One-click deployment
    • Self-healing application
    • Vendor-managed infrastructure
    • Active community and marketplace
    • Prebuilt templates and libraries
    • Optical character recognition and natural language processing

    Business

    • Audit and change logs
    • Theme and template builder
    • Template management
    • Knowledgebase and document management
    • Role-based access
    • Business value, operational costs, and other KPI monitoring
    • Regulatory compliance
    • Consistent design and user experience across applications
    • Business workflow automation

    IT

    • 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

    Understand the stakeholders

    Hyperscale Platform/Base Platform: Security; Compliance and Validation;Portal/Front-End; Cost Governance; Broker Value Add(s)

    Depending on the value-add(s) you are trying to deliver, as well as the requirements from your institution(s), you will have a different delineation of responsibilities for each of the value-add dimensions. Typically, there will be at least three stakeholders whose role needs to be considered for each dimension:

    • Base Cloud Provider
    • Third-Party Platforms/Service Providers
    • Internal Resources

    Info-Tech Insights

    It’s important to remember that the ecosystem of third-party options available to you in each case will likely be dependent on if a given partner operates or supports your chosen base provider.

    Define the value added by each stakeholder in your value chain

    Value Addition Cost Governance Security & Compliance Adoption and User Satisfaction New Service Addition Speed End-User Cloud Effectiveness
    Base platform(s)
    Third party
    Internal

    A basic table of the stakeholders and platforms involved in your value stream is a critical tool for aligning activities and partners with brokerage value.

    Remember to tie each value-add category you’re embarking on to at least one of the key themes!

    Cost Governance → Efficiency

    Security & Compliance → Compliance

    Adoption & User Satisfaction → Frictionlessness

    New Service Addition Responsiveness → Frictionlessness, Enablement

    End-User Cloud Effectiveness → Enablement

    Info-Tech Insights

    The expectations for how applications are consumed and what a user experience should look like is increasingly being guided by the business and by the disintermediating power of the cloud-app ecosystem.

    “Enabling brokers” help embrace business-led IT

    In environments where compliance and security are a must, the challenges of handing off application management to the business are even more complex. Great brokers learn to act not just as a gatekeeper but an enabler of business-led IT.

    Business Empowerment

    Organizations are looking to enhance their Agile and BizDevOps practices by shifting traditional IT practices left and toward the business.

    Changing Business Needs

    Organizational priorities are constantly changing. Cost reduction opportunities and competitive advantages are lost because of delayed delivery of features.

    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 significant internal technical support or expertise.

    Democratization of IT

    A wide range of digital applications, services, and information are readily available and continuously updated through vendor and public marketplaces and open-source communities.

    Technology-Savvy Business

    The business is motivated to learn more about the technology they use so that they can better integrate it into their processes.

    Balance usability and compliance: accelerate cloud effectiveness

    Move to being an accelerator and an enabler! Rather than creating an additional layer of complexity, we can use the abstraction of a cloud brokerage to bring a wide variety of value-adds and partners into the ecosystem without increasing complexity for end users.

    Manage the user experience

    • Your portal is a great source of data for optimizing user adoption and satisfaction.
    • Understand the KPIs that matter to your clients or client groups from both a technical and a service perspective.

    Be proactive and responsive in meeting changing needs

    • Determine dashboard consumption by partner view.
    • Regularly review and address the gaps in your catalog.
    • Provide an easy mechanism for adding user-demanded services.

    Think like a service provider

    • You do need to be able to communicate and even market internally new services and capabilities as you add them or people won't know to come to you to use them.
    • It's also critical in helping people move along the path to enablement and knowing what might be possible that they hadn't considered.

    Provide cloud excellence functions

    Enablement Broker

    • Mentorship & Training
      • Build the skills, knowledge, and experiences of application owners and managers with internal and external expertise.
    • Organizational Change Leadership
      • Facilitate cultural, governance, and other organizational changes through strong relationships with business and IT leadership.
    • Good Delivery Practices & Thinking
      • Develop, share, and maintain a toolkit of good software development lifecycle (SDLC) practices and techniques.
    • Knowledge Sharing
      • Centralize a knowledgebase of up-to-date and accurate documentation and develop community forums to facilitate knowledge transfer.
    • Technology Governance & Leadership
      • Implement the organizational standards, policies, and rules for all applications and platforms and coordinate growth and sprawl.
    • Shared Services & Integrations
      • Provide critical services and integrations to support end users with internal resources or approved third-party providers and partners.

    Gauge value with the right metrics

    Focus your effort on measuring key metrics.

    Category

    Purpose

    Examples

    Business Value – The amount of value and benefits delivered. Justify the investment and impact of the brokerage and its optimization to business operations. ROI, user productivity, end-user satisfaction, business operational costs, error rate
    Application Quality – Satisfaction of application quality standards. Evaluate organizational effort to address and maximize user satisfaction and adoption rates. Adoption rate, usage friction metrics, user satisfaction metrics
    Delivery Effectiveness – The delivery efficiency of changes. Enable members to increase their speed to effective deployment, operation, and innovation on cloud platforms. Speed of deployment, landing/migration success metrics

    Determine measures that demonstrate the value of your brokerage by aligning it with your quality definition, value drivers, and users’ goals and objectives. Recognize that your journey will require constant monitoring and refinement to adjust to situations that may arise as you adopt new products, standards, strategies, tactics, processes, and tools.

    Activity Output

    Ultimately, the goal is designing a brokerage that can evolve from gatekeeping to frictionless intermediation to cloud enablement.

    Maintain focus on the value proposition, your brokerage ecosystem, and the metrics that represent enablement for your users and avoid pitfalls and challenges from the beginning.

    Activity: Define your brokerage type and value addition; Understand the partners and capabilities you need to be able to deliver; Define KPIs for both delivery (compliance) and adoption (frictionlessness); Output: GCB Strategy Plan; Addresses: Why and when you should build a GCB; How to avoid pitfalls; How to maximize benefits; How to maximize responsiveness and user satisfaction; How to roadmap and add services with agility.

    Appendix

    Related blueprints and tools

    Document Your Cloud Strategy

    This blueprint covers aligning your value proposition with general cloud requirements.

    Define Your Digital Business Strategy

    Phase 1 of this research covers identifying value chains to be transformed.

    Embrace Business-Managed Applications

    Phase 1 of this research covers understanding the business-managed applications as a factor in developing a frictionless intermediary model.

    Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process

    This blueprint provides information on partner selection and procurement practices, including RFP templates.

    Bibliography

    “3 Types of Cloud Brokers That Can Save the Cloud.” Cloud Computing Topics, n.d. Web.

    Australian Government Cloud Computing Policy. Government of Australia, October 2014. Web.

    “Cloud Smart Policy Overview.” CIO.gov, n.d. Web.

    “From Cloud First to Cloud Smart.” CIO.gov, n.d. Web.

    Gardner, Dana. “Cloud brokering: Building a cloud of clouds.” ZDNet, 22 April 2011. Web.

    Narcisi, Gina. “Cloud, Next-Gen Services Help Master Agents Grow Quickly And Beat 'The Squeeze' “As Connectivity Commissions Decline.” CRN, 14 June 2017. Web.

    Smith, Spencer. “Asigra calls out the perils of cloud brokerage model.” TechTarget, 28 June 2019. Web.

    Tan, Aaron. “Australia issues new cloud computing guidelines.” TechTarget, 27 July 2020. Web.

    The European Commission Cloud Strategy. ec.europa.eu, 16 May 2019. Web.

    “TrustRadius Review: Cloud Brokers 2022.” TrustRadius, 2022. Web.

    Yedlin, Debbie. “Pros and Cons of Using a Cloud Broker.” Technology & Business Integrators, 17 April 2015. Web.

    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}295|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 8.5/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $52,211 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 31 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Asset Management
    • Parent Category Link: /asset-management

    You have a mandate to create an accurate and actionable database of the IT assets in your environment, but:

    • The data you have is often incomplete or wrong.
    • Processes are broken or non-existent.
    • Your tools aren’t up to the task of tracking ever more hardware, software, and relevant metadata.
    • The role of stakeholders outside the core ITAM team isn’t well defined or understood.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides accurate, accessible, actionable data on IT assets. But there’s no value in data for data’s sake. Enable collaboration between IT asset managers, business leaders, and IT leaders to develop an ITAM strategy that maximizes the value they can deliver as service providers.

    Impact and Result

    • Develop an approach and strategy for ITAM that is sustainable and aligned with your business priorities.
    • Clarify the structure for the ITAM program, including scope, responsibility and accountability, centralization vs. decentralization, outsourcing vs. insourcing, and more.
    • Create a practical roadmap to guide improvement.
    • Summarize your strategy and approach using Info-Tech’s templates for review with stakeholders.

    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy Research & Tools

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

    1. Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy – A methodology to create a business-aligned, coherent, and durable approach to ITAM.

    This two-phase, step-by-step methodology will guide you through the activities to build a business-aligned, coherent, and durable approach to ITAM. Review the executive brief at the start of the slide deck for an overview of the methodology and the value it can provide to your organization.

    • Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy – Phases 1-2

    2. ITAM Strategy Template – A presentation-ready repository for the work done as you define your ITAM approach.

    Use this template to document your IT asset management strategy and approach.

    • ITAM Strategy Template

    3. IT Asset Estimations Tracker – A rough-and-ready inventory exercise to help you evaluate the work ahead of you.

    Use this tool to estimate key data points related to your IT asset estate, as well as your confidence in your estimates.

    • IT Asset Estimations Tracker

    Infographic

    Workshop: Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

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

    1 Identify ITAM Priorities & Goals, Maturity, Metrics and KPIs

    The Purpose

    Align key stakeholders to the potential strategic value of the IT asset management practice.

    Ensure the ITAM practice is focused on business-aligned goals.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Define a business-aligned direction and expected outcomes for your ITAM program.

    Activities

    1.1 Brainstorm ITAM opportunities and challenges.

    1.2 Conduct an executive alignment working session.

    1.3 Set ITAM priorities, goals and tactics.

    1.4 Identify target and current state ITAM maturity.

    Outputs

    ITAM opportunities and challenges

    Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities.

    ITAM metrics and KPIs

    ITAM maturity

    2 Identify Your Approach to Support ITAM Priorities and Goals

    The Purpose

    Translate goals into specific and coherent actions to enable your ITAM practice to deliver business value.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A business-aligned approach to ITAM, encompassing scope, structure, tools, audits, budgets, documentation and more.

    A high-level roadmap to achieve your vision for the ITAM practice.

    Activities

    2.1 Define ITAM scope.

    2.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting).

    2.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities.

    2.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice.

    2.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices.

    2.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations.

    2.7 Create a plan for internal and external audits.

    2.8 Improve your budget processes.

    2.9 Establish a documentation framework.

    2.10 Create a roadmap and communication plan.

    Outputs

    Your ITAM approach

    ITAM roadmap and communication plan

    Further reading

    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

    Define your business-aligned approach to ITAM.

    Table of Contents

    4 Analyst Perspective

    5 Executive Summary

    17 Phase 1: Establish Business-Aligned ITAM Goals and Priorities

    59 Phase 2: Support ITAM Goals and Priorities

    116 Bibliography

    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

    Define your business-aligned approach to ITAM.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Track hardware and software. Seems easy, right?

    It’s often taken for granted that IT can easily and accurately provide definitive answers to questions like “how many laptops do we have at Site 1?” or “do we have the right number of SQL licenses?” or “how much do we need to budget for device replacements next year?” After all, don’t we know what we have?

    IT can’t easily provide these answers because to do so you must track hardware and software throughout its lifecycle – which is not easy. And unfortunately, you often need to respond to these questions on very short notice because of an audit or to support a budgeting exercise.

    IT Asset Management (ITAM) is the solution. It’s not a new solution – the discipline has been around for decades. But the key to success is to deploy the practice in a way that is sustainable, right-sized, and maximizes value.

    Use our practical methodology to develop and document your approach to ITAM that is aligned with the goals of your organization.

    Photo of Andrew Sharp, Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations Practice, Info-Tech Research Group.

    Andrew Sharp
    Research Director
    Infrastructure & Operations Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Realize the value of asset management

    Cost optimization, application rationalization and reduction of technical debt are all considered valuable to right-size spending and improve service outcomes. Without access to accurate data, these activities require significant investments of time and effort, starting with creation of point-in-time inventories, which lengthens the timeline to reaching project value and may still not be accurate.

    Cost optimization and reduction of technical debt should be part of your culture and technical roadmap rather than one-off projects. Why? Access to accurate information enables the organization to quickly make decisions and pivot plans as needed. Through asset management, ongoing harvest and redeployment of assets improves utilization-to-spend ratios. We would never see any organization saying, “We’ve closed our year end books, let’s fire the accountants,” but often see this valuable service relegated to the back burner. Similar to the philosophy that “the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago and the next best time is now,” the sooner you can start to collect, validate, and analyze data, the sooner you will find value in it.

    Photo of Sandi Conrad, Principal Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations Practice, Info-Tech Research Group.

    Sandi Conrad
    Principal Research Director
    Infrastructure & Operations Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    You have a mandate to create an accurate and actionable database of the IT assets in your environment, but:

    • The data you have is often incomplete or wrong.
    • Processes are broken or non-existent.
    • Your tools aren’t up to the task of tracking ever more hardware, software, and relevant metadata.
    • The role of stakeholders outside the core ITAM team isn’t well defined or understood.
    Common Obstacles

    It is challenging to make needed changes because:

    • There’s cultural resistance to asset tracking, it’s seen as busywork that doesn’t clearly create value.
    • Decentralized IT teams aren’t generating the data required to track hardware and licenses.
    • ITAM can’t direct needed tool improvements because the admins don’t report to ITAM.
    • It’s hard to find time to improve processes given the day-to-day demands on your time.
    Info-Tech’s Approach
    • Develop an approach and strategy for ITAM that is sustainable and aligned with your business priorities.
    • Clarify the structure for the ITAM program, including scope, responsibility and accountability, centralization vs. decentralization, outsourcing vs. insourcing, and more.
    • Create a practical roadmap to guide improvement.
    • Summarize your strategy and approach using Info-Tech’s templates for review with stakeholders.

    Info-Tech Insight

    ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides accurate, accessible, actionable data on IT assets. But there’s no value in data for data’s sake. Enable collaboration between IT asset managers, business leaders, and IT leaders to develop an ITAM strategy that maximizes the value they can deliver as service providers.

    Unlock business value with IT asset management

    • IT asset management (ITAM) is the practice of maintaining accurate, accessible, and actionable data on the assets within the organization’s IT estate. Each IT asset will have a record that tracks it across its lifecycle from purchase to disposal.
    • ITAM’s value is realized through other processes and practice areas that can leverage ITAM data to manage risk, improve IT services, and control costs.
    • Develop an approach to ITAM that maximizes the value delivered to the business and IT. ITAM succeeds when its partners succeed at delivering business value, and it fails when it doesn’t show value to those partners.

    This blueprint will help you develop your approach for the management of IT hardware and software, including cloud services. Leverage other Info-Tech methodologies to dive directly into developing hardware asset management procedures, software asset management procedures, or to implement configuration management best practices.

    Info-Tech Members report significant savings from implementing our hardware and software asset management frameworks. In order to maximize value from the process-focused methodologies below, develop your ITAM strategy first.

    Implement Hardware Asset Management (Based on Info-Tech Measured Value Surveys results from clients working through these blueprints, as of February 2022.)

    9.6/10

    $23k

    32

    Overall Impact Average $ Saved Average Days Saved
    Implement Software Asset Management (Based on Info-Tech Measured Value Surveys results from clients working through these blueprints, as of February 2022.)

    9.0/10

    $12k

    5

    Overall Impact Average $ Saved Average Days Saved

    ITAM provides both early and ongoing value

    ITAM isn’t one-and-done. Properly supported, your ITAM practice will deliver up-front value that will help demonstrate the value ongoing ITAM can offer through the maintenance of an accurate, accessible, and actionable ITAM database.

    Example: Software Savings from ITAM



    This chart shows the money saved between the first quote and the final price for software and maintenance by a five-person ITAM team. Over a year and a half, they saved their organization a total of $7.5 million from a first quote total of $21 million over that period.

    This is a perfect example of the direct value that ITAM can provide on an ongoing basis to the organization, when properly supported and integrated with IT and the business.

    Examples of up-front value delivered in the first year of the ITAM practice:

    • Save money by reviewing and renegotiating critical, high-spend, and undermanaged software and service contracts.
    • Redeploy or dispose of clearly unused hardware and software.
    • Develop and enforce standards for basic hardware and software.
    • Improve ITAM data quality and build trust in the results.

    Examples of long-term value from ongoing governance, management, and operational ITAM activities:

    • Optimize spend: Reallocate unused hardware and software, end unneeded service agreements, and manage renewals and audits.
    • Reduce risk: Provide comprehensive asset data for security controls development and incident management; manage equipment disposal.
    • Improve IT service: Support incident, problem, request, and change management with ITAM data. Develop new solutions with an understanding of what you have already.

    Common obstacles

    The rulebook is available, but hard to follow
    • ITAM takes a village, but stakeholders aren’t aware of their role. ITAM processes rely on technicians to update asset records, vendors to supply asset data, administrators to manage tools, leadership to provide direction and support, and more.
    • Constant change in the IT and business environment undermines the accuracy of ITAM records (e.g. licensing and contract changes, technology changes that break discovery tools, personnel and organizational changes).
    • Improvement efforts are overwhelmed by day-to-day activities. One study found that 83% of SAM teams’ time is consumed by audit-related activities. (Flexera State of ITAM Report 2022) A lack of improvement becomes a vicious cycle when stakeholders who don’t see the value of ITAM decline to dedicate resources for improvement.
    • Stakeholders expect ITAM tools to be a cure-all, but even at their best, they can’t provide needed answers without some level of configuration, manual input, and supervision.
    • There’s often a struggle to connect ITAM to value. For example, respondents to Info-Tech’s Management & Governance Diagnostic consistently rank ITAM as less important than other processes that ITAM directly supports (e.g. budget management and budget optimization). (Info-Tech MGD Diagnostic (n=972 unique organizations))
    ITAM is a mature discipline with well-established standards, certifications, and tools, but we still struggle with it.
    • Only 28% of SAM teams track IaaS and PaaS spend, and only 35% of SAM teams track SaaS usage.
    • Increasing SAM maturity is a challenge for 76% of organizations.
    • 10% of organizations surveyed have spent more than $5 million in the last three years in audit penalties and true-ups.
    • Half of all of organizations lack a viable SAM tool.
    • Seventy percent of SAM teams have a shortfall of qualified resources.
    • (Flexera State of ITAM Report 2022)

    Info-Tech's IT Asset Management Framework (ITAM)

    Adopt, manage, and mature activities to enable business value thorugh actionable, accessible, and accurate ITAM data

    Logo for Info-Tech Research Group. Enable Business Value Logo for #iTRG.
    Business-Aligned Spend
    Optimization and Transparency
    Facilitate IT Services
    and Products
    Actionable, Accessible,
    and Accurate Data
    Context-Aware Risk Management
    and Security Controls

    Plan & Govern

    Business Goals, Risks, and Structure
    • ITAM Goals & Priorities
    • Roles, Accountability, Responsibilities
    • Scope
    Ongoing Management Commitment
    • Resourcing & Funding
    • Policies & Enforcement
    • Continuous Improvement
    Culture
    • ITAM Education, Awareness & Training
    • Organizational Change Management
    Section title 'Operate' with a cycle surrounding key components of Operate: 'Data Collection & Validation', 'Tool Administration', 'License Management', and 'Lease Management'. The cycle consists of 'Request', 'Procure', 'Receive', 'Deploy', 'Manage', 'Retire & Dispose', and back to 'Request'.

    Build & Manage

    Tools & Data
    • ITAM Tool Selection & Deployment
    • Configuration Management Synchronization
    • IT Service Management Integration
    Process
    • Process Management
    • Data & Process Audits
    • Document Management
    People, Policies, and Providers
    • Stakeholder Management
    • Technology Standardization
    • Vendor & Contract Management

    Info-Tech Insight

    ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides actionable, accessible, and accurate data on IT assets. But there's no value in data for data's sake. Use this methodology to enable collaboration between ITAM, the business, and IT to develop an approach to ITAM that maximizes the value the ITAM team can deliver as service providers.

    Key deliverable

    IT asset management requires ongoing practice – you can’t just implement it and walk away.

    Our methodology will help you build a business-aligned strategy and approach for your ITAM practice with the following outputs:

    • Business-aligned ITAM priorities, opportunities, and goals.
    • Current and target state ITAM maturity.
    • Metrics and KPIs.
    • Roles, responsibilities, and accountability.
    • Insourcing, outsourcing, and (de)centralization.
    • Tools and technology.
    • A documentation framework.
    • Initiatives, a roadmap, and a communication plan.
    Each step of this blueprint is designed to help you create your IT asset management strategy:
    Sample of Info-Tech's key deliverable 'IT Asset Management' blueprint.

    Info-Tech’s methodology to develop an IT asset management strategy

    1. Establish business-aligned ITAM goals and priorities 2. Identify your approach to support ITAM priorities and goals
    Phase Steps
    • 1.1 Define ITAM and brainstorm opportunities and challenges.
    • Executive Alignment Working Session:
    • 1.2 Review organizational priorities, strategy, and key initiatives.
    • 1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities and priorities.
    • 1.4 Identify business-aligned ITAM goals and target maturity.
    • 1.5 Write mission and vision statements.
    • 1.6 Define ITAM metrics and KPIs.
    • 2.1 Define ITAM scope.
    • 2.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting).
    • 2.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities.
    • 2.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice.
    • 2.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices.
    • 2.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations.
    • 2.7 Create a plan for internal and external audits.
    • 2.8 Improve your budget processes.
    • 2.9 Establish a documentation framework.
    • 2.10 Create a roadmap and communication plan.
    Phase Outcomes Defined, business-aligned goals and priorities for ITAM. Establish an approach to achieving ITAM goals and priorities including scope, structure, tools, service management integrations, documentation, and more.
    Project Outcomes Develop an approach and strategy for ITAM that is sustainable and aligned with your business priorities.

    Insight Summary

    There’s no value in data for data’s sake

    ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides accurate, accessible, actionable data on IT assets. Enable collaboration between IT asset managers, business leaders, and IT leaders to develop an approach to ITAM that maximizes the value they can deliver as service providers.

    Service provider to a service provider

    ITAM is often viewed (when it’s viewed at all) as a low-value administrative task that doesn’t directly drive business value. This can make it challenging to build a case for funding and resources.

    Your ITAM strategy is a critical component to help you define how ITAM can best deliver value to your organization, and to stop creating data for the sake of data or just to fight the next fire.

    Collaboration over order-taking

    To align ITAM practices to deliver organizational value, you need a very clear understanding of the organization’s goals – both in the moment and as they change over time.

    Ensure your ITAM team has clear line of sight to business strategy, objectives, and decision-makers, so you can continue to deliver value as priorities change

    Embrace dotted lines

    ITAM teams rely heavily on staff, systems, and data beyond their direct area of control. Identify how you will influence key stakeholders, including technicians, administrators, and business partners.

    Help them understand how ITAM success relies on their support, and highlight how their contributions have created organizational value to encourage ongoing support.

    Project benefits

    Benefits for IT
    • Set a foundation and direction for an ITAM practice that will allow IT to manage risk, optimize spend, and enhance services in line with business requirements.
    • Establish accountability and responsibility for essential ITAM activities. Decide where to centralize or decentralize accountability and authority. Identify where outsourcing could add value.
    • Create a roadmap with concrete, practical next steps to develop an effective, right-sized ITAM practice.
    Stock image of a trophy. Benefits for the business
    • Plan and control technology spend with confidence based on trustworthy ITAM data.
    • Enhance IT’s ability to rapidly and effectively support new priorities and launch new projects. Effective ITAM can support more streamlined procurement, deployment, and management of assets.
    • Implement security controls that reflect your total technology footprint. Reduce the risk that a forgotten device or unmanaged software turns your organization into the next Colonial Pipeline.

    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 around 12 calls over the course of 6 months.

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

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

    Call #2: Review business priorities.

    Call #3: Identify ITAM goals & target maturity.

    Call #4: Identify metrics and KPIs. Call #5: Define ITAM scope.

    Call #6: Acquire ITAM services.

    Call #7: ITAM structure and RACI.

    Call #8: ITAM and service management.

    Tools and integrations.

    Call #10: Internal and external audits.

    Call #11: Budgets & documentation

    Call #12: Roadmap, comms plan. Wrap-up.

    Phase 1 Phase 2

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com1-888-670-8889
    Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
    Identify ITAM priorities & goals, maturity, metrics and KPIs
    Identify your approach to support ITAM priorities and goals
    Next Steps and wrap-Up (offsite)
    Activities

    1.1 Define ITAM.

    1.2 Brainstorm ITAM opportunities and challenges.

    Conduct an executive alignment working session:

    1.3 Review organizational priorities, strategy, and key initiatives.

    1.4 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities.

    1.5 Set ITAM priorities.

    2.1 Translate opportunities into ITAM goals and tactics.

    2.2 Identify target and current state ITAM maturity.

    2.3 Create mission and vision statements.

    2.4 Identify key ITAM metrics and KPIs.

    3.1 Define ITAM scope.

    3.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting)

    3.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities.

    3.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice.

    3.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices.

    3.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations.

    4.1 Create a plan for internal and external audits.

    4.2 Improve your budget processes.

    4.3 Establish a documentation framework and identify documentation gaps.

    4.4 Create a roadmap and 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. ITAM opportunities and challenges.
    2. Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities.
    3. Set ITAM priorities.
    1. ITAM goals and tactics.
    2. Current and target ITAM maturity.
    3. Mission and vision statements.
    4. ITAM metrics and KPIs.
    1. Decisions that will shape your ITAM approach, including:
      1. What’s in scope (hardware, software, and cloud services).
      2. Where to centralize, decentralize, or outsource ITAM activities.
      3. Accountability, responsibility, and structure for ITAM activities.
      4. Service management alignment, tooling gaps, audit plans, budget processes, and required documentation.
    2. A roadmap and communication plan.
    1. Your completed ITAM strategy template.
    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

    Phase 1:

    Establish business-aligned ITAM goals and priorities

    Phase 1

    1.1 Define ITAM and brainstorm opportunities and challenges.

    Executive Alignment Working Session:

    1.2 Review organizational priorities, strategy, and key initiatives.

    1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities & priorities.

    1.4 Identify business-aligned ITAM goals and target maturity.

    1.5 Write mission and vision statements.

    1.6 Define ITAM metrics and KPIs.

    Phase 2

    2.1 Define ITAM scope.

    2.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting).

    2.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities.

    2.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice.

    2.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices.

    2.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations.

    2.7 Create a plan for internal and external audits.

    2.8 Improve your budget processes.

    2.9 Establish a documentation framework.

    2.10 Create a roadmap and communication plan.

    Phase Outcomes:

    Defined, business-aligned goals, priorities, and KPIs for ITAM. A concise vision and mission statement. The direction you need to establish a practical, right-sized, effective approach to ITAM for your organization.

    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 a success by working through these steps before you start work on your IT asset management strategy.

    1. Identify participants

    Review recommended roles and identify who should participate in the development of your ITAM strategy.

    2. Estimate assets managed today

    Work through an initial assessment to establish ease of access to ITAM data and your level of trust in the data available to you.

    3. Create a working folder

    Create a repository to house your notes and any work in progress, including your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template.

    0.1 Identify participants

    30 minutes

    Output: List of key roles for the strategy exercises outlined in this methodology

    Participants: Project sponsor, Lead facilitator, ITAM manager and SMEs

    This methodology relies on having the right stakeholders in the room to identify ITAM goals, challenges, roles, structure, and more. On each activity slide in this deck, you’ll see an outline of the recommended participants. Use the table below to translate the recommended roles into specific people in your organization. Note that some people may fill multiple roles.

    Role Expectations People
    Project Sponsor Accountable for the overall success of the methodology. Ideally, participates in all exercises in this methodology. May be the asset manager or whoever they report to. Jake Long
    Lead Facilitator Leads, schedules, and manages all working sessions. Guides discussions and ensures activity outputs are completed. Owns and understands the methodology. Has a working knowledge of ITAM. Robert Loblaw
    Asset Manager(s) SME for the ITAM practice. Provides strategic direction to mature ITAM practices in line with organizational goals. Supports the facilitator. Eve Maldonado
    ITAM Team Hands-on ITAM professionals and SMEs. Includes the asset manager. Provide input on tactical ITAM opportunities and challenges. Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent
    IT Leaders & Managers Leaders of key stakeholder groups from across the IT department – the CIO and direct reports. Provide input on what IT needs from ITAM, and the role their teams should play in ITAM activities. May include delegates, particularly those familiar with day-to-day processes relevant to a particular discussion or exercise. Marcelina Hardy, Edmund Broughton
    ITAM Business Partners Non-IT business stakeholders for ITAM. This could include procurement, vendor management, accounting, and others. Zhang Jin, Effie Lamont
    Business Executives Organizational leaders and executives (CFO, COO, CEO, and others) or their delegates. Will participate in a mini-workshop to identify organizational goals and initiatives that can present opportunities for the ITAM practice. Jermaine Mandar, Miranda Kosuth

    0.2 Estimate asset numbers

    1 hour

    Output: Estimates of quantity and spend related to IT assets, Confidence/margin of error on estimates

    Participants: IT asset manager, ITAM team

    What do you know about your current IT environment, and how confident are you in that knowledge?

    This exercise will help you evaluate the size of the challenge ahead in terms of the raw number of assets in your environment, the spend on those assets, and the level of trust your organization has in the ITAM data.

    It is also a baseline snapshot your ability to relay key ITAM metrics quickly and confidently, so you can measure progress (in terms of greater confidence) over time.

    1. Download the estimation tracker below. Add any additional line items that are particularly important to the organization.
    2. Time-box this exercise to an hour. Use your own knowledge and existing data repositories to identify count/spend for each line item, then add a margin of error to your guess. Larger margins of error on larger counts will typically indicate larger risks.
    3. Track any assumptions, data sources used, or SMEs consulted in the comments.

    Download the IT Asset Estimation Tracker

    “Any time there is doubt about the data and it doesn’t get explained or fixed, then a new spreadsheet is born. Data validation and maintenance is critical to avoid the hidden costs of having bad data”

    Allison Kinnaird,
    Operations Practice Lead,
    Info-Tech Research Group

    0.3 Create a working folder

    15 minutes

    Output: A repository for templates and work in progress

    Participants: Lead facilitator

    Create a central repository for collaboration – it seems like an obvious step, but it’s one that gets forgotten about
    1. Download a copy of the ITAM Strategy Template.
      1. This will be the repository for all the work you do in the activities listed in this blueprint; take a moment to read it through and familiarize yourself with the contents.
    2. House the template in a shared repository that can house other related work in progress. Share this folder with participants so they can check in on your progress.
    3. You’ll see this callout box: Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template as you work through activities in this blueprint. Copy the output to the appropriate slide in the ITAM Strategy Template.
    Stock image of a computer screen with a tiny person putting likes on things.

    Collect action items as you go

    Don’t wait until the end to write down your good ideas.
    • The last exercise in this methodology is to gather everything you’ve learned and build a roadmap to improve the ITAM practice.
    • The output of the exercises will inform the roadmap, as they will highlight areas with opportunities for improvement.
    • Write them down as you work through the exercises, or you risk forgetting valuable ideas.
    • Keep an “idea space” – a whiteboard with sticky notes or a shared document – to which any of your participants can post an idea for improvement and that you can review and consolidate later.
    • Encourage participants to add their ideas at any time during the exercises.
    Pad of sticky notes, the top of which reads 'Good ideas go here!'

    Step 1.1: Brainstorm ITAM opportunities and challenges

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Rally the working group around a collection of ideas that, when taken together, create a vision for the future ITAM practice.
    • Identify your organization’s current ITAM challenges.

    “ITAM is a cultural shift more than a technology shift.” (Rory Canavan, SAM Charter)

    What is an IT Asset?

    Any piece of technology can be considered an asset, but it doesn’t mean you need to track everything. Image of three people building a computer from the inside.
    Icon of a power button.

    According to the ISO 19770 standard on ITAM, an IT Asset is “[an] item, thing, or entity that can be used to acquire, process, store and distribute digital information and has potential or actual value to an organization.”
    These are all things that IT is expected to support and manage, or that have the potential to directly impact services that IT supports and manages.

    Icon of a half-full battery.

    IT assets are distinct from capital assets. Some IT assets will also be capital assets, but not all will be. And not all capital assets are IT assets, either.

    Icon of a microphone.

    IT assets are typically tracked by IT, not by finance or accounting.
    IT needs more from their IT asset tracking system than the typical finance department can deliver.
    This can include end-user devices, software, IT infrastructure, cloud-based resources, third-party managed IT services, Internet-of-Things devices, embedded electronics, SCADA equipment, “smart” devices, and more.

    Icon of a fingerprint.

    It’s important to track IT assets in a way that enables IT to deliver value to the business – and an important part of this is understanding what not to track. This list should be aligned to the needs of your organization.

    What is IT asset management?

    • IT asset management is the practice of maintaining accurate, accessible, and actionable data on IT hardware, software, and cloud assets from procurement to disposal.
    • Trustworthy data maintained by an IT asset management practice will help your business meet its goals by managing risk, controlling costs, and enabling IT services and products.
    • ITAM tends to focus on the asset itself – its technical, financial, contractual, lifecycle, and ownership attributes – rather than its interactions or connections to other IT assets, which tends to be part of configuration management.

    What IT Asset Management is NOT:

    Configuration Management: Configuration management databases (CMDBs) often draw from the same data pool as ITAM (many configuration items are assets, and vice versa), but they focus on the interaction, interconnection, and interoperation of configuration items within the IT estate.

    In practice, many configuration items will be IT assets (or parts of assets) and vice versa. Configuration and asset teams should work closely together as they develop different but complementary views of the IT environment. Use Info-Tech’s methodology to harness configuration management superpowers.

    Organizational Data Management: Leverage a different Info-Tech methodology to develop a digital and data asset management program within Info-Tech’s DAM framework.

    “Asset management’s job is not to save the organization money, it’s not to push back on software audits.

    It’s to keep the asset database as up-to-date and as trustworthy as possible. That’s it.” (Jeremy Boerger, Consultant & Author)

    “You can’t make any real decisions on CMDB data that’s only 60% accurate.

    You start extrapolating that out, you’re going to get into big problems.” (Mike Austin, Founder & CEO, MetrixData 360)

    What is an ITAM strategy?

    Our strategy document will outline a coherent, sustainable, business-aligned approach to ITAM.

    No single approach to ITAM fits all organizations. Nor will the same approach fit the same organization at different times. A world-leading research university, a state government, and a global manufacturer all have very different goals and priorities that will be best supported by different approaches to ITAM.

    This methodology will walk you through these critical decisions that will define your approach to ITAM:

    • Business-aligned priorities, opportunities, and goals: What pressing opportunities and challenges do we face as an organization? What opportunities does this create that ITAM can seize?
    • Current and future state maturity, challenges: What is the state of the practice today? Where do we need to improve to meet our goals? What challenges stand in the way of improvement?
    • Responsibility, accountability, sourcing and (de)centralization: Who does what? Who is accountable? Where is there value to outsourcing? What authority will be centralized or decentralized?
    • Tools, policies, and procedures: What technology do we need? What’s our documentation framework?
    • Initiatives, KPIs, communication plan, and roadmap: What do we need to do, in what order, to build the ITAM practice to where we need it to be? How long do we expect this to take? How will we measure success?

    “A good strategy has coherence, coordinating actions, policies, and resources so as to accomplish an important end. Most organizations, most of the time, don’t have this.

    Instead, they have multiple goals and initiatives that symbolize progress, but no coherent approach to accomplish that progress other than ‘spend more and try harder.’” (Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, Richard Rumelt)

    Enable business value with IT asset management

    If you’ve never experienced a mature ITAM program before, it is almost certainly more rewarding than you’d expect once it’s functioning as intended.

    Each of the below activities can benefit from accessible, actionable, and accurate ITAM data.

    • Which of the activities, practices, and initiatives below have value to your organization?
    • Which could benefit most from ITAM data?
    Manage Risk: Effective ITAM practices provide data and processes that help mitigate the likelihood and impact of potentially damaging IT risks.

    ITAM supports the following practices that help manage organizational risk:

    • Security Controls Development
    • Security Incident Response
    • Security Audit Reports
    • Regulatory Compliance Reports
    • IT Risk Management
    • Technical Debt Management
    • M&A Due Diligence
    Optimize Spend: Asset data is essential to maintaining oversight of IT spend, ensuring that scarce resources are allocated where they can have the most impact.

    ITAM supports these activities that help optimize spend:

    • Vendor Management & Negotiations
    • IT Budget Management & Variance Analysis
    • Asset Utilization Analysis
    • FinOps & Cloud Spend Optimization
    • Showback & Chargeback
    • Software Audit Defense
    • Application Rationalization
    • Contract Consolidation
    • License and Device Reallocation
    Improve IT Services: Asset data can help inform solutions development and can be used by service teams to enhance and improve IT service practices.

    Use ITAM to facilitate these IT services and initiatives:

    • Solution and Enterprise Architecture
    • Service Level Management
    • Technology Procurement
    • Technology Refresh Projects
    • Incident & Problem Management
    • Request Management
    • Change Management
    • Green IT

    1.1 Brainstorm ideas to create a vision for the ITAM practice

    30 minutes

    Input: Stakeholders with a vision of what ITAM could provide, if resourced and funded adequately

    Output: A collection of ideas that, when taken together, create a vision for the future ITAM practice

    Materials: ITAM strategy template, Whiteboard or virtual whiteboard

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    It can be easy to lose sight of long-term goals when you’re stuck in firefighting mode. Let’s get the working group into a forward-looking mindset with this exercise.

    Think about what ITAM could deliver with unlimited time, money, and technology.

    1. Provide three sticky notes to each participant.
    2. Add the headings to a whiteboard, or use a blank slide as a digital whiteboard
    3. On each sticky note, ask participants to outline a single idea as follows:
      1. We could: [idea]
      2. Which would help: [stakeholder]
      3. Because: [outcome]
    4. Ask participants to present their sticky notes and post them to the whiteboard. Ask later participants to group similar ideas together.

    As you hear your peers describe what they hope and expect to achieve with ITAM, a shared vision of what ITAM could be will start to emerge.

    1.1 Identify structural ITAM challenges

    30 minutes

    Input: The list of common challenges on the next slide, Your estimated visibility into IT assets from the previous exercise, The experience and knowledge of your participants

    Output: Identify current ITAM challenges

    Materials: Your working copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    What’s standing in the way today of delivering the ITAM practices you want to achieve?

    Review the list of common challenges on the next slide as a group.

    1. Delete any challenges that don’t apply to your organization.
    2. Modify any challenges as required to reflect your organization.
    3. Add further challenges that aren’t on the list, as required.
    4. Highlight challenges that are particularly painful.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    “The problem – the reason why asset management initiatives keep falling on their face – is that people attack asset management as a problem to solve, instead of a practice and epistemological construct.” (Jeremy Boerger, Consultant & Author)

    1.1 Identify structural ITAM challenges

    Review and update the list of common challenges below to reflect your own organization.

    • Leadership and executives don’t understand the value of asset management and don’t fund or resource it.
    • Tools aren’t fit for purpose, don’t scale, or are broken.
    • There’s a cultural tendency to focus on tools over processes.
    • ITAM data is fragmented across multiple repositories.
    • ITAM data is widely viewed as untrustworthy.
    • Stakeholders respond to vendor audits before consulting ITAM, which leads to confusion and risks penalties.
    • No time for improvement; we’re always fighting fires.
    • We don’t audit our own ITAM data for accuracy.
    • End-user equipment is shared, re-assigned, or disposed without notifying or involving IT.
    • No dedicated resources.
    • Lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities.
    • Technicians don’t track assets consistently; ITAM is seen as administrative busywork.
    • Many ITAM tasks are manual and prone to error.
    • Inconsistent organizational policies and procedures.
    • We try to manage too many hardware types/software titles.
    • IT is not involved in the procurement process.
    • Request and procurement is seen as slow and excessively bureaucratic.
    • Hardware/software standards don’t exist or aren’t enforced.
    • Extensive rogue purchases/shadow IT are challenging to manage via ITAM tools and processes.
    What Else?

    Copy results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 1.2: Review organizational priorities, strategy, initiatives

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • Business executives or their delegates

    Outcomes

    • Review organizational priorities and strategy.
    • Identify key initiatives.

    Enter the executives

    Deliver on leadership priorities

    • Your business’ major transformative projects and executive priorities might seem far removed from hardware and software tracking. Why would we start with business strategy and executive priorities as we’re setting goals for the ITAM program?
    • While business executives have (likely) no interest in how software and hardware is tracked, they are accountable for the outcomes ITAM can enable. They are the most likely to understand why and how ITAM can deliver value to the organization.
    • ITAM succeeds by enabling its stakeholders to achieve business outcomes. The next three activities are designed to help you identify how you can enable your stakeholders, and what outcomes are most important from their point of view. Specifically:
      • What are the business’ planned transformational initiatives?
      • What are your highest priority goals?
      • What should the priorities of the ITAM practice be?
    • The answers to these questions will shape your approach to ITAM. Direct input from your leadership and executives – or their delegates – will help ensure you’re setting a solid foundation for your ITAM practice.

    “What outcomes does the organization want from IT asset management? Often, senior managers have a clear vision for the organization and where IT needs to go, and the struggle is to communicate that down.” (Kylie Fowler, ITAM Intelligence)

    Stock image of many hands with different puzzle pieces.

    Executive Alignment Session Overview

    ITAM Strategy Working Sessions

    • Discover & Brainstorm
    • Executive Alignment Working Session
      • 1.2 Review organizational strategy, priorities, and key initiatives
      • 1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities, set ITAM priorities
    • ITAM Practice Maturity, Vision & Mission, Metrics & KPIs
    • Scope, Outsourcing, (De)Centralization, RACI
    • Service Management Integration
    • ITAM Tools
    • Audits, Budgets, Documents
    • Roadmap & Comms Plan

    A note to the lead facilitator and project sponsor:
    Consider working through these exercises by yourself ahead of time. As you do so, you’ll develop your own ideas about where these discussions may go, which will help you guide the discussion and provide examples to participants.

    1.2 Review organizational strategy and priorities

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The diagram in the next slide, and/or a whiteboard, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: Asset manager, IT leadership, Business executives or delegates

    Welcome your group to the working session and outline the next few exercises using the previous slide.

    Ask the most senior leader present to provide a summary of the following:

    1. What is the vision for the organization?
    2. What are our priorities and what must we absolutely get right?
    3. What do we expect the organization to look like in three years?

    The facilitator or a dedicated note-taker should record key points on a whiteboard or flipchart paper.

    1.2 Identify transformational initiatives

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The diagram in the next slide, and/or a whiteboard, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: Asset manager, IT leadership, Business executives or delegates

    Ask the most senior leader present to provide a summary of the following: What transformative business and IT initiatives are planned? When will they begin and end?

    Using one box per initiative, draw the initiatives in a timeline like the one below.

    Sample timeline for ITAM initiatives.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 1.3: Set business-aligned ITAM priorities

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • Business executives

    Outcomes

    • Connect executive priorities to ITAM opportunities.
    • Set business-aligned priorities for the ITAM practice.

    1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities

    45 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The diagram in the next slide, and/or a whiteboard, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: Asset manager, IT leaders and managers, Business executives or delegates

    In this exercise, we’ll use the table on the next slide to identify the top priorities of key business and IT stakeholders and connect them to opportunities for the ITAM practice.

    1. Ask your leadership or executive delegates – what are their goals? What are they trying to accomplish? List roles and related goals in the table.
    2. Brainstorm opportunities for IT asset management to support listed goals:
      1. Can ITAM provide an enhanced level of service, access, or insight?
      2. Can ITAM address an existing issue or mitigate an existing risk?

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities (example)

    ITAM is for the… Who wants to… Which presents these ITAM opportunities
    CEO Deliver transformative business initiatives Acquire the right tech at the right time to support transformational initiatives.
    Establish a data-driven culture of stewardship Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    COO Improve organizational efficiency Increase asset use.
    Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts.
    CFO Accurately forecast spending Track and anticipate IT asset spending.
    Control spending Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts.
    CIO Demonstrate IT value Use data to tell a story about value delivered by IT assets.
    Govern IT use Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    CISO Manage IT security and compliance risks Identify abandoned or out-of-spec IT assets.
    Provide IT asset data to support controls development.
    Respond to security incidents Support security incident teams with IT asset data.
    Apps Leader Build, integrate, and support applications Identify opportunities to retire applications with redundant functionality.
    Connect applications to relevant licensing and support agreements.
    IT Infra Leader Build and support IT infrastructure. Provide input on opportunities to standardize hardware and software.
    Provide IT asset data to technicians supporting end users.

    1.3 Categorize ITAM opportunities

    10-15 minutes

    Input: The outputs from the previous exercise

    Output: Executive priorities, sorted into the three categories at the right

    Materials: The table in this slide, The outputs from the previous exercise

    Participants: Lead facilitator

    Give your participants a quick break. Quickly sort the identified ITAM opportunities into the three main categories below as best you can.

    We’ll use this table as context for the next exercise.

    Example: Optimize Spend Enhance IT Services Manage Risk
    ITAM Opportunities
    • Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    • Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts.
    • Increase asset utilization.
    • Identify opportunities to retire applications with redundant functionality
    • Acquire the right tech at the right time to support transformational initiatives.
    • Provide IT asset data to technicians supporting end users.
    • Identify abandoned or out-of-spec IT assets.
    • Provide IT asset data to support controls development.
    • Support security incident teams with IT asset data.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    1.3 Set ITAM priorities

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: Whiteboard, The template on the next slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: Asset manager, IT leaders and managers, Business executives or delegates

    The objective of this exercise is to prioritize the outcomes your organization wants to achieve from its ITAM practice, given the context from the previous exercises.

    Review the image below. The three points of the triangle are the three core goals of ITAM: Enhance IT Service, Manage Risk, and Optimize Spend. This exercise was first developed by Kylie Fowler of ITAM Intelligence. It is an essential exercise to understand ITAM priorities and the tradeoffs associated with those priorities. These priorities aren’t set in stone and should be revisited periodically as technology and business priorities change.

    Draw the diagram on the next slide on a whiteboard. Have the most senior leader in the room place the dot on the triangle – the closer it is to any one of the goals, the more important that goal is to the organization. Note: The center of the triangle is off limits! It’s very rarely possible to deliver on all three at once.
    Track notes on what’s being prioritized – and why – in the template on the next slide.
    Triangle with the points labelled 'Enhance IT Service', 'Manage Risk', and 'Optimize Spend'.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    1.3 Set ITAM Priorities

    The priorities of the ITAM practice are to:
    • Optimize Spend
    • Manage Risk
    Why?
    • We believe there is significant opportunity right now to rationalize spend by consolidating key software contracts.
    • Major acquisitions are anticipated in the near future. Effective ITAM processes are expected to mitigate acquisition risk by supporting due diligence and streamlined integration of acquired organizations.
    • Ransomware and supply chain security threats have increased demands for a comprehensive accounting of IT assets to support security controls development and security incident response.
    (Update this section with notes from your discussion.)
    Triangle with the points labelled 'Enhance IT Service', 'Manage Risk', and 'Optimize Spend'. There is a dot close to the 'Optimize Spend' corner, a legend labelling the dot as 'Our Target', and a note reading 'Move this dot to reflect your priorities'.

    Step 1.4: Identify ITAM goals, target maturity

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • Connect executive priorities to ITAM opportunities.
    • Set business-aligned priorities for the ITAM practice.

    “ITAM is really no different from the other ITIL practices: to succeed, you’ll need some ratio of time, treasure, and talent… and you can make up for less of one with more of the other two.” (Jeremy Boerger, Consultant and Author)

    1.4 Identify near- and medium-term goals

    15-30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Narrow down the list of opportunities to identify specific goals for the ITAM practice.

    1. Use one color to highlight opportunities you will seize in the next year.
    2. Use a second color to highlight opportunities you plan to address in the next three years.
    3. Leave blank anything you don’t intend to address in this timeframe.

    The highlighted opportunities are your near- and medium-term objectives.

    Optimize Spend Enhance IT Services Manage Risk
    Priority Critical Normal High
    ITAM Opportunities
    • Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    • Increase asset utilization.
    • Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts.
    • Identify opportunities to retire applications with redundant functionality
    • Acquire the right tech at the right time to support transformational initiatives.
    • Provide IT asset data to technicians supporting end users.
    • Identify abandoned or out-of-spec IT assets.
    • Provide IT asset data to support controls development.
    • Support security incident teams with IT asset data.

    1.4 Connect ITAM goals to tactics

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Let’s dig down a little deeper. Connect the list of opportunities from earlier to specific ITAM tactics that allow the team to seize those opportunities.

    Add another row to the earlier table for ITAM tactics. Brainstorm tactics with your participants (e.g. sticky notes on a whiteboard) and align them with the priorities they’ll support.

    Optimize SpendEnhance IT ServicesManage Risk
    PriorityCriticalNormalHigh
    ITAM Opportunities
    • Improve data to increase IT spend transparency.
    • Increase asset utilization.
    • Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts.
    • Identify opportunities to retire applications with redundant functionality
    • Acquire the right tech at the right time to support transformational initiatives.
    • Provide IT asset data to technicians supporting end users.
    • Identify abandoned or out-of-spec IT assets.
    • Provide IT asset data to support controls development.
    • Support security incident teams with IT asset data.
    ITAM Tactics to Seize Opportunities
    • Review and improve hardware budgeting exercises.
    • Reallocate unused licenses, hardware.
    • Ensure ELP reports are up to date.
    • Validate software usage.
    • Data to support software renewal negotiations.
    • Use info from ITAM for more efficient adds, moves, changes.
    • Integrate asset records with the ticket intake system, so that when someone calls the service desk, the list of their assigned equipment is immediately available.
    • Find and retire abandoned devices or services with access to the organization’s network.
    • Report on lost/stolen devices.
    • Develop reliable disposal processes.
    • Report on unpatched devices/software.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    1.4 Identify current and target state

    20 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    We’ll use this exercise to identify the current and one-year target state of ITAM using Info-Tech’s ITAM maturity framework.

    1. Review the maturity framework on the next slide as a group.
    2. In one color, highlight statements that reflect your organization today. Summarize your current state. Are you in firefighter mode? Between “firefighter” and “trusted operator”?
    3. In a second color, highlight statements that reflect where you want to be one year from today, taking into consideration the goals and tactics identified in the last exercise.
    4. During a break, copy the highlighted statements to the table on the slide after next, then add this final slide to your working copy of the ITAM Strategy Template.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Establish current and target ITAM maturity

    IT maturity ladder with five color-coded levels. Innovator – Optimized Asset Management
    • All items from Business & Technology Partner, plus:
    • Business and IT stakeholders collaborate regularly with the ITAM team to identify new opportunities to leverage or deploy ITAM practices and data to mitigate risks, optimize spend, and improve service. The ITAM program scales with the business.
    Business & Technology Partner – Proactive Asset Management
    • All items from Trusted Operator, plus:
    • The ITAM data is integral to decisions related to budget, project planning, IT architecture, contract renewal, and vendor management. Software and cloud assets are reviewed as frequently as required to manage costs. ITAM data consumers have self-serve access to ITAM data.
    • Continuous improvement practices strengthen ITAM efficiency and effectiveness.
    • ITAM processes, standards, and related policies are regularly reviewed and updated. ITAM teams work closely with SMEs for key tools/systems integrated with ITAM (e.g. AD, ITSM, monitoring tools) to maximize the value and reliability of integrations.
    Trusted Operator – Controls Assets
    • ITAM data for deployed hardware and software is regularly audited for accuracy.
    • Sufficient staff and skills to support asset tracking, including a dedicated IT asset management role. Teams responsible for ITAM data collection cooperate effectively. Policies and procedures are documented and enforced. Key licenses and contracts are available to the ITAM team. Discovery, tracking, and analysis tools support most important use cases.
    Firefighter – Reactive Asset Tracking
    • Data is often untrustworthy, may be fragmented across multiple repositories, and typically requires significant effort to translate or validate before use.
    • Insufficient staff, fragmented or incomplete policies or documentation. Data tracking processes are extremely highly manual. Effective cooperation for ITAM data collection is challenging.
    • ITAM tools are in place, but additional configuration or tooling is needed.
    Unreliable - Struggles to Support
    • No data, or data is typically unusable.
    • No allocated staff, no cooperation between parties responsible for ITAM data collection.
    • No related policies or documentation.
    • Tools are non-existent or not fit-for-purpose.

    Current and target ITAM maturity

    Today:
    Firefighter
    • Data is often untrustworthy, is fragmented across multiple repositories, and typically requires significant effort to translate or validate before use.
    • Insufficient staff, fragmented or incomplete policies or documentation.
    • Tools are non-existent.
    In One Year:
    Trusted Operator
    • ITAM data for deployed hardware and software is regularly audited for accuracy.
    • Sufficient staff and skills to support asset tracking, including a dedicated IT asset management role.
    • Teams responsible for ITAM data collection cooperate effectively.
    • Discovery, tracking, and analysis tools support most important use cases.
    IT maturity ladder with five color-coded levels.

    Innovator – Optimized Asset Management

    Business & Technology Partner – Proactive Asset Management

    Trusted Operator – Controls Assets

    Firefighter – Reactive Asset Tracking

    Unreliable - Struggles to Support

    Step 1.5: Write mission and vision statements

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • Write a mission statement that encapsulates the purpose and intentions of the ITAM practice today.
    • Write a vision statement that describes what the ITAM practice aspires to become and achieve.

    Write vision and mission statements

    Create two statements to summarize the role of the ITAM practice today – and where you want it to be in the future.

    Create two short, compelling statements that encapsulate:
    • The vision for what we want the ITAM practice to be in the future; and
    • The mission – the purpose and intentions – of the ITAM practice today.

    Why bother creating mission and vision statements? After all, isn’t it just rehashing or re-writing all the work we’ve just done? Isn’t that (at best) a waste of time?

    There are a few very important reasons to create mission and vision statements:

    • Create a compass that can guide work today and your roadmap for the future.
    • Focus on the few things you must do, rather than the many things you could do.
    • Concisely communicate a compelling vision for the ITAM practice to a larger audience who (let’s face it) probably won’t read the entire ITAM Strategy deck.

    “Brevity is the soul of wit.” (Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2)

    “Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.” (Mark Twain)

    1.5 Write an ITAM vision statement

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: A whiteboard, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT Leaders and managers

    Your vision statement describes the ITAM practice as it will be in the far future. It is a target to aspire to, beyond your ability to achieve in the near or medium term.

    Examples of ITAM vision statements:

    Develop the single accurate view of IT assets, available to anyone who needs it.

    Indispensable data brokers that support strategic decisions on the IT environment.

    Provide sticky notes to participants. Write out the three questions below on a whiteboard side by side. Have participants write their answers to the questions and post them below the appropriate question. Give everyone 10 minutes to write and post their ideas.

    1. What’s the desired future state of the ITAM practice?
    2. What needs to be done to achieved this desired state?
    3. How do we want ITAM to be perceived in this desired state?

    Review the answers and combine them into one focused vision statement. Use the 20x20 rule: take no more than 20 minutes and use no more than 20 words. If you’re not finished after 20 minutes, the ITAM manager should make any final edits offline.

    Document your vision statement in your ITAM Strategy Template.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    1.5 Write an ITAM mission statement

    30 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Your ITAM mission statement is an expression of what your IT asset management function brings to your organization today. It should be presented in straightforward language that is compelling, easy to understand, and sharply focused.

    Examples of ITAM mission statements:

    Maintain accurate, actionable, accessible on data on all IT assets.

    Support IT and the business with centralized and integrated asset data.

    Provide sticky notes to participants. Write out the questions below on a whiteboard side by side. Have participants write their answers to the questions and post them below the appropriate question. Give everyone 10 minutes to write and post their ideas.

    1. What is our role as the asset management team?
    2. How do we support the IT and business strategies?
    3. What does our asset management function offer that no one else can?

    Review the answers and combine them into one focused vision statement. Use the 20x20 rule: take no more than 20 minutes and use no more than 20 words. If you’re not finished after 20 minutes, the ITAM manager should make any final edits offline.

    Document your vision statement in your ITAM Strategy Template.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 1.6: Define ITAM metrics and KPIs

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • Identify metrics, data, or reports that may be of interest to different consumers of ITAM data.
    • Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the ITAM practice, based on the goals and priorities established earlier.

    Navigate a universe of ITAM metrics

    When you have the data, how will you use it?

    • There’s a dizzying array of potential metrics you can develop and track across your ITAM environment.
    • Different stakeholders will need different data feeds, metrics, reports, and dashboards.
    • Different measures will be useful at different times. You will often need to filter or slice the data in different ways (by department, timeframe, equipment type, etc.)
    • We’ll use the next few exercises to identify the types of metrics that may be useful to different stakeholders and the KPIs to measure progress towards ITAM goals and priorities.

    ITAM Metrics

    • Quantity
      e.g. # of devices or licenses
    • Cost
      e.g. average laptop cost
    • Compliance
      e.g. effective license position reports
    • Progress
      e.g. ITAM roadmap items completed
    • Quality
      e.g. ITAM data accuracy rate
    • Time
      e.g. time to procure/ deploy

    Drill down by:

    • Vendor
    • Date
    • Dept.
    • Product
    • Location
    • Cost Center

    Develop different metrics for different teams

    A few examples:

    • CIOs — CIOs need asset data to govern technology use, align to business needs, and demonstrate IT value. What do we need to budget for hardware and software in the next year? Where can we find money to support urgent new initiatives? How many devices and software titles do we manage compared to last year? How has IT helped the business achieve key goals?
    • Asset Managers — Asset managers require data to help them oversee ITAM processes, technology, and staff, and to manage the fleet of IT assets they’re expected to track. What’s the accuracy rate of ITAM data? What’s the state of integrations between ITAM and other systems and processes? How many renewals are coming up in the next 90 days? How many laptops are in stock?
    • IT Leaders — IT managers need data that can support their teams and help them manage the technology within their mandate. What technology needs to be reviewed or retired? What do we actually manage?
    • Technicians — Service desk technicians need real-time access to data on IT assets to support service requests and incident management – for example, easy access to the list of equipment assigned to a particular user or installed in a particular location.
    • Business Managers and Executives — Business managers and executives need concise, readable dashboards to support business decisions about business use of IT assets. What’s our overall asset spend? What’s our forecasted spend? Where could we reallocate spend?

    1.6 Identify useful ITAM metrics and reports

    60 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Use this exercise to identify as many potentially useful ITAM metrics and reports as possible, and narrow them down to a few high-priority metrics. Leverage the list of example metrics on the next slide for your own exercise. If you have more than six participants, consider splitting into two or more groups, and divide the table between groups to minimize overlap.

    1. List potential consumers of ITAM data in the column on the left.
    2. What type of information do we think this role needs? What questions about IT assets do we get on a regular basis from this role or team?
    3. Review and consolidate the list as a group. Discuss and highlight any metrics the group thinks are a particularly high priority for tracking.
    Role Compliance Quality Quantity Cost Time Progress
    IT Asset Manager Owned devices not discovered in last 60 days Discrepancies between discovery data and ITAM DB records # of corporate-owned devices Spend on hardware (recent and future/ planned) Average time, maximum time to deploy end-user devices Number of ITAM roadmap items in progress
    Service Desk

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Examples of ITAM metrics

    Compliance Quality Quantity Cost Time/Duration/Age Progress
    Owned devices not discovered in last 60 days Discrepancies between discovery data and ITAM DB records # of corporate-owned devices Spend on hardware (recent and future/planned) Average time, maximum time to deploy end-user devices Number of ITAM roadmap items in progress or completed
    Disposed devices without certificate of destruction Breakage rates (in and out of warranty) by vendor # of devices running software title X, # of licenses for software title X Spend on software (recent and future/planned) Average time, maximum time to deploy end user software Number of integrations between ITAM DB and other sources
    Discrepancies between licenses and install count, by software title RMAs by vendor, model, equipment type Number of requests by equipment model or software title Spend on cloud (recent and future/planned) Average & total time spent on software audit responses Number of records in ITAM database
    Compliance reports (e.g. tied to regulatory compliance or grant funding) Tickets by equipment type or software title Licenses issued from license pool in the last 30 days Value of licenses issued from license pool in the last 30 days (cost avoidance) Devices by age Software titles with an up-to-date ELP report
    Reports on lost and stolen devices, including last assigned, date reported stolen, actions taken User device satisfaction scores, CSAT scores Number of devices retired or donated in last year Number of IT-managed capital assets Number of hardware/software request tickets beyond time-to-fulfil targets Number of devices audited (by ITAM team via self-audit)
    Number of OS versions, unpatched systems Number of devices due for refresh in the next year Spend saved by harvesting unused software Number of software titles, software vendors managed by ITAM team
    Audit accuracy rate Equipment in stock Cost savings from negotiations
    # of users assigned more than one device Number of non-standard devices or requests Dollars charged during audit or true-up

    Differentiate between metrics and KPIs

    Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics with targets aligned to goals.

    Targets could include one or more of:

    • Target state (e.g. completed)
    • Target magnitude (e.g. number, percent, rate, dollar amount)
    • Target direction (e.g. trending up or down)

    You may track many metrics, but you should have only a few KPIs (typically 2-3 per objective).

    A breached KPI should be a trigger to investigate and remediate the root cause of the problem, to ensure progress towards goals and priorities can continue.

    Which KPIs you track will change over the life of the practice, as ITAM goals and priorities shift. For example, KPIs may initially track progress towards maturing ITAM practices. Once you’ve reached target maturity, KPIs may shift to track whether the key service targets are being met.

    1.6 Identify ITAM KPIs

    20 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Good KPIs are a more objective measure of whether you’re succeeding in meeting the identified priorities for the ITAM practice.

    Identify metrics that can measure progress or success against the priorities and goals set earlier. Aim for around three metrics per goal. Identify targets for the metric you think are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timebound). Track your work using the example table below.

    Goal Metric Target
    Consolidate major software contracts to drive discounts Amount spent on top 10 software contracts Decrease by 10% by next year
    Customer satisfaction scores with enterprise software Satisfaction is equal to or better than last year
    Value of licenses issued from license pool 30% greater than last year
    Identify abandoned or out-of-spec IT assets # of security incidents involving undiscovered assets Zero
    % devices with “Deployed” status in ITAM DB but not discovered for 30+ days ‹1% of all records in ITAM DB
    Provide IT asset data to technicians for service calls Customer satisfaction scores Satisfaction is equal to or better than last year
    % of end-user devices meeting minimum standards 97%

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy

    Phase 2:

    Identify your approach to support ITAM priorities and goals

    Phase 1

    1.1 Define ITAM and brainstorm opportunities and challenges.

    Executive Alignment Working Session:

    1.2 Review organizational priorities, strategy, and key initiatives.

    1.3 Align executive priorities with ITAM opportunities & priorities.

    1.4 Identify business-aligned ITAM goals and target maturity.

    1.5 Write mission and vision statements.

    1.6 Define ITAM metrics and KPIs.

    Phase 2

    2.1 Define ITAM scope.

    2.2 Acquire ITAM services (outsourcing and contracting).

    2.3 Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities.

    2.4 Create a RACI for the ITAM practice.

    2.5 Align ITAM with other service management practices.

    2.6 Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations.

    2.7 Create a plan for internal and external audits.

    2.8 Improve your budget processes.

    2.9 Establish a documentation framework.

    2.10 Create a roadmap and communication plan.

    Phase Outcomes:

    Establish an approach to achieving ITAM goals and priorities, including scope, structure, tools, service management integrations, documentation, and more.

    Create a roadmap that enables you to realize your approach.

    Step 2.1: Define ITAM Scope

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Establish what types of equipment and software you’ll track through the ITAM practice.
    • Establish which areas of the business will be in scope of the ITAM practice.

    Determine ITAM Scope

    Focus on what’s most important and then document it so everyone understands where they can provide the most value.

    Not all categories of assets require the same level of tracking, and some equipment and software should be excluded from the ITAM practice entirely.

    In some organizations, portions of the environment won’t be tracked by the asset management team at all. For example, some organizations will choose to delegate tracking multi-function printers (MFPs) or proprietary IoT devices to the department or vendor that manages them.

    Due to resourcing or technical limitations, you may decide that certain equipment or software is out of scope for the moment.

    What do other organizations typically track in detail?
    • Installs and entitlements for major software contracts that represent significant spend and/or are highly critical to business goals.
    • Equipment managed directly by IT that needs to be refreshed on a regular cycle:
      • End-user devices such as laptops, desktops, and tablets.
      • Server, network, and telecoms devices.
    • High value equipment that is not regularly refreshed may also be tracked, but in less detail – for example, you may not refresh large screen TVs, but you may need to track date of purchase, deployed location, vendor, and model for insurance or warranty purposes.

    2.1 Establish scope for ITAM

    45 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: ITAM scope, in terms of types of assets tracked and not tracked

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    Establish the hardware and software that are within the scope of the ITAM program by updating the tables below to reflect your own environment. The “out of scope” category will include asset types that may be of value to track in the future but for which the capability or need don’t exist today.

    Hardware Software Out of Scope
    • End-user devices housing data or with a dollar value of more than $300, which will be replaced through lifecycle refresh.
    • Infrastructure devices, including network, telecom, video conferencing, servers and more
    • End-user software purchased under contract
    • Best efforts on single license purchases
    • Infrastructure software, including solutions used by IT to manage the infrastructure
    • Enterprise applications
    • Cloud (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS)
    • Departmental applications
    • Open-source applications
    • In-house developed applications
    • Freeware & shareware
    • IoT devices

    The following locations will be included in the ITAM program: All North and South America offices and retail locations.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.2: Acquire ITAM Services

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Define the type of work that may be more effectively or efficiently delivered by an outsourcer or contractor.

    “We would like our clients to come to us with an idea of where they want to get to. Why are you doing this? Is it for savings? Because you want to manage your security attack surface? Are there digital initiatives you want to move forward? What is the end goal?” (Mike Austin, MetrixData 360)

    Effectively acquire ITAM services

    Allow your team to focus on strategic, value-add activities by acquiring services that free them from commodity tasks.
    • When determining which asset capabilities and activities are best kept in-house and which ones are better handled by a supplier, it is imperative to keep the value to the business in mind.
    • Activities/capabilities that are challenging to standardize and are critical to enabling business goals are better kept in-house.
    • Activities/capabilities that are (or should be) standardized and automated are ideal candidates for outsourcing.
    • Outsourcing can be effective and successful with a narrow scope of engagement and an alignment to business outcomes.
    • Organizations that heavily weigh cost reduction as a significant driver for outsourcing are far less likely to realize the value they expected to receive.
    Business Enablement
    • Supports business-aligned ITAM opportunities & priorities
    • Highly specialized
    • Offers competitive advantages
    Map with axes 'Business Enablement' and 'Vendor's Performance Advantage' for determining whether or not to outsource.
    Vendor’s Performance Advantage
    • Talent or access to skills
    • Economies of scale
    • Access to technology
    • Does not require deep knowledge of your business

    Decide what to outsource

    It’s rarely all or nothing.

    Ask yourself:
    • How important is this activity or capability to ITAM, IT, and business priorities and goals?
    • Is it a non-commodity IT service that can improve customer satisfaction?
    • Is it a critical service to the business and the specialized knowledge must remain in-house?
    • Does the function require access to talent or skills not currently available in-house, and is cost-prohibitive to obtain?
    • Are there economies of scale that can help us meet growing demand?
    • Does the vendor provide access to best-of-breed tools and solutions that can handle the integration, management, maintenance and support of the complete system?

    You may ultimately choose to engage a single vendor or a combination of multiple vendors who can best meet your ITAM needs.

    Establishing effective vendor management processes, where you can maximize the amount of service you receive while relying on the vendor’s expertise and ability to scale, can help you make your asset management practice a net cost-saver.

    ITAM activities and capabilities
    • Contract review
    • Software audit management
    • Asset tagging
    • Asset disposal and recycling
    • Initial ITAM record creation
    • End-user device imaging
    • End-user device deployment
    • End-user software provisioning
    • End-user image management
    • ITAM database administration
    • ELP report creation
    • ITAM process management
    • ITAM report generation
    ITAM-adjacent activities and capabilities
    • Tier 1 support/service desk
    • Deskside/field support
    • Tier 3 support
    • IT Procurement
    • Device management/managed IT services
    • Budget development
    • Applications development, maintenance
    • Infrastructure hosting (e.g. cloud or colocation)
    • Infrastructure management and support
    • Discovery/monitoring tools management and support

    2.2 Identify outsourcing opportunities

    1-2 hours

    Input: Understanding of current ITAM processes and challenges

    Output: Understanding of potential outsourcing opportunities

    Materials: The table in this slide, and insight in previous slides, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    At a high level, discuss which functions of ITAM are good candidates for outsourcing.

    Start with the previous slide for examples of outsourcing activities or capabilities directly related to or adjacent to the ITAM practice. Categorize these activities as follows:

    Outsource Potentially Outsource Insource
    • Asset disposal/recycling
    • ELP report creation
    • ITAM process management

    Go through the list of activities to potentially or definitely outsource and confirm:

    1. Will outsourcing solve a resourcing need for an existing process, or can you deliver this adequately in-house?
    2. Will outsourcing improve the effectiveness and efficiency of current processes? Will it deliver more effective service channels or improved levels of reliability and performance consistency?
    3. Will outsourcing provide or enable enhanced service capabilities that your IT customers could use, and which you cannot deliver in-house due to lack of scale or capacity?

    Answering “no” to more than one of these questions suggests a need to further review options to ensure the goals are aligned with the potential value of the service offerings available.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.3: Centralize or decentralize ITAM capabilities

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Outline where the team(s) responsible for ITAM sit across the organization, who they report to, and who they need to work with across IT and the business.

    Align ITAM with IT’s structure

    ITAM’s structure will typically align with the larger business and IT structure. The wrong structure will undermine your ability to meet ITAM goals and lead to frustration, missed work, inefficiency, and loss of value.

    Which of the four archetypes below reflects the structure you need?

    1. Centralized — ITAM is entirely centralized in a single function, which reports into a central IT department.
    2. Decentralized — Local IT groups are responsible and accountable for ITAM. They may coordinate informally but do not report to any central team.
    3. Hybrid-Shared Services — Local IT can opt in to shared services but must follow centrally set ITAM practices to do so, usually with support from a shared ITAM function.
    4. Hybrid-Federated — Local IT departments are free to develop their own approach to ITAM outside of core, centrally set requirements.

    Centralized ITAM

    Total coordination, control, and oversight

    • ITAM accountability, policies, tools, standards, and expertise – in this model, they’re all concentrated in a single, specialized IT asset management practice. Accountability, authority, and oversight are concentrated in the central function as well.
    • A central ITAM team will benefit from knowledge sharing and task specialization opportunities. They are a visible single point of contact for ITAM-related questions
    • The central ITAM team will coordinate ITAM activities across the organization to optimize spend, manage risk, and enhance service. Any local IT teams are supported by and directly answerable to the central ITAM team for ITAM activities.
    • There is a single, centrally managed ITAM database. Wherever possible, this database should be integrated with other tools to support cross-solution automation (e.g. integrate AD to automatically reflect user identity changes in the ITAM database).
    • This model drives cross-organization coordination and oversight, but it may not be responsive to specific and nuanced local requirements.
    Example: Centralized
    Example of a Centralized ITAM.

    Solid line. Direct reporting relationship

    Dotted line. Dotted line working or reporting relationship

    Decentralized ITAM

    Maximize choice

    • ITAM accountability and oversight are entirely devolved to local or regional IT and/or ITAM organizations, which are free to set their own priorities, goals, policies, and standards. This model maximizes the authority of local groups to build practices that meet local requirements.
    • It may be challenging to resource and mature local practices. ITAM maturity will vary from one local organization to the next.
    • It is more likely that ITAM managers are a part-time role, and sometimes even a non-IT role. Local ITAM teams or coordinators may coordinate and share knowledge informally, but specialization can be challenging to build or leverage effectively across the organization.
    • There is likely no central ITAM tool. Local tools may be acquired, implemented, and integrated by local IT departments to suit their own needs, which can make it very difficult to report on assets organization-wide – for example, to establish compliance on an enterprise software contract.
    Example: Decentralized


    Example of a Decentralized ITAM.

    Solid line. Direct reporting relationship

    Dotted line. Dotted line working or reporting relationship

    Blue dotted line. Informal working relationships, knowledge sharing

    Hybrid: Federation

    Centralization with a light touch

    • A middle ground between centralized and decentralized ITAM, this model balances centralized decision making, specialization, and governance with local autonomy.
    • A central team will define organization-wide ITAM goals, develop capabilities, policies, and standards, and monitor compliance by local and central teams. All local teams must comply with centrally defined requirements, but they can also develop further capabilities to meet local goals.
    • For example, there will typically be a central ITAM database that must be used for at least a subset of assets, but other teams may build their own databases for day-to-day operations and export data to the central database as required.
    • There are often overlapping responsibilities in this model. A strong collaborative relationship between central and local ITAM teams is especially important here, particularly after major changes to requirements, processes, tools, or staffing when issues and breakdowns are more likely.
    Example: Federation


    Example of a Federation ITAM.

    Solid line. Direct reporting relationship

    Purple solid line. Oversight/governance

    Dotted line. Dotted line working or reporting relationship

    Hybrid: Shared Services

    Optional centralization

    • A special case of federated ITAM that balances central control and local autonomy, but with more power given to local IT to opt out of centralized shared services that come with centralized ITAM requirements.
    • ITAM requirements set by the shared services team will support management, allocation, and may have showback or chargeback implications. Following the ITAM requirements is a condition of service. If a local organization chooses to stop using shared services, they are (naturally) no longer required to adhere to the shared services ITAM requirements.
    • As with the federated model, local teams may develop further capabilities to meet local goals.
    Example: Shared Services


    Example of a Shared Services ITAM.

    Solid line. Direct reporting relationship

    Dotted line. Dotted line working relationship

    Blue dotted line. Informal working relationships, knowledge sharing

    Structure data collection & analysis

    Consider the implications of structure on data.

    Why centralize?
    • There is a need to build reports that aggregate data on assets organization-wide, rather than just assets within a local environment.
    • Decentralized ITAM tracking isn’t producing accurate or usable data, even for local purposes.
    • Tracking tools have overlapping functionality. There’s an opportunity to rationalize spend, management and support for ITAM tools.
    • Contract centralization can optimize spend and manage risks, but only with the data required to manage those contracts.
    Why decentralize?
    • Tracking and reporting on local assets is sufficient to meet ITAM goals; there is limited or no need to track assets organization-wide.
    • Local teams have the skills to track and maintain asset data; subsidiaries have appropriate budgets and tools to support ITAM tracking.
    • Decentralized ITSM/ITAM tools are in place, populated, and accurate.
    • The effort to consolidate tools and processes may outweigh the benefits to data centralization.
    • Lots of variability in types of assets and the environment is stable.
    Requirements for success:
    • A centralized IT asset management solution is implemented and managed.
    • Local teams must understand the why and how of centralized data tracking and be held accountable for assigned responsibilities.
    • The asset tool should offer both centralized and localized views of the data.
    Requirements for success:
    • Guidelines and expectations for reporting to centralized asset management team will be well defined and supported.
    • Local asset managers will have opportunity to collaborate with others in the role for knowledge transfer and asset trading, where appropriate.

    Structure budget and contract management

    Contract consolidation creates economies of scale for vendor management and license pooling that strengthen your negotiating position with vendors and optimize spend.

    Why centralize?
    • Budgeting, governance, and accountability are already centralized. Centralized ITAM practices can support the existing governance practices.
    • Centralizing contract management and negotiation can optimize spend and/or deliver access to better service.
    • Centralize management for contracts that cover most of the organization, are highly complex, involve large spend and/or higher risk, and will benefit from specialization of asset staff.
    Why decentralize?
    • Budgeting, governance, and accountability rest with local organizations.
    • There may be increased need for high levels of customer responsiveness and support.
    • Decentralize contract management for contracts used only by local groups (e.g. a few divisions, a few specialized functions), and that are smaller, low risk, and come with standard terms and conditions.
    Requirements for success:
    • A centralized IT asset management solution is implemented and managed.
    • Contract terms must be harmonized across the organization.
    • Centralized fulfillment is as streamlined as possible. For example, software contracts should include the right to install at any time and pay through a true-up process.
    Requirements for success:
    • Any expectations for harmonization with the centralized asset management team will be well defined and supported.
    • Local asset managers can collaborate with other local ITAM leads to support knowledge transfer, asset swapping, etc.

    Structure technology management

    Are there opportunities to centralize or decentralize support functions?

    Why centralize?
    • Standard technologies are deployed organization-wide.
    • There are opportunities to improve service and optimize costs by consolidating knowledge, service contracts, and support functions.
    • Centralizing data on product supply allows for easier harvest and redeployment of assets by a central support team.
    • A stable, central support function can better support localized needs during seasonal staffing changes, mergers and acquisitions.
    Why decentralize?
    • Technology is unique to a local subset of users or customers.
    • Minimal opportunity for savings or better support by consolidating knowledge, service contracts, or support functions.
    • Refresh standards are set at a local level; new tech adoption may be impeded by a reliance on older technologies, local budget shortfalls, or other constraints.
    • Hardware may need to be managed locally if shipping costs and times can’t reasonably be met by a distant central support team.
    Requirements for success:
    • Ensure required processes, technologies, skills, and knowledge are in place to enable centralized support.
    • Keep a central calendar of contract renewals, including reminders to start work on the renewal no less than 90 days prior. Prioritize contracts with high dollar value or high risk.
    • The central asset management solution should be configured to provide data that can enable the central support team.
    Requirements for success:
    • Ensure required processes, technologies, skills, and knowledge are in place to enable decentralized support.
    • Decentralized support teams must understand and adhere to ITAM activities that are part of support work (e.g. data entry, data audits).
    • The central asset management solution should be configured to provide data that can enable the central support team, or decentralized asset solutions must be funded, and teams trained on their use.

    2.3 Review ITAM Structure

    1-2 hours

    Input: Understanding of current organizational structure, Understanding of challenges and opportunities related to the current structure

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    Outline the current model for your organization and identify opportunities to centralize or decentralize ITAM-related activities.

    1. What model best describes how ITAM should be structured in your organization? Modify the slide outlining structure as a group to outline your own organization, as required.
    2. In the table below, outline opportunities to centralize or decentralize data tracking, budget and contract management, and technology management activities.
    Centralize Decentralize
    Data collection & analysis
    • Make better use of central ITAM database.
    • Support local IT departments building runbooks for data tracking during lifecycle activities (create templates, examples)
    Budget and contract management
    • Centralize Microsoft contracts.
    • Create a runbook to onboard new companies to MSFT contracts.
    • Create tools and data views to support local department budget exercises.
    Technology management
    • Ensure all end-user devices are visible to centrally managed InTune, ConfigMgr.
    • Enable direct shipping from vendor to local sites.
    • Establish disposal/pickup at local sites.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.4: Create a RACI

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Review the role of the IT asset manager.
    • Identify who’s responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed for key ITAM activities.

    Empower your asset manager

    The asset manager is the critical ITAM role. Ensure they’re positioned to succeed.

    There’s too much change in the technology and business environment to expect ITAM to be “a problem to solve.” It is a practice that requires care and feeding through regular iteration to achieve success. At the helm of this practice is your asset manager, whose approach and past experience will have a significant impact on how you approach ITAM.

    The asset manager role requires a variety of skills, knowledge, and abilities including:

    • Operations, process, and practice management.
    • An ability to communicate, influence, negotiate, and facilitate.
    • Organizational knowledge and relationship management.
    • Contract and license agreement analysis, attention to detail.
    • Natural curiosity and a willingness to learn.
    • A strong understanding of technologies in use by the organization, and how they fit into the asset management program.
    Where the asset manager sits in the organization will also have an impact on their focus and priorities. When the asset manager reports into a service team, their focus will often reflect their team’s focus: end-user devices and software, customer satisfaction, request fulfillment. Asset teams that report into a leadership or governance function will be more likely to focus on organization-wide assets, governance, budget management, and compliance.

    “Where your asset manager sits, and what past experience they have, is going to influence how they do asset management.” (Jeremy Boerger, Consultant & Author)

    “It can be annoying at times, but a good IT asset manager will poke their nose into activities that do not obviously concern them, such as programme and project approval boards and technical design committees. Their aim is to identify and mitigate ITAM risks BEFORE the technology is deployed as well as to ensure that projects and solutions ‘bake in’ the necessary processes and tools that ensure IT assets can be managed effectively throughout their lifecycle.” (Kylie Fowler, ITAM by Design, 2017)

    IT asset managers must have a range of skills and knowledge

    • ITAM Operations, Process, and Practice Management
      The asset manager is typically responsible for managing and improving the ITAM practice and related processes and tools. The asset manager may administer the ITAM tool, develop reports and dashboards, evaluate and implement new technologies or services to improve ITAM maturity, and more.
    • Organizational Knowledge
      An effective IT asset manager has a good understanding of your organization and its strategy, products, stakeholders, and culture.
    • Technology & Product Awareness
      An IT asset manager must learn about new and changing technologies and products adopted by the organization (e.g. IoT, cloud) and develop recommendations on how to track and manage them via the ITAM practice.
    A book surrounded by icons corresponding to the bullet points.
    • People Management
      Asset managers often manage a team directly and have dotted-line reports across IT and the business.
    • Communication
      Important in any role, but particularly critical where learning, listening, negotiation, and persuasion are so critical.
    • Finance & Budgeting
      A foundational knowledge of financial planning and budgeting practices is often helpful, where the asset manager is asked to contribute to these activities.
    • Contract Review & Analysis
      Analyze new and existing contracts to evaluate changes, identify compliance requirements, and optimize spend.

    Assign ITAM responsibilities and accountabilities

    Align authority and accountability.
    • A RACI exercise will help you discuss and document accountability and responsibility for critical ITAM activities.
    • When responsibility and accountability are not currently well documented, it’s often useful to invite a representative of the roles identified to participate in this alignment exercise. The discussion can uncover contrasting views on responsibility and governance, which can help you build a stronger management and governance model.
    • The RACI chart can help you identify who should be involved when making changes to a given activity. Clarify the variety of responsibilities assigned to each key role.
    • In the future, you may need to define roles in more detail as you change your hardware and software asset management procedures.

    R

    Responsible: The person who actually gets the job done.

    Different roles may be responsible for different aspects of the activity relevant to their role.

    A

    Accountable: The one role accountable for the activity (in terms completion, quality, cost, etc.)

    Must have sufficient authority to be held accountable; responsible roles are often accountable to this role.

    C

    Consulted: Must have the opportunity to provide meaningful input at certain points in the activity.

    Typically, subject matter experts or stakeholders. The more people you must consult, the more overhead and time you’ll add to a process.

    I

    Informed: Receives information regarding the task, but has no requirement to provide feedback.

    Information might relate to process execution, changes, or quality.

    2.4 Conduct a RACI Exercise

    1-2 hours

    Input: An understanding of key roles and activities in ITAM practices, An understanding of your organization, High-level structure of your ITAM program

    Output: A RACI diagram for IT asset management

    Materials: The table in the next slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    Let’s face it – RACI exercises can be dry. We’ve found that the approach below is more collaborative, engaging, and effective compared to filling out the table as a large group.

    1. Create a shared working copy of the RACI charts on the following slides (e.g. write it out on a whiteboard or provide a link to this document and work directly in it).
    2. Review the list of template roles and activities as a group. Add, change, or remove roles and activities from the table as needed.
    3. Divide into small groups. Assign each group a set of roles, and have them define whether that role is accountable, responsible, consulted, or informed for each activity in the chart. Refer to the previous slide for context on RACI. Give everyone 15 minutes to update their section of the chart.
    4. Come back together as a large group to review the chart. First, check for accountability – there should generally be just one role accountable for each activity. Then, have each small group walk through their section, and encourage participants to ask questions. Is there at least one role responsible for each task, and what are they responsible for? Does everyone listed as consulted or informed really need to be? Make any necessary adjustments.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Define ITAM governance activities

    RACI Chart for ITAM governance activities. In the first column is a list of governance activities, and the row headers are positions within a company. Fields are marked with an R, A, C, or I.

    Document asset management responsibilities and accountabilities

    RACI Chart for ITAM asset management responsibilities and accountabilities. In the first column is a list of responsibilities and accountabilities, and the row headers are positions within a company. Fields are marked with an R, A, C, or I.

    Step 2.5: Align ITAM with other Service Management Practices

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • Establish shared and separate responsibilities for asset and configuration management.
    • Identify how ITAM can support other practices, and how other practices can support ITAM.

    Asset vs. Configuration

    Asset and configuration management look at the same world through different lenses.
    • IT asset management tends to focus on each IT asset in its own right: assignment or ownership, its lifecycle, and related financial obligations and entitlements.
    • Configuration management is focused on configuration items (CIs) that must be managed to deliver a service and the relationships and integrations to other CIs.
    • ITAM and configuration management teams and practices should work closely together. Though asset and configuration management focus on different outcomes, they tend use overlapping tools and data sets. Each practice, when working effectively, can strengthen the other.
    • Many objects will exist in both the CMDB and AMDB, and the data on those shared objects will need to be kept in sync.
    Asset and Configuration Management: An Example

    Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

    A database of uniquely identified configuration items (CIs). Each CI record may include information on:
    Service Attributes

    Supported Service(s)
    Service Description, Criticality, SLAs
    Service Owners
    Data Criticality/Sensitivity

    CI Relationships

    Physical Connections
    Logical Connections
    Dependencies

    Arrow connector.

    Discovery, Normalization, Dependency Mapping, Business Rules*

    Manual Data Entry

    Arrow connector.
    This shared information could be attached to asset records, CI records, or both, and it should be synchronized between the two databases where it’s tracked in both.
    Hardware Information

    Serial, Model and Specs
    Network Address
    Physical Location

    Software Installations

    Hypervisor & OS
    Middleware & Software
    Software Configurations

    Arrow connector.

    Asset Management Database (AMDB)

    A database of uniquely identified IT assets. Each asset record may include information on:
    Procurement/Purchasing

    Purchase Request/Purchase Order
    Invoice and Cost
    Cost Center
    Vendor
    Contracts and MSAs
    Support/Maintenance/Warranties

    Asset Attributes

    Model, Title, Product Info, License Key
    Assigned User
    Lifecycle Status
    Last ITAM Audit Date
    Certificate of Disposal

    Arrows connecting multiple fields.

    IT Security Systems

    Vulnerability Management
    Threat Management
    SIEM
    Endpoint Protection

    IT Service Management (ITSM) System

    Change Tickets
    Request Tickets
    Incident Tickets
    Problem Tickets
    Project Tickets
    Knowledgebase

    Financial System/ERP

    General Ledger
    Accounts Payable
    Accounts Receivable
    Enterprise Assets
    Enterprise Contract Database

    (*Discovery, dependency mapping, and data normalization are often features or modules of configuration management, asset management, or IT service management tools.)

    2.5 Integrate ITAM and configuration practices

    45 minutes

    Input: Knowledge of the organization’s configuration management processes

    Output: Define how ITAM and configuration management will support one another

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, Configuration manager

    Work through the table below to identify how you will collaborate and synchronize data across ITAM and configuration management practices and tools.

    What are the goals (if any currently exist) for the configuration management practice? Connect configuration items to services to support service management.
    How will configuration and asset management teams collaborate? Weekly status updates. As-needed working sessions.
    Shared visibility on each others’ Kanban tracker.
    Create tickets to raise and track issues that require collaboration or attention from the other team.
    How can config leverage ITAM? Connect CIs to financial, contractual, and ownership data.
    How can ITAM leverage config? Connect assets to services, changes, incidents.
    What key fields will be primarily tracked/managed by ITAM? Serial number, unique ID, user, location, PO number, …
    What key fields will be primarily tracked/managed by configuration management? Supported service(s), dependencies, service description, service criticality, network address…

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    ITAM supports service management

    Decoupling asset management from other service management practices can result in lost value. Establish how asset management can support other service management practices – and how those practices can support ITAM.

    Incident Management

    What broke?
    Was it under warranty?
    Is there a service contract?
    Was it licensed?
    Who was it assigned to?
    Is it end-of-life?

    ITAM
    Practice

    Request Management

    What can this user request or purchase?
    What are standard hardware and software offerings?
    What does the requester already have?
    Are there items in inventory to fulfil the request?
    Did we save money by reissuing equipment?
    Is this a standard request?
    What assets are being requested regularly?

    What IT assets are related to the known issue?
    What models and vendors are related to the issue?
    Are the assets covered by a service contract?
    Are other tickets related to this asset?
    What end-of-life assets have been tied to incidents recently?

    Problem Management

    What assets are related to the change?
    Is the software properly licensed?
    Has old equipment been properly retired and disposed?
    Have software licenses been returned to the pool?
    Is the vendor support on the change part of a service contract?

    Change Enablement

    2.5. Connect with other IT service practices

    45 minutes

    Input: Knowledge of existing organizational IT service management processes

    Output: Define how ITAM will help other service management processes, and how other service management processes will help ITAM

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, Service leads

    Complete the table below to establish what ITAM can provide to other service management practices, and what other practices can provide to ITAM.

    Practice ITAM will help Will help ITAM
    Incident Management Provide context on assets involved in an incident (e.g. ownership, service contracts). Track when assets are involved in incidents (via incident tickets).
    Request Management Oversee request & procurement processes. Help develop asset standards. Enter new assets in ITAM database.
    Problem Management Collect information on assets related to known issues. Report back on models/titles that are generating known issues.
    Change Enablement Provide context on assets for change review. Ensure EOL assets are retired and licenses are returned during changes.
    Capacity Management Identify ownership, location for assets at capacity. Identify upcoming refreshes or purchases.
    Availability Management Connect uptime and reliability to assets. Identify assets that are causing availability issues.
    Monitoring and Event Management Provide context to events with asset data. Notify asset of unrecognized software and hardware.
    Financial Management Establish current and predict future spending. Identify upcoming purchases, renewals.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.6: Evaluate ITAM tools and integrations

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • Create a list of the ITAM tools currently in use, how they’re used, and their current limitations.
    • Identify new tools that could provide value to the ITAM practice, and what needs to be done to acquire and implement them.

    “Everything is connected. Nothing is also connected.” (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency)

    Establish current strengths and gaps in your ITAM toolset

    ITAM data quality relies on tools and integrations that are managed by individuals or teams who don’t report directly to the ITAM function.

    Without direct line of sight into tools management, the ITAM team must influence rather than direct improvement initiatives that are in some cases critical to the performance of the ITAM function. To more effectively influence improvement efforts, you must explicitly identify what you need, why you need it, from which tools, and from which stakeholders.

    Data Sources
    Procurement Tools
    Discovery Tools
    Active Directory
    Purchase Documents
    Spreadsheets
    Input To Asset System(s) of Record
    ITAM Database
    ITSM Tool
    CMDB
    Output To Asset Data Consumption
    ITFM Tools
    Security Tools
    TEM Tools
    Accounting Tools
    Spreadsheets
    “Active Directory plays a huge role in audit defense and self-assessment, but no-one really goes out there and looks at Active Directory.

    I was talking to one organization that has 1,600,000 AD records for 100,000 employees.” (Mike Austin, Founder, MetrixData 360)

    2.6 Evaluate ITAM existing technologies

    30 minutes

    Input: Knowledge of existing ITAM tools

    Output: A list of prioritized organizational goals, An initial assessment of how ITAM can support these goals

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Identify the use, limitations, and next steps for existing ITAM tools, including those not directly managed by the ITAM team.

    1. What tools do we have today?
    2. What are they used for? What are their limitations?
    3. Who manages them?
    4. What actions could we take to maximize the value of the tools?
    Existing Tool Use Constraints Owner Proposed Action?
    ITAM Module
    • Track HW/SW
    • Connect assets to incident, request
    • Currently used for end-user devices only
    • Not all divisions have access
    • SAM capabilities are limited
    ITAM Team/Service Management
    • Add license for additional read/write access
    • Start tracking infra in this tool
    Active Directory
    • Store user IDs, organizational data
    Major data quality issues IT Operations
    • Work with AD team to identify issues creating data issues

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    2.6 Identify potential new tools

    30 minutes

    Input: Knowledge of tooling gaps, An understanding of available tools that could remediate gaps

    Output: New tools that can improve ITAM capabilities, including expected value and proposed next steps

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers

    Identify tools that are required to support the identified goals of the ITAM practice.

    1. What types of tools do we need that we don’t have?
    2. What could these tools help us do?
    3. What needs to be done next to investigate or acquire the appropriate tool?
    New Tool Expected Value Proposed Next Steps
    SAM tool
    • Automatically calculate licensing entitlements from contract data.
    • Automatically calculate licensing requirements from discovery data.
    • Support gap analyses.
    • Further develop software requirements.
    • Identify vendors in the space and create a shortlist.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.7: Create a plan for internal and external audits

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Establish your approach to internal data audits.
    • Create a high-level response plan for external audits.

    Validate ITAM data via internal audits

    Data audits provide assurance that the records in the ITAM database are as accurate as possible. Consider these three approaches:

    Compare Tool Records

    Audit your data by comparing records in the ITAM system to other discovery sources.

    • Ideally, use three separate data sources (e.g. ITAM database, discovery tool, security tool). Use a common field, such as the host name, to compare across fields. (To learn more about discovery tool analysis, see Jeremy Boerger’s book, Rethinking IT Asset Management.)
    • Run reports to compare records and identify discrepancies. This could include assets missing from one system or metadata differences such as different users or installed software.
    • Over time, discrepancies between tools should be well understood and accepted; otherwise, they should be addressed and remediated.
    IT-led Audit

    Conduct a hands-on investigation led by ITAM staff and IT technicians.

    • In-person audits require significant effort and resources. Each audit should be scoped and planned ahead of time to focus on known problem areas.
    • Provide the audit team with exact instructions on what needs to be verified and recorded. Depending on the experience and attention to detail of the audit team, you may need to conduct spot checks to ensure you’re catching any issues in the audit process itself.
    • Automation should be used wherever possible (e.g. through barcodes, scanners, and tables for quick access to ITAM records).
    User-led audit

    Have users validate the IT assets assigned to them.

    • Even more than IT-led audits: don’t use this approach too frequently; keep the scope as narrow as possible and the process as simple as possible.
    • Ensure users have all the information and tools they’ll need readily available to complete this task, or the result will be ineffective and will only frustrate your users.
    • Consider a process integrated with your ITSM tool: once a year, when a user logs in to the portal, they will be asked to enter the asset code for their laptop (and provided with instructions on where to find that code). Investigate discrepancies between assignments and ITAM records.

    2.7 Set an approach to internal data audits

    30 minutes

    Input: An understanding of current data audit capabilities and needs

    Output: An outline of how you’ll approach data audits, including frequency, scope, required resources

    Materials: Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team

    Review the three internal data audit approaches outlined on the previous slide, and identify which of the three approaches you’ll use. For each approach, complete the fields in the table below.

    Audit Approach How often? What scope? Who’s involved? Comments
    Compare tool records Monthly Compare ITAM DB, Intune/ConfigMgr, and Vulnerability Scanner Data; focus on end-user devices to start Asset manager will lead at first.
    Work with tool admins to pull data and generate reports.
    IT-led audit Annual End-user devices at a subset of locations Asset manager will work with ITSM admins to generate reports. In-person audit to be conducted by local techs.
    User-led audit Annual Assigned personal devices (start with a pilot group) Asset coordinator to develop procedure with ITSM admin. Run pilot with power users first.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Prepare for and respond to external audits and true-ups

    Are you ready when software vendors come knocking?

    • Vendor audits are expensive.
    • If you’re out of compliance, you will at minimum be required to pay the missing license fees. At their discretion, vendors may choose to add punitive fees and require you to cover the hourly cost of their audit teams. If you choose not to pay, the vendor could secure an injunction to cut off your service, which in many cases will be far more costly than the fines. And this is aside from the intangible costs of the disruption to your business and damaged relationships between IT, ITAM, your business, and other partners.
    • Having a plan to respond to an audit is critical to reducing audit risk. Preparation will help you coordinate your audit response, ensure the audit happens on the most favorable possible terms, and even prevent some audits from happening in the first place.
    • The best defense, as they say, is a good offense. Good ITAM and SAM processes will allow you to track acquisition, allocation, and disposal of software licenses; understand your licensing position; and ensure you remain compliant whenever possible. The vendor has no reason to audit you when there’s nothing to find.
    • Know when and where your audit risk is greatest, so you can focus your resources where they can deliver the most value.
    “If software audits are a big part of your asset operations, you have problems. You can reduce the time spent on audits and eliminate some audits by having a proactive ITAM practice.” (Sandi Conrad, Principal Research Director)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Audit defense starts long before you get audited. For an in-depth review of your audit approach, see Info-Tech’s Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit.

    Identify areas of higher audit risk

    Watch for these warning signs
    • Your organization is visibly fighting fires. Signs of disorder may signal to vendors that there are opportunities to exploit via an audit. Past audit failures make future audits more likely.
    • You are looking for ways to decrease spend. Vendors may counter attempts to true-down licensing by launching an audit to try to find unlicensed software that provides them leverage to negotiate maintained or even increased spending.
    • Your license/contract terms with the vendor are particularly complex or highly customized. Very complex terms may make it harder to validate your own compliance, which may present opportunities to the vendor in an audit.
    • The vendor has earned a reputation for being particularly aggressive with audits. Some vendors include audits as a standard component of their business model to drive revenue. This may include acquiring smaller vendors or software titles that may not have been audit-driven in the past, and running audits on their new customer base.

    “The reality is, software vendors prey on confusion and complication. Where there’s confusion, there’s opportunity.” (Mike Austin, Founder, MetrixData 360)

    Develop an audit response plan

    You will be on the clock once the vendor sends you an audit request. Have a plan ready to go.
    • Don’t panic: Resist knee-jerk reactions. Follow the plan.
    • Form an audit response team and centralize your response: This team should be led by a member of the ITAM group, and it should include IT leadership, software SMEs, representatives from affected business areas, vendor management, contract management, and legal. You may also need to bring on a contractor with deep expertise with the vendor in question to supplement your internal capabilities. Establish clearly who will be the point of contact with the vendor during the audit.
    • Clarify the scope of the audit: Clearly establish what the audit will cover – what products, subsidiaries, contracts, time periods, geographic regions, etc. Manage the auditors to prevent scope creep.
    • Establish who covers audit costs: Vendors may demand the auditee cover the hourly cost of their audit team if you’re significantly out of compliance. Consider asking the vendor to pay for your team’s time if you’re found to be compliant.
    • Know your contract: Vendors’ contracts change over time, and it’s no guarantee that even your vendor’s licensing experts will be aware of the rights you have in your contract. You must know your entitlements to negotiate effectively.
    1. Bring the audit request received to the attention of ITAM and IT leadership. Assemble the response team.
    2. Acknowledge receipt of audit notice.
    3. Negotiate timing and scope of the audit.
    4. Direct staff not to remove or acquire licenses for software under audit without directly involving the ITAM team first.
    5. Gather installation data and documentation to establish current entitlements, including original contract, current contract, addendums, receipts, invoices.
    6. Compare entitlements to installed software.
    7. Investigate any anomalies (e.g. unexpected or non-compliant software).
    8. Review results with the audit response team.

    2.7 Clarify your vendor audit response plan

    1 hour

    Input: Organizational knowledge on your current audit response procedures

    Output: Audit response team membership, High-level audit checklist, A list of things to start, stop, and continue doing as part of the audit response

    Materials: Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    1. Who’s on the audit response team, and what’s their role? Who will lead the team? Who will be the point of contact with the auditor?
    2. What are the high-level steps in our audit response workflow? Use the example checklist below as a starting point.
    3. What do we need to start, stop, and continue doing in response to audit requests?

    Example Audit Checklist

    • Bring the audit request received to the attention of ITAM and IT leadership. Assemble the response team.
    • Acknowledge receipt of audit notice.
    • Negotiate timing and scope of the audit.
    • Direct staff not to remove or acquire licenses for software under audit without directly involving the ITAM team first.
    • Gather installation data and documentation to establish current entitlements, including original contract, current contract, addendums, receipts, invoices.
    • Compare entitlements to installed software.
    • Investigate any anomalies (e.g. unexpected or non-compliant software).
    • Review results with the audit response team.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.8: Improve budget processes

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers
    • ITAM business partners

    Outcomes

    • Identify what you need to start, stop, and continue to do to support budgeting processes.

    Improve budgeting and forecasting

    Insert ITAM into budgeting processes to deliver significant value.

    Some examples of what ITAM can bring to the budgeting table:
    • Trustworthy data on deployed assets and spending obligations tied to those assets.
    • Projections of hardware due for replacement in terms of quantity and spend.
    • Knowledge of IT hardware and software contract terms and pricing.
    • Lists of unused or underused hardware and software that could be redeployed to avoid spend.
    • Comparisons of spend year-over-year.

    Being part of the budgeting process positions ITAM for success in other ways:

    • Helps demonstrate the strategic value of the ITAM practice.
    • Provides insight into business and IT strategic projects and priorities for the year.
    • Strengthens relationships with key stakeholders, and positions the ITAM team as trusted partners.

    “Knowing what you have [IT assets] is foundational to budgeting, managing, and optimizing IT spend.” (Dave Kish, Info-Tech, Practice Lead, IT Financial Management)

    Stock image of a calculator.

    2.8 Build better budgets

    20 minutes

    Input: Context on IT budgeting processes

    Output: A list of things to start, stop, and continue doing as part of budgeting exercises

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, ITAM business partners

    What should we start, stop, and continue doing to support organizational budgeting exercises?

    Start Stop Continue
    • Creating buckets of spend and allocating assets to those buckets.
    • Zero-based review on IaaS instances quarterly.
    • Develop dashboards plugged into asset data for department heads to view allocated assets and spend.
    • Create value reports to demonstrate hard savings as well as cost avoidance.
    • Waiting for business leaders to come to us for help (start reaching out with reports proactively, three months before budget cycle).
    • % increases on IT budgets without further review.
    • Monthly variance budget analysis.
    • What-if analysis for asset spend based on expected headcount increases.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.9: Establish a documentation framework

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team

    Outcomes

    • Identify key documentation and gaps in your documentation.
    • Establish where documentation should be stored, who should own it, who should have access, and what should trigger a review.

    Create ITAM documentation

    ITAM documentation will typically support governance or operations.

    Long-term planning and governance
    • ITAM policy and/or related policies (procurement policy, security awareness policy, acceptable use policy, etc.)
    • ITAM strategy document
    • ITAM roadmap or burndown list
    • Job descriptions
    • Functional requirements documents for ITAM tools

    Operational documentation

    • ITAM SOPs (hardware, software) and workflows
    • Detailed work instructions/knowledgebase articles
    • ITAM data/records
    • Contracts, purchase orders, invoices, MSAs, SOWs, etc.
    • Effective Licensing Position (ELP) reports
    • Training and communication materials
    • Tool and integration documentation
    • Asset management governance, operations, and tools typically generate a lot of documentation.
    • Don’t create documentation for the sake of documentation. Prioritize building and maintaining documentation that addresses major risks or presents opportunities to improve the consistency and reliability of key processes.
    • Maximize the value of ITAM documentation by ensuring it is as current, accessible, and usable as it needs to be.
    • Clearly identify where documentation is stored and who should have access to it.
    • Identify who is accountable for the creation and maintenance of key documentation, and establish triggers for reviews, updates, and changes.

    Consider ITAM policies

    Create policies that can and will be monitored and enforced.
    • Certain requirements of the ITAM practice may need to be backed up by corporate policies: formal statements of organizational expectations that must be recognized by staff, and which will lead to sanctions/penalties if breached.
    • Some organizations will choose to create one or more ITAM-specific policies. Others will include ITAM-related statements in other existing policies, such as acceptable use policies, security training and awareness policies, procurement policies, configuration policies, e-waste policies, and more.
    • Ensure that you are prepared to monitor compliance with policies and evenly enforce breaches of policy. Failing to consistently enforce your policies exposes you and your organization to claims of negligence or discriminatory conduct.
    • For a template for ITAM-specific policies, see Info-Tech’s policy templates for Hardware Asset Management and Software Asset Management.

    2.9 Establish documentation gaps

    15-30 minutes

    Input: An understanding of existing documentation gaps and risks

    Output: Documentation gaps, Identified owners, repositories, access rights, and review/update protocols

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, Optional: IT managers, ITAM business partners

    Discuss and record the following:

    • What planning/governance, operational, and tooling documentation do we still need to create? Who is accountable for the creation and maintenance of these documents?
    • Where will the documentation be stored? Who can access these documents?
    • What will trigger reviews or changes to the documents?
    Need to Create Owner Stored in Accessible by Trigger for review
    Hardware asset management SOP ITAM manager ITAM SharePoint site › Operating procedures folder
    • All IT staff
    • Annual review
    • As-needed for major tooling changes that require a documentation update

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Step 2.10: Create a roadmap and communication plan

    Participants

    • Project sponsor and lead facilitator
    • ITAM team
    • IT leaders and managers

    Outcomes

    • A timeline of key ITAM initiatives.
    • Improvement ideas aligned to key initiatives.
    • A communication plan tailored to key stakeholders.
    • Your ITAM Strategy document.

    “Understand that this is a journey. This is not a 90-day project. And in some organizations, these journeys could be three or five years long.” (Mike Austin, MetrixData 360)

    2.10 Identify key ITAM initiatives

    30-45 minutes

    Input: Organizational strategy documents

    Output: A roadmap that outlines next steps

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, Project sponsor

    1. Identify key initiatives that are critical to improving practice maturity and meeting business goals.
    2. There should only be a handful of really key initiatives. This is the work that will have the greatest impact on your ability to deliver value. Too many initiatives muddy the narrative and can distract from what really matters.
    3. Plot the target start and end dates for each initiative in the business and IT transformation timeline you created in Phase 1.
    4. Review the chart and consider – what new capabilities should the ITAM practice have once the identified initiatives are complete? What transformational initiatives will you be better positioned to support?

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Transformation Timeline

    Example transformation timeline with row headers 'Business Inititiaves', 'IT Initiatives', and 'ITAM Initiatives'. Each initiative is laid out along the timeline appropriately.

    2.10 Align improvement ideas to initiatives

    45 minutes

    Input: Key initiatives, Ideas for ITAM improvement collected over the course of previous exercises

    Output: Concrete action items to support each initiative

    Materials: The table in the next slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: ITAM team, IT leaders and managers, Project sponsor

    As you’ve been working through the previous exercises, you have been tracking ideas for improvement – now we’ll align them to your roadmap.

    1. Review the list of ideas for improvement you’ve produced over the working sessions. Consolidate the list – are there any ideas that overlap or complement each other? Record any new ideas. Frame each idea as an action item – something you can actually do.
    2. Connect the action items to initiatives. It may be that not every action item becomes part of a key initiative. (Don’t lose ideas that aren’t part of key initiatives – track them in a separate burndown list or backlog.)
    3. Identify a target completion date and owner for each action item that’s part of an initiative.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Example ITAM initiatives

    Initiative 1: Develop hardware/software standards
    Task Target Completion Owner
    Laptop standards Q1-2023 ITAM manager
    Identify/eliminate contracts for unused software using scan tool Q2-2023 ITAM manager
    Review O365 license levels and standard service Q3-2023 ITAM manager

    Initiative 2: Improve ITAM data quality
    Task Target Completion Owner
    Implement scan agent on all field laptops Q3-2023 Desktop engineer
    Conduct in person audit on identified data discrepancies Q1-2024 ITAM team
    Develop and run user-led audit Q1-2024 Asset manager

    Initiative 3: Acquire & implement a new ITAM tool
    Task Target Completion Owner
    Select an ITAM tool Q3-2023 ITAM manager
    Implement ITAM tool, incl. existing data migration Q1-2024 ITAM manager
    Training on new tool Q1-2024 ITAM manager
    Build KPIs, executive dashboards in new tool Q2-2024 Data analyst
    Develop user-led audit functionality in new tool Q3-2024 ITAM coordinator

    2.10 Create a communication plan

    45 minutes

    Input: Proposed ITAM initiatives, Stakeholder priorities and goals, and an understanding of how ITAM can help them meet those goals

    Output: A high-level communication plan to communicate the benefits and impact of proposed changes to the ITAM program

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: IT asset manager, Project sponsor

    Develop clear, consistent, and targeted messages to key ITAM stakeholders.

    1. Modify the list of stakeholders in the first column.
    2. What benefits should those stakeholders realize from ITAM? What impact may the proposed improvements have on them? Refer back to exercises from Phase 1, where you identified key stakeholders, their priorities, and how ITAM could help them.
    3. Identify communication channels (in-person, email, all-hands meeting, etc.) and timing – when you’ll distribute the message. You may choose to use more than one channel, and you may need to convey the message more than once.
    Group ITAM Benefits Impact Channel(s) Timing
    CFO
    • More accurate IT spend predictions
    • Better equipment utilization and value for money
    • Sponsor integration project between ITAM DB and financial system
    • Support procurement procedures review
    Face-to-face – based on their availability Within the next month
    CIO
    • Better oversight into IT spend
    • Data to help demonstrate IT value
    • Resources required to support tool and ITAM process improvements
    Standing bi-monthly 1:1 meetings Review strategy at next meeting
    IT Managers
    Field Techs

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    2.10 Put the final touches on your ITAM Strategy

    30 minutes

    Input: Proposed ITAM initiatives, Stakeholder priorities and goals, and an understanding of how ITAM can help them meet those goals

    Output: A high-level communication plan to communicate the benefits and impact of proposed changes to the ITAM program

    Materials: The table in this slide, Your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Participants: IT asset manager, Project sponsor

    You’re almost done! Do a final check of your work before you send a copy to your participants.

    1. Summarize in three points the key findings from the activities you’ve worked through. What have you learned? What are your priorities? What key message do you need to get across? Add these to the appropriate slide near the start of the ITAM Strategy Template.
    2. What are your immediate next steps? Summarize no more than five and add them to the appropriate slide near the start of the ITAM Strategy Template.
      1. Are you asking for something? Approval for ITAM initiatives? Funding? Resources? Clearly identify the ask as part of your next steps.
    3. Are the KPIs identified in Phase 1 still valid? Will they help you monitor for success in the initiatives you’ve identified in Phase 2? Make any adjustments you think are required to the KPIs to reflect the additional completed work.

    Add your results to your copy of the ITAM Strategy Template

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Kylie Fowler
    Principal Consultant
    ITAM Intelligence

    Kylie is an experienced ITAM/FinOps consultant with a track record of creating superior IT asset management frameworks that enable large companies to optimize IT costs while maintaining governance and control.

    She has operated as an independent consultant since 2009, enabling organizations including Sainsbury's and DirectLine Insurance to leverage the benefits of IT asset management and FinOps to achieve critical business objectives. Recent key projects include defining an end-to-end SAM strategy, target operating model, policies and processes which when implemented provided a 300% ROI.

    She is passionate about supporting businesses of all sizes to drive continuous improvement, reduce risk, and achieve return on investment through the development of creative asset management and FinOps solutions.

    Rory Canavan
    Owner and Principal Consultant
    SAM Charter

    Rory is the founder, owner, and principal consultant of SAM Charter, an internationally recognized consultancy in enterprise-wide Software & IT Asset Management. As an industry leader, SAM Charter is uniquely poised to ensure your IT & SAM systems are aligned to your business requirements.

    With a technical background in business and systems analysis, Rory has a wide range of first-hand experience advising numerous companies and organizations on the best practices and principles pertaining to software asset management. This experience has been gained in both military and civil organizations, including the Royal Navy, Compaq, HP, the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), and several software vendors.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Jeremy Boerger
    Founder, Boerger Consulting
    Author of Rethinking IT Asset Management

    Jeremy started his career in ITAM fighting the Y2K bug at the turn of the 21st century. Since then, he has helped companies in manufacturing, healthcare, banking, and service industries build and rehabilitate hardware and software asset management practices.

    These experiences prompted him to create the Pragmatic ITAM method, which directly addresses and permanently resolves the fundamental flaws in current ITAM and SAM implementations.

    In 2016, he founded Boerger Consulting, LLC to help business leaders and decision makers fully realize the promises a properly functioning ITAM can deliver. In his off time, you will find him in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife and family.

    Mike Austin
    Founder and CEO
    MetrixData 360

    Mike Austin leads the delivery team at MetrixData 360. Mike brings more than 15 years of Microsoft licensing experience to his clients’ projects. He assists companies, from Fortune 500 to organizations with as few as 500 employees, with negotiations of Microsoft Enterprise Agreements (EA), Premier Support Contracts, and Select Agreements. In addition to helping negotiate contracts, he helps clients build and implement software asset management processes.

    Previously, Mike was employed by Microsoft for more than 8 years as a member of the global sales team. With Microsoft, Mike successfully negotiated more than a billion dollars in new and renewal EAs. Mike has also negotiated legal terms and conditions for all software agreements, developed Microsoft’s best practices for global account management, and was awarded Microsoft’s Gold Star Award in 2003 and Circle of Excellence in 2008 for his contributions.

    Bibliography

    “Asset Management.” SFIA v8. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Boerger, Jeremy. Rethinking IT Asset Management. Business Expert Press, 2021.

    Canavan, Rory. “C-Suite Cheat Sheet.” SAM Charter, 2021. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Fisher, Matt. “Metrics to Measure SAM Success.” Snow Software, 26 May 2015. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Flexera (2021). “State of ITAM Report.” Flexera, 2021. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Fowler, Kylie. “ITAM by design.” BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, 2017. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Fowler, Kylie. “Ch-ch-ch-changes… Is It Time for an ITAM Transformation?” ITAM Intelligence, 2021. Web. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Fowler, Kylie. “Do you really need an ITAM policy?” ITAM Accelerate, 15 Oct. 2021. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Hayes, Chris. “How to establish a successful, long-term ITAM program.” Anglepoint, Sept. 2021. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    ISO/IEC 19770-1-2017. IT Asset Management Systems – Requirements. Third edition. ISO, Dec 2017.

    Joret, Stephane. “IT Asset Management: ITIL® 4 Practice Guide”. Axelos, 2020.

    Jouravlev, Roman. “IT Service Financial Management: ITIL® 4 Practice Guide”. Axelos, 2020.

    Pagnozzi, Maurice, Edwin Davis, Sam Raco. “ITAM Vs. ITSM: Why They Should Be Separate.” KPMG, 2020. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Rumelt, Richard. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy. Profile Books, 2013.

    Stone, Michael et al. “NIST SP 1800-5 IT Asset Management.” Sept, 2018. Accessed 17 March 2022.

    Business Continuity

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}36|cart{/j2store}
    • Related Products: {j2store}36|crosssells{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.2/10
    • member rating average dollars saved: $30,547
    • member rating average days saved: 37
    • Parent Category Name: Security and Risk
    • Parent Category Link: /security-and-risk

    The challenge

    • Recent crises have put business continuity firmly on the radar with executives. The pressures mount to have a proper BCP in place.

    • You may be required to show regulators and oversight bodies proof of having your business continuity processes under control.
    • Your customers want to know that you can continue to function under adverse circumstances and may require proof of your business continuity practices and plans.
    • While your company may put the BCM function in facility management or within the business, it typically falls upon IT leaders to join the core team to set up the business continuity plans.

    Our advice

    Insight

    • Business continuity plans require the cooperation and input from all departments with often conflicting objectives.
    • For most medium-sized companies, BCP activities do not require a full-time position. 
    • While the set up of a BCP is an epic or project, embed the maintenance and exercises in its regular activities.
    • As an IT leader in your company, you have the skillset and organizational overview to lead a BCP set up. It is the business that must own the plans. They know their processes and know where to prioritize.
    • The traditional approach to creating a BCP is a considerable undertaking. Most companies will hire one or more consultants to guide them. If you want to do this in-house, then carve up the work into discrete tasks to make it more manageable. Our blueprint explains to you how to do that.

    Impact and results 

    • You have a structured and straightforward process that you can apply to one business unit or department at a time.
    • Start with a pilot, and use the results to fine-tune your approach, fill the gaps while at the same time slowly reducing your business continuity exposure. Repeat the process for each department or team.
    • Enable the business to own the plans. Develop templates that they can use.
    • Leverage the BCP project's outcome and refine your disaster recovery plans to ensure alignment with the overall BCP.

    The roadmap

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

    Get started

    Our concise executive brief shows you why you should develop a sound business continuity practice in your company. We'll show you our methodology and the ways we can help you in completing this.

    Identify your current maturity and document process dependencies.

    Choose a medium-sized department and build a team. Identify that department's processes, dependencies, and alternatives.

    • BCP Maturity Scorecard (xls)
    • BCP Pilot Project Charter Template (doc)
    • BCP Business Process Workflows Example (Visio)
    • BCP Business Process Workflows Example (PDF)

    Conduct a business impact analysis to determine what needs to recover first and how much (if any) data you can afford to lose in a disaster.

    Define an objective impact scoring scale for your company. Have the business estimate the impact of downtime and set your recovery targets.

    • BCP Business Impact Analysis Tool (xls)

    Document the recovery workflow entirely.

    The need for clarity is critical. In times when you need the plans, people will be under much higher stress. Build the workflow for the steps necessary to rebuild. Identify gaps and brainstorm on how to close them. Prioritize solutions that mitigate the remaining risks.

    • BCP Tabletop Planning Template (Visio)
    • BCP Tabletop Planning Template (PDF)
    • BCP Project Roadmap Tool
    • BCP Relocation Checklists

    Report the results of the pilot BCP and implement governance.

    Present the results of the pilot and propose the next steps. Assign BCM teams or people within each department. Update and maintain the overall BCMS documentation.

    • BCP Pilot Results Presentation (ppt)
    • BCP Summary (doc)
    • Business Continuity Teams and Roles Tool (xls)

    Additional business continuity tools and templates

    These can help with the creation of your BCP.

    • BCP Recovery Workflow Example (Visio)
    • BCP Recovery Workflow Example (PDF)
    • BCP Notification, Assessment, and Disaster Declaration Plan (doc)
    • BCP Business Process Workarounds and Recovery Checklists (doc)
    • Business Continuity Management Policy (doc)
    • Business Unit BCP Prioritization Tool (xls)
    • Industry-Specific BIA Guidelines (zip)
    • BCP-DRP Maintenance Checklist (xls)
    • Develop a COVID-19 Pandemic Response Plan Storyboard (ppt)

     

    Build a Data Architecture Roadmap

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}124|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 8.8/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $8,846 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 23 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management
    • Data architecture involves many moving pieces requiring coordination to provide greatest value from data.
    • Data architects are at the center of this turmoil and must be able to translate high-level business requirements into specific instructions for data workers using complex data models.
    • Data architects must account for the constantly growing data and application complexity, more demanding needs from the business, an ever-increasing number of data sources, and a growing need to integrate components to ensure that performance isn’t compromised.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Data architecture needs to evolve with the changing business landscape. There are four common business drivers that put most pressure on archaic architectures. As a result, the organization’s architecture must be flexible and responsive to changing business needs.
    • Data architecture is not just about models. Viewing data architecture as just technical data modeling can lead to structurally unsound data that does not serve the business.
    • Data is used differently across the layers of an organization’s data architecture, and the capabilities needed to optimize use of data change with it. Architecting and managing data from source to warehousing to presentation requires different tactics for optimal use.

    Impact and Result

    • Have a framework in place to identify the appropriate solution for the challenge at hand. Our three-phase practical approach will help you build a custom and modernized data architecture.
      • Identify and prioritize the business drivers in which data architecture changes would create the largest overall benefit, and determine the corresponding data architecture tiers that need to be addressed.
      • Discover the best-practice trends, measure your current state, and define the targets for your data architecture tactics.
      • Build a cohesive and personalized roadmap for restructuring your data architecture. Manage your decisions and resulting changes.

    Build a Data Architecture Roadmap Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why your organization should optimize its data architecture as it evolves with the drivers of the business to get the most from its data.

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

    1. Prioritize your data architecture with business-driven tactics

    Identify the business drivers that necessitate data architecture improvements, then create a tactical plan for optimization.

    • Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy – Phase 1: Prioritize Your Data Architecture With Business-Driven Tactics
    • Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool
    • Data Architecture Optimization Template

    2. Personalize your tactics to optimize your data architecture

    Analyze how you stack up to Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model to uncover your tactical plan, and discover groundbreaking data architecture trends and how you can fit them into your action plan.

    • Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy – Phase 2: Personalize Your Tactics to Optimize Your Data Architecture
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool
    • Data Architecture Trends Presentation

    3. Create your tactical data architecture roadmap

    Optimize your data architecture by following tactical initiatives and managing the resulting change brought on by those optimization activities.

    • Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy – Phase 3: Create Your Tactical Data Architecture Roadmap
    • Data Architecture Decision Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build a Data Architecture Roadmap

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

    1 Identify the Drivers of the Business for Optimizing Data Architecture

    The Purpose

    Explain approach and value proposition.

    Review the common business drivers and how the organization is driving a need to optimize data architecture.

    Understand Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture model.

    Determine the pattern of tactics that apply to the organization for optimization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of the current data architecture landscape.

    Priorities for tactical initiatives in the data architecture practice are identified.

    Target state for the data quality practice is defined.

    Activities

    1.1 Explain approach and value proposition.

    1.2 Review the common business drivers and how the organization is driving a need to optimize data architecture.

    1.3 Understand Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture model.

    1.4 Determine the pattern of tactics that apply to the organization for optimization.

    Outputs

    Five-tier logical data architecture model

    Data architecture tactic plan

    2 Determine Your Tactics For Optimizing Data Architecture

    The Purpose

    Define improvement initiatives.

    Define a data architecture improvement strategy and roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities in the data architecture practice are identified.

    Activities

    2.1 Create business unit prioritization roadmap.

    2.2 Develop subject area project scope.

    2.3 Subject area 1: data lineage analysis, root cause analysis, impact assessment, business analysis

    Outputs

    Business unit prioritization roadmap

    Subject area scope

    Data lineage diagram

    3 Create a Strategy for Data Quality Project 2

    The Purpose

    Define improvement initiatives.

    Define a data quality improvement strategy and roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Improvement initiatives are defined.

    Improvement initiatives are evaluated and prioritized to develop an improvement strategy.

    A roadmap is defined to depict when and how to tackle the improvement initiatives.

    Activities

    3.1 Create business unit prioritization roadmap.

    3.2 Develop subject area project scope.

    3.3 Subject area 1: data lineage analysis, root cause analysis, impact assessment, business analysis.

    Outputs

    Business unit prioritization roadmap

    Subject area scope

    Data lineage diagram

    Further reading

    Build a Data Architecture Roadmap

    Optimizing data architecture requires a plan, not just a data model.

    ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

    Integral to an insight-driven enterprise is a modern and business-driven data environment.

    “As business and data landscapes change, an organization’s data architecture needs to be able to keep pace with these changes. It needs to be responsive so as to not only ensure the organization continues to operate efficiently but that it supports the overall strategic direction of the organization.

    In the dynamic marketplace of today, organizations are constantly juggling disruptive forces and are finding the need to be more proactive rather than reactive. As such, organizations are finding their data to be a source of competitive advantage where the data architecture has to be able to not only support the increasing amount, sources, and rate at which organizations are capturing and collecting data but also be able to meet and deliver on changing business needs.

    Data architecture optimization should, therefore, aid in breaking down data silos and creating a more shared and all-encompassing data environment for better empowering the business.” (Crystal Singh, Director, Research, Data and Information Practice, Info-Tech Research Group)

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research Is Designed For:
    • Data architects or their equivalent, looking to optimize and improve the efficiency of the capture, movement and storage of data for a variety of business drivers.
    • Enterprise architects looking to improve the backbone of the holistic approach of their organization’s structure.
    This Research Will Help You:
    • Identify the business drivers that are impacted and improved by best-practice data architecture.
    • Optimize your data architecture using tactical practices to address the pressing issues of the business to drive modernization.
    • Align the organization’s data architecture with the grander enterprise architecture.
    This Research Will Also Assist:
    • CIOs concerned with costs, benefits, and the overall structure of their organizations data flow.
    • Database administrators tasked with overseeing crucial elements of the data architecture.
    This Research Will Help Them:
    • Get a handle on the current situation of data within the organization.
    • Understand how data architecture affects the operations of the data sources within the enterprise.

    Executive summary

    Situation

    • The data architecture of a modern organization involves many moving pieces requiring coordination to provide greatest value from data.
    • Data architects are at the center of this turmoil and must be able to translate high-level business requirements into specific instructions for data workers using complex data models.

    Complication

    • Data architects must account for the constantly growing data and application complexity, and more demanding needs from the business.
    • There is an ever-increasing number of data sources and a growing need to integrate components to ensure that performance isn’t compromised.
    • There isn’t always a clearly defined data architect role, yet the responsibilities must be filled to get maximum value from data.

    Resolution

    • To deal with these challenges, a data architect must have a framework in place to identify the appropriate solution for the challenge at hand.
      • Identify and prioritize the business drivers in which data architecture changes would create the largest overall benefit, and determine the corresponding data architecture tiers that need to be addressed to customize your solution.
      • Discover the best practice trends, measure your current state, and define the targets for your data architecture tactics.
      • Build a cohesive and personalized roadmap for restructuring your data architecture. Manage your decisions and resulting changes.

    Info-Tech Insight

    1. Data architecture is not just about models. Viewing data architecture as just technical data modeling can lead to a data environment that does not aptly serve or support the business. Identify the priorities of your business and adapt your data architecture to those needs.
    2. Changes to data architecture are typically driven by four common business driver patterns. Use these as a shortcut to understand how to evolve your data architecture.
    3. Data is used differently across the layers of an organization’s data architecture; therefore, the capabilities needed to optimize the use of data change with it. Architecting and managing data from source to warehousing to presentation requires different tactics for optimal use.

    Your data is the foundation of your organization’s knowledge and ability to make decisions

    Data should be at the foundation of your organization’s evolution.

    The transformational insights that executives are constantly seeking to leverage can be uncovered with a data practice that makes high quality, trustworthy information readily available to the business users who need it.

    50% Organizations that embrace data are 50% more likely to launch products and services ahead of their competitors. (Nesta, 2016)

    Whether hoping to gain a better understanding of your business or trying to become an innovator in your industry, any organization can get value from its data regardless of where you are in your journey to becoming a data-driven enterprise:

    Business Monitoring
    • Data reporting
    • Uncover inefficiencies
    • Monitor progress
    • Track inventory levels
    Business Insights
    • Data analytics
    • Expose patterns
    • Predict future trends
    Business Optimization
    • Data-based apps
    • Build apps to automate actions based on insights
    Business Transformation
    • Monetary value of data
    • Create new revenue streams
    (Journey to Data Driven Enterprise, 2015)

    As organizations seek to become more data driven, it is imperative to better manage data for its effective use

    Here comes the zettabyte era.

    A zettabyte is a billion terabytes. Organizations today need to measure their data size in zettabytes, a challenge that is only compounded by the speed at which the data is expected to move.

    Arriving at the understanding that data can be the driving force of your organization is just the first step. The reality is that the true hurdles to overcome are in facing the challenges of today’s data landscape.

    Challenges of The Modern Data Landscape
    Data at rest Data movement
    Greater amounts Different types Uncertain quality Faster rates Higher complexity

    “The data environment is very chaotic nowadays. Legacy applications, data sprawl – organizations are grappling with what their data landscape looks like. Where are our data assets that we need to use?” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Solution

    Well-defined and structured data management practices are the best way to mitigate the limitations that derive from these challenges and leverage the most possible value from your data.

    Refer to Info-Tech’s capstone Create a Plan For Establishing a Business-Aligned Data Management Practice blueprint to understand data quality in the context of data disciplines and methods for improving your data management capabilities.

    Data architecture is an integral aspect of data management

    Data Architecture

    The set of rules, policies, standards, and models that govern and define the type of data collected and how it is used, stored, managed, and integrated within the organization and its database systems.

    In general, the primary objective of data architecture is the standardization of data for the benefit of the organization.

    54% of leading “analytics-driven” enterprises site data architecture as a required skill for data analytics initiatives. (Maynard 2015)

    MYTH

    Data architecture is purely a model of the technical requirements of your data systems.

    REALITY

    Data architecture is largely dependent on a human element. It can be viewed as “the bridge between defining strategy and its implementation”. (Erwin 2016)

    Functions

    A strong data architecture should:

    • Define, visualize, and communicate data strategy to various stakeholders.
    • Craft a data delivery environment.
    • Ensure high data quality.
    • Provide a roadmap for continuous improvement.

    Business value

    A strong data architecture will help you:

    • Align data processes with business strategy and the overall holistic enterprise architecture.
    • Enable efficient flow of data with a stronger focus on quality and accessibility.
    • Reduce the total cost of data ownership.

    Data architects must maintain a comprehensive view of the organization’s rapidly proliferating data

    The data architect:
    • Acts as a “translator” between the business and data workers to communicate data and technology requirements.
    • Facilitates the creation of the data strategy.
    • Manages the enterprise data model.
    • Has a greater knowledge of operational and analytical data use cases.
    • Recommends data management policies and standards, and maintains data management artifacts.
    • Reviews project solution architectures and identifies cross impacts across the data lifecycle.
    • Is a hands-on expert in data management and warehousing technologies.
    • Is not necessarily it’s own designated position, but a role that can be completed by a variety of IT professionals.

    Data architects bridge the gap between strategic and technical requirements:

    Visualization centering the 'Data Architect' as the bridge between 'Data Workers', 'Business', and 'Data & Applications'.

    “Fundamentally, the role of a data architect is to understand the data in an organization at a reasonable level of abstraction.” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Many are experiencing the pains of poor data architecture, but leading organizations are proactively tackling these issues

    Outdated and archaic systems and processes limit the ability to access data in a timely and efficient manner, ultimately diminishing the value your data should bring.

    59%

    of firms believe their legacy storage systems require too much processing to meet today’s business needs. (Attivio, Survey Big Data decision Makers, 2016)

    48%

    of companies experience pains from being reliant on “manual methods and trial and error when preparing data.” (Attivio, Survey Big Data decision Makers, 2016)

    44%
    +
    22%

    44% of firms said preparing data was their top hurdle for analytics, with 22% citing problems in accessing data. (Data Virtualization blog, Data Movement Killed the BI Star, 2016)

    Intuitive organizations who have recognized these shortcomings have already begun the transition to modernized and optimized systems and processes.

    28%

    of survey respondents say they plan to replace “data management and architecture because it cannot handle the requirements of big data.” (Informatica, Digital Transformation: Is Your Data Management Ready, 2016)

    50%

    Of enterprises plan to replace their data warehouse systems and analytical tools in the next few years. (TDWI, End of the Data Warehouse as we know it, 2017)

    Leading organizations are attacking data architecture problems … you will be left behind if you do not start now!

    Once on your path to redesigning your data architecture, neglecting the strategic elements may leave you ineffective

    Focusing on only data models without the required data architecture guidance can cause harmful symptoms in your IT department, which will lead to organization-wide problems.

    IT Symptoms Due to Ineffective Data Architecture

    Poor Data Quality

    • Inconsistent, duplicate, missing, incomplete, incorrect, unstandardized, out of date, and mistake-riddled data can plague your systems.

    Poor Accessibility

    • Delays in accessing data.
    • Limits on who can access data.
    • Limited access to data remotely.

    Strategic Disconnect

    • Disconnect between owner and consumer of data.
    • Solutions address narrow scope problems.
    • System barriers between departments.
    Leads to Poor Organizational Conditions

    Inaccurate Insights

    • Inconsistent and/or erroneous operational and management reports.
    • Ineffective cross-departmental use of analytics.

    Ineffective Decision Making

    • Slow flow of information to executive decision makers.
    • Inconsistent interpretation of data or reports.

    Inefficient Operations

    • Limits to automated functionality.
    • Increased divisions within organization.
    • Regulatory compliance violations.
    You need a solution that will prevent the pains.

    Follow Info-Tech’s methodology to optimize data architecture to meet the business needs

    The following is a summary of Info-Tech’s methodology:

    1

    1. Prioritize your core business objectives and identify your business driver.
    2. Learn how business drivers apply to specific tiers of Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture model.
    3. Determine the appropriate tactical pattern that addresses your most important requirements.
    Visualization of the process described on the left: Business drivers applying to Info-Tech's five-tier data architecture, then determining tactical patterns, and eventually setting targets of your desired optimized state.

    2

    1. Select the areas of the five-tier architecture to focus on.
    2. Measure current state.
    3. Set the targets of your desired optimized state.

    3

    1. Roadmap your tactics.
    2. Manage and communicate change.
    A roadmap leading to communication.

    Info-Tech will get you to your optimized state faster by focusing on the important business issues

    First Things First

    1. Info-Tech’s methodology helps you to prioritize and establish the core strategic objectives behind your goal of modernizing data architecture. This will narrow your focus to the appropriate areas of your current data systems and processes that require the most attention.

    Info-Tech has identified these four common drivers that lead to the need to optimize your data architecture.

    • Becoming More Data Driven
    • Regulations and Compliance
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • New Functionality or Business Rule

    These different core objectives underline the motivation to optimize data architecture, and will determine your overall approach.

    Use the five-tier architecture to provide a consumable view of your data architecture

    Every organization’s data system requires a unique design and an assortment of applications and storage units to fit their business needs. Therefore, it is difficult to paint a picture of an ideal model that has universal applications. However, when data architecture is broken down in terms of layers or tiers, there exists a general structure that is seen in all data systems.

    Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture. The five tiers being 'Sources' which includes 'Apps', 'Excel and other documents', and 'Access database(s)'; 'Integration and Translation' the 'Movement and transformation of data'; 'Warehousing' which includes 'Data Lakes & Warehouse(s) (Raw Data)'; 'Analytics' which includes 'Data Marts', 'Data Cube', 'Flat Files', and 'BI Tools'; and 'Presentation' which includes 'Reports' and 'Dashboards'.

    Thinking of your data systems and processes in this framework will allow you to see how different elements of the architecture relate to specific business operations.

    1. This blueprint will demonstrate how the business driver behind your redesign requires you to address specific layers of the five-tier data architecture.
    1. Once you’ve aligned your business driver to the appropriate data tiers, this blueprint will provide you with the best practice tactics you should apply to achieve an optimized data architecture.

    Use the five-tier architecture to prioritize tactics to improve your data architecture in line with your pattern

    Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model
    Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model featuring the five-tier architecture listing 'Core Capabilities' and 'Advanced Capabilities' within each tier, and a list of 'Cross Capabilities' which apply to all tiers.
    1. Based on your business driver, the relevant data tiers, and your organization’s own specific requirements you will need to establish the appropriate data architecture capabilities.
    2. This blueprint will help you measure how you are currently performing in these capabilities…
    3. And help you define and set targets so you can reach your optimized state.
    1. Once completed, these steps will be provided with the information you will need to create a comprehensive roadmap.
    2. Lastly, this blueprint will provide you with the tools to communicate this plan across your organization and offer change management guidelines to ensure successful adoption.
    Info-Tech Insight

    Optimizing data architecture requires a tactical approach, not a passive approach.

    The demanding task of optimization requires the ability to heavily prioritize. After you have identified why, determine how using our pre-built roadmap to address the four common drivers.

    Do not forget: data architecture is not a standalone concept; it fits into the more holistic design of enterprise architecture

    Data Architecture in Alignment

    Data architecture can not be designed to simply address the focus of data specialists or even the IT department.

    It must act as a key component in the all encompassing enterprise architecture and reflect the strategy and design of the entire business.

    Data architecture collaborates with application architecture in the delivery of effective information systems, and informs technology architecture on data related infrastructure requirements/considerations

    Please refer to the following blueprints to see the full picture of enterprise architecture:

    A diagram titled 'Enterprise Architecture' with multiple forms of architecture interacting with each other. At the top is 'Business Architecture' which feeds into 'Data Architecture' and 'Application Architecture' which feed into each other, and influence 'Infrastructure Architecture' and 'Security Architecture'.
    Adapted from TOGAF
    Refer to Phase C of TOGAF and Bizbok for references to the components of business architecture that are used in data architecture.

    Info-Tech’s data architecture optimization methodology helped a monetary authority fulfill strict regulatory pressures

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Financial
    Source: Info-Tech Consulting
    Symbol for 'Monetary Authority Case Study'. Look for this symbol as you walk through the blueprint for details on how Info-Tech Consulting assisted this monetary authority.

    Situation: Strong external pressures required the monetary authority to update and optimize its data architecture.

    The monetary authority is responsible for oversight of the financial situation of a country that takes in revenue from foreign incorporation. Due to increased pressure from international regulatory bodies, the monetary authority became responsible for generating multiple different types of beneficial ownership reports based on corporation ownership data within 24 hours of a request.

    A stale and inefficient data architecture prevented the monetary authority from fulfilling external pressures.

    Normally, the process to generate and provide beneficial ownership reports took a week or more. This was due to multiple points of stale data architecture, including a dependence on outdated legacy systems and a broken process for gathering the required data from a mix of paper and electronic sources.

    Provide a structured approach to solving the problem

    Info-Tech helped the monetary authority identify the business need that resulted from regulatory pressures, the challenges that needed to be overcome, and actionable tactics for addressing the needs.

    Info-Tech’s methodology was followed to optimize the areas of data architecture that address the business driver.

    • External Requirements
    • Business Driver
        Diagnose Data Architecture Problems
      • Outdated architecture (paper, legacy systems)
      • Stale data from other agencies
      • Incomplete data
          Data Architecture Optimization Tactics
        1. Optimized Source Databases
        2. Improved Integration
        3. Data Warehouse Optimization
        4. Data Marts for Reports
        5. Report Delivery Efficiency

    As you walk through this blueprint, watch for additional case studies that walk through the details of how Info-Tech helped this monetary authority.

    This blueprint’s three-step process will help you optimize data architecture in your organization

    Phase 1
    Prioritize Your Data Architecture With Business-Driven Tactics
    Phase 2
    Personalize Your Tactics to Optimize Your Data Architecture
    Phase 3
    Create Your Tactical Data Architecture Roadmap
    Step 1: Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data Architecture
    • Learn about what data architecture is and how it must evolve with the drivers of the business.
    • Determine the business driver that your organization is currently experiencing.
    • Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool

    Step 2: Determine Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture
    • Create your data architecture optimization plan to determine the high-level tactics you need to follow.
    • Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Step 1: Measure Your Data Architecture Capabilities
    • Determine where you currently stand in the data architecture capabilities across the five-tier data architecture.
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Step 2: Set a Target for Data Architecture Capabilities
    • Identify your targets for the data architecture capabilities.
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Step 3: Identify the Tactics that Apply to Your Organization
    • Understand the trends in the field of data architecture and how they can help to optimize your environment.
    • Data Architecture Trends Presentation

    Step 1: Personalize Your Data Architecture Roadmap
    • Personalize the tactics across the tiers that apply to you to build your personalized roadmap.
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Step 2: Manage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes
    • Document the changes in the organization’s data architecture.
    • Data architecture involves change management – learn how data architects should support change management in the organization.
    • Data Architecture Decision Template

    Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research

    Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.

    A small monochrome icon of a wrench and screwdriver creating an X.

    This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.

    A small monochrome icon depicting a person in front of a blank slide.

    This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.

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

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy – project overview

    PHASE 1
    Prioritize Your Data Architecture With Business-Driven Tactics
    PHASE 2
    Personalize Your Tactics to Optimize Your Data Architecture
    PHASE 3
    Create Your Tactical Data Architecture Roadmap
    Supporting Tool icon

    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data Architecture

    1.2 Determine Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture

    2.1 Measure Your Data Architecture Capabilities

    2.2 Set a Target for Data Architecture Capabilities

    2.3 Identify the Tactics that Apply to Your Organization

    3.1 Personalize Your Data Architecture Roadmap

    3.2 Manage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes

    Guided Implementations

    • Understand what data architecture is, how it aligns with enterprise architecture, and how data architects support the needs of the business.
    • Identify the business drivers that necessitate the optimization of the organization’s data architecture.
    • Create a tactical plan to optimize data architecture across Info-Tech’s five-tier logical data architecture model.
    • Understand Info-Tech’s tactical data architecture capability model and measure the current state of these capabilities at the organization.
    • Determine the target state of data architecture capabilities.
    • Understand the trends in the field of data architecture and identify how they can fit into your environment.
    • Use the results of the data architecture capability gap assessment to determine the priority of activities to populate your personalized data architecture optimization roadmap.
    • Understand how to manage change as a data architect or equivalent.
    Associated Activity icon

    Onsite Workshop

    Module 1:
    Identify the Drivers of the Business for Optimizing Data Architecture
    Module 2:
    Create a Tactical Plan for Optimizing Data Architecture
    Module 3:
    Create a Personalized Roadmap for Data Architecture Activities

    Workshop overview

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

    Preparation

    Workshop Day 1

    Workshop Day 2

    Workshop Day 3

    Workshop Day 4

    Workshop Day 5

    Organize and Plan Workshop Identify the Drivers of the Business for Optimizing Data Architecture Determine the Tactics For Optimizing Data Architecture Create Your Roadmap of Optimization Activities Create Your Personalized Roadmap Create a Plan for Change Management

    Morning Activities

    • Finalize workshop itinerary and scope.
    • Identify workshop participants.
    • Gather strategic documentation.
    • Engage necessary stakeholders.
    • Book interviews.
    • 1.1 Explain approach and value proposition.
    • 1.2 Review the common business drivers and how the organization is driving a need to optimize data architecture.
    • 2.1 Create your data architecture optimization plan.
    • 2.2 Interview key business stakeholders for input on business drivers for data architecture.
    • 3.1 Align with the enterprise architecture by interviewing the enterprise architect for input on the data architecture optimization roadmap.
    • 4.1 As a group, determine the roadmap activities that are applicable to your organization and brainstorm applicable initiatives.
    • 5.1 Use the Data Architecture Decision Documentation Template to document key decisions and updates.

    Afternoon Activities

    • 1.3 Understand Info-Tech’s Five-Tier Data Architecture.
    • 1.4 Determine the pattern of tactics that apply to the organization for optimization.
    • 2.3 With input from the business and enterprise architect, determine the current data architecture capabilities.
    • 3.3 With input from the business and enterprise architect, determine the target data architecture capabilities.
    • 4.2 Determine the timing and effort of the roadmap activities.
    • 5.2 Review best practices for change management.
    • 5.3 Present roadmap and findings to the business stakeholders and enterprise architect.

    Deliverables

    • Workshop Itinerary
    • Workshop Participant List
    1. Five-Tier Logical Data Architecture Model
    2. Data Architecture Tactic Plan
    1. Five-Tier Data Architecture Capability Model
    1. Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap
    1. Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap
    1. Data Architecture Decision Template

    Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy

    PHASE 1

    Prioritize Your Data Architecture With Business-Driven Tactics

    Phase 1 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 1: Prioritize Your Data Architecture With Business-Driven Tactics

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks
    Step 1.1: Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data Architecture Step 1.2: Determine Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Understand what data architecture is, what it is not, and how it fits into the broader enterprise architecture program.
    • Determine the drivers that fuel the need for data architecture optimization.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Understand the Five-Tier Data Architecture Model and how the drivers of the business inform your priorities across this logical model of data architecture.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Complete the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Create a tactical data architecture optimization plan based on the business driver input.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Phase 1 Results & Insights

    • Data Architecture is not just about data models. The approach that Phase 1 guides you through will help to not only plan where you need to focus your efforts as a data architect (or equivalent) but also give you guidance in how you should go about optimizing the holistic data architecture environment based on the drivers of the business.

    Phase 1 will help you create a strategy to optimize your data architecture using actionable tactics

    In this phase, you will determine your focus for optimizing your data architecture based on the business drivers that are commonly felt by most organizations.

    1. Identify the business drivers that necessitate data architecture optimization efforts.
    2. Understand Info-Tech’s Five-Tier Data Architecture, a logical architecture model that will help you prioritize tactics for optimizing your data architecture environment.
    3. Identify tactics for optimizing the organization’s data architecture across the five tiers.

    “To stay competitive, we need to become more data-driven. Compliance pressures are becoming more demanding. We need to add a new functionality.”

    Info-Tech’s Five-Tier Data Architecture:

    1. Data Sources
    2. Data Integration and Translation
    3. Data Warehousing
    4. Data Analytics
    5. Data Presentation

    Tactical plan for Data Architecture Optimization

    Phase 1, Step 1: Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data Architecture

    PHASE 1

    1.1 1.2
    Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data Architecture Determine Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Understand how data architecture fits into the organization’s larger enterprise architecture.
    • Understand what data architecture is and how it should be driven by the business.
    • Identify the driver that is creating a need for data architecture optimization.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect
    • Enterprise Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • A starting point for the many responsibilities of the data architect role. Balancing business and technical requirements can be challenging, and to do so you need to first understand what is driving the need for data architecture improvements.
    • Holistic understanding of the organization’s architecture environment, including enterprise, application, data, and technology architectures and how they interact.

    Data architecture involves planning, communication, and understanding of technology

    Data Architecture

    A description of the structure and interaction of the enterprise’s major types and sources of data, logical data assets, physical data assets, and data management resources (TOGAF 9).

    The subject area of data management that defines the data needs of the enterprise and designs the master blueprints to meet those needs (DAMA DMBOK, 2009).

    IBM (2007) defines data architecture as the design of systems and applications that facilitate data availability and distribution across the enterprise.

    Definitions vary slightly across major architecture and management frameworks.

    However, there is a general consensus that data architecture provides organizations with:

    • Alignment
    • Planning
    • Road mapping
    • Change management
    • A guide for the organization’s data management program

    Data architecture must be based on business goals and objectives; developed within the technical strategies, constraints, and opportunities of the organization in support of providing a foundation for data management.

    Current Data Management
    • Alignment
    • Planning
    • Road mapping
    Goal for Data Management

    Info-Tech Insight

    Data Architecture is not just data models. Data architects must understand the needs of the business, as well as the existing people and processes that already exist in the organization to effectively perform their job.

    Review how data architecture fits into the broader architectural context

    A flow diagram starting with 'Business Processes/Activities' to 'Business Architecture' which through a process of 'Integration' flows to 'Data Architecture' and 'Application Architecture', the latter of which also flows into to the former, and they both flow into 'Technology Architecture' which includes 'Infrastructure' and 'Security'.

    Each layer of architecture informs the next. In other words, each layer has components that execute processes and offer services to the next layer. For example, data architecture can be broken down into more granular activities and processes that inform how the organization’s technology architecture should be arranged.

    Data does not exist on its own. It is informed by business architecture and used by other architectural domains to deliver systems, IT services, and to support business processes. As you build your practice, you must consider how data fits within the broader architectural framework.

    The Zachman Framework is a widely used EA framework; within it, data is identified as the first domain.

    The framework aims to standardize artifacts (work-products) within each architectural domain, provides a cohesive view of the scope of EA and clearly delineates data components. Use the framework to ensure that your target DA practice is aligned to other domains within the EA framework.

    'The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture: The Enterprise Ontology', a complicated framework with top and bottom column headers and left and right row headers. Along the top are 'Classification Names': 'What', 'How', 'Where', 'Who', 'When', and 'Why'. Along the bottom are 'Enterprise Names': 'Inventory Sets', 'Process Flows', 'Distribution Networks', 'Responsibility Assignments', 'Timing Cycles', and 'Motivation Intentions'. Along the left are 'Audience Perspectives': 'Executive Perspective', 'Business Mgmt. Perspective', 'Architect Perspective', 'Engineer Perspective', 'Technician Perspective', and 'Enterprise Perspective'. Along the right are 'Model Names': 'Scope Contexts', 'Business Concepts', 'System Logic', 'Technology Physics', 'Tool Components', and 'Operations Instances'.
    (Source: Zachman International)

    Data architects operate in alignment with the other various architecture groups

    Data architects operate in alignment with the other various architecture groups, with coordination from the enterprise architect.

    Enterprise Architect
    The enterprise architect provides thought leadership and direction to domain architects.

    They also maintain architectural standards across all the architectural domains and serve as a lead project solution architect on the most critical assignments.

    • Business Architect
      A business subject matter expert who works with the line-of-business team to assist in business planning through capability-based planning.
    • Security Architect
      Plays a pivotal role in formulating the security strategy of the organization, working with the business and CISO/security manager. Recommends and maintains security standards, policies, and best practices.
    • Infrastructure Architect
      Recommends and maintains standards across the compute, storage, and network layers of the organization. Reviews project solution architectures to ensure compliance with infrastructure standards, regulations, and target state blueprints.
    • Application Architect
      Manages the business effectiveness, satisfaction, and maintainability of the application portfolio. Conduct application architecture assessments to document expected quality attribute standards, identify hotspots, and recommend best practices.
    • Data Architect
      Facilitates the creation of data strategy and has a greater understanding of operational and analytical data use cases. Manages the enterprise data model which includes all the three layers of modelling - conceptual, logical, and physical. Recommends data management policies and standards, and maintains data management artefacts. Reviews project solution architectures and identifies cross impacts across the data lifecycle.

    As a data architect, you must maintain balance between the technical and the business requirements

    The data architect role is integral to connecting the long-term goals of the business with how the organization plans to manage its data for optimal use.

    Data architects need to have a deep experience in data management, data warehousing, and analytics technologies. At a high level, the data architect plans and implements an organization’s data, reporting, and analytics roadmap.

    Some of the role’s primary duties and responsibilities include:

    1. Data modeling
    2. Reviewing existing data architecture
    3. Benchmark and improve database performance
    4. Fine tune database and SQL queries
    5. Lead on ETL activities
    6. Validate data integrity across all platforms
    7. Manage underlying framework for data presentation layer
    8. Ensure compliance with proper reporting to bureaus and partners
    9. Advise management on data solutions

    Data architects bridge the gap between strategic and technical requirements:

    Visualization centering the 'Data Architect' as the bridge between 'Data Workers', 'Business', and 'Data & Applications'.

    “Fundamentally, the role of a data architect is to understand the data in an organization at a reasonable level of abstraction.” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Info-Tech Insight

    The data architect role is not always clear cut. Many organizations do not have a dedicated data architect resource, and may not need one. However, the duties and responsibilities of the data architect must be carried out to some degree by a combination of resources as appropriate to the organization’s size and environment.

    Understand the role of a data architect to ensure that essential responsibilities are covered in the organization

    A database administrator (DBA) is not a data architect, and data architecture is not something you buy from an enterprise application vendor.

    Data Architect Role Description

    • The data architect must develop (along with the business) a short-term and long-term vision for the enterprise’s data architecture.
    • They must be able to create processes for governing the identification, collection, and use of accurate and valid metadata, as well as for tracking data quality, completeness, and redundancy.
    • They need to create strategies for data security, backup, disaster recovery, business continuity, and archiving, and ensure regulatory compliance.

    Skills Necessary

    • Hands-on experience with data architecting and management, data mining, and large-scale data modeling.
    • Strong understanding of relational and non-relational data structures, theories, principles, and practices.
    • Strong familiarity with metadata management.
    • Knowledge of data privacy practices and laws.

    Define Policies, Processes, and Priorities

    • Policies
      • Boundaries of the data architecture.
      • Data architecture standards.
      • Data architecture security.
      • Responsibility of ownership for the data architecture and data repositories.
      • Responsibility for data architecture governance.
    • Processes
      • Data architecture communication.
      • Data architecture change management.
      • Data architecture governance.
      • Policy compliance monitoring.
    • Priorities
      • Align architecture efforts with business priorities.
      • Close technology gaps to meet service level agreements (SLAs).
      • Determine impacts on current or future projects.

    See Info-Tech’s Data Architect job description for a comprehensive description of the data architect role.

    Leverage data architecture frameworks to understand how the role fits into the greater Enterprise Architecture framework

    Enterprise data architectures are available from industry consortiums such as The Open Group (TOGAF®), and open source initiatives such as MIKE2.0.

    Logo for The Open Group.

    The Open Group TOGAF enterprise architecture model is a detailed framework of models, methods, and supporting tools to create an enterprise-level architecture.

    • TOGAF was first developed in 1995 and was based on the Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) developed by the US Department of Defense.
    • TOGAF includes application, data, and infrastructure architecture domains providing enterprise-level, product-neutral architecture principles, policies, methods, and models.
    • As a member of The Open Group, it is possible to participate in ongoing TOGAF development initiatives.

    The wide adoption of TOGAF has resulted in the mapping of it to several other industry standards including CoBIT and ITIL.

    Logo for MIKE2.0.

    MIKE2.0 (Method for an Integrated Knowledge Environment), is an open source method for enterprise information management providing a framework for information development.

    • SAFE (Strategic Architecture for the Federated Enterprise) provides the technology solution framework for MIKE2.0
    • SAFE includes application, presentation, information, data, Infrastructure, and metadata architecture domains.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    If an enterprise-level IT architecture is your goal, TOGAF is likely a better model. However, if you are an information and knowledge-based business then MIKE2.0 may be more relevant to your business.

    The data architect must identify what drives the need for data from the business to create a business-driven architecture

    As the business landscape evolves, new needs arise. An organization may undergo new compliance requirements, or look to improve their customer intimacy, which could require a new functionality from an application and its associated database.

    There are four common scenarios that lead to an organization’s need to optimize its data architecture and these scenarios all present unique challenges for a data architect:

    1. Becoming More Data Driven As organizations are looking to get more out of their data, there is a push for more accurate and timely data from applications. Data-driven decision making requires verifiable data from trustworthy sources. Result: Replace decisions made on gut or intuition with real and empirical data - make more informed and data-driven decisions.
    2. New Functionality or Business Rule In order to succeed as business landscapes change, organizations find themselves innovating on products or services and the way they do things. Changes in business rules, product or service offering, and new functionalities can subsequently demand more from the existing data architecture. Result: Prepare yourself to successfully launch new business initiatives with an architecture that supports business needs.
    3. Mergers and Acquisitions If an organization has recently acquired, been acquired, or is merging with another, the technological implications require careful planning to ensure a seamless fit. Application consolidation, retirement, data transfer, and integration points are crucial. Result: Leverage opportunities to incorporate and consolidate new synergistic assets to realize the ROI.
    4. Risk and Compliance Data in highly regulated organizations needs to be kept safe and secure. Architectural decisions around data impact the level of compliance within the organization. Result: Avoid the fear of data audits, regulatory violations, and privacy breaches.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    These are not the only reasons why data architects need to optimize the organization’s data architecture. These are only four of the most common scenarios, however, other business needs can be addressed using the same concept as these four common scenarios.

    Use the Data Architecture Driver tool to identify your focus for data architecture

    Supporting Tool icon 1.1 Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool

    Follow Info-Tech’s process of first analyzing the needs of the business, then determining how best to architect your data based on these drivers. Data architecture needs to be able to rapidly evolve to support the strategic goals of the business, and the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool will help you to prioritize your efforts to best do this.

    Tab 2. Driver Identification

    Objective: Objectively assess the most pressing business drivers.

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, tab 2.

    Tab 3. Tactic Pattern Plan, Section 1

    Purpose: Review your business drivers that require architectural changes in your environment.

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, tab 3, section 1.

    Tab 3. Tactic Pattern Plan, Section 2

    Purpose: Determine a list of tactics that will help you address the business drivers.

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, tab 3, section 2.

    Step
    • Evaluate business drivers to determine the data architecture optimization priorities and tactics.
    Step
    • Understand how each business driver relates to data architecture and how each driver gives rise to a specific pattern across the five-tier data architecture.
    Step
    • Review the list of high-level tactics presented to optimize your data architecture across the five tier architecture.

    Identify the drivers for improving your data architecture

    Associated Activity icon 1.1.1 1 hour

    INPUT: Data Architecture Driver tool assessment prompts.

    OUTPUT: Identified business driver that applies to your organization.

    Materials: Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool

    Participants: Data architect, Enterprise architect

    Instructions

    In Tab 2. Driver Identification of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, assess the degree to which the organization is feeling the pains of the four most common business drivers:

    1. Is there a present or growing need for the business to be making data-driven decisions?
    2. Does the business want to explore a new functionality and hence require a new application?
    3. Is your organization acquiring or merging with another entity?
    4. Is your organization’s regulatory environment quick to change and require stricter reporting?

    Data architecture improvements need to be driven by business need.

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, tab 2 Driver Identification.
    Tab 2. Driver Identification

    “As a data architect, you have to understand the functional requirements, the non-functional requirements, then you need to make a solution for those requirements. There can be multiple solutions and multiple purposes. (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Interview the business to get clarity on business objectives and drivers

    Associated Activity icon 1.1.2 1 hour per interview

    INPUT: Sample questions targeting the activities, challenges, and opportunities of each business unit

    OUTPUT: Sample questions targeting the activities, challenges, and opportunities of each business unit

    Materials: Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool

    Participants: Data architect, Business representatives, IT representatives

    Identify 2-3 business units that demonstrate enthusiasm for or a positive outlook on improving how organizational data can help them in their role and as a unit.

    Conducting a deep-dive interview process with these key stakeholders will help further identify high-level goals for the data architecture strategy within each business unit. This process will help to secure their support throughout the implementation process by giving them a sense of ownership.

    Key Interview Questions:

    1. What are your primary activities? What do you do?
    2. What challenges do you have when completing your activities?
    3. How is poor data impacting your job?
    4. If [your selected domain]’s data is improved, what business issues would this help solve?

    Request background information and documentation from stakeholders regarding the following:

    • What current data management policies and processes exist (that you know of)?
    • Who are the data owners and end users?
    • Where are the data sources within the department stored?
    • Who has access to these data sources?
    • Are there existing or ongoing data issues within those data sources?

    Interview the enterprise architect to get input on the drivers of the business

    Associated Activity icon 1.1.3 2 hours

    INPUT: Data Architecture Driver tool assessment prompts.

    OUTPUT: Identified business driver that applies to your organization.

    Materials: Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool

    Participants: Data architect, Enterprise architect

    Data architecture improvements need to be driven by business need.

    Instructions

    As you work through Tab 2. Driver Identification of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, consult with the enterprise architect or equivalent to assist you in rating the importance of each of the symptoms of the business drivers. This will help you provide greater value to the business and more aligned objectives.

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, tab 2 Driver Identification.
    Tab 2. Driver Identification

    Once you know what that need is, go to Step 2.

    Phase 1, Step 2: Establish Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture

    PHASE 1

    1.11.2
    Identify Your Business Driver for Optimizing Data ArchitectureDetermine Actionable Tactics to Optimize Data Architecture

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Understand Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture to begin focusing your architectural optimization.
    • Create your Data Architecture Optimization Template to plan your improvement tactics.
    • Prioritize your tactics based on the five-tier architecture to plan optimization.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect
    • Enterprise Architect
    • DBAs

    Outcomes of this step

    • A tactical and prioritized plan for optimizing the organization’s data architecture according to the needs of the business.

    To plan a business-driven architecture, data architects need to keep the organization’s big picture in mind

    Remember… Architecting an organization involves alignment, planning, road mapping, design, and change management functions.

    Data architects must be heavily involved with:

    • Understanding the short- and long-term visions of the business to develop a vision for the organization’s data architecture.
    • Creating processes for governing the identification, collection, and use of accurate and valid data, as well as for tracking data quality, completeness, and redundancy.
    • They need to create strategies for data security, backup, disaster recovery, business continuity, and archiving, and ensure regulatory compliance.

    To do this, you need a framework. A framework provides you with the holistic view of the organization’s data environment that you can use to design short- and long-term tactics for improving the use of data for the needs of the business.

    Use Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture to model your environment in a logical, consumable fashion.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    The more complicated an environment is, the more need there is for a framework. Being able to pick a starting point and prioritize tasks is one of the most difficult, yet most essential, aspects of any architect’s role.

    The five tiers of an organization’s data architecture support the use of data throughout its lifecycle

    Info-Tech’s five-tier data architecture model summarizes an organization’s data environment at a logical level. Data flows from left to right, but can also flow from the presentation layer back to the warehousing layer for repatriation of data.

    Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture. The five tiers being 'Sources' which includes 'App1 ', 'App2', 'Excel and other documents', 'Access database(s)', 'IOT devices', and 'External data feed(s) & social media'; 'Integration and Translation' which includes 'Solutions: SOA, Point to Point, Manual Loading, ESB , ETL, ODS, Data Hub' and 'Functions: Scrambling Masking Encryption, Tokenizing, Aggregation, Transformation, Migration, Modeling'; 'Warehousing' which includes 'Data Lakes & Warehouse(s) (Raw Data)', 'EIM, ECM, DAM', and 'Data Lakes & Warehouse(s) (Derived Data)'; 'Analytics' which includes 'Data Marts', 'Data Cube', 'Flat Files', 'BI Tools', and the 'Protected Zone: Data Marts - BDG Class Ref. MDM'; and 'Presentation' which includes 'Formulas', 'Thought Models', 'Reports', 'Dashboards', 'Presentations', and 'Derived Data (from analytics activities)'.

    Use the Data Architecture Optimization Template to build your improvement roadmap

    Supporting Tool icon 1.2 Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Download the Data Architecture Optimization Template.

    Overview

    Use this template to support your team in creating a tactical strategy for optimizing your data architecture across the five tiers of the organization’s architecture. This template can be used to document your organization’s most pressing business driver, the reasons for optimizing data architecture according to that driver, and the tactics that will be employed to address the shortcomings in the architecture.

    Sample of Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Optimization Template. Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Optimization Template Table of Contents
    1. Build Your Current Data Architecture Logical Model Use this section to document the current data architecture situation, which will provide context for your plan to optimize your data architecture.
    2. Optimization Plan Use this section to document the tactics that will be employed to optimize the current data architecture according to the tactic pattern identified by the business driver.

    Fill out as you go

    As you read about the details of the five-tier data architecture model in the following slides, start building your current logical data architecture model by filling out the sections that correspond to the various tiers. For example, if you identified that the most pressing business driver is becoming compliant with regulations, document the sources of data required for compliance, as well as the warehousing strategy currently being employed. This will help you to understand the organization’s data architecture at a logical level.

    Tier 1 represents all of the sources of your organization’s data

    Tier 1 of Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture, 'Sources', which includes 'App1 ', 'App2', 'Excel and other documents', 'Access database(s)', 'IOT devices', and 'External data feed(s) & social media'.
    –› Data to integration layer

    Tier 1 is where the data enters the organization.

    All applications, data documents such as MS Excel spreadsheets, documents with table entries, manual extractions from other document types, user-level databases including MS Access and MySQL, other data sources, data feeds, big datasets, etc. reside here.

    This tier typically holds the siloed data that is so often not available across the enterprise because the data is held within department-level applications or systems. This is also the layer where transactions and operational activities occur and where data is first created or ingested.

    There are any number of business activities from transactions through business processes that require data to flow from one system to another, so it is often at this layer we see data created more than once, data corruption occurs, manual re-keying of data from system to system, and spaghetti-like point-to-point connections are built that are often fragile. This is usually the single most problematic area within an enterprise’s data environment. Application- or operational-level (siloed) reporting often occurs at this level.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    An optimized Tier 1 has the following attributes:

    • Rationalized applications
    • Operationalized database administration
    • Databases governed, monitored, and maintained to ensure optimal performance

    Tier 2 represents the movement of data

    Tier 2 of Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture, 'Integration and Translation', which includes 'Solutions: SOA, Point to Point, Manual Loading, ESB , ETL, ODS, Data Hub' and 'Functions: Scrambling Masking Encryption, Tokenizing, Aggregation, Transformation, Migration, Modeling'.
    –› Data to Warehouse Environment

    Find out more

    For more information on data integration, see Info-Tech’s Optimize the Organization’s Data Integration Practices blueprint.

    Tier 2 is where integration, transformation, and aggregation occur.

    Regardless of how you integrate your systems and data stores, whether via ETL, ESB, SOA, data hub, ODS, point-to-point, etc., the goal of this layer is to move data at differing speeds for one of two main purposes:

    1) To move data from originating systems to downstream systems to support integrated business processes. This ensures the data is pristine through the process and improves trustworthiness of outcomes and speed to task and process completion.

    2) To move data to Tier 3 - The Data Warehouse Architecture, where data rests for other purposes. This movement of data in its purest form means we move raw data to storage locations in an overall data warehouse environment reflecting any security, compliance and other standards in our choices for how to store.

    Also, this is where data is transformed for unique business purpose that will also be moved to a place of rest or a place of specific use. Data masking, scrambling, aggregation, cleansing and matching, and other data related blending tasks occur at this layer.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    An optimized Tier 2 has the following attributes:

    • Business data glossary is leveraged
    • ETL is governed
    • ETL team is empowered
    • Data matching is facilitated
    • Canonical data model is present

    Tier 3 is where data comes together from all sources to be stored in a central warehouse environment

    Tier 3 is where data rests in long-term storage.

    This is where data rests (long-term storage) and also where an enterprise’s information, documents, digital assets, and any other content types are stored. This is also where derived and contrived data creations are stored for re-use, and where formulas, thought models, heuristics, algorithms, report styles, templates, dashboard styles, and presentations-layer widgets are all stored in the enterprise information management system.

    At this layer there may be many technologies and many layers of security to reflect data domains, classifications, retention, compliance, and other data needs. This is also the layer where data lakes exist as well as traditional relational databases, enterprise database systems, enterprise content management systems, and simple user-level databases.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    An optimized Tier 3 has the following attributes:

    • Data warehouse is governed
    • Data warehouse operations and planning
    • Data library is comprehensive
    • Four Rosetta Stones of data are in place: BDG, data classification, reference data, master data.
    Data from integration layer –›
    Tier 3 of Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture, 'Data Warehouse Environment' which includes 'Data Lakes & Warehouse(s) (Raw Data)', 'EIM, ECM, DAM'.
    –› Analytics

    Find out more

    For more information on Data Warehousing, see Info-Tech’s Build an Extensible Data Warehouse Foundation and Drive Business Innovation With a Modernized Data Warehouse Environment blueprints.

    Tier 4 is where knowledge and insight is born

    Tier 4 represents data being used for a purpose.

    This is where you build fit-for-purpose data sets (marts, cubes, flat files) that may now draw from all enterprise data and information sources as held in Tier 3. This is the first place where enterprise views of all data may be effectively done and with trust that golden records from systems of record are being used properly.

    This is also the layer where BI tools get their greatest use for performing analysis. Unlike Tier 3 where data is at rest, this tier is where data moves back into action. Data is brought together in unique combinations to support reporting, and analytics. It is here that the following enterprise analytic views are crafted:
    Exploratory, Inferential, Causal, Comparative, Statistical, Descriptive, Diagnostic, Hypothesis, Predictive, Decisional, Directional, Prescriptive

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    An optimized Tier 4 has the following attributes:

    • Reporting meets business needs
    • Data mart operations are in place
    • Governance of data marts, cubes, and BI tools in place
    Warehouse Environment –›
    Tier 4 of Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture, 'Analytics', which includes 'Data Marts', 'Data Cube', 'Flat Files', and 'BI Tools'.
    –› Presentation

    Find out more

    For more information on BI tools and strategy, see Info-Tech’s Select and Implement a Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution and Build a Next Generation BI with a Game-Changing BI Strategy blueprints.

    The presentation layer, Tier 5, is where data becomes presentable information

    Tier 5 represents data in knowledge form.

    This is where the data and information combine in information insight mapping methods (presentations, templates, etc.). We craft and create new ways to slice and dice data in Tier 4 to be shown and shared in Tier 5.

    Templates for presenting insights are extremely valuable to an enterprise, both for their initial use, and for the ability to build deeper, more insightful analytics. Re-use of these also enables maximum speed for sharing, consuming the outputs, and collective understanding of these deeper meanings that is a critical asset to any enterprise. These derived datasets and the thought models, presentation styles, templates, and other derived and contrived assets should be repatriated into the derived data repositories and the enterprise information management systems respectively as shown in Tier 3.

    Find out more

    For more information on enterprise content management and metadata, see Info-Tech’s Develop an ECM Strategy and Break Open Your DAM With Intuitive Metadata blueprints.

    Tier 5 of Info-Tech's Five Tier Data Architecture, 'Presentation', which includes 'Formulas', 'Thought Models', 'Reports', 'Dashboards', 'Presentations', and 'Derived Data (from analytics activities)'. The 'Repatriation of data' feeds the derived data back into Warehousing.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    An optimized Tier 5 has the following attributes:

    • Metadata creation is supervised
    • Metadata is organized
    • Metadata is governed
    • Content management capabilities are present

    Info-Tech Insight

    Repatriation of data and information is an essential activity for all organizations to manage organizational knowledge. This is the activity where information, knowledge, and insights that are stored in content form are moved back to the warehousing layer for long-term storage. Because of this, it is crucial to have an effective ECM strategy as well as the means to find information quickly and efficiently. This is where metadata and taxonomy come in.

    As a data architect, you must prioritize your focus according to business need

    Determine your focus.

    Now that you have an understanding of the drivers requiring data architecture optimization, as well as the current data architecture situation at your organization, it is time to determine the actions that will be taken to address the driver.

    1. Business driver

    Screenshot of Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, Tab 2. Tactic Pattern Plan.
    Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, Tab 2. Tactic Pattern Plan

    3. Documented tactic plan

    Data Architecture Optimization Template

    2. Tactics across the five tiers

    Another screenshot of Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, Tab 2. Tactic Pattern Plan.

    The next four slides provide an overview of the priorities that accompany the four most common business drivers that require updates to a stale data architecture.

    Business driver #1: Adding a new functionality to an application can have wide impacts on data architecture

    Does the business wants to add a new application or supplement an existing application with a new functionality?

    Whether the business wants to gain better customer intimacy, achieve operational excellence, or needs to change its compliance and reporting strategy, the need for collecting new data through a new application or a new functionality within an existing application can arise. This business driver has the following attributes:

    • Often operational oriented and application driven.
    • An application is changed through an application version upgrade, migration to cloud, or application customization, or as a result of application rationalization or changes in the way that application data is generated.
    • However, not all new functionalities trigger this scenario. Non-data-related changes, such as a new interface, new workflows, or any other application functionality changes that do not involve data, will not have data architecture impacts.
    Stock photo of someone using a smartphone with apps.
    Modified icon for Tools & Templates. When this business driver arises, data architects should focus on optimizing architecture at the source tier and the integration of the new functionality. Tactics for this business driver should address the following pattern:
    Tiers 1 and 2 highlighted.

    Business driver #2: Organizations today are looking to become more data driven

    Does the business wants to better leverage its data?

    An organization can want to use its data for multiple reasons. Whether these reasons include improving customer experience or operational excellence, the data architect must ensure that the organization’s data aggregation environment, reporting and analytics, and presentation layer are assessed and optimized for serving the needs of the business.

    “Data-drivenness is about building tools, abilities, and, most crucially, a culture that acts on data.” (Carl Anderson, Creating a Data-Driven Organization)

    Tactics for this business driver should address the following pattern:
    Tiers 3, 4, and 5 highlighted.
    Modified icon for Tools & Templates. When this business driver arises, data architects should focus on optimizing architecture at the source tier and the integration of the new functionality.
    Stock photo of someone sitting at multiple computers with analytics screens open.
    • This scenario is typically project driven and analytical oriented.
    • The business is looking to leverage data and information by processing data through BI tools and self-service.
    • Example: The organization wants to include new third-party data, and needs to build a new data mart to provide a slice of data for analysis.

    Business driver #3: Risk and compliance demands can put pressure on outdated architectures

    Is there increasing pressure on the business to maintain compliance requirements as per regulations?

    An organization can want to use its data for multiple reasons. Whether these reasons include improving customer experience or operational excellence, the data architect must ensure that the organization’s data aggregation environment, reporting and analytics, and presentation layer are assessed and optimized for serving the needs of the business.

    There are different types of requirements:
    • Can be data-element driven. For example, PII, PHI are requirements around data elements that are associated with personal and health information.
    • Can be process driven. For example, some requirements restrict data read/write to certain groups.
    Stock photo of someone pulling a block out of a Jenga tower.
    Modified icon for Tools & Templates. When this business driver arises, data architects should focus on optimizing architecture where data is stored: at the sources, the warehouse environment, and analytics layer. Tactics for this business driver should address the following pattern:
    Tiers 1, 3, and 4 highlighted.

    Business driver #4: Mergers and acquisitions can require a restructuring of the organization’s data architecture

    Is the organization looking to acquire or merge with another organization or line of business?

    There are three scenarios that encompass the mergers and acquisitions business driver for data architecture:

    1. The organization acquires/merges with another organization and wants to integrate the data.
    2. The organization acquires/merges a subset of an organization (a line of business, for example) and wants to integrate the data.
    3. The organization acquires another organization for competitive purposes, and does not need to integrate the data.
    Regardless of what scenario your organization falls into, you must go through the same process of identifying the requirements for the new data:
    1. Understand what data you are getting.
      The business may acquire another organization for the data, for the technology, and/or for algorithms (for example). If the goal is to integrate the new data, you must understand if the data is unstructured, structured, how much data, etc.
    2. Plan for the integration of the new data into your environment.
      Do you have the expertise in-house to integrate the data? Database structures and systems are often mismatched (for example, acquired company could have an Oracle database whereas you are an SAP shop) and this may require expertise from the acquired company or a third party.
    3. Integrate the new data.
      Often, the extraction of the new data is the easy part. Transforming and loading the data is the difficult and costly part.
    “As a data architect, you must do due diligence of the acquired firm. What are the workflows, what are the data sources, what data is useful, what is useless, what is the value of the data, and what are the risks of embedding the data?” (Anonymous Mergers and Acquisitions Consultant)
    Modified icon for Tools & Templates. When this business driver arises, data architects should focus on optimizing architecture at the source tier, the warehousing layer, and analytics. Tiers 1, 3, and 4 highlighted.

    Determine your tier priority pattern and the tactics that you should address based on the business drivers

    Associated Activity icon 1.2.1 30 minutes

    INPUT: Business driver assessment

    OUTPUT: Tactic pattern and tactic plan

    Materials: Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool, Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Participants: Data architect, Enterprise architect

    Instructions
    1. After you have assessed the organization’s business driver on Tab 1. Driver Identification, move to Tab 2. Tactic Pattern Plan.
    2. Here, you will find a summary of the business driver that applies to you, as well as the tier priority pattern that will help you to focus your efforts for data architecture.
    3. Document the Tier Priority Pattern and associated tactics in Section 2. Optimization Plan of the Data Architecture Optimization Plan.
    Screenshot of Data Architecture Driver Tool.
    Data Architecture Driver Tool
    Arrow pointing right. Sample of Data Architecture Optimization Template
    Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Info-Tech Insight

    Our approach will help you to get to the solution of the organization’s data architecture problems as quickly as possible. However, keep in mind that you should still address the other tiers of your data architecture even if they are not part of the pattern we identified. For example, if you need to become more data driven, don’t completely ignore the sources and the integration of data. However, to deliver the most and quickest value, focus on tiers 3, 4, and 5.

    This phase helped you to create a tactical plan to optimize your data architecture according to business priorities

    Phase 1 is all about focus.

    Data architects and those responsible for updating an organization’s data architecture have a wide-open playing field with which to take their efforts. Being able to narrow down your focus and generate an actionable plan will help you provide more value to the organization quickly and get the most out of your data.

      Phase 1
      • Business Drivers
        • Tactic Pattern
          • Tactical Plan

    Now that you have your prioritized tactical plan, move to Phase 2. This phase will help you map these priorities to the essential capabilities and measure where you stack up in these capabilities. This is an essential step in creating your data architecture roadmap and plan for coming years to modernize the organization’s data architecture.

    To identify what the monetary authority needed from its data architecture, Info-Tech helped determine the business driver

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Financial
    Source: Info-Tech Consulting
    Symbol for 'Monetary Authority Case Study'.

    Part 1

    Prior to receiving new external requirements, the monetary Authority body had been operating with an inefficient system. Outdated legacy systems, reports in paper form, incomplete reports, and stale data from other agencies resulted in slow data access. The new requirements demanded speeding up this process.

    Diagram comparing the 'Original Reporting' requirement of 'Up to 7 days' vs the 'New Requirement' of 'As soon as 1 hour'. The steps of reporting in that time are 'Report Request', 'Gather Data', and 'Make Report'.

    Although the organization understood it needed changes, it first needed to establish what were the business objectives, and which areas of their architecture they would need to focus on.

    The business driver in this case was compliance requirements, which directed attention to the sources, aggregation, and insights tiers.

    Tiers 1, 3, and 4 highlighted.

    Looking at the how the different tiers relate to certain business operations, the organization uncovered the best practise tactics to achieving an optimized data architecture.

    1. Source Tactics: 3. Warehousing Tactics: 4. Analytics Tactics:
    • Identify data sources
    • Ensure data quality
    • Properly catalogue data
    • Properly index data
    • Provide the means for data accessibility
    • Allow for data reduction/space for report building

    Once the business driver had been established, the organization was able to identify the specific areas it would eventually need to evaluate and remedy as needed.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of an Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    1.1.1

    Sample of activity 1.1.1 'Identify the drivers for improving your data architecture'. Identify the business driver that will set the direction of your data architecture optimization plan.

    In this activity, the facilitator will guide the team in identifying the business driver that is creating the need to improve the organization’s data architecture. Data architecture needs to adapt to the changing needs of the business, so this is the most important step of any data architecture improvements.

    1.2.1

    Sample of activity 1.2.1 'Determine your tier priority pattern and the tactics that you should address based on the business drivers'. Determine the tactics that you will use to optimize data architecture.

    In this activity, the facilitator will help the team create a tactical plan for optimizing the organization’s data architecture across the five tiers of the logical model. This plan can then be followed when addressing the business needs.

    Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy

    PHASE 2

    Personalize Your Tactics to Optimize Your Data Architecture

    Phase 2 will determine your tactics that you should implement to optimize your data architecture

    Business Drivers
    Each business driver requires focus on specific tiers and their corresponding capabilities, which in turn correspond to tactics necessary to achieve your goal.
    New Functionality Risk and Compliance Mergers and Acquisitions Become More Data Driven
    Tiers 1. Data Sources 2. Integration 3. Warehousing 4. Insights 5. Presentation
    Capabilities Current Capabilities
    Target Capabilities
    Example Tactics Leverage indexes, partitions, views, and clusters to optimize performance.

    Cleanse data source.

    Leverage integration technology.

    Identify matching approach priorities.

    Establish governing principles.

    Install performance enhancing technologies.

    Establish star schema and snowflake principles.

    Share data via data mart.

    Build metadata architecture:
    • Data lineage
    • Sharing
    • Taxonomy
    • Automatic vs. manual creation

    Phase 2 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 2: Personalize Your Tactics to Optimize Your Data Architecture

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks
    Step 2.1: Measure Your Data Architecture Capabilities Step 2.2: Set a Target for Data Architecture Capabilities Step 2.3: Identify the Tactics That Apply to Your Organization
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Understand Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model to begin identifying where to develop tactics for optimizing your data architecture.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Understand Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model to begin identifying where to develop tactics for optimizing your data architecture.
    Finalize phase deliverable:
    • Learn about the trends in data architecture that can be leveraged to develop tactics.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Measure your current state across the tiers of the capability model that will help address your business driver.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Measure your target state for the capabilities that will address your business driver.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Review the tactical roadmap that was created with guidance from the capability gap analysis.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Trends Presentation Template

    Phase 2 Results & Insights

    • Data architecture is not just data models. Understand the essential capabilities that your organization needs from its data architecture to develop a tactical plan for optimizing data architecture across its people, processes, and technology.

    Phase 2, Step 1: Measure Your Data Architecture Capabilities

    PHASE 2

    2.1 2.2 2.3
    Measure Your Data Architecture Capabilities Set a Target for Data Architecture Capabilities Identify the Tactics That Apply to Your Organization

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • As you walk through the data architecture capability model, measure your current state in each of the relevant capabilities.
    • Distinguish between essential and nice-to-have capabilities for your organization.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • A framework for generating a tactical plan for data architecture optimization.
    • Knowledge of the various trends in the data architecture field that can be incorporated into your plan.

    To personalize your tactical strategy, you must measure up your base data architecture capabilities

    What is a capability?

    Capabilities represent a mixture of people, technology, and processes. The focus of capability design is on the outcome and the effective use of resources to produce a differentiating capability or an essential supporting capability.

    To personalize your tactics, you have to understand what the essential capabilities are across the five tiers of an organization’s data architecture. Then, assess where you currently stand in these capabilities and where you need to go in order to build your optimization plan.

    'Capability' as a mixture of 'People', 'Technology', 'Process', and 'Assets'.

    Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model can be laid over the five-tier data architecture to understand the essential and advanced capabilities that an organization should have, and to build your tactical strategy for optimizing the organization’s data architecture across the tiers.

    Use Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model as a resource to assess and plan your personalized tactics

    Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model can be laid over the five-tier data architecture to understand the essential and advanced capabilities that an organization should have, and to build your tactical strategy for optimizing the organization’s data architecture across the tiers.

    Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model featuring the five-tier architecture listing 'Core Capabilities' and 'Advanced Capabilities' within each tier, and a list of 'Cross Capabilities' which apply to all tiers.

    Use the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool to create a tailored plan of action

    Supporting Tool icon 2.1.1 Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Instructions

    Use the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool as your central tool to develop a tactical plan of action to optimize the organization’s data architecture.

    This tool contains the following sections:

    1. Business Driver Input
    2. Capability Assessment
    3. Capability Gap Analysis
    4. Tactical Roadmap
    5. Metrics
    6. Initiative Roadmap

    INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

    Sample of the Info-Tech deliverable Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool.

    Benefits of using this tool:

    • Comprehensive documentation of data architecture capabilities present in leading organizations.
    • Generates an accurate architecture roadmap for your organization that is developed in alignment with the broader enterprise architecture and related architectural domains.

    To create a plan for your data architecture priorities, you must first understand where you currently stand

    Now that you understand the business problem that you are trying to solve, it is time to take action in solving the problem.

    The organization likely has some of the capabilities that are needed to solve the problem, but also a need to improve other capabilities. To narrow down the capabilities that you should focus on, first select the business driver that was identified in Phase 1 in Tab 1. Business Driver Input of the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool. This will customize the roadmap tool to deselect the capabilities that are likely to be less relevant to your organization.

    For Example: If you identified your business driver as “becoming more data-driven”, you will want to focus on measuring and building out the capabilities within Tiers 3, 4, and 5 of the capability model.

    Data Architecture Capability Model
    Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model with tiers 3, 4, and 5 highlighted.

    Note

    If you want to assess your organization for all of the capabilities across the data architecture capability model, select “Comprehensive Data Architecture Assessment” in Tab 1. Business Driver Input of the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool.

    Determine your current state across the related architecture tiers

    Associated Activity icon 2.1.2 1 hour

    INPUT: Current data architecture capabilities.

    OUTPUT: An idea of where you currently stand in the capabilities.

    Materials: Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Participants: Data architect, Enterprise architect, Business representatives

    Use the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool to evaluate the baseline and target capabilities of your practice in terms of how data architecture is approached and executed.

    Instructions
    1. Invite the appropriate stakeholders to participate in this exercise.
    2. On Tab 2. Practice Components, assess the current and target states of each capability on a scale of 1–5.
    3. Note: “Ad hoc” implies a capability is completed, but randomly, informally, and without a standardized method.
      These results will set the baseline against which you will monitor performance progress and keep track of improvements over time.
    To assess data architecture maturity, Info-Tech uses the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) program for rating capabilities on a scale of 1 to 5:

    1 = Initial/Ad hoc

    2 = Developing

    3 = Defined

    4 = Managed and Measurable

    5 = Optimized

    Info-Tech Insight

    Focus on Early Alignment. Assessing capabilities within specific people’s job functions can naturally result in disagreement or debate, especially between business and IT people. Objectively facilitate any debate and only finalize capability assessments when there is full alignment. Remind everyone that data architecture should ultimately serve business needs wherever possible.

    Phase 2, Step 2: Set a Target for Data Architecture Capabilities

    PHASE 2

    2.12.22.3
    Measure Your Data Architecture CapabilitiesSet a Target for Data Architecture CapabilitiesIdentify the Tactics That Apply to Your Organization

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Determine your target state in each of the relevant capabilities.
    • Distinguish between essential and nice-to-have capabilities for your organization.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • A holistic understanding of where the organization’s data architecture currently sits, where it needs to go, and where the biggest gaps lie.

    To create a plan for your data architecture priorities, you must also understand where you need to get to in the future

    Keep the goal in mind by documenting target state objectives. This will help to measure the highest priority gaps in the organization’s data architecture capabilities.

    Example driver = Becoming more data driven Arrow pointing right. Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model with tiers 3, 4, and 5 highlighted. Arrow pointing right. Current Capabilities Arrow pointing right. Target Capabilities
    Gaps and Priorities
    Stock photo of a hand placing four shelves arranged as stairs. On the first step is a mini-cut-out of a person walking.

    Determine your future state across the relevant tiers of the data architecture capability model

    Associated Activity icon 2.2.1 2 hours

    INPUT: Current state of data architecture capabilities.

    OUTPUT: Target state of data architecture capabilities.

    Materials: Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Participants: Data architect

    The future of data architecture is now.

    Determine the state of data architecture capabilities that the organization needs to reach to address the drivers of the business.

    For example: If you identified your business driver as “becoming more data driven”, you will want to focus on the capabilities within Tiers 3, 4, and 5 of the capability model.

    Driver = Becoming more data driven Arrow pointing right. Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Capability Model with tiers 3, 4, and 5 highlighted. Arrow pointing right. Target Capabilities

    Identify where gaps in your data architecture capabilities lie

    Associated Activity icon 2.2.2 1 hour

    INPUT: Current and target states of data architecture capabilities.

    OUTPUT: Holistic understanding of where you need to improve data architecture capabilities.

    Materials: Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Participants: Data architect

    Visualization of gap assessment of data quality practice capabilities

    To enable deeper analysis on the results of your capability assessment, Tab 4. Capability Gap Analysis in the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool creates visualizations of the gaps identified in each of your practice capabilities and related data management practices. These diagrams serve as analysis summaries.

    Gap Assessment of Data Source Capabilities

    Sample of the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool, tab 4. Capability Gap Analysis.

    Use Tab 3. Data Quality Practice Scorecard to enhance your data quality project.

    1. Enhance your gap analyses by forming a relative comparison of total gaps in key practice capability areas, which will help in determining priorities.
    2. Put these up on display to improve discussion in the gap analyses and prioritization sessions.
    3. Improve the clarity and flow of your strategy template, final presentations, and summary documents by copying and pasting the gap assessment diagrams.

    Phase 2, Step 3: Identify the Tactics That Apply to Your Organization

    PHASE 2

    2.12.22.3
    Measure Your Data Architecture CapabilitiesSet a Target for Data Architecture CapabilitiesIdentify the Tactics That Apply to Your Organization

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Before making your personal tactic plan, identify the trends in data architecture that can benefit your organization.
    • Understand Info-Tech’s data architecture capability model.
    • Initiate the Data Architecture Roadmap Tool to begin creating a roadmap for your optimization plan.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • A framework for generating a tactical plan for data architecture optimization.
    • Knowledge of the various trends in the data architecture field that can be incorporated into your plan.

    Capitalize on trends in data architecture before you determine the tactics that apply to you

    Stop here. Before you begin to plan for optimization of the organization’s data environment, get a sense of the sustainability and scalability of the direction of the organization’s data architecture evolution.

    Practically any trend in data architecture is driven by an attempt to solve one or more the common challenges of today’s tumultuous data landscape, otherwise known as “big data.” Data is being produced in outrageous amounts, at very high speeds, and in a growing number of types and structures.

    To meet these demands, which are not slowing down, you must keep ahead of the curve. Consider the internal and external catalysts that might fuel your organization’s need to modernize its data architecture:

    Big Data

    Data Storage

    Advanced analytics

    Unstructured data

    Integration

    Hadoop ecosystem

    The discussion about big data is no longer about what it is, but how do businesses of all types operationalize it.

    Is your organization currently capturing and leveraging big data?

    Are they looking to do so in the near future?

    The cloud

    The cloud offers economical solutions to many aspects of data architecture.

    Have you dealt with issues of lack of storage space or difficulties with scalability?

    Do you need remote access to data and tools?

    Real-time architecture

    Advanced analytics (machine learning, natural language processing) often require data in real-time. Consider Lambda and Kappa architectures.

    Has your data flow prevented you from automation, advanced analytics, or embracing the world of IoT?

    Graph databases

    Self-service data access allows more than just technical users to participate in analytics. NoSQL can uncover buried relationships in your data.

    Has your organization struggled to make sense of different types of unstructured data?

    Is ETL enough?

    What SQL is to NoSQL, ETL is to NoETL. Integration techniques are being created to address the high variety and high velocity of data.

    Have your data scientists wasted too much time and resources in the ETL stage?

    Read the Data Architecture Trends Presentation to understand the current cutting edge topics in data architecture

    Supporting Tool icon 2.1 Data Architecture Trends Presentation

    The speed at which new technology is changing is making it difficult for IT professionals to keep pace with best practices, let alone cutting edge technologies.

    The Info-Tech Data Architecture Trends Presentation provides a glance at some of the more significant innovations in technology that are driving today’s advanced data architectures.

    This presentation also explains how these trends relate to either the data challenges you may be facing, or the specific business drivers you are hoping to bring to your organization.

    Sample of the Data Architecture Trends Presentation.
    Data Architecture Trends Presentation

    Gaps between your current and future capabilities will help you to determine the tactics that apply to you

    Now that you know where the organization currently stands, follow these steps to begin prioritizing the initiatives:

    1. What are you trying to accomplish? Determine target states that are framed in quantifiable objectives that can be clearly communicated. The more specific the objectives are the better.
    2. Evaluate the “delta,” or difference between where the organization currently stands and where it needs to go. This will be expressed in terms of gap closure strategies, and will help clarify the initiatives that will populate the road map.
    3. Determine the relative business value of each initiative, as well as the relative complexities of successfully implementing them. These scores should be created with stakeholder input, and then plotted in an effort/transition quadrant map to determine where the quickest and most valuable wins lie.
    Current State Gap Closure Strategies Target State Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap
    • Organization objectives
    • Functional needs
    • Current operating models
    • Technology assets
    Initiatives involving:
    • Organizational changes
    • Functional changes
    • Technology changes
    • Process changes
    • Performance objectives (revenue growth, customer intimacy, growth of organization)
    • Operating model improvements
    • Prioritized, simplified, and compelling vision of how the organization will optimize data architecture

    (Source: “How to Build a Roadmap”)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Optimizing data architecture requires a tactical approach, not a passive approach. The demanding task of optimization requires the ability to heavily prioritize. After you have identified why, determine how using our pre-built roadmap to address the four common drivers.

    Each of the layers of an organization’s data architecture have associated challenges to optimization

    Stop! Before you begin, recognize these “gotchas” that can present roadblocks to creating an effective data architecture environment.

    Before diving headfirst into creating your tactical data architecture plan, documenting the challenges associated with each aspect of the organization’s data architecture can help to identify where you need to focus your energy in optimizing each tier. The following table presents the common challenges across the five tiers:

    Source Tier

    Integration Tier

    Warehousing Tier

    Analytics Tier

    Presentation Tier

    Inconsistent data models Performance issues Scalability of the data warehouse Data currency, flexibility Model interoperability
    Data quality measures: data accuracy, timeliness, accessibility, relevance Duplicated data Infrastructure needed to support volume of data No business context for using the data in the correct manner No business context for using the data in the correct manner
    Free-form field and data values beyond data domain Tokenization and other required data transformations Performance
    Volume
    Greedy consumers can cripple performance
    Insufficient infrastructure
    Inefficiencies in building the data mart Report proliferation/chaos (“kitchen sink dashboards”)
    Reporting out of source systems DB model inefficiencies
    Manual errors;
    Application usability
    Elasticity

    Create metrics before you plan to optimize your data architecture

    Associated Activity icon 2.2.3 1 hour

    INPUT: Tactics that will be used to optimize data architecture.

    OUTPUT: Metrics that can be used to measure optimization success.

    Materials: Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool

    Participants: Data architect

    Metrics will help you to track your optimization efforts and ensure that they are providing value to the organization.

    There are two types of metrics that are useful for data architects to track and measure: program metrics and project metrics. Program metrics represent the activities that the data architecture program, which is the sum of multiple projects, should help to improve. Project metrics are the more granular metrics that track each project.

    Program Metrics

    • TCO of IT
      • Costs associated with applications, databases, data maintenance
      • Should decrease with better data architecture (rationalized apps, operationalized databases)
    • Cost savings:
      • Retiring a legacy system and associated databases
      • Consolidated licensing
      • Introducing shared services
    • Data systems under maintenance (maintenance burden)
    • End-user data requests fulfilled
    • Improvement of time of delivery of reports and insights

    Project Metrics

    • Percent of projects in alignment with EA
    • Percent of projects compliant with the EA governance process (architectural due diligence rate)
    • Reducing time to market for launching new products
      • Reducing human error rates
      • Speeding up order delivery
      • Reducing IT costs
      • Reducing severity and frequency of security incidents

    Use Tab 6. Metrics of the Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool to document and track metrics associated with your optimization tactics.

    Use Info-Tech’s resources to build your data architecture capabilities

    The following resources from Info-Tech can be used to improve the capabilities that were identified as having a gap. Read more about the details of the five-tier architecture in the blueprints below:

    Data Governance

    Data architecture depends on effective data governance. Use our blueprint, Enable Shared Insights With an Effective Data Governance Engine to get more out of your architecture.

    Data Quality

    The key to maintaining high data quality is a proactive approach that requires you to establish and update strategies for preventing, detecting, and correcting errors. Find out more on how to improve data quality with Info-Tech’s blueprint, Restore Trust in Your Data Using a Business-Aligned Data Quality Management Approach.

    Master Data Management

    When you start your data governance program, you will quickly realize that you need an effective MDM strategy for managing your critical data assets. Use our blueprint, Develop a Master Data Management Strategy and Roadmap to Better Monetize Data to get started with MDM.

    Data Warehouse

    The key to maintaining high data quality is a proactive approach that requires you to establish and update strategies for preventing, detecting, and correcting errors. Find out more on how to improve data quality with Info-Tech’s blueprint, Drive Business Innovation With a Modernized Data Warehouse Environment.

    With the optimal tactics identified, the monetary authority uncovered areas needing improvement

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Financial
    Source: Info-Tech Consulting
    Symbol for 'Monetary Authority Case Study'.

    Part 2

    After establishing the appropriate tactics based on its business driver, the monetary authority was able to identify its shortcomings and adopt resolutions to remedy the issues.

    Best Practice Tactic Current State Solution
    Tier 1 - Data Sources Identify data sources Data coming from a number of locations. Create data model for old and new systems.
    Ensure data quality Internal data scanned from paper and incomplete. Data cleansing and update governance and business rules for migration to new system.
    External sources providing conflicting data.
    Tier 3 - Data Warehousing Data catalogue Data aggregated incompletely. Built proper business data glossary for searchability.
    Indexing Data warehouse performance sub-optimal. Architected data warehouse for appropriate use (star schema).
    Tier 4 - Data Analytics Data accessibility Relevant data buried in warehouse. Build data marts for access.
    Data reduction Accurate report building could not be performed in current storage. Built interim solution sandbox, spin up SQL database.

    Establishing these solutions provided the organization with necessary information to build their roadmap and move towards implementing an optimized data architecture.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of a Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    2.1.1 – 2.2.2

    Sample of activities 2.1.1 and 2.2.2, the first being 'Determine your current state across the related architecture tiers'. Evaluate your current capabilities and design your target data quality practice from two angles

    In this assessment and planning activity, the team will evaluate the current and target capabilities for your data architecture’s ability to meet business needs based on the essential capabilities across the five tiers of an organization’s architectural environment.

    2.2.3

    Sample of activity 2.2.3 'Create metrics before you plan to optimize your data architecture'. Create metrics to track the success of your optimization plan.

    The Info-Tech facilitator will guide you through the process of creating program and project metrics to track as you optimize your data architecture. This will help to ensure that the tactics are helping to improve crucial business attributes.

    Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy

    PHASE 3

    Create Your Tactical Data Architecture Roadmap

    Phase 3 outline

    Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 3: Create Your Tactical Data Architecture Roadmap

    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks
    Step 3.1: Personalize Your Data Architecture RoadmapStep 3.2: Manage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes
    Start with an analyst kick-off call:
    • Review the tactical plan that addresses the business drivers by optimizing your data architecture in the relevant focus areas.
    Review findings with analyst:
    • Discuss and review the roadmap of optimization activities, including dependencies, timing, and ownership of activities.
    • Understand how change management is an integral aspect of any data architecture optimization plan.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Create your detailed data architecture initiative roadmap.
    Then complete these activities…
    • Create your Data Architecture Decision Template to document the changes that are going to be made to optimize your data architecture environment.
    • Review how change management fits into the data architecture improvement program.
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap Tool
    With these tools & templates:
    • Data Architecture Decision Template

    Phase 3 Results & Insights

    • Phase 3 will help you to build a personalized roadmap and plan for optimizing data architecture in your organization. In carrying out this roadmap, changes will, by necessity, occur. Therefore, an integral aspect of a data architect’s role is change management. Use the resources included in Phase 3 to smoothen the change management process.

    Phase 3, Step 1: Personalize Your Data Architecture Roadmap

    PHASE 3

    3.1 3.2
    Personalize Your Data Architecture Roadmap Manage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Determine the timing, effort, and ownership of the recommended optimization initiatives.
    • Brainstorm initiatives that are not yet on the roadmap but apply to you.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect
    • DBAs
    • Enterprise Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • A roadmap of specific initiatives that map to the tactical plan for optimizing your organization’s data architecture.
    • A plan for communicating high-level business objectives to data workers to address the issues of the business.

    Now that you have tactical priorities, identify the actionable steps that will lead you to an optimized data architecture

    Phase 1 and 2 helped you to identify tactics that address some of the most common business drivers. Phase 3 will bring you through the process of practically planning what those tactics look like in your organization’s environment and create a roadmap to plan how you will generate business value through optimization of your data architecture environment.

    Diagram of the three phases and the goals of each one. The first phase says 'Identify your data architecture business driver' and highlights 'Business Driver 3' out of four to focus on in Phase 2. Phase 2 says 'Optimization tactics across the five-tier logical data architecture' and identifies four of six 'Tactics' to use in Phase 3. Phase 3 is a 'Practical Roadmap of Initiatives' and utilizes a timeline of initiatives in which to apply the chosen tactics.

    Use the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool to personalize your roadmap

    Supporting Tool icon 3.1.1 Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool
    Generating Your Roadmap
    1. On Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning, you will find a list of tactics that correspond to every capability that applies to your chosen driver and where there is a gap. In addition, each tactic has a sequence of “Suggested Initiatives,” which represent the best-practice steps that you should take to optimize your data architecture according to your priorities and gaps.
    2. Customize this list of initiatives according to your needs.
    3. The Gantt chart is generated in Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap, and can be used to organize your plan and ensure that all of the essential aspects of optimizing data architecture are addressed.
    4. The roadmap can be used as an “executive brief” roadmap and as a communication tool for the business.
    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool, Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning.
    Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning

    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool, Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap.
    Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap

    Determine the details of your data architecture optimization activities

    Associated Activity icon 3.1.2 1 hour

    INPUT: Timing of initiatives for optimizing data architecture.

    OUTPUT: Optimization roadmap

    Materials: Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool

    Participants: Data architect, Enterprise Architect

    Instructions

    1. With the list of suggested activities in place on Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning, select whether or not the initiatives will be included in the roadmap. By default, all of the initiatives are set to “Yes.”
    2. Plan the sequence, starting time, and length of each initiative, as well as the assigned responsibility of the initiative in Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning of the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool.
    3. The tool will a generate a Gantt chart based on the start and length of your initiatives.
    4. The Gantt chart is generated in Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap.
    Screenshot of the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool, Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning. Tab 5. Tactic and Initiative Planning Screenshot of the Data Architecture Tactic Roadmap Tool, Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap. Tab 7. Initiative Roadmap

    Info-Tech Insight

    The activities that populate the roadmap can be taken as best practice activities. If you want an actionable, comprehensive, and prescriptive plan for optimizing your data architecture, fill in the timing of the activities and print the roadmap. This can serve as a rapid communication tool for your data architecture plan to the business and other architects.

    Optimizing data architecture relies on communication between the business and data workers

    Remember: Data architects bridge the gap between strategic and technical requirements of data.

    Visualization centering the 'Data Architect' as the bridge between 'Data Workers', 'Business', and 'Data & Applications'.

    Therefore, as you plan the data and its interactions with applications, it is imperative that you communicate the plan and its implications to the business and the data workers. Stock photo of coworkers communicating.
    Also remember: In Phase 1, you built your tactical data architecture optimization plan.
    Sample 1 of the Data Architecture Optimization Template. Sample 2 of the Data Architecture Optimization Template.
    Use this document to communicate your plan for data architecture optimization to both the business and the data workers. Socialize this document as a representation of your organization’s current data architecture as well as where it is headed in the future.

    Communicate your data architecture optimization plan to the business for approval

    Associated Activity icon 3.1.3 2 hours

    INPUT: Data Architecture Tactical Roadmap

    OUTPUT: Communication plan

    Materials: Data Architecture Optimization Template

    Participants: Data Architect, Business representatives, IT representatives

    Instructions

    Begin by presenting your plan and roadmap to the business units who participated in business interviews in activity 1.1.3 of Phase 1.

    If you receive feedback that suggests that you should make revisions to the plan, consult Info-Tech Research Group for suggestions on how to improve the plan.

    If you gain approval for the plan, communicate it to DBAs and other data workers.

    Iterative optimization and communication plan:
    Visualization of the Iterative optimization and communication plan. 'Start here' at 'Communicate Plan and Roadmap to the Business', and then continue in a cycle of 'Receive Approval or Suggested Modifications', 'Get Advice for Improvements to the Plan', 'Revise Plan', and back to the initial step until you receive 'Approval', then 'Present to Data Workers'.

    With a roadmap in place, the monetary authority followed a tactical and practical plan to repair outdated data architecture

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Financial
    Source: Info-Tech Consulting
    Symbol for 'Monetary Authority Case Study'.

    Part 3

    After establishing the appropriate tactics based on its business driver, the monetary authority was able to identify its shortcomings and adopt resolutions to remedy the issues.

    Challenge

    A monetary authority was placed under new requirements where it would need to produce 6 different report types on its clients to a regulatory body within a window potentially as short as 1 hour.

    With its current capabilities, it could complete such a task in roughly 7 days.

    The organization’s data architecture was comprised of legacy systems that had poor searchability. Moreover, the data it worked with was scanned from paper, regularly incomplete and often inconsistent.

    Solution

    The solution first required the organization to establish the business driver behind the need to optimize its architecture. In this case, it would be compliance requirements.

    With Info-Tech’s methodology, the organization focused on three tiers: data sources, warehousing, and analytics.

    Several solutions were developed to address the appropriate lacking capabilities. Firstly, the creation of a data model for old and new systems. The implementation of governance principles and business rules for migration of any data. Additionally, proper indexing techniques and business data glossary were established. Lastly, data marts and sandboxes were designed for data accessibility and to enable a space for proper report building.

    Results

    With the solutions established, the monetary authority was given information it needed to build a comprehensive roadmap, and is currently undergoing the implementation of the plan to ensure it will experience its desired outcome – an optimized data architecture built with the capacity to handle external compliance requirements.

    Phase 3, Step 2: Manage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes

    PHASE 3

    3.13.2
    Personalize Your Data Architecture RoadmapManage Your Data Architecture Decisions and the Resulting Changes

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • With a plan in place, document the major architectural decisions that have been and will be made to optimize data architecture.
    • Create a plan for change and release management, an essential function of the data architect role.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Data Architect
    • Enterprise Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • Resources for documenting and managing the inevitable change associated with updates to the organization’s data architecture environment.

    To implement data architecture changes, you must plan to accommodate the issues that come with change

    Once you have a plan in place, one the most challenging aspects of improving an organization is yet to come…overcoming change!

    “When managing change, the job of the data architect is to avoid unnecessary change and to encapsulate necessary change.

    You must provide motivation for simplifying change, making it manageable for the whole organization.” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Stock photo of multiple hands placing app/website design elements on a piece of paper.

    Create roadmap

    Arrow pointing down.

    Communicate roadmap

    Arrow pointing down.

    Implement roadmap

    Arrow pointing down.

    Change management

    Use the Data Architecture Decision Template when architectural changes are made

    Supporting Tool icon 3.2 Data Architecture Decision Template
    Document the architectural decisions made to provide context around changes made to the organization’s data environment.

    The goal of this Data Architecture Decision Template is to provide data architects with a template for managing the changes that accompany major architectural decisions. As you work through the Build a Business-Aligned Data Architecture Optimization Strategy blueprint, you will create a plan for tactical initiatives that address the drivers of the business to optimize your data architecture. This plan will bring about changes to the organization’s data architecture that need change management considerations.

    Document any major changes to the organization’s data architecture that are required to evolve with the organization’s drivers. This will ensure that major architectural changes are documented, tracked, and that the context around the decision is maintained.

    “Environment is very chaotic nowadays – legacy apps, sprawl, ERPs, a huge mix and orgs are grappling with what our data landscape look like? Where are our data assets that we need to use?” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    Sample of the Data Architecture Decision Template.

    Use Info-Tech’s Data Architecture Decision Template to document any major changes in the organization’s data architecture.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s resources to smooth change management

    As changes to the architectural environment occur, data architects must stay ahead of the curve and plan the change management considerations that come with major architectural decisions.

    “When managing change, the job of the data architect is to avoid unnecessary change and to encapsulate necessary change.

    You must provide motivation for simplifying change, making it manageable for the whole organization.” (Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant)

    See Info-Tech’s resources on change management to smooth changes:
    Banner for the blueprint set 'Optimize Change Management' with subtitle 'Turn and face the change with a right-sized change management process'.
    Sample of the Optimize Change Management blueprint.

    Change Management Blueprint

    Sample of the Change Management Roadmap Tool.

    Change Management Roadmap Tool

    Use Info-Tech’s resources for effective release management

    As changes to the architectural environment occur, data architects must stay ahead of the curve and plan the release management considerations around new hardware and software releases or updates.

    Release management is a process that encompasses the planning, design, build, configuration, and testing of hardware and software releases to create a defined set of release components (ITIL). Release activities can include the distribution of the release and supporting documentation directly to end users. See Info-Tech’s resources on Release Management to smooth changes:

    Banner for the blueprint set 'Take a Holistic View to Optimize Release Management' with subtitle 'Build trust by right-sizing your process using appropriate governance'.
    Samples of the Release Management blueprint.

    Release Management Blueprint

    Sample of the Release Management Process Standard Template.

    Release Management Process Standard Template

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop Associated Activity icon

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

    Photo of a Info-Tech analyst.
    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

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

    3.1.1

    Sample of activity 3.1.2 'Determine the timing of your data architecture optimization activities'. Create your personalized roadmap of activities.

    In this activity, the facilitator will guide the team in evaluating practice gaps highlighted by the assessment, and compare these gaps at face value so general priorities can be documented. The same categories as in 3.1.1 are considered.

    3.1.3

    Sample of activity 3.1.3 'Communicate your Data Architecture Optimization Plan to the business for approval'. Communicate your data architecture optimization plan.

    The facilitator will help you to identify the optimal medium and timing for communicating your plan for optimizing your data architecture.

    Insight breakdown

    Insight 1

    • Data architecture needs to evolve along with the changing business landscape. There are four common business drivers that put most pressure on archaic architectures. As a result, the organization’s architecture must be flexible and responsive to changing business needs.

    Insight 2

    • Data architecture is not just about models.
      Viewing data architecture as just technical data modeling can lead to structurally unsound data that does not serve the business.

    Insight 3

    • Data is used differently across the layers of an organization’s data architecture, and the capabilities needed to optimize use of data change with it. Architecting and managing data from source to warehousing to presentation requires different tactics for optimal use.

    Summary of accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • An understanding of what data architecture is, how data architects can provide value to the organization, and how data architecture fits into the larger enterprise architecture picture.
    • The capabilities required for optimization of the organization’s data architecture across the five tiers of the logical data architecture model.

    Processes Optimized

    • Prioritization and planning of data architect responsibilities across the five tiers of the five-tier logical data architecture model.
    • Roadmapping of tactics that address the most common business drivers of the organization.
    • Architectural change management.

    Deliverables Completed

    • Data Architecture Driver Pattern Identification Tool
    • Data Architecture Optimization Template
    • Data Architecture Trends Presentation
    • Data Architecture Roadmap Tool
    • Data Architecture Decision Template

    Research contributors and experts

    Photo of Ron Huizenga, Senior Product Manager, Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. Ron Huizenga, Senior Product Manager
    Embarcadero Technologies, Inc.

    Ron Huizenga has over 30 years of experience as an IT executive and consultant in enterprise data architecture, governance, business process reengineering and improvement, program/project management, software development, and business management. His experience spans multiple industries including manufacturing, supply chain, pipelines, natural resources, retail, healthcare, insurance, and transportation.

    Photo of Andrew Johnston, Architect, Independent Consultant. Andrew Johnston, Architect Independent Consultant

    An independent consultant with a unique combination of managerial, commercial, and technical skills, Andrew specializes in the development of strategies and technical architectures that allow businesses to get the maximum benefit from their IT resources. He has been described by clients as a "broad spectrum" architect, summarizing his ability to engage in many problems at many levels.

    Research contributors

    Internal Contributors
    Logo for Info-Tech Research Group.
    • Steven J. Wilson, Senior Director, Research & Advisory Services
    • Daniel Ko, Research Manager
    • Bernie Gilles, Senior Director, Research & Advisory Services
    External Contributors
    Logo for Embarcadero.
    Logo for Questa Computing. Logo for Geha.
    • Ron Huizenga, Embercardo Technologies
    • Andrew Johnston, Independent Consultant
    • Darrell Enslinger, Government Employees Health Association
    • Anonymous Contributors

    Bibliography

    Allen, Mark. “Get the ETL Out of Here.” MarkLogic. Sep, 2016. Web. 25 Apr 2017.[http://www.marklogic.com/blog/get-the-etl-out-of-here/]

    Anadiotis, George. “Streaming hot: Real-time big data architecture matters.” ZDNet. Jan, 2017. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [http://www.zdnet.com/article/streaming-hot-real-time-big-data-architecture-matters/]

    Aston, Dan. “The Economic value of Enterprise Architecture and How to Show It.” Erwin. Aug, 2016. Web. 20 Apr 2017. [http://erwin.com/blog/economic-value-enterprise-architecture-show/]

    Baer, Tony. “2017 Trends to Watch: Big Data.” Ovum. Nov, 2016. Web. 25 Apr 2017.

    Bmc. “Benefits & Advantages of Hadoop.” Bmc. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [http://www.bmcsoftware.ca/guides/hadoop-benefits-business-case.html]

    Boyd, Ryan, et al. “Relational vs. Graph Data Modeling” DZone. Mar 2016. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://dzone.com/articles/relational-vs-graph-data-modeling]

    Brahmachar, Satya. “Theme To Digital Transformation - Journey to Data Driven Enterprise” Feb, 2015. Web. 20 Apr 2017. [http://satyabrahmachari-thought-leader.blogspot.ca/2015/02/i-smac-theme-to-digital-transformation.html]

    Capsenta. “NoETL.” Capsenta. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://capsenta.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Capsenta-Booklet.pdf]

    Connolly, Shaun. “Implementing the Blueprint for Enterprise Hadoop” Hortonworks. Apr, 2014. Web. 25 Apr 2017. https://hortonworks.com/blog/implementing-the-blue...

    Forbes. “Cloud 2.0: Companies Move From Cloud-First To Cloud-Only.” Forbes. Apr, 2017. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/vmware/2017/04/07/cloud-2-0-companies-move-from-cloud-first-to-cloud-only/#5cd9d94a4d5e]

    Forgeat, Julien. “Lambda and Kappa.” Ericsson. Nov 2015. Web 25 Apr 2017. [https://www.ericsson.com/research-blog/data-knowledge/data-processing-architectures-lambda-and-kappa/]

    Grimes, Seth. “Is It Time For NoETL?” InformationWeek. Mar, 2010. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [http://www.informationweek.com/software/information-management/is-it-time-for-noetl/d/d-id/1087813]

    Gupta, Manav. et al. “How IB‹ leads in building big data analytics solutions in the cloud.” IBM. Feb, 2016. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/cloud/library/cl-ibm-leads-building-big-data-analytics-solutions-cloud-trs/index.html#N102DE]

    “How To Build A Roadmap.” Hub Designs Magazine. Web 25 Apr 2017. [https://hubdesignsmagazine.com/2011/03/05/how-to-build-a-roadmap/]

    IBM. “Top industry use cases for stream computing.” IBM. Oct, 2015. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?htmlfid=IMW14704USEN]

    Mateos-Garcia, Juan, et al. “Skills Of The Datavores.” Nesta. July. 2015. Web. 8 Aug 2016. [https://www.nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/skills_of_the_datavores.pdf].

    Maynard, Steven. “Analytics: Don’t Forget The Human Element” Forbes. 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2017. [http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-Forbes-Insights-Data-and-Analytics-Impact-Index-2015/$FILE/EY-Forbes-Insights-Data-and-Analytics-Impact-Index-2015.pdf]

    Neo4j. “From Relational to Neo4j.” Neo4j. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://neo4j.com/developer/graph-db-vs-rdbms/#_from_relational_to_graph_databases]

    NoETL “NoETL.” NoETL. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [http://noetl.org/]

    Nolan, Roger. “Digital Transformation: Is Your Data Management Ready?” Informatica. Jun, 2016. Web. 20 Apr 2017. [https://blogs.informatica.com/2016/06/10/digital-transformation-data-management-ready/#fbid=hmBYQgS6hnm]

    OpsClarity. “2016 State of Fast Data & Streaming Applications.” OpsClarity. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://www.opsclarity.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016FastDataSurvey.pdf]

    Oracle. “A Relational Database Overview.” Oracle. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/jdbc/overview/database.html]

    Ponemon Institute LLC. “Big Data Cybersecurity Analytics Research Repor.t” Cloudera. Aug, 2016. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://www.cloudera.com/content/dam/www/static/documents/analyst-reports/big-data-cybersecurity-analytics-research-report.pdf]

    Sanchez, Jose Juan. “Data Movement Killed the BI Star.” DV Blog. May, 2016. Web. 20 Apr. 2017. [http://www.datavirtualizationblog.com/data-movement-killed-the-bi-star/]

    SAS. “Hadoop; What it is and why does it matter?” SAS. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [https://www.sas.com/en_ca/insights/big-data/hadoop.html#hadoopusers]

    Schumacher, Robin. “A Quick Primer on graph Databases for RDBMS Professionals.” Datastax. Jul, 2016. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [http://www.datastax.com/2016/07/quick-primer-on-graph-databases-for-rdbms-professionals]

    Swoyer, Steve. “It’s the End of the Data Warehouse as We Know It.” TDWI. Jan, 2017. Web. 20 Apr. 2017. [https://upside.tdwi.org/articles/2017/01/11/end-of-the-data-warehouse-as-we-know-it.aspx]

    Webber, Jim, and Ian Robinson. “The Top 5 Use Cases of Graph Databases.” Neo4j. 2015. Web. 25 Apr 2017. [http://info.neo4j.com/rs/773-GON-065/images/Neo4j_Top5_UseCases_Graph%20Databases.pdf]

    Zachman Framework. [https://www.zachman.com/]

    Zupan, Jane. “Survey of Big Data Decision Makers.” Attiv/o. May, 2016. Web. 20 Apr 2017. [https://www.attivio.com/blog/post/survey-big-data-decision-makers]

    The challenge of corporate security management

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}41|cart{/j2store}
    • Related Products: {j2store}41|crosssells{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Security and Risk
    • Parent Category Link: /security-and-risk

    Corporate security management is a vital aspect in every modern business, regardless of business area or size. At Tymans Group we offer expert security management consulting to help your business set up proper protocols and security programs. More elaborate information about our security management consulting services and solutions can be found below.

    Corporate security management components

    You may be experiencing one or more of the following:

    • The risk goals should support business goals. Your business cannot operate without security, and security is there to conduct business safely. 
    • Security governance supports security strategy and security management. These three components form a protective arch around your business. 
    • Governance and management are like the legislative branch and the executive branch. Governance tells people what to do, and management's job is to verify that they do it.

    Our advice with regards to corporate security management

    Insight

    To have a successful information security strategy, take these three factors into account:

    • Holistic: your view must include people, processes, and technology.
    • Risk awareness: Base your strategy on the actual risk profile of your company and then add the appropriate best practices.
    • Business-aligned: When your strategic security plan demonstrates alignment with the business goals and supports it, embedding will be much more straightforward.

    Impact and results of our corporate security management approach

    • The approach of our security management consulting company helps to provide a starting point for realistic governance and realistic corporate security management.
    • We help you by implementing security governance and managing it, taking into account your company's priorities, and keeping costs to a minimum.

    The roadmap

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

    Get up to speed

    Read up on why you should build your customized corporate information security governance and management system. Review our methodology and understand the four ways we can support you.

    Align your security objectives with your business goals

    Determine the company's risk tolerance.

    • Implement a Security Governance and Management Program – Phase 1: Align Business Goals With Security Objectives (ppt)
    • Information Security Governance and Management Business Case (ppt)
    • Information Security Steering Committee Charter (doc)
    • Information Security Steering Committee RACI Chart (doc)
    • Security Risk Register Tool (xls)

    Build a practical governance framework for your company

    Our best-of-breed security framework makes you perform a gap analysis between where you are and where you want to be (your target state). Once you know that, you can define your goals and duties.

    • Implement a Security Governance and Management Program – Phase 2: Develop an Effective Governance Framework (ppt)
    • Information Security Charter (doc)
    • Security Governance Organizational Structure Template (doc)
    • Security Policy Hierarchy Diagram (ppt)
    • Security Governance Model Facilitation Questions (ppt)
    • Information Security Policy Charter Template (doc)
    • Information Security Governance Model Tool (Visio)
    • Pdf icon 20x20
    • Information Security Governance Model Tool (PDF)

    Now that you have built it, manage your governance framework.

    There are several essential management activities that we as a security management consulting company suggest you employ.

    • Implement a Security Governance and Management Program – Phase 3: Manage Your Governance Framework (ppt)
    • Security Metrics Assessment Tool (xls)
    • Information Security Service Catalog (xls)
    • Policy Exception Tracker (xls)
    • Information Security Policy Exception Request Form (doc)
    • Security Policy Exception Approval Workflow (Visio)
    • Security Policy Exception Approval Workflow (PDF)
    • Business Goal Metrics Tracking Tool (xls)

    Book an online appointment for more advice

    We are happy to tell you more about our corporate security management solutions and help you set up fitting security objectives. As a security management consulting firm we offer solutions and advice, based on our own extensive experience, which are practical and people-orientated. Discover our services, which include data security management and incident management and book an online appointment with CEO Gert Taeymans to discuss any issues you may be facing regarding risk management or IT governance.

    cybersecurity

    How to build a Service Desk Chatbot POC

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}16|cart{/j2store}
    • Related Products: {j2store}16|crosssells{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.7/10
    • member rating average dollars saved: 11,197
    • member rating average days saved: 8
    • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
    • Parent Category Link: /service-desk

    The challenge

    Build a chatbot that creates value for your business

     

    • Ensure your chatbot meets your business needs.
    • Bring scalability to your customer service delivery in a cost-effective manner.
    • Measure your chatbot objectives with clear metrics.
    • Pre-determine your ticket categories to use during the proof of concept.

    Our advice

    Insight

    • Build your chatbot to create business value. Whether increasing service or resource efficiency, keep value creation in mind when making decisions with your proof of concept.

    Impact and results 

    • When implemented effectively, chatbots can help save costs, generate new revenue, and ultimately increase customer satisfaction for external and internal-facing customers.

    The roadmap

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you building a chatbot proof of concept is a good idea, review our methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you to successfully complete this project. Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    Start here

    Form your chatbot strategy.

    Build the right metrics to measure the success of your chatbot POC

    • Chatbot ROI Calculator (xls)
    • Chatbot POC Metrics Tool (xls)

    Build the foundation for your chatbot.

    Architect the chatbot to maximize business value

    • Chatbot Conversation Tree Library

    Continue to improve your chatbot.

    Now take your chatbot proof of concept to production

    • Chatbot POC RACI (doc)
    • Chatbot POC Implementation Roadmap (xls)
    • Chatbot POC Communication Plan (doc)Chatbot ROI Calculator (xls)

    Build a Value Measurement Framework

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}182|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.2/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $82,374 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 35 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Architecture & Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /architecture-and-strategy
    • Rapid changes in today’s market require rapid, value-based decisions, and organizations that lack a shared definition of value fail to maintain their competitive advantage.
    • Different parts of an organization have different value drivers that must be given balanced consideration.
    • Focusing solely on revenue ignores the full extent of value creation in your organization and does not necessarily result in the right outcomes.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

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

    Impact and Result

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

    Build a Value Measurement Framework Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read this Executive Brief to understand why building a consistent and aligned framework to measure the value of your products and services is vital for setting priorities and getting the business on board.

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

    1. Define your value drivers

    This phase will help you define and weigh value drivers based on overarching organizational priorities and goals.

    • Build a Value Measurement Framework – Phase 1: Define Your Value Drivers
    • Value Calculator

    2. Measure value

    This phase will help you analyze the value sources of your products and services and their alignment to value drivers to produce a value score that you can use for prioritization.

    • Build a Value Measurement Framework – Phase 2: Measure Value
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Build a Value Measurement Framework

    Focus product delivery on business value–driven outcomes.

    ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

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

    Cole Cioran,

    Senior Director, Research – Application Development and Portfolio Management

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research Is Designed For:

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

    This Research Will Help You:

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

    This Research Will Also Assist:

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

    This Research Will Help Them:

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

    Executive summary

    Situation

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

    Complication

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

    Resolution

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Software is not currently creating the right outcomes

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

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

    Source: Info-Tech’s Staffing Survey

    18% of opex is spent on software licenses.

    Source: SoftwareReviews.com

    33% of capex is spent on new software.

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

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

    Source: Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision

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

    A pie chart is shown as an example to show how benchmarks do not help the business.

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

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

    – Cognizant, 2017

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

    A bar graph is shown to demonstrate the CxOs importance of value. Business value metrics are 32% of significant improvement necessary, and 51% where some improvement is necessary.

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

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

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

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

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

    – Warren Buffett

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

    Value is...

    Derived from business context

  • What is our business context?
  • Enabled through governance and strategy

  • Who sees the strategy through?
  • The underlying context for decision making

  • How is value applied to support decisions?
  • A measure of achievement

  • How do I measure?
  • Determine your business context by assessing the goals and defining the unique value drivers in your organization

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

    A business value matrix is shown. It shows the relationship between reading customers, increase revenue, reduce costs, and enhance services.

    Financial Benefits vs. Improved Capabilities

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

    Inward vs. Outward Orientation

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

    Increase Revenue

    Reduce Costs

    Enhance Services

    Reach Customers

    Product or service functions that are specifically related to the impact on your organization’s ability to generate revenue.

    Reduction of overhead. They typically are less related to broad strategic vision or goals and more simply limit expenses that would occur had the product or service not been put in place.

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

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

    See your strategy through by involving both IT and the business

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

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

    The Business

    What the Business and IT have in common

    IT

    Keepers of the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements that define IT success. The business maintains the overall ownership and evaluation of the products along with those most familiar with the capabilities or processes enabled by technology.

    Business Value of Products and Services

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

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

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

    Info-Tech's Value Measurement Framework is shown.

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

    Value Drivers

    Value Sources

    Value Fulfillment Metrics

    Broad categories of values, weighed and prioritized based on overarching goals

    Instances of created value expressed as a “business outcome” of a particular function

    Units of measurement and estimated targets linked to a value source

    Reach Customers

    Customer Satisfaction

    Net Promoter Score

    Customer Loyalty

    # of Repeat Visits

    Create Revenue Streams

    Data Monetization

    Dollars Derived From Data Sales

    Leads Generation

    Leads Conversation Rate

    Operational Efficiency

    Operational Efficiency

    Number of Interactions

    Workflow Management

    Cycle Time

    Adhere to regulations & compliance

    Number of Policy Exceptions

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

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

    Importance of value source

    X

    Impact of value source

    = Value Score

    Which is based on…

    Which is based on…

    Alignment to value driver

    Realistic targets for the KPI

    Which is weighed by…

    Which is estimated by…

    A 1-5 scale of the relative importance of the value driver to the organization

    A 1-5 scale of the application or feature’s ability to fulfill that value source

    +

    Importance of Value Source

    X

    Impact of Value Source

    +

    Importance of Value Source

    +

    Impact of Value Source

    +

    Importance of Value Source

    +

    Impact of Value Source

    +

    Importance of Value Source

    +

    Impact of Value Source

    =

    Balanced Business Value Score

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

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

    A value score is an input to the following activities:

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

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

    3. Prioritize Your Project Backlog
    4. Estimate the relative value of proposed new applications or major changes or enhancements to existing applications to ensure the right projects are selected and completed first.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Transition to Product Delivery

    Build a Product Roadmap

    Modernize Your SDLC

    Build a Strong Foundation for Quality

    Implement Agile Practices That Work

    Use Info-Tech’s Value Calculator

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

    Use this tool to:

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

    Info-Tech Deliverable

    A screenshot of Info-Tech's Value Calculator is shown.

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

    Limitations of the Value Measurement Framework

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

    – George E.P. Box, 1979

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

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

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

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

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

    – William Edwards Deming, 1982

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

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

    Value Measurement Framework (VMF)

    A method of measuring relative value for a product or service, or the various components within a product or service, through the use of metrics and weighted organizational priorities.

    Value Driver

    A board organizational goal that acts as a category for many value sources.

    Value Source

    A specific business goal or outcome that business and product or service capabilities are designed to fulfill.

    Value Fulfillment

    The degree to which a product or service impacts a business outcome, ideally linked to a metric.

    Value Score

    A measurement of the value fulfillment factored by the weight of the corresponding value driver.

    Overall Balanced Value Score

    The combined value scores of all value sources linked to a product or service.

    Relative Value

    A comparison of value between two similar items (i.e. applications to applications, projects to projects, feature to feature).

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Build a Value Measurement Framework – project overview

    1. Define Your Value Drivers

    2. Measure Value

    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Identify your business value authorities.

    2.1 Define your value drivers.

    2.2 Weigh your value drivers.

    • Identify your product or service SMEs.
    • List your products or services items and components.
    • Identify your value sources.
    • Align to a value driver.
    • Assign metrics and gauge value fulfillment.

    Guided Implementations

    Identify the stakeholders who should be the authority on business value.

    Identify, define, and weigh the value drivers that will be used in your VMF and all proceeding value measurements.

    Identify the stakeholders who are the subject matter experts for your products or services.

    Measure the value of your products and services with value sources, fulfillment, and drivers.

    Outcome:

    • Value drivers and weights

    Outcome:

    • An initial list of reusable value sources and metrics
    • Value scores for your products or services

    Phase 1

    Define Your Value Drivers

    First determine your value drivers and add them to your VMF

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

    This is why we establish your value drivers first:

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

    Step 1.1: Identify Value Authorities

    Phase 1

    1.1: Identify Value Authorities

    1.2: Define Value Drivers

    Phase 2

    2.1: Identify Product or Service SMEs

    2.2: Measure Value

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify your authorities on business value.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Owners of your value measurement framework

    Outcomes of this step

    • Your list of targeted individuals to include in Step 2.1

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

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

    The Business

    What the Business and IT have in common

    IT

    Keepers of the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements that define IT success. The business maintains the overall ownership and evaluation of the products along with those most familiar with the capabilities or processes enabled by technology.

    Business Value of Products and Services

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

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

    Engage these key players to create your value drivers:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    1.1 Estimated Time: 15 minutes

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

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

    INFO-TECH TIP

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

    • CEO
    • CFO
    • BRMs
    • VPs

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

    INPUT

    • Key decision maker roles

    OUTPUT

    • Targeted individuals to define and weigh value drivers

    Materials

    • N/A

    Participants

    • Owner of the value measurement framework

    Step 1.2: Define Value Drivers

    Phase 1

    1.1: Identify Value Authorities

    1.2: Define Value Drivers

    Phase 2

    2.1: Identify Product or Service SMEs

    2.2: Measure Value

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

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

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

    • A list of your defined and weighted value drivers

    Value is based on business needs and vision

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

    Purpose & Mission

    Past Achievement & Current State

    Vision & Future State

    Culture & Leadership

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

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

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

    Mission

    Vision

    Business Value

    Why does the company exist?

    • Specify the company’s purpose, or reason for being, and use it to guide each day’s activities and decisions.

    What does the organization see itself becoming?

    • Identify the desired future state of the organization. The vision articulates the role the organization strives to play and the way it wants to be perceived by the customer.
    • State the ends, rather than the means, to get to the future state.

    What critical factors fulfill the mission and vision?

    • Articulate the important capabilities the business should have in order to achieve its objectives. All business activities must enable business value.
    • Communicate the means to achieve the mission and vision.

    Understand the many types of value your products or services produce

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

    A business value matrix is shown. It shows the relationship between reading customers, increase revenue, reduce costs, and enhance services.

    Financial Benefits vs. Improved Capabilities

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

    Inward vs. Outward Orientation

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

    Increase Revenue

    Reduce Costs

    Enhance Services

    Reach Customers

    Product or service functions that are specifically related to the impact on your organization’s ability to generate revenue.

    Reduction of overhead. They typically are less related to broad strategic vision or goals and more simply limit expenses that would occur had the product or service not been put in place.

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

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

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

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

    Value Drivers

    Increase Revenue

    Reduce Costs

    Enhance Services

    Reach Customers

    • Revenue growth
    • Data monetization
    • Cost optimization
    • Labor reduction
    • Collaboration
    • Risk and compliance
    • Customer experience
    • Trust and reputation

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

    Understand value drivers that enable revenue growth

    Direct Revenue

    This value driver is the ability of a product or service to directly produce revenue through core revenue streams.

    Can be derived from:

    • Creating revenue
    • Improving the revenue generation of an existing service
    • Preventing the loss of a revenue stream

    Be aware of the differences between your products and services that enable a revenue source and those that facilitate the flow of capital.

    Funding

    This value driver is the ability of a product or service to enable other types of funding unrelated to core revenue streams.

    Can be derived from:

    • Tax revenue
    • Fees, fines, and ticketing programs
    • Participating in government subsidy or grant programs

    Be aware of the difference between your products and services that enable a revenue source and those that facilitate the flow of capital.

    Scale & Growth

    In essence, this driver can be viewed as the potential for growth in market share or new developing revenue sources.

    Does the product or service:

    • Increase your market share
    • Help you maintain your market share

    Be cautious of which items you identify here, as many innovative activities may have some potential to generate future revenue. Stick to those with a strong connection to future revenue and don’t qualify for other value driver categories.

    Monetization of Assets

    This value driver is the ability of your products and services to generate additional assets.

    Can be derived from:

    • Sale of data
    • Sale of market or customer reports or analysis
    • Sale of IP

    This value source is often overlooked. If given the right attention, it can lead to a big win for IT’s role in the business.

    Understand value drivers that reduce costs

    Cost Reduction

    A cost reduction is a “hard” cost saving that is reflected as a tangible decrease to the bottom line.

    This can be derived from reduction of expenses such as:

    • Salaries and wages
    • Hardware/software maintenance
    • Infrastructure

    Cost reduction plays a critical role in an application’s ability to increase efficiency.

    Cost Avoidance

    A cost avoidance is a “soft” cost saving, typically achieved by preventing a cost from occurring in the first place (i.e. risk mitigation). Cost avoidance indirectly impacts the bottom line.

    This can be derived from prevention of expenses by:

    • Mitigating a business outage
    • Mitigating another risk event
    • Delaying a price increase

    Understand the value drivers that enhance your services

    Enable Core Operations

    Some applications are in place to facilitate and support the structure of the organization. These vary depending on the capabilities of your organization but should be assessed in relation to the organization’s culture and structure.

    • Enables a foundational capability
    • Enables a niche capability

    This example is intentionally broad, as “core operations” should be further dissected to define different capabilities with ranging priority.

    Compliance

    A product or service may be required in order to meet a regulatory requirement. In these cases, you need to be aware of the organizational risk of NOT implementing or maintaining a service in relation to those risks.

    In this case, the product or service is required in order to:

    • Prevent fines
    • Allow the organization to operate within a specific jurisdiction
    • Remediate audit gaps
    • Provide information required to validate compliance

    Internal Improvement

    An application’s ability to create value outside of its core operations and facilitate the transfer of information, insights, and knowledge.

    Value can be derived by:

    • Data analytics
    • Collaboration
    • Knowledge transfer
    • Organizational learning

    Innovation

    Innovation is typically an ill-defined value driver, as it refers to the ability of your products and services to explore new value streams.

    Consider:

    • Exploration into new markets and products
    • New methods of organizing resources and processes

    Innovation is one of the more divisive value drivers, as some organizations will strive to be cutting edge and others will want no part in taking such risks.

    Understand business value drivers that connect the business to your customers

    Policy

    Products and services can also be assessed in relation to whether they enable and support policies of the organization. Policies identify and reinforce required processes, organizational culture, and core values.

    Policy value can be derived from:

    • The service or initiative will produce outcomes in line with our core organizational values.
    • Products that enable sustainability and corporate social responsibility

    Experience

    Applications are often designed to improve the interaction between customer and product. This value type is most closely linked to product quality and user experience. Customers, in this sense, can also include any stakeholders who consume core offerings.

    Customer experience value can be derived from:

    • Improving customer satisfaction
    • Ease of use
    • Resolving a customer issue or identified pain point
    • Providing a competitive advantage for your customers

    Customer Information

    Understanding demand and customer trends is a core driver for all organizations. Data provided through understanding the ways, times, and reasons that consumers use your services is a key driver for growth and stability.

    Customer information value can be achieved when an app:

    • Addresses strategic opportunities or threats identified through analyzing trends
    • Prevents failures due to lack of capacity to meet demand
    • Connects resources to external sources to enable learning and growth within the organization

    Trust & Reputation

    Products and services are designed to enable goals of digital ethics and are highly linked to your organization’s brand strategy.

    Trust and reputation can also be described as:

    • Customer loyalty and sustainability
    • Customer privacy and digital ethics

    Prioritizing this value source is critical, as traditional priorities can often come at the expense of trust and reputation.

    Define your value drivers

    1.2 Estimated Time: 1.5 hours

    The objective of this exercise is to establish a common understanding of the different values of the organization.

    1. Place your business value authorities at the center of this exercise.
    2. Collect all the documents your organization has on the mission and vision, strategy, governance, and target state, which may be defined by enterprise architecture.
    3. Identify the company mission and vision. Simply transfer the information from the mission and vision document into the appropriate spaces in the business value statement.
    4. Determine the organization’s business value drivers. Use the mission and vision, as well as the information from the collected documents, to formulate your own idea of business values.
    5. Use value driver template on the next slide to define the value driver, including:
    • Value Driver Name
    • Description
    • Related Business Capabilities – If available, review business architecture materials, such as business capability maps.
    • Established KPI and Targets – If available, include any organization-wide established KPIs related to your value driver. These KPIs will likely be used or influence the metrics eventually assigned to your applications.

    INPUT

    • Mission, vision, value statements

    OUTPUT

    • List and description of value drivers

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • Business value authorities
    • Owner of value measurement framework

    Example Value Driver

    Value Driver Name

    Reach Customers

    Value Driver Description

    Our organization’s ability to provide quality products and experience to our core customers

    Value Driver Weight

    10/10

    Related Business Capabilities

    • Customer Services
    • Marketing
      • Customer Segmentation
      • Customer Journey Mapping
    • Product Delivery
      • User Experience Design
      • User Acceptance Testing

    Key Business Outcomes, KPIs, and Targets

    • Improved Customer Satisfaction
      • Net Promotor Score: 80%
    • Improved Loyalty
      • Repeat Sales: 30%
      • Customer Retention: 25%
      • Customer Lifetime Value: $2,500
    • Improved Interaction
      • Repeat Visits: 50%
      • Account Conversation Rates: 40%

    Weigh your value drivers

    1.3 Estimated Time: 30 minutes

    The objective of this exercise is to prioritize your value drivers based on their relative importance to the business.

    1. Again, place the business value authorities at the center of this exercise.
    2. In order to determine priority, divide 100% among your value drivers, allocating a percentage to each based on its relative importance to the organization.
    3. Normalize those percentages on to a scale of 1 to 10, which will act as the weights for your value drivers.

    INPUT

    • Mission, vision, value statements

    OUTPUT

    • Weights for value drivers

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • Business value authorities
    • Owner of value measurement framework

    Weigh your value drivers

    1.3 Estimated Time: 30 minutes

    Value Driver

    Percentage Allocation

    1 to 10 Weight

    Revenue and other funding

    24%

    9

    Cost reduction

    8%

    3

    Compliance

    5%

    2

    Customer value

    30%

    10

    Operations

    13%

    7

    Innovation

    5%

    2

    Sustainability and social responsibility

    2%

    1

    Internal learning and development

    3%

    1

    Future growth

    10%

    5

    Total

    100%

    Carry results over to the Value Calculator

    1.3

    Document results of this activity in the “Value Drivers” tab of the Value Calculator.

    A screenshot of Info-Tech's Value Calculator is shown.

    List your value drivers.

    Define or describe your value drivers.

    Use this tool to create a repository for value sources to reuse and maintain consistency across your measurements.

    Enter the weight of each value driver in terms of importance to the organization.

    Phase 2

    Measure Value

    Step 2.1: Identify Product or Service SMEs

    Phase 1

    1.1: Identify Value Authorities

    1.2: Define Value Drivers

    Phase 2

    2.1: Identify Product or Service SMEs

    2.2: Measure Value

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify your product or service SMEs.
    • List your product or services items and components.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Owners of your value measurement framework
    • Product or service SMEs

    Outcomes of this step

    • Your list of targeted individuals to include in Step 2.2

    Identify the products and services you are evaluating and break down their various components for the VMF

    In order to get a full evaluation of a product or service you need to understand its multiple facets, functions, features capabilities, requirements, or any language you use to describe its various components.

    An image of the value measure framework is shown.

    Decompose a product or service:

    • Get the right subject matter experts in place who know the business and technical aspects of the product or service.
    • Decompose the product or service to capture all necessary components.

    Before beginning, consider how your use case will impact your value measurement approach

    This table looks at how the different use cases of the VMF call for variations of this analysis, is directed at different roles, and relies on participation from different subject matter experts to provide business context.

    Use Case (uses of the VMF applied in this blueprint)

    Value (current vs. future value)

    Item (the singular entity you are producing a value score for)

    Components (the various facets of that entity that need to be considered)

    Scope (# of systems undergoing analysis)

    Evaluator (typical role responsible for applying the VMF)

    Cadence (when and why do you apply the VMF)

    Information Sources (what documents, tools, etc., do you need to leverage)

    SMEs (who needs to participate to define and measure value)

    1. Prioritize Your Product Backlog

    You are estimating future value of proposed changes to an application.

    Product backlog items (epic, feature, etc.) in your product backlog

    • Features
    • User stories
    • Enablers

    A product

    Product owner

    Continuously apply the VMF to prioritize new and changing product backlog items.

    • Epic hypothesis, documentation
    • Lean business case

    Product manager

    ????

    2. Prioritize Your Project Backlog

    Proposed projects in your project backlog

    • Benefits
    • Outcomes
    • Requirements

    Multiple existing and/or new applications

    Project portfolio manager

    Apply the VMF during your project intake process as new projects are proposed.

    • Completed project request forms
    • Completed business case forms
    • Project charters
    • Business requirements documents

    Project manager

    Product owners

    Business analysts

    3. Application Rationalization

    You are measuring current value of existing applications and their features.

    An application in your portfolio

    The uses of the application (features, function, capabilities)

    A subset of applications or the full portfolio

    Application portfolio manager

    During an application rationalization initiative:

    • Iteratively collect information and perform value measurements.
    • Structure your iterations based on functional areas to target the specific SMEs who can speak to a particular subset of applications.
    • Business capability maps

    Business process owners

    Business unit representatives

    Business architects

    Application architects

    Application SMEs

    4. Application Categorization

    The full portfolio

    Application maintenance or operations manager

    • SLAs
    • Business capability maps

    Identify your product or service SMEs

    2.1 Estimated Time: 15 minutes

    The objective of this exercise is to identify specific business stakeholders who can speak to the business outcomes of your applications at a functional level.

    1. Review your related materials that reference the stakeholders for the scoped products and services (i.e. capability maps, org charts, stakeholder maps).
    2. Identify your specific business stakeholders and application SMEs. These individuals represent the business at a functional level and are in tune with the business outcomes of their operations and the applications that support their operations.
      1. Use Case 1 – Product Owner, Product Manager
      2. Use Case 2 – Project Portfolio Manager, Project Manager, Product Owners, Business Process Owners, Appropriate Business Unit Representatives
      3. Use Case 3 – Application Portfolio Manager, Product Owners, Business Analysts, Application SMEs, Business Process Owners, Appropriate Business Unit Representatives
      4. Use Case 4 – Application Maintenance Manager, Operations Managers, Application Portfolio Manager, Product Owners, Application SMEs, Business Process Owners, Appropriate Business Unit Representatives

    INPUT

    • Specific product or service knowledge

    OUTPUT

    • Targeted individuals to measure specific products or services

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • Owner of value measurement framework

    Use Case 1: Collect and review all of the product backlog items

    Prioritizing your product backlog (epics, features, etc.) requires a consistent method of measuring the value of your product backlog items (PBIs) to continuously compare their value relative to one another. This should be treated as an ongoing initiative as new items are added and existing items change, but an initial introduction of the VMF will require you to collect and analyze all of the items in your backlog.

    Regardless of producing a value score for an epic, feature, or user story, your focus should be on identifying their various value sources. Review your product’s artifact documentation, toolsets, or other information sources to extract the business outcomes, impact, benefits, KPIs, or any other description of a value source.

    High

    Epics

    Carefully valuated with input from multiple stakeholders, using metrics and consistent scoring

    Level of valuation effort per PBI

    User Stories

    Collaboratively valuated by the product owner and teams based on alignment and traceability to corresponding epic or feature

    Low

    Raw Ideas

    Intuitively valuated by the product owner based on alignment to product vision and organization value drivers

    What’s in your backlog?

    You may need to create standards for defining and measuring your different PBIs. Traceability can be critical here, as defined business outcomes for features or user stories may be documented at an epic level.

    Additional Research

    Build a Better Backlog helps you define and organize your product backlog items.

    Use Case 2: Review the scope and requirements of the project to determine all of the business outcomes

    Depending on where your project is in your intake process, there should be some degree of stated business outcomes or benefits. This may be a less refined description in the form of a project request or business case document, or it could be more defined in a project charter, business requirements document/toolset, or work breakdown structure (WBS). Regardless of the information source, to make proper use of the VMF you need a clear understanding of the various business outcomes to establish the new or improved value sources for the proposed project.

    Project

    User Requirements

    Business Requirements

    System Requirements

    1

    1

    1

    2

    2

    2

    3

    3

    4

    Set Metrics Early

    Good project intake documentation begins the discussion of KPIs early on. This alerts teams to the intended value and gives your PMO the ability to integrate it into the workload of other proposed or approved projects.

    Additional Research

    Optimize Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization provides templates to define proposed project benefits and outcomes.

    Use Cases 3 & 4: Ensure you’ve listed all of each application’s uses (functions, features, capabilities, etc.) and user groups

    An application can enable multiple capabilities, perform a variety of functions, and have a range of different user groups. Therefore, a single application can produce multiple value sources, which range in type, impact, and significance to the business’ overarching priorities. In order to effectively measure the overall value of an application you need to determine all of the ways in which that application is used and apply a business-downward view of your applications.

    Business Capability

    • Sub-capability
    • Process
    • Task

    Application

    • Module
    • Feature
    • Function

    Aim for Business Use

    Simply listing the business capabilities of an app can be too high level. Regardless of your organization’s terminology, you need to establish all of the different uses and users of an application to properly measure all of the facets of its value.

    Additional Research

    Discover Your Applications helps you identify and define the business use and features of your applications.

    List your product or services items and components

    2.2 Estimated Time: 15 minutes

    The objective of this exercise is to produce a list of the different items that you are scoring and ensure you have considered all relevant components.

    1. List each item you intend to produce a value score for:
      1. Use Case 1 – This may be the epics in your product backlog.
      2. Use Case 2 – This may be the projects in your project backlog.
      3. Use Cases 3 & 4 – This may be the applications in your portfolio. For this approach Info-Tech strongly recommends iteratively assessing the portfolio to produce a list of a subset of applications.
    2. For each item list its various components:
      1. Use Case 1 – This may be the features or user stories of an epic.
      2. Use Case 2 – This may be the business requirements of a project.
      3. Use Cases 3 & 4 – This may be the modules, features, functions, capabilities, or subsystems of an application.

    Item

    Components

    Add Customer Portal (Epic)

    User story #1: As a sales team member I need to process customer info.

    User story #2: As a customer I want access to…

    Transition to the Cloud (Project)

    Requirement #1: Build Checkout Cart

    NFR – Build integration with data store

    CRM (Application)

    Order Processing (module), Returns & Claims (module), Analytics & Reporting (Feature)

    INPUT

    • Product or service knowledge

    OUTPUT

    • Detailed list of items and components

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • Owner of value measurement framework
    • Product or service SMEs

    Use Cases 3 & 4: Create a functional view of your applications (optional)

    2.3 Estimated Time: 1 hour

    The objective of this exercise is to establish the different use cases of an application.

    1. Recall the functional requirements and business capabilities for your applications.
    2. List the various actors who will be interacting with your applications and list the consumers who will be receiving the information from the applications.
    3. Based on your functional requirements, list the use cases that the actors will perform to deliver the necessary information to consumers. Each use case serves as a core function of the application. See the diagram below for an example.
    4. Sometimes several use cases are completed before information is sent to consumers. Use arrows to demonstrate the flow of information from one use case to another.

    Example: Ordering Products Online

    Actors

    Order Customer

    Order Online

    Search Products

    Consumers

    Submit Delivery Information

    Order Customer

    Pay Order

    Bank

    INPUT

    • Product or service knowledge

    OUTPUT

    • Product or service function

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • Application architect
    • Enterprise architect
    • Business and IT stakeholders
    • Business analyst
    • Development teams

    Use Cases 3 & 4: Create a functional view of your applications (optional) (cont’d.)

    2.3 Estimated Time: 1 hour

    5. Align your application’s use cases to the appropriate business capabilities and stakeholder objectives.

    Example:

    Stakeholder Objective: Automate Client Creation Processes

    Business Capability: Account Management

    Function: Create Client Profile

    Function: Search Client Profiles

    Business Capability: Sales Transaction Management

    Function: Order Online

    Function: Search Products Function: Search Products

    Function: Submit Delivery Information

    Function: Pay Order

    Step 2.2: Measure Value

    Phase 1

    1.1: Identify Value Authorities

    1.2: Define Value Drivers

    Phase 2

    2.1: Identify Product or Service SMEs

    2.2: Measure Value

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify your value sources.
    • Align to a value driver.
    • Assign metrics and gauge value fulfillment.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Owners of your value measurement framework
    • Product or service SMEs

    Outcomes of this step

    • An initial list of reusable value sources and metrics
    • Value scores for your products or services

    Use your VMF and a repeatable process to produce value scores for all of your items

    With your products or services broken down, you can then determine a list of value sources, as well as their alignment to a value driver and a gauge of their value fulfillment, which in turn indicate the importance and impact of a value source respectively.

    A image of the value measure framework is shown.

    Lastly, we produce a value score for all items:

    • Determine business outcomes and value sources.
    • Align to the appropriate value driver.
    • Use metrics as the gauge of value fulfillment.
    • Collect your score.
    • Repeat.

    The business outcome is the impact the product or service has on the intended business activity

    Business outcomes are the business-oriented results produced by organization’s capabilities and the applications that support those capabilities. The value source is, in essence, “How does the application impact the outcome?” and this can be either qualitative or quantitative.

    Quantitative

    Qualitative

    Key Words

    Examples

    Key Words

    Examples

    Faster, cheaper

    Deliver faster

    Better

    Better user experience

    More, less

    More registrations per week

    Private

    Enhanced privacy

    Increase, decrease

    Decrease clerical errors

    Easier

    Easier to input data

    Can, cannot

    Can access their own records

    Improved

    Improved screen flow

    Do not have to

    Do not have to print form

    Enjoyable

    Enjoyable user experience

    Compliant

    Complies with regulation 12

    Transparent

    Transparent progress

    Consistent

    Standardized information gathered

    Richer

    Richer data availability

    Adapted from Agile Coach Journal.

    Measure value – Identify your value sources

    2.4 Estimated Time: 30 minutes

    The objective of this exercise is to establish the different value sources of a product or service.

    1. List the items you are producing an overall balance value score for. These can be products, services, projects, applications, product backlog items, epics, etc.
    2. For each item, list its various business outcomes in the form of a description that includes:
      1. The item being measured
      2. Business capability or activity
      3. How the item impacts said capability or activity

    Consider applying the user story format for future value sources or a variation for current value sources.

    As a (user), I want to (activity) so that I get (impact)

    INPUT

    • Product or service knowledge
    • Business process knowledge

    OUTPUT

    • List of value sources

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • Owner of value measurement framework
    • Product or service SMEs

    Measure value – Align to a value driver

    2.5 Estimated Time: 30 minutes

    The objective of this exercise is to determine the value driver for each value source.

    1. Align each value source to a value driver. Choose between options A and B.
      1. Using a whiteboard, draw out a 2 x 2 business value matrix or an adapted version based on your own organizational value drivers. Place each value source in the appropriate quadrant.
        1. Increase Revenue
        2. Reduce Costs
        3. Enhance Services
        4. Reach Customers
      2. Using a whiteboard or large sticky pads, create a section for each value driver. Place each value source with the appropriate value driver.

    INPUT

    • Product or service knowledge
    • Business process knowledge

    OUTPUT

    • Value driver weight

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • Owner of value measurement framework
    • Product or service SMEs

    Brainstorm the different sources of business value (cont’d.)

    2.5

    Example:

    An example of activity 2.5 is shown.

    Carry results over to the Value Calculator

    2.5

    Document results of this activity in the Value Calculator in the Item {#} tab.

    A screenshot of the Value Calculator is shown.

    List your Value Sources

    Your Value Driver weights will auto-populate

    Aim, but do not reach, for SMART metrics

    Creating meaningful metrics

    S pecific

    M easureable

    A chievable

    R ealisitic

    T ime-based

    Follow the SMART framework when adding metrics to the VMF.

    The intention of SMART goals and metrics is to make sure you have chosen a gauge that will:

    • Reflect the actual business outcome or value source you are measuring.
    • Ensure all relevant stakeholders understand the goals or value you are driving towards.
    • Ensure you actually have the means to capture the performance.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Metrics are NOT a magical solution. They should be treated as a tool in your toolbox and are sometimes no more than a rough gauge of performance. Carefully assign metrics to your products and services and do not disregard the informed subjective perspective when SMART metrics are unavailable.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    One last critical consideration here is the degree of effort required to collect the metric compared to the value of the analysis you are performing. Assessing whether or not to invest in a project should apply the rigor of carefully selecting and measuring value. However, performing a rationalization of the full app portfolio will likely lead to analysis paralysis. Taking an informed subjective perspective may be the better route.

    Measure value – Assign metrics and gauge value fulfillment

    2.6 30-60 minutes

    The objective of this exercise is to determine an appropriate metric for each value source.

    1. For each value source assign a metric that will be the unit of measurement to gauge the value fulfilment of the application.
    2. Review the product or services performance with the metric
      1. Use case 1&2 (Proposed Applications and/or Features) - You will need to estimate the degree of impact the product or services will have on your selected metric.
      2. Use case 3&4 (Existing Applications and/or Features) – You can review historically how the product or service has performed with your selected metric
    3. Determine a value fulfillment on a scale of 1 – 10.
    4. 10 = The product or service far exceeds expectations and targets on the metric.

      5 = the product or service meets expectations on this metric.

      1 = the product or service underperforms on this metric.

    INPUT

    • Product or service knowledge
    • Business process knowledge

    OUTPUT

    • Value driver weight

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • Owner of value measurement framework
    • Product or service SMEs

    Carry results over to the Value Calculator

    2.6

    Document results of this activity in the Value Calculator in the Item {#} tab.

    A screenshot of Info-Tech's Value Calculator is shown.

    Assign Metrics.

    Consider using current or estimated performance and targets.

    Assess the impact on the value source with the value fulfillment.

    Collect your Overall Balanced Value Score

    Appendix

    Bibliography

    Brown, Alex. “Calculating Business Value.” Agile 2014 Orlando – July 13, 2014. Scrum Inc. 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2017.

    Brown, Roger. “Defining Business Value.” Scrum Gathering San Diego 2017. Agile Coach Journal. Web.

    Curtis, Bill. “The Business Value of Application Internal Quality.” CAST. 6 April 2009. Web. 20 Nov. 2017.

    Fleet, Neville, Joan Lasselle, and Paul Zimmerman. “Using a Balance Scorecard to Measure the Productivity and Value of Technical Documentation Organizations.” CIDM. April 2008. Web. 20 Nov. 2017.

    Harris, Michael. “Measuring the Business Value of IT.” David Consulting Group. 20 Nov. 2017.

    Intrafocus. “What is a Balanced Scorecard?” Intrafocus. Web. 20 Nov. 2017

    Kerzner, Harold. Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. 12th ed., Wiley, 2017.

    Lankhorst, Marc., et al. “Architecture-Based IT Valuation.” Via Nova Architectura. 31 March 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2017.

    Rachlin, Sue, and John Marshall. “Value Measuring Methodology.” Federal CIO Council, Best Practices Committee. October 2002. Web. April 2019.

    Thiagarajan, Srinivasan. “Bridging the Gap: Enabling IT to Deliver Better Business Outcomes.” Cognizant. July 2017. Web. April 2019.

    Streamline Application Management

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}403|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.5/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $64,272 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 40 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Maintenance
    • Parent Category Link: /maintenance
    • Today’s rapidly scaling and increasingly complex products create mounting pressure on delivery teams to release new features and changes quickly and with sufficient quality.
    • Many organizations lack the critical management capabilities to balance maintenance with new development and ensure high product value.
    • Application management is often viewed as a support function rather than an enabler of business growth. Focus and investments are only placed on management when it becomes a problem.
    • The lack of governance and practice accountability leaves application management in a chaotic state: politics take over, resources are not strategically allocated, and customers are frustrated.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • New features, fixes, and enhancements are all treated the same and managed in a single backlog. Teams need to focus on prioritizing their efforts on what is valuable to the organization, not to a single department.
    • Business integration is not optional. The business (i.e. product owners) must be represented in guiding delivery efforts and performing ongoing validation and verification of new features and changes.

    Impact and Result

    • Justify the necessity to optimize application management. Gain a grounded understanding of stakeholder objectives and validate their achievability against the current maturity of application management.
    • Strengthen backlog management practices. Obtain a holistic picture of the business and technical impacts, risks, value, complexity, and urgency of each backlog item in order to justify its priority and relevance. Apply the appropriate management approach to each software product according to its criticality and value to the business.
    • Establish and govern a repeatable process. Develop a management process with well-defined steps, quality controls, and roles and responsibilities, and instill good practices to improve the success of delivery.

    Streamline Application Management Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should sustain your application management practice, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Define your priorities

    State the success criteria of your application management practice through defined objectives and metrics. Assess your maturity.

    • Streamline Application Management – Phase 1: Define Your Priorities
    • Application Management Strategy Template
    • Application Management Maturity Assessment Tool

    2. Govern application management

    Structure your application management governance model with the right process and roles. Inject product ownership into your practice.

    • Streamline Application Management – Phase 2: Govern Application Management

    3. Build your optimization roadmap

    Build your application management optimization roadmap to achieve your target state.

    • Streamline Application Management – Phase 3: Build Your Optimization Roadmap
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Streamline Application Management

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

    1 Define Your Priorities

    The Purpose

    State the success criteria of your application management practice through defined objectives and metrics.

    Assess your maturity.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Grounded stakeholder expectations

    Application management maturity and identification of optimization opportunities

    Activities

    1.1 Set your objectives.

    1.2 Assess your maturity.

    Outputs

    Application management objectives and metrics

    Application management maturity and optimization opportunities

    2 Govern Application Management

    The Purpose

    Structure your application management governance model with the right process and roles.

    Inject product ownership into your practice.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Management approach aligned to product value and criticality

    Management techniques to govern the product backlog

    Target-state application management process and roles

    Activities

    2.1 Select your management approach.

    2.2 Manage your single product backlog.

    2.3 Optimize your management process.

    2.4 Define your management roles.

    Outputs

    Application management approach for each application

    Product backlog management practices

    Application management process

    Application management roles and responsibilities and communication flow

    3 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Build your application management optimization roadmap to achieve your target state.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Optimization opportunities

    Application management optimization roadmap

    Activities

    3.1 Build your optimization roadmap.

    Outputs

    Application management optimization roadmap

    Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}493|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
    • In organizations where technical support is viewed as non-strategic, many see outsourcing as a cost-effective way to provide this support. However, outsourced projects often fall short of their goals in terms of cost savings and the quality of support. 
    • Significant administrative work and up-front costs are required to outsource the service desk, and poor planning often results in project failure and a decrease of end-user satisfaction.
    • A complete turnover of the service desk can result in lost knowledge and control over processes, and organizations without an exit strategy can struggle to bring their service desk back in house and return the confidence of end users.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

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

    Impact and Result

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

    Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk Research & Tools

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

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

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

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

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

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

    • Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter Template

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

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

    • Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

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

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

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

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk

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

    Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk

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

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Outsource services with your eyes wide open.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

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

    Common Obstacles

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

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

    Info-Tech's Approach

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Your challenge

    This research is designed to help organizations that need to:

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

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

    Source: HDI 2017

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Your challenge

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Common obstacles

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

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

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

    Common Reasons:

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

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

    Key components of a successful plan:

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Determine Goals

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

    Define Requirements

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

    Develop RFP

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

    Build Long-Term Relationship

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

    Info-Tech's methodology

    1. Define the Goal

    2. Design an Outsourcing Strategy

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

    Phase Steps

    1.1 Identify goals and objectives

    1.2 Assess outsourcing feasibility

    2.1 Identify project stakeholders

    2.2 Outline potential risks and constraints

    3.1 Prepare service overview and responsibility matrix

    3.2 Define approach to vendor relationship management

    3.3 Manage the outsource relationship

    Phase Outcomes

    Service Desk Outsourcing Vision and Goals

    Service Desk Processes to Outsource

    Outsourcing Roles and Responsibilities

    Outsourcing Risks and Constraints

    Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter

    Service Desk Outsourcing RFP

    Continual Improvement Plan

    Exit Strategy

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

    Insight summary

    Focus on value

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

    Define outsourcing requirements

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

    Don't focus on cost

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

    Emphasize on customer service

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

    Vendors are not magicians

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

    Plan ahead to guarantee success

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

    Blueprint deliverables

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

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

    Service Desk Outsourcing Requirements Database Library

    Use this library to guide you through processes to outsource

    This is a screenshot from the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

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

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

    Service Desk Outsourcing Reference Interview Template

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

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

    Service Desk Outsourcing Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    Use this tool to evaluate RFP submissions

    Key deliverable:

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

    Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter

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

    Blueprint benefits

    IT Benefits

    Business Benefits

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

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3

    Call #1: Scope your specific challenges and objectives

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

    Call #5: Create a detailed RFP

    Call #6: Identify strategy risks.

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

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

    Call #8: Build a communication plan

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

    A typical GI is between 8 to 10 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

    Phase 1

    Define the goal

    Define the goal

    Design an outsourcing strategy

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    1.1 Identify goals and objectives

    1.2 Assess outsourcing feasibility

    2.1 Identify project stakeholders

    2.2 Outline potential risks and constraints

    3.1 Prepare a service overview and responsibility matrix

    3.2 Define your approach to vendor relationship management

    3.3 Manage the outsource relationship

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

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

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Service Desk Team
    • IT Leadership

    Define requirements for outsourcing service desk support

    Step 1.1

    Identify goals and objectives

    Activities

    1.1.1 Find out why you want to outsource your service desk

    1.1.2 Document the benefits of outsourcing your service desk

    1.1.3 Identify your outsourcing vision and goals

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

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

    Define the goal

    This step requires the following inputs:

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

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

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

    What is your rationale to outsource the service desk?

    Potential benefits of outsourcing the service desk:

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

    1.1.1 Find out why you want to outsource your service desk

    1 hour

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

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

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

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

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

    1.1.2 Document benefits of outsourcing your service desk

    1 hour

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

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Input

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

    Output

    • Benefits of outsourcing the service desk

    Materials

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

    Participants

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Consider the hidden costs of outsourcing

    Expected Costs

    Unexpected Costs

    Example

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

    Determine strategies to avoid each hidden cost

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

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

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

    Fee-related costs

    Fees for additional services (that you thought were included)

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

    Management-related costs

    Direct management of vendor staff and dispute resolution

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

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

    Rework costs

    Unanticipated requirements and integration with existing systems

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

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

    Your outsourcing strategy should address the reasons you decided to outsource

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

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

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

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

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

    1.1.3 Identify outsourcing vision and goals

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

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

    1-2 hours

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

    Use the sample table as a starting point:

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

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Evaluate organizational demographics to assess outsourcing rationale

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

    Organization Size

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

    Complexity

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

    Requirements

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    1.1.4 Prioritize service desk outsourcing goals to help structure mission statement

    0.5-1 hour

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

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

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

    Input

    • Project goals from activity 1.1.3

    Output

    • Prioritized list of outsourcing goals

    Materials

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

    Participants

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

    Download the Project Charter Template

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

    Participants: IT Director, Service Desk Manager

    0.5-1 hour

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

    Strong IT mission statements:

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

    Sample mission statements:

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

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Step 1.2

    Assess outsourcing feasibility

    Activities

    1.2.1 Create a baseline of customer experience

    1.2.2 Identify service desk processes to outsource

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

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

    Define the goal

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • List of service desk tasks and responsibilities

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

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

    1.2.1 Create a baseline of customer experience

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    You should have minimal requirements before moving.

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Define long-term requirements

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    You can't outsource everything

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

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

    What can be the vendor in charge of?

    What stays in-house?

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Assess current service desk processes before outsourcing

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

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

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Cleaning Supplies

    SOURCE: PicNet

    Challenge

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

    Solution

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

    Results

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

    1.2.1 Identify service desk processes to outsource

    2-3 hours

    Review your prioritized project goals from activity 1.1.4.

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

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

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

    Input

    • Outsourcing project goals from activity 1.1.4

    Output

    • List of processes to outsource

    Materials

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

    Participants

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

    Download the Requirements Database Library

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

    Participants: IT Director, Service Desk Manager, Infrastructure manager

    2-3 hours

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

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

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

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

    Download the Requirements Database Library

    Download the Project Charter Template

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

    Define documentation rules to retain knowledge

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

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

    Expect to manage stringent skills and training standards

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

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

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

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

    There are three layers of entities in SIAM:

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

    Use SIAM to obtain better results from multiple service providers

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

    This is an image of the SIAM model

    SIAM Layers. Source: SIAM Foundation BoK

    Utilize SIAM to obtain better results from multiple service providers

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

    To utilize the SIAM model, determine the following components:

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

    To learn more about adopting SIAM, visit Scopism.

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

    1-2 hours

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

    Input

    • SIAM objectives
    • List of service desk processes to outsource

    Output

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

    Materials

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

    Participants

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

    Download the Requirements Database Library

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Establish requirements for problem management in the outsourcing plan

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

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

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

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

    PROBLEM MANAGEMENT

    INCIDENT MANAGEMENT

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

    EVENT MANAGEMENT

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

    APPLICATION, INFRASTRUCTURE, and SECURITY TEAMS

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

    CHANGE MANAGEMENT

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

    Outline problem management protocols to gain value from your service provider

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

    Sample Scenario

    Your MSP tracks ticket volume by platform.

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

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

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

    Outcomes:

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

    Phase 2

    Design an Outsourcing Strategy

    Define the goal

    Design an outsourcing strategy

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    1.1 Identify goals and objectives

    1.2 Assess outsourcing feasibility

    2.1 Identify project stakeholders

    2.2 Outline potential risks and constraints

    3.1 Prepare a service overview and responsibility matrix

    3.2 Define your approach to vendor relationship management

    3.3 Manage the outsource relationship

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

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

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Service Desk Team
    • IT Leadership

    Define requirements for outsourcing service desk support

    Step 2.1

    Identify project stakeholders

    Activity

    2.1.1 Identify internal outsourcing roles and responsibilities

    Design an Outsourcing Strategy

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • List of service desk roles
    • Service desk outsourcing goals

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Managers
    • Project Team
    • Service Desk Manager

    Outcome of this step

    • Outsourcing roles and responsibilities

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

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

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

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

    A successful outsourcing initiative depends on rigorous preparation

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

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

    "You should fill the gap before outsourcing. You should make sure how to measure tickets, how to categorize, and what the cost of outsourcing will be. Then you'll be able to outsource the execution of the service. Start your own processes and then outsource their execution."
    – Kris Krishan, Head of IT and business systems, Waymo

    Case Study

    Digital media company built an outsourcing strategy to improve customer satisfaction

    INDUSTRY: Digital Media

    SOURCE: Auxis

    Challenge

    A Canadian multi-business company with over 13,000 employees would like to maintain a growing volume of digital content with their endpoint management.

    The client operated a tiered model service desk. Tier 1 was outsourced, and tier 2 tasks were done internally, for more complex tasks and projects.

    As a result of poor planning and defining goals, the company had issues with:

    • Low-quality ticket handling
    • High volume of tickets escalated to tier 2, restraining them from working on complex tickets
    • High turn over and a challenge with talent retention
    • Insufficient documentation to train external tier 1 team
    • Long resolution time and low end-user satisfaction

    Solution

    The company structured a strategy for outsourcing service desk and defined their expectations and requirements.

    They engaged with another outsourcer that would fulfill their requirements as planned.

    With the help of the outsourcer's consulting team, the client was able to define the gaps in their existing processes and system to:

    • Implement a better ticketing system that could follow best-practices guidelines
    • Restructure the team so they would be able to handle processes efficiently

    Results

    The proactive planning led to:

    • Significant improvement in first call resolution (82%).
    • MTTR improvement freed tier 2 to focus on business strategic objectives and allowed them to work on higher-value activities.
    • With a better strategy around outsourcing planning, the company saved 20% of cost compared to the previous outsourcer.
    • As a result of this partnership, the company is providing a 24/7 structure in multiple languages, which is aligned with the company's growth.
    • Due to having a clear strategy built for the project, the client now has better visibility into metrics that support long-term continual improvement plans.

    Define roles and responsibilities for the outsourcing transition to form the base of your outsourcing strategy

    There is no "I" in outsource; make sure the whole team is involved

    Outsourcing is a complete top-to-bottom process that involves multiple levels of engagement:

    • Management must make high-level decisions about staffing and negotiate contract details with the vendor.
    • Service desk employees must execute on the documentation and standardization of processes in an effort to increase maturity.
    • Roles and responsibilities need to be clearly defined to ensure that all aspects of the transition are completed on time.
    • Implement a full-scale effort that involves all relevant staff. The most common mistake is to have the project design follow the same top-down pattern as the decision-making process.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The service desk doesn't operate in isolation. The service desk interfaces with many other parts of the organization (such as finance, purchasing, field support, etc.), so it's important to ensure you engage stakeholders from other departments as well. If you only engage the service desk staff in your discussions around outsourcing strategy and RFP development, you may miss requirements that will come up when it's too late.

    2.1.1 Identify internal outsourcing roles and responsibilities

    2 hours

    1. The sample RACI chart in section 5 of the Project Charter Template outlines which positions are responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed for each major task within the outsourcing project.
    2. Responsible, is the group that is responsible for the execution and oversight of activities for the project. Accountable is the owner of the task/process, who is accountable for the results and outcomes. Consulted is the subject matter expert (SME) who is actively involved in the task/process and consulted on decisions. Informed is not actively involved with the task/process and is updated about decisions around the task/process.
    3. Make sure that you assign only one person as accountable per process. There can be multiple people responsible for each task. Consulted and Informed are optional for each task.
    4. Complete the RACI chart with recommended participants, and document in your service desk outsourcing project charter, under section 5.

    Input

    • RACI template
    • Org chart

    Output

    • List of roles and responsibilities for outsource project

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers
    • Laptops

    Participants

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

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Step 2.2

    Outline potential risks and constraints

    Activities

    2.2.1 Identify potential risks and constraints that may impact achievement of objectives

    2.2.2 Arrange groups of tension metrics to balance your reporting

    Design an Outsourcing Strategy

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Outsourcing objectives
    • Potential risks

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Managers
    • Project Team
    • Service Desk Manager

    Outcomes of this step

    • Mitigation strategy for each risk
    • Service desk metrics

    Know your constraints to reduce surprises during project implementation

    No service desk is perfect; know your limits and plan accordingly

    Define your constraints to outsourcing the service desk.

    Consider all types of constraints and opportunities, including:

    • Business forces
    • Economic cycles
    • Disruptive tech
    • Regulation and compliance issues
    • Internal organizational issues

    Within the scope of a scouring decision, define your needs and objectives, measure those as much as possible, and compare them with the "as-is" situation.

    Start determining what alternative approaches/scenarios the organization could use to fill the gaps. Start a comparison of scenarios against drivers, goals, and risks.

    Constraints

    Goals and objectives

    • Budget
    • Maturity
    • Compliance
    • Regulations
    • Outsourcing Strategy

    Plan ahead for potential risks that may impede your strategy

    Risk assessment must go hand-in-hand with goal and objective planning

    Risk is inherent with any outsourcing project. Common outsourcing risks include:

    • Lack of commitment to the customer's goals from the vendor.
    • The distraction of managing the relationship with the vendor.
    • A perceived loss of control and a feeling of over-dependence on your vendor.
    • Managers may feel they have less influence on the development of strategy.
    • Retained staff may feel they have become less skilled in their specialist field.
    • Unanticipated expenses that were assumed to be offered by the vendor.
    • Savings only result from high capital investment in new projects on the part of the customer.

    Analyze the risks associated with a specific scenario. This analysis should identify and understand the most common sourcing and vendor risks using a risk-reward analysis for selected scenarios. Use tools and guidelines to assess and manage vendor risk and tailor risk evaluation criteria to the types of vendors and products.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Plan for the worst to prevent it from happening. Evaluating risk should cover a wide variety of scenarios including the worst possible cases. This type of thinking will be crucial when developing your exit strategy in a later exercise.

    2.2.1 Identify potential risks and constraints that may impact achievement of objectives

    1-3 hours

    1. Brainstorm any potential risks that may arise through the outsourcing project. Describe each risk and categorize both its probability of occurring and impact on the organization as high (H), medium (M), or low (L), using the table below:
    Risk Description

    Probability(H/M/L)

    Impact(H/M/L)Planned Mitigation
    Lack of documentationMMUse cloud-based solution to share documents.
    Knowledge transferLMDetailed knowledge-sharing agreement in place in the RFP.
    Processes not followedLHClear outline and definition of current processes.
    1. Identify any constraints for your outsourcing strategy that may restrict, limit, or place certain conditions on the outsourcing project.
      • This may include budget restrictions or staffing limitations.
      • Identifying constraints will help you be prepared for risks and will lessen their impact.
    2. Document risks and constraints in section 6 of the Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter Template.

    Input

    • RACI template
    • Org chart

    Output

    • List of roles and responsibilities for outsource project

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers

    Participants

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

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Define service tiers and roles to develop clear vendor SLAs

    Management of performance, SLAs, and customer satisfaction remain the responsibility of your organization.

    Define the tiers and/or services that will be the responsibility of the MSP, as well as escalations and workflows across tiers. A sample outsourced structure is displayed here:

    External Vendor

    Tickets beyond the scope of the service desk staff need to be escalated back to the vendor responsible for the affected system.

    Tier 3

    Tickets that are focused on custom applications and require specialized or advanced support are escalated back to your organization's second- and third-level support teams.

    Tier 2

    The vendor is often able to provide specialized support for standard applications. However, the desktop support still needs someone onsite as that service is very expensive to outsource.

    Tier 1

    Service desk outsource vendors provide first-line response. This includes answering the phones, troubleshooting simple problems, and redirecting requests that are more complex.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you outsource everything, you'll be at the mercy of consultancy or professional services shops later on. You won't have anyone in-house to help you deploy anything; you're at the mercy of a consultant to come in and tell you what to do and how much to spend. Keep your highly skilled people in-house to offset what you'd have to pay for consultancy. If you need to repatriate your service desk later on, you will need skills in-house to do so.

    Don't become obsessed with managing by short-term metrics – look at the big picture

    "Good" metric results may simply indicate proficient reactive fixing; long-term thinking involves implementing proactive, balanced solutions.

    KPIs demonstrate that you are running an effective service desk because:

    • You close an average of 300 tickets per week
    • Your first call resolution is above 90%
    • Your talk time is less than five minutes
    • Surveys reveal clients are satisfied

    While these results may appear great on the surface, metrics don't tell the whole story.

    The effort from any support team seeks to balance three elements:

    FCR: Time; Resources; Quality

    First-Contact Resolution (FCR) Rate

    Percentage of tickets resolved during first contact with user (e.g. before they hang up or within an hour of submitting ticket). Could be measured as first-contact, first-tier, or first-day resolution.

    End-User Satisfaction

    Perceived value of the service desk measured by a robust annual satisfaction survey of end users and/or transactional satisfaction surveys sent with a percentage of tickets.

    Ticket Volume and Cost Per Ticket

    Monthly operating expenses divided by average ticket volume per month. Report ticket volume by department or ticket category, and look at trends for context.

    Average Time to Resolve (incidents) or Fulfill (service requests)

    Time elapsed from when a ticket is "open" to "resolved." Distinguish between ticket resolution vs. closure, and measure time for incidents and service requests separately.

    Focus on tension metrics to achieve long-term success

    Tension metrics help create a balance by preventing teams from focusing on a single element.

    For example, an MSP built incentives around ticket volume for their staff, but not the quality of tickets. As a result, the MSP staff rushed through tickets and gamed the system while service quality suffered.

    Use metrics to establish baselines and benchmarking data:

    • If you know when spikes in ticket volumes occur, you can prepare to resource more appropriately for these time periods
    • Create KB articles to tackle recurring issues and assist tier 1 technicians and end users.
      • Employ a root cause analysis to eliminate recurring tickets.

    "We had an average talk time of 15 minutes per call and I wanted to ensure they could handle those calls in 15 minutes. But the behavior was opposite, [the vendor] would wrap up the call, transfer prematurely, or tell the client they'd call them back. Service levels drive behavior so make sure they are aligned with your strategic goals with no unintended consequences."
    – IT Services Manager, Banking

    Info-Tech Insight

    Make sure your metrics work cooperatively. Metrics should be chosen that cause tension on one another. It's not enough to rely on a fast service desk that doesn't have a high end-user satisfaction rate or runs at too high a cost; there needs to be balance.

    2.2.2 Arrange groups of tension metrics to balance your reporting

    1-3 hours

    1. Define KPIs and metrics that will be critical to service desk success.
    2. Distribute sticky notes of different colors to participants around the table.
    3. Select a space to place the sticky notes – a table, whiteboard, flip chart, etc. – and divide it into three zones.
    4. Refer to your defined list of goals and KPIs from activity 1.1.3 and discuss metrics to fulfill each KPI. Note that each goal (critical success factor, CSF) may have more than one KPI. For instance:
      1. Goal 1: Increase end-user satisfaction; KPI 1: Improve average transactional survey score. KPI 2: Improve annual relationship survey score.
      2. Goal 2: Improve service delivery; KPI 1: Reduce time to resolve incidents. KPI 2: Reduce time to fulfill service requests.
    5. Recall that tension metrics must form a balance between:
      1. Time
      2. Resources
      3. Quality
    6. Record the results in section 7 of the Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter Template.

    Input

    • Service desk outsourcing goals
    • Service desk outsourcing KPIs

    Output

    • List of service desk metrics

    Materials

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

    Participants

    • Project Team
    • Service Desk Manager

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Phase 3

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    Define the goal

    Design an outsourcing strategy

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    1.1 Identify goals and objectives

    1.2 Assess outsourcing feasibility

    2.1 Identify project stakeholders

    2.2 Outline potential risks and constraints

    3.1 Prepare a service overview and responsibility matrix

    3.2 Define your approach to vendor relationship management

    3.3 Manage the outsource relationship

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Build your outsourcing RFP
    • Set expectations with candidate vendors
    • Score and select your vendor
    • Manage your relationship with the vendor

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Define requirements for outsourcing service desk support

    Step 3.1

    Prepare a service overview and responsibility matrix

    Activities

    3.1.1 Evaluate your technology, people, and process requirements

    3.1.2 Outline which party will be responsible for which service desk processes

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Service desk processes and requirements

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • Knowledge management and technology requirements
    • Self-service requirements

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    Create a detailed RFP to ensure your candidate vendor will fulfill all your requirements

    At its core, your RFP should detail the outcomes of your outsourcing strategy and communicate your needs to the vendor.

    The RFP must cover business needs and the more detailed service desk functions required. Many enterprises only consider the functionality they need, while ignoring operational and selection requirements.

    Negotiate a supply agreement with the preferred outsourcer for delivery of the required services. Ensure your RFP covers:

    1. Service specification
    2. Service levels
    3. Roles and responsibilities
    4. Transition period and acceptance
    5. Prices, payment, and duration
    6. Agreement administration
    7. Outsourcing issues

    In addition to defining your standard requirements, don't forget to take into consideration the following factors when developing your RFP:

    • Employee onboarding and hardware imaging for new users
    • Applications you need current and future support for
    • Reporting requirements
    • Self-service options
    • Remote support needs and locations

    Although it may be tempting, don't throw everything over the wall at your vendor in the RFP. Evaluate your service desk functions in terms of quality, cost effectiveness, and the value provided from the vendor. Organizations should only outsource functions that the vendor can operate better, faster, or cheaper.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Involve the right stakeholders in developing your RFP, not just service desk. If only service desk is involved in RFP discussion, the connection between tier 1 and specialists will be broken, as some processes are not considered from IT's point of view.

    Identify ITSM solution requirements

    Your vendor probably uses a different tool to manage their processes; make sure its capabilities align with the vision of your service desk.

    Your service desk and outsourcing strategy were both designed with your current ITSM solution in mind. Before you hand the reins to an MSP, it is crucial that you outline how your current ITSM solution is being used in terms of functionality.

    Find out if it's better to have the MSP use their own ITSM tools or your ITSM solution.

    Benefits of operating within your own ITSM while outsourcing the service desk:

    Disadvantages of using your own ITSM while outsourcing the service desk:

    • If you provide the service catalog, it's easier to control your ITSM tool yourself.
    • Using your own ITSM and giving access to the outsourcer will allow you to build your dashboard and access your operational metrics rather than relying on the MSP to provide you with metrics.
    • Usage of the current tool may be extended across multiple departments, so it may be in the best interest of your business to have the vendor adopt usage of the current tool.
    • While many ITSM solutions have similar functions, innate differences do exist between them. Outsourcers mostly want to operate in their own ticketing solution. As other departments besides IT may be using the service management tool, you will need to have the same tool across the organization. This makes purchasing the new ITSM license very expensive, unless you operate in the same ITSM as the outsourcer.
    • You need your vendor to be able to use the system you have in order to meet your requirements, which will limit your options in the market.
    • If the outsourcer is using your ITSM, you should provide training to them.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Defining your tool requirements can be a great opportunity to get the tool functionality you always wanted. Many MSPs offer enterprise-level ITSM tools and highly mature processes that may tempt you to operate within their ITSM environment. However, first define your goals for such a move, as well as pros and cons of operating in their service management tool to weigh if its benefits overweigh its downfalls.

    Case Study

    Lone Star College learned that it's important to select a vendor whose tool will work with your service desk

    INDUSTRY: Education

    SOURCE: ServiceNow

    Challenge

    Lone Star College has an end-user base of over 100,000 staff and students.

    The college has six campuses across the state of Texas, and each campus was using its own service desk and ITSM solution.

    Initially, the decision was to implement a single ITSM solution, but organizational complexity prevented that initiative from succeeding.

    A decision was made to outsource and consolidate the service desks of each of the campuses to provide more uniform service to end users.

    Solution

    Lone Star College selected a vendor that implemented FrontRange.

    Unfortunately, the tool was not the right fit for Lone Star's service and reporting needs.

    After some discussion, the outsourcing vendor made the switch to ServiceNow.

    Some time later, a hybrid outsourced model was implemented, with Lone Star and the vendor combining to provide 24/7 support.

    Results

    The consolidated, standardized approach used by Lone Star College and its vendor has created numerous benefits:

    • Standardized reporting
    • High end-user satisfaction
    • All SLAs are being met
    • Improved ticket resolution times
    • Automated change management.

    Lone Star outsourced in order to consolidate its service desks quickly, but the tools didn't quite match.

    It's important to choose a tool that works well with your vendor's, otherwise the same standardization issues can persist.

    Design your RFP to help you understand what the vendor's standard offerings are and what it is capable of delivering

    Your RFP should be worded in a way that helps you understand what your vendor's standard offerings are because that's what they're most capable of delivering. Rather than laying out all your requirements in a high level of detail, carefully craft your questions in a probing way. Then, understand what your current baseline is, what your target requirements are, and assess the gap.

    Design the RFP so that responses can easily be compared against one another.

    It is common to receive responses that are very different – RFPs don't provide a response framework. Comparing vastly different responses can be like comparing apples to oranges. Not only are they immensely time consuming to score, their scores also don't end up accurately reflecting the provider's capabilities or suitability as a vendor.

    If your RFP is causing a ten minute printer backlog, you're doing something wrong.

    Your RFP should not be hundreds of pages long. If it is, there is too much detail.

    Providing too much detail can box your responses in and be overly limiting on your responses. It can deter potentially suitable provider candidates from sending a proposal.

    Request
    For
    Proposal

    "From bitter experience, if you're too descriptive, you box yourself in. If you're not descriptive enough, you'll be inundated with questions or end up with too few bidders. We needed to find the best way to get the message across without putting too much detail around it."
    – Procurement Manager, Utilities

    Info-Tech's Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template contains nine sections

    1. Statement of work
      • Purpose, coverage, and participation ààInsert the purpose and goals of outsourcing your service desk, using steps 1.1 findings in this blueprint as reference.
    2. General information
      • Information about the document, enterprise, and schedule of events ààInsert the timeline you developed for the RFP issue and award process in this section.
    3. Proposal preparation instructions
      • The vendor's understanding of the RFP, good faith statement, points of contact, proposal submission, method of award, selection and notification.
    4. Service overview
      • Information about organizational perspective, service desk responsibility matrix, vendor requirements, and service level agreements (SLAs).
    5. Scope of work, specifications and requirements
      • Technical and functional requirements à Insert the requirements gathered in Phase 1 in this section of the RFP. Remember to include both current and future requirements.
    6. Exit conditions
      • Overview of exit strategy and transition process.
    7. Vendor qualifications and references
    8. Account management and estimated pricing
    9. Vendor certification
    This is a screenshot of the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template.

    The main point of focus in this document is defining your requirements (discussed in Phase 1) and developing proposal preparation instructions.

    The rest of the RFP consists mostly of standard legal language. Review the rest of the RFP template and adapt the language to suit your organization's standards. Check with your legal departments to make sure the RFP adheres to company policies.

    3.1.1 Evaluate your technology, people, and process requirements

    1-2 hours

    1. Review the outsourcing goals you identified in Phase 1 (activity 1.1.3).
    2. For each goal, divide the defined requirements from your requirements database library (activity 1.2.1) into three areas:
      1. People Requirements
      2. Process Requirements
      3. Technical Requirements
    3. Group your requirements based on characteristics (e.g. recovery capabilities, engagement methodology, personnel, etc.).
    4. Validate these requirements with the relevant stakeholders.
    5. Document your results in section 4 of the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template.

    Input

    • Identified key requirements

    Output

    • Refined requirements to input into the RFP

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers
    • Laptops

    Participants

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

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Assess knowledge management and technology requirements to enable the outsourcer with higher quality work

    Retain ownership of the knowledgebase to foster long-term growth of organizational intelligence

    With end users becoming more and more tech savvy, organizational intelligence is becoming an increasingly important aspect of IT support. Modern employees are able and willing to troubleshoot on their own before calling into the service desk. The knowledgebase and FAQs largely facilitate self-serve trouble shooting, both of which are not core concerns for the outsource vendor.

    Why would the vendor help you empower end users and decrease ticket volume when it will lead to less revenue in the future? Ticket avoidance is not simply about saving money by removing support. It's about the end-user community developing organizational intelligence so that it doesn't need as much technical support.

    Organizational intelligence occurs when shared knowledge and insight is used to make faster, better decisions.

    When you outsource, the flow of technical insight to your end-user community slows down or stops altogether unless you proactively drive it. Retain ownership of the knowledgebase and ensure that the content is:

    1. Validated to ensure it accurately describes the best solution.
    2. Actionable to ensure it prescribes repeatable, verifiable steps.
    3. Contextual to ensure the reader knows when NOT to apply the knowledge.
    4. Maintained to ensure the solution remains current.
    5. Applied, since knowledge is a cost with no benefit unless you apply it and turn it into organizational intelligence.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Include knowledge management process in your ticket handling workflows to make sure knowledge is transferred to the MSP and end users. For more information on knowledge management, refer to Info-Tech's Standardize the Service Desk and Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy blueprints.

    Assess self-service requirements in your outsourcing plan

    When outsourcing the service desk, determine who will take ownership of the self-service portal.

    Nowadays, outsourcers provide innovative services such as self-serve options. However, bear in mind that the quality of such services is a differentiating factor. A well-maintained portal makes it easy to:

    • Report incidents efficiently via use-case-based forms
    • Place requests via a business-oriented service catalog
    • Automate request processes
    • Give visibility on ticket status
    • Access knowledgebase articles
    • Provide status on critical systems
    • Look for services by both clicking service lists and searching them
    • Provide 24/7 service via interactive communication with live agent and AI-powered machine
    • Streamline business process in multiple departments rather than only IT

    In the outsourcing process, determine your expectations from your vendor on self-serve options and discuss how they will fulfill these requirements. Similar to other processes, work internally to define a list of services your organization is providing that you can pass over to the outsourcer to convert to a service catalog.

    Use Info-Tech's Sample Enterprise Services document to start determining your business's services.

    Assess admin rights in your outsourcing plan to give access to the outsourcer while you keep ownership

    Provide accessibility to account management to improve self-service, which enables:

    • Group owners to be named who can add or remove people from their operating units
    • Users to update attributes such as photos, address, phone number
    • Synchronization with HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems) to enable two-way communication on attribute updates
    • Password reset self-service

    Ensure the vendor has access rights to execute regular clean up to help:

    • Find stale and inactive user and computer accounts (inactive, expired, stale, never logged in)
    • Bulk move and disable capabilities
    • Find empty groups and remove
    • Find and assess NTFS permissions
    • Automated tasks to search and remediate

    Give admin rights to outsourcer to enable reporting and auditing capabilities, such as:

    • Change tracking and notifications
    • Password reset attempts, account unlocks, permission and account changes
    • Anomaly detection and remediation
    • Privilege abuse, such as password sharing

    Info-Tech Insight

    Provide your MSP with access rights to enable the service desk to have account management without giving too much authentication. This way you'll enable moving tickets to the outsourcer while you keep ownership and supervision.

    3.1.2 Outline which party will be responsible for which service desk processes

    1-2 hours

    This activity is an expansion to the outcomes of activity 1.2.1, where you determined the outsourcing requirements and the party to deliver each requirement.

    1. Add your identified tasks from the requirements database library to the service desk responsibility matrix (section 4.2 of the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template).
    2. Break each task down into more details. For instance, incident management may include tier 1, tier 2/3, KB creation and update, reporting, and auditing.
    3. Refer to section 4.1 of your Project Charter to review the responsible party for each use case.
    4. Considering the use cases, assess whether your organization, the MSP, or both parties will be responsible for the task.
    5. Document the results in section 4.2 of the RFP.

    Input

    • Identified key requirements

    Output

    • Responsible party to deliver each task

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers
    • Laptops

    Participants

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

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Step 3.2

    Define your approach to vendor relationship management

    Activities

    3.2.1 Define your SLA requirements

    3.2.2 Score each vendor to mitigate the risk of failure

    3.2.3 Score RFP responses

    3.2.4 Get referrals, conduct reference interviews and evaluate responses for each vendor

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Service desk outsourcing RFP
    • List of service desk outsourcing requirements

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • Service desk SLA
    • RFP scores

    Don't rush to judgment; apply due diligence when selecting your vendor

    The most common mistake in vendor evaluation is moving too quickly. The process leading to an RFP evaluation can be exhausting, and many organizations simply want to be done with the whole process and begin outsourcing.

    The most common mistake in vendor evaluation is moving too quickly. The process leading to an RFP evaluation can be exhausting, and many organizations simply want to be done with the whole process and begin outsourcing.

    1. Call around to get referrals for each vendor
    2. Create a shortlist
    3. Review SLAs and contract terms
    4. Select your vendor

    Recognize warning signs in the MSP's proposal to ensure a successful negotiation

    Vendors often include certain conditions in their proposals that masquerade as appealing but may spell disaster. Watch for these red flags:

    1. Discounted Price
      • Vendors know the market value of their competitors' services. Price is not what sets them apart; it's the type of services offered as well as the culture present.
      • A noticeably low price is often indicative of a desperate organization that is not focused on quality managed services.
    2. No Pushback
      • Vendors should work to customize their proposal to suit both their capabilities and your needs. No pushback means they are not invested in your project as deeply as they should be.
      • You should be prepared for and welcome negotiations; they're a sign that both sides are reaching a mutually beneficial agreement.
    3. Continual SLA Improvement
      • Continual improvement is a good quality that your vendor should have, but it needs to have some strategic direction.
      • Throwing continual SLA improvement into the deal may seem great, but make sure that you'll benefit from the value-added service. Otherwise, you'll be paying for services that you don't actually need.

    Clearly define core vendor qualities before looking at any options

    Vendor sales and marketing people know just what to say to sway you: don't talk to them until you know what you're looking for.

    Geography

    Do you prefer global or local data centers? Do you need multiple locations for redundancy in case of disaster? Will language barriers be a concern?

    Contract Length

    Ensure you can terminate a poor arrangement by having shorter terms with optional renewals. It's better to renew and renegotiate if one side is losing in the deal in order to keep things fair. Don't assume that proposed long-term cost savings will provide a satisfactory service.

    Target Market

    Vendors are aiming at different business segments, from startups to large enterprises. Some will accept existing virtual machines, and others enforce compliance to appeal to government and health agencies.

    SLA

    A robust SLA strengthens a vendor's reliability and accountability. Agencies with special needs should have room in negotiations for customization. Providers should also account for regular SLA reviews and updates. Vendors should be tracking call volume and making projections that should translate directly to SLAs.

    Support

    Even if you don't need a vendor with 24/7 availability, vendors who cannot support this timing should be eliminated. You may want to upgrade later and will want to avoid the hassle of switching.

    Maturity

    Vendors must have the willingness and ability to improve processes and efficiencies over time. Maintaining the status-quo isn't acceptable in the constantly evolving IT world.

    Cost

    Consider which model makes the most sense: will you go with per call or per user pricing? Which model will generate vendor motivation to continually improve and meet your long-term goals? Watch out for variable pricing models.

    Define your SLA requirements so your MSP can create a solution that fits

    SLAs ensure accountability from the service provider and determine service price

    SLAs define the performance of the service desk and clarify what the provider and customer can expect in their outsourcing relationship.

    • Service categories
    • The acceptable range of end-user satisfaction
    • The scope of what functions of the service desk are being measured (availability, time to resolve, time to respond, etc.)
    • Credits and penalties for achieving or missing targets
    • Frequency of measurement/reporting
    • Provisions and penalties for ending the contractual relationship early
    • Management and communication structure
    • Escalation protocol for incidents relating to tiers 2 or 3

    Each MSP's RFP response will help you understand their basic SLA terms and enhanced service offerings. You need to understand the MSP's basic SLA terms to make sure they are adequate enough for your requirements. A well-negotiated SLA will balance the requirements of the customer and limit the liability of the provider in a win/win scenario.

    For more information on defining service level requirements, refer to Info-Tech's blueprint Reduce Risk With Rock-Solid Service-Level Agreements.

    3.2.1 Define your SLA requirements

    2-3 hours

    • As a team, review your current service desk SLA for the following items:
      • Response time
      • Resolution time
      • Escalation time
      • End-user satisfaction
      • Service availability
    • Use the sample table as a starting point to determine your current incident management SLA:
    • Determine your SLA expectations from the outsourcer.
    • Document your SLA expectations in section 4.4 of the RFP template.

    Participants: IT Managers, Service Desk Manager, Project Team

    Response
    PriorityResponse SLOResolution SLOEscalation Time
    T1
    Severity 1CriticalWithin 10 minutes4 hours to resolveImmediate
    Severity 2HighWithin 1 business hour8 business hours to resolve20 minutes
    Severity 3MediumWithin 4 business hours24 business hours to resolveAfter 20 minutes without progress
    Severity 4LowSame day (8 hours)72 business hours to resolve After 1 hour without progress
    SLO ResponseTime it takes for service desk to respond to service request or incident. Target response is 80% of SLO
    SLO ResolutionTime it takes to resolve incident and return business services to normal. Target resolution is 80% of SLO

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Get a detailed plan from your selected vendor before signing a contract

    Build a standard process to evaluate candidate vendors

    Use section 5 of Info-Tech's Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template for commonly used questions and requirements for outsourcing the service desk. Ask the right questions to secure an agreement that meets your needs. If you are already in a contract with an MSP, tale the opportunity of contract renewal to improve the contract and service.

    This is a screenshot of the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template.

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Add your finalized assessment questions into Info-Tech's Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Scoring Tool to aggregate responses in one repository for comparison. Since the vendors are asked to respond in a standard format, it is easier to bring together all the responses to create a complete view of your options.

    This is an image of the Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    Download the Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    3.2.2 Score each vendor to mitigate the risk of failure

    1-2 hours

    Include the right requirements for your organization and analyze candidate vendors on their capability to satisfy them.

    1. Use section 5 of the RFP template to convert your determined requirements into questions to address in vendor briefings.
    2. Review the questions in the context of near- and long-term service desk outsourcing needs. In the template, we have separated requirements into 7 categories:
      • Vendor Requirements (VR)
      • Vendor Qualifications/Engagement/Administration Capabilities (VQ)
      • Service Operations (SO)
      • Service Support (SS)
      • Service Level Agreement (SLA)
      • Transition Processes (TP)
      • Account Management (AM)
    3. Define the priority for each question:
      • Required
      • Desired
      • Optional
    4. Leave the compliance and comments to when you brief with vendors.

    Input

    • Technical and functional requirements

    Output

    • Priority level for each requirement
    • Completed list of requirement questions

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Markers
    • Laptops

    Participants

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

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    3.2.3 Score RFP responses

    2-3 hours

    1. Enter the requirements questions into the RFP Scoring Tool and use it during vendor briefings.
    2. Copy the Required and Desired priority requirements from the previous activity into the RFP Questions column.
    3. Evaluate each RFP response against the RFP criteria based on the scoring scale.
    4. The Results section in the tool shows the vendor ranking based on their overall scores.
    5. Compare potential outsourcing partners considering scores on individual requirements categories and based on overall scores.

    Input

    • Completed list of requirement questions
    • Priority level for each requirement

    Output

    • List of top vendors for outsourcing the service desk

    Materials

    • Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    Participants

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

    Download the Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    3.2.3 Get referrals, conduct reference interviews, and evaluate responses for each vendor

    1. Outline a list of questions to conduct reference interviews with past/present clients of your candidate vendors.
    2. Use the reference interview template as a starting point. As a group review the questions and edit them to a list that will fulfill your requirements.
    3. Ask your candidate vendors to provide you with a list of three to five clients that have/had used their services. Make sure that vendors enforce the interview will be kept anonymous and names and results won't be disclosed.
    4. Ask vendors to book a 20-30 minute call with you and their client.
    5. Document your interview comments in your updated reference interview template.
    6. Update the RFP scoring tool accordingly.

    Input

    • List of top vendors for outsourcing the service desk

    Output

    • Updated list of top vendors for outsourcing the service desk

    Materials

    • Service Desk Outsourcing Reference Interview Template
    • Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    Participants

    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Download the Service Desk Vendor Proposal Scoring Tool

    Compare pricing models of outsourcing services

    It's a common sales tactic to use a low price as an easy solution. Carefully evaluate the vendors on your short-list and ensure that SLAs, culture, and price all match to your organization.

    Research different pricing models and accurately assess which model fits your organization. Consider the following pricing models:

    Pay per technician

    In this model, a flat rate is allocated to agents tackling your service desk tickets. This is a good option for building long-term relationship with outsourcer's agents and efficient knowledge transfer to the external team; however, it's not ideal for small organizations that deal with few tickets. This is potentially an expensive model for small teams.

    Pay per ticket

    This model considers the number of tickets handled by the outsourcer. This model is ideal if you only want to pay for your requirement. Although the internal team needs to have a close monitoring strategy to make sure the outsourcer's efficiency in ticket resolution.

    Pay per call

    This is based on outbound and inbound calls. This model is proper for call centers and can be less expensive than the other models; however, tracking is not easy, as you should ensure service desk calls result in efficient resolution rather than unnecessary follow-up.

    Pay per time (minutes or hours)

    The time spent on tickets is considered in this model. With this model, you pay for the work done by agents, so that it may be a good and relatively cheap option. As quicker resolution SLA is usually set by the organization, customer satisfaction may drop, as agents will be driven to faster resolution, not necessarily quality of work.

    Pay per user

    This model is based on number of all users, or number of users for particular applications. In this model, correlation between number of users and number of tickets should be taken into account. This is an ideal model if you want to deal with impact of staffing changes on service price. Although you should first track metrics such as mean time to resolve and average number of tickets so you can prevent unnecessary payment based on number of users when most users are not submitting tickets.

    Step 3.3

    Manage the outsource relationship

    Activities

    3.3.1 Analyze your outsourced service desk for continual improvement

    3.3.2 Make a case to either rehabilitate your outsourcing agreement or exit

    3.3.3 Develop an exit strategy in case you need to end your contract early

    Develop an RFP and make a long-term relationship

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Service desk SLA
    • List of impacted stakeholder groups
    • List of impacts and benefits of the outsourced service desk

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • Communication plan
    • Vendor management strategy

    Ensure formality of your vendor management practice

    A service desk outsourcing project is an ongoing initiative. Build a relationship plan to make sure the outsourcer complies with the agreement.

    This is an iamge of the cycle of relationship management and pre-contract management.

    Monitor Vendor Performance

    Key Activity:

    Measure performance levels with an agreed upon standard scorecard.

    Manage Vendor Risk

    Key Activity:

    Periodical assessment of the vendors to ensure they are meeting compliance standards.

    Manage Vendor Contracts and Relationships

    Key Activity:
    Manage the contracts and renewal dates, the level of demand for the services/products provided, and the costs accrued.

    COMPLETE Identify and Evaluate Vendors

    Key Activity:
    Develop a plan with procurement and key internal stakeholders to define clear, consistent, and stable requirements.

    COMPLETE Select a Vendor

    Key Activity:
    Develop a consistent and effective process for selecting the most appropriate vendor.

    Manage Vendor Contracts and Relationships

    Key Activity:
    Contracts are consistently negotiated to ensure the vendor and the client have a documented and consistent understanding of mutual expectations.

    Expect the vendor to manage processes according to your standards

    You need this level of visibility into the service desk process, whether in-house or outsourced

    Each of these steps requires documentation – either through standard operating procedures, SLAs, logs, or workflow diagrams.

    • Define key operating procedures and workflows
    • Record, classify, and prioritize tickets
    • Verify, approve, and fulfill tickets
    • Investigate, diagnose, and allocate tickets
    • Resolve, recover, and close tickets
    • Track and report

    "Make sure what they've presented to you is exactly what's happening."
    – Service Desk Manager, Financial Services

    Manage the vendor relationship through regular communication

    Regular contact with your MSP provides opportunities to address issues that emerge

    Designate a relationship manager to act as a liaison at the business to be a conduit between the business and the MSP.

    • The relationship manager will take feedback from the MSP and relate it back to you to bridge the technical and business gap between the two.

    Who should be involved

    • Routine review meetings should involve the MSP and your relationship manager.
    • Technical knowledge may be needed to address specific issues, but business knowledge and relationship management skills are absolutely required.
    • Other stakeholders and people who are deeply invested in the vendor relationship should be invited or at least asked to contribute questions and concerns.

    What is involved

    • Full review of the service desk statistics, escalations, staffing changes, process changes, and drivers of extra billing or cost.
    • Updates to key documentation for the issues listed above and changes to the knowledgebase.
    • Significant drivers of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
    • Changes that have/are being proposed that can impact any of the above.

    Communicate changes to end users to avoid push back and get buy-in

    Top-down processes for outsourcing will leave end users in the dark

    • Your service desk staff has been involved in the outsourcing process the entire time, but end users are affected all the same.
    • The service desk is the face of IT. A radical shift in service processes and points of contact can be detrimental to not only the service desk, but all of IT.
    • Communicating the changes early to end users will both help them cope with the change and help the MSP achieve better results.
      • An internal communication plan should be rolled out in order to inform and educate end users about the changes associated with outsourcing the service desk.
    • Your relationship manager should be tasked with communicating the changes to end users. The focus should be on addressing questions or concerns about the transition while highlighting the value gained through outsourcing to an MSP.
    • Service quality is a two-way street; the end user needs to be informed of proper protocols and points of contact so that the service desk technicians can fulfill their duties to the best of their ability.

    "When my company decided to outsource, I performed the same role but for a different company. There was a huge disruption to the business flow and a lack of communication to manage the change. The transition took weeks before any end users figured out what the new processes were for submitting a ticket and who to ask for help, and from a personal side, it became difficult to maintain relationships with colleagues."
    – IT Specialist for a financial institution

    Info-Tech Insight

    Educate the enterprise on expectations and processes that are handled by the MSP. Identify stakeholder groups affected by the outsourced processes then build a communication plan on what's been changed, what the benefits are, and how they will be impacted. Determine a timeline for communicating these initiatives and how these announcements will be made. Use InfoTech's Sample Communication Plan as a starting point.

    Build a continual improvement plan to make sure your MSP is efficiently delivering services according to expectations

    Ensure that your quality assurance program is repeatable and applicable to the outsourced services

    1. Design a QA scorecard that can help you assess steps the outsourcer agents should follow. Keep the questionnaire high level but specific to your environment. The scorecard should include questions that follow the steps to take considering your intake channels. For instance, if end users can reach the service desk via phone, chat, and email, build your QA around assessing customer service for call, chat, and ticket quality.
    2. Build a training program for agents: Develop an internal monitoring plan to relay detailed feedback to your MSP. Assess performance and utilize KBs as training materials for coaching agents on challenging transactions.
    3. Everything that goes to your service desk has to be documented; there will be no organic transfer of knowledge and experience.
    4. You need to let your MSP know how their efforts are impacting the performance of your organization. Measure your internal performance against the external performance of your service desk.
    5. Constant internal check-ins ensure that your MSP is meeting the SLAs outlined in the RFP.
    6. Routine reporting of metrics and ticket trends allow you to enact problem management. Otherwise, you risk your MSP operating your service desk with no internal feedback from its owner.
    7. Use metrics to determine the service desk functionality.

    Consider the success story of your outsourced service desk

    Build a feedback program for your outsourced services. Utilize transactional surveys to discover and tell outsourcing success to the impacted stakeholders.

    Ensure you apply steps for providing feedback to make sure processes are handled as expected. Service desk is the face of IT. Customer satisfaction on ticket transactions reflects satisfaction with IT and the organization.

    Build customer satisfaction surveys and conduct them for every transaction to get a better sense of outsourced service desk functionality. Collaborate with the vendor to make sure you build a proper strategy.

    • Build a right list of questions. Multiple and lengthy questions may lead to survey taking fatigue. Make sure you ask the right questions and give an option to the customer to comment any additional notes.
    • Give the option to users to rate the transaction. Make the whole process very seamless and doable in a few seconds.
    • Ensure to follow-up on negative feedback. This will help you find gaps in services and provide training to improve customer service.

    3.3.1 Analyze your outsourced service desk for continual improvement

    1 hour

    1. In this project, you determined the KPIs based on your service desk objectives (activity 2.2.2).
    2. Refer to your list of metrics in section 7 of the Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter.
    3. Think about what story you want to tell and determine what factors will help move the narrative.
    4. Discuss how often you would like to track these metrics. Determine the audience for each metric.
    5. Provide the list to the MSP to create reports with auto-distribution.

    Input

    • Determined CSFs and KPIs

    Output

    • List of metrics to track, including frequency to report and audience to report to

    Materials

    • Service Desk Outsourcing Project Charter

    Participants

    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Managers
    • Project Managers

    Download the Project Charter Template

    Reward the MSP for performance instead of "punishing" them for service failure

    Turn your vendor into a true partner by including an "earn back" condition in the contract

    MSPs often offer clients credit requests (service credits) for their service failures, which are applied to the previous month's monthly recurring charge. They are applied to the last month's MRC (monthly reoccurring charges) at the end of term and then the vendor pays out the residual.

    However, while common, service credits are not always perceived to be a strong incentive for the provider to continually focus on improvement of mean-time-to-respond/mean-time-to-resolve.

    • Engage the vendor as a true partner within a relationship only based upon Service Credits.
    • Suggest the vendor include a minor change to the non-performance processes within the final agreement: the vendor implements an "earn back" condition in the agreement.
    • Where a bank of service credits exists because of non-performance, if the provider exceeds the SLA performance metrics for a number of consecutive months (two is common), then an amount of any prior credits received by client is returned to the provider as an earn back for improved performance.
    • This can be a useful mechanism to drive improved performance.

    Measure the outsourced service desk ROI constantly to drive efficient decisions for continual improvement or an exit plan

    Efficient outsourced service desk causes positive impacts on business satisfaction. To address the true value of the services outsourced, you should evaluate the return on investment (ROI) in these areas: Emotional ROI, Time ROI, Financial ROI

    Emotional ROI

    Service desk's main purpose should be to provide topnotch services to end users. Build a customer experience program and leverage transactional surveys and relationship surveys to constantly analyze customer feedback on service quality.

    Ask yourself:

    • How have the outsourced services improved customer satisfaction?
    • How has the service desk impacted the business brand?
    • Have these services improved agents' job satisfaction?
    • What is the NPS score of the service desk?
    • What should we do to reduce the detractor rate and improve satisfaction leveraging the outsourced service desk?

    Time ROI

    Besides customer satisfaction, SLA commitment is a big factor to consider when conducting ROI analysis.

    Ask these questions:

    • Have we had improvement in FCR?
    • What are the mean time to resolve incidents and mean time to fulfill requests?
    • Is the cost incurred to outsourced services worth improvement in such metrics?

    Financial ROI

    As already mentioned in Phase 1, the main motivation for outsourcing the service desk should not be around cost reduction, but to improve performance. Regardless, it's still important to understand the financial implications of your decision.

    To evaluate the financial impact of your outsourced service desk, ask these questions:

    • How much have the outsourced services impacted our business financially?
    • How much are we paying compared to when it was done internally?
    • Considering the emotional, time, and effort factors, is it worth bringing the services in house or changing the vendor?

    3.3.2 Make a case to either rehabilitate your outsourcing agreement or exit

    3-4 hours

    1. Refer to the results of activity 2.2.2. for the list of metrics and the metrics dashboard over the past quarter.
    2. Consider emotional and time ROI, assess end-user satisfaction and SLA, and run a report comparison with the baseline that you built prior to outsourcing the service desk.
    3. Estimate the organization's IT operating expenses over the next five years if you stay with the vendor.
    4. Estimate the organization's IT operating expenses over the next five years if you switch the vendor.
    5. Estimate the organization's IT operating expenses over the next five years if you repatriate the service desk.
    6. Estimate the non-recurring costs associated with the move, such as the penalty for early contract termination, data center moving costs, and cost of potential business downtime during the move. Sum them to determine the investment.
    7. Calculate the return on investment. Discuss and decide whether the organization should consider rehabilitating the vendor agreement or ending the partnership.

    Input

    • Outsourced service desk metrics
    • Operating expenses

    Output

    • Return on investment

    Materials

    • List of metrics
    • Laptop
    • Markers
    • Flip chart/whiteboard

    Participants

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

    For more information on conducting this activity, refer to InfoTech's blueprint Terminate the IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Relationship

    Define exit conditions to complete your contract with your MSP

    The end of outsourcing is difficult. Your organization needs to maintain continuity of service during the transition. Your MSP needs to ensure that its resources can be effectively transitioned to the next deployment with minimal downtime. It is crucial to define your exit conditions so that both sides can prepare accordingly.

    • Your exit conditions must be clearly laid out in the contract. Create a list of service desk functions and metrics that are important to your organization's success. If your MSP is not meeting those needs or performance levels, you should terminate your services.
    • Most organizations accomplish this through a clear definition of hard and measurable KPIs and metrics that must be achieved and what will happen in the case these metrics are not being regularly met. If your vendor doesn't meet these requirements as defined in your contract, you then have a valid reason and the ability to leave the agreement.

    Examples of exit conditions:

    • Your MSP did not meet their SLAs on priority 1 or 2 tickets two times within a month.
    • If they didn't meet the SLA twice in that 30 days, you could terminate the contract penalty-free.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If things start going south with your MSP, negotiate a "get well plan." Outline your problems to the MSP and have them come back to you with a list of how they're going to fix these problems to get well before you move forward with the contract.

    Try to rehabilitate before you repatriate

    Switching service providers or ending the contract can be expensive and may not solve your problems. Try to rehabilitate your vendor relationship before immediately ending it.

    You may consider terminating your outsourcing agreement if you are dissatisfied with the current agreement or there has been a change in circumstances (either the vendor has changed, or your organization has changed).

    Before doing so, consider the challenges:

    1. It can be very expensive to switch providers or end a contract.
    2. Switching vendors can be a large project involving transfer of knowledge, documentation, and data.
    3. It can be difficult to maintain service desk availability, functionality, and reliability during the transition.

    Diagnose the cause of the problem before assuming it's the MSP's fault. The issue may lie with poorly defined requirements and processes, lack of communication, poor vendor management, or inappropriate SLAs. Re-assess your strategy and re-negotiate your contract if necessary.

    Info-Tech Insight

    There are many reasons why outsourcing relationships fail, but it's not always the vendor's fault.

    Clients often think their MSP isn't doing a great job, but a lot of the time the reason comes back to the client. They may not have provided sufficient documentation on processes, were not communicating well, didn't have a regular point of contact, and weren't doing regular service reviews. Before exiting the relationship, evaluate why it's not working and try to fix things first.

    Don't stop with an exit strategy, you also need to develop a transition plan

    Plan out your transition timeline, taking into account current contract terms and key steps required. Be prepared to handle tickets immediately upon giving notice.

    • Review your outsourcing contract with legal counsel to identify areas of concern for lock-in or breech.
    • Complete a cost/benefit analysis.
    • Bring intellectual property (including ticket data, knowledge base articles, and reports) back in-house (if you'd like to repatriate the service desk) or transfer to the next service desk vendor (if you're outsourcing to another MSP).
    • Review and update service desk standard processes (escalation, service levels, ticket templates, etc.).
    • Procure service desk software, licenses, and necessary hardware as needed.
    • Train the staff (internal for repatriating the service desk, or external for the prospective MSP).
    • Communicate the transition plan and be prepared to start responding to tickets immediately.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Develop a transition plan about six months before the contract notice date. Be proactive by constantly tracking the MSP, running ROI analyses and training staff before moving the services to the internal team or the next MSP. This will help you manage the transition smoothly and handle intake channels so that upon potential exit, users won't be disrupted.

    3.3.3 Develop an exit strategy in case you need to end your contract early

    3-4 hours

    Create a plan to be prepared in case you need to end your contract with the MSP early.

    Your exit strategy should encompass both the conditions under which you would need to end your contract with the MSP and the next steps you will take to transition your services.

    1. Define the exit conditions you plan to negotiate into your contract with the MSP:
      • Identify the performance levels you will require your MSP to meet.
      • Identify the actions you expect the MSP to take if they fail to meet these performance levels.
      • Identify the conditions under which you would leave the contract early.
    2. Develop a strategy for transitioning services in the event you need to leave your contract with the MSP:
      • Will you hand the responsibility to a new MSP or repatriate the service desk back in-house?
      • How will you maintain services through the transition?
    3. Document your exit strategy in section 6 of the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template.

    Input

    • Outsourced service desk metrics
    • Operating expenses

    Output

    • Return on investment

    Materials

    • List of metrics
    • Laptop
    • Markers
    • Flip chart/whiteboard

    Participants

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

    Download the Service Desk Outsourcing RFP Template

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    You have now re-envisioned your service desk by building a solid strategy for outsourcing it to a vendor. You first analyzed your challenges with the current service desk and evaluated the benefits of outsourcing services. Then you went through requirements assessment to find out which processes should be outsourced. Thereafter, you developed an RFP to communicate your proposal and evaluate the best candidates.

    You have also developed a continual improvement plan to ensure the outsourcer provides services according to your expectations. Through this plan, you're making sure to build a good relationship through incentivizing the vendor for accomplishments rather than punishing for service failures. However, you've also contemplated an exit plan in the RFP for potential consistent service failures.

    Ideally, this blueprint has helped you go beyond requirements identification and served as a means to change your mindset and strategy for outsourcing the service desk efficiently to gain long-term benefits.

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

    Contact your account representative for more information

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Additional Support

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

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

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

    This is a picture of Info-Tech analyst Mahmoud Ramin

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

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

    This is a screenshot of activity 1.2.1 found in this blueprint

    Identify Processes to Outsource
    Identify service desk tasks that will provide the most value upon outsourcing.

    This is a screenshot of activity 3.2.2 found in this blueprint

    Score Candidate Vendors
    Evaluate vendors on their capabilities for satisfying your service desk requirements.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Standardize the Service Desk

    • Improve customer service by driving consistency in your support approach and meeting SLAs.

    Outsource IT Infrastructure to Improve System Availability, Reliability, and Recovery

    • There are very few IT infrastructure components you should be housing internally – outsource everything else.

    Terminate the IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Relationship

    • There must be 50 ways to leave your vendor.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Yev Khovrenkov; Enterprise Consultant, Solvera Solutions

    Kamil Salagan; I&O Manager, Bartek Ingredients

    Satish Mekerira; VP of IT, Coherus BioSciences

    Kris Krishan; Head of IT and Business Systems, Waymo

    Kris Arthur; Infra & Security Director, SEKO Logistics

    Valance Howden; Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    Sandi Conrad; Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Graham Price; Senior Director of Executive Services, Info-Tech Research Group

    Barry Cousins; Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group

    Mark Tauschek; VP of I&O Research, Info-Tech Research Group

    Darin Stahl; Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    Scott Yong; Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

    A special thank-you to five anonymous contributors

    Bibliography

    Allnutt, Charles. "The Ultimate List of Outsourcing Statistics." MicroSourcing, 2022. Accessed July 2022.
    "Considerations for outsourcing the service desk. A guide to improving your service desk and service delivery performance through outsourcing." Giva. Accessed May 2022.
    Hurley, Allison. "Service Desk Outsourcing | Statistics, Challenges, & Benefits." Forward BPO Inc., 2019. Accessed June 2022.
    Mtsweni, Patricia, et al. "The impact of outsourcing information technology services on business operations." South African Journal of Information Management, 2021, Accessed May 2022.
    "Offshore, Onshore or Hybrid–Choosing the Best IT Outsourcing Model." Calance, 2021. Accessed June 2022. Web.
    "Service Integration and Management (SIAM) Foundation Body of Knowledge." Scopism, 2020. Accessed May 2022.
    Shultz, Aaron. "IT Help Desk Outsourcing Pricing Models Comparison." Global Help Desk Services. Accessed June 2022. Web.
    Shultz, Aaron. "4 Steps to Accurately Measure the ROI of Outsourced Help Desk Services" Global Help Desk Services, Accessed June 2022. Web.
    Sunberg, John. "Great Expectations: What to Look for from Outsourced Service Providers Today." HDI. Accessed June 2022. Web.
    Walters, Grover. "Pivotal Decisions in outsourcing." Muma Case Review, 2019. Accessed May 2022.
    Wetherell, Steve. "Outsourced IT Support Services: 10 Steps to Better QA" Global Held Desk Services. Accessed May 2022. Web.

    Adapt Your Onboarding Process to a Virtual Environment

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}577|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 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: Attract & Select
    • Parent Category Link: /attract-and-select
    • For many, the WFH arrangement will be temporary, however, the uncertainty around the length of the pandemic makes it hard for organizations to plan long term.
    • As onboarding plans traditionally carry a six- to twelve-month outlook, the uncertainty around how long employees will be working remotely makes it challenging to determine how much of the current onboarding program needs to change. In addition, introducing new technologies to a remote workforce and planning training on how to access and effectively use these technologies is difficult.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a virtual environment many organizations were not prepared for.
    • Focusing on critical parts of the onboarding process and leveraging current technology allows organizations to quickly adapt to the uncertainty and constant change.

    Impact and Result

    • Organizations need to assess their existing onboarding process and identify the parts that are critical.
    • Using the technology currently available, organizations must adapt onboarding to a virtual environment.
    • Develop a plan to re-assess and update the onboarding program according to the duration of the situation.

    Adapt Your Onboarding Process to a Virtual Environment Research & Tools

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

    1. Assess current onboarding processes

    Map the current onboarding process and identify the challenges to a virtual approach.

    • Adapt Your Onboarding Process to a Virtual Environment Storyboard
    • Virtual Onboarding Workbook
    • Process Mapping Guide

    2. Modify onboarding activities

    Determine how existing onboarding activities can be modified for a virtual environment.

    • Virtual Onboarding Ideas Catalog
    • Performance Management for Emergency Work-From-Home

    3. Launch the virtual onboarding process and plan to re-assess

    Finalize the virtual onboarding process and create an action plan. Continue to re-assess and iterate over time.

    • Virtual Onboarding Guide for HR
    • Virtual Onboarding Guide for Managers
    • HR Action and Communication Plan
    • Virtual Onboarding Schedule
    [infographic]

    Application Portfolio Management Foundations

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}172|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.4/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $54,542 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 21 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Architecture & Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /architecture-and-strategy

    Organizations consider application oversight a low priority and app portfolio knowledge is poor:

    • No dedicated or centralized effort to manage the app portfolio means no single source of truth is available to support informed decision making.
    • Organizations acquire more applications over time, creating redundancy, waste, and the need for additional support.
    • Organizations are more vulnerable to changing markets. Flexibility and growth are compromised when applications are unadaptable or cannot scale.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • You cannot outsource application strategy.
    • Modern software options have lessened the need for organizations to have robust in-house application management capabilities. But your applications’ future and governance of the portfolio still require centralized oversight to ensure the best overall return on investment.
    • Application portfolio management is the mechanism to ensure that the applications in your enterprise are delivering value and support for your value streams and business capabilities. Understanding value, satisfaction, technical health, and total cost of ownership are critical to digital transformation, modernization, and roadmaps.

    Impact and Result

    Build an APM program that is actionable and fit for size:

    • Understand your current state, needs, and goals for your application portfolio management.
    • Create an application and platform inventory that is built for better decision making.
    • Rationalize your apps with business priorities and communicate risk in operational terms.
    • Create a roadmap that improves communication between those who own, manage, and support your applications.

    Application Portfolio Management Foundations Research & Tools

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

    1. Application Portfolio Management Foundations Deck – A guide that helps you establish your core application inventory, simplified rationalization, redundancy comparison, and modernization roadmap.

    Enterprises have more applications than they need and rarely apply oversight to monitor the health, cost, and relative value of applications to ensure efficiency and minimal risk. This blueprint will help you build a streamlined application portfolio management process.

    • Application Portfolio Management Foundations – Phases 1-4

    2. Application Portfolio Management Diagnostic Tool – A tool that assesses your current application portfolio.

    Visibility into your application portfolio and APM practices will help inform and guide your next steps.

    • Application Portfolio Management Diagnostic Tool

    3. Application Portfolio Management Foundations Playbook – A template that builds your application portfolio management playbook.

    Capture your APM roles and responsibilities and build a repeatable process.

    • Application Portfolio Management Foundations Playbook

    4. Application Portfolio Management Snapshot and Foundations Tool – A tool that stores application information and allows you to execute rationalization and build a portfolio roadmap.

    This tool is the central hub for the activities within Application Portfolio Management Foundations.

    • Application Portfolio Management Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Application Portfolio Management Foundations

    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 Your Foundations

    The Purpose

    Work with key corporate stakeholders to come to a shared understanding of the benefits and aspects of application portfolio management.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Establish the goals of APM.

    Set the scope of APM responsibilities.

    Establish business priorities for the application portfolio.

    Activities

    1.1 Define goals and metrics.

    1.2 Define application categories.

    1.3 Determine steps and roles.

    1.4 Weight value drivers.

    Outputs

    Set short- and long-term goals and metrics.

    Set the scope for applications.

    Set the scope for the APM process.

    Defined business value drivers.

    2 Improve Your Inventory

    The Purpose

    Gather information on your applications to build a detailed inventory and identify areas of redundancy.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Populated inventory based on your and your team’s current knowledge.

    Understanding of outstanding data and a plan to collect it.

    Activities

    2.1 Populate inventory.

    2.2 Assign business capabilities.

    2.3 Review outstanding data.

    Outputs

    Initial application inventory

    List of areas of redundancy

    Plan to collect outstanding data

    3 Gather Application Information

    The Purpose

    Work with the application subject matter experts to collect and compile data points and determine the appropriate disposition for your apps.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Dispositions for individual applications

    Application rationalization framework

    Activities

    3.1 Assess business value.

    3.2 Assess end-user perspective.

    3.3 Assess TCO.

    3.4 Assess technical health.

    3.5 Assess redundancies.

    3.6 Determine dispositions.

    Outputs

    Business value score for individual applications

    End-user satisfaction scores for individual applications

    TCO score for individual applications

    Technical health scores for individual applications

    Feature-level assessment of redundant applications

    Assigned dispositions for individual applications

    4 Gather, Assess, and Select Dispositions

    The Purpose

    Work with application delivery specialists to determine the strategic plans for your apps and place these in your portfolio roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Prioritized initiatives

    Initial application portfolio roadmap

    Ongoing structure of APM

    Activities

    4.1 Prioritize initiatives

    4.2 Populate roadmap.

    4.3 Determine ongoing APM cadence.

    4.4 Build APM action plan.

    Outputs

    Prioritized new potential initiatives.

    Built an initial portfolio roadmap.

    Established an ongoing cadence of APM activities.

    Built an action plan to complete APM activities.

    Further reading

    Application Portfolio Management Foundations

    Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.

    Analyst Perspective

    You can’t outsource accountability.

    Many lack visibility into their overall application portfolio, focusing instead on individual projects or application development. Inevitably, application sprawl creates process and data disparities, redundant applications, and duplication of resources and stands as a significant barrier to business agility and responsiveness. The shift from strategic investment to application maintenance creates an unnecessary constraint on innovation and value delivery.

    With the rise and convenience of SAAS solutions, IT has an increasing need to discover and support all applications in the organization. Unmanaged and unsanctioned applications can lead to increased reputational risk. What you don’t know WILL hurt you.

    You can outsource development, you can even outsource maintenance, but you cannot outsource accountability for the portfolio. Organizations need a holistic dashboard of application performance and dispositions to help guide and inform planning and investment discussions. Application portfolio management (APM) can’t tell you why something is broken or how to fix it, but it is an important tool to determine if an application’s value and performance are up to your standards and can help meet your future goals.

    The image contains a picture of Hans Eckman.

    Hans Eckman
    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group


    Is this research right for you?

    Research Navigation

    Managing your application portfolio is essential regardless of its size or whether your software is purchased or developed in house. Each organization must have some degree of application portfolio management to ensure that applications deliver value efficiently and that their risk or gradual decline in technical health is appropriately limited.

    Your APM goals

    If this describes your primary goal(s)

    • We are building a business case to determine where and if APM is needed now.
    • We want to understand how well supported are our business capabilities, departments, or core functions by our current applications.
    • We want to start our APM program with our core or critical applications.
    • We want to build our APM inventory for less than 150 applications (division, department, operating unit, government, small enterprise, etc.).
    • We want to start simple with a quick win for our 150 most important applications.
    • We want to start with an APM pilot before committing to an enterprise APM program.
    • We need to rationalize potentially redundant and underperforming applications to determine which to keep, replace, or retire.
    • We want to start enterprise APM, with up to 150 critical applications.
    • We want to collect and analyze detailed information about our applications.
    • We need tools to help us calculate total cost of ownership (TCO) and value.
    • We want to customize our APM journey and rationalization.
    • We want to build a formal communication strategy for our APM program.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    • Organizations consider application oversight a low priority and app portfolio knowledge is poor.
    • No dedicated or centralized effort to manage the app portfolio means no single source of truth is available to support informed decision making.
    • Organizations acquire more applications over time, creating redundancy, waste, and the need for additional support.
    • Organizations are more vulnerable to changing markets. Flexibility and growth are compromised when applications are unadaptable or cannot scale.
    • APM implies taking a holistic approach and compiling multiple priorities and perspectives.
    • Organizations have limited time to act strategically or proactively and need to be succinct.
    • Uncertainties on business value prevent IT from successfully advising software decision making.
    • IT knows its technical debt but struggles to get the business to act on technical risks.
    • Attempts at exposing these problems rarely gain buy-in and discourage the push for improvement.
    • Think low priority over no priority.
    • Integrate these tasks into your mixed workload.
    • Create an inventory built for better decision making.
    • Rationalize your apps in accordance with business priorities and communicate risks on their terms.
    • Create a roadmap that improves communication between those who own, manage, and support an application.
    • Build your APM process fit for size.

    Info-Tech Insight: You can’t outsource strategy.

    Modern software options have decreased the need for organizations to have robust in-house application management capabilities. Your applications’ future and governance of the portfolio still require a centralized IT oversight to ensure the best return on investment.

    The top IT challenges for SE come from app management

    #1 challenge small enterprise owners face in their use of technology:

    Taking appropriate security precautions

    24%

    The costs of needed upgrades to technology

    17%

    The time it takes to fix problems

    17%

    The cost of maintaining technology

    14%

    Lack of expertise

    9%

    Breaks in service

    7%
    Source: National Small Business Association, 2019

    Having more applications than an organization needs means unnecessarily high costs and additional burden on the teams who support the applications. Especially in the case of small enterprises, this is added pressure the IT team cannot afford.

    A poorly maintained portfolio will eventually hurt the business more than it hurts IT.

    Legacy systems, complex environments, or anything that leads to a portfolio that can’t adapt to changing business needs will eventually become a barrier to business growth and accomplishing objectives. Often the blame is put on the IT department.

    56%

    of small businesses cited inflexible technology as a barrier to growth

    Source: Salesforce as quoted by Tech Republic, 2019

    A hidden and inefficient application portfolio is the root cause of so many pains experienced by both IT and the business.

    • Demand/Capacity Imbalance
    • Overspending
    • Security and Business Continuity Risk
    • Delays in Delivery
    • Barriers to Growth

    APM comes at a justified cost

    The image contains a screenshot of a graph to demonstrate APM and the costs.

    The benefits of APM

    APM identifies areas where you can reduce core spending and reinvest in innovation initiatives.

    Other benefits can include:

    • Fewer redundancies
    • Less risk
    • Less complexity
    • Improved processes
    • Flexibility
    • Scalability

    APM allows you to better understand and set the direction of your portfolio

    Application Inventory

    The artifact that documents and informs the business of your application portfolio.

    Application Rationalization

    The process of collecting information and assessing your applications to determine recommended dispositions.

    Application Alignment

    The process of revealing application information through interviewing stakeholders and aligning to business capabilities.

    Application Roadmap

    The artifact that showcases the strategic directions for your applications over a given timeline.

    Application Portfolio Management (APM):

    The ongoing practice of:

    • Providing visibility into applications across the organization.
    • Recommending corrections or enhancements to decision makers.
    • Aligning delivery teams on priority.
    • Showcasing the direction of applications to stakeholders.

    Create a balanced approach to value delivery

    Enterprise Agility and Value Realization

    Product Lifecycle Management

    Align your product and service improvement and execution to enterprise strategy and value realization in three key areas: defining your products and services, aligning product/service owners, and developing your product vision.

    Product Delivery Lifecycle (Agile DevOps)

    Enhance business agility by leveraging an Agile mindset and continuously improving your delivery throughput, quality, value realization, and adaptive governance.

    Application Portfolio Management

    Transform your application portfolio into a cohesive service catalog aligned to your business capabilities by discovering, rationalizing, and modernizing your applications while improving application maintenance, management, and reuse.

    The image contains a screenshot of a Thought Model on the Application Department Strategy.


    The image contains a screenshot of a Thought Model on Accelerate Your Transition to Product Delivery.

    Every organization experiences some degree of application sprawl

    The image contains a screenshot of images to demonstrate application sprawl.

    Causes of Sprawl

    • Poor Lifecycle Management
    • Turnover & Lack of Knowledge Transfer
    • Siloed Business Units & Decentralized IT
    • Business-Managed IT
    • (Shadow IT)
    • Mergers & Acquisitions

    Problems With Sprawl

    • Redundancy and Inefficient Spending
    • Disparate Apps & Data
    • Obsolescence
    • Difficulties in Prioritizing Support
    • Barriers to Change & Growth

    Application Sprawl:

    Inefficiencies within your application portfolio are created by the gradual and non-strategic accumulation of applications.

    You have more apps than you need.

    Only 34% of software is rated as both IMPORTANT and EFFECTIVE by users.

    Source: Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision

    Build your APM journey map

    The image contains screenshots of diagrams that reviews building your APM journey map.

    Application rationalization provides insight

    Directionless portfolio of applications

    Info-Tech’s Five Lens Model

    Assigned dispositions for individual apps

    The image contains a screenshot of an example of directionless portfolio of applications.

    Application Alignment

    Business Value

    Technical Health

    End-User Perspective

    Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

    Maintain: Keep the application but adjust its support structure.

    Modernize: Create a new initiative to address an inadequacy.

    Consolidate: Create a new initiative to reduce duplicate functionality.

    Retire: Phase out the application.

    Disposition: The intended strategic direction or implied course of action for an application.

    How well do your apps support your core functions and teams?

    How well are your apps aligned to value delivery?

    Do your apps meet all IT quality standards and policies?

    How well do your apps meet your end users’ needs?

    What is the relative cost of ownership and operation of your apps?

    Application rationalization requires the collection of several data points that represent these perspectives and act as the criteria for determining a disposition for each of your applications.

    APM is an iterative and evergreen process

    APM provides oversight and awareness of your application portfolio’s performance and support for your business operations and value delivery to all users and customers.

    Determine Scope and categories Build your list of applications and capabilities Score each application based on your values Determine outcomes based on app scoring and support for capabilities

    1. Lay Your Foundations

    1.1 Assess the state of your current application portfolio.

    1.2 Determine narrative.

    1.3 Define goals and metrics.

    1.4 Define application categories.

    1.5 Determine APM steps and roles (SIPOC).

    2. Improve Your Inventory

    2.1 Populate your inventory.

    2.2 Align to business capabilities.

    *Repeat

    3. Rationalize Your Apps

    3.1 Assess business value.

    3.2 Assess technical health.

    3.3 Assess end-user perspective.

    3.4 Assess total cost of ownership.

    *Repeat

    4. Populate Your Roadmap

    4.1 Review APM Snapshot results.

    4.2 Review APM Foundations results.

    4.3 Determine dispositions.

    4.4 Assess redundancies (optional).

    4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional).

    4.6 Prioritize initiatives.

    4.7 Determine ongoing cadence.

    *Repeat

    Repeat according to APM cadence and application changes

    Executive Brief Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Retail

    SOURCE: Deloitte, 2017

    Supermarket Company

    The grocer was a smaller organization for the supermarket industry with a relatively low IT budget. While its portfolio consisted of a dozen applications, the organization still found it difficult to react to an evolving industry due to inflexible and overly complex legacy systems.

    The IT manager found himself in a scenario where he knew the applications well but had little awareness of the business processes they supported. Application maintenance was purely in keeping things operational, with little consideration for a future business strategy.

    As the business demanded more responsiveness to changes, the IT team needed to be able to react more efficiently and effectively while still securing the continuity of the business.

    The IT manager found success by introducing APM and gaining a better understanding of the business use and future needs for the applications. The organization started small but then increased the scope over time to produce and develop techniques to aid the business in meeting strategic goals with applications.

    Results

    The IT manager gained credibility and trust within the organization. The organization was able to build a plan to move away from the legacy systems and create a portfolio more responsive to the dynamic needs of an evolving marketplace.

    The application portfolio management initiative included the following components:

    Train teams and stakeholders on APM

    Model the core business processes

    Collect application inventory

    Assign APM responsibilities

    Start small, then grow

    Info-Tech’s application portfolio management methodology

    1. Lay Your Foundations

    2. Improve Your Inventory

    3. Rationalize Your Apps

    4. Populate Your Roadmap

    Phase Activities

    1.1 Assess your current application portfolio

    1.2 Determine narrative

    1.3 Define goals and metrics

    1.4 Define application categories

    1.5 Determine APM steps and roles

    2.1 Populate your inventory

    2.2 Align to business capabilities

    3.1 Assess business value

    3.2 Assess technical health

    3.3 Assess end-user perspective

    3.4 Assess total cost of ownership

    4.1 Review APM Snapshot results

    4.2 Review APM Foundations results

    4.3 Determine dispositions

    4.4 Assess redundancies (optional)

    4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional)

    4.6 Prioritize initiatives

    4.7 Determine ongoing APM cadence

    Phase Outcomes

    Work with the appropriate management stakeholders to:

    • Extract key business priorities.
    • Set your goals.
    • Define scope of APM effort.

    Gather information on your own understanding of your applications to build a detailed inventory and identify areas of redundancy.

    Work with application subject matter experts to collect and compile data points and determine the appropriate disposition for your apps.

    Work with application delivery specialists to determine the strategic plans for your apps and place these in your portfolio roadmap.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    Application Portfolio Management Foundations Playbook

    Application Portfolio Management Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    This template allows you to capture your APM roles and responsibilities and build a repeatable process.

    This tool stores all relevant application information and allows you to assess your capability support, execute rationalization, and build a portfolio roadmap.

    The image contains screenshots of the Application Portfolio Management Foundations Playbook. The image contains screenshots of the Application Portfolio Management Snapshot and Foundations Tool.

    Key deliverable:

    Blueprint Storyboard

    This is the PowerPoint document you are viewing now. Follow this guide to understand APM, learn how to use the tools, and build a repeatable APM process that will be captured in your playbook.

    The image contains a screenshot of the blueprint storyboard.

    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 for on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

    Call #1: Establish goals and foundations for your APM practice.

    Call #2:

    Initiate inventory and determine data requirements.

    Call #3:

    Initiate rationalization with group of applications.

    Call #4:

    Review result of first iteration and perform retrospective.

    Call #5:

    Initiate your roadmap and determine your ongoing APM practice.

    Note: The Guided Implementation will focus on a subset or group of applications depending on the state of your current APM inventory and available time. The goal is to use this first group to build your APM process and models to support your ongoing discovery, rationalization, and modernization efforts.

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our right-sized best practices in your organization. A typical GI, using our materials, is 3 to 6 calls over the course of 1 to 3 months.

    Workshop Overview

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

    1. Lay Your Foundations

    2. Improve Your Inventory

    3. Rationalize Your Apps

    4. Populate Your Roadmap

    Post Workshop Steps

    Activities

    1.1 Assess your current
    application portfolio

    1.2 Determine narrative

    1.3 Define goals and metrics

    1.4 Define application categories

    1.5 Determine APM steps and roles

    2.1 Populate your inventory

    2.2 Align to business capabilities

    3.1 Assess business value

    3.2 Assess technical health

    3.3 Assess end-user perspective

    3.4 Assess total cost of ownership

    4.1 Review APM Snapshot results

    4.2 Review APM Foundations results

    4.3 Determine dispositions

    4.4 Assess redundancies (optional)

    4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional)

    4.6 Prioritize initiatives

    4.7 Determine ongoing APM cadence

    • Complete in-progress deliverables from the previous four days.
    • Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss the next steps.

    Outcomes

    Work with the appropriate management stakeholders to:

    1. Extract key business priorities
    2. Set your goals
    3. Agree on key terms and set the scope for your APM effort

    Work with your applications team to:

    1. Build a detailed inventory
    2. Identify areas of redundancy

    Work with the SMEs for a subset of applications to:

    1. Define your rationalization criteria, descriptions, and scoring
    2. Evaluate each application using rationalization criteria

    Work with application delivery specialists to:

    1. Determine the appropriate disposition for your apps
    2. Build an initial application portfolio roadmap
    3. Establish an ongoing cadence of APM activities

    Info-Tech analysts complete:

    1. Workshop report
    2. APM Snapshot and Foundations Toolset
    3. Action plan

    Note: The workshop will focus on a subset or group of applications depending on the state of your current APM inventory and available time. The goal is to use this first group to build your APM process and models to support your ongoing discovery, rationalization, and modernization efforts.

    Workshop Options

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

    Outcomes

    1-Day Snapshot

    3-Day Snapshot and Foundations (Key Apps)

    4-Day Snapshot and Foundations (Pilot Area)

    APM Snapshot

    • Align applications to business capabilities
    • Evaluate application support for business capabilities

    APM Foundations

    • Define your APM program and cadence
    • Rationalize applications using weighted criteria
    • Define application dispositions
    • Build an application roadmap aligned to initiatives

    Establish APM practice with a small sample set of apps and capabilities.

    Establish APM practice with a pilot group of apps and capabilities.

    Blueprint Pre-Step: Get the right stakeholders to the right exercises

    The image contains four steps and demonstrates who should be handling each exercise. 1. Lay Your Foundations, is to be handled by the APM Lead/Owner and the Key Corporate Stakeholders. 2. Improve Your Inventory, is to be handled by the APM Lead/Owner and the Applications Subject Matter Experts. 3. Rationalize Your Apps, is to be handled by the APM Lead/Owner, the Applications Subject Matter Experts, and the Delivery Leads. 4. Populate Your Roadmap, is to be handled by the APM Lead/Owner, the Key Corporate Stakeholders, and the Delivery Leads.

    APM Lead/Owner (Recommended)

    ☐ Applications Lead or the individual responsible for application portfolio management, along with any applications team members, if available

    Key Corporate Stakeholders

    Depending on size and structure, participants could include:

    ☐ Head of IT (CIO, CTO, IT Director, or IT Manager)

    ☐ Head of shared services (CFO, COO, VP HR, etc.)

    ☐ Compliance Officer, Steering Committee

    ☐ Company owner or CEO

    Application Subject Matter Experts

    Individuals who have familiarity with a specific subset of applications

    ☐ Business owners (product owners, Head of Business Function, power users)

    ☐ Support owners (Operations Manager, IT Technician)

    Delivery Leads

    ☐ Development Managers

    ☐ Solution Architects

    ☐ Project Managers

    Understand your APM tools and outcomes

    1.Diagnostic The image contains a screenshot of the diagnostic APM tool.

    5. Foundations: Chart

    The image contains a screenshot of the Foundations: Chart APM tool.

    2. Data Journey

    The image contains a screenshot of the data journey APM tool.

    6. App Comparison

    The image contains a screenshot of the App Comparison APM tool.

    3. Snapshot

    The image contains a screenshot of the snapshot APM tool.

    7. Roadmap

    The image contains a screenshot of the Roadmap APM tool.

    4. Foundations: Results

    The image contains a screenshot of the Foundations: Results APM Tool.

    Examples and explanations of these tools are located on the following slides and within the phases where they occur.

    Assess your current application portfolio with Info-Tech’s APM Diagnostic Tool

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM Diagnostic Tool.

    One of the primary purposes of application portfolio management is to get what we know and need to know on paper so we can share a common vision and understanding of our portfolio. This enables better discussions and decisions with your application owners and stakeholders.

    APM worksheet data journey map

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM worksheet data journey map.

    Interpreting your APM Snapshot results

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM snapshots results.

    Interpreting your APM Foundations results

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM Foundations results.

    Interpreting your APM Foundations chart

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM Foundations chart.

    Compare application groups

    Group comparison can be used for more than just redundant/overlapping applications.

    The image contains a screenshot of images that demonstrate comparing application groups.

    Apply Info-Tech’s 6 R’s Rationalization Disposition Model

    The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's 6 R's Rationalization Disposition Model.

    Disposition

    Description

    Reward

    Prioritize new features or enhancement requests and openly welcome the expansion of these applications as new requests are presented.

    Refresh

    Address the poor end-user satisfaction with a prioritized project. Consult with users to determine if UX issues require improvement to address satisfaction.

    Refocus

    Determine the root cause of the low value. Refocus, retrain, or refresh the UX to improve value. If there is no value found, aim to "keep the lights on" until the app can be decommissioned.

    Replace

    Replace or rebuild the application as technical and user issues are putting important business capabilities at risk. Decommission application alongside replacement.

    Remediate

    Address the poor technical health or risk with a prioritized project. Further consult with development and technical teams to determine if migration or refactoring is suited to address the technical issue.

    Retire

    Cancel any requested features and enhancements. Schedule the proper decommission and transfer end users to a new or alternative system if necessary.

    TCO, compared relatively to business value, helps determine the practicality of a disposition and the urgency of any call to action. Application alignment is factored in when assessing redundancies and has a separate set of dispositions.

    Populate roadmap example

    The image contains an example of the populate roadmap.

    ARE YOU READY TO GET STARTED?

    Phase 1

    Lay Your Foundations

    Phase 1

    1.1 Assess Your Current Application Portfolio

    1.2 Determine Narrative

    1.3 Define Goals and Metrics

    1.4 Define Application Categories

    1.5 Determine APM Steps and Roles

    Phase 2

    2.1 Populate Your Inventory

    2.2 Align to Business Capabilities

    Phase 3

    3.1 Assess Business Value

    3.2 Assess Technical Health

    3.3 Assess End-User Perspective

    3.4 Assess Total Cost of Ownership

    Phase 4

    4.1 Review APM Snapshot Results

    4.2 Review APM Foundations Results

    4.3 Determine Dispositions

    4.4 Assess Redundancies (Optional)

    4.5 Determine Dispositions for Redundant Applications (Optional)

    4.6 Prioritize Initiatives

    4.7 Determine Ongoing APM Cadence

    This phase involves the following participants:

    Applications Lead

    Key Corporate Stakeholders

    Additional Resources

    APM supports many goals

    Building an APM process requires a proper understanding of the underlying business goals and objectives of your organization’s strategy. Effectively identifying these drivers is paramount to gaining buy-in and the approval for any changes you plan to make to your application portfolio.

    After identifying these goals, you will need to ensure they are built into the foundations of your APM process.

    “What is most critical?” but also “What must come first?”

    Discover

    Improve

    Transform

    Collect Inventory

    Uncover Shadow IT

    Uncover Redundancies

    Anticipate Upgrades

    Predict Retirement

    Reduce Cost

    Increase Efficiency

    Reduce Applications

    Eliminate Redundancy

    Limit Risk

    Improve Architecture

    Modernize

    Enable Scalability

    Drive Business Growth

    Improve UX

    Assess your current application portfolio with Info-Tech’s APM Diagnostic Tool

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM Diagnostic Tool.

    One of the primary purposes of application portfolio management is to get what we know and need to know on paper so we can share a common vision and understanding of our portfolio. This enables better discussions and decisions with your application owners and stakeholders.

    1.1 Assess your current application portfolio with Info-Tech’s diagnostic tool

    Estimated time: 1 hour

    1. This tool provides visibility into your application portfolio and APM practices.
    2. Based on your assessment, you should gain a better understanding of whether the appropriate next steps are in application discovery, rationalization, or roadmapping.
    3. Complete the “Data Entry” worksheet in the Application Portfolio Management Diagnostic Tool (Excel).
    4. Review the “Results” worksheet to help inform and guide your next steps.

    Download the Application Portfolio Management Diagnostic Tool

    Input Output
    • Current APM program
    • Application landscape
    • APM current-state assessment
    Materials Participants
    • Application Portfolio Management Diagnostic Tool
    • Applications Lead

    1.1 Understanding the diagnostic results

    • Managed Apps are your known knowns and most of your portfolio.
    • Unmanaged and Unsanctioned Apps are known but have unknown risks and compliance. Bring these under IT support.
    • Unknown Apps are high risk and noncompliant. Prioritize these based on risk, cost, and use.
    The image contains a screenshot of the diagnostic APM tool.
    • APM is more than an inventory and assessment. A strong APM program provides ongoing visibility and insights to drive application improvement and value delivery.
    • Use your Sprawl Factors to identify process and organizational gaps that may need to be addressed.
    • Your APM inventory is only as good as the information in it. Use this chart to identify gaps and develop a path to define missing information.
    • APM is an iterative process. Use this state assessment to determine where to focus most of your current effort.

    Understand potential motivations for APM

    The value of APM is defined by how the information will be used to drive better decisions.

    Portfolio Governance

    Transformative Initiatives

    Event-Driven Rationalization

    Improves:

    • Spending efficiency
    • Risk
    • Retirement of aged and low-value applications
    • Business enablement

    Impact on your rationalization framework:

    • Less urgent
    • As rigorous as appropriate
    • Apply in-depth analysis as needed

    Enables:

    • Data migration or harmonization
    • Legacy modernization
    • Infrastructure/cloud migration
    • Standardizing platforms
    • Shift to cloud and SAAS

    Impact on your rationalization framework:

    • Time sensitive
    • Scope on impacted areas
    • Need to determine specific dispositions
    • Outcomes need to include detailed and actionable steps

    Responds to:

    • Mergers and acquisitions
    • Regulatory and compliance change
    • New applications
    • Application retirement by vendors
    • Changes in business operations
    • Security risks and BC/DR

    Impact on your rationalization framework:

    • Time constrained
    • Lots of discovery work
    • Primary focus on duplication
    • Increased process and system understanding

    Different motivations will influence the appropriate approach to and urgency of APM or, specifically, rationalizing the portfolio. When rationalizing is directly related to enabling or in response to a broader initiative, you will need to create a more structured approach with a formal budget and resources.

    1.2 Determine narrative

    Estimated time: 30 minutes-2 hours

    1. Open the “Narrative” tab in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool.
    2. Start by listing your prevailing IT pain points with the application portfolio. These will be the issues experienced predominantly by the IT team and not necessarily by the stakeholders. Be sure to distinguish pain points from their root causes.
    3. Determine an equivalent business pain point for each IT pain point. This should be how the problem manifests itself to business stakeholders and should include potential risks to the organization is exposed to.
    4. Determine the business goal for each business pain point. Ideally, these are established organizational goals that key decision-makers will recognize. These goals should address the business pain points you have documented.
    5. Determine the technical objective for each business goal. These speak to the general corrections or enhancements to the portfolio required to accomplish the business goals.
    6. Use the “Narrative - Matrix” worksheet to group items into themes if needed.

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    Input Output
    • Familiarity with application landscape
    • Organizational context and strategic artifacts
    • Narrative for application portfolio transformation
    Materials Participants
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Application Portfolio Manager

    Connect your pains to what the business cares about to find the most effective narrative

    Root Cause

    IT Pain Points

    Business Pain Points

    Business Goals

    Narrative

    Technical Objectives

    Sprawl

    Shadow IT/decentralized oversight

    Neglect over time

    Poor delivery processes

    Back-End Complexity

    Disparate Data/Apps

    Poor Architectural Fit

    Redundancy

    Maintenance Demand/
    Resource Drain

    Low Maintainability

    Technical Debt

    Legacy, Aging, or Expiring Apps

    Security Vulnerabilities

    Unsatisfied Customers

    Hurdles to Growth/Change

    Poor Business Analytics

    Process Inefficiency

    Software Costs

    Business Continuity Risk

    Data Privacy Risk

    Data/IP Theft Risk

    Poor User Experience

    Low-Value Apps

    Scalability

    Flexibility/Agility

    Data-Driven Insights

    M&A Transition

    Business Unit Consolidation/ Centralization

    Process Improvement

    Process Modernization

    Cost Reduction

    Stability

    Customer Protection

    Security

    Employee Enablement

    Business Enablement

    Innovation

    Create Strategic Alignment

    Identify specific business capabilities that are incompatible with strategic initiatives.

    Reduce Application Intensity

    Highlight the capabilities that are encumbered due to functional overlaps and complexity.

    Reduce Software Costs

    Specific business capabilities come at an unnecessarily or disproportionately high cost.

    Mitigate Business Continuity Risk

    Specific business capabilities are at risk of interruption or stoppages due to unresolved back-end issues.

    Mitigate Security Risk

    Specific business capabilities are at risk due to unmitigated security vulnerabilities or breaches.

    Increase Satisfaction Applications

    Specific business capabilities are not achieving their optimal business value.

    Platform Standardization

    Platform Standardization Consolidation

    Data Harmonization

    Removal/Consolidation of Redundant Applications

    Legacy Modernization

    Application Upgrades

    Removal of Low-Value Applications

    1.3 Define goals and metrics

    Estimated time: 1 hour

    1. Determine the motivations behind APM. You may want to collect and review any of the organization’s strategic documents that provide additional context on previously established goals.
    2. With the appropriate stakeholders, discuss the goals of APM. Try to label your goals as either:
      1. Short term: Refers to immediate goals used to represent the progress of APM activities. Likely these goals are more IT-oriented
      2. Long term: Refers to broader and more distant goals more related to the impact of APM. These goals tend to be more business-oriented.
    3. To help clearly define your goals, discuss appropriate metrics for each goal. Often these metrics can be expressed as:
      1. Leading indicators: Metrics used to gauge the success of your short-term goals and the progress of APM activities.
      2. Lagging indicators: Metrics used to gauge the success of your long-term goals.

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    Input Output
    • Overarching organizational strategy
    • IT strategy
    • Defined goals and metrics for APM
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Applications Lead
    • Key Corporate Stakeholders

    1.3 Define goals and metrics: Example

    Goals

    Metric

    Target

    Short Term

    Improve ability to inform the business

    Leading Indicators

    • Application inventory with all data fields completed
    • Applications with recommended dispositions
    • 80% of portfolio

    Improve ownership of applications

    • Applications with an assigned business and technical owner
    • 80% of portfolio

    Reduce costs of portfolio

    • TCO of full application portfolio
    • The number of recovered/avoided software licenses from retired apps
    • Reduce by 5%
    • $50,000

    Long Term

    Migrate platform

    Lagging Indicators

    • Migrate all applications
    • Total value change in on-premises apps switched to SaaS
    • 100% of applications
    • Increase 50%

    Improve overall satisfaction with portfolio

    • End-user satisfaction rating
    • Increase 25%

    Become more customer-centric

    • Increased sales
    • Increased customer experience
    • Increase 35%

    “Application” doesn’t have the same meaning to everyone

    The image contains a picture of Martin Fowler.

    Code: A body of code that's seen by developers as a single unit.

    Functionality: A group of functionality that business customers see as a single unit.

    Funding: An initiative that those with the money see as a single budget.

    ?: What else?

    “Essentially applications are social constructions.

    Source: Martin Fowler

    APM focuses on business applications.

    “Software used by business users to perform a business function.”

    – ServiceNow, 2020

    Unfortunately, that definition is still quite vague.

    You must set boundaries and scope for “application”

    1. Many individual items can be considered applications on their own or components within or associated with an application.

    2. Different categories of applications may be out of scope or handled differently within the activities and artifacts of APM.

    Different categories of applications may be out of scope or handled differently within the activities and artifacts of APM.

    • Interface
    • Software Component
    • Supporting Software
    • Platform
    • Presentation Layer
    • Middleware
    • Micro Service
    • Database
    • UI
    • API
    • Data Access/ Transfer/Load
    • Operating System

    Apps can be categorized by generic categories

    • Enterprise Applications
    • Unique Function-Specific Applications
    • Productivity Tools
    • Customer-Facing Applications
    • Mobile Applications

    Apps can be categorized by bought vs. built or install types

    • Custom
    • On-Prem
    • Off the Shelf
    • SaaS
    • Hybrid
    • End-User-Built Tools

    Apps can be categorized by the application family

    • Parent Application
    • Child Application
    • Package
    • Module
    • Suite
    • Component (Functional)

    Apps can be categorized by the group managing them

    • IT-Managed Applications
    • Business-Managed Applications (Shadow IT)
    • Partner/External Applications

    Apps can be categorized by tiers

    • Mission Critical
    • Tier 2
    • Tier 3

    Set boundaries on what is an application or the individual unit that you’re making business decisions on. Also, determine which categories of applications are in scope and how they will be included in the activities and artifacts of APM. Use your product families defined in Deliver Digital Products at Scale to help define your application categories, groups, and boundaries.

    1.4 Define application categories

    Estimated time: 1 hour

    1. Review the items listed on the previous slide and consider what categories provide the best initial grouping to help organize your rationalization and dispositions. Update the category list to match your application groupings.
    2. Identify the additional categories you need to manage in your application portfolio.
    3. For each category, establish or modify a description or definition and provide examples that exist in your current portfolio.
    4. For each category, answer:
      1. Will these be documented in the application inventory?
      2. Will these be included in application rationalization? Think about if this item will be assigned a TCO, value score, and, ultimately, a disposition.
      3. Will these be listed in the application portfolio roadmap?
    5. If you completed Deliver Digital Products at Scale, use your product families to help define your application categories.

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    InputOutput
    • Working list of applications
    • Definitions and guidelines for which application categories are in scope for APM
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard and markers
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Applications Lead
    • Key Corporate Stakeholders

    1.4 APM worksheet data journey map

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM worksheet data journey map.

    1.4 Define application categories: Example

    Category

    Definition/Description

    Examples

    Documented in your application inventory?

    Included in application rationalization?

    Listed in your application portfolio roadmap?

    Business Application

    End-user facing applications that directly enable specific business functions. This includes enterprise-wide and business-function-specific applications. Separate modules will be considered a business application when appropriate.

    ERP system, CRM software, accounting software

    Yes

    Yes. Unless currently in dev. TCO of the parent application will be divided among child apps.

    Yes

    Software Components

    Back-end solutions are self-contained units that support business functions.

    ETL, middleware, operating systems

    No. Documentation in CMDB. These will be listed as a dependency in the application inventory.

    No. These will be linked to a business app and included in TCO estimates and tech health assessments.

    No

    Productivity Tools

    End-user-facing applications that enable standard communication of general document creation.

    MS Word, MS Excel, corporate email

    Yes

    No

    Yes

    End-User- Built Microsoft Tools

    Single instances of a Microsoft tool that the business has grown dependent on.

    Payroll Excel tool, Access databases

    No. Documentation in Business Tool Glossary.

    No No

    Partner Applications

    Partners or third-party applications that the business has grown dependent on but are internally owned or managed.

    Supplier’s ERP portal, government portal

    No No

    Yes

    Shadow IT

    Business-managed applications.

    Downloaded tools

    Yes

    Yes. However, just from a redundancy perspective.

    Yes

    The roles in APM rarely exist; you need to adapt

    Application Portfolio Manager

    • Responsible for the health and evolution of the application portfolio.
    • Facilitates the rationalization process.
    • Compiles and assesses application information and recommends and supports key decisions regarding the direction of the applications.
    • This is rarely a dedicated role even in large enterprises. For small enterprises, this should be an IT employee at a manager level – an IT manager or operations manager.

    Business Owner

    • Responsible for managing individual applications on a functional level and approves and prioritizes projects.
    • Provides business process or functional subject matter expertise for the assessment of applications.
    • For small enterprises, this role is rarely defined, but the responsibility should exist. Consider the head of a business unit or a process owner as the owner of the application.

    Support Owner

    • Responsible for the maintenance and management of individual applications.
    • Provides technical information and subject matter expertise for the assessment of an application.
    • For small enterprises, this would be those responsible for maintaining the application and those responsible for its initial implementation. Often support responsibilities are external, and this role will be more of a vendor manager.

    Project Portfolio Manager

    • Responsible for intake, planning, and coordinating the resources that deliver any changes.
    • The body that consumes the results of rationalization and begins planning any required action or project.
    • For small enterprises, the approval process can come from a steering committee but it is often less formal. Often a smaller group of project managers facilitates planning and coordination and works closely with the delivery leads.

    Corner-of-the-Desk Approach

    • No one is explicitly dedicated to building a strategy or APM practices.
    • Information is collected whenever the applications team has time available.
    • Benefits are pushed out and the value is lost.

    Dedicated Approach

    • The initiative is given a budget and formal agenda.
    • Roles and responsibilities are assigned to team members.

    The high-level steps of APM present some questions you need to answer

    Build Inventory

    Create the full list of applications and capture all necessary attributes.

    • Who will build the inventory?
    • Do you know all your applications (Shadow IT)?
    • Do you know your applications’ functionality?
    • Do you know where your applications overlap?
    • Who do you need to consult with to fill in the gaps?
    • Who will provide specific application information?

    Collect & Compile

    Engage with appropriate SMEs and collect necessary data points for rationalization.

    • Who will collect and compile the data points for rationalization?
    • What are the specific data points?
    • Are some of the data points currently documented?
    • Who will provide specific data points on technical health, cost, performance, and business value?
    • Who will determine what business value is?

    Assess & Recommend

    Apply rationalization framework and toolset to determine dispositions.

    • Who will apply a rationalization tool or decision-making framework to generate dispositions for the applications?
    • Who will modify the tool or framework to ensure results align to the goals of the organization?
    • Who will define any actions or projects that result from the rationalization? And who needs to be consulted to assess the feasibility of any potential project?

    Validate & Roadmap

    Present dispositions for validation and communicate any decisions or direction for applications.

    • Who will present the recommended disposition, corrective action, or new project to the appropriate decision maker?
    • Who is the appropriate decision maker for application changes or project approval?
    • What format is recommended (idea, proposal, business case) and what extra analysis is required?
    • Who needs to be consulted regarding the potential changes?

    1.5 Determine APM steps and roles (SIPOC)

    Estimated time: 1-2 hours

    1. Begin by comparing Info-Tech’s list of common APM roles to the roles that exist in your organization with respect to application management and ownership.
    2. There are four high-level steps for APM: build inventory, collect & compile, assess & recommend, and validate & roadmap. Apply the SIPOC (Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer) model by completing the following for each step:
      1. In the Process column, modify the description, if necessary. Identify who is responsible for performing the step.
      2. In the Inputs column, modify the list of inputs.
      3. In the Suppliers column, identify who must be included to provide the inputs.
      4. In the Outputs column, modify the list of outputs.
      5. In the Customers column, identify who consumes the outputs.
    3. (Optional) Outline how the results of APM will be consumed. For example, project intake or execution, data or platform migration, application or product management, or whichever is appropriate.

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    Input Output
    • Existing function and roles regarding application delivery, management, and ownership
    • Scope of APM
    • Responsibilities assigned to your roles
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard and markers
    • “Supporting Activities – SIPOC” worksheet in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Applications Lead
    • Key Corporate Stakeholders

    1.5 Determine steps and roles

    Suppliers

    Inputs

    Process

    Outputs

    Customers

    • Applications Manager
    • Operations Manager
    • Business Owners
    • IT Team
    • List of applications
    • Application attributes
    • Business capabilities

    Build Inventory

    Create the full list of applications and capture all necessary attributes.

    Resp: Applications Manager & IT team member

    • Application inventory
    • Identified redundancies
    • Whole organization
    • Applications SMEs
    • Business Owners
    • Support Owners & Team
    • End Users
    • Application inventory
    • Existing documentation
    • Additional collection methods
    • Knowledge of business value, cost, and performance for each application

    Collect & Compile

    Engage with appropriate SMEs and collect necessary data points for rationalization.

    Resp: IT team member

    • Data points of business value, cost, and performance for each application
    • Applications Manager
    • Applications Manager
    • Defined application rationalization framework and toolset
    • Data points of business value, cost, and performance for each application

    Assess & Recommend

    Apply rationalization framework and toolset to determine dispositions.

    Resp: Applications Manager

    • Assigned disposition for each application
    • New project ideas for applications
    • Business Owners
    • Steering Committee
    • Business Owners
    • Steering Committee
    • Assigned disposition for each application
    • New project ideas for applications
    • Awareness of goals and priorities
    • Awareness of existing projects and resources capacity

    Validate & Roadmap

    Present dispositions for validation and communicate any decisions or direction for applications.

    Resp: Applications Manager

    • Application portfolio roadmap
    • Confirmed disposition for each application
    • Project request submission
    • Whole organization
    • Applications Manager
    • Solutions Engineer
    • Business Owner
    • Project request submission
    • Estimated cost
    • Estimated value or ROI

    Project Intake

    Build business case for project request.

    Resp: Project Manager

    • Approved project
    • Steering Committee

    Planning your APM modernization journey steps

    Discovery Rationalization Disposition Roadmap

    Enter your pilot inventory.

    • Optional Snapshot: Populate your desired snapshot grouping lists (departments, functions, groups, capabilities, etc.).

    Score your pilot apps to refine your rationalization criteria and scoring.

    • Score 3 to 9 apps to adjust and get comfortable with the scoring.
    • Validate scoring with the remaining apps in your pilot group. Refine and finalize the criteria and scoring descriptions.
    • Optional Snapshot: Use the Group Alignment Matrix to match your grouping list to select which apps support each grouping item.

    Determine recommended disposition for each application.

    • Review and adjust the disposition recommendations on the “Disposition Options” worksheet and set your pass/fail threshold.
    • Review your apps on the “App Rationalization Results” worksheet. Update (override) the recommended disposition and priority if needed.

    Populate your application roadmap.

    • Indicate programs, projects, initiatives, or releases that are planned for each app.
    • Update the priority based on the initiative.
    • Use the visual roadmap to show high-level delivery phases.

    Phase 2

    Improve Your Inventory

    Phase 1

    1.1 Assess Your Current Application Portfolio

    1.2 Determine Narrative

    1.3 Define Goals and Metrics

    1.4 Define Application Categories

    1.5 Determine APM Steps and Roles

    Phase 2

    2.1 Populate Your Inventory

    2.2 Align to Business Capabilities

    Phase 3

    3.1 Assess Business Value

    3.2 Assess Technical Health

    3.3 Assess End-User Perspective

    3.4 Assess Total Cost of Ownership

    Phase 4

    4.1 Review APM Snapshot Results

    4.2 Review APM Foundations Results

    4.3 Determine Dispositions

    4.4 Assess Redundancies (Optional)

    4.5 Determine Dispositions for Redundant Applications (Optional)

    4.6 Prioritize Initiatives

    4.7 Determine Ongoing APM Cadence

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Applications Lead
    • Applications Team

    Additional Resources

    Document Your Business Architecture

    Industry Reference Architectures

    Application Capability Template

    Pre-step: Collect your applications

    1. Consult with your IT team and leverage any existing documentation to gather an initial list of your applications.
    2. Build an initial working list of applications. This is just meant to be a starting point. Aim to include any new applications in procurement, implementation, or development.
    3. The rationalization and roadmapping phases are best completed when iteratively focusing on manageable groups of applications. Group your applications into subsets based on shared subject matter experts. Likely this will mean grouping applications by business units.
    4. Select a subset to be the first group of applications that will undergo the activities of rationalization and roadmapping to refine your APM processes, scoring, and disposition selection.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    The more information you plan to capture, the larger the time and effort, especially as you move along toward advanced and strategic items. Capture the information most aligned to your objectives to make the most of your investment.

    If you completed Deliver Digital Products at Scale, use your product families and products to help define your applications.

    Learn more about automated application discovery:
    High Application Satisfaction Starts With Discovering Your Application Inventory

    Discover your applications

    The image contains a screenshot of examples of applications that support APM.

    2.1 Populate your inventory

    Estimated time: 1-4 hours per group

    1. Review Info-Tech’s list of application inventory attributes.
    2. Open the “Application Inventory Details” tab of the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool. Modify, add, or omit attributes.
    3. For each application, populate your prioritized data fields or any fields you know at the time of discovery. You will complete all the fields in future iterations.
    4. Complete this the best you can based on your team’s familiarity and any readily available documentation related to these applications.
    5. Use the drop-down list to select Enabling, Redundant/Overlapping, and Dependent apps. This will be used to help determine dispositions and comparisons.
    6. Highlight missing information or placeholder values that need to be verified.

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    Input Output
    • Working list of applications
    • Determined attributes for inventory
    • Populated inventory
    Materials Participants
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    2.1 APM worksheet data journey map

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM worksheet data journey map.

    Why is the business capability so important?

    For the purposes of an inventory, business capabilities help all stakeholders gain a sense of the functionality the application provides.

    However, the true value of business capability comes with rationalization.

    Upon linking all the organization’s applications to a standardized and consistent set of business capabilities, you can then group your applications based on similar, complementary, or overlapping functionality. In other words, find your redundancies and consolidation opportunities.

    Important Consideration

    Defining business capabilities and determining the full extent of redundancy is a challenging undertaking and often is a larger effort than APM all together.

    Business capabilities should be defined according to the unique functions and language of your organization, at varying levels of granularity, and ideally including target-state capabilities that identify gaps in the future strategy.

    This blueprint provides a simplified and generic list for the purpose of categorizing similar functionality. We strongly encourage exploring Document Your Business Architecture to help in the business capability defining process, especially when visibility into your portfolio and knowledge of redundancies is poor.

    The image contains a screenshot of the business capability scenarios.

    For a more detailed capability mapping, use the Application Portfolio Snapshot and the worksheets in your current workbook.

    What is a business capability map?

    The image contains a screenshot of a business capability map.

    A business capability map (BCM) is an abstraction of business operations that helps describe what the enterprise does to achieve its vision, mission, and goals. Business capabilities are the building blocks of the enterprise. They are typically defined at varying levels of granularity and include target-state capabilities that identify gaps in the future strategy. These are the people, process, and tool units that deliver value to your teams and customers.

    Info-Tech’s Industry Coverage and Reference Architectures give you a head start on producing a BCM fit for your organization. The visual to the left is an example of a reference architecture for the retail industry.

    These are the foundational piece for our Application Portfolio Snapshot. By linking capabilities to your supporting applications, you can better visualize how the portfolio supports the organization at a single glance. More specifically, you can highlight how issues with the portfolio are impacting capability delivery.

    Reminder: Best practices imply that business capabilities are methodologically defined by business stakeholders and business architects to capture the unique functions and language of your organization.

    The approach laid out in this service is about applying minimal time and effort to make the case for proper investment into the best practices, which can include creating a tailored BCM. Start with a good enough example to produce a useful visual and generate a positive conversation toward resourcing and analyses.

    We strongly encourage exploring Document Your Business Architecture and the Application Portfolio Snapshot to understand the thorough methods and tactics for BCM.

    Why perform a high-level application alignment before rationalization?

    Having to address redundancy complicates the application rationalization process. There is no doubt that assessing applications in isolation is much easier and allows you to arrive at dispositions for your applications in a timelier manner.

    Rationalization has two basic steps: first, collect and compile information, and second, analyze that information and determine a disposition for each application. When you don’t have redundancy, you can analyze an application and determine a disposition in isolation. When you do have redundancies, you need to collect information for multiple applications, likely across departments or lines of business, then perform a comparative analysis.

    Most likely your approach will fall somewhere between the examples below and require a hybrid approach.

    Benefits of a high-level application alignment:

    • Review the degree of redundancy across your portfolio.
    • Understand the priority areas for rationalization and the sequence of information collection.

    The image contains a screenshot of a timeline of rationalization effort.

    2.2 Align apps to capabilities and functions

    Estimated time: 1-4 hours per grouping

    The APM tool provides up to three different grouping comparisons to assess how well your applications are supporting your enterprise. Although business capabilities are important, identify your organizational perspectives to determine how well your portfolio supports these functions, departments, or value streams. Each grouping should be a consistent category, type, or arrangement of applications.

    1. Enter the business capabilities, from either your own BCM or the Info-Tech reference architectures, into the Business Capability column under Grouping 1.
    2. Open the “Group 1 Alignment Matrix” worksheet in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool.
    3. For each application’s row, enter an “X” in the column of a capability that the application supports.
    4. Optionally, repeat these steps under Grouping 2 and 3 for each value stream, department, function, or business unit where you’d like to assess application support. Note: To use Grouping 3, unhide the columns on the “Application and Group Lists” worksheet and unhide the worksheet “Grouping 3 Alignment Matrix.”

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    InputOutput
    • Application inventory
    • List of business capabilities, Info-Tech Reference Architecture capabilities, departments, functions, divisions, or value streams for grouping comparison
    • Assigned business capabilities to applications
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard and markers
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    2.2 APM worksheet data journey map

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM worksheet data journey map.

    2.2 Aligning applications to groups example

    Alignment Matrix: Identify applications supporting each capability or function.

    Capability, Department, or Function 1

    Capability, Department, or Function 2

    Capability, Department, or Function 3

    Capability, Department, or Function 4

    Capability, Department, or Function 5

    Capability, Department, or Function 6

    Application A

    x

    Application B

    x

    Application C

    x

    Application D

    x

    Application E

    x x

    Application F

    x

    Application G

    x

    Application H

    x

    Application I

    x

    Application J

    x

    In this example:

    BC 1 is supported by App A

    BC 2 is supported by App B

    BC 3 is supported by Apps C & D

    BCs 4 & 5 are supported by App E

    BC 6 is supported by Apps F-G. BC 6 shows an example of potential redundancy and portfolio complexity.

    The APM tool supports three different Snapshot groupings. Repeat this exercise for each grouping.

    Align application to capabilities – tool view

    The image contains screenshots of the align application to capabilities - tool view

    Phase 3

    Rationalize Your Applications

    Phase 1

    1.1 Assess Your Current Application Portfolio

    1.2 Determine Narrative

    1.3 Define Goals and Metrics

    1.4 Define Application Categories

    1.5 Determine APM Steps and Roles

    Phase 2

    2.1 Populate Your Inventory

    2.2 Align to Business Capabilities

    Phase 3

    3.1 Assess Business Value

    3.2 Assess Technical Health

    3.3 Assess End-User Perspective

    3.4 Assess Total Cost of Ownership

    Phase 4

    4.1 Review APM Snapshot Results

    4.2 Review APM Foundations Results

    4.3 Determine Dispositions

    4.4 Assess Redundancies (Optional)

    4.5 Determine Dispositions for Redundant Applications (Optional)

    4.6 Prioritize Initiatives

    4.7 Determine Ongoing APM Cadence

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Applications Lead
    • Application SMEs

    Additional Resources

    Phase pre-step: Sequence rationalization assessments appropriately

    Use the APM Snapshot results to determine APM iterations

    • Application rationalization requires an iterative approach.
    • Review your application types and alignment from Phase 2 to begin to identify areas of overlapping or redundant applications.
    • Sequence the activities of Phase 3 based on whether you have a:
      • Redundant Portfolio
        • Use the APM Snapshot to prioritize analysis by grouping.
        • Complete the application functional analysis.
        • Use the “Application Comparison” worksheet to aid your comparison of application subsets.
        • Update application dispositions and roadmap initiatives.
      • Non-Redundant Portfolio
        • Use the APM Snapshot to prioritize analysis by grouping.
        • Update application dispositions and roadmap initiatives.

    The image contains a screenshot of a timeline of rationalization effort.

    Phase pre-step: Are the right stakeholders present?

    Make sure you have the right people at the table from the beginning.

    • Application rationalization requires specific stakeholders to provide specific data points.
    • Ensure your application subsets are grouped by shared subject matter experts. Ideally, these are grouped by business units.
    • For each subset, identify the appropriate SMEs for the five areas of rationalization criteria.
    • Communicate and schedule interviews with groups of stakeholders. Inform them of additional information sources to have readily available.
    • (Optional) This phase’s activities follow the clockwise sequence of the diagram to the right. Reorder the sequence of activities based on overlaps of availability in subject matter expertise.

    Application

    Rationalization

    Additional Information Sources

    Ideal Stakeholders

    • KPIs

    Business Value

    • Business Application/Product Owners
    • Business Unit/ Process Owners
    • Survey Results

    End User

    • Business Application/ Product Owners
    • Key/Power Users
    • End Users
    • General Ledger
    • Service Desk
    • Vendor Contracts

    TCO

    • Operations/Maintenance Manager
    • Vendor Managers
    • Finance & Acct.
    • Service Desk
    • ALM Tools

    Technical Health

    • Operations/ Maintenance Manager
    • Solution Architect
    • Security Manager
    • Dev. Manager
    • Capability Maps
    • Process Maps

    Application Alignment

    • Business Unit/ Process Owners

    Rationalize your applications

    The image contains screenshots of diagrams that reviews building your APM journey map.

    One of the principal goals of application rationalization is determining dispositions

    Disposition: The intended strategic direction or course of action for an application.

    Directionless portfolio of applications

    Assigned dispositions for individual apps

    High-level examples:

    The image contains a screenshot of an image that demonstrates a directionless portfolio of applications.

    Maintain: Keep the application but adjust its support structure.

    The image contains screenshots of a few images taken from the directionless application to demonstrate the text above.

    Modernize: Create a new project to address an inadequacy.

    The image contains screenshots of a few images taken from the directionless application to demonstrate the text above.

    Consolidate: Create a new project to reduce duplicate functionality.

    The image contains screenshots of a few images taken from the directionless application to demonstrate the text above.

    Retire: Phase out the application.

    The image contains screenshots of a few images taken from the directionless application to demonstrate the text above.

    Application rationalization provides insight

    Directionless portfolio of applications

    Info-Tech’s Five Lens Model

    Assigned dispositions for individual apps

    The image contains a screenshot of an example of directionless portfolio of applications.

    Application Alignment

    Business Value

    Technical Health

    End-User Perspective

    Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

    Maintain: Keep the application but adjust its support structure.

    Modernize: Create a new initiative to address an inadequacy.

    Consolidate: Create a new initiative to reduce duplicate functionality.

    Retire: Phase out the application.

    Disposition: The intended strategic direction or implied course of action for an application.

    How well do your apps support your core functions and teams?

    How well are your apps aligned to value delivery?

    Do your apps meet all IT quality standards and policies?

    How well do your apps meet your end users’ needs?

    What is the relative cost of ownership and operation of your apps?

    Application rationalization requires the collection of several data points that represent these perspectives and act as the criteria for determining a disposition for each of your applications.

    Disposition: The intended strategic direction or implied course of action for an application.

    3.1-3.4 APM worksheet data journey map

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM worksheet data journey map.

    Assessing application business value

    The Business Business Value of Applications IT
    Keepers of the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements that define IT success. The business maintains the overall ownership and evaluation of the applications. Technical subject matter experts of the applications they deliver and maintain. Each IT function works together to ensure quality applications are delivered to stakeholder expectations.

    First, the authorities on business value need to define and weigh their value drivers that describe the priorities of the organization.

    This will then allow the applications team to apply a consistent, objective, and strategically aligned evaluation of applications across the organization.

    In this context…business value is the value of the business outcome that the application produces and how effective the application is at producing that outcome.

    Business value IS NOT the user’s experience or satisfaction with the application.

    Review the value drivers of your applications

    The image contains a screenshot of a the business value matrix.

    Financial vs. Human Benefits

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

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

    Inward vs. Outward Orientation

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

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

    Increased Revenue

    Reduced Costs

    Enhanced Services

    Reach Customers

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

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

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

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

    3.1 Assess business value

    Estimated time: 1 -4 hours

    1. Review Info-Tech’s four quadrants of business value: increase revenue/value, reduce costs, enhance services, and reach customers. Edit your value drivers, description, and scoring on the “Rationalization Inputs” worksheet. For each value driver, update the key indicators specific to your organization’s priorities. When editing the scoring descriptions, keep only the one you are using.
    2. (Optional) Add an additional value driver if your organization has distinct value drivers (e.g. compliance, sustainability, innovation, and growth).
    3. For each application, score on a scale of 0 to 5 how impactful the application is for each value driver. Use the indicators set in Phase 1 to guide your scoring.
    4. For each value driver, adjust the criteria weighting to match its relative importance to the organization. Start with a balanced or low weighting. Adjust the weights to ensure that the category score matches your relative values and priorities.

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    InputOutput
    • Knowledge of organizational priorities
    • (Optional) Existing mission, vision, and value statements
    • Scoring scheme for assessing business value
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard and markers
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Applications Lead
    • Key Corporate Stakeholders

    3.1 Weigh value drivers: Example

    The image contains a screenshot example of the weigh value drivers.

    For additional support in implementing a balanced value framework, refer to Build a Value Measurement Framework.

    Understand the back end and technical health of your applications

    Technical health identifies the extent of technology risk to the organization.

    MAINTAINABILITY (RAS)

    RAS refers to an app’s reliability, availability, and serviceability. How often, how long, and how difficult is it for your resources to keep an app functioning, and what are the resulting continuity risks? This can include root causes of maintenance challenges.

    SECURITY

    Applications should be aligned and compliant with ALL security policies. Are there vulnerabilities or is there a history of security incidents? Remember that threats are often internal and non-malicious.

    ADAPTABILITY

    How easily can the app be enhanced or scaled to meet changes in business needs? Does the app fit within the business strategy?

    INTEROPERABILITY

    The degree to which an app is integrated with current systems. Apps require comprehensive technical planning and oversight to ensure they connect within the greater application architecture. Does the app fit within your enterprise architecture strategy?

    BUSINESS CONTINUITY/DISASTER RECOVERY

    The degree to which the application is compatible with business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) policies and plans that are routinely tested and verified.

    Unfortunately, the business only cares about what they can see or experience. Rationalization is your opportunity to get risk on the business’ radar and gain buy-in for the necessary action.

    3.2 Assess technical health

    Estimated time: 1-4 hours

    1. Review Info-Tech’s suggested technical health criteria. Edit your criteria, descriptions, and scoring on the “Rationalization Inputs” worksheet. For each criterion, update the key indicators specific to your organization’s priorities.
    2. For each application, score on a scale of 1 to 5 on how impactful the application is for each criterion.
    3. For each criterion, adjust the weighting to match its relative importance to the organization. Start with a balanced or low weighting. Adjust the weights to ensure that the category score matches your relative values and priorities.
    InputOutput
    • Familiarity of technical health perspective for applications within this subset
    • Maintenance history, architectural models
    • Technical health scores for each application
    MaterialsParticipants
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Technical SMEs
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    End users provide valuable perspective

    Your end users are your best means of determining front-end issues.

    Data Quality

    To what degree do the end users find the data quality sufficient to perform their role and achieve their desired outcome?

    Effectiveness

    To what degree do the end users find the application effective for performing their role and desired outcome?

    Usability

    To what degree do the end users find the application reliable and easy to use to achieve their desired outcome?

    Satisfaction

    To what degree are end users satisfied with the features of this application?

    What else matters to you?

    Tune your criteria to match your values and priorities.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    When facing large user groups, do not make assumptions or use lengthy methods of collecting information. Use Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment to collect data by surveying your end users’ perspectives.

    3.3 Assess end-user perspective

    Estimated time: 1-4 hours

    1. Review Info-Tech’s suggested end-user perspective criteria. Edit your criteria, descriptions and scoring on the “Rationalization Inputs” worksheet. For each criterion, update the key indicators specific to your organization’s priorities.
    2. For each application, score on a scale of 1 to 5 on how impactful the application is for each criterion.
    3. For each criterion, adjust the weighting to match its relative importance to the organization. Start with a balanced or low weighting. Adjust the weights to ensure that the category score matches your relative values and priorities.
    InputOutput
    • Familiarity of end user’s perspective for applications within this subset
    • User satisfaction scores for each application
    MaterialsParticipants
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Business Owners, Key Users
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    Consider the spectrum of application cost

    An application’s cost extends past a vendor’s fee and even the application itself.

    LICENSING AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: Your recurring payments to a vendor.

    Many commercial off-the-shelf applications require a license on a per-user basis. Review contracts and determine costs by looking at per-user or fixed rates charged by the vendor.

    MAINTENANCE COSTS: Your internal spending to maintain an app.

    These are the additional costs to maintain an application such as support agreements, annual maintenance fees, or additional software or hosting expenses.

    INDIRECT COSTS: Miscellaneous expenses necessary for an app’s continued use.

    Expenses like end-user training, developer education, and admin are often neglected, but they are very real costs organizations pay regularly.

    RETURN ON INVESTMENT: Perceived value of the application related to its TCO.

    Some of our most valuable applications are the most expensive. ROI is an optional criterion to account for the value and importance of the application.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    The TCO assessment is one area where what you are considering the ”application” matters quite a bit. An application’s peripherals or software components need to be considered in your estimates. For additional help calculating TCO, use the Application TCO Calculator from Build a Rationalization Framework.

    3.4 Assess total cost of ownership

    Estimated time: 1-4 hours

    1. Review Info-Tech’s suggested TCO criteria. Edit your criteria, descriptions, and scoring on the “Rationalization Inputs” worksheet. For each criterion, update the key indicators specific to your organization’s priorities.
    2. For each application, score on a scale of 1 to 5 on how impactful the application is for each criterion.
    3. For each criterion, adjust the weighting to match its relative importance to the organization. Start with a balanced or low weighting. Adjust the weights to ensure that the category score matches your relative values and priorities.
    InputOutput
    • Familiarity with the TCO for applications within this subset
    • Vendor contracts, maintenance history
    • TCO scores for each application
    MaterialsParticipants
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Business Owners, Vendor Managers, Operations Managers
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    Phase 4

    Populate Your Roadmap

    Phase 1

    1.1 Assess Your Current Application Portfolio

    1.2 Determine Narrative

    1.3 Define Goals and Metrics

    1.4 Define Application Categories

    1.5 Determine APM Steps and Roles

    Phase 2

    2.1 Populate Your Inventory

    2.2 Align to Business Capabilities

    Phase 3

    3.1 Assess Business Value

    3.2 Assess Technical Health

    3.3 Assess End-User Perspective

    3.4 Assess Total Cost of Ownership

    Phase 4

    4.1 Review APM Snapshot Results

    4.2 Review APM Foundations Results

    4.3 Determine Dispositions

    4.4 Assess Redundancies (Optional)

    4.5 Determine Dispositions for Redundant Applications (Optional)

    4.6 Prioritize Initiatives

    4.7 Determine Ongoing APM Cadence

    his phase involves the following participants:

    • Applications Lead
    • Delivery Leads

    Additional Resources

    Review your APM Snapshot

    The image contains a screenshot of examples of applications that support APM.

    4.1 Review your APM Snapshot results

    Estimated time: 1-2 hours

    1. The APM Snapshot provides a dashboard to support your APM program’s focus and as an input to demand planning. Unhide the “Group 3” worksheet if you completed the alignment matrix.
    2. For each grouping area, review the results to determine underperforming areas. Use this information to prioritize your application root cause analysis and demand planning. Use the key on the following slide to guide your analysis.
    3. Analysis guidance:
      1. Start with the quartile grouping to find areas scoring in Remediate or Critical Need and focus follow-up actions on these areas.
      2. Use the lens/category heat map to determine which lenses are underperforming. Use this to then look up the individual app scores supporting that group to identify application issues.
      3. Use the “Application Comparison” worksheet to select and compare applications for the group to make your review and comparison easier.
      4. Work with teams in the group to provide root cause analysis for low scores.
      5. Build a plan to address any apps not supported by IT.
    InputOutput
    • Application list
    • Application to Group mapping
    • Rationalization scores
    • Awareness of application support for each grouping

    Materials

    Participants
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Business Owners
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    Interpreting your APM Snapshot

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM Snapshot with guides on how to interpret it.

    4.1 APM worksheet data journey map

    The image contains a screenshot of the AMP worksheet data journey map.

    Review your APM rationalization results

    The image contains a screenshot of examples of applications that support APM.

    4.2 Review your APM Foundations results

    Estimated time: 1-2 hours

    The APM Foundations Results dashboard (“App Rationalization Results” worksheet) provides a detailed summary of your relative app scoring to serve as input to demand planning.

    1. For each grouping, review the results to determine underperforming app support. Use this information to prioritize your application root cause analysis using the individual criteria scores on the “Rationalization Inputs” worksheet.
    2. Use guidance on the following example slides to understand each area of the results.
    3. Any applications marked as N/A for evaluation will display N/A on the results worksheet and will not be displayed in the chart. You can still enter dispositions.
    4. Use the column filters to compare a subset of applications or use the “App Comparison” worksheet to maintain an ongoing view by grouping, redundancy, or category.
    5. Any applications marked as N/A for evaluation will display N/A on the results worksheet and will not be displayed in the chart. You can still enter dispositions.
    InputOutput
    • Application list
    • Rationalization scores
    • Application awareness
    MaterialsParticipants
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Business Owners
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    4.2 APM worksheet data journey map

    The image contains a screenshot of the AMP worksheet data journey map.

    Interpreting your APM Foundations results

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM Foundations results.

    Interpreting your APM Foundations chart

    The image contains a screenshot of the APM Foundations chart.

    Modernize your applications

    The image contains a screenshot of examples of applications that support APM.

    Apply Info-Tech’s 6 R’s Rationalization Disposition Model

    The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's 6 R's Rationalization Disposition Model.

    Disposition

    Description

    Reward

    Prioritize new features or enhancement requests and openly welcome the expansion of these applications as new requests are presented.

    Refresh

    Address the poor end-user satisfaction with a prioritized project. Consult with users to determine if UX issues require improvement to address satisfaction.

    Refocus

    Determine the root cause of the low value. Refocus, retrain, or refresh the UX to improve value. If there is no value found, aim to "keep the lights on" until the app can be decommissioned.

    Replace

    Replace or rebuild the application as technical and user issues are putting important business capabilities at risk. Decommission application alongside replacement.

    Remediate

    Address the poor technical health or risk with a prioritized project. Further consult with development and technical teams to determine if migration or refactoring is suited to address the technical issue.

    Retire

    Cancel any requested features and enhancements. Schedule the proper decommission and transfer end users to a new or alternative system if necessary.

    TCO, compared relatively to business value, helps determine the practicality of a disposition and the urgency of any call to action. Application alignment is factored in when assessing redundancies and has a separate set of dispositions.

    4.3 Determine dispositions

    Estimated time: 1-4 hours

    1. The Recommended Disposition and Priority fields are prepopulated from your scoring thresholds and options on the “Disposition Options” worksheet. You can update any individual application disposition or priority using the drop-down menu and it will populate your selection on the “Roadmap” worksheet.
    2. Question if that disposition is appropriate. Be sure to consider:
      1. TCO – cost should come into play for any decisions.
      2. Alignment to strategic goals set for the overarching organizational, IT, technology (infrastructure), or application portfolio.
      3. Existing organizational priorities or funded initiatives impacting the app.
    3. Some dispositions may imply a call to action, new project, or initiative. Ideate and/or discuss with the team any potential initiatives. You can use different dispositions and priorities on the “App Rationalization Results” and “Roadmap” worksheets.
    4. Note: Modify the list of dispositions on the “Disposition Options” worksheet as appropriate for your rationalization initiative. Any modifications to the Disposition column will be automatically updated in the “App Rationalization Results” and “Roadmap” worksheets.
    InputOutput
    • Rationalization results
    • Assigned dispositions for applications
    MaterialsParticipants
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Business Owners
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    4.3 APM worksheet data journey map

    The image contains a screenshot of the worksheet data journey map.

    Redundancies require a different analysis and set of dispositions

    Solving application redundancy is a lot more complicated than simply keeping one application and eliminating the others.

    First, you need to understand the extent of the redundancy. The applications may support the same capability, but do they offer the same functions? Determine which apps offer which functions within a capability. This means you cannot accurately arrive at a disposition until you have evaluated all applications.

    Next, you need to isolate the preferred system. This is completed by comparing the same data points collected for rationalization and the application alignment analysis. Cost and coverage of all necessary functions become the more important factors in this decision-making process.

    Lastly, for the non-preferred redundant applications you need to determine: What will you do with the users? What will you do with the data? And what can you do with the functionality (can the actual coding be merged onto a common platform)?

    Disposition

    Description & Additional Analysis

    Call to Action (Priority)

    Keep & Absorb

    Higher value, health satisfaction, and cost than alternatives

    These are the preferred apps to be kept. However, additional efforts are still required to migrate new users and data and potentially configure the app to new processes.

    Application or Process Initiative

    (Moderate)

    Shift & Retire

    Lower value, health satisfaction, and cost than alternatives

    These apps will be decommissioned alongside efforts to migrate users and data to the preferred system.

    *Confirm there are no unique and necessary features.

    Process Initiative & Decommission

    (Moderate)

    Merge

    Lower value, health satisfaction, and cost than alternatives but still has some necessary unique features

    These apps will be merged with the preferred system onto a common platform.

    *Determine the unique and necessary features.

    *Determine if the multiple applications are compatible for consolidation.

    Application Initiative

    (Moderate)

    Compare groups of applications

    The image contains a screenshot of examples of applications that support APM.

    4.4 Assess redundancies (optional)

    Estimated rime: 1 hour per group

    This exercise is best performed after aligning business capabilities to applications across the portfolio and identifying your areas of redundancy. At this stage, this is still an information collection exercise, and it will not yield a consolidation-based disposition until applied to all relevant applications. Lastly, this exercise may still be at too high a level to outline the full details of redundancy, but it is still vital information to collect and a starting point to determine which areas require more concentrated analysis.

    1. Determine which areas of redundancy or comparisons are desired. Duplicate the “App Comparison” worksheet for each grouping or comparison.
    2. Extend the comparison to better identify redundancy.
      1. For each area of redundancy, identify the high-level features. Aim to limit the features to ten, grouping smaller features if necessary. SoftwareReviews can be a resource for identifying common features.
      2. Label features using the MoSCoW model: must have, should have, could have, will not have.
      3. For each application, identify which features they support. You can use the grouping alignment matrix as a template for feature alignment comparison. Duplicate the worksheet, unlock it, and replace the grouping cell references with your list of features.
    Input Output
    • Areas of redundancy
    • Familiarity with features for applications within this subset
    • Feature-level review of application redundancy
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard and markers
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Business Owners
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    4.4 Assess redundancies (optional)

    Account Management

    Call Management

    Order/Transaction Processing

    Contract Management

    Lead/Opportunity Management

    Forecasting/Planning

    Customer Surveying

    Email Synchronization

    M M M M S S C W

    CRM 1

    CRM 2

    CRM 3

    4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional)

    Estimated time: 1 hour per group

    1. Based on the feature-level assessment, determine if you can omit applications if they don’t truly overlap with other applications.
    2. Make a copy of the “App Comparison” worksheet and select the applications you want to compare based on your functional analysis.
    3. Determine the preferred application(s). Use the diagram to inform your decision. This may be the application closest to the top right (strong health and value). However, less expensive options or any options that provide a more complete set of features may be preferable.
    4. Open the “App Rationalization Results” worksheet. Update your disposition for each application.
    5. Use these updated dispositions to determine a call to action, new project, or initiative. Ideate and/or discuss with the team any potential initiatives. Update your roadmap with these initiatives in the next step.
    InputOutput
    • Feature-level review of application redundancy
    • Redundancy comparison
    • Assigned dispositions for redundant applications
    MaterialsParticipants
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Business Owners
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    Compare application groups

    Group comparison can be used for more than just redundant/overlapping applications.

    The image contains a screenshot of images that demonstrate comparing application groups.

    Roadmaps are used for different purposes

    Roadmaps are used for different communication purposes and at varying points in your application delivery practice. Some use a roadmap to showcase strategy and act as a feedback mechanism that allows stakeholders to validate any changes (process 1). Others may use it to illustrate and communicate approved and granular elements of a change to an application to inform appropriate stakeholders of what to anticipate (process 2).

    Select Dispositions & Identify New Initiatives

    Add to Roadmap

    Validate Direction

    Plan Project

    Execute Project

    Select Dispositions & Identify New Initiatives

    • Project Proposal
    • Feasibility/ Estimation
    • Impact Assessment
    • Business Case
    • Initial Design

    Approve Project

    Add to Roadmap

    Execute Project

    The steps between selecting a disposition and executing on any resulting project will vary based on the organization’s project intake standards (or lack thereof).

    This blueprint focuses on building a strategic portfolio roadmap prior to any in-depth assessments related to initiative/project intake, approval, and prioritization. For in-depth support related to intake, approval, prioritization, or planning, review the following resources.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Deliver on your Digital Product Vision blueprint. The image contains a screenshot of the Deliver Digital Products at Scale blueprint.

    Determine what makes it onto the roadmap

    A roadmap should not be limited to what is approved or committed to. A roadmap should be used to present the items that need to happen and begin the discussion of how or if this can be put into place. However, not every idea should make the cut and end up in front of key stakeholders.

    The image contains a screenshot of steps to be taken to determine what makes it onto the roadmap.

    4.6 Prioritize initiatives

    Estimated time: 1-4 hours

    1. This is a high-level assessment to provide a sense of feasibility, practicality, and priority as well as an estimated timeline of a given initiative. Do not get lost in granular estimations. Use this as an input to your demand planning process.
    2. Enter the specific name or type of initiative.
      1. Process Initiative: Any project or effort focused on process improvements without technical modification to an app (e.g. user migration, change in SLA, new training program). Write the application and initiative name on a blue sticky note.
      2. App Initiative: Any project or effort involving technical modification to an app (e.g. refactoring, platform migration, feature addition or upgrade). Write the application and initiative name on a yellow sticky note.
      3. Decommission Initiative: Any project and related efforts to remove an app (e.g. migrating data, removal from server). Write the application and initiative name on a red sticky note.
    3. Prioritize the initiative to aid in demand planning. This is prepopulated from your selected application disposition, but you can set a different priority for the initiative here.
    4. Select the Initiative Phase in the timeline to show the intended schedule and sequencing of the initiative.
    Input Output
    • Assigned dispositions
    • Rationalization results
    • Prioritized initiatives
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard and markers
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Delivery Leads
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    4.6 APM worksheet data journey map

    The image contains a screenshot of the worksheet data journey map.

    Populate roadmap example

    The image contains an example of the populate roadmap.

    Create a recurring update plan

    • Application inventories become stale before you know it. Build steps in your procurement process to capture the appropriate information on new applications. Also, build in checkpoints to revisit your inventory regularly to assess the accuracy of inventory data.
    • Rationalization is not one and done; it must occur with an appropriate cadence.
      • Business priorities change, which will impact the current and future value of your apps.
      • Now more than ever, user expectations evolve rapidly.
      • Application sprawl likely won’t stop, so neither will shadow IT and redundancies.
      • Obsolescence, growing technical debt, changing security threats, or shifting technology strategies are all inevitable, as is the gradual decline of an app’s health or technical fit.
    • An application’s disposition changes quicker than you think, and rationalization requires a structured cadence. You need to plan to minimize the need for repeated efforts. Conversely, many use preceding iterations to increase the analysis (e.g. more thorough TCO projections or more granular capability-application alignment).
    • Portfolio roadmaps require a cadence for both updates and presentations to stakeholders. Updates are often completed semiannually or quarterly to gauge the business adjustments that affect the timeline of the domain-specific applications. The presentation of a roadmap should be completed alongside meetings or gatherings of key decision makers.
    • M&A or other restructuring events will prompt the need to address all the above.

    The image contains a screenshot of chart to help determine frequency of updating your roadmap.

    Build your APM maturity by taking the right steps at the right time

    The image contains a diagram to demonstrate the steps taken to build APM maturity.

    Info-Tech’s Build an Application Rationalization Framework provides additional TCO and value tools to help build out your portfolio strategy.

    APM is an iterative and evergreen process

    APM provides oversight and awareness of your application portfolio’s performance and support for your business operations and value delivery to all users and customers.

    Determine scope and categories Build your list of applications and capabilities Score each application based on your values Determine outcomes based on app scoring and support for capabilities

    1. Lay Your Foundations

    • 1.1 Assess the state of your current application portfolio
    • 1.2 Determine narrative
    • 1.3 Define goals and metrics
    • 1.4 Define application categories
    • 1.5 Determine APM steps and roles (SIPOC)

    2. Improve Your Inventory

    • 2.1 Populate your inventory
    • 2.2 Align to business capabilities

    3. Rationalize Your Apps

    • 3.1 Assess business value
    • 3.2 Assess technical health
    • 3.3 Assess end-user perspective
    • 3.4 Assess total cost of ownership

    4. Populate Your Roadmap

    • 4.1 Review APM Snapshot results
    • 4.2 Review APM Foundations results
    • 4.3 Determine dispositions
    • 4.4 Assess redundancies (Optional)
    • 4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (Optional)
    • 4.6 Prioritize initiatives
    • 4.7 Ongoing APM cadence

    Repeat according to APM cadence and application changes

    4.7 Ongoing APM cadence

    Estimated time: 1-2 hours

    1. Determine how frequently you will update or present the artifacts of your APM practice: Application Inventory, Rationalization, Disposition, and Roadmap.
    2. For each artifact, determine the:
      1. Owner: Who is accountable for the artifact and the data or information within the artifact and will be responsible for or delegate the responsibility of updating or presenting the artifact to the appropriate audience?
      2. Update Cadence: How frequently will you update the artifact? Include what regularly scheduled meetings this activity will be within.
      3. Update Scope: Describe what activities will be performed to keep the artifact up to date. The goal here is to minimize the need for a full set of activities laid out within the blueprint. Optional: How will you expand the thoroughness of your analysis?
      4. Audience: Who is the audience for the artifact or assessment results?
      5. Presentation Cadence: How frequently and when will you review the artifact with the audience?
    InputOutput
    • Initial experience with APM
    • Strategic meetings schedule
    • Ongoing cadence for APM activities
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard and markers
    • APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
    • Applications Lead
    • Any Applications Team Members

    Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool

    4.7 Ongoing APM cadence

    Artifact

    Owner

    Update Cadence

    Update Scope

    Audience

    Presentation Cadence

    Inventory

    Greg Dawson

    • As new applications are acquired
    • Annual review
    • Add new application data points (this is added to implementation standards)
    • Review inventory and perform a data health check
    • Validate with app’s SME
    • Whole organization
    • Always available on team site

    Rationalization Tool

    Judy Ng

    • Annual update
    • Revisit value driver weights
    • Survey end users
    • Interview support owners
    • Interview business owners
    • Update TCO based on change in operational costs; expand thoroughness of cost estimates
    • Rescore applications
    • Business owners of applications
    • IT leaders
    • Annually alongside yearly strategy meeting

    Portfolio Roadmap

    Judy Ng

    • Monthly update alongside project updates
    • Shift the timeline of the roadmap to current day 1
    • Carry over project updates and timeline changes
    • Validate with PMs and business owners
    • Steering Committee
    • Business owners of applications
    • IT leaders
    • Quarterly alongside Steering Committee meetings
    • Upon request

    Appendices

    • Additional support slides
    • Bibliography

    The APM tool provides a single source of truth and global data sharing

    The table shows where source data is used to support different aspects of APM discovery, rationalization, and modernization.

    Worksheet Data Mapping

    Application and Capability List

    Group Alignment Matrix (1-3)

    Rationalization Inputs

    Group 1-3 Results

    Application Inventory Details

    App Rationalization Results

    Roadmap

    App Redundancy Comparison

    Application and Capability List

    App list, Groupings

    App list

    App list, Groupings

    App list, Categories

    App list, Categories

    App list

    App list

    Groups 1-3 Alignment Matrix

    App to Group Tracing

    Application Categories

    Category
    drop-down

    Category

    Category

    Rationalization Inputs

    Lens Scores (weighted input to Group score)

    Lens Scores (weighted input)

    Disposition Options

    Disposition list, Priorities list, Recommended Disposition and Priority

    Lens Scores (weighted input)

    App Rationalization Results

    Disposition

    Common application inventory attributes

    Attribute Description Common Collection Method
    Name Organization’s terminology used for the application. Auto-discovery tools will provide names for the applications they reveal. However, this may not be the organizational nomenclature. You may adapt the names by leveraging pre-existing documentation and internal knowledge or by consulting business users.
    ID Unique identifiers assigned to the application (e.g. app number). Typically an identification system developed by the application portfolio manager.
    Description A brief description of the application, often referencing core capabilities. Typically completed by leveraging pre-existing documentation and internal knowledge or by consulting business users.
    Business Units A list of all business units, departments, or user groups. Consultation, surveys, or interviews with business unit representatives. However, this doesn’t always expose hidden applications. Application-capability mapping is the most effective way to determine all the business units/user groups of an app.
    Business Capabilities A list of business capabilities the application is intended to enable. Application capability mapping completed via interviews with business unit representatives.
    Criticality A high-level grading of the importance of the application to the business, typically used for support prioritization purposes (i.e. critical, high, medium, low). Typically the criticality rating is determined by a committee representing IT and business leaders.
    Ownership The individual accountable for various aspect of the application (e.g. product owner, product manager, application support, data owner); typically includes contact information and alternatives. If application ownership is an established accountability in your organization, typically consulting appropriate business stakeholders will reveal this information. Otherwise, application capability mapping can be an effective means of identifying who that owner should be.
    Application SMEs Any relevant subject matter experts who can speak to various aspects of the application (e.g. business process owners, development managers, data architects, data stewards, application architects, enterprise architects). Technical SMEs should be known within an IT department, but shadow IT apps may require interviews with the business unit. Application capability mapping will determine the identity of those key users/business process SMEs.
    Type An indication of whether the application was developed in-house, commercial off-the-shelf, or a hybrid option. Consultation, surveys, or interviews with product owners or development managers.
    Active Status An indication of whether the application is currently active, out of commission, in repair, etc. Consultation, surveys, or interviews with product owners or operation managers.

    Common application inventory attributes

    Attribute Description Common Collection Method
    Vendor Information Identification of the vendor from whom the software was procured. May include additional items such as the vendor’s contact information. Consultation with business SMEs, end users, or procurement teams, or review of vendor contracts or license agreements.
    Links to Other Documentation Pertinent information regarding the other relevant documentation of the application (e.g. SLA, vendor contracts, data use policies, disaster recovery plan). Typically includes links to documents. Consultation with product owners, service providers, or SMEs, or review of vendor contracts or license agreements.
    Number of Users The current number of users for the application. This can be based on license information but will often require some estimation. Can include additional items of quantities at different levels of access (e.g. admin, key users, power users). Consultation, surveys, or interviews with product owners or appropriate business SMEs or review of vendor contracts or license agreements. Auto-discovery tools can reveal this information.
    Software Dependencies List of other applications or operating components required to run the application. Consultation with application architects and any architectural tools or documentation. This information can begin to reveal itself through application capability mapping.
    Hardware Dependencies Identification of any hardware or infrastructure components required to run the application (i.e. databases, platform). Consultation with infrastructure or enterprise architects and any architectural tools or documentation. This information can begin to reveal itself through application capability mapping.
    Development Language Coding language used for the application. Consultation, surveys, or interviews with development managers or appropriate technical SMEs.
    Platform A framework of services that application programs rely on for standard operations. Consultation, surveys, or interviews with infrastructure or development managers.
    Lifecycle Stage Where an application is within the birth, growth, mature, end-of-life lifecycle. Consultation with business owners and technical SMEs.
    Scheduled Updates Any major or minor updates related to the application, including the release date. Consultation with business owners and vendor managers.
    Planned or In-Flight Projects Any projects related to the application, including estimated project timeline. Consultation with business owners and project managers.

    Bibliography

    ”2019 Technology & Small Business Survey.” National Small Business Association (NSBA), n.d. Accessed 1 April 2020.
    “Application Rationalization – Essential Part of the Process for Modernization and Operational Efficiency.” Flexera, 2015. Web.
    “Applications Rationalization during M&A: Standardize, Streamline, Simplify.” Deloitte Consulting, 2016. Web.
    Bowling, Alan. “Clearer Visibility of Product Roadmaps Improves IT Planning.” ComputerWeekly.com, 1 Nov. 2010. Web.
    Brown, Alex. “Calculating Business Value.” Agile 2014 Orlando, 13 July 2014. Scrum Inc. 2014. Web.
    Brown, Roger. “Defining Business Value.” Scrum Gathering San Diego 2017. Agile Coach Journal. Web.
    “Business Application Definition.” Microsoft Docs, 18 July 2012. Web.
    “Connecting Small Businesses in the US.” Deloitte Consulting, 2017. Accessed 1 April. 2020.
    Craveiro, João. “Marty meets Martin: connecting the two triads of Product Management.” Product Coalition, 18 Nov. 2017. Web.
    Curtis, Bill. “The Business Value of Application Internal Quality.” CAST, 6 April 2009. Web.
    Fleet, Neville, Joan Lasselle, and Paul Zimmerman. “Using a Balance Scorecard to Measure the Productivity and Value of Technical Documentation Organizations.” CIDM, April 2008. Web.
    Fowler, Martin. “Application Boundary.” MartinFowler.com, 11 Sept. 2003. Web.
    Harris, Michael. “Measuring the Business Value of IT.” David Consulting Group, 2007. Web.
    “How Application Rationalization Contributes to the Bottom Line.” LeanIX, 2017. Web.
    Jayanthi, Aruna. “Application Landscape Report 2014.” Capgemini, 4 March 2014. Web.
    Lankhorst, Marc., et al. “Architecture-Based IT Valuation.” Via Nova Architectura, 31 March 2010. Web.
    “Management of business application.” ServiceNow, Jan.2020. Accessed 1 April 2020.
    Mauboussin, Michael J. “The True Measures of Success.” HBR, Oct. 2012. Web.
    Neogi, Sombit., et al. “Next Generation Application Portfolio Rationalization.” TATA, 2011. Web.
    Riverbed. “Measuring the Business Impact of IT Through Application Performance.” CIO Summits, 2015. Web.
    Rouse, Margaret. “Application Rationalization.” TechTarget, March 2016. Web.
    Van Ramshorst, E.A. “Application Portfolio Management from an Enterprise Architecture Perspective.” Universiteit Utrecht, July 2013.
    “What is a Balanced Scorecard?” Intrafocus, n.d. Web.
    Whitney, Lance. “SMBs share their biggest constraints and great challenges.” Tech Republic, 6 May 2019. Web.

    Get the Most Out of Workday

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}239|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: 20 Average Days Saved
    • member rating average days saved: After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.
    • Parent Category Name: Optimization
    • Parent Category Link: /optimization
    • Your Workday systems are critical to supporting the organization’s business processes.They are expensive. Direct benefits and ROI can be hard to measure.
    • Workday application portfolios are often behemoths to support. With complex integration points and unique business processes, stabilization is the norm.
    • Application optimization is essential to staying competitive and productive in today’s digital environment.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

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

    Impact and Result

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

    Get the Most Out of Workday Research & Tools

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

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

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

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

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

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

    • Get the Most Out of Workday Workbook

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

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

    • Workday Application Inventory Tool

    Infographic

    Workshop: Get the Most Out of Workday

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

    1 Define Your Workday Application Vision

    The Purpose

    Define your workday application vision.

    Key Benefits Achieved

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

    Activities

    1.1 Identify stakeholders and build your optimization team.

    1.2 Build an ERP strategy model.

    1.3 Inventory current system state.

    1.4 Define optimization timeframe.

    1.5 Understand Workday costs.

    Outputs

    Workday optimization team

    Workday business model

    Workday optimization goals

    System inventory and data flow

    Application and business capabilities list

    Workday optimization timeline

    2 Map Current-State Capabilities

    The Purpose

    Map current-state capabilities.

    Key Benefits Achieved

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

    Activities

    2.1 Assess Workday capabilities.

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

    Outputs

    Workday capability gap analysis

    Workday user satisfaction (application portfolio assessment)

    Workday SoftwareReviews survey results

    Workday current costs

    3 Assess Workday

    The Purpose

    Assess Workday.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Explore underperforming areas to:

    Uncover where user satisfaction is lacking and possible root causes.

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

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

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

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

    Identify any areas for cost optimization (optional).

    Activities

    3.1 Prioritize optimization opportunities.

    3.2 Discover optimization initiatives.

    Outputs

    Product and vendor satisfaction opportunities

    Capability and feature optimization opportunities

    Process optimization opportunities

    Integration optimization opportunities

    Data optimization opportunities

    Workday cost-saving opportunities

    4 Build the Optimization Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Build the optimization roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

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

    Activities

    4.1 Build your optimization roadmap.

    Outputs

    Workday optimization roadmap

    Further reading

    Get the Most Out of Workday

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

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Focus optimization on organizational value delivery.

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

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

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

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

    Lisa Highfield

    Research Director, Enterprise Applications

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

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

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

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

    Common Obstacles

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

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

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

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

    Info-Tech's Approach

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

    Assess your Workday applications and the environment in which they exist. Take a business-first strategy to prioritize optimization efforts.

    Validate capabilities, user satisfaction, and issues around data, vendor management, and costs to build out an overall roadmap and optimization strategy.

    Pull this all together to prioritize optimization efforts and develop a concrete roadmap.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Workday is investing heavily in expanding and deepening its finance and expanded product offerings, but we cannot stand still on our optimization efforts. Understand your product(s), processes, user satisfaction, integration points, and the availability of data to business decision makers. Examine these areas to develop a personalized Workday optimization roadmap that fits the needs of your organization. Incorporate these methodologies into an ongoing optimization strategy aimed at enabling the business, increasing productivity, and reducing costs.

    The image shows a graphic titled Get the Most Out of Your ERP. The centre of the graphic shows circular gears labelled with text such as Processes; User Satisfaction; Integrations; Data; and Vendor Relations. There is also text surrounding the central gears in concentric circles, and on either side, there are sets of arrows titled Service-centric capabilities and Product-centric capabilities.

    Insight summary

    Continuous assessment and optimization of your Workday ERP is critical to the success of your organization.

    • Applications and the environments in which they live are constantly evolving.
    • This blueprint provides business and application managers with a method to complete a health assessment of their Workday systems to identify areas for improvement and optimization.
    • Put optimization practices into effect by:
      • Aligning and prioritizing key business and technology drivers.
      • Identifying ERP process classification and performing a gap analysis.
      • Measuring user satisfaction across key departments.
      • Evaluating vendor relations.
      • Understanding how data plays into the mix.
      • Pulling it all together into an optimization roadmap.

    Workday enterprise resource planning (ERP) facilitates the flow of information across business units. It allows for the seamless integration of data across financial and people systems to create a holistic view of the enterprise to support decision making.

    In many organizations, Workday is considered the core people systems and is becoming more widely adopted for finance and a full ERP system.

    ERP systems are considered the lifeblood of organizations. Problems with this key operational system will have a dramatic impact on the ability of the enterprise to survive and grow.

    ERP implementation should not be a one-and-done exercise. There needs to be ongoing optimization to enable business processes and optimal organizational results.

    Workday enterprise resource planning (ERP)

    Workday

    • Finance
    • Human Resources Management
    • Talent and Performance
    • Payroll and Workforce Management
    • Employee Experience
    • Student Information Systems
    • Professional Services Automation
    • Analytics and Reporting
    • Spend Management
    • Enterprise Planning

    What is Workday?

    Workday has many modules that work together to facilitate the flow of information across the business. Workday’s unique data platform allows for seamless integration of systems and creates a holistic view of the enterprise to support decision making.

    In many organizations, the ERP system is considered the lifeblood of the enterprise. Problems with this key operational system will have a dramatic impact on the ability of the enterprise to survive and grow.

    Workday operates in many industry verticals and performs well in service organizations.

    An ERP system:

    • Automates processes, reducing the amount of manual, routine work.
    • Integrates with core modules, eliminating the fragmentation of systems.
    • Centralizes information for reporting from multiple parts of the value chain to a single point.

    Workday Fast Facts

    Product Description

    • Workday offers HR, Finance, planning systems, and extended offerings. Workday prides itself on rapidly expanding its product portfolio to meet the needs of organizations in a changing world.
    • The integrated cloud data model Workday has been built on allows for seamless end-to-end organizational data.
    • Offerings include Financial Management, Human Capital Management, Workday Adaptive Planning, Spend Management, Talent Management, Payroll & Workforce Management, Analytics & Reporting, Student, Professional Services Automation, Platform & Product Extensions, Workday Peakon Employee Voice, and most recently VNDLY (contract and vendor management).

    Evolution of Workday

    Workday HCM 2006

    Workday Financial Management 2007

    Workday 10 (Finance & HCM) 2010

    Workday Student (Higher Education) 2011

    Workday Cloud (PAAS) 2017

    Acquisition of Adaptive Insights 2018

    Acquisition of VNDLY 2021

    Vendor Description

    • Workday was founded in 2005 by Aneel Bhusri and Dave Duffield (former PeopleSoft founder.)
    • The platform-as-a-service (PaaS) bundles and modules are sold in a subscription model to customers.
    • Workday has untaken several acquisitions in recent years to grow the product and invests in early-stage companies through Workday Ventures.
    • Workday is publicly traded (2012); Nasdaq: WDAY.

    Employees: 12,500

    Headquarters: Pleasanton, CA

    Website: workday.com

    Founded: 2005

    Presence: Global, Publicly Traded

    Workday by the numbers

    77%

    77% of clients were satisfied with the product’s business value created. 78% of clients were satisfied that the cost is fair relative to value, and 95% plan to renew. (SoftwareReviews, 2022)

    50% of Fortune 500

    Workday has seen steady growth working with over 50% of Fortune 500 companies. 4,100 of those are HCM and finance customers. It has seen great success in service industries and has a 95% gross retention rate. (Diginomica)

    40%

    Workday reported a 40% year-over-year increase in Workday Financial Management deployments for both new and existing customers, as accelerated demand for Workday cloud-based continues. (Workday, June 2021)

    Workday Finance

    A great opportunity for Workday

    Workday continues to invest in Workday Finance

    • 35% of the Fortune 500 and 50% of the Fortune 50 use Workday HCM products (Seeking Alpha, 2019).
    • The customer base for Workday Financial Management has increased from 45 in 2014 to 530 in 2019 with 9 Fortune 500 companies in the mix. This infers that Financial Management is a product that will drive future growth for Workday.

    Recent Finance-Related Acquisitions

    • Zimit - Quotation Management
    • Stories.bi - Augmented Analytics
    • Adaptive Insights - Business Planning
    • SkipFlag - Machine Learning (AI)
    • Platfora - Analytics
    • VNDLY - Contractor and Vendor Management

    Workday challenges and dissatisfaction

    Workday challenges and dissatisfaction

    Organizational

    • Competing Priorities
    • Lack of Strategy
    • Budget Challenges

    People and teams

    • Knowledgeable Staff/Turnover
    • Lack of Internal Skills
    • Ability to Manage New Products
    • Lack of Training

    Technology

    • Integration Issues
    • Selecting Tools & Technology
    • Keeping Pace With Technology Changes
    • Update Challenges

    Data

    • Access to Data
    • Data Literacy
    • Data Hygiene
    • One View of the Customer

    Finance, IT, Sales, and other users of the ERP system can only optimize ERP with the full support of each other. The cooperation of the departments is crucial when trying to improve ERP technology capabilities and customer interaction.

    Info-Tech Insight

    While technology is the key enabler of building strong customer experiences, there are many other drivers of dissatisfaction. IT must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the business to develop a technology framework for ERP.

    Where are applications leaders focusing?

    Big growth numbers

    Year-over-year call topic requests

    Enterprise Application Optimization - 124%

    Product - 65%

    Enterprise Application Selection - 76%

    Agile - 79%

    (Info-Tech case data, 2022; N=3,293)

    We are seeing Applications leaders’ priorities change year over year, driven by a shift in their approach to problem solving. Leaders are moving from a process-centric approach to a collaborative approach that breaks down boundaries and brings teams together.

    Other changes

    Year-over-year call topic requests

    Application Portfolio Management - 13%

    Business Process Management - 4%

    Software Development Lifecycle -25%

    (Info-Tech case data, 2022; N=3,293)

    Software development lifecycle topics are tactical point solutions. Organizations have been “shifting left” to tackle the strategic issues such as product vision and Agile mindset to optimize the whole organization.

    Application optimization is risky without a plan

    Avoid these common pitfalls:

    • Not considering how this pays into the short-, medium-, and long-term ERP strategy.
    • Not considering application optimization as a business and IT partnership, which requires the continuous formal engagement of all participants.
    • Not having a good understanding of your current state, including integration points and data.
    • Not adequately accommodating feedback and changes after digital applications are deployed and employed.
    • Not treating digital applications as a motivator for potential future IT optimization efforts and incorporating digital assets in strategic business planning.
    • Not involving department leads, management, and other subject-matter experts to facilitate the organizational change digital applications bring.

    “A successful application optimization strategy starts with the business need in mind and not from a technological point of view. No matter from which angle you look at it, modernizing a legacy application is a considerable undertaking that can’t be taken lightly. Your best approach is to begin the journey with baby steps.” – Norelus, Pamidala, and Senti, 2020

    Info-Tech’s methodology for getting the most out of your ERP

    1. Map Current-State Capabilities 2. Assess Your Current State 3. Identify Key Optimization Areas 4. Build Your Optimization Roadmap
    Phase Steps
    1. Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Workday Optimization Team
    2. Build an ERP Strategy Model
    3. Inventory Current System State
    4. Define Business Capabilities
    • Conduct a Gap Analysis for ERP Processes
    • Assess User Satisfaction
    • Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor and Product
    1. Identify Key Optimization Areas
    2. Evaluate Product Sustainability Over the Short, Medium, and Long Term
    3. Identify Any Product Changes Anticipated Over Short, Medium, and Long Term
    1. Prioritize Optimization Opportunities
    2. Identify Key Optimization Areas
    3. Compile Optimization Assessment Results
    Phase Outcomes
    1. Stakeholder map
    2. Workday optimization team
    3. Workday business model
    4. Strategy alignment
    5. Systems inventory and diagram
    6. Business capabilities map
    7. Key Workday processes list
    1. Gap analysis for Workday-related processes
    2. Understanding of user satisfaction across applications and processes
    3. Insight into Workday data quality
    4. Quantified satisfaction with the vendor and product
    5. Understanding Workday costs
    1. List of Workday optimization opportunities
    1. Workday optimization roadmap

    Blueprint deliverables

    Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

    Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Identify and prioritize your Workday optimization goals.

    Application Portfolio Assessment

    Assess IT-enabled user satisfaction across your Workday portfolio.

    Key deliverable:

    Workday Optimization Roadmap

    Complete an assessment of processes, user satisfaction, data quality, and vendor management.

    Case Study

    MANAGED AP AUTOMATION with OneSource Virtual

    TripAdvisor + OneSource

    INDUSTRY: Travel

    SOURCE: OneSource Virtual, 2017

    Challenge

    TripAdvisor needed a solution that would decrease administrative labor from its accounting department.

    “We needed something that was already compatible with our Workday tenant, that didn’t require a lot of customizations and would be an enhancement to our processes.” – Director of Accounting Operations, Scott Garner

    Requirements included:

    • Easy implementation
    • Existing system compatibility
    • Enhancement to the company’s process
    • Competitive pricing
    • Secure

    Solution

    TripAdvisor chose to outsource its accounts payable services to OneSource Virtual (OSV).

    OneSource Virtual offers the comprehensive finance and accounting outsourcing solutions needed to improve efficiency, eliminate paper processes, reduce errors, and improve cash flow.

    Managed AP services include scanning and auditing all extracted invoice data for accuracy, transmitting AP files with line-item details from invoices, and creating full invoice images in Workday.

    Results

    • Accurate and timely invoice processing for over 3,000 invoices per month.
    • Empowered employees to focus on higher-level tasks rather than day-to-day data entry.
    • 50+ hours saved per week on routine data entry.
    • Employees had 30% of their time freed up to focus on high-value tasks.
    • Allowed TripAdvisor to become more scalable across departments and as an organization.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

    Guided Implementation

    “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

    Workshop

    “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

    Consulting

    “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    A typical GI is between 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

    Phase 1

    Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenge.

    Phase 2

    Call #2:

    • Build the Workday team.
    • Align organizational goals.

    Call #3:

    • Map current state.
    • Inventory Workday capabilities and processes.
    • Explore Workday-related costs.

    Phase 3

    Call #4: Understand product satisfaction and vendor management.

    Call #5: Review APA results.

    Call #6: Understand Workday optimization opportunities.

    Call #7: Determine the right Workday path for your organization.

    Phase 4

    Call #8: Build out optimization roadmap and next steps.

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.

    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5
    Define Your Workday Application VisionMap Current StateAssess WorkdayBuild Your Optimization RoadmapNext Steps and

    Wrap-Up (offsite)

    Activities

    1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

    1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

    1.3 Inventory Current System State

    1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

    1.5 Understand Workday Costs

    2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

    2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

    3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

    3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

    4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    5.1 Complete In-progress Deliverables From Previous Four Days.

    5.2 Set Up Review Time for Workshop Deliverables and to Discuss Next Steps.

    Deliverables
    1. Workday optimization team
    2. Workday business model
    3. Workday optimization goals
    4. System inventory and data flow
    5. Application and business capabilities list
    6. Workday optimization timeline
    1. Workday capability gap analysis
    2. Workday user satisfaction (application portfolio assessment)
    3. Workday SoftwareReviews survey results
    4. Workday current costs
    1. Product and vendor satisfaction opportunities
    2. Capability and feature optimization opportunities
    3. Process optimization opportunities
    4. Integration optimization opportunities
    5. Data optimization opportunities
    6. Workday cost-saving opportunities
    1. Workday optimization roadmap

    Phase 1

    Map Current-State Capabilities

    Phase 1

    1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

    1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

    1.3 Inventory Current System State

    1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

    1.5 Understand Workday Costs

    Phase 2

    2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

    2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

    Phase 3

    3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

    3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

    Phase 4

    4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    • Align your organizational goals
    • Gain a firm understanding of your current state
    • Inventory Workday and related applications
    • Confirm the organization’s capabilities

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CFO
    • Department Leads – Finance, Procurement, Asset Management
    • Applications Director
    • Senior Business Analyst
    • Senior Developer
    • Procurement Analysts

    Step 1.1

    Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

    Activities

    1.1.1 Identify Stakeholders Critical to Success

    1.1.2 Map Your Workday Optimization Stakeholders

    1.1.3 Determine Your Workday Optimization Team

    Map Current State Capabilities

    Step 1.1

    Step 1.2

    Step 1.3

    Step 1.4

    Step 1.5

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Identify ERP drivers and objectives
    • Explore ERP challenges and pain points
    • Discover ERP benefits and opportunities
    • Align the ERP foundation with your corporate strategy

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Stakeholders
    • Project sponsors and leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Stakeholder map
    • Workday optimization team

    ERP optimization stakeholders

    • Understand the roles necessary to Get the Most Out of Your Workday.
    • Understand the role of each player within your project structure. Look for listed participants on the activities slides to determine when each player should be involved.
    Title Role Within the Project Structure
    Organizational Sponsor
    • Owns the project at the management/C-suite level
    • Responsible for breaking down barriers and ensuring alignment with your organizational strategy
    • CIO, CFO, COO, or similar
    Project Manager
    • The IT individual(s) that oversee day-to-day project operations
    • Responsible for preparing and managing the project plan and monitoring the project team’s progress
    • Applications Manager or other IT Manager, Business Analyst, Business Process Owner, or similar
    Business Unit Leaders
    • Works alongside the IT Project Manager to ensure the strategy is aligned with business needs
    • In this case, likely to be a marketing, sales, or customer service lead
    • Sales Director, Marketing Director, Customer Care Director, or similar
    Optimization Team
    • Comprised of individuals whose knowledge and skills are crucial to project success
    • Responsible for driving day-to-day activities, coordinating communication, and making process and design decisions; can assist with persona and scenario development for ERP
    • Project Manager, Business Lead, ERP Manager, Integration Manager, Application SMEs, Developers, Business Process Architects, and/or similar SMEs
    Steering Committee
    • Comprised of the C-suite/management-level individuals that act as the project’s decision makers
    • Responsible for validating goals and priorities, defining the project scope, enabling adequate resourcing, and managing change
    • Project Sponsor, Project Manager, Business Lead, CFO, Business Unit SMEs, or similar

    Info-Tech Insight

    Do not limit project input or participation. Include subject-matter experts and internal stakeholders at stages within the project. Such inputs can be solicited on a one-off basis as needed. This ensures you take a holistic approach to create your ERP optimization strategy.

    1.1.1 Identify Workday optimization stakeholders

    1 hour

    1. Hold a meeting to identify the Workday optimization stakeholders.
    2. Use the next slide as a guide.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Understand how to navigate the complex web of stakeholders in ERP

    Identify which stakeholders to include and what their level of involvement should be during requirements elicitation based on relevant topic expertise.

    Sponsor End User IT Business
    Description An internal stakeholder who has final sign-off on the ERP project. Front-line users of the ERP technology. Back-end support staff who are tasked with project planning, execution, and eventual system maintenance. Additional stakeholders that will be impacted by any ERP technology changes.
    Examples
    • CEO
    • CIO/CTO
    • COO
    • CFO
    • Warehouse personnel
    • Sales teams
    • HR admins
    • Applications manager
    • Vendor relationship manager(s)
    • Director, Procurement
    • VP, Marketing
    • Manager, HR
    Values Executive buy-in and support is essential to the success of the project. Often, the sponsor controls funding and resource allocation. End users determine the success of the system through user adoption. If the end user does not adopt the system, the system is deemed useless and benefits realization is poor. IT is likely to be responsible for more in-depth requirements gathering. IT possesses critical knowledge around system compatibility, integration, and data. Involving business stakeholders in the requirements gathering will ensure alignment between HR and organizational objectives.

    Large-scale ERP projects require the involvement of many stakeholders from all corners and levels of the organization, including project sponsors, IT, end users, and business stakeholders. Consider the influence and interest of stakeholders in contributing to the requirements elicitation process and involve them accordingly.

    The image shows a graph with dots on it, titled Example: Stakeholder Involvement during Selection.

    Activity 1.1.2 Map your Workday optimization stakeholders

    1 hour

    1. Use the list of Workday optimization stakeholders.
    2. Map each stakeholder on the quadrant based on their expected Influence and involvement in the project.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    The image shows a graph titled Map the Organization's Stakeholders, with stakeholders listed on the left, and arranged in quadrants. Along the bottom of the graph is the text: Involvement, with an arrow pointing to the right. Along the left side of the graph is the text: Influence, with an arrow pointing upwards.

    Map the organization’s stakeholders

    The image shows the same organization stakeholder map shown in the previous section.

    The Workday optimization team

    Consider the core team functions when putting together the project team. Form a cross-functional team (i.e. across IT, Marketing, Sales, Service, and Operations) to create a well-aligned ERP optimization strategy.

    Don’t let your project team become too large when trying to include all relevant stakeholders. Carefully limiting the size of the project team will enable effective decision making while still including functional business units such as Human Resources, Operations, Manufacturing, Marketing, Sales, Service, and Finance as well as IT.

    Required Skills/Knowledge Suggested Project Team Members
    Business
    • Department leads
    • Business process leads
    • Business analysts
    • Subject matter experts
    • SMEs/Business process leads across all functional areas, for example, Strategy, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Finance, HR
    IT
    • Application development
    • Enterprise integration
    • Business processes
    • Data management
    • Product owner
    • ERP application manager
    • Business process manager
    • Integration manager
    • Application developer
    • Data stewards
    Other
    • Operations
    • Administrative
    • Change management
    • COO
    • CFO
    • Change management officer

    1.1.3 Determine your Workday optimization team

    1 hour

    1. Have the project manager and other key stakeholders discuss and determine who will be involved in the Workday optimization project.
      • The size of the team will depend on the initiative and size of your organization.
      • Key business leaders in key areas and IT representatives should be involved.

    Note: Depending on your initiative and size of your organization, the size of this team will vary.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Step 1.2

    Build an ERP Strategy Model

    Activities

    1.2.1 Explore Organizational Goals and Business Needs

    1.2.2 Discover Environmental Factors and Technology Drivers

    1.2.3 Consider Potential Barriers to Achieving Workday Optimization

    1.2.4 Set the Foundation for Success

    1.2.5 Discuss Workday Strategy and Develop Your ERP Optimization Goals

    Map Current State Capabilities

    Step 1.1

    Step 1.2

    Step 1.3

    Step 1.4

    Step 1.5

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Identify ERP drivers and objectives
    • Explore ERP challenges and pain points
    • Discover ERP benefits and opportunities
    • Align the ERP foundation with the corporate strategy

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Workday Optimization Team

    Outcomes of this step

    • ERP business model
    • Strategy alignment

    Align your Workday strategy with the corporate strategy

    Corporate Strategy

    Your corporate strategy:

    • Conveys the current state of the organization and the path it wants to take.
    • Identifies future goals and business aspirations.
    • Communicates the initiatives that are critical for getting the organization from its current state to the desired future state.

    Unified ERP Strategy

    • The ideal ERP strategy is aligned with overarching organizational business goals and broader IT initiatives.
    • Include all affected business units and departments in these conversations.
    • The ERP optimization can be and should be linked, with metrics, to the corporate strategy and ultimate business objectives.

    IT Strategy

    Your IT strategy:

    • Communicates the organization’s budget and spending on ERP.
    • Identifies IT initiatives that will support the business and key ERP objectives.
    • Outlines staffing and resourcing for ERP initiatives.

    ERP projects are more successful when the management team understands the strategic importance and the criticality of alignment. Time needs to be spent upfront aligning business strategies with ERP capabilities. Effective alignment between IT and the business should happen daily. Alignment doesn’t just need to occur at the executive level but at each level of the organization.

    ERP Business Model Template

    The image shows a template of the ERP Business Model. At the top, there is a section for ERP Needs, then on the left and right, Environmental Factors and Organizational Goals. At the center, there is a box with text that reads Barriers, with empty space underneath it, then the text: ERP Strategy, and then the heading Enables with empty space beneath it. At the bottom are Technology Drivers. There are notes attached to sections. For ERP Needs, the note reads: What are your business drivers? What are your current ERP pains?. For the Environmental Factors section, the note reads: What factors impacting your strategy are out of your control?. For the Technology Drivers section, the note reads: Why do you need a new system? What is the purpose for becoming an integrated organization?.

    Conduct interviews to elicit the business context

    Stakeholder Interviews

    Begin by conducting interviews of your executive team. Interview the following leaders:

    1. Chief Information Officer
    2. Chief Executive Officer
    3. Chief Financial Officer
    4. Chief Revenue Officer/Sales Leader
    5. Chief Operating Officer/Supply Chain & Logistics Leader
    6. Chief Technology Officer/Chief Product Officer

    INTERVIEWS MUST UNCOVER:

    1. Your organization’s mission & vision
    2. Your organization’s top business goals
    3. Your organization’s top business initiatives
    4. The stakeholder’s top goals and initiatives
    5. Tools and systems needed to facilitate organizational and departmental goals

    Understand the mission, vision, and goals of the organization and supporting departments

    Business Needs Business Drivers
    Definition A business need is a requirement associated with a particular business process. A business need is a requirement associated with a particular business process.
    Examples
    • Audit tracking
    • Authorization levels
    • Business rules
    • Data quality
    • Customer satisfaction
    • Branding
    • Time-to-resolution

    Info-Tech Insight

    One of the biggest drivers for ERP adoption is the ability to make quicker decisions from timely information. This driver is a result of external considerations. Many industries today are highly competitive, uncertain, and rapidly changing. To succeed under these pressures, there needs to be timely information and visibility into all components of the organization.

    1.2.1 Explore organizational goals and business needs

    60 minutes

    1. Discuss organizational mission, vision, and goals. What are the top initiatives underway? Are you contracting, expanding, or innovating?
    2. Discuss business needs to support organizational goals. What are identified goals and initiatives at the departmental level? What tools and resources within the Workday system will help make this successful?
    3. Understand how the company is running today and what the organization’s future will look like. Envision the future system state.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image shows the same ERP Business Model Template from the previous section, zoomed in on the centre of the graphic.

    Organizational Goals

    • Organization’s mission and vision
    • Top business goals
    • Initiatives underway

    Business Needs

    • Departmental goals
    • Business drivers
    • Key initiatives
    • Key capabilities to support the organization
    • Requirements to support the business capability and process

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    ERP Business Model

    Organizational Goals

    • Organization’s mission and vision
    • Top business goals (~3)
    • Initiatives underway
    • KPIs and metrics that are important to the organization in achieving its goals and objectives

    Business Needs

    • Departmental goals
    • Key initiatives
    • Key capabilities to support the organization
    • Tools and systems required to support business capability or process
    • KPIs and metrics that are important to the department/stakeholder in achieving its goals and objectives

    Understand the technology drivers and environmental factors

    Technology Drivers Environmental Factors
    Definition Technology drivers are technological changes that have created the need for a new ERP enablement strategy. Many organizations turn to technology systems to help them obtain a competitive edge. These external considerations are factors that take place outside of the organization and impact the way business is conducted inside the organization. These are often outside the control of the business. Look three to five years ahead, what challenges will the business face? Where will you have to adapt and pivot? How can we prepare for this?
    Examples
    • Deployment model (i.e. SaaS)
    • Integration
    • Reporting capabilities
    • Fragmented technologies
    • Economic and political factors
    • Competitive influencers
    • Compliance regulations

    Info-Tech Insight

    A comprehensive plan that takes into consideration organizational goals, departmental needs, technology drivers, and environmental factors will allow for a collaborative approach to defining your Workday strategy.

    1.2.2 Discover environmental factors and technology drivers

    30 minutes

    1. Identify business drivers that are contributing to the organization’s need for ERP.
    2. Understand how the company is running today and what the organization’s future will look like. Try to identify the purpose for becoming an integrated organization. Use a whiteboard or flip charts and markers to capture key findings.
    3. Consider external considerations, organizational drivers, technology drivers, and key functional requirements.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image is the same ERP Business Model Template from previous sections. In this instance, it is zoomed into the centre of the graphic, with the environmental factors section circled.

    External Considerations

    • Funding constraints
    • Regulations

    Technology Considerations

    • Data accuracy
    • Data quality
    • Better reporting

    Functional Requirements

    • Information availability
    • Integration between systems
    • Secure data

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Create a realistic ERP foundation by identifying the challenges and barriers the project will bestow

    There are several different factors that may stifle the success of an ERP implementation. Organizations that are creating an ERP foundation must scan their current environment to identify internal barriers and challenges.

    Common Internal Barriers

    Management Support Organizational Culture Organizational Structure IT Readiness
    Definition The degree of understanding and acceptance toward ERP systems. The collective shared values and beliefs. The functional relationships between people and departments in an organization. The degree to which the organization’s people and processes are prepared for a new ERP system.
    Questions
    • Is an ERP project recognized as a top priority?
    • Will management commit time to the project?
    • Are employees resistant to change?
    • Is the organization highly individualized?
    • Is the organization centralized?
    • Is the organization highly formalized?
    • Is there strong technical expertise?
    • Is there strong infrastructure?
    Impact
    • Funding
    • Resources
    • Knowledge sharing
    • User acceptance
    • Flow of knowledge
    • Quality of implementation
    • Need for reliance on consultants

    1.2.3 Consider potential barriers to achieving Workday optimization

    1-3 hours

    1. Open tab 1.2, “Strategy & Goals,” in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.
    2. Identify barriers to ERP optimization success.
    3. Review the ERP critical success factors and how they relate to your optimization efforts.
    4. Discuss potential barriers to successful ERP optimization.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image is the same zoomed-in section of the ERP Strategy Business Model Template seen in previous sections. In this instance, the Barriers section is circled.

    Functional Gaps

    • No online purchase order requisitions

    Technical Gaps

    • Inconsistent reporting – data quality concerns

    Process Gaps

    • Duplication of data
    • Lack of system integration

    Barriers to Success

    • Cultural mindset
    • Resistance to change
    • Lack of training
    • Funding

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    ERP Business Model

    Organizational Goals

    • Efficiency
    • Effectiveness
    • Integrity
    • One source of truth for data
    • One team
    • Customer service, external and internal

    Barriers

    • Organizational silos
    • Lack of formal process documentation
    • Funding availability
    • What goes first? Organizational priorities

    What does success look like?

    Top 15 Critical Success Factors for ERP System Implementation

    The image shows a horizontal bar graph with the text: Frequency of Citation (n=127) at the top. Different implementation strategies are listed on the left, in descending order of frequency.

    (Epizitone and Olugbara, 2019; CC BY 4.0)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Complement your ability to deliver on your critical success factors with the capabilities of your implementation partner to drive a successful ERP implementation.

    “Implementation partners can play an important role in successful ERP implementations. They can work across the organizational departments and layers creating a synergy and a communications mechanism.” – Ayogeboh Epizitone, Durban University of Technology

    1.2.3 Set the foundation for success

    1-3 hours

    1. Open tab 1.2, “Strategy & Goals,” in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.
    2. Identify barriers to ERP optimization success.
    3. Review the ERP critical success factors and how they relate to your optimization efforts.
    4. Discuss potential barriers to successful ERP optimization.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image is the same zoomed-in section of the ERP Strategy Business Model Template seen in previous sections. In this instance, the Enablers section is circled.

    Business Benefits

    • Business-IT alignment

    IT Benefits

    • Compliance
    • Scalability
    • Operational efficiency

    Organizational Benefits

    • Data accuracy
    • Data quality
    • Better reporting

    Enablers of Success

    • Change management
    • Training
    • Alignment with strategic objectives

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    ERP Business Model

    Organizational Goals

    • Efficiency
    • Effectiveness
    • Integrity
    • One source of truth for data
    • One team
    • Customer service, external and internal

    Enablers

    • Cross-trained employees
    • Desire to focus on value-add activities
    • Collaborative
    • Top-level executive support
    • Effective change management process

    The Business Value Matrix

    Rationalizing and quantifying the value of Workday

    Benefits can be realized internally and externally to the organization or department and have different drivers of value.

    • Financial benefits refer to the degree to which the value source can be measured through monetary metrics and are often quite tangible.
    • Human benefits refer to how an application can deliver value through a user’s experience.
    • Inward refers to value sources that have an internal impact and improve your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in performing its operations.
    • Outward refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external factors, such as the market or your customers.

    Organizational Goals

    Increased Revenue

    Application functions that are specifically related to the impact on your organization’s ability to generate revenue and deliver value to your customers.

    Reduced Costs

    Reduction of overhead. The ways in which an application limits the operational costs of business functions.

    Enhanced Services

    Functions that enable business capabilities that improve the organization’s ability to perform its internal operations.

    Reach Customers

    Application functions that enable and improve the interaction with customers or produce market information and insights.

    Business Value Matrix

    The image shows a matrix, with Human benefits and Financial Benefits on the horizontal axis, and Outward and Inward on the Vertical axis.

    1.2.4 Define your Workday strategy and optimization goals

    30 minutes

    1. Discuss the Workday business model exercises and ERP critical success factors.
    2. Through the lens of corporate goals and objectives think about the supporting ERP technology. How can the ERP system bring value to the organization? What are the top things that will make this initiative a success? What major themes are emerging?
    3. Develop five to ten optimization goals that will form the basis for the success of this initiative.
      • What is a strong statement that will help guide decision making throughout the life of the ERP project?
      • What are your overarching requirements for business processes?
      • What do you ultimately want to achieve?
      • What is a statement that will ensure all stakeholders are on the same page for the project?

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Workday strategy and optimization goals

    Key Themes Emerging / Workday Strategy

    • Efficiency
    • Effectiveness
    • Integrity
    • One source of truth for data
    • One team
    • Customer service, external and internal

    Optimization Goals

    • Support Business Agility: A flexible and adaptable integrated business system providing a seamless user experience.
    • Use ERP best practices: Do not recreate or replicate what we have today; focus on modernization. Exercise customization governance by focusing on those customizations that are strategically differentiating.
    • Automate: Take manual work out where we can, empowering staff and improving productivity through automation and process efficiencies.
    • Stay focused: Focus on scope around core business capabilities. Maintain scope control. Prioritize demand in line with the strategy.
    • Strive for “One Source of Truth”: Unified data model and integrate processes where possible. Assess integration needs carefully.

    Step 1.3

    Inventory Current System State

    Activities

    1.3.1 Inventory Workday Applications and Interactions

    1.3.2 Draw Your Workday System Diagram

    1.3.3 Inventory Your Workday Modules and Business Capabilities (or Business Processes)

    1.3.4 Define Your Key Workday Optimization Modules and Business Capabilities

    Map Current-State Capabilities

    Step 1.1

    Step 1.2

    Step 1.3

    Step 1.4

    Step 1.5

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Inventory of applications
    • Mapping interactions between systems

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Workday Optimization Team
    • Enterprise Architect
    • Data Architect

    Outcomes of this step

    • Systems inventory
    • Systems diagram

    1.3.1 Inventory Workday applications and interfaces

    1-3+ hours

    1. Enter your Workday systems, Workday extended applications, and integrated applications within scope.
    2. Include any abbreviated names or nicknames.
    3. List the application type or main function. List the modules the organization has licensed.
    4. List any integrations.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    ERP Data Flow

    When assessing the current application portfolio that supports your ERP, the tendency will be to focus on the applications under the ERP umbrella. These relate mostly to marketing, sales, and customer service. Be sure to include systems that act as input to, or benefit due to outputs from, ERP or similar applications.

    The image shows a flowchart, with example ERP Data. There is a colour-coded legend for the data, and at the bottom of the graphic, there is text that reads: Be sure to include enterprise applications that are not included in the ERP application portfolio. There are also definitions of abbreviated terms at the bottom of the graphic.

    1.3.2 Draw your Workday system diagram (optional)

    1-3+ hours

    1. From the Workday application inventory, diagram your network. Include:
      • Any internal or external systems
      • Integration points
      • Data flow

    The image shows the flowchart section of th image that appears in the previous section.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Sample Workday and integrations map

    The image shows a sample map of Workday and integrations. There is a colour-coded legend at the bottom right.

    Business capability map (Level 0)

    In business architecture, the primary view of an organization is known as a business capability map.

    A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation, rather than how.

    Business capabilities:

    • Represent stable business functions.
    • Are unique and independent of each other.
    • Will typically have a defined business outcome.

    A business capability map provides details that help the business architecture practitioner direct attention to a specific area of the business for further assessment.

    The image shows a Business Capability Map, which is divided into 4 sections: Products and Services Development; Revenue Generation; Demand Fulfillment; and Enterprise Management and Planning

    The value stream

    Value stream defined:

    Value Streams:

    Design Product

    • Manufacturers work proactively to design products and services that will meet consumer demand.
    • Products are driven by consumer demand and government regulations.

    Produce Product

    • Production processes and labor costs are constantly analyzed for efficiencies and accuracies.
    • Quality of product and services are highly regulated through all levels of the supply chain.

    Sell Product

    • Sales networks and sales staff deliver the product from the organization to the end consumer.
    • Marketing plays a key role throughout the value stream connecting consumers’ wants and needs to the products and services offered.

    Customer Service

    • Relationships with consumers continue after the sale of products and services.
    • Continued customer support and data mining is important to revenue streams.

    Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities in the marketplace. Those activities are dependent on the specific industry segment in which an organization operates. There are two types of value streams: core value streams and support value streams.

    • Core value streams are mostly externally facing. They deliver value to either an external or internal customer and they tie to the customer perspective of the strategy map.
    • Support value streams are internally facing and provide the foundational support for an organization to operate.

    Taking a value stream approach to process mapping allows you to move across departmental and system boundaries to understand the underlying business capability.

    Some mistakes organizations make are over-customizing processes, or conversely, not customizing when required. Workday provides good baseline process that work for most organizations. However, if a process is broken or not working efficiently take the time to investigate it, including underlying policies, roles, workflows, and integrations.

    Process frameworks

    Help define your inventory of sales, marketing, and customer services processes.

    Operating Processes
    1. Develop vision and strategy 2. Develop and manage products and services 3. Market and sell products and services 4. Deliver physical products 5. Deliver services
    Management and Support Processes
    6. Manage customer service
    7. Develop and manage human capital
    8. Manage IT
    9. Manage financial resources
    10. Acquire, construct, and manage assets
    11. Manage enterprise risk, compliance, remediation, and resiliency
    12. Manage external relationships
    13. Develop and manage business capabilities

    (APQC)

    If you do not have a documented process model, you can use the APQC Framework to help define your inventory of sales business processes.

    APQC’s Process Classification Framework is a taxonomy of cross-functional business processes intended to allow the objective comparison of organizational performance within and among organizations.

    APQC’s Process Classification Framework

    Process mapping hierarchy

    A process classification framework is helpful for organizations to effectively define their processes and manage them appropriately.

    Use Info-Tech’s related industry resources or publicly available process frameworks (such as APQC) to develop and map your business processes.

    These processes can then be mapped to supporting applications and modules. Policies, roles, and workflows also play a role and should be considered in the overall functioning.

    APQC’s Process Classification Framework

    The image shows a chart, titled PCL Levels Explained, with each of the PCF Levels listed, and a brief description of each.

    (APQC)

    Focus on level-1 processes

    Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
    Market and sell products and services Understand markets, customers, and capabilities Perform customer and market intelligence analysis Conduct customer and market research
    Market and sell products and services Develop a sales strategy Develop a sales forecast Gather current and historic order information
    Deliver services Manage service delivery resources Manage service delivery resource demand Develop baseline forecasts
    ? ? ? ?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Focus your initial assessment on the level-1 processes that matter to your organization. This allows you to target your scant resources on the areas of optimization that matter most to the organization and minimize the effort required from your business partners.

    You may need to iterate the assessment as challenges are identified. This allows you to be adaptive and deal with emerging issues more readily and become a more responsive partner to the business.

    Process mapping and supporting ERP modules

    The operating model

    An operating model is a framework that drives operating decisions. It helps to set the parameters for the scope of ERP and the processes that will be supported. The operating model will serve to group core operational processes. These groupings represent a set of interrelated, consecutive processes aimed at generating a common output.

    From your developed processes and your Workday license agreements you will be able to pinpoint the scope for investigation, including the processes and modules.

    The image shows three images, overlapping one another. At the back is a chart with three sections, and boxes beneath. In front of that is a graphic with Objectives, Value Streams, Capabilities, and Processes written down the left side, and descriptions on the right. Below that image is an arrow pointing downward to the text Supporting Workday Modules. In front is a circular graphic with the word Workday in the centre, and circles with text in them around it.

    Workday modules and process enablement

    Workday Finance

    • Accounts Receivable and Collections
    • Accounts Payable and Payments
    • Asset Management
    • Audit and Controls
    • Billing and Invoicing
    • Cash Management
    • Contracts
    • Financial Reporting and Analysis
    • [Global] Close and Consolidation
    • Multi-GAAP/Multi-book/Multi-chart of Accounts
    • Revenue Management

    Spend Management

    • Strategic Sourcing
    • Procure to Pay
    • Inventory
    • Expenses

    Professional Services Automation

    • Project and Resource Management
    • Project Financials
    • Project Billing
    • Expense Management
    • Time Tracking

    Enterprise Planning

    • Financial planning
    • Reporting
    • Analytics
    • Budgets
    • Insights
    • Workforce planning
    • Sales planning
    • Operational planning

    Analytics and Reporting

    • Financial Management Core Reporting
    • Human Capital Management Core Reporting
    • Benchmarking
    • Data Hub
    • Augmented Analytics

    Student

    • Admissions
    • Financial Aid
    • Advising
    • Student Finance
    • Student Records

    Human Capital Management (HCM)

    • Human Resource Management
    • Organization Management
    • Business Process Management
    • Reporting and Analytics
    • Employee and Manager Self-Service
    • Contingent Labor Management
    • Skills Cloud
    • Absence Management
    • Benefits Administration
    • ACA Management
    • Compensation
    • Talent Optimization

    Payroll and Workforce Management

    • Scheduling and Labor Management
    • Time and Attendance
    • Absence
    • Payroll

    Employee Experience

    • Employee Engagement Insights
    • Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Measurement
    • Health and Well-Being Metrics
    • Back-to-Workplace Readiness
    • Confidential Employee-Manager Conversations
    • Attrition Prediction
    • Continuous Industry Benchmarks

    Talent and Performance

    • Talent Profile
    • Continuous Feedback
    • Survey Campaigns
    • Embedded Analytics
    • Goal Management
    • Performance Management
    • Talent Review
    • Calibration
    • Competencies
    • Career and Development Planning
    • Succession Planning
    • Talent Marketplace
    • Mobile
    • Expenses

    1.3.3 Inventory your Workday modules and business capabilities

    1-3+ hours

    1. Look at the major functions or processes within the scope of ERP.
    2. From the inventory of current systems, choose the submodules or processes that you want to investigate and are within scope for this optimization initiative.
    3. List the top modules, capabilities, or processes that will be within the scope of this optimization initiative.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    1.3.4 Define your key Workday optimization modules and business capabilities

    1-3+ hours

    1. Look at the major functions or processes within the scope of ERP.
    2. From the inventory of current systems, choose the submodules or processes for this optimization initiative. Base this on those that are most critical to the business, those with the lowest levels of satisfaction, or those that perhaps need more knowledge around them.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Step 1.4

    Define Optimization Timeframe

    Activities

    1.4.1 Define Workday Key Dates, and Workday Optimization Roadmap Timeframe and Structure

    Map Current-State Capabilities

    Step 1.1

    Step 1.2

    Step 1.3

    Step 1.4

    Step 1.5

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Defining key dates related to your optimization initiative
    • Identifying key building blocks for your optimization roadmap

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Workday Optimization Team
    • Vendor Management

    Outcomes of this step

    • Optimization Key Dates
    • Optimization Roadmap Timeframe and Structure

    1.4.1 Optimization roadmap timeframe and structure

    1-3+ hours

    1. Key items and dates relevant to your optimization initiatives, such as any products reaching end of life or end of contract, or budget proposal submission deadlines.
    2. Enter the expected Optimization Initiative Start Date.
    3. Enter the Roadmap Length. This is the total amount of time you expect to participate in the Workday Optimization Initiative. This includes short-, medium-, and long-term initiatives.
    4. Enter your Roadmap Date markers – how you want dates displayed on the roadmap.
    5. Enter column time values – what level of granularity will be helpful for this initiative?
    6. Enter the sprint or cycle timeframe – use this if following Agile.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Step 1.5

    Understand Workday Costs

    Activities

    1.5.1 Document Costs Associated With Workday

    Map Current-State Capabilities

    Step 1.1

    Step 1.2

    Step 1.3

    Step 1.4

    Step 1.5

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Define your Workday direct and indirect costs
    • List your Workday expense line items

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Finance representatives
    • Workday Optimization Team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Current Workday and related costs

    1.5.1 Document costs associated with Workday

    1-3 hours

    Before you can make changes and optimization decisions, you need to understand the high-level costs associated with your current application architecture. This activity will help you identify the types of technology and people costs associated with your current systems.

    1. Identify the types of technology costs associated with each current system:
      1. System Maintenance
      2. Annual Renewal
      3. Licensing
    2. Identify the cost of people associated with each current system:
      1. Full-Time Employees
      2. Application Support Staff
      3. Help Desk Tickets

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Phase 2

    Assess Your Current State

    Phase 1

    1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

    1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

    1.3 Inventory Current System State

    1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

    1.5 Understand Workday Costs

    Phase 2

    2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

    2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

    Phase 3

    3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

    3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

    Phase 4

    4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    This phase will guide you through the following activities:

    • Determine process relevance
    • Perform a gap analysis
    • Perform a user satisfaction survey
    • Assess software and vendor satisfaction

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Workday Optimization Team
    • Users across functional areas of your ERP and related technologies

    Step 2.1

    Assess Workday Capabilities

    Activities

    2.1.1 Rate Capability Relevance to Organizational Goals

    2.1.2 Complete a Workday Application Portfolio Assessment

    2.1.3 (Optional) Assess Workday Process Maturity

    Assess Workday Capabilities

    Step 2.1

    Step 2.2

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Capability Relevance
    • Process Gap Analysis
    • Application Portfolio Assessment

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Workday Users

    Outcomes of this step

    • Workday Capability Assessment

    Benefits of the Application Portfolio Assessment

    Assess the health of the application portfolio

    • Get a full 360-degree view of the effectiveness, criticality, and prevalence of all relevant applications to get a comprehensive view of the health of the applications portfolio.
    • Identify opportunities to drive more value from effective applications, retire nonessential applications, and immediately address at-risk applications that are not meeting expectations.

    Provide targeted department feedback

    • Share end-user satisfaction and importance ratings for core IT services, IT communications, and business enablement to focus on the right end-user groups or lines of business, and ramp up satisfaction and productivity.

    Gain insight into the state of data quality

    • Data quality is one of the key issues causing poor ERP user satisfaction and business results. This can include the relevance, accuracy, timeliness, or usability of the organization’s data.
    • Targeted, open-ended feedback around data quality will provide insight into where optimization efforts should be focused.

    2.1.1 Complete a current state assessment (via the Application Portfolio Assessment)

    3 hours

    Option 1: Use Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment to generate your user satisfaction score. This tool not only measures application satisfaction but also elicits great feedback from users regarding the support they receive from the IT team around Workday.

    1. Download the Workday Application Inventory Tool.
    2. Complete the “Demographics” tab (tab 2).
    3. Complete the “Inventory” tab (tab 3).
      1. Complete the inventory by treating each module within your Workday system as an application.
      2. Treat every department as a separate column in the department section. Feel free to add, remove, or modify department names to match your organization.
      3. Include data quality for all applications applicable.

    Option 2: Create a survey manually.

    1. Use tab Reference 2.1 “APA Questions” as a guide for creating your survey.
    2. Send out surveys to end users.
    3. Modify tab 2.1 “Workday Assessment” if required.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Content for New section Tag Goes HereThe image shows a number of charts relating to applications, such as Overall Applications Portfolio Satisfaction and Most Critical Applications. Data is shown in each category relating to number of users, usability, data quality, status, and others.

    2.1.2 Complete the Application Portfolio Assessment

    3 hours

    Option 1: Use Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment to generate your user satisfaction score. This tool not only measures application satisfaction but also elicits great feedback from users regarding the support they receive from the IT team around Workday.

    1. Download the Workday Application Inventory Tool.
    2. Complete the “Demographics” tab (tab 2).
    3. Complete the “Inventory” tab (tab 3).
      1. Complete the inventory by treating each module within your Workday system as an application.
      2. Treat every department as a separate column in the department section. Feel free to add, remove, or modify department names to match your organization.
      3. Include data quality for all applications applicable.

    Option 2: Create a survey manually.

    1. Use tab Reference 2.1 “APA Questions” as a guide for creating your survey.
    2. Send out surveys to end users.
    3. Modify tab 2.1 “Workday Assessment” if required.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    2.1.3 (Optional) Assess Workday process maturity

    1. As with any ERP system, the issues encountered may not be related to the system itself but processes that have developed over time.
    2. Use this opportunity to interview key stakeholders to learn about deeper capability processes.
      1. Identify key stakeholders.
      2. Hold sessions to document deeper processes.
      3. Discuss processes and technical enablement in each area.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Process Maturity Assessment

    Process Assessment

    Strong

    Moderate

    Weak

    1.1 Financial Planning and Analysis

    1.2 Accounting and Financial Close

    1.3 Treasury Management

    1.4 Financial Operations

    1.5 Governance, Risk & Compliance

    2.1 Core HR

    Description All aspects related to financial operations
    Key Success Indicators Month-end reporting in 5 days AR at risk managing down (zero over 90 days) Weekly operating cash flow updates
    Timely liquidity for claims payments Payroll audit reporting and insights reporting 90% of workflow tasks captured in ERP
    EFT uptake Automated reconciliations Reduce audit hours required
    Current Pain Points A lot of voided and re-issued checks NIDPP Integration with banks; can’t get the information back into existing ERP
    There is no payroll integration No payroll automation and other processes Lack of integration with HUB
    Not one true source of data Incentive payment processing Rewards program management
    Audit process is onerous Reconcile AP and AR for dealers

    Stakeholders Interviewed:

    The process is formalized, documented, optimized, and audited.

    The process is poorly documented. More than one person knows how to do it. Inefficient and error-prone.

    The process is not documented. One person knows how to do it. The process is ad hoc, not formalized, inconsistent.

    Capability Processes:

    General Ledger

    Accounts Receivable

    Incentives Management

    Accounts Payable

    General Ledger Consolidation

    Treasury Management

    Cash Management

    Subscription / recurring payments

    Treasury Transactions

    Step 2.2

    Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

    Activities

    2.2.1 Rate Your Vendor and Product Satisfaction

    2.2.2 Review Workday Product Scores (if applicable)

    2.2.3 Evaluate Your Product Satisfaction

    2.2.4 Check Your Business Process Change Tolerance

    Product Satisfaction

    Step 2.1

    Step 2.2

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Rate your vendor and product satisfaction
    • Compare with survey data from SoftwareReviews

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Workday Product Owner(s)
    • Procurement Representative
    • Vendor Contracts Manager

    Outcomes of this step

    • Quantified satisfaction with vendor and product

    2.2.1 Rate your vendor and product satisfaction

    30 minutes

    Use Info-Tech’s vendor satisfaction survey to identify optimization areas with your ERP product(s) and vendor(s).

    1. Option 1 (recommended): Conduct a satisfaction survey using SoftwareReviews. This option allows you to see your results in the context of the vendor landscape.
    2. Option 2: Use the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook to review your satisfaction with your Workday software.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    SoftwareReviews’ Enterprise Resource Planning Category

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    2.2.2 Review Workday product scores (if applicable)

    30 minutes

    1. Download the scorecard for your Workday product from the SoftwareReviews website. (Note: Not all products are represented or have sufficient data, so a scorecard may not be available.)
    2. Use the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook tab 2.3 to record the scorecard results.
    3. Use your Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook to flag areas where your score may be lower than the product scorecard. Brainstorm ideas for optimization.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    SoftwareReviews’ Enterprise Resource Planning Category

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    2.2.3 How does your satisfaction compare with your peers?

    Use SoftwareReviews to explore product features, vendor experience, and capability satisfaction.

    The image shows two data quadrants, one titled Enterprise Resource Planning - Enterprise, and Enterprise Resource Planning - Midmarket.

    (SoftwareReviews ERP Mid-Market, 2022; SoftwareReviews ERP Enterprise, 2022)

    2.2.4 Check your business process change tolerance

    1 hours

    Input

    • Business process capability map

    Output

    • Heat map of risk areas that require more attention to validate best practices or minimize customization

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Participants

    • Implementation team
    • SMEs
    • Departmental Leaders
    1. As a group, list your level-0 and level-1 business capabilities. Sample on the next slide.
    2. Assess the department’s willingness for change and the risk of maintaining the status quo.
    3. Color-code the level-0 business capabilities based on:
      1. Green – Willing to follow best practices
      2. Yellow – May be challenging or unique business model
      3. Red – Low tolerance for change

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Heat map representing desire for best practice or those having the least tolerance for change

    Legend:

    Willing to follow best practice

    May be challenging or unique business model

    Low tolerance for change

    Out of Scope

    Product-Centric Capabilities
    R&D Production Supply Chain Distribution Asset Mgmt
    Idea to Offering Plan to Produce Procure to Pay Forecast to Delivery Acquire to Dispose
    Add/Remove Shop Floor Scheduling Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove
    Add/Remove Product Costing Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove
    Service-Centric Capabilities
    Finance HR Marketing Sales Service
    Record to Report Hire to Retire Market to Order Quote to Cash Issue to Resolution
    Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove
    Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove Add/Remove

    Determine the areas of risk to conform to best practice and minimize customization. These will be areas needing focus from the vendor, supporting change and guiding best practice.

    For example: Must be able to support our unique process manufacturing capabilities and enhance planning and visibility to detailed costing.

    Phase 3

    Identify Key Optimization Opportunities

    Phase 1

    1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

    1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

    1.3 Inventory Current System State

    1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

    1.5 Understand Workday Costs

    Phase 2

    2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

    2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

    Phase 3

    3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

    3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

    Phase 4

    4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify key optimization areas
    • Create an optimization roadmap

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Workday Optimization Team

    Step 3.1

    Prioritize optimization opportunities

    Activities

    3.1.1 Prioritize Optimization Capability Areas

    Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    Step 3.1

    Step 3.2

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Explore existing process gaps
    • Identify the impact of processes on user satisfaction
    • Identify the impact of data quality on user satisfaction
    • Review your overall product satisfaction and vendor management

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Workday Optimization Team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Application optimization plan

    Info-Tech Insight

    Enabling a high-performing organization requires excellent management practices and continuous optimization efforts. Your technology portfolio and architecture are important, but we must go deeper. Taking a holistic view of ERP technologies in the environments in which they operate allows for the inclusion of people and process improvements – this is key to maximizing business results. Using a formal ERP optimization initiative will drive business-IT alignment, identify IT automation priorities, and dig deep into continuous process improvement.

    Address process gaps:

    • ERP and related technologies are invaluable to the goal of organizational enablement, but they must have supported processes driven by business goals.
    • Identify areas where capabilities need to be improved and work toward optimization.

    Support user satisfaction:

    • The best technology in the world won’t deliver business results if it’s not working for the users who need it.
    • Understand concerns, communicate improvements, and support users in all roles.

    Improve data quality:

    • Data quality is unique to each business unit and requires tolerance, not perfection.
    • Implement data quality initiatives that are aligned with overall business objectives and aimed at addressing data practices and the data itself.

    Proactively manage vendors:

    • Vendor management is a critical component of technology enablement and IT satisfaction.
    • Assess your current satisfaction against that of your peers and work toward building a process that is best fit for your organization.

    Assessing application business value

    The Business

    Keepers of the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements that define IT success. The business maintains the overall ownership and evaluation of the applications.

    Business Value of Applications

    IT

    Technical subject matter experts of the applications they deliver and maintain. Each IT function works together to ensure quality applications are delivered to stakeholder expectations.

    First, the authorities on business value need to define and weigh their value drivers that describe the priorities of the organization. This will allow the applications team to apply a consistent, objective, and strategically aligned evaluation of applications across the organization.

    In this context…

    business value is

    the value of the business outcome that the application produces. Additionally, it is how effective the application is at producing that outcome.

    Business value IS NOT

    the user’s experience or satisfaction with the application.

    Brainstorm IT initiatives to enable high areas of opportunity to support the business

    Create or Improve:

    • ERP Capabilities
    • Optimization Initiatives

    Capabilities are what the system and business do that creates value for the organization.

    Optimization initiatives are projects with a definitive start and end date, and they enhance, create, maintain, or remove capabilities with the goal of increasing value.

    Brainstorm ERP optimization initiatives in each area. Ensure you are looking for all-encompassing opportunities within the context of IT, the business, and Workday systems.

    • Process
    • Technology
    • Organization

    Discover the value drivers of your applications

    Financial vs. Human Benefits

    Financial benefits refer to the degree to which the value source can be measured through monetary metrics and are often quite tangible.

    Human benefits refer to how an application can deliver value through a user’s experience.

    Inward vs. Outward Orientation

    Inward refers to value sources that have an internal impact and improve your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in performing its operations.

    Outward refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external factors, such as the market or your customers.

    The image shows a business value matrix, with Human benefit and Financial benefit in the horizontal and Outward and Inward on the vertical. In the top left quadrant is Reach Customers; top right is Increase Revenue or Deliver Value; bottom left is Enhance Services, and bottom right is Reduce Costs.

    The image shows a graph titled Perceived business benefits from using digital tools. It is a bar graph, showing percentages assigned to each perceived benefit. The source is Collins et al, 2017.

    Increased Revenue

    Application functions that are specifically related to the impact on your organization’s ability to generate revenue and deliver value to your customers.

    Reduced Costs

    Reduction of overhead. The ways in which an application limits the operational costs of business functions.

    Enhanced Services

    Functions that enable business capabilities that improve the organization’s ability to perform its internal operations.

    Reach Customers

    Application functions that enable and improve the interaction with customers or produce market information and insights.

    Prioritize Workday optimization areas that will bring the most value to the organization

    Review your ERP capability areas and rate them according to relevance to organizational goals. This will allow you to eliminate optimization ideas that may not bring value to the organization.

    The image shows a graph, separated into quadrants. On the x-axis is Satisfaction, from low to high, and on the Y-axis is Relevant to Organizational Goals from Low to High. The top left quadrant is High Priority, top right is Maintain, and the two lower quadrants are both low priority.

    Value vs. Effort

    How important is it? vs. How difficult is it?

    How important is it? How Difficult is it?

    What is the value?

    • Increase revenue
    • Decrease costs
    • Enhanced services
    • Reach customers

    What is the benefit?

    • How can it help us reach our goals?

    What is the impact?

    • To organizational goals
    • To ERP goals
    • To departmental goals

    What is the cost?

    • Hours x Rates ++ =

    What is the level of effort?

    • Development effort
    • Operational effort
    • Implementation effort
    • Outside resource coordination

    What is the risk of implementing/not implementing?

    What is the complexity?

    (Roadmunk)

    RICE method

    Measure the “total impact per time worked”

    The image shows a graphic with the word Confidence at the top, then an arrow pointing upwards that reads Impact. Below that, there is an arrow pointing horizontally in both directions that reads Reach, and then a horizontal line, with the word Effort below it.

    Reach Impact Confidence Effort

    How many people will this improvement impact? Internal: # of users OR # of transactions per period

    External: # of customers OR # of transactions per period

    What is the scale of impact? How much will the improvement affect satisfaction?

    Example Weighting:

    1 = Massive Impact

    2 = High Impact

    1 = Medium Impact

    0.5 = Low Impact

    0.25 = Very Low Impact

    How confident are we that the improvements are achievable and that they will meet the impact estimates?

    Example Weighting:

    1 = High Confidence

    0.80 = Medium Confidence

    0.50 = Low Confidence

    How much investment will be required to implement the improvement initiative?

    FTE hours x cost per hour

    (Intercom)

    3.1.1 Prioritize and rate optimization capability areas

    1-3 hours

    1. Use tab 3.1 Optimization Priorities.
    2. From the Workday Key Capabilities (pulled from tab 1.3 Key Capabilities), discuss areas of scope for the Workday optimization initiative.
    3. Discuss the four areas of the business value matrix and identify how each module, along with organizational goals, can bring value to the organization.
    4. Rate each of your Workday capabilities for the level of importance to your organization. The levels of importance are:
      • Crucial
      • Important
      • Secondary
      • Unimportant
      • Not applicable

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Step 3.2

    Discover Optimization Initiatives

    Activities

    3.2.1 Discover Product and Vendor Satisfaction Opportunities

    3.2.2 Discover Capability and Feature Optimization Opportunities

    3.2.3 Discover Process Optimization Opportunities

    3.2.4 Discover Integration Optimization Opportunities

    3.2.5 Discover Data Optimization Opportunities

    3.2.6 Discover Workday Cost-Saving Opportunities

    Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    Step 3.1

    Step 3.2

    This step will guide you through the following activities:

    • Explore existing process gaps
    • Identify the impact of processes on user satisfaction
    • Identify the impact of data quality on user satisfaction
    • Review your overall product satisfaction and vendor management

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Workday Optimization Team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Application optimization plan
    Content for New section Tag Goes HereThe image shows a graphic title Product Feature Satisfaction, showing features in rank order and data on each.
    Content for New section Tag Goes HereThe image shows a graphic titled Vendor Capability Satisfaction, showing features in rank order with related data.

    Workday’s partner landscape

    Workday uses an extensive partner network to help deliver results.

    ADVISORY PARTNERS

    Workday Advisory Partners have in-depth knowledge to help customers determine what’s best for their needs and how to maximize business value. They guide you through digital acceleration strategy and planning, product selection, change management, and more.

    SERVICES PARTNERS

    Workday Services Partners represent a curated community of global systems integrators and regional firms that help companies deploy Workday and continually adopt new capabilities.

    SOFTWARE PARTNERS

    Workday Software Partners are a global ecosystem of application, content, and technology software companies that design, build, and deploy solution extensions to help customers enhance the capabilities of Workday.

    Global payroll PARTNERS

    Workday’s Global Payroll Cloud (GPC) program makes it easy to expand payroll (outside of the US, Canada, the UK, and France) to third-party payroll providers around the world using certified, prebuilt integrations from Workday Partners. Payroll partners provide solutions in more than 100 countries.

    Adaptive planning PARTNERS

    Adaptive planning partners guide you through all aspects of everything from integration to deployment.

    With large-scale ERP and HCM systems, the success of the system can be as much about the SI (Systems Integrator) or vendor partners as it is about the core product.

    In evaluating your Workday system, think about Workday’s extensive partner network to understand how you can capitalize on your installation.

    You do not need to reinvent the system; you may just need an additional service partner or bolt-on solution to round out your product functionality.

    Improving vendor management

    Create a right-size, right-fit strategy for managing the vendors relevant to your organization.

    The image shows a matrix, with strategic value on the x-axis from low to high, and Vendor Spend/Switching Costs on the y-axis, from low to high. In the top left is Operational, top right is Strategic; lower left is commodity; and lower right Tactical.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A vendor management initiative is an organization’s formalized process for evaluating, selecting, managing, and optimizing third-party providers of goods and services.

    The amount of resources you assign to managing vendors depends on the number and value of your organization’s relationships. Before optimizing your vendor management program around the best practices presented in Info-Tech’s Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative blueprint, assess your current maturity and build the process around a model that reflects the needs of your organization.

    Note: Info-Tech uses VMI interchangeably with the terms “vendor management office (VMO),” “vendor management function,” “vendor management process,” and “vendor management program.”

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    3.2.1 Discover product and vendor satisfaction

    1-2 hours

    1. Review tab 2.2 Vend. & Prod. Sat. to review the overall Product (and Vendor) satisfaction of your Workday system.
    2. Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives to answer the following questions in the Overall Product (and Vendor) Evaluation area.
      • Document overall product satisfaction.
      • How does your satisfaction compare with your peers?
      • Is the overall system fit for use?
      • Do you have a proactive vendor management strategy in place?
      • Is the product dissatisfaction at the point that you need to evaluate if it is time to replace the product?
      • Could your vendor or SI help you achieve better results?

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image shows a box with text in it, titled 3.2.1 Overall Product (and Vendor) Evaluation.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Content for New section Tag Goes HereThe image is a graphic, with the Five Most Critical Applications section at the top, with related data, and other sets of data included in smaller text at the bottom of the image.

    3.2.2 Discover capability and feature optimization opportunities

    1-2 hours

    1. Review tab 2.2 Vend. & Prod. Sat. and tab 3.1 Optimization Priorities to review the satisfaction with the capabilities and features of your Workday system.
    2. Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives to answer the following questions in the Capabilities and Features Evaluation area to answer the following questions:
      • What capabilities and features are performing the worst?
      • Do other organizations and users struggle with these areas?
      • Why is it not performing well?
      • Is there an opportunity for improvement?
      • What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken?

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    The image is a box with text in it, titled 3.2.2 Capabilities and Features Evaluation.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Process optimization: the hidden goldmine

    Know your strategic goals and KPIs that will deliver results.

    Goals of Process Improvement Process Improvement Sample Areas Improvement Possibilities
    • Optimize business and improve value drivers
    • Reduce TCO
    • Reduce process complexity
    • Eliminate manual processes
    • Increase efficiencies
    • Support digital transformation and enablement
    • Order to cash
    • Procure to pay
    • Order to replenish
    • Plan to produce
    • Request to settle
    • Make to order
    • Make to stock
    • Purchase to order
    • Increase number of process instances processed successfully end to end
    • Increase number of instances processed in time
    • Increase degree of process automation
    • Speed up cycle times of supply chain processes
    • Reduce number of process exceptions
    • Apply internal best practices across organizational units

    3.2.3 Discover process optimization opportunities

    1-2 hours

    1. Use tab 3.1 Optimization Priorities and tab 2.2 Bus Proc Change Tolerance to review process optimization opportunities.
    2. Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives to answer the following questions in the Capabilities and Features Evaluation area to answer the following questions:
      • List underperforming capabilities around process.
      • Answer the following:
        • What is the state of the current processes?
        • Is there an opportunity for process improvement?
        • What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken in this area?

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image shows a box with text in it, titled Processes Optimization.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Integration provides long-term usability

    Balance the need for secure, compliant data availability with organizational agility.

    The benefits of integration

    • The largest benefit is the extended use of data. The ERP data can be used in the enterprise-level business intelligence suite rather than the application-specific analytics.
    • Enhanced data security. Integrated approaches lend themselves to auditable processes such as sign-on and limit the email movement of data.
    • Regulatory compliance. Large multi-site organizations have many layers of regulation. A clear understanding of where orders, deliveries, and payments were made streamlines the audit process.

    The challenges of integration

    • Extending a single instance ERP to multiple sites. The challenge for data management is the same as any SaaS application. The connection and data replication present challenges.
    • Combining data from equally high-volume systems. For Workday it is recommended that one instance is set to primary and all other sites are read-only to maintain data integrity.
    • Incorporating data from the separate system(s). The proprietary and locked-in nature of the data collection and definitions for ERP systems often limit the movement of data between separate systems.

    Common integration and consolidation scenarios

    Financial Consolidation Data Backup Synchronization Across Sites Legacy Consolidation
    • Financial consolidation requires a holistic view of data format and accounting schedules
    • Problem: Controlling financial documentation across geographic regions. Most companies are required to report in each region where they maintain a presence. Stakeholders and senior management also need a holistic view. This leads to significant strain on the financial department to consolidate both revenue and budget allocations for cross-site projects across the various geographic locations on a regular basis.
    • Solution: For enterprises with a single vendor or Workday-only portfolios, Workday can offer integration tools. For those needing to integrate with other ERPs the use of a connector may be required to send financial data to the main system. The format and accounting calendar for transactions should match the primary ERP system to allow consolidation. The local specific format should be a role-based customization at the level of the site’s specific instance.
    • Use a data center as the main repository to ensure all geographic locations have equal access to the necessary data.
    • Problem: ERP systems generate high volumes of data. Most systems have a defined schedule of back-up during off-hours. Multi-instance brings additional issues through lack of defined off-hours, higher volume of data, and the potential for cross-site or instance data relationships. This leads to headaches for both the Database Administrator and Business Analysts.
    • Solution: The best solution is an offsite data center with high availability. This may include cloud storage or hosted data centers. Regardless of where the data is stored, centralize the data and replicate to each site. Ensure that the data center can mirror the database and Binary Large Object (BLOB) storage that exists for each site.
    • Set up synchronization schedules based on data usage, not site location.
    • Problem: Providing access to up-to-date transactions requires copying of both contextual information (permissions, timestamp, location, history) and the transaction itself across multiple sites to allow local copies to be used for analysis and audits. The sheer volume of information makes timely synchronization difficult.
    • Solution: Not all data needs to be synchronized in a timely fashion. In Workday, administrators can use NetWeaver to maintain and alter global data synchronization through the Master Data Management module. Permissions can be given to users to perform on-demand synchronization of data attached to that user.
    • Carefully define older transactions. Only active transactions should be brought in the ERP. Send older data to storage.
    • Problem: Subsidiaries and acquired companies often have a Tier 2 ERP product. Prior to fully consolidating the processes, many enterprises will want to migrate data to their ERP system to build compliance and audit trails. Migration of data often breaks historical linkages between transactions.
    • Solution: Workday offers tools to integrate data across applications that can be used as part of a data migration strategy. The process of data migration should be combined with data warehousing to ensure a cost-effective process. For most enterprises, the lack of experience in data migration will necessitate the use of consultants and Independent Software Vendors (ISV).

    For more information: Implement a Multi-site ERP

    3.2.4 Discover integration optimization opportunities

    1-2 hours

    1. Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives to answer the following questions in the Integration Evaluation area:
      1. Are there some areas where integration could be improved?
      2. Is there an opportunity for process improvement?
      3. What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken in this area?

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image shows a box with text in it, titled Integration Evaluation.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Use a data strategy that fixes the enterprise-wide data management issues

    Your data management must allow for flexibility and scalability for future needs.

    IT has several concerns around ERP data and wide dissemination of that data across sites. Large organizations can benefit from building a data warehouse or at least adopting some of the principles of data warehousing. The optimal way to deal with the issue of integration is to design a metadata-driven data warehouse that acts as a central repository for all ERP data. This serves as the storage facility for millions of transactions, formatted to allow analysis and comparison.

    Key considerations:

    • Technical: At what stage does data move to the warehouse? Can processes be automated to dump data or to do a scheduled data movement?
    • Process: Data integration requires some level of historical context for all data. Ensure that all data has multiple metadata tags to future-proof the data.
    • People: Who will be accessing the data and what are the key items that users will need to adapt to the data warehouse process?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Data warehouse solutions can be expensive. See Info-Tech’s Build a Data Warehouse on a Solid Foundation for guidance on what options are available to meet your budget and data needs.

    Optimizing Workday data, additional considerations

    Data Quality Management Effective Data Governance Data-Centric Integration Strategy Extensible Data Warehousing
    • Prevention is 10x cheaper than remediation. Stop fixing data quality with band-aid solutions and start fixing at the source of the problem.
    • Data quality is unique to each business unit and requires tolerance, not perfection. If the data allows the business to operate at the desired level, don’t waste time fixing data that may not need to be fixed.
    • Implement a set of data quality initiatives that are aligned with overall business objectives and aimed at addressing data practices and the data itself.
    • Develop a prioritized data quality improvement project roadmap and long-term improvement strategy.
    • Build related practices with more confidence and less risk after achieving an appropriate level of data quality.
    • Data governance enables data-driven insight. Think of governance as a structure for making better use of data.
    • Collaboration is critical. The business may own the data, but IT understands the data. Data governance will not work unless the business and IT work together.
    • Data governance powers the organization up the data value chain through policies and procedures, master data management, data quality, and data architecture.
    • Create a roadmap to prioritize initiatives and delineate responsibilities among data stewards, data owners, and the data governance steering committee.
    • Ensure buy-in from business and IT stakeholders. Communicate initiatives to end users and executives to reduce resistance.
    • Every enterprise application involves data integration. Any change in the application and database ecosystem requires you to solve a data integration problem.
    • Data integration is becoming more and more critical for downstream functions of data management and for business operations to be successful. Poor integration holds back these critical functions.
    • Build your data integration practice with a firm foundation in governance and a reference architecture. Ensure that your process is scalable and sustainable.
    • Support the flow of data through the organization and meet the organization’s requirements for data latency, availability, and relevancy.
    • Data availability must be frequently reviewed and repositioned to continue to grow with the business.
    • A data warehouse is a project, but successful data warehousing is a program. An effective data warehouse requires planning beyond the technology implementation.
    • Governance, not technology, needs to be the core support system for enabling a data warehouse program.
    • Leverage an approach that focuses on constructing a data warehouse foundation that can address a combination of operational, tactical, and ad hoc business needs.
    • Invest time and effort to put together pre-project governance to inform and guide your data warehouse implementation.
    • Select the most suitable architecture pattern to ensure the data warehouse is “built right” at the very beginning.

    Build Your Data Quality Program

    Establish Data Governance

    Build a Data Integration Strategy

    Build an Extensible Data Warehouse Foundation

    3.2.5 Discover data optimization opportunities

    1-2 hours

    1. Use your 2.1 APA survey and/or tab 2.2 Vendor & Prod Sat to better understand issues related to data.
    • Note: Data issues happen for a number of reasons:
      • Poor underlying data in the system
      • More than one source of truth
      • Inability to consolidate data
      • Inability to measure KPIs (key performance indicators) effectively
      • Reporting that is cumbersome or non-existent
  • Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives to answer the following questions in the Data Evaluation area:
    • What are some underlying issues?
    • Is there an opportunity for data improvement?
    • What are some optimization initiatives that could be undertaken in this area?
  • Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image shows a box with text in it, titled 3.2.5 Data Evaluation.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Content for New section Tag Goes HereThe image shows a graphic, with a bar graph at the bottom, showing Primary Reason for Leaving Workday Human Capital Management.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The number one reason organizations leave Workday is because of cost. Do not be strong-armed into a contract you do not feel comfortable with. Do your homework, know your leverage points, be fully prepared for cost negotiations, use their competition to your advantage, and get support – such as Info-Tech’s vendor management resources and team.

    Approach contracts and pricing strategically

    Don’t go into contract negotiation blind.

    • Understand the vendor – year-end, market strategy, and competitive position.
    • Take the time to understand the contract. including contract details such as length of the contract, full-service equivalent (FSE, employee count,) innovation fees, modules included, and renewal clauses.
    • Be fully prepared to take a proactive approach to cost negotiations.
      • Use Info-Tech’s vendor management services to support you.
      • Go in prepared.
      • Use your leverage points – FSE count, Module Bundles, CPI & Innovation Fees.
      • Use competition to your advantage.

    Since 2007, Workday has been steadily growing its market share and footprint in human capital management, finance, and student information systems.

    Organizations considering additional modules or undergoing contract renewal need to gain insight into areas of leverage and other relevant vendor information.

    Key issues that occur include pricing transparency and contractual flexibility on terms and conditions. Adequate planning and communication need to be taken into consideration before entering into any agreement.

    3.2.6 Discover Workday cost-saving opportunities

    1-2 hours

    1. Use tab 1.5 Current Costs, as an input for this exercise. Another great resource is Info-Tech’s Workday vendor management resources which you can use to help understand cost-saving strategies.
    2. Use tab 3.2 Optimization Initiatives Costs Evaluation area to list cost savings initiatives and opportunities.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image shows a box with text in it, titled 3.2.6 Costs Evaluation.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Other optimization opportunities

    There are many opportunities to improve your Workday portfolio. Choose the ones that are right for your business.

    • Artificial intelligence (AI) (and management of the AI lifecycle)
    • Machine learning (ML)
    • Augment business interactions
    • Automatically execute sales pipelines
    • Process mining
    • Workday application monitoring
    • Be aware of the Workday product roadmap
    • Implement and take advantage of Workday tools and product offerings

    Phase 4

    Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    Phase 1

    1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

    1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

    1.3 Inventory Current System State

    1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

    1.5 Understand Workday Costs

    Phase 2

    2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

    2.2 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor/Product and Willingness for Change

    Phase 3

    3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

    3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

    Phase 4

    4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Review the different options to solve the identified pain points
    • Build out a roadmap showing how you will get to those solutions
    • Build a communication plan that includes the stakeholder presentation

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Primary stakeholders in each value stream supported by the ERP
    • ERP Applications support team

    Get the Most Out of Your Workday

    Step 4.1

    4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

    Activities

    4.1.1 Evaluate Optimization Initiatives

    4.1.2 Prioritize Your Workday Initiatives

    4.1.3 Build a Roadmap

    4.1.4 Build a Visual Roadmap

    Next steps

    Step 4.1

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Review the different options to solve the identified pain points then build out a roadmap of how to get to that solution.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Primary stakeholders in each value stream supported by the ERP
    • ERP Applications support team

    Outcomes of this step

    • A strategic direction is set
    • An initial roadmap is laid out

    Evaluate your optimization initiatives and determine next steps to build out your optimization roadmap

    The image shows a chart titled Value Drivers, with specific categories and criteria listed along the top as headings. The rows below the headings are blank.

    Activity 4.1.1 Evaluate optimization Initiatives

    1 hour

    1. Evaluate your optimization initiatives from tab 3.2, Optimization Initiatives.
    2. Complete Value Drivers:
    • Relevance to Organizational Goals and Objectives
    • Applications Portfolio Assessment Survey:
      • Impact: Number of Users, Importance to Role
      • Current State: Satisfaction With Features, Usability, and Data Quality.
    • Value Drivers: Increase Revenue, Decrease Costs, Enhanced Services, or Reach Customers.
    • Additional Factors:
      • Current to Future Risk Profile
      • Number of Departments to Benefit
      • Importance to Stakeholder Relations
  • Complete Effort and Cost Estimations:
    • Resources: Do we have resources available and the skillset?
    • Cost
    • Overall Effort Rating
  • Gut Check: “Is it achievable? Have we done it or something similar before? Are we willing to invest in it?“
  • Decision to Proceed
  • Next Steps
  • Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Activity 4.1.2 Determine your optimization roadmap building blocks

    1 hour

    Optimization initiatives: Determine which if any to proceed with.

    1. Identify initiatives.
    2. For each item on your roadmap assign an owner who will be accountable to the completion of the roadmap item.
    3. Wherever possible, assign a start date, month, or quarter. The more specific you can be the better.
    4. Identify completion dates to create a sense of urgency. If you are struggling with start dates, it can help to start with a finish date and “back in” to a start date based on estimated efforts.
    5. Include periphery tasks such as communication strategy.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    Note: Your roadmap should be treated as a living document that is updated and shared with the stakeholders on a regular schedule.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Activity 4.1.3 – Build a visual Workday optimization roadmap (optional)

    1 hour

    For some, a visual representation of a roadmap is easier to comprehend.

    Consider taking the roadmap built in 4.1.2 and creating a visual roadmap.

    Record this information in the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook.

    The image shows a chart that tracks Initiative and Owner across multiple years.

    Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Get the Most Out of Your Workday

    ERP technology is critical to facilitating an organization’s flow of information across business units. It allows for seamless integration of systems and creates a holistic view of the enterprise to support decision making. ERP implementation should not be a one-and-done exercise. There needs to be ongoing optimization to enable business processes and optimal organizational results.

    Get the Most Out of Your Workday allows organizations to proactively implement continuous assessment and optimization of their enterprise resource planning system, including:

    • Alignment and prioritization of key business and technology drivers.
    • Identification of processes, including classification and gap analysis.
    • Measurement of user satisfaction across key departments.
    • Improved vendor relations.
    • Data quality initiatives.

    This formal Workday optimization initiative will drive business-IT alignment, identify IT automation priorities, and dig deep into continuous process improvement.

    If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop.

    Contact your account representative for more information.

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Research Contributors

    Ben Dickie

    Research Practice Lead

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Ben Dickie is a Research Practice Lead at Info-Tech Research Group. His areas of expertise include customer experience management, CRM platforms, and digital marketing. He has also led projects pertaining to enterprise collaboration and unified communications.

    Scott Bickley

    Practice Lead and Principal Research

    Director Info-Tech Research Group

    Scott Bickley is a Practice Lead and Principal Research Director at Info-Tech Research Group focused on vendor management and contract review. He also has experience in the areas of IT asset management (ITAM), software asset management (SAM), and technology procurement along with a deep background in operations, engineering, and quality systems management.

    Andy Neil

    Practice Lead, Applications

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Andy is a Senior Research Director, Data Management and BI, at Info-Tech Research Group. He has over 15 years of experience in managing technical teams, information architecture, data modeling, and enterprise data strategy. He is an expert in enterprise data architecture, data integration, data standards, data strategy, big data, and the development of industry standard data models.

    Bibliography

    “9 product prioritization frameworks for product managers.” Roadmunk, n.d. Accessed 15 May 2022.

    Armel, Kate. "New Article: Data-Driven Estimation, Management Lead to High Quality." QSM: Quantitative Software Management, 14 May 2013. Accessed 4 Feb. 2021.

    Collins, George, et al., “Connecting Small Businesses in the US.” Deloitte Commissioned by Google, 2017. Web.

    Epizitone, Ayogeboh, and Oludayo O. Olugbara. "Critical Success Factors for ERP System Implementation to Support Financial Functions." Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal, vol. 23, no. 6, 2019. Accessed 12 Oct. 2021

    Gheorghiu, Gabriel. "The ERP Buyer’s Profile for Growing Companies." Selecthub, 2018. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

    Karlsson, Johan. "Product Backlog Grooming Examples and Best Practices." Perforce, 18 May 2018. Accessed 4 Feb. 2021.

    Lauchlan, Stuart. “Workday accelerates into fiscal 2023 with a strong year end as cloud adoption gets a COVID-bounce.” diginomica, 1 March 2022. Web.

    "Maximizing the Emotional Economy: Behavioral Economics." Gallup, n.d. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

    Noble, Simon-Peter. “Workday: A High-Quality Business That's Fairly Valued.” Seeking Alpha, 8 Apr. 2019. Web.

    Norelus, Ernese, Sreeni Pamidala, and Oliver Senti. "An Approach to Application Modernization: Discovery and Assessment Phase," Medium, 24 Feb. 2020. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

    "Process Frameworks." APQC, n.d. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

    Saxena, Deepak, and Joe Mcdonagh. "Evaluating ERP Implementations: The Case for a Lifecycle-based Interpretive Approach." The Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, vol. 22, no. 1, 2019, pp. 29-37. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

    “Workday Enterprise Management Cloud Product Scorecard.” SoftwareReviews, May 2022. Web.

    “Workday Meets Growing Customer Demand with Record Number of Deployments and Industry-Leading Customer Satisfaction Score.” Workday, Inc., 7 June 2021. Web.

    Adopt an Exponential IT Mindset

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}103|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: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation

    New technologies such as generative AI, quantum computing, 5G cellular networks, and next-generation robotics are ushering in an exciting new era of business transformation. By adopting an exponential IT mindset, IT leaders will be able to lead the autonomization of business capabilities.

    To capitalize on this upcoming opportunity, exponential IT leaders will have to become business advisors who unlock exponential value for the business and help mitigate exponential risk.

    Adopt a renewed focus on business outcomes to achieve autonomization

    An exponential IT mindset means that IT leaders will need to take a lead role in transforming business capabilities.

    • Embrace an expanded role as business advisors: CIOs will be tasked with greater responsibility for determining business strategy alongside the C-suite.
    • Know the rewards and mitigate the risks: New value chain opportunities and efficiency gains will create significant ROI. Protect these returns by mitigating higher risks to business continuity, information security, and delivery performance.
    • Plan to fully leverage technologies such as AI: It will be integral for IT to enable autonomous technologies in this new era of exponential technology progress.

    Adopt an Exponential IT Mindset Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Adopt an Exponential IT Mindset Deck – An introduction to IT’s role in the autonomization era

    The role of IT has evolved throughout the past couple generations to enable fundamental business transformations. In the autonomization era, it will have to evolve again to lead the business through a world of exponential opportunity.

    • Adopt an Exponential IT Mindset Storyboard

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Adopt an Exponential IT Mindset

    Thrive through the next paradigm shift

    Executive Summary

    For more than 40 years, information technology has significantly transformed businesses, from the computerization of operations to the digital transformation of business models. As technological disruption accelerates exponentially, a world of exponential business opportunity is within reach.

    Newly emerging technologies such as generative AI, quantum computing, 5G cellular networks, and next-generation robotics are enabling autonomous business capabilities.

    The role of IT has evolved throughout the past couple generations to enable business transformations. In the autonomization era, it will have to evolve again. IT will have a new mission, an adapted governance structure, innovative capabilities, and an advanced partnership model.

    CIOs embracing exponential IT require a new mindset. Their IT practices will need to progress to the top of the maturity ladder as they make business outcomes their own.

    Over the past two generations, we have witnessed major technology-driven business transformations

    1980s

    Computerization

    The use of computer devices, networks, and applications became widespread in the enterprise. The focus was on improving the efficiency of back-office tasks.

    2000s

    Digitalization

    As the world became connected through the internet, new digitally enabled business models emerged in the enterprise. Orders were now being received online, and many products and services were partially or fully digitized for online fulfillment.

    Recent pandemic measures contributed to a marked acceleration in the digitalization of organizations

    The massive disruption resulting from pandemic measures led businesses to shift to more digital interactions with customers.

    The global average share of customer interactions that are digital went from 36% in December 2019 to 58% in July 2020.

    The global average share of customer interactions that are digital went from 36% to 58% in less than a year.*

    Moreover, companies across business areas have accelerated the digitization of their offerings.

    The global average share of partially or fully digitized products went from 35% in 2019 to 55% in July 2020.

    The global average share of partially or fully digitized products went from 35% to 55% in the same period.*

    The adoption of digitalized business models has accelerated during the pandemic. Post-pandemic, it is unlikely for adoption to recede.

    With more business applications ported to the cloud and more data available online, “digital-first” organizations started to envisage a next wave of automation.

    *Source: “How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology tipping point—and transformed business forever,” McKinsey & Company, 2020

    A majority of IT leaders plan to use artificial intelligence within their organizations in 2023

    In August 2022, Info-Tech surveyed 506 IT leaders and asked which tasks would involve AI in their organizations in 2023.

    Graph showing tasks that would involve AI in organizations in 2023.

    We found that 63% of IT leaders plan to use AI within their organizations to automate repetitive, low-level tasks by the end of 2023.

    With the release of the ChatGPT prototype in November 2022, setting a record for the fastest user growth (reaching 100 million active users just two months after launch), we foresee that AI adoption will accelerate significantly and its use will extend to more complex tasks.

    Newly emerging technologies and business realities are ushering in the next business transformation

    1980s

    Computerization

    2000s

    Digitalization

    2020s

    Autonomization

    As digitalization accelerates, a post-pandemic world with a largely online workforce and digitally transformed enterprise business models now enters an era where more business capabilities become autonomous, with humans at the center of a loop* that is gradually becoming larger.

    Deep Learning, Quantum Computing, 5G Networks, Robotics

    * Download Info-Tech’s CIO Trend Report 2019 – Become a Leader in the Loop

    The role of IT needs to evolve as it did through the previous two generations

    1980s

    Computerization

    IT professionals gathered functional requirements from the business to help automate back-office tasks and improve operational efficiency.

    2000s

    Digitalization

    IT professionals acquired business analysis skills and leveraged the SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, and cloud) stack to accelerate the automation of the front office and enable the digital transformation of business models.

    2020s

    Autonomization

    IT professionals will become business advisors and enable the establishment of autonomous yet differentiated business processes and capabilities.

    The autonomization era brings enormous opportunity for organizations, coupled with enormous risk

    Graph of Risk Severity versus Value Opportunity. Autonomization has a high value of opportunity and high risk severity.

    While some analysts have been quick to announce the demise of the IT department and the transition of the role of IT to the business, the budgets that CIOs control have continued to rise steadily over time.

    In a high-risk, high-reward endeavor to make business processes autonomous, the role of IT will continue to be pivotal, because while everyone in the organization will rush to seize the value opportunity, the technology risk will be left for IT to manage.

    Exponential IT represents a necessary change in a CIO’s focus to lead through the next paradigm shift

    EXPONENTIAL RISK

    Autonomous processes will integrate with human-led processes, creating risks to business continuity, information security, and quality of delivery. Supplier power will exacerbate business risks.

    EXPONENTIAL REWARD

    The efficiency gains and new value chains created through artificial intelligence, robotics, and additive manufacturing will be very significant. Most of this value will be realized through the augmentation of human labor.

    EXPONENTIAL DEMAND

    Autonomous solutions for productivity and back-office applications will eventually become commoditized and provided by a handful of large vendors. There will, however, be a proliferation of in-house algorithms and workflows to autonomize the middle and front office, offered by a busy landscape of industry-centric capability vendors.

    EXPONENTIAL IT

    Exponential IT involves IT leading the cognitive reengineering of the organization with evolved practices for:

    • IT governance
    • Asset management
    • Vendor management
    • Data management
    • Business continuity management
    • Information security management

    To succeed, IT will have to adopt different priorities in its mission, governance, capabilities, and partnerships

    Digitalization

    A Connected World

    Progressive IT

    • Mission

      Enable the digital transformation of the business
    • Governance

      Service metrics, security perimeters, business intelligence, compliance management
    • Capabilities

      Service management, business analysis, application portfolio management, data management
    • Partnerships

      Management of technology service agreements

    Autonomization

    An Exponential World

    Exponential IT

    • Mission

      Lead the business through autonomization.
    • Governance

      Outcome-based metrics, zero trust, ESG reporting, digital trust
    • Capabilities

      Experience management, business advisory, enterprise innovation, data differentiation
    • Partnerships

      Management of business capability agreements

    Fortune favors the bold: The CIO now has an opportunity to cement their role as business leader

    Levels of digital maturity.  From bottom: Unstable - inability to consistently deliver basic services, Firefighter - Reliable infrastructure and IT service desk, Trusted Operator - Enablement of business through applications and work orders, Business Partner - Effective delivery of strategic business projects, Innovator - Information and technology as a competitive advantage.

    Research has shown that companies that are more digitally mature have higher growth than the industry average. In these companies, the CIO is part of the executive management team.

    And while the role of the CIO is generally tied to their mandate within the organization, we have seen their role progress from doer to leader as IT climbs the maturity ladder.

    As companies strive to succeed in the next phase of technology-driven transformation, CIOs have an opportunity to demonstrate their business leadership. To do so, they will have to provide exceptionally mature services while owning business targets.

    Design a VIP Experience for Your Service Desk

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}480|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
    • VIPs and executives expect to get immediate service for every IT issue, no matter how minor, and the service desk is constantly in reactive mode trying to quickly resolve these issues.
    • VIPs don’t understand or have input into service desk processes, procedures, and SLAs, especially when it comes to prioritization of their issues over other tickets.
    • The C-suite calls the CIO directly with every issue they have, tying them up and forcing them to redirect resources with little notice.
    • VIP tickets sit in the queue too long without a response or resolution, and VIPs are dissatisfied with the service they receive.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Service desk and IT leaders are unclear on VIPs' service delivery expectations or the best support model to meet their needs while continuing to meet SLAs for the rest of the organization.
    • Deploying resources to service VIPs ahead of other users or more critical problems can result in inappropriate prioritization of issues and poor service delivery to the rest of the organization.
    • The reality for most organizations is that VIPs need special treatment; but providing VIP service shouldn’t come at the expense of good service delivery for the rest of the organization.

    Impact and Result

    • Stop being reactive to VIP requests and start planning for them so you can formally define the service and set expectations.
    • Talk to all relevant stakeholders to clarify their expectations before choosing a VIP service delivery model. Once you have designed your model, define and document the VIP service processes and procedures and communicate them to your stakeholders so everyone is clear on what is in and out of scope.
    • Once you’ve launched the service, track and report on key service desk metrics associated with VIP requests so you can properly allocate resources, budget accurately, evaluate the effectiveness of the service and demonstrate it to executives.

    Design a VIP Experience for Your Service Desk Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Design a VIP Experience for Your Service Desk Storyboard – A guide to defining your VIP service desk support model

    Follow the seven steps outlined in this blueprint to design a VIP support model that best suits your organization, then communicate and evaluate the service to ensure it delivers results.

    • Design a VIP Experience for Your Service Desk Storyboard

    2. Service Desk VIP Procedures Template – A customizable template to document your service desk procedures for handling VIP tickets.

    This template is designed to assist with documenting your service desk procedures for handling VIP or executive tickets. It can be adapted and customized to reflect your specific support model and procedures.

    • Service Desk VIP Procedures Template

    3. VIP Support Process Workflow Example – A Visio template to document your process for resolving VIP tickets.

    This Visio template provides an example of a VIP support process, with every step involved in resolving or fulfilling VIP service desk tickets. Use this as an example to follow and a template to document your own process.

    • VIP Support Process Workflow Example

    4. VIP Support Service Communication Template – A customizable PowerPoint template to communicate and market the service to VIP users.

    This template can be customized to use as an executive presentation to communicate and market the service to VIP users and ensure everyone is on the same page.

    • VIP Support Service Communication Template
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Design a VIP Experience for Your Service Desk

    Keep the C-suite satisfied without sacrificing service to the rest of the organization.

    Analyst Perspective

    Stop being reactive to VIP demands and formalize their service offering.

    Natalie Sansone, PHD

    Natalie Sansone, PHD

    Research Director,
    Infrastructure & Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    In a perfect world, executives wouldn’t need any special treatment because the service desk could rapidly resolve every ticket, regardless of the submitter, keeping satisfaction levels high across the board.

    But we know that’s not the case for most organizations. Executives and VIPs demand higher levels of service because the reality in most companies is that their time is worth more. And any IT leader who’s had a VIP complain about their service knows that their voice also carries more weight than that of a regular dissatisfied user.

    That said, most service desks feel strapped for resources and don’t know how to improve service for VIPs without sacrificing service to the rest of the organization.

    The key is to stop being reactive to VIP demands and formalize your VIP service procedures so that you can properly set expectations for the service, monitor and measure it, and continually evaluate it to make changes if necessary.

    A VIP offering doesn’t have to mean a white glove concierge service, either – it could simply mean prioritizing VIP tickets differently. How do you decide which level of service to offer? Start by assessing your specific needs based on demand, gather requirements from relevant stakeholders, choose the right approach to fit your business needs and capabilities, clearly define and document all aspects of the service then communicate it so that everyone is on the same page as to what is in and out of scope, and continually monitor and evaluate the service to make changes and improvements as needed.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • VIPs and executives expect to get immediate service for every IT issue, no matter how minor, and the service desk is constantly in reactive mode trying to quickly resolve these issues.
    • VIPs don’t understand or have input into service desk processes, procedures, and SLAs, especially when it comes to prioritization of their issues over other tickets.
    • The C-suite calls the CIO directly with every issue they have, tying them up and forcing them to redirect resources with little notice.
    • VIP tickets sit in the queue too long without a response or resolution, and VIPs are dissatisfied with the service they receive.

    Common Obstacles

    • Service desk and IT leaders are unclear on the expectations that VIPs have for service delivery, or they disagree about the best support model to meet their needs while continuing to meet SLAs for the rest of the organization.
    • Service desk teams with limited resources are unsure how best to allocate those resources to handle VIP tickets in a timely manner.
    • There aren’t enough resources available at the service desk to provide the level of service that VIPs expect for their issues.
    • Deploying resources to service VIPs ahead of other users can result in inappropriate prioritization of issues and poor service delivery to the rest of the organization

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • Stop being reactive to VIP requests and start planning for them so you can formally define the service and set expectations.
    • Talk to all relevant stakeholders to clarify their expectations before choosing a VIP service delivery model.
    • Define and document the VIP service processes and procedures, including exactly what is in and out of scope.
    • Track and report on metrics associated with VIP requests so you can properly allocate resources and budget for the service.
    • Continually evaluate the service to expand, reduce, or redefine it, as necessary.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The reality for most organizations is that VIPs need special treatment. But providing VIP service shouldn’t come at the expense of good service delivery for the rest of the organization. To be successful with your approach, formalize the VIP offering to bring consistency and clear expectations for both users and the IT staff delivering the service.

    Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?

    All these familiar scenarios can occur when the service desk treats VIP issues reactively and doesn’t have a defined, documented, and agreed-upon VIP process in place.
    • A VIP calls because their personal printer isn’t working, but you also have a network issue affecting payroll being able to issue paychecks. The VIP wants their issue fixed immediately despite there being a workaround and a higher priority incident needing resources.
    • The COO calls the CIO after hours about issues they’re having with their email. The CIO immediately deploys a field tech back to the office to help the COO. Once the tech arrives, the COO says the issue could have waited until the morning.
    • The company president wants IT to spend a day at their house setting up their new personal laptop to be able to connect into the office before their vacation tomorrow. It would take away one FTE from an already understaffed service desk.
    • The CEO brings their child’s new iPhone in and asks the service desk if they have time to set it up as a favor today. The service desk manager instructs the T2 apps specialist to drop his other tickets to work on this immediately.
    • Two tickets come in at the same time – one is from an SVP who can’t log in to Teams and has an online meeting in half an hour, and the other is for a department of 10 who can’t access the network. The service desk doesn’t know who to help first.

    Different organizations can take very different approaches to VIP requests

    CASE STUDIES

    Providing VIP support helped this company grow

    Allocating a dedicated VIP technician slowed down service delivery for this company

    Situation

    A SaaS company looking to build and scale its services and customers decided to set up a VIP support program, which involved giving their most valuable customers white glove treatment to ensure they had a great experience, became long-term customers, and thus had a positive influence on others to build up the company’s customer base. VIPs were receiving executive-level support with a dedicated person for VIP tickets. The VIPs were happy with the service, but the VIP technician’s regular work was frequently impeded by having to spend most of her time doing white glove activities. The service desk found that in some cases, more critical work was slipping as a result of prioritizing all executive tickets.

    Resolution

    First, they defined who would receive VIP support, then they clearly defined the service, including what VIP support includes, who gets the service, and what their SLAs for service are. They found that the program was an effective way to focus their limited resources on the customers with the highest value potential to increase sales.
    While this model differs from an IT service desk VIP support program, the principles of dedicating resources to provide elevated support to your most important and influential customers for the benefit and growth of the company as a whole remain the same.
    The service desk decided to remove the VIP function. They demonstrated that the cost per contact was too high for dedicated executive support, and reallocating that dedicated technician to the service desk would improve the resolution time of all business incidents and requests. VIPs could still receive prioritized support through the escalation process, but they would contact the regular service desk with their issues. VIPs approved the change, and as a result of removing the dedicated support function, the service desk reduced average incident resolution times by 28% and request fulfillment times by 33%.

    A well-designed and communicated VIP support service can deliver many benefits

    The key to deciding whether a VIP service is right for your organization is to first analyze your needs, match them against your resources, then clearly define and document exactly what is in scope for the service.

    A successfully designed VIP service will lead to:

    • Executives and VIPs can easily contact the service desk and receive exceptional support and customer service from a knowledgeable technician, increasing their trust in the service desk.
    • All service desk tickets are prioritized appropriately and effectively in order to maximize overall ticket resolution and fulfillment times.
    • All users have a clear understanding of how to get in touch with the service desk and expected SLAs for specific ticket types.
    • Critical, business-impacting issues still receive priority service ahead of minor tickets submitted by a VIP.
    • All service desk technicians are clear on processes and procedures for prioritizing and handling VIP tickets.
    • Executives are satisfied with the service they receive and the value that IT provides
    • Reduced VIP downtime, contributing to overall organization productivity and growth.

    A poorly designed or reactive VIP service will lead to:

    • VIPs expect immediate service for non-critical issues, including after-hours.
    • VIPs circumvent the correct process and contact the CIO or service desk manager directly for all their issues.
    • Service desk resources stretched thin, or poor allocation of resources leads to degraded service for the majority of users.
    • More critical business issues are pushed back in order to fix non-critical executive issues.
    • Service desk is not clear how to prioritize tickets and always addresses VIP tickets first regardless of priority.
    • The service desk automatically acts on VIP tickets even when the VIP doesn’t require it or realize they’re getting a different level of service.
    • Non-VIP users are aware of the different service levels and try to request the same priority for their tickets. Support costs are over budget.

    Follow Info-Tech’s approach to design a successful VIP support model

    Follow the seven steps in this blueprint to design a VIP support model that works for your organization:
    1. Understand the support models available, from white glove service to the same service for everyone.
    2. Gather business requirements from all relevant stakeholders.
    3. Based on your business needs, choose the right approach.
    4. Define and document all details of the VIP service offering.
    5. Communicate and market the offering to VIPs so they’re aware of what’s in scope.
    6. Monitor volume and track metrics to evaluate what’s working.
    7. Continually improve or modify the service as needed over time.

    Blueprint deliverables

    The templates listed below are designed to assist you with various stages of this project. This storyboard will direct you when and how to complete them.

    Service Desk VIP Procedures Template

    Use this template to assist with documenting your service desk procedures for handling VIP or executive tickets.

    VIP Support Process Workflow Example

    Use this Visio template to document your process for resolving or fulfilling VIP tickets, from when the ticket is submitted to when it’s closed.

    VIP Support Service Communication Template

    Use this template to customize your executive presentation to communicate and market the service to VIP users.

    Insight Summary

    Key Insight

    The reality for most organizations is that VIPs need special treatment. But providing VIP service shouldn’t be at the expense of good service delivery for the rest of the organization. To be successful with your approach, formalize the VIP offering to bring consistency and clear expectations for both users and the IT staff delivering the service.

    Additional insights:

    Insight 1

    VIP service doesn’t have to mean concierge service. There are different levels and models of VIP support that range in cost and level of service provided. Carefully evaluate your needs and capacity to choose the approach that works best for your organization.

    Insight 2

    This service is for your most valued users, so design it right from the start to ensure their satisfaction. Involve stakeholders from the beginning, incorporate their feedback and requirements, keep them well-informed about the service, and continually collect and act on feedback to deliver the intended value.

    Insight 3

    Intentional, continual monitoring and measurement of the program must be part of your strategy. If your metrics or feedback show that something isn’t working, fix it. If you find that the perceived value isn’t worth the high cost of the program, make changes. Even if everything seems to be working fine, identify ways to improve it or make it more efficient.

    Step 1: Understand the different support models

    Step overview:

    • Understand the support models available, from white glove service to the same service for everyone

    First, define what “VIP support” means in your organization

    VIP support from the service desk usually refers to an elevated level of service (i.e. faster, after-hours, off-site, and/or with more experienced resources) that is provided to those at the executive level of the organization.

    A VIP typically includes executives across the business (e.g. CIO, CEO, CxO, VPs) and sometimes the executive assistants who work directly with them. However, it can also include non-executive-level but critical business roles in some organizations.

    The level of VIP service provided can differ from receiving prioritization in the queue to having a dedicated, full-time technician providing “white glove” service.

    Info-Tech Insight

    You don’t have to use the term “VIP”, as long as you clearly define the terms you are using. Some organizations use the term “VIR” to refer to very important roles rather than people, and some define “critical users” to reflect who should receive prioritized service, for example.

    There are essentially two options for VIP support, but multiple determining factors

    While the details are more specific, your options for VIP support really come down to two: they either receive some kind of enhanced service (either from a dedicated support team or through prioritization from the regular support team) or they don’t. Which option you choose will depend on a wide range of factors, some of which are represented in the diagram below. Factors such as IT budget, size of organization help determine which VIP support model you choose: Enhanced, or the same as everyone else. With enhanced service, you can opt to a dedicated support team or same support team but with prioritized service.

    Option 1: Same service for everyone

    What does it look like?

    VIP tickets are prioritized in the same way as every other ticket – with an assessment by impact and urgency. This allows every ticket to be prioritized appropriately according to how big the impact of the issue is and how quickly it needs to be resolved – regardless of who the submitter is. This means that VIPs with very urgent issues will still receive immediate support, as would a non-VIP user with a critical issue.

    Who is it best suited for?

    • Small organizations and IT teams.
    • Executives don’t want special treatment.
    • Not enough service desk resources or budget to provide prioritized or dedicated VIP service.
    • Service desk is already efficient and meeting SLAs for all requests and incidents.

    Pros

    • Highest level of consistency in service because the same process is followed for all user groups.
    • Ensures that service doesn’t suffer for non-VIP users for teams with a limited number of service desk staff.
    • No additional cost.
    • Potential to argue for more resources if executive service expectations aren’t met.

    Cons

    • Does not work if executives expect or require elevated service regardless of issue type.
    • Potential for increase in management escalations or complaints from dissatisfied executives. Some may end up jumping the queue as a result, which results in unstandardized VIP treatment only for some users.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t design a VIP service solely out of fear that VIPs will be unhappy with the standard level of support the service desk provides. In some cases, it is better to focus your efforts on improving your standard support for everyone rather than only for a small percentage of users, especially if providing that elevated VIP support would further deteriorate service levels for the rest of the organization.

    Option 2: Prioritized service for VIPs

    What does it look like?

    • VIPs still go through the service desk but receive higher priority than non-VIP tickets.
    • Requests from VIP submitters are still evaluated using the standard prioritization matrix but are bumped up in urgency or priority. More critical issues can still take precedence.
    • Existing service desk resources are still used to resolve the request, but requests are just placed closer to the “front of the line.”
    • VIP users are identified in the ticketing system and may have a separate number to call or are routed differently/skip the queue within the ACD/IVR.

    Who is it best suited for?

    • Organizations that want or need to give VIPs expedited or enhanced service, but that don’t have the resources to dedicate to a completely separate VIP service desk team.

    Pros

    • Meets the need of executives for faster service.
    • Balances the need for prioritized service to VIPs while not sacrificing resources to handle most user requests.
    • All tickets still go through a single point of contact to be triaged and monitored by the service desk.
    • Easy to measure and compare performance of VIP service vs. standard service because processes are the same.

    Cons

    • Slight cost associated with implementing changes to phone system if necessary.
    • Makes other users aware that VIPs receive “special treatment” – some may try to jump the queue themselves.
    • May not meet the expectations of some executives who prefer dedicated, face-to-face resources to resolve their issues.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you’re already informally bumping VIP tickets up the queue, this may be the most appropriate model for you. Bring formalization to your process by clearly defining exactly where VIP tickets fit in your prioritization matrix to ensure they are handled consistently and that VIPs are aware of the process.

    Option 3: Dedicated VIP service

    What does it look like?

    • VIPs contact a dedicated service desk and receive immediate/expedited support, often face to face.
    • Often a separate phone number or point of contact.
    • Similar to concierge service or “white glove” service models.
    • At least one dedicated FTE with good customer service skills and technical knowledge who builds trust with executives.

    Who is it best suited for?

    • Larger enterprises with many VIP users to support, but where VIPs are geographically clustered (as geography sprawls, the cost of the service will spiral).
    • IT organizations with enough resources on the service desk to support a dedicated VIP function.
    • Organizations where executives require immediate, in-person support.

    Pros

    • Most of the time, this model results in the fastest service delivery to executives.
    • Most personal method of delivering support with help often provided in person and from familiar, trusted technicians.
    • Usually leads to the highest level of satisfaction with the service desk from executives.

    Cons

    • Most expensive model; usually requires at least one dedicated, experienced FTE to support and sometimes after-hours support.
    • Essentially two separate service desks; can result in a disconnect between staff.
    • Career path and cross-training opportunities for the dedicated staff may be limited; role can be exhausting.
    • Reporting on the service can be more complicated and tickets are often logged after the fact.
    • If not done well, quality of service can suffer for the rest of the organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    This type of model is essential in many large enterprises where the success of the company can depend on VIPs having access to dedicated support to minimize downtime as much as possible. However, it also requires the highest level of planning and dedication to get right. Without carefully documented processes and procedures and highly trained staff to support the model, it will fail to deliver the expected benefits.

    Step 2: Capture business needs

    Step overview:

    • Analyze your data and gather requirements to determine whether there is a need for a VIP service.

    Assess current state and metrics

    You can’t define your target state without a clear understanding of your current state. Analyze your ticket data and reports to identify the type and volume of VIP requests the service desk receives and how well you’re able to meet these requests with your current resources and structure.

    Analyze ticket data

    • What volume of tickets are you supporting? How many of those tickets come from VIP users?
    • What is your current resolution time for incidents and requests? How well are you currently meeting SLAs?
    • How quickly are executive/VIP tickets being resolved? How long do they have to wait for a response?
    • How many after-hours requests do you receive?

    Assess resourcing

    • How many users do you support; what percentage of them would be identified as VIP users?
    • How many service desk technicians do you have at each tier?
    • How well are you currently meeting demand? Would you be able to meet demand if you dedicated one or more Tier 2 technicians to VIP support?
    • If you would need to hire additional resources, is there budget to do so?

    Use the data to inform your assessment

    • Do you have a current problem with service delivery to VIPs and/or all users that needs to be addressed by changing the VIP support model?
    • Do you have the demand to support the need for a VIP service?
    • Do you have the resources to support providing VIP service?

    Leverage Info-Tech’s tools to inform your assessment

    Analyze your ticket data and reports to understand how well you’re currently meeting SLAs, your average response and resolution times, and the volume and type of requests you get from VIPs in order to understand the need for changing your current model. If you don’t have the ticket data to inform your assessment, leverage Info-Tech’s Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool.

    Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool

    Use this tool to identify trends and patterns in your ticket data. The ticket summary dashboard contains multiple reports analyzing how tickets come in, who requests them, who resolves them, and how long it takes to resolve them.

    If you need help understanding how well your current staff is able to handle your current ticket volume, leverage Info-Tech’s Service Desk Staffing Calculator to analyze demand and ticket volume trends. While not specifically designed to analyze VIP tickets, you could run the assessment separately for VIP volume if you have that data available.

    Service Desk Staffing Calculator

    Use this tool to help you estimate the optimal resource allocation to support your demand over time.

    Engage stakeholders to understand their requirements

    Follow your organization’s requirements gathering process to identify and prioritize stakeholders, conduct stakeholder interviews, and identify, track, and prioritize their requirements and expectations for service delivery.

    Gather requirements from VIP stakeholders

    1. Identify which stakeholders need to be consulted.
    2. Prioritize stakeholders in terms of influence and interest in order to identify who to engage in the requirements gathering process.
    3. Build a plan for gathering the requirements of key stakeholders in terms of VIP service delivery.
    4. Conduct requirements gathering and record the results of each stakeholder interaction.
    5. Analyze and summarize the results to determine the top expectations and requirements for VIP service desk support.

    If your organization does not have a defined requirements gathering process or template, leverage Info-Tech tools and templates:

    The Improve Requirements Gathering blueprint can be adapted from software requirements gathering to service desk.

    The PMO Requirements Gathering Tool can be adapted from interviewing stakeholders on their PMO requirements to service desk requirements.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t guess at what your VIPs need or want – ask them and involve them in the service design. Many IT leaders sacrifice overall service quality to prioritize VIPs, thinking they expect immediate service. However, they later find out that the VIPs just assumed the service they were receiving was the standard service and many of their issues can wait.

    Identify additional challenges and opportunities by collecting perceptions of business users and stakeholders

    Formally measuring perceptions from your end users and key business stakeholders will help to inform your needs and determine how well the service desk is currently meeting demands from both VIP users and the entire user base.

    CIO Business Vision

    Info-Tech's CIO Business Vision program is a low-effort, high-impact program that will give you detailed report cards on the organization’s satisfaction with IT’s core services. Use these insights to understand your key business stakeholders, find out what is important to them, and improve your interactions.

    End User Satisfaction

    Info-Tech’s End User Satisfaction Program helps you measure end-user satisfaction and importance ratings of core IT services, IT communications, and business enablement to help you decide which IT service capabilities need to be addressed to meet the demands of the business.

    Learn more about Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision or End User Satisfaction Program .

    Step 3: Choose the right approach

    Step overview:

    • Based on your assessment from Step 2, decide on the best way to move forward with your VIP service model.

    Use your assessment results to choose the most appropriate support model

    The table below is a rough guide for how the results of your assessments may line up to the most appropriate model for your organization:

    Example assessment results for: Dedicated service, prioritized service, and same servce based off of the assessment source: Ticket analysis, staffing analysis, or stakeholder.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you’re in the position of deciding how to improve service to VIPs, it’s unlikely that you will end up choosing the “same service” model. If your data analysis tells you that you are currently meeting every metric target for all users, this may actually indicate that you’re overstaffed at the service desk.

    If you choose a specialized VIP support model, ensure there is a strong, defined need before moving forward

    Do not proceed if:

    • Your decision is purely reactive in response to a perceived need or challenges you’re currently experiencing
    • The demand is coming from a single dissatisfied executive without requirements from other VIPs being collected.
    • Your assessment data does not support the demand for a dedicated VIP function.
    • You don’t have the resources or support required to be successful in the approach.

    Proceed with a VIP model if:

    • You’re prepared to scale and support the model over the long term.
    • Business stakeholders have clearly expressed a need for improved VIP service.
    • Data shows that there is a high volume of urgent requests from VIPs.
    • You have the budget and resources required to support an enhanced VIP service delivery model.

    Step 4: Design the service offering

    Step overview:

    • Define and document all processes, procedures, and responsibilities relevant to the VIP support offering.

    Clearly define the service and eligible users

    Once you’ve decided on the most appropriate model, clearly describe the service and document who is eligible to receive it.

    1. Define exactly what the service is before going into the procedural details. High-level examples to start from are provided below:

    Prioritized Service Model

    When a designated VIP user contacts the service desk with a question, incident, or service request, their ticket will be prioritized over non-VIP tickets following the prioritization matrix. This process has been designed in accordance with business needs and requirements, as defined VIP users have more urgent demands on their time and the impact of downtime is greater as it has the potential to impact the business. However, all tickets, VIP tickets included, must still be prioritized by impact and urgency. Incidents that are more critical will still be resolved before VIP tickets in accordance with the prioritization process.

    Dedicated Service Model

    VIP support is a team of dedicated field technicians available to provide an elevated level of service including deskside support for executives and designated VIP users. VIP users have the ability to contact the VIP support service through a dedicated phone number and will receive expedited ticket handling and resolution by dedicated Tier 2 specialists with experience dealing with executives and their unique needs and requirements. This process has been designed in accordance with business needs and requirements.

    2 Identify VIP-eligible users

    • Define who qualifies as a VIP to receive VIP support or be eligible to contact the dedicated VIP service desk/concierge desk.
    • If other users or EAs can submit tickets on behalf of VIPs, identify those individuals as well.
    • Review the list and cut back if necessary. Less is usually more here, especially when starting out. If everyone is a VIP, then no one is truly a VIP.
    • Identify who maintains ownership over the list of eligible VIP users and how any changes to the list or requests for changes will be handled.
    • Ensure that all VIP-eligible users are clearly identified in the ITSM system.

    Map out the VIP process in a workflow

    Use a visual workflow to document the process for resolving or fulfilling VIP tickets, from when the ticket is submitted to when it gets closed.

    Your workflow should address the following:

    • How should the ticket be prioritized?
    • When are escalations necessary?
    • What happens if a user requests VIP service but is not defined as eligible?
    • Should the user verify that the issue is resolved before the ticket is closed?
    • What automatic notifications or communications need to go out and when?
    • What manual communications or notifications need to be sent out (e.g. when a ticket is escalated or reassigned)?
    VIP Support Process Example.

    Use the VIP Support Process Workflow Example as a template to map out your own process.

    Define and document all VIP processes and procedures

    Clearly describe the service and all related processes and procedures so that both the service delivery team and users are on the same page.

    Define all aspects of the service so that every VIP request will follow the same standardized process and VIPs will have clear expectations for the service they receive. This may include:

    • How VIPs should contact the service desk
    • How VIP tickets will be prioritized
    • SLAs and service expectations for VIP tickets
    • Ticket resolution or fulfillment steps and process
    • Escalation points and contacts
    • After-hours requests process

    If VIP user requests receive enhanced priority, for example, define exactly how those requests should be prioritized using your prioritization matrix. An example is found below and in the Service Desk VIP Procedures Template.

    Prioritization matrix for classification of incidents and requests.

    Use Info-Tech’s Service Desk VIP Procedures Template as a guide

    This template is designed to assist with documenting your service desk procedures for handling VIP or executive tickets. The template is not meant to cover all possible VIP support models but is an example of one support model only. It should be adapted and customized to reflect your specific support model and procedures.

    It includes the following sections:

    1. VIP support description/overview
    2. VIP support entitlement (who is eligible)
    3. Procedures
      • Ticket submission and triage
      • Ticket prioritization
      • SLAs and escalation
      • VIP ticket resolution process
      • After-hours requests
    4. Monitoring and reporting

    Download the Service Desk VIP Procedures Template

    Allocate resources or assign responsibilities specific to VIP support

    Regardless of the support model you choose, you’ll need to be clear on service desk agents’ responsibilities when dealing with VIP users.
    • Clarify the expectations of any service desk agent who will be handling VIP tickets; they should demonstrate excellent customer service skills and expertise, respect for the VIP and the sensitivity of their data, and prompt service.
    • Use a RACI chart to clarify responsibility and accountability for VIP-specific support tasks.
    • If you will be moving to a dedicated VIP support team, clearly define the responsibilities of any new roles or tasks. Sample responsibilities can be found on the right.
    • If you will be changing the role of an existing service desk agent to become focused solely on providing VIP support, clarify how the responsibilities of other service desk agents may change too, if at all.
    • Be clear on expectations of agents for after-hours support, especially if there will be a change to the current service provision.

    Sample responsibilities for a dedicated VIP support technician/specialist may include:

    • Resolve support tickets for all eligible VIP users following established processes and procedures.
    • Provide both onsite and remote support to executives.
    • Quickly and effectively diagnose and resolve technical issues with minimal disruption to the executive team.
    • Establish trust with executives/VIPs by maintaining confidentiality and privacy while providing technical support.
    • Set up, monitor, and support high-priority meetings, conferences, and events.
    • Demonstrate excellent communication and customer service skills when providing support to executives.
    • Coordinate more complex support issues with higher level support staff and track tickets through to resolution when needed.
    • Learn new technology and software ahead of implementation to train and support executive teams for use.
    • Conduct individual or group training as needed to educate on applications or how to best use technology to enhance productivity.
    • Proactively manage, maintain, update, and upgrade end-user devices as needed.

    Configure your ITSM tool to support your processes

    Configure your tool to support your processes, not the other way around.
    • Identify and configure VIP users in the system to ensure that they are easily identifiable in the system (e.g. there may be a symbol beside their name).
    • Configure automations or build ticket templates that would automatically set the urgency or priority of VIP tickets.
    • Configure any business rules or workflows that apply to the VIP support process.
    • Define any automated notifications that need to be sent when a VIP ticket is submitted, assigned, escalated, or resolved (e.g. notify service desk manager or a specific DL).
    • Define metrics and customize dashboards and reports to monitor VIP tickets and measure the success of the VIP service.
    • Configure any SLAs that apply only to VIPs to ensure displayed SLAs are accurate.

    Step 5: Launch the service

    Step overview:

    • Communicate and market the service to all relevant stakeholders so everyone is on the same page as to how it works and what’s in scope.

    Communicate the new or revised service to relevant stakeholders ahead of the launch

    If you did your due diligence, the VIP service launch won’t be a surprise to executives. However, it’s critical to

    continue the engagement and communicate the details of the service well to ensure there are no misperceptions about the

    service when it launches.

    Goals of communicating and marketing the service:

    1. Create awareness and understanding of the purpose of the VIP service and what it means for eligible users.
    2. Solidify commitment and buy-in for the service from all stakeholders.
    3. Ensure that all users know how to access the service and any changes to the way they should interact with the service desk.
    4. Set expectations for new/revised service levels.
    5. Reduce and address any concerns about the change in process.

    Info-Tech Insight

    This step isn’t only for the launch of new services. Even if you’re enhancing or right-sizing an existing VIP service, take the opportunity to market the improvements, remind users of the correct processes, and collect feedback.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s communication template to structure your presentation

    This template can be customized to use as an executive presentation to communicate and market the service to VIP users. It includes:

    • Key takeaways
    • Current-state assessment
    • Requirements gathering and feedback results
    • Objectives for the service
    • Anticipated benefits
    • Service entitlement
    • How the service works
    • Escalations and feedback contacts
    • Timeline of next steps

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you’re launching a dedicated concierge service for VIPs, highlight the exclusivity of the service in your marketing to draw users in. For example, if eligible VIPs get a separate number to call, expedited SLAs, or access to more tenured service desk experts, promote this added value of the service.

    Download the VIP Support Service Communication Template

    Step 6: Monitor and measure

    Step overview:

    • Measure and monitor the success of the program by tracking and reporting on targeted metrics.

    Evaluate and demonstrate the success of the program with key metrics

    Targeted metrics to evaluate the success of the VIP program will be critical to understanding and demonstrating whether the service is delivering the intended value. Track key metrics to:

    • Track if and how well you’re meeting your defined SLAs for VIP support.
    • Measure demand for VIP support (i.e. ticket volume and types of tickets) and evaluate against resource supply to determine whether a staffing adjustment is needed to meet demand.
    • Measure the cost of providing the VIP service in order to report back to executives.
    • Leverage real data to quantitatively demonstrate that you’re providing enhanced service to VIPs if there is an escalation or negative feedback from one individual.
    • Monitor service delivery to non-VIP users to ensure that service to the rest of the organization isn’t impacted by the VIP service
    • Evaluate the types of ticket that are submitted to the VIP service to inform training plans, self-service options, device upgrades, or alternatives to reduce future volume.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If your data definitively shows the VIP offering delivers enhanced service levels, publish these results to business leadership. A successful VIP service is a great accomplishment to market and build credibility for the service desk.

    Tie metrics to critical success factors

    Apart from your regular service desk metrics, identify the top metrics to tie to the key performance indicators of the program’s success factors.

    Sample Critical Success Factors

    • Increased executive satisfaction with the service desk
    • Improved response and resolution times to VIP tickets
    • Demand for the service is matched by supply

    Sample Metrics

    • End-user satisfaction scores on VIP tickets
    • Executive satisfaction with the service desk as measured on a broader annual survey
    • Response and resolution times for VIP tickets
    • Percentage of SLAs met for VIP tickets
    • VIP ticket volume
    • Average speed of answer for VIP calls

    Download Define Service Desk Metrics that Matter and the Service Desk Metrics Workbook for help defining CSFs, KPIs, and key metrics

    Step 7: Continually improve

    Step overview:

    • Continually evaluate the program to identify opportunities for improvement or modifications to the service support model.

    Continually evaluate the service to identify improvements

    Executives are happy, resolution times are on target – now what? Even if everything seems to be working well, never stop monitoring, measuring, and evaluating the service. Not only can metrics change, but there can also always be ways to improve service.

    • Continual improvement should be a mindset – there are always opportunities for improvement, and someone should be responsible for identifying and tracking these opportunities so that they actually get done.
    • Just as you asked for feedback and involvement from VIPs (and their assistants who may submit tickets on their behalf) in designing the service, you should continually collect that feedback and use it to inform improvements to the service.
    • End-user satisfaction surveys, especially broader, more targeted surveys, are also a great source of improvement ideas.
    • Even if end users don’t perceive any need for improvement, IT should still assess how they can make their own processes more efficient or offer alternatives to make delivery easier.

    Download Info-Tech’s Build a Continual Improvement Program blueprint to help you build a process around continual improvement, and use the Continual Improvement Register tool to help you identify and prioritize improvement initiatives.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t limit your continual improvement efforts to the VIP service. Once you’ve successfully elevated the VIP service, look to how you can apply elements of that service to elevate support to the rest of the organization. For example, through providing a roaming service desk, a concierge desk, a Genius-Bar-style walk-in service, etc.

    Expand, reduce, or modify as needed

    Don’t stop with a one-time program evaluation. Continually use your metrics to evaluate whether the service offering needs to change to better suit the needs of your executives and organization. It may be fine as is, or you may find you need to do one of the following:

    Expand

    • If the service offering has been successful and/or your data shows underuse of VIP-dedicated resources, you may be able to expand the offering to identify additional roles as VIP-eligible.
    • Be cautious not to expand the service too widely; not only should it feel exclusive to VIPs, but you need to be able to support it.
    • Also consider whether elements that have been successful in the VIP program (e.g. a concierge desk, after-hours support) should be expanded to be offered to non-VIPs.

    Reduce

    • If VIPs are not using the service as much as anticipated or data shows supply outweighs demand, you may consider scaling back the service to save costs and resources.
    • However, be careful in how you approach this – it shouldn’t negatively impact service to existing users.
    • Rather, evaluate costly services like after-hours support and whether it’s necessary based on demand, adjust SLAs if needed, or reallocate service desk resources or responsibilities. For example, if demand doesn’t justify a dedicated service desk technician, either add non-VIP tasks to their responsibilities or consider moving to a prioritized model.

    Modify

    • The support model doesn’t need to be set in stone. If elements aren’t working, change them! If the entire support model isn’t working, reevaluate if it’s the best model for your organization.
    • Don’t make decisions in a vacuum, though. Just as executives were involved in decision-making at the outset, continually gather their feedback and use it to inform the service design.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Standardize the Service Desk

    This project will help you build and improve essential service desk processes, including incident management, request fulfillment, and knowledge management to create a sustainable service desk.

    Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy

    This project will help you build a strategy to shift service support left to optimize your service desk operations and increase end-user satisfaction.

    Build a Continual Improvement Plan

    This project will help you build a continual improvement plan for the service desk to review key processes and services and manage the progress of improvement initiatives.

    Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department

    This project will help you deliver a targeted customer service training program to your IT team to enhance their customer service skills when dealing with end users, improve overall service delivery, and increase customer satisfaction.

    Works Cited

    Munger, Nate. “Why You Should Provide VIP Customer Support.” Intercom, 13 Jan. 2016. Accessed Jan. 2023.

    Ogilvie, Ryan. “We Did Away With VIP Support and Got More Efficient.” HDI, 17 Sep. 2020. Accessed Jan. 2023.

    Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}525|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $1,133,999 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 23 Average Days Saved
    • 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.

    Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}149|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: Development
    • Parent Category Link: /development
    • While teams are used to optimizing their own respective areas of responsibility, there is lack of clarity on the overall core SDLC process resulting in applications being released that are of poor quality.
    • Software development teams are struggling to release on time and within budget.
    • Teams do not understand the overall process, are not communicating well, and traceability is hard to achieve.
    • Each team claims to be optimized yet the final deliverable doesn’t reflect the expected quality.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Optimizing can make you worse. One cannot just optimize locally – the SDLC must be optimized in its entirety to ensure traceability across the process.
    • Separate process from framework.
      You don’t need to “Go Agile” or follow other industry jargon to effectively optimize your SDLC.
    • SDLC process improvement is ongoing.
      Start with your team’s current capabilities and optimize. You should set expectations that new improvements will always come in the future.

    Impact and Result

    • Use a systematic framework to bring out local optimizations as potential candidates for SDLC optimization.
    • Prioritize those candidates that will aid in optimizing the overall core SDLC process.
    • Create the necessary governance and control structures to sustain the changes.
    • Use Info-Tech tools and templates to accelerate your process optimization.

    Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read this Executive Brief to understand Info-Tech's approach to SDLC optimization and why the SDLC must be optimized in its entirety to ensure traceability across the process.

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Document the current state of the SDLC

    This phase of the blueprint will help in understanding the organization's business priorities, documenting the current SDLC process, and identifing current SDLC challenges.

    • Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 1: Document the Current State of the SDLC
    • SDLC Optimization Playbook

    2. Define root causes, determine optimization initiatives, and define target state

    This phase of the blueprint, will help with defining root causes, determining potential optimization initiatives, and defining the target state of the SDLC.

    • Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 2: Define Root Causes, Determine Optimization Initiatives, and Define Target State

    3. Develop a rollout strategy for SDLC optimization

    This phase of the blueprint will help with prioritizing initiatives in order to develop a rollout strategy, roadmap, and communication plan for the SDLC optimization.

    • Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 3: Develop a Rollout Strategy for SDLC Optimization
    • SDLC Communication Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Document Your Current SDLC

    The Purpose

    Understand SDLC current state.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of your current SDLC state and metrics to measure the success of your SDLC optimization initiative.

    Activities

    1.1 Document the key business objectives that your SDLC delivers upon.

    1.2 Document your current SDLC process using a SIPOC process map.

    1.3 Identify appropriate metrics in order to track the effectiveness of your SDLC optimization.

    1.4 Document the current state process flow of each SDLC phase.

    1.5 Document the control points and tools used within each phase.

    Outputs

    Documented business objectives

    Documented SIPOC process map

    Identified metrics to measure the effectiveness of your SDLC optimization

    Documented current state process flows of each SDLC phase

    Documented control points and tools used within each SDLC phase

    2 Assess Challenges and Define Root Causes

    The Purpose

    Understand current SDLC challenges and root causes.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand the core areas of your SDLC that require optimization.

    Activities

    2.1 Identify the current challenges that exist within each SDLC phase.

    2.2 Determine the root cause of the challenges that exist within each SDLC phase.

    Outputs

    Identified current challenges

    Identified root causes of your SDLC challenges

    3 Determine Your SDLC Optimization Initiatives

    The Purpose

    Understand common best practices and the best possible optimization initiatives to help optimize your current SDLC.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand the best ways to address your SDLC challenges.

    Activities

    3.1 Define optimization initiatives to address the challenges in each SDLC phase.

    Outputs

    Defined list of potential optimization initiatives to address SDLC challenges

    4 Define SDLC Target State

    The Purpose

    Define your SDLC target state while maintaining traceability across your overall SDLC process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand what will be required to reach your optimized SDLC.

    Activities

    4.1 Determine the target state of your SDLC.

    4.2 Determine the people, tools, and control points necessary to achieve your target state.

    4.3 Assess the traceability between phases to ensure a seamlessly optimized SDLC.

    Outputs

    Determined SDLC target state

    Identified people, processes, and tools necessary to achieve target state

    Completed traceability alignment map and prioritized list of initiatives

    5 Prioritize Initiatives and Develop Rollout Strategy

    The Purpose

    Define how you will reach your target state.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create a plan of action to achieve your desired target state.

    Activities

    5.1 Gain the full scope of effort required to implement your SDLC optimization initiatives.Gain the full scope of effort required to implement your SDLC optimization initiatives.

    5.2 Identify the enablers and blockers of your SDLC optimization.

    5.3 Define your SDLC optimization roadmap.

    5.4 Create a communication plan to share initiatives with the business.

    Outputs

    Level of effort required to implement your SDLC optimization initiatives

    Identified enablers and blockers of your SDLC optimization

    Defined optimization roadmap

    Completed communication plan to present your optimization strategy to stakeholders

    Digital Data Ethics

    • Download01-Title: Tech Trend Update: If Digital Ethics Then Data Equity
    • Download-01: Visit Link
    • member rating overall impact: 9/10
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation

    In the past two years, we've seen that we need quick technology solutions for acute issues. We quickly moved to homeworking and then to a hybrid form. We promptly moved many of our offline habits online.

    That necessitated a boost in data collection from us towards our customers and employees, and business partners.
    Are you sure how to approach this structurally? What is the right thing to do?

    Impact and Results

    • When you partner with another company, set clear expectations
    • When you are building your custom solution, invite constructive criticism
    • When you present yourself as the authority, consider the most vulnerable in the relationship

    innovation

    Recruit IT Talent

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}574|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.6/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $17,565 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 8 Average Days Saved
    • 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.

    The governance around resilience

    • member rating overall impact: N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A

    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.

     

     

     

    Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}120|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $46,734 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 29 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management
    • The volume and variety of data that organizations have been collecting and producing have been growing exponentially and show no sign of slowing down.
    • At the same time, business landscapes and models are evolving, and users and stakeholders are becoming more and more data centric, with maturing expectations and demands.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • As the CDO or equivalent data leader in your organization, a robust and comprehensive data strategy is the number one tool in your toolkit for delivering on your mandate of creating measurable business value from data.
    • A data strategy should never be formulated disjointed from the business. Ensure the data strategy aligns with the business strategy and supports the business architecture.
    • Building and fostering a data-driven culture will accelerate and sustain adoption of, appetite for, and appreciation for data and hence drive the ROI on your various data investments.

    Impact and Result

    • Formulate a data strategy that stitches all of the pieces together to better position you to unlock the value in your data:
      • Establish the business context and value: Identify key business drivers for executing on an optimized data strategy, build compelling and relevant use cases, understand your organization’s culture and appetite for data, and ensure you have well-articulated vision, principles, and goals for your data strategy
      • Ensure you have a solid data foundation: Understand your current data environment, data management enablers, people, skill sets, roles, and structure. Know your strengths and weakness so you can optimize appropriately.
      • Formulate a sustainable data strategy: Round off your strategy with effective change management and communication for building and fostering a data-driven culture.

    Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Data Strategy Research – A step-by-step document to facilitate the formulation of a data strategy that brings together the business context, data management foundation, people, and culture.

    Data should be at the foundation of your organization’s evolution. The transformational insights that executives and decision makers are constantly seeking to leverage can be unlocked with a data strategy that makes high-quality, trusted, and relevant data readily available to the users who need it.

    • Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy – Phases 1-3

    2. Data Strategy Stakeholder Interview Guide and Findings – A template to support you in your meetings or interviews with key stakeholders as you work on understanding the value of data within the various lines of business.

    This template will help you gather insights around stakeholder business goals and objectives, current data consumption practices, the types or domains of data that are important to them in supporting their business capabilities and initiatives, the challenges they face, and opportunities for data from their perspective.

    • Data Strategy Stakeholder Interview Guide and Findings

    3. Data Strategy Use Case Template – An exemplar template to demonstrate the business value of your data strategy.

    Data strategy optimization anchored in a value proposition will ensure that the data strategy focuses on driving the most valuable and critical outcomes in support of the organization’s enterprise strategy. The template will help you facilitate deep-dive sessions with key stakeholders for building use cases that are of demonstrable value not only to their relevant lines of business but also to the wider organization.

    • Data Strategy Use Case Template

    4. Chief Data Officer – A job description template that includes a detailed explication of the responsibilities and expectations of a CDO.

    Bring data to the C-suite by creating the Chief Data Officer role. This position is designed to bridge the gap between the business and IT by serving as a representative for the organization's data management practices and identifying how the organization can leverage data as a competitive advantage or corporate asset.

    • Chief Data Officer

    5. Data Strategy Document Template – A structured template to plan and document your data strategy outputs.

    Use this template to document and formulate your data strategy. Follow along with the sections of the blueprint Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy and complete the template as you progress.

    • Data Strategy Document Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Establish Business Context and Value: Understand the Current Business Environment

    The Purpose

    Establish the business context for the business strategy.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Substantiates the “why” of the data strategy.

    Highlights the organization’s goals, objectives, and strategic direction the data must align with.

    Activities

    1.1 Data Strategy 101

    1.2 Intro to Tech’s Data Strategy Framework

    1.3 Data Strategy Value Proposition: Understand stakeholder’s strategic priorities and the alignment with data

    1.4 Discuss the importance of vision, mission, and guiding principles of the organization’s data strategy

    1.5 Understand the organization’s data culture – discuss Data Culture Survey results

    1.6 Examine Core Value Streams of Business Architecture

    Outputs

    Business context; strategic drivers

    Data strategy guiding principles

    Sample vision and mission statements

    Data Culture Diagnostic Results Analysis

    2 Business-Data Needs Discovery: Key Business Stakeholder Interviews

    The Purpose

    Build use cases of demonstrable value and understand the current environment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An understanding of the current maturity level of key capabilities.

    Use cases that represent areas of concern and/or high value and therefore need to be addressed.

    Activities

    2.1 Conduct key business stakeholder interviews to initiate the build of high-value business-data cases

    Outputs

    Initialized high-value business-data cases

    3 Understand the Current Data Environment & Practice: Analyze Data Capability and Practice Gaps and Develop Alignment Strategies

    The Purpose

    Build out a future state plan that is aimed at filling prioritized gaps and that informs a scalable roadmap for moving forward on treating data as an asset.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A target state plan, formulated with input from key stakeholders, for addressing gaps and for maturing capabilities necessary to strategically manage data.

    Activities

    3.1 Understand the current data environment: data capability assessment

    3.2 Understand the current data practice: key data roles, skill sets; operating model, organization structure

    3.3 Plan target state data environment and data practice

    Outputs

    Data capability assessment and roadmapping tool

    4 Align Business Needs with Data Implications: Initiate Roadmap Planning and Strategy Formulation

    The Purpose

    Consolidate business and data needs with consideration of external factors as well as internal barriers and enablers to the success of the data strategy. Bring all the outputs together for crafting a robust and comprehensive data strategy.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A consolidated view of business and data needs and the environment in which the data strategy will be operationalized.

    An analysis of the feasibility and potential risks to the success of the data strategy.

    Activities

    4.1 Analyze gaps between current- and target-state

    4.2 Initiate initiative, milestone and RACI planning

    4.3 Working session with Data Strategy Owner

    Outputs

    Data Strategy Next Steps Action Plan

    Relevant data strategy related templates (example: data practice patterns, data role patterns)

    Initialized Data Strategy on-a-Page

    Further reading

    Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

    Key to building and fostering a data-driven culture.

    ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

    Data Strategy: Key to helping drive organizational innovation and transformation

    "In the dynamic environment in which we operate today, where we are constantly juggling disruptive forces, a well-formulated data strategy will prove to be a key asset in supporting business growth and sustainability, innovation, and transformation.

    Your data strategy must align with the organization’s business strategy, and it is foundational to building and fostering an enterprise-wide data-driven culture."

    Crystal Singh,

    Director – Research and Advisory

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research is Designed For:

    • Chief data officers (CDOs), chief architects, VPs, and digital transformation directors and CIOs who are accountable for ensuring data can be leveraged as a strategic asset of the organization.

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Put a strategy in place to ensure data is available, accessible, well integrated, secured, of acceptable quality, and suitably visualized to fuel decision making by the organizations’ executives.
    • Align data management plans and investments with business requirements and the organization’s strategic plans.
    • Define the relevant roles for operationalizing your data strategy.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • Data architects and enterprise architects who have been tasked with supporting the formulation or optimization of the organization’s data strategy.
    • Business leaders creating plans for leveraging data in their strategic planning and business processes.
    • IT professionals looking to improve the environment that manages and delivers data.

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Get a handle on the current situation of data within the organization.
    • Understand how the data strategy and its resulting initiatives will affect the operations, integration, and provisioning of data within the enterprise.

    Executive Summary

    Situation

    • The volume and variety of data that organizations have been collecting and producing have been growing exponentially and show no sign of slowing down. At the same time, business landscapes and models are evolving, and users and stakeholders are becoming more and more data centric, with maturing and demanding expectations.

    Complication

    • As organizations pivot in response to industry disruptions and changing landscapes, a reactive and piecemeal approach leads to data architectures and designs that fail to deliver real and measurable value to the business.
    • Despite the growing focus on data, many organizations struggle to develop a cohesive business-driven strategy for effectively managing and leveraging their data assets.

    Resolution

    Formulate a data strategy that stitches all of the pieces together to better position you to unlock the value in your data:

    • Establish the business context and value: Identify key business drivers for executing on an optimized data strategy, build compelling and relevant use cases, understand your organization’s culture and appetite for data, and ensure you have well-articulated vision, principles, and goals for your data strategy.
    • Ensure you have a solid data foundation: Understand your current data environment, data management enablers, people, skill sets, roles, and structure. Know your strengths and weakness so you can optimize appropriately.
    • Formulate a sustainable data strategy: Round off your strategy with effective change management and communication for building and fostering a data-driven culture.

    Info-Tech Insight

    1. As the CDO or equivalent data leader in your organization, a robust and comprehensive data strategy is the number one tool in your toolkit for delivering on your mandate of creating measurable business value from data.
    2. A data strategy should never be formulated disjointed from the business. Ensure the data strategy aligns with the business strategy and supports the business architecture.
    3. Building and fostering a data-driven culture will accelerate and sustain adoption of, appetite for, and appreciation for data and hence drive the ROI on your various data investments.

    Why do you need a data strategy?

    Your data strategy is the vehicle for ensuring data is poised to support your organization’s strategic objectives.

    The dynamic marketplace of today requires organizations to be responsive in order to gain or maintain their competitive edge and place in their industry.

    Organizations need to have that 360-degree view of what’s going on and what’s likely to happen.

    Disruptive forces often lead to changes in business models and require organizations to have a level of adaptability to remain relevant.

    To respond, organizations need to make decisions and should be able to turn to their data to gain insights for informing their decisions.

    A well-formulated and robust data strategy will ensure that your data investments bring you the returns by meeting your organization’s strategic objectives.

    Organizations need to be in a position where they know what’s going on with their stakeholders and anticipate what their stakeholders’ needs are going to be.

    Data cannot be fully leveraged without a cohesive strategy

    Most organizations today will likely have some form of data management in place, supported by some of the common roles such as DBAs and data analysts.

    Most will likely have a data architecture that supports some form of reporting.

    Some may even have a chief data officer (CDO), a senior executive who has a seat at the C-suite table.

    These are all great assets as a starting point BUT without a cohesive data strategy that stitches the pieces together and:

    • Effectively leverages these existing assets
    • Augments them with additional and relevant key roles and skills sets
    • Optimizes and fills in the gaps around your current data management enablers and capabilities for the growing volume and variety of data you’re collecting
    • Fully caters to real, high-value strategic organizational business needs

    you’re missing the mark – you are not fully leveraging the incredible value of your data.

    Cross-industry studies show that on average, less than half of an organization’s structured data is actively used in making decisions

    And, less than 1% of its unstructured data is analyzed or used at all. Furthermore, 80% of analysts' time is spent simply discovering and preparing, data with over 70% of employees having access to data they should not. Source: HBR, 2017

    Organizational drivers for a data strategy

    Your data strategy needs to align with your organizational strategy.

    Main Organizational Strategic Drivers:

    1. Stakeholder Engagement/Service Excellence
    2. Product and Service Innovations
    3. Operational Excellence
    4. Privacy, Risk, and Compliance Management

    “The companies who will survive and thrive in the future are the ones who will outlearn and out-innovate everyone else. It is no longer ‘survival of the fittest’ but ‘survival of the smartest.’ Data is the element that both inspires and enables this new form of rapid innovation.– Joel Semeniuk, 2016

    A sound data strategy is the key to unlocking the value in your organization’s data.

    Data should be at the foundation of your organization’s evolution.

    The transformational insights that executives are constantly seeking to leverage can be unlocked with a data strategy that makes high-quality, well-integrated, trustworthy, relevant data readily available to the business users who need it.

    Whether hoping to gain a better understanding of your business, trying to become an innovator in your industry, or having a compliance and regulatory mandate that needs to be met, any organization can get value from its data through a well-formulated, robust, and cohesive data strategy.

    According to a leading North American bank, “More than one petabyte of new data, equivalent to about 1 million gigabytes” is entering the bank’s systems every month. – The Wall Street Journal, 2019

    “Although businesses are at many different stages in unlocking the power of data, they share a common conviction that it can make or break an enterprise.”– Jim Love, ITWC CIO and Chief Digital Officer, IT World Canada, 2018

    Data is a strategic organizational asset and should be treated as such

    The expression “Data is an asset” or any other similar sentiment has long been heard.

    With such hype, you would have expected data to have gotten more attention in the boardrooms. You would have expected to see its value reflected on financial statements as a result of its impact in driving things like acquisition, retention, product and service development and innovation, market growth, stakeholder satisfaction, relationships with partners, and overall strategic success of the organization.

    The time has surely come for data to be treated as the asset it is.

    “Paradoxically, “data” appear everywhere but on the balance sheet and income statement.”– HBR, 2018

    “… data has traditionally been perceived as just one aspect of a technology project; it has not been treated as a corporate asset.”– “5 Essential Components of a Data Strategy,” SAS

    According to Anil Chakravarthy, who is the CEO of Informatica and has a strong vantage point on how companies across industries leverage data for better business decisions, “what distinguishes the most successful businesses … is that they have developed the ability to manage data as an asset across the whole enterprise.”– McKinsey & Company, 2019

    How data is perceived in today’s marketplace

    Data is being touted as the oil of the digital era…

    But just like oil, if left unrefined, it cannot really be used.

    "Data is the new oil." – Clive Humby, Chief Data Scientist

    Source: Joel Semeniuk, 2016

    Enter your data strategy.

    Data is being perceived as that key strategic asset in your organization for fueling innovation and transformation.

    Your data strategy is what allows you to effectively mine, refine, and use this resource.

    “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.”– The Economist, 2017

    “Modern innovation is now dependent upon this data.”– Joel Semeniuk, 2016

    “The better the data, the better the resulting innovation and impact.”– Joel Semeniuk, 2016

    What is it in it for you? What opportunities can data help you leverage?

    GOVERNMENT

    Leveraging data as a strategic asset for the benefit of citizens.

    • The strategic use of data can enable governments to provide higher-quality services.
    • Direct resources appropriately and harness opportunities to improve impact.
    • Make better evidence-informed decisions and better understand the impact of programs so that funds can be directed to where they are most likely to deliver the best results.
    • Maintain legitimacy and credibility in an increasingly complex society.
    • Help workers adapt and be competitive in a changing labor market.
    • A data strategy would help protect citizens from the misuse of their data.

    Source: Privy Council Office, Government of Canada, 2018

    What is it in it for you? What opportunities can data help you leverage?

    FINANCIAL

    Leveraging data to boost traditional profit and loss levers, find new sources of growth, and deliver the digital bank.

    • One bank used credit card transactional data (from its own terminals and those of other banks) to develop offers that gave customers incentives to make regular purchases from one of the bank’s merchants. This boosted the bank’s commissions, added revenue for its merchants, and provided more value to the customer (McKinsey & Company, 2017).
    • In terms of enhancing productivity, a bank used “new algorithms to predict the cash required at each of its ATMs across the country and then combined this with route-optimization techniques to save money” (McKinsey & Company, 2017).

    A European bank “turned to machine-learning algorithms that predict which currently active customers are likely to reduce their business with the bank.” The resulting understanding “gave rise to a targeted campaign that reduced churn by 15 percent” (McKinsey & Company, 2017).

    A leading Canadian bank has built a marketplace around their data – they have launched a data marketplace where they have productized the bank’s data. They are providing data – as a product – to other units within the bank. These other business units essentially represent internal customers who are leveraging the product, which is data.

    Through the use of data and advanced analytics, “a top bank in Asia discovered unsuspected similarities that allowed it to define 15,000 microsegments in its customer base. It then built a next-product-to-buy model that increased the likelihood to buy three times over.” Several sets of big data were explored, including “customer demographics and key characteristics, products held, credit-card statements, transaction and point-of-sale data, online and mobile transfers and payments, and credit-bureau data” (McKinsey & Company, 2017).

    What is it in it for you? What opportunities can data help you leverage?

    HEALTHCARE

    Leveraging data and analytics to prevent deadly infections

    The fifth-largest health system in the US and the largest hospital provider in California uses a big data and advanced analytics platform to predict potential sepsis cases at the earliest stages, when intervention is most helpful.

    Using the Sepsis Bio-Surveillance Program, this hospital provider monitors 120,000 lives per month in 34 hospitals and manages 7,500 patients with potential sepsis per month.

    Collecting data from the electronic medical records of all patients in its facilities, the solution uses natural language processing (NLP) and a rules engine to continually monitor factors that could indicate a sepsis infection. In high-probability cases, the system sends an alarm to the primary nurse or physician.

    Since implementing the big data and predictive analytics system, this hospital provider has seen a significant improvement in the mortality and the length of stay in ICU for sepsis patients.

    At 28 of the hospitals which have been on the program, sepsis mortality rates have dropped an average of 5%.

    With patients spending less time in the ICU, cost savings were also realized. This is significant, as sepsis is the costliest condition billed to Medicare, the second costliest billed to Medicaid and the uninsured, and the fourth costliest billed to private insurance.

    Source: SAS, 2019

    What is it in it for you? What opportunities can data help you leverage?

    RETAIL

    Leveraging data to better understand customer preferences, predict purchasing, drive customer experience, and optimize supply and demand planning.

    Netflix is an example of a big brand that uses big data analytics for targeted advertising. With over 100 million subscribers, the company collects large amounts of data. If you are a subscriber, you are likely familiar with their suggestions messages of the next series or movie you should catch up on. These suggestions are based on your past search data and watch data. This data provides Netflix with insights into your interests and preferences for viewing (Mentionlytics, 2018).

    “For the retail industry, big data means a greater understanding of consumer shopping habits and how to attract new customers.”– Ron Barasch, Envestnet | Yodlee, 2019

    The business case for data – moving from platitudes to practicality

    When building your business case, consider the following:

    • What is the most effective way to communicate the business case to executives?
    • How can CDOs and other data leaders use data to advance their organizations’ corporate strategy?
    • What does your data estate look like? Are you looking to leverage and drive value from your semi-structured and unstructured data assets?
    • Does your current organizational culture support a data-driven one? Does the organization have a history of managing change effectively?
    • How do changing privacy and security expectations alter the way businesses harvest, save, use, and exchange data?

    “We’re the converted … We see the value in data. The battle is getting executive teams to see it our way.”– Ted Maulucci, President of SmartONE Solutions Inc. IT World Canada, 2018

    Where do you stack up? What is your current data management maturity?

    Info-Tech’s IT Maturity Ladder denotes the different levels of maturity for an IT department and its different functions. What is the current state of your data management capability?

    Innovator - Transforms the Business. Business Partner - Expands the Business. Trusted Operator - Optimizes the Business. Firefighter - Supports the Business. Unstable - Struggles to Support.

    Info-Tech Insight

    You are best positioned to successfully execute on a data strategy if you are currently at or above the Trusted Operator level. If you find yourself still at the Unstable or Firefighter stage, your efforts are best spent on ensuring you can fulfill your day-to-day data and data management demands. Improving this capability will help build a strong data management foundation.

    Guiding principles of a data strategy

    Value of Clearly Defined Data Principles

    • Guiding principles help define the culture and characteristics of your practice by describing your beliefs and philosophy.
    • Guiding principles act as the heart of your data strategy, helping to shape initiative plans and day-to-day behaviors related to the use and treatment of the organization’s data assets.

    “Organizational culture can accelerate the application of analytics, amplify its power, and steer companies away from risky outcomes.”– McKinsey, 2018

    Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

    Business Strategy and Current Environment connect with the Data Strategy. Data Strategy includes: Organizational Drivers and Data Value, Data Strategy Objectives and Guiding Principles, Data Strategy Vision and Mission, Data Strategy Roadmap, People: Roles and Organizational Structure, Data Culture and Data Literacy, Data Management and Tools, Risk and Feasibility.

    Follow Info-Tech’s methodology for effectively leveraging the value out of your data

    Some say it’s the new oil. Or the currency of the new business landscape. Others describe it as the fuel of the digital economy. But we don’t need platitudes — we need real ways to extract the value from our data. – Jim Love, CIO and Chief Digital Officer, IT World Canada, 2018

    1. Business Context. 2. Data and Resources Foundation. 3. Effective Data Strategy

    Our practical step-by-step approach helps you to formulate a data strategy that delivers business value.

    1. Establish Business Context and Value: In this phase, you will determine and substantiate the business drivers for optimizing the data strategy. You will identify the business drivers that necessitate the data strategy optimization and examine your current organizational data culture. This will be key to ensuring the fruits of your optimization efforts are being used. You will also define the vision, mission, and guiding principles and build high-value use cases for the data strategy.
    2. Ensure You Have a Solid Data and Resources Foundation: This phase will help you ensure you have a solid data and resources foundation for operationalizing your data strategy. You will gain an understanding of your current environment in terms of data management enablers and the required resources portfolio of key people, roles, and skill sets.
    3. Formulate a Sustainable Data Strategy: In this phase, you will bring the pieces together for formulating an effective data strategy. You will evaluate and prioritize the use cases built in Phase 1, which summarize the alignment of organizational goals with data needs. You will also create your strategic plan, considering change management and communication.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

    Guided Implementation

    “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

    Workshop

    “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

    Consulting

    “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

    Define and Deploy an Enterprise PMO

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}189|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $471,249 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 53 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Project Management Office
    • Parent Category Link: /project-management-office
    • As an enterprise PMO leader, you need to evolve your PMO framework beyond an IT-centric model of project portfolio management (PPM) to optimize communication and coordination on enterprise-wide initiatives.
    • While senior leaders are demanding greater uniformity in strategic project execution, individual departments currently operate—to the detriment of the organization—as sovereign silos.
    • You know that the answer is a more strategically aligned enterprise PMO framework, but you’re unsure of how to start building the case for one, especially when the majority of upper management view PMOs as support entities rather than strategic partners.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • An EPMO can’t simply be imposed on an organization. If it is not backed by an executive sponsor, then there needs to be an identifiable business value in implementing one, and you need to communicate this value to stakeholders throughout the enterprise.
    • EPMOs add value not by enforcing project or program governance, but by helping organizations achieve strategic goals and manage change.
    • EPMOs enable organizations to succeed on enterprise-wide initiatives by connecting the individual parts to the whole. They should serve as the coordinating mechanism that ensures the flow of information and resources across departments and programs.

    Impact and Result

    • Find the right balance between a command and control approach that dictates governance standards versus an approach that gives business units flexibility to manage projects, programs, and portfolios the way they see fit, as long as they meet certain reporting, process, and record keeping requirements.
    • Effectively define the EPMO’s role, reach, and authority in terms of Portfolio Governance, Project Leadership, and PPM Administration. An organizationally appropriate mix of these three practices will not only ensure stakeholder buy-in, but it will help foster the right conditions for EPMO success.
    • Build strong cross-departmental relationships upon soft or informal grounds by positioning your EPMO as your organization’s portfolio network, i.e. an enterprise hub that facilitates the flow of reliable information and enables timely responsiveness to change.

    Define and Deploy an Enterprise PMO Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how implementing an EPMO could help your organization achieve business goals, 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. Gather requirements

    Evaluate executive stakeholder needs and assess your current capabilities to ensure your implementation strategy sets realistic expectations.

    • Define and Deploy an Enterprise PMO – Phase 1: Gather Requirements
    • EPMO Capabilities Survey

    2. Define the plan

    Define an organizationally appropriate scope and mandate for your EPMO to ensure that your processes serve the needs of the whole.

    • Define and Deploy an Enterprise PMO – Phase 2: Define the Plan
    • EPMO Charter Template
    • EPMO Communication Planning Template

    3. Implement the plan

    Establish clearly defined and easy-to-follow EPMO processes that minimize project complexity and improve enterprise project results.

    • Define and Deploy an Enterprise PMO – Phase 3: Implement the Plan
    • EPMO Process Guide and SOP Template
    • EPMO Communications Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Define and Deploy an Enterprise PMO

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Gather Requirements

    The Purpose

    Identify breakdowns in the flow of portfolio data across the enterprise to pinpoint where and how an EPMO can best intervene.

    Assess areas of strength and opportunity in your PPM capabilities to help structure and drive the EPMO.

    Define stakeholder needs and expectations for the EPMO in order to cultivate capabilities and services that help drive informed and engaged project decisions at the executive level.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A current state picture of the triggers that are driving the need for an EPMO at your organization.

    A current state understanding of the strengths you bring to the table in constructing an EPMO as well as the areas you need to focus on in building up your capabilities.

    A target state set by stakeholder requirements and expectations, which will enable you to build out an implementation strategy that is aligned with the needs of the executive layer.

    Activities

    1.1 Map current enterprise PPM workflows.

    1.2 Conduct a SWOT analysis.

    1.3 Identify resourcing considerations and other implementation factors.

    1.4 Survey stakeholders to establish the right mix of EPMO capabilities.

    Outputs

    An overview of the flow of portfolio data and information across the organization

    An overview of current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

    A preliminary assessment of internal and external factors that could impact the success of this implementation

    The ability to construct a project plan that is aligned with stakeholder needs and expectations

    2 Define the Plan

    The Purpose

    Define an appropriate scope for the EPMO and the deployment it services.

    Devise a plan for engaging and including the appropriate stakeholders during the implementation phase.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A clear purview for the EPMO in relation to the wider enterprise in order to establish appropriate expectations for the EPMO’s services throughout the organization.

    Engaged stakeholders who understand that they have a stake in the successful implementation of the EPMO.

    Activities

    2.1 Prepare your EPMO value proposition.

    2.2 Define the role and organizational reach of your EPPM capabilities.

    2.3 Establish a communication plan to create stakeholder awareness.

    Outputs

    A clear statement of purpose and benefit that can be used to help build the case for an EPMO with stakeholders

    A functional charter defining the scope of the EPMO and providing a statement of the services the EPMO will provide once established

    An engaged executive layer that understands the value of the EPMO and helps drive its success

    3 Implement the Plan

    The Purpose

    Establish clearly defined and easy-to-follow EPMO processes that minimize project complexity.

    Develop portfolio and project governance structures that feed the EPMO with the data decision makers require without overloading enterprise project teams with processes they can’t support.

    Devise a communications strategy that helps achieve organizational buy-in.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    The reduction of project chaos and confusion throughout the organization.

    Processes and governance requirements that work for both decision makers and project teams.

    Organizational understanding of the universal benefit of the EPMO’s processes to stakeholders throughout the enterprise. 

    Activities

    3.1 Establish EPMO roles and responsibilities.

    3.2 Document standard procedures around enterprise portfolio reporting, PPM administration, and project leadership.

    3.3 Review enterprise PPM solutions.

    3.4 Develop a stakeholder engagement and resistance plan.

    Outputs

    Clear lines of portfolio accountability

    A fully actionable EPMO Standard Operating Procedure document that will enable process clarity

    An informed understanding of the right PPM solution for your enterprise processes

    A communications strategy document to help communicate the organizational benefits of the EPMO

    Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}580|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.4/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $63,181 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 30 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Strategy & Operating Model
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-operating-model
    • The enterprise architecture (EA) team is constantly challenged to articulate the value of its function.
    • The CIO has asked the EA team to help articulate the business value the team brings.
    • Traceability from the business goals and vision to the EA contributions often does not exist.
    • Also, clients often struggle with complexity, priorities, and agile execution.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • EA can deliver many benefits to an organization. However, to increase the likelihood of success, the EA group needs to deliver value to the business and cannot be seen solely as IT.
    • Support from the organization is needed.
    • An EA strategy anchored in a value proposition will ensure that EA focuses on driving the most critical outcomes in support of the organization’s enterprise strategy.
    • As agility is not just for project execution, architects need to understand ways to deliver their guidance to influence project execution in real time, to enable the enterprise agility, and to enhance their responsiveness to changing conditions.

    Impact and Result

    • Create an EA value proposition based on enterprise needs that clearly articulates the expected contributions of the EA function.
    • Establish the EA fundamentals (vision and mission statement, goals and objectives, and principles) needed to position the EA function to deliver the promised value proposition.
    • Identify the services that EA has to provide to the organization to deliver on the promised value proposition.

    Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy Deck – A guide to help you define services that your EA function will provide to the organization.

    Establish an effective EA function that will realize value for the organization with an EA strategy.

    • Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy – Phases 1-4

    2. EA Function Strategy Template – A communication tool to secure the approval of the EA strategy from organizational stakeholders.

    Use this template to document the outputs of the EA strategy and to communicate the EA strategy for approval by stakeholders.

    • EA Function Strategy Template

    3. Stakeholder Power Map Template – A template to help visualize the importance of various stakeholders and their concerns.

    Identify and prioritize the stakeholders that are important to your IT strategy development effort.

    • Stakeholder Power Map Template

    4. PESTLE Analysis Template – A template to help you complete and document a PESTLE analysis.

    Use this template to analyze the effect of external factors on IT.

    • PESTLE Analysis Template

    5. EA Value Proposition Template – A template to communicate the value EA can provide to the organization.

    Use this template to create an EA value proposition that explicitly communicates to stakeholders how an EA function can contribute to addressing their needs.

    • EA Value Proposition Template

    6. EA Goals and Objectives Template – A template to identify the EA goals that support the identified promises of value from the EA value proposition.

    Use this template to help set goals for your EA function based on the EA value proposition and identify objectives to measure the progression towards those EA goals.

    • EA Goals and Objectives Template

    7. EA Principles Template – A template to identify the universal EA principles relevant to your organization.

    Use this template to define relevant universal EA principles and create new EA principles to guide and inform IT investment decisions.

    • EA Principles Template – EA Strategy

    8. EA Service Planning Tool – A template to identify the EA services your organization will provide to deliver on the EA value proposition.

    Use this template to identify the EA services relevant to your organization and then define how those services will be accessed.

    • EA Service Planning Tool
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Map the EA Contributions to Business Goals

    The Purpose

    Show an example of traceability.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Members have a real-world example of traceability between business goals and EA contributions.

    Activities

    1.1 Start from the business goals of the organization.

    1.2 Document business and IT drivers.

    1.3 Identify EA contributions that help achieve the business goals.

    Outputs

    Business goals documented.

    Business and IT drivers documented.

    Identified EA contributions and traced them to business goals.

    2 Determine the Role of the Architect in the Agile Ceremonies of the Organization

    The Purpose

    Create an understanding about role of architect in Agile ceremonies.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of the role of the EA architect in Agile ceremonies.

    Activities

    2.1 Document the Agile ceremony used in the organization (based on SAFe or other Agile approaches).

    2.2 Determine which ceremonies the system architect will participate in.

    2.3 Determine which ceremonies the solution architect will participate in.

    2.4 Determine which ceremonies the enterprise architect will participate in.

    2.5 Determine architect syncs, etc.

    Outputs

    Documented the Agile ceremonial used in the organization (based on SAFe or other Agile approaches).

    Determined which ceremonies the system architect will participate in.

    Determined which ceremonies the solution architect will participate in.

    Determined which ceremonies the enterprise architect will participate in.

    Determined architect syncs, etc.

    Further reading

    Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy

    Develop a strategy that fits the organization’s maturity and remains adaptable to unforeseen future changes.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Build a right-size enterprise architecture strategy

    Enterprise Architecture Strategy

    Business & IT Strategy
    • Organizational Goals and Objectives
    • Business Drivers
    • Environment and Industry Trends
    • EA Capabilities and Services
    • Business Architecture
    • Data Architecture
    • Application Architecture
    • Integration Architecture
    • Innovation
    • Roles and Organizational Structure
    • Security Architecture
    • Technology Architecture
    • Integration Architecture
    • Insight and Knowledge
    • EA Operating Model
    Unlock the Value of Architecture
    • Increased Business and IT Alignment
    • Robust, Flexible, Scalable, Interoperable, Extensible and Reliable Solutions
    • Timely/Agile Service Delivery and Operations
    • Cost-Effective Solutions
    • Appropriate Risk Management to Address the Risk Appetite
    • Increased Competitive Advantage
    Current Environment
    • Business and IT Challenges
    • Opportunities
    • Enterprise Architecture Maturity

    Enterprise Architecture – Thought Model

    A thought model built around 'Enterprise Architecture', represented by a diagram on a cross-section of a ship which will be explained in the next slide. It begins with an arrow that says 'Organizational goals are the driving force and the ultimate goal' pointing to a bubble titled 'Organization' containing 'Analysis', 'Decisions', 'Actions'. An blue arrow on the right side with one '$' is labelled 'Iterations' and connects 'Organization' to 'Enterprise Architecture', 'Enterprise architecture creates new business value'. A green arrow on the left side with five '$' is labelled 'Goals' and connects back to 'Organization'. A the bottom, a bubble titled 'External forces, pressures, trends, data, etc.' has a blue arrow on the right side with one '$' connecting back to 'Enterprise Architecture'. Another blue arrow representing an output is labelled 'Outcomes' and originates from 'Enterprise Architecture'.

    Enterprise Architecture Capabilities

    A diagram on a cross-section of a ship representing 'Enterprise Architecture', including a row of process arrows beneath the ship pointing forward all labelled 'Agile iteration' and one airborne arrow above the stern pointing forward labelled 'Business Strategy'. Overlaid on the ship, starting at the back, are 'EA Strategy', 'EA Operating Model', 'Enterprise Principles, Methods, etc.', 'Foundational enterprise decisions: Business, Data/Apps, Technology, Integration, Security', 'Enterprise Reference Architecture', 'Goals, Value Chain, Capability, Business Processes', 'Enterprise Governance (e.g., Standard Mgmt.)', 'Domain Arch', 'Data & App Architecture', 'Security Architecture', 'Infrastructure: Cloud, Hybrid, etc.', at the very front is 'Implementation', and running along the bottom from back to front is 'Operations, Monitoring, and Continuous Improvement'.

    Analyst Perspective

    Enterprise architecture (EA) needs to be right-sized for the needs of the organization.

    Photo of Milena Litoiu, Principal/Senior Director, Enterprise Architecture, Info-Tech Research Group

    Enterprise architecture is NOT a one-size-fits-all endeavor. It needs to be right-sized to the needs of the organization.

    Enterprise architects are boots on the ground and part of the solution; in addition, they need to have a good understanding of the corporate strategy, vision, and goals and have a vested interest on the optimization of the outcomes for the enterprise. They also need to anticipate the moves ahead, to be able to determine future trends and how they will impact the enterprise.

    Milena Litoiu
    Principal/Senior Director, Enterprise Architecture
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Analyst Perspective

    EA provides business options based on a deep understanding of the organization.

    “Enterprise architects need to think about and consider different areas of expertise when formulating potential business options. By understanding the context, the puzzle pieces can combine to create a positive business outcome that aligns with the organization’s strategies. Sometimes there will be missing pieces; leveraging what you know to create an outline of the pieces and collaborating with others can provide a general direction.”

    Jean Bujold
    Senior Workshop Delivery Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    “The role of enterprise architecture is to eliminate misalignment between the business and IT and create value for the organization.”

    Reddy Doddipalli
    Senior Workshop Director, Research
    Info-Tech Research Group

    “Every transformation journey is an opportunity to learn: ‘Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.’ Benjamin Franklin.”

    Graham Smith
    Senior Lead Enterprise Architect and Independent Consultant

    Develop an enterprise architecture strategy that:

    • Helps the organization make decisions that are hard to change in a complex environment.
    • Fits the current organization’s maturity and remains flexible and adaptable to unforeseen future changes.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    We need to make decisions today for an unknown future. Decisions are influenced by:

    • Changes in the environment you operate in.
    • Complexity of both the business and IT landscapes.
    • IT’s difficulty in keeping up with business demands and remaining agile.
    • Program/project delivery pressure and long-term planning needs.
    • Other internal and external factors affecting your enterprise.

    Common Obstacles

    Decisions are often made:

    • Without a clear understanding of the business goals.
    • Without a holistic understanding; sometimes in conflict with one another.
    • That hinder the continuity of the organization.
    • That prevent value optimization at the enterprise level.

    The more complex an organization, the more players involved, the more difficult it is to overcome these obstacles.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    • Is a holistic, top-down approach, from the business goals all the way to implementation.
    • Has EA act as the canary in the coal mine. EA will identify and mitigate risks in the organization.
    • Enables EA to provide an essential service rather than be an isolated kingdom or an ivory tower.
    • Acknowledges that EA is a balancing act among competing demands.
    • Makes decisions using guiding principles and guardrails, to create a flexible architecture that can evolve and expand, enabling enterprise agility.

    Info-Tech Insight

    There is no “right architecture” for organizations of all sizes, maturities, and cultural contexts. The value of enterprise architecture can only be measured against the business goals of a single organization. Enterprise architecture needs to be right-sized for your organization.

    Info-Tech insight summary on arch. agility

    Continuous innovation is of paramount importance in achieving and maintaining competitive advantage in the marketplace.

    Business engagement

    It is important to trace architectural decisions to business goals. As business goals evolve, architecture should evolve as well.

    As new business input is provided during Agile cycles, architecture is continuously evolving.

    EA fundamentals

    EA fundamentals will shape how enterprise architects think and act, how they engage with the organization, what decisions they make, etc.

    Start small and lean and evolve as needed.

    Continuously align strategy with delivery and operations.

    Architects should establish themselves as business partners as well as implementation/delivery leaders.

    Enterprise services

    Definitions of enterprise services should start from the business goals of the organization and the capabilities IT needs to perform for the organization to survive in the marketplace.

    Continuous delivery and continuous innovation are the two facets of architecture.

    Tactical insight

    Your current maturity should be reflected as a baseline in the strategy.

    Tactical insight

    Take Agile/opportunistic steps toward your strategic North star.

    Tactical insight

    EA services differ based on goals, maturity, and the Agile appetite of the enterprise.

    From the best industry experts

    “The trick to getting value from enterprise architecture is to commit to the long haul.”

    Jeanne W. Ross, MIT CISR
    Co-author of Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution,
    Harvard Business Press, 2006.

    Typical EA maturity stages

    A line chart that moves through multiple stages titled 'Enterprise Architecture Maturity Stages (MIT CISR)' The five stages of the chart, starting on the left, are 'Business Silos', 'Standardized Technology', 'Optimized Core', 'Business Componentization', and 'Digital Ecosystem'. 'The trick to getting value from enterprise architecture is to commit to the long haul.' The line begins at the bottom left of the chart and gradually creates a stretched S shape to the top right. Points along the line, respective to the aforementioned stages, are 'Locally Optimal Business Solutions', 'Technology Infrastructure Platform', 'Digitized Process Platform', 'Repository of Reusable Business Components', 'Components Connecting with Partners' Components', and at the end of the line, outside of the chart is 'Strategic Business Value from Technology'. Percentages along the bottom, respective to the aforementioned stages, read 20%, 36%, 45%, 7%, 2%. Percentages are rough approximations based on findings reported in Mocker, M., Ross, J.W., Beath, C.M., 'How Companies Use Digital Technologies to Enhance Customer Offerings--Summary of Survey Findings,' MIT CISR Working Paper No. 434, Feb. 2019. Copyright MIT, 2019.

    Enterprise Architecture maturity

    A maturity ladder visualization for 'Enterprise Architecture' with five color-coded levels. From the bottom up, the colors and designations are Red: 'Unstable', Orange: 'Firefighter', Yellow: 'Trusted Operator', Blue: 'Business Partner', and Green: 'Innovator'. Beside the visualization at the bottom it says 'EA is here', then an arrow in the direction of the top where it says 'EA needs to be here'.
    • Innovator – Transforms the Business
      Reliable Technology Innovation
    • Business Partner – Expands the Business
      Effective Use of Enterprise Architecture in all Business Projects, Enterprise Architecture Is Strategically Engaged
    • Trusted Operator – Optimizes the Business
      Enterprise Architecture Provides Business, Data, Application & Technology Architectures for All IT Projects
    • Firefighter – Supports the Business
      Reliable Architecture for Some Practices/Projects
    • Unstable – Struggles to Support
      Inability to Provide Reliable Architectures

    Info-Tech Insight

    There is no “absolute maturity” for organizations of all sizes, maturities, and cultural contexts. The maturity of enterprise architecture can only be measured against the business goals of the organization.

    Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

    "Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful." "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track." "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place." "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com1-888-670-8889

    Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 Session 5
    Activities
    Identify organizational needs and landscape

    1.0 Interview stakeholders to identify business and technology needs

    1.1 Review organization perspective, including business needs, challenges, and strategic directions

    1.2 Conduct PESTLE analysis to identify business and technology trends

    1.3 Conduct SWOT analysis to identify business and technology internal perspective

    Create the EA value proposition

    2.1 Identify and prioritize EA stakeholders

    2.2 Create business and technology drivers from needs

    2.3 Define the EA value proposition

    2.4 Identify EA maturity and target

    Define the EA fundamentals

    3.1 Define the EA goals and objectives

    3.2 Determine EA scope

    3.3 Create a set of EA principles

    3.4. Define the need of a methodology/agility

    3.5 Create the EA vision and mission statement

    Identify the EA framework and communicate the EA strategy

    4.1 Define initial EA operating model and governance mechanism

    4.2 Define the activities and services the EA function will provide, derived from business goals

    4.3 Determine effectiveness measures

    4.4 Create EA roadmap and next steps

    4.5 Build communication plan for stakeholders

    Next Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

    5.1 Generate workshop report

    5.2 Set up review time for workshop report and to discuss next steps

    Outcomes
    1. Stakeholder insights
    2. Organizational needs, challenges, and direction summary
    3. PESTLE & SWOT analysis
    1. Stakeholder power map
    2. List of business and technology drivers with associated pains
    3. Set of EA contributions articulating the promises of value in the EA value proposition
    4. EA maturity assessment
    1. EA scope
    2. List of EA principles
    3. EA vision statement
    4. EA mission statement
    5. Statement about role of enterprise architect relative to agility
    1. EA capabilities mapped to business goals of the organization
    2. List of EA activities and services the EA function is committed to providing
    3. KPI definitions
    4. EA roadmap
    5. EA communication plan
    1. Completed workshop report on EA strategy with roadmap, recommendations, and outcomes from workshop

    Guided Implementation

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    A typical GI is 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

    While variations depend on the maturity of the organization as well as its aspirations, these are some typical steps:

      Phase 1

    • Call #1: Explore the role of EA in your organization.
    • Phase 2

    • Call #2: Identify and prioritize stakeholders.
    • Call #3: Use a PESTLE analysis to identify business and technology needs.
    • Call #4: Prepare for stakeholder interviews.
    • Call #5: Discuss your EA value proposition.
    • Phase 3

    • Call #5: Understand the importance of EA fundamentals.
    • Call #6: Define the relevant EA services and their contributions to the organization.
    • Call #7: Measure EA effectiveness.
    • Phase 4

    • Call #8: Build your EA roadmap and communication plan.
    • Call #9: Discuss the EA role relative to agility.
    • Call #10: Summarize results and plan next steps.

    Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy

    Phase 1

    Explore the Role of Enterprise Architecture

    Phase 1

    • 1.1 Explore a general EA strategy approach
    • 1.2 Introduce Agile EA architecture

    Phase 2

    • 2.1 Define the business and technology drivers
    • 2.2 Define your value proposition

    Phase 3

    • 3.1 Realize the importance of EA fundamentals
    • 3.2 Finalize the EA fundamentals

    Phase 4

    • 4.1 Select relevant EA services
    • 4.2 Finalize the set of services and secure approval

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    Define the role of the group and different roles inside the enterprise architecture competency.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Leaders
    • Business Leaders

    Enterprise architecture optimizes the outcomes of the entire organization

    Corporate Strategy –› Enterprise Architecture Strategy

    Info-Tech Insight

    Enterprise architecture needs to have input from the corporate strategy of the organization. Similarly, EA governance needs to be informed by corporate governance. If this is not the case, it is like planning and governing with your eyes closed.

    Existing EA functions vary in the value they achieve due to their level of maturity

    EA Functions
    Operationalized
    • EA function is operationalized and operates as an effective core function.
    • Effectively aligns the business and IT through governance, communication, and engagement.
    –––› Common EA value
    Decreased cost Reduced risk
    Emerging
    • Emerging but limited ad hoc EA function.
    • Limited by lack of alignment to the business and IT.
    –x–› Cut through complexity Increased agility
    (Source: Booz & Co., 2009)

    Benefits of enterprise architecture

    1. Focuses on business outcomes (business centricity)
    2. Provides traceability of architectural decisions to/from business goals
    3. Provides ways to measure results
    4. Provides consistency across different lines of business: establishes a common vocabulary, reducing inconsistencies
    5. Reduces duplications, creating additional efficiencies at the enterprise level
    6. Presents an actionable migration to the strategy/vision, through short-term milestones/steps

    Benefits of enterprise architecture continued

    1. Done right, increases agility
    2. Done right, reduces costs
    3. Done right, mitigates risks
    4. Done right, stimulates innovation
    5. Done right, helps achieve the stated business goals (e.g. customer satisfaction) and improves the enterprise agility.
    6. Done right, enhances competitive advantage of the enterprise

    Qualities of a well-established and practical enterprise architecture

    1. Objective
    2. Impartial
    3. Credible
    4. Practical
    5. Measurable
    6. (Source: University of Toronto, 2021)

    Role of the enterprise architecture

    • Primarily to set up guardrails for the enterprise, so Agile teams work independently in a safe, ready-to-integrate environment
    • Establish strategy
    • Establish priorities
    • Continuously innovate
    • Establish enterprise standards and enterprise guardrails to guide Solution/Domain/Portfolio Architectures
    • Align with and be informed by the organization’s direction

    Members of the Architecture Board:

    • Chief (Business) Strategist
    • Lead Enterprise Architect
    • Business SME from each major domain
    • IT SME from each major domain
    • Operational & Infrastructure SME
    • Security & Risk Officer
    • Process Management
    • Other relevant stakeholders

    For enterprise architecture to contribute, EA must address the organizational vision and goals

    External Factors –› Layers of a Business Model
    (Organization)
    –› Architecture Supported Transformation
    Industry Changes Business Strategy
    Competition Value Streams
    (Business Outcomes)
    Regulatory Impacts Business Capability Maps
    • Security
    Workforce Impacts Execution
    • Policies
    • Processes
    • People
    • Information
    • Applications
    • Technology

    Info-Tech Insight

    External forces can affect the organization as a whole; they need to be included as part of the holistic approach for enterprise architecture.

    How does EA provide value?

    Business and Technology Drivers – A set of statements created from business and technology needs. Gathered from information sources, it communicates improvements needed.

    • Vision, Aspirations, Long-Term Goals – Vision, aspirations, long term goals

      • EA Contributions – EA contributions that will alleviate obstructions. Removing the obstructions will allow EA to help satisfy business and technology needs.

        • Promise of Value – A statement that depicts a concrete benefit that the EA practice can provide for the organization in response to business and technology drivers.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Enterprise architecture needs to create and be part of a culture where decisions are made through collaboration while focusing on enterprise-wide efficiencies (e.g. reduced duplication, reusability, enterprise-wide cost minimization, overall security, comprehensive risk mitigation, and any other cross-cutting concerns) to optimize corporate business goals.

    The EA function scope is influenced by the EA value proposition and previously developed EA fundamentals

    Establish the EA function scope by using the EA value proposition and EA fundamentals that have already been developed. After defining the EA function scope, refer back to these statements to ensure it accurately reflects the EA value proposition and EA fundamentals.

    EA value proposition

    +

    EA vision statement
    EA mission statement
    EA goals and objectives

    —›
    Influences

    Organizational coverage

    Architectural domains

    Depth

    Time horizon

    —›
    Defines
    EA function scope

    EA team characteristics

    Create the optimal EA strategy by including personnel who understand a broad set of topics in the organization

    The team assembled to create the EA strategy will be defined as the “EA strategy creation team” in this blueprint.

    • Someone who has been in the organization for a long time and has built strong relationships with key stakeholders. This individual can exert influence and become the EA strategy sponsor.
    • An individual who understands how the different technology components in the organization support its business operations.
    • Someone in the organization who can communicate IT concepts to business managers in a language the business understands.
    • An individual with a strategy background or perspective on the organization. This individual will understand where the organization is headed.
    • Any individuals who feel an acute pain as a result of poorly made investment decisions. They can be champions of EA strategy in their respective functions.

    EA skills and competencies

    Apart from business know-how, the EA team should have the following skills

    • Architectural thinking
    • Analytical
    • Trusted, credible
    • Can handle complexity
    • Can change perspectives
    • Can learn fast (business and technology)
    • Independent and steadfast
    • Not afraid to go against the stream
    • Able to understand problems of others with empathy
    • Able to estimate scaling on design decisions such as model patterns
    • Intrinsic capability to identify where relevant details are
    • Able to identify root causes quickly
    • Able to communicate complex issues clearly
    • Able to negotiate and come up with acceptable solutions
    • Can model well
    • Able to change perspectives (from business to implementation and operational perspectives).

    Use of enterprise architecture methodologies

    Balance EA methodologies with Agile approaches

    Using an enterprise architecture methodology is a good starting point to achieving a common understanding of what that is. Often, organizations agree to "tailor" methodologies to their needs.

    The use of lean/Agile approaches will increase efficiency beyond traditional methodologies.

    Use of EA methodologies vs. Agile methods

    When to use what?

    • Use an existing methodology to structure your thinking and establish a common vocabulary to communicate basic concepts, processes, and approaches.
    • Customize the methodology to your needs; make it as lean as possible.
    • Execute in an Agile way, but keep in mind the thoughtful checks recommended by your end-to-end methodology.
    • Clarify goals.
    • Have good measures and metrics in place.
    • Continuously monitor progress, fit for purpose, etc.
    • Highlight risks, roadblocks, etc.
    • Get support.
    • Communicate vision, goals, key decisions, etc.
    • Iterate.

    Business strategy first, EA strategy second, and EA operating model third

    Corporate Strategy
    “Why does our enterprise exist in the market?”
    EA Strategy
    “What does EA need to be and do to support the enterprise’s ability to meet its goals? What is EA’s value proposition?”
    Business & IT Operating Culture
    “How does the organization’s culture and structure influence the EA operating model?”
    EA Operating Model
    How does EA need to operate on a daily basis to deliver the value proposition?”

    High-level perspective

    Creating an effective practice involves many moving parts.

    A visual of the many moving parts in an effective practice; there are 6 smaller circles in a large circle, an input arrow labelled 'Environment', an output arrow labelled 'Results', and a thin arrow connecting 'Results' back to 'Environment'. Of the circles, 'Leadership' is in the center, connected to each of the others, while 'Culture', 'Strategy', 'Core Processes', 'Structure', and 'Systems' create a cycle. (Source: The Center for Organizational Design)

    • Environment. Influences that are external to the organization, such as customer perceptions, changing needs, and changes in technology, and the organization’s ability to adjust to them.
    • Strategy. The business strategy defines how the organization adds value and acts as the rudder to direct the organization. Organizational strategy defines the character of the organization, what it wants to be, its values, its vision, its mission, etc.
    • Core Process. The flow of work through the organization.
    • Structure. How people are organized around business processes. Includes reporting structures, boundaries, roles, and responsibilities. The structure should assist the organization with achieving its goals rather than hinder its performance.
    • Systems. Interrelated sets of tasks or activities that help organize and coordinate work.
    • Culture. The personality of the organization: its leadership style, attitudes, habits, and management practices. Culture measures how well philosophy is translated into practice.
    • Results. Measurement of how well the organization achieved its goals.
    • Leadership. Brings the organization together by providing vision and strategy; designing, monitoring, and nurturing the culture; and fostering agility.

    The answer to the strategic planning entity dilemma is enterprise architecture

    Enterprise architecture is a discipline that defines the structure and operation of an organization. The intent of enterprise architecture is to determine how an organization can most effectively achieve its current and future objectives.

    Vision, goals, and aspirations as well internal and external pressures

    Business current state

    • Existing capability
    • Existing capability
    • Existing capability
    • Existing capability
    • Existing capability
    Enterprise Architecture

    IT current state

    • IT asset management
    • Database services
    • Application development

    Business target state

    • Existing capability
    • Existing capability
    • Existing capability
    • Existing capability
    • Existing capability
    • New capability

    IT target state

    • IT asset management
    • Database services
    • Application development
    • Business analytics
    Complex, overlapping, contradictory world of humans vs. logical binary world of IT
    EA is a planning tool to help achieve the corporate business goals

    EA spans across all the domains of architecture

    Business architecture is the cornerstone that sets the foundation for all other architectural domains: security, data, application, and technology.

    A flow-like diagram titled 'Enterprise Architecture' beginning with 'Digital Architecture' and 'Business Architecture', which feeds into 'Security Architecture', which feeds into both 'Data Architecture' and 'Application Architecture', which both feed into 'Technology Architecture: Infrastructure'.

    “An enterprise architecture practice is both difficult and costly to set up. It is normally built around a process of peer review and involves the time and talent of the strategic technical leadership of an enterprise.” (The Open Group Architecture Framework, 2018)

    Enterprise architecture deployment continuum

    A diagram visualizing the Enterprise architecture deployment continuum with two continuums, 'Level of Embedding' and 'EA Value', assigning terms to EA deployments based on where they fall. On the left is an 'Ivory Tower' configuration: EA' is separated from the 'BU's but is still controlling them. Level of Embedding: 'Centralized', EA Value: 'Dictatorship'. In the center is a 'Balanced' configuration: 'EA' is spread across and connected to each 'BU'. Level of Embedding: 'Federated', EA Value: 'Democracy'. On the right is a 'Siloed' configuration: Each 'BU' has its own separate 'EA'. Level of Embedding: 'Decentralized', EA Value: 'Abdication of enterprise role'.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The primary question during the design of the EA operating model is how to integrate the EA function with the rest of the business.

    If the EA practice functions on its own, you end up with ivory tower syndrome and a dictatorship.

    If you totally embed the EA function within business units it will become siloed with no enterprise value.

    Organizations need to balance consistency at the enterprise level with creativity from the grass roots.

    Enterprise vs. Program/Portfolio/Domain

    Enterprise vs. Program/Portfolio/Domain. Image depicts where Enterprise Scope overlaps Program/Portfolio Scope. Enterprise Scope includes Business Architecture. Program/Portfolio Scope includes Business Requirements, Business Process, and Solutions Architecture. Overlap between scope includes Technology Architecture, Data Architecture, and Applications Architecture.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Decisions at the enterprise level apply across multiple programs/portfolios/solutions and represent the guardrails set for all to play within.

    Decide on the degree of centralization

    Larger organizations with multiple domains/divisions or business units will need to decide which architecture functions will be centralized and which, if any, will be decentralized as they plan to scope their EA program. What are the core functions to be centralized for the EA to deliver the greatest benefits?

    Typically, we see a need to have a centralized repository of reusable assets and standards across the organization, while other approaches/standards can operate locally.

    Centralization

    • Allows for more strategic planning
    • Visibility into standards and assets across the organization promotes rationalization and cost savings
    • Ensures enterprise-wide assets are used
    • More strategic sourcing of vendors and resellers
    • Can centrally negotiate pricing for better deals
    • Easier to manage risk and prepare for audits
    • Greater coordination of resources
    • Derives benefits from enterprise decisions, e.g. integration…

    Decentralization

    • May allow for more innovation
    • May be easier to demonstrate local compliance if the organization is geographically decentralized
    • May be easier to procure software if offices are in different countries
    • Deployment and installation of software on user devices may be easier

    EA strategy

    What is the role of enterprise architecture vis-à-vis business goals?

    • What needs to be done?
    • Who needs to be involved?
    • When?
    • Where?
    • Why?
    • How?

    Top-down approach starting from the goals of the organization

      What the Business Sees...
    • Business Goals
      • Value Streams
          What the CxO Sees...
        • Capabilities
            What the App Managers See...
          • Processes
            • Applications
                What the Program Managers See...
              • Programs/Projects

    Info-Tech Insight

    Being able to answer the deceptively simple question “How am I doing?” requires traceability to and from the business goals to be achieved all the way to applications, to infrastructure, and ultimately, to the funded initiatives (portfolios, programs, projects, etc.).

    Measure EA strategy effectiveness by tracking the benefits it provides to the corporate business goals

    The success of the EA function spans across three main dimensions:

    1. The delivery of EA-enabled business outcomes that are most important to the enterprise.
    2. The alignment between the business and the technology from a planning perspective.
    3. Improvements in the corporate business goals due to EA contributions (standardization, rationalization, reuse, etc.).

    Corporate Business Goals

    • Reduction in operating costs
    • Decreased regulatory compliance infractions
    • Increased revenue from existing channels
    • Increased revenue from new channels
    • Faster time to business value
    • Improved business agility
    • Reduction in enterprise risk exposure

    EA Contributions

    • Alignment of IT investments to business strategy
    • Achievement of business results directly linked to IT involvement
    • Application and platform rationalization
    • Standards in place
    • Flexible architecture
    • Better integration
    • Higher organizational satisfaction with technology-enabled services and solutions

    Measurements

    • Cost reductions based on application and platform rationalization
    • Time and cost reductions due to standardization
    • Time reduction for integration
    • Service reused
    • Stakeholder satisfaction with EA services
    • Increase in customer satisfaction
    • Rework minimized
    • Lower cost of integration
    • Risk reduction
    • Faster time to market
    • Better scalability, etc.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Organizations must create clear and smart KPIs (key performance indicators) across the board.

    From corporate strategy to enterprise architecture

    A model connecting 'Enterprise Architecture' with 'Corporate Strategy' through 'EA Services' and 'EA Strategy'.

    Info-Tech Insight

    In the absence of a corporate strategy, enterprise architecture is missing its North Star.

    However, enterprise architects can partner with the business strategists to build the needed vision.

    Traceability to and from business corporate business goals to EA contributions (sample)

    A model connecting 'Enterprise Architecture' with 'Corporate Goals' through 'EA Contributions'.

    Enterprise architecture journey

    The enterprise architecture journey, from left to right: 'Business Goals' and 'EA Maturity Assessment', 'EA Strategy', 'Industry-Specific Capability Model' and 'Customized to the Organization's Needs', 'EA Operating Model' and 'EA Governance', 'Business Architecture' and 'EA Tooling', 'Data Architecture' and 'Application Architecture', 'Infrastructure Architecture'.

    Agile architecture principles

    Agile architecture principles:
    • Fast learning cycle
    • Explore alternatives
    • Create environment for decentralized ideation and innovation

    According to the Scaled Agile Framework, three of the most applicable principles for the architectural professions refer to the following:

    1. "Fast learning cycle" refers to learning cycles that allow for quick reiterations as well as the opportunity to fail fast to learn fast.
    2. "Explore alternatives" refers to the exploration phase and also to the need to make tough decisions and balance competing demands.
    3. "Create environment for decentralized ideation and innovation" ensures that no one has a monopoly on innovation. Moreover, EA needs to invite ideas from various stakeholders (from the business to operations as well as implementers, etc.).

    Architecture roles in lean enterprises

    Typical architecture roles in modern/Agile lean enterprises

    • System Architect
    • Solution Architect
    • Enterprise Architect

    Depth vs. strategy focus

    Typical architect roles

    A graph with different architect roles mapped onto it. Axes are 'Low Strategic Impact' to 'High Strategic Impact' and 'Breadth' to 'Depth'. 'Enterprise Architect' has the highest strategic impact and most breadth. 'Technical/System Architect' has the lowest strategic impact and most depth. 'Solution Architect' sits in the middle of both axes.

    Architecture roles continued

    The three architect roles from above and their impacts on the list of 'Common Domains' to the right. 'Enterprise Architect's impact is 'Across Value Streams', 'Solution Architect's impact is 'Across Systems', 'Technical/System Architect's impact is 'Single System'. Adapted from Scaled Agile.

    Common Domains

    Business Architecture

    Information Architecture

    Application Architecture

    Technical Architecture

    Integration Architecture

    Security Architecture

    Others

    Info-Tech Insight

    All architects are boots on the ground and play in the solutioning space. What differs is their decisions’ impact (the enterprise architect’s decisions affects all domains and solutions).

    SAFe definitions of the Enterprise/Solution and System Architect roles can be found here.

    The role of the Enterprise Architect is detailed here.

    Collaboration models across the enterprise

    A collaboration model with 'Enterprise Architecture' at the top consisting of a 'Chief Enterprise Architect', 'Enterprise Architects', and 'EA Concerns across solutions': 'Architect A', 'Architect B', and 'Architect C'. Each lettered Architect is connected to their respective 'Solution Architect (A-C)' which runs their respective 'Delivery Team (A-C)' with 'Other Team Members'.(Adapted from Disciplined Agile)

    There are both formal and informal collaborations between enterprise architects and solution architects across the enterprise.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Enterprise architects should collaborate with solutions architects to create the best solutions at the enterprise level and to provide guidance across the board.

    Architect roles in SAFe

    According to Scale Agile Framework 5 for Lean Enterprises:

    • The system architect participates in the Essential SAFe
    • Solution architects and system architects participate in Large Solution
    • The enterprise architect participates in the Portfolio SAFe
    • Enterprise, solution, and system architects are all involved in Full SAFe

    Please check the SAFe Scaled Agile site for detailed information on the approach.

    Architect roles and their participation in Agile events (see likely events and a typical calendar)

    Info-Tech Insight

    A clear commitment for architects to achieve and support agility is needed. Architects should not be in an ivory tower; they should be hands on and engaged in all relevant Agile ceremonies, like the pre- and post-program increment (PI) planning, etc.

    Architect syncs are also required to ensure the needed collaboration.

    Architect participation in Agile ceremonies, according to SAFe:

    Architecture runway (at scale)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Architecting for scale, modularity, and extensibility is key for the architecture to adapt to changing conditions and evolve.

    Proactively address NFRs; architect for performance and security.

    Continuously refine the solution intent.

    For large solutions, longer foundational architectural runways are needed.

    Having an intentional continuous improvement/continuous development (CI/CD) pipeline to continuously release, test, and monitor is key to evolving large and complex systems.

    Parallel continuous exploration/integration/deployment

    A cycle titled DevOps containing three smaller cycles labelled 'Continuous Explorations', 'Continuous Integration', and 'Continuous Deployment'.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Architects need to help make some fundamental decisions, e.g. help define the environment that best supports continuous innovation or exploration and continuous integration, deployment, and delivery.

    Typical strategic enterprise architecture involvement

    Enterprise Architect —DRIVES–› Enterprise Architecture Strategy

    Enterprise Architecture Strategy
    • Application Strategy
    • Business Strategy
    • Data Strategy
    • Implementation Strategy
    • Infrastructure Strategy
    • Inter-domain Collaboration
    • Integration Strategy
    • Operations Strategy
    • Security Strategy
    • (Adapted from Scaled Agile)

    The EA statement relative to agility

    The enterprise architecture statement relative to agility specifies the architects’ responsibilities as well as the Agile protocols they will participate in. This statement will guide every architect’s participation in planning meetings, pre- and post-PI, various syncs, etc. Use simple and concise terminology; speak loudly and clearly.

    Strong EA statement relative to agility has the following characteristics:

    • Describes what different architect roles do to achieve the vision of the organization
    • In an agile way
    • Compelling
    • Easy to grasp
    • Sharply focused
    • Specific
    • Concise

    Sample EA statement relative to agility

    • Create strategies that provide guardrails for the organization, provide standards, reusable assets, accelerators, and other decisions at the enterprise level that support agility.
    • Participate in pre-PI and post-PI planning activities, architect syncs, etc.

    A clear statement can include additional details surrounding the enterprise architect’s role relative to agility

    Below is a sample of connecting keywords to form an enterprise architect role statement, relative to agility.

    Optimize, transform, and innovate by defining and implementing the [Company]’s target enterprise architecture in an agile way.

    Optimize – We collaborate with the business to analyze and optimize business capabilities and business processes to enable the agile and efficient attainment of [Company name] business objectives.

    Transform – We support IT-enabled business transformation programs by building and maintaining a shared vision of the future-state enterprise and consistently communicating it to stakeholders.

    Innovate – We identify and develop new and creative opportunities for IT to enable the business. We communicate the art of the possible to the business.

    Defining and implementing – We engage with project teams early and guide solution design and selection to ensure alignment to the target-state enterprise architecture and provide guidance and accelerators.

    Target enterprise structure in an agile way – We analyze business needs and priorities and assess the current state of the enterprise. We build and maintain the target enterprise architecture blueprints that define:

    • Business capabilities and processes (business architecture)
    • Data, application, and technology assets that enable business capabilities and processes (technology architecture)
    • Architecture principles
    • Standards and reusable assets
    • Continuous exploration, integration, and deployment

    Traditional vs. Agile approaches

    Traditional Enterprise Architecture Next-Generation Enterprise Architecture
    Scope: Technology focused Business transformation (scope includes both business and technology)
    Bottom up Top down
    Inside out Outside In
    Point to point; difficult to change Expandable, extensible, evolvable
    Control-based: Governance intensive; often over-centralized Guidance-based: Collaboration and partnership-driven based on accepted guardrails
    Big up-front planning Incremental/dynamic planning; frequent changes
    Functional siloes and isolated projects, programs, and portfolios Enterprise-driven outcome optimization (across value streams)

    Info-Tech Insight

    The role of the architecture in Lean (Agile) approaches is to set up the needed guardrails and ensure a safe environment where everyone can be effective and creative.

    Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy

    Phase 2

    Create the EA Value Proposition

    Phase 1

    • 1.1 Explore a general EA strategy approach
    • 1.2 Introduce Agile EA architecture

    Phase 2

    • 2.1 Define the business and technology drivers
    • 2.2 Define your value proposition

    Phase 3

    • 3.1 Realize the importance of EA fundamentals
    • 3.2 Finalize the EA fundamentals

    Phase 4

    • 4.1 Select relevant EA services
    • 4.2 Finalize the set of services and secure approval

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify and prioritize EA stakeholders.
    • Create business and technology drivers from stakeholder information.
    • Identify business pains and technology drivers.
    • Define EA contributions to alleviate the pains.
    • Create promises of value to fully articulate the value proposition.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Leaders
    • Business Leaders

    Step 2.1

    Define the Business and Technology Drivers

    Activities
    • 2.1.1 Use a stakeholder power map to identify and prioritize EA stakeholders
    • 2.1.2 Conduct a PESTLE analysis
    • 2.1.3 Review strategic planning documents
    • 2.1.4 Conduct EA stakeholder interviews

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Learn the five-step process to create an EA value proposition.
    • Uncover business and technology needs from stakeholders.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Leaders
    • Business Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    An understanding of your organization’s EA needs.

    Create the Value Proposition

    Step 2.1 Step 2.2

    Value proposition is an important step in the creation of the EA strategy

    Creating an EA value proposition should be the first step to realizing a healthy EA function. The EA value proposition demonstrates to organizational stakeholders the importance of EA in helping to realize their needs.

    Five steps towards the successful articulation of EA value proposition:

    1. Identify and prioritize stakeholders. The EA function must know to whom to communicate the value proposition.
    2. Construct business and technology drivers. Drivers are derived from the needs of the business and IT. Needs come from the analysis of external factors, strategic documents, and interviewing stakeholders. Helping stakeholders and the organization realize their needs demonstrates the value of EA.
    3. Discover pains that prevent driver realization. There are always challenges that obstruct drivers of the organization. Find out what they are to get closer to showing the value of EA.
    4. Brainstorm EA contributions. Pains that obstruct drivers have now been identified. To demonstrate EA’s value, think about how EA can help to alleviate those pains. Create statements that show how EA’s contribution will be able to overcome the pain to show the value of EA.
    5. Derive promises of value. Complete the articulation of value for the EA value proposition by stating how realizing the business or technology will provide in terms of value for the organization. Speak with the stakeholders to discover the value that can be achieved.

    Info-Tech Insight

    EA can deliver many benefits to an organization. To increase the likelihood of success, each EA group needs to commit to delivering value to their organization based on the current operating environment and the desired direction of the enterprise. An EA value proposition will articulate the group’s promises of value to the enterprise.

    The foundation of an optimal EA value proposition is laid by defining the right stakeholders

    All stakeholders need to know how the EA function can help them. Provide the stakeholders with an understanding of the EA strategy’s impact on the business by involving them.

    A stakeholder map can be a powerful tool to help identify and prioritize stakeholders. A stakeholder map is a visual sketch of how various stakeholders interact with your organization, with each other, and with external audience segments.

    An example stakeholder map with the 'Key players' quadrant highlighted, it includes 'CEO', 'CIO', and the modified position of 'CFO' after being engaged.

    “Stakeholder management is critical to the success of every project in every organization I have ever worked with. By engaging the right people in the right way in your project, you can make a big difference to its success…and to your career.” (Rachel Thompson, MindTools)

    2.1.1 Use a stakeholder power map to identify and prioritize EA stakeholders

    2 hours

    Input: Expertise from the EA strategy creation team

    Output: An identified and prioritized set of stakeholders for the EA function to target

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    1. A stakeholder power map helps to visualize the importance of various stakeholders and their concerns so you can prioritize your time according to the most powerful and most impacted stakeholders.
    2. Evaluate each stakeholder in terms of power, Involvement, impact, and support.
      • Power: How much influence does the stakeholder have? Enough to drive the project forward or into the ground?
      • Involvement: How interested is the stakeholder? How involved is the stakeholder in the project already?
      • Impact: To what degree will the stakeholder be impacted? Will this significantly change how they do their job?
      • Support: Is the stakeholder a supporter of the project? Neutral? A resistor?
    3. Map each stakeholder to an area on the Power Map Template.
    4. Ask yourself if the power map looks accurate. Is there someone who has no involvement in EA strategy development but should?
    5. Some stakeholders may have influence over others. For example, a COO who highly values the opinion of the Director of Operations would be influenced by that director. Draw an arrow from one stakeholder to another to signify this relationship.

    Download the Stakeholder Power Map Template for more detailed instructions on completing this activity.

    Each stakeholder will have a set of needs that will influence the final EA value proposition

    All stakeholders will have a set of needs they would like to address. Take those needs and translate them into business and technology drivers. Drivers help clearly articulate to stakeholders, and the EA function, the stakeholder needs to be addressed.

    Business Driver

    Business drivers are internal or external business conditions, changing business capabilities, and changing market trends that impact the way EA operates and provides value to the enterprise.

    Examples:

    Ensure corporate compliance with legislation pertaining to data and security (e.g. regulated oil fields).

    Enable the automation and digitization of internal processes and services to business stakeholders.

    Technology Driver

    Technology drivers are internal or external technology conditions or factors that are not within the control of the EA group that impact the way that the EA group operates and provides value to the enterprise.

    Examples:

    Establish standards and policies for enabling the organization to take advantage of cloud and mobile technologies.

    Reduce the frequency of shadow IT by lowering the propensity to make business–technology decisions in isolation.

    (Source: The Strategic CFO, 2013)

    Gather information from stakeholders to begin the process of distilling business and technology drivers

    Review information sources, then analyze them to derive business and technology drivers. Information sources are not targeted towards EA stakeholders. Analyze the information sources to create drivers that are relevant to EA stakeholders.

    Information Sources Drivers (Examples)

    PESTLE Analysis

    Strategy Documents

    Stakeholder Interviews

    SWOT Analysis

    —›

    Analysis

    —›

    Help the organization align technology investments with corporate strategy

    Ensure corporate compliance with legislation.

    Increase the organization’s speed to market.

    Business and Technology Needs

    By examining information sources, the EA team will come across a set of business and technology needs. Through analysis, these needs can be synthesized into drivers.

    The PESTLE analysis will help you uncover external factors impacting the organization

    PESTLE examines six perspectives for external factors that may impact business and technology needs. Below are prompting questions to facilitate a PESTLE analysis working session.

    Political
    • Will a change in government (at any level) affect your organization?
    • Do inter-government or trade relations affect you?
    • Are there shareholder needs or demands that must be considered?
    • How are your costs changing (moving off-shore, fluctuations in markets, etc.)?
    • Do currency fluctuations have an effect on your business?
    • Can you attract and pay for top-quality talent (e.g. desirable location, reasonable cost of living, changes to insurance requirements)?
    Economic
    Social
    • What are the demographics of your customers and/or employees?
    • What are the attitudes of your customers and/or staff (e.g. do they require social media, collaboration, transparency of costs)?
    • What is the general lifecycle of an employee (i.e. is there high turnover)?
    • Is there a market of qualified staff?
    • Is your business seasonal?
    • Do you require constant technology upgrades (e.g. faster network, new hardware)?
    • What is the appetite for innovation within your industry/business?
    • Are there demands for increasing data storage, quality, BI, etc.?
    • Are you looking to cloud technologies?
    • What is the stance on bring your own device?
    • Are you required to do a significant amount of development work in-house?
    Technological
    Legal
    • Are there changes to trade laws?
    • Are there changes to regulatory requirements (i.e. data storage policies, privacy policies)?
    • Are there union factors that must be considered?
    • Is there a push towards being environmentally friendly?
    • Does the weather have any effect on your business (hurricanes, flooding, etc.)?
    Environmental

    2.1.2 Conduct a PESTLE analysis

    2 hours

    Input: Expertise from EA strategy creation team

    Output: Identified set of business and technology needs from PESTLE

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    1. Begin conducting the PESTLE analysis by breaking the participants into groups. Divide the six different perspectives amongst the groups.
    2. Ask each group to begin to derive business and technology needs from their assigned perspectives. Use some of the areas noted below along with the questions on the previous slide to derive business and technology needs.
      • Political: Examine taxes, environmental regulations, and zoning restrictions.
      • Economic: Examine interest rates, inflation rate, exchange rates, the financial and stock markets, and the job market.
      • Social: Examine gender, race, age, income, disabilities, educational attainment, employment status, and religion.
      • Technological: Examine servers, computers, networks, software, database technologies, wireless capabilities, and availability of Software as a Service.
      • Legal: Examine trade laws, labor laws, environmental laws, and privacy laws.
      • Environmental: Examine green initiatives, ethical issues, weather patterns, and pollution.
    3. Ask each group to take into account the following questions when deriving business and technology needs:
      • Will business components require any changes to address the factor?
      • Will information technology components changes be needed to address any factor?
    4. Have each team record its findings. Have each team present its list and have remaining teams give feedback and additional suggestions. Record any changes in this step.

    Download the PESTLE Analysis Template to assist with completing this activity.

    Strategic planning documents can provide information regarding the direction of the organization

    Some organizations (and business units) create an authoritative strategy document. These documents contain corporate aspirations and outline initiatives, reorganizations, and shifts in strategy. From these documents, a set of business and technology needs can be generated.

    Overt Statements

    • Corporate objectives and initiatives are often explicitly stated in these documents. Look for statements that begin with phrases such as “Our corporate objectives are…”
    • Remember that different organizations use different terminology; if you cannot find the word goal or objective then look for “pillar,” “imperative,” “theme,” etc.

    Turn these statements to business and technology needs by:

    Asking the following:
    • Is there a need from a business perspective to address these objectives, initiatives, and shifts in strategy?
    • Is there a need from a technology perspective to address these objectives, initiatives, and shifts in strategy?

    Covert Statements

    • Some corporate objectives and initiatives will be mentioned in passing and will require clarification. For example: “As we continue to penetrate new markets, we will be diversifying our manufacturing geography to simplify distribution.”

    2.1.3 Review strategic planning documents

    2 hours

    Input: Strategic documents in the organization

    Output: Identified set of business and technology needs from documents

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Begin the identification process of business and technology needs from strategic documents with the following steps:

    1. Work with the EA strategy creation team to identify the strategic documents within the organization. Look for documents with any of the following content:
      • Corporate strategy document
      • Business unit strategy documents
      • Annual general reports
    2. Gather the strategic documents into one place and call a meeting with the EA strategy creation team to identify the business and technology needs in those documents.
    3. Pick one document and look through its contents. Look for future-looking words such as:
      • We will be…
      • We are planning to…
      • We will need…
    4. Consider those portions of the document with future-looking words and ask the following:
      • Will business components require any changes to address these objectives?
      • Will information technology components changes be needed to address these objectives?
    5. Record the business and technology needs identified in step 4. As well, record any questions you may have regarding the document contents for stakeholders to validate later.
    6. Move to the next document once complete. Complete steps 3-5 for the remaining strategy documents.

    Stakeholder interviews will help you collect primary data and will shed light on stakeholder priorities and challenges

    In this interview process, you will be asking EA stakeholders questions that uncover their business and technology needs. You will also be able to ask follow-up questions to get a better understanding of abstract or complex concepts from the strategy document review and PESTLE analysis.

    EA Stakeholders:

    • Stakeholders may not think of their business and technology needs. But stakeholders will often explicitly state their objectives and initiatives.
    • Objectives often result in risks, opportunities, and annoyances:
      • Risks: Potential damage associated with pursuing an objective or initiative.
      • Opportunities: Potential gains that could be leveraged when capturing objectives and initiatives.
      • Annoyances: Roadblocks that could hinder the pursuit of objectives and initiatives.
    • Ask stakeholders questions on these areas to discern their business and technology needs.

    Risks + Opportunities + Annoyances –› Business and Technology Needs

    2.1.4 Conduct EA stakeholder interviews

    4-8 hours

    Input: Expertise from the EA stakeholders

    Output: Business and technology needs for EA stakeholders

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team, Identified EA stakeholders

    1. Schedule an interview with each of the stakeholders that were identified as key stakeholders in the Stakeholder Power Map.
    2. Meet with the key EA stakeholders and start business and technology needs gathering. Schedule each identified key stakeholder for an interview.
    3. When a stakeholder arrives for their interview, ask the following questions and record the answers to help uncover needs. Be sure to record which stakeholder answered the question. Further, record any future stakeholders that agree.
      • What are the current strengths of your organization?
      • What are the current weaknesses of your organization?
      • What is the number 1 risk you need to prevent?
      • What is the number 1 opportunity you want to capitalize on?
      • What is the number 1 annoying pet peeve you want to remove?
      • How would you prioritize these risks, opportunities, and annoyances?
    4. Recorded answer example: “We can’t see what the other departments are doing; when we spend a lot of money to invest in something, we later find out the capability is already within the company.”
    5. After completing each interview, verify with each stakeholder that you have captured their business and technology needs. Continue the interview process until all identified key stakeholders have been interviewed.
    6. Capture all inputs into a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) format.

    Step 2.2

    Define Your Value Proposition

    Activities
    • 2.2.1 Create a set of business and technology drivers from business and technology needs
    • 2.2.2 Identify the pains associated with the business and technology drivers
    • 2.2.3 Identify the EA contributions that can address the pains
    • 2.2.4 Create promises of value to shape the EA value proposition

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Use business and technology drivers to determine EA’s role in your organization.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • IT Leaders
    • Business Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    A value proposition document that ties the value of the EA function to stakeholder needs.

    Create the EA Value Proposition

    Step 2.1 Step 2.2

    Synthesize the collected data into business and technology drivers

    Two triangles labelled 'Business needs' and 'Technology needs' point to a cloud labelled 'Analysis', which connects to the driver attributes on the right via a dotted line.

    There are several key attributes that a driver should have.

    Driver Key Attributes
    • A succinct statement.
    • Begins with “action words” to communicate a call to action (e.g. Support, Help, Enable).
    • Written in a language understood by all parties involved.
    • Communicates a need for improvement or prevention.

    “The greatest impact of enterprise architecture is the strategic impact. Put the mission and the needs of the organization first.” (Matthew Kern, Clear Government Solutions)

    2.2.1 Create a set of business and technology drivers from business and technology needs

    3 hours

    Input: Expertise from EA strategy creation team

    Output: A set of business and technology drivers

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team, EA stakeholders

    Meet with the EA strategy creation team and follow the steps below to begin the process of synthesizing the business and technology needs into drivers.

    1. Lay out the documented business and technology needs your team gathered from PESTLE analysis, strategy document reviews, and stakeholder interviews.
    2. Assess the documented business and technology needs to see if there are common themes. Consolidate those similar business and technology needs by crafting one driver for them. For example:
      • PESTLE: Influx of competitors in the marketplace causing tighter margins.
      • Document review: Improve investment quality and their value to the organization.
      • Stakeholder interview: “We can’t see what the other departments are doing; when we spend a lot of money to invest in something, we later find out the capability is already within the company.”
      • Consolidated business driver example: Help the organization align investments with the corporate strategy and departmental priorities.
    3. As well, synthesize the business and technology needs that cannot be consolidated.
    4. Verify the completed list of drivers with stakeholders. This is to ensure you have fully captured their needs.

    Download the EA Value Proposition Template to record your findings in this activity.

    When addressing business and technology drivers, an organization can expect obstacles

    A pain is an obstacle that business stakeholders will face when attempting to address business and technology drivers. Identify the pains associated with each driver so that EA’s contributions can be linked to resolving obstacles to address business needs.

    Business and Technology Drivers

    Pains

    Created by assessing information sources. A sentence that states the nature of the pain and how the pain stops the organization from addressing the drivers.
    Examples:
    • Business driver: Help the organization align investments with the corporate strategy and departmental priorities.
    • Technology driver: Improve the organization’s technology responsiveness and increase speed to market.
    Examples:
    • Business driver pains: Lack of holistic view of business capabilities obstructs the organization from aligning investments with corporate strategy and departmental priorities.
    • Technology driver pains: Ineffective application development requiring delays decreases the speed to market.

    2.2.2 Identify the pains associated with the business and technology drivers

    2 hours

    Input: Expertise from EA strategy creation team and EA stakeholders

    Output: An associated pain that obstructs each identified driver

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team, EA stakeholders

    Call a meeting with the EA strategy creation team and any available stakeholders to identify the pains that obstruct addressing the business and technology drivers.

    Take each driver and ask the questions below to the EA strategy creation team and to any EA stakeholders who are available. Record the answers to identify the pains when realizing the drivers.

    1. What are your challenges in performing the activity or process today?
    2. What other business activities/processes will be impacted/improved if we solve this?
    3. What compliance/regulatory/policy concerns do we need to consider in any solution?
    4. What are the steps in the process/activity?

    Take the recorded answers and follow the steps below to create the pain statements:

    1. Answers to the questions above can be long, unfocused, or spoken in a casual manner. To turn the answer into pains, refine the recorded answers into a succinct sentence that captures its meaning.
      • Recorded answer example: “I feel like there needs to be a holistic view of the organization. If we had a tool to see all the capabilities across the business, then we can figure out what investments should be prioritized.”
      • Example of pain statement: Lack of holistic view of business capabilities obstructs the organization from aligning investments with corporate strategy and departmental priorities.
    2. When the list of pains has been written out, verify with the stakeholders that you have fully captured their pains.

    Download the EA Value Proposition Template to record your findings in this activity.

    The identified pains can be alleviated by a set of EA contributions

    Set the foundations for the value proposition by brainstorming the EA contributions that can alleviate the pains.

    Business and technology drivers produce:

    Pains

    —›
    EA contributions produce:

    Value by alleviating pains

    Pains

    Obstructions to addressing business and technology drivers. Stakeholders will face these pains.

    Examples
    • Business driver pains: Lack of holistic view of business capabilities obstructs the organization from aligning investments with corporate strategy and departmental priorities.
    EA contributions

    Activities the EA function can perform to help alleviate the pains. Demonstrates the contributions the EA function can make to business value.

    Examples:
    • Business driver EA contributions: Business capability mapping shows the business capabilities of the organization and the technology that supports those capabilities in the current and target state. This provides a view for the set of investments that are needed by the organization, which can then be prioritized.

    Enterprise architecture functions can provide a diverse set of contributions to any organization – Sample

    EA contribution category EA contribution details
    Define business capabilities and processes As-is and target business capabilities and processes are documented and understood by both IT and the business.
    Design information flows and services Information flows and services effectively support business capabilities and processes.
    Analyze gaps and identify project opportunities Create informed project identification, scope definition, and project portfolio management.
    Optimize technology assets Greater homogeneity and interoperability between tangible and intangible technology assets.
    Create and maintain technology standards Decrease development, integration, and support efforts. Reduce complexity and improve interoperability.
    Rationalize technology assets Tangible and intangible technology assets are rationalized to adequately and efficiently support information flows and services.

    2.2.3 Identify the EA contributions that can address the pains

    2 hours

    Input: Expertise from EA strategy creation team

    Output: EA contributions that addresses the pains that were identified

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Gather with the EA strategy creation team, take each pain, then ask and record the answers to the questions below to identify the EA contributions that would solve the pains:

    1. What activities can the EA practice conduct to overcome the pain?
    2. What are the core EA models that can help accurately define the problem and assist in finding appropriate resolutions?
    3. What are the general EA benefits that can be associated with solving this pain?

    Answers to the questions above will generate a list of activities EA can do to help alleviate the pains. Use the following steps to complete this activity:

    1. Create a stronger tie between the EA contributions and pains by linking the EA contribution statement to the pain.
      • Example of pain statement: Lack of holistic view of business capabilities obstructs the organization from aligning investments with corporate strategy and departmental priorities.
      • Example of EA contributions statement: Business capability mapping shows the business capabilities of the organization and the technology that supports those capabilities in the current and target state. This provides a view for the set of investments that are needed by the organization, which can then be prioritized.
    2. Verify with the stakeholders that they understand the EA contributions have been written out and how those contributions address the pains.

    Download the EA Value Proposition Template to record your findings in this activity.

    EA promises of value articulate EA’s commitment to the organization

    • Business Goals and Technology Drivers
      A set of statements created from business and technology needs. Gathered from information sources, it communicates improvements needed.

      • Value Streams, Aspirations, Long-Term Goals
        Value streams, aspirations, long-term goals

        • EA Contributions
          EA contributions that will alleviate the obstructions. Removing the obstructions will allow EA to help satisfy business and technology needs.

          • Promise of Value
            A statement that depicts a concrete benefit the EA practice can provide for the organization in response to business and technology drivers.
            Communicate the statements in a language that stakeholders understand to complete the articulation of EA’s value proposition.

    2.2.4 Create promises of value to shape the EA value proposition

    2 hours

    Input: Expertise from EA strategy creation team and EA stakeholders

    Output: Promises of value for each business and technology driver

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team, EA stakeholders

    Now that the EA contributions have been identified, identify the promises of value to articulate the value proposition.

    Take each driver, then ask and record the answers to the questions below to identify the promises of value when realizing the drivers:

    1. What does amazing look like if we solve this perfectly?
    2. What other business activities/processes will be impacted/improved if we solve this?
    3. What measures of success/change should we use to prove value of the effort (KPIs/ROI)?

    Take the recorded answers and follow the steps below to create the promises of value.

    1. Answers to the questions above can be long, unfocused, or spoken in a casual manner. To turn the answer into a promise of value, refine the recorded answer into a succinct sentence that captures its meaning.
      • Business driver example: Help the organization align investments with the corporate strategy and departmental priorities.
      • Recorded answer example: “If this would be solved perfectly, we would have a very easy time planning investments and investment planning hours can be spent doing other activities.”
      • Promises of value example: Increase the number of investments that have a direct tie to corporate strategy.
    2. When the promises of value have been written out, verify with the stakeholders that you have fully captured their ideas.

    Download the EA Value Proposition Template to record your findings in this activity.

    Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy

    Phase 3

    Build the EA Fundamentals

    Phase 1

    • 1.1 Explore a general EA strategy approach
    • 1.2 Introduce Agile EA architecture

    Phase 2

    • 2.1 Define the business and technology drivers
    • 2.2 Define your value proposition

    Phase 3

    • 3.1 Realize the importance of EA fundamentals
    • 3.2 Finalize the EA fundamentals

    Phase 4

    • 4.1 Select relevant EA services
    • 4.2 Finalize the set of services and secure approval

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Create an EA vision statement and an EA mission statement.
    • Create EA goals, define EA objectives, and link them to EA goals.
    • Define the EA function scope dimensions.
    • Create a set of EA principles for your organization.
    • Discuss current methodology.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • EA Team
    • IT Leaders
    • Business Leaders

    Step 3.1

    Realize the Importance of EA Fundamentals

    Activities
    • 3.1.1 Create the EA vision statement
    • 3.1.2 Create the EA mission statement
    • 3.1.3 Create EA goals
    • 3.1.4 Define EA objectives and link them to EA goals
    • 3.1.5 Record the details of each EA objective

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Define and document the fundamentals that guide the EA function.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • EA Team
    • IT Leaders
    • Business Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Vision and mission statements for the EA function.
    • A set of EA goals and a set of objectives to track progression toward those goals.
    Build the EA Fundamentals
    Step 3.1 Step 3.2

    EA fundamentals guide the EA function

    EA fundamentals include a vision statement, a mission statement, goals and objectives, and principles. They are a set of documented statements that guide the EA function. The fundamentals guide the EA function in terms of its strategy and decision making.

    EA vision statement EA mission statement

    EA fundamentals

    EA goals and objectives EA principles

    Info-Tech Insight

    Treat the critical elements of the EA group the same way as you would a business. Create a directional foundation for EA and define the vision, mission, goals, principles, and scope necessary to deliver on the established value proposition.

    The EA vision statement articulates the aspirations of the EA function

    The enterprise architecture vision statement communicates a desired future state of the EA function. The statement is expressed in the present tense. It seeks to articulate the desired role of the EA function and how the EA function will be perceived.

    Strong EA vision statements have the following characteristics:

    • Describe a desired future
    • Focus on ends, not means
    • Communicate promise
    • Concise, no unnecessary words
    • Compelling
    • Achievable
    • Inspirational
    • Memorable

    Sample EA vision statements:

    • To be a trusted partner for both the business and IT, driving enterprise effectiveness, efficiency, and agility at [Company Name].
    • To be a trusted partner and advisor to both the business and IT, contributing to business-IT alignment and cost reduction at [Company Name].
    • To create distinctive value and accelerate [Company Name]’s transformation.

    The EA mission statement articulates the purpose of the EA function

    The enterprise architecture mission statement specifies the team’s purpose or “reason of being.” The mission should guide each day’s activities and decisions. The mission statements use simple and concise terminology, speak loudly and clearly, and generate enthusiasm for the organization.

    Strong EA mission statements have the following characteristics:

    • Articulates EA function purpose and reason for existence
    • Describes what the EA function does to achieve its vision
    • Defines who the customers of the EA function are
    • Compelling
    • Easy to grasp
    • Sharply focused
    • Inspirational
    • Memorable
    • Concise

    Sample EA mission statements:

    • Define target enterprise architecture for [Company Name], identify solution opportunities, inform IT investment management, and direct solution development, acquisition, and operation compliance.
    • Synergize with both the business and IT to define and help realize [Company Name]’s target enterprise architecture that enables the business strategy and optimizes IT assets, resources, and capabilities.

    The EA vision and mission statements become relevant to EA stakeholders when linked to the promises of value

    The process for constructing the enterprise architecture vision statement and enterprise architecture mission statement is articulated below.

    Promises of value Derive keywords Construct draft statements Reference test criteria Finalize statements
    Derive the a set of keywords from the promises of value to accurately capture their essence. Create the initial statement using the keywords. Check the initial statement against a set of test criteria to ensure their quality. Finalize the statement after referencing the initial statement against the test criteria.

    Derive keywords from promises of value to begin the vision and mission statement creation process

    Develop keywords by summarizing the promises of value that were derived from drivers into one word that will take on the essence of the promise. See examples below:

    Business and technology drivers Promises of value Keywords
    Help the organization align investments with the corporate strategy and departmental priorities. Increase the number of investments that have a direct tie to corporate strategy. Business
    Support the rapid growth and development of the company through fiscal planning, project planning, and technology sustainability. Ensure budgets and projects are delivered on time with the assistance of technology. IT-Enabled
    Reduce the duplication and work effort to build and deploy technology solutions across the entire organization. Aim to reduce the number of redundant applications in the organization to streamline processes and save costs. Catalyst
    Improve the organization’s technology responsiveness and increase speed to market. Reduce the number of days required in the SDLC for all core business support projects. Value delivery

    An inspirational vision statement is greater than the sum of the individual words

    Ensure the sentence is cohesive and captures additional value outside of the keywords. The statement as a whole should be greater than the sum of the parts. Expand upon the meaning of the words, if necessary, to communicate the value. Below is an example of a finished vision statement.

    Sample

    Be a catalyst for IT-enabled business value delivery.

    Catalyst – We will continuously interact with the business and IT to accelerate and improve results.

    IT-enabled – We will ensure the optimal use of technology in enabling business capabilities to achieve business objectives.

    Business – We will be perceived as a business-focused unit that understands [Company name]’s business priorities and required business capabilities.

    Value delivery – EA’s value will be recognized by both business and IT stakeholders. We will track and market EA’s contribution to business value organization-wide.

    A clear mission statement can include additional details surrounding the EA team’s desired and expected value

    Likewise, below is a sample of connecting keywords together to form an EA mission statement:

    Optimize, transform, and innovate by defining and implementing the [Company]’s target enterprise architecture.

    Optimize – We collaborate with the business to analyze and optimize business capabilities and business processes to enable the agile and efficient attainment of [Company name] business objectives.

    Transform – We support IT-enabled business transformation programs by building and maintaining a shared vision of the future-state enterprise and consistently communicating it to stakeholders.

    Innovate – We identify and develop new and creative opportunities for IT to enable the business. We communicate the art of the possible to the business.

    Defining and implementing – We engage with project teams early and guide solution design and selection to ensure alignment to the target-state enterprise architecture.

    Target enterprise structure – We analyze business needs and priorities and assess the current state of the enterprise. We build and maintain the target enterprise architecture blueprints that define:

    • Business capabilities and processes (business architecture)
    • Data, application, and technology assets that enable business capabilities and processes (technology architecture)
    • Architecture principles and standards

    3.1.1 Create the EA vision statement

    1 hour

    Input: Identified promises of value, Vision statement test criteria

    Output: EA function vision statement

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Begin the creation of the EA vision statement by following the steps below:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team and have the promises of value from the EA value proposition laid out.
    2. Select one promise of value and work with the team to identify one word that captures the essence of that promise of value.
    3. Continue to the next promise of value until all of the promises of value have a keyword identified.
    4. Have the identified set of keywords laid out and see if any of their meanings are similar and can be consolidated together. Consolidate similar meaning keywords.
    5. Create the initial draft of the EA vision statement by linking the keywords together.
    6. Check the initial draft of the vision statement against the test criteria below. Ask the team if the vision statement satisfies each of the test criteria.
      • Do you find this vision exciting?
      • Is the vision clear, compelling, and easy to grasp?
      • Does this vision somehow connect to the core purpose?
      • Will this vision be exciting to a broad base of people in the organization, not just those within the EA team?
    7. Make changes to the initial draft to satisfy the test criteria. Socialize the EA vision statement with EA stakeholders to make sure it captures their needs.

    3.1.2 Create the EA mission statement

    1 hour

    Input: Identified promises of value, Mission statement test criteria

    Output: EA function mission statement

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Begin the creation of the EA mission statement by following the steps below:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team and have the promises of value from the EA value proposition laid out.
    2. Select one promise of value and work with the team to identify one word that captures the essence of that promise of value.
    3. Continue to the next promise of value until all of the promises of value have a keyword identified.
    4. Have the identified set of keywords laid out, and see if any of their meanings are similar and can be consolidated together. Consolidate similar meaning keywords.
    5. Create the initial draft of the EA mission statement by linking the keywords together.
    6. Check the initial draft of the mission statement against the following test criteria below. Ask the team if the mission statement satisfies each of the test criteria.
      • Do you find this purpose personally inspiring?
      • Does the purpose help you to decide what activities to not pursue, to eliminate from consideration? Is this purpose authentic – something true to what the organization is all about – not merely words on paper that sound nice?
      • Would this purpose be greeted with enthusiasm rather than cynicism by a broad base of people in the organization?
    7. Make changes to the initial draft to satisfy the test criteria. Socialize the EA mission statement with EA stakeholders to make sure it captures their needs.

    EA goals demonstrate the achievement of success of the EA function

    Enterprise architecture goals define specific desired outcomes of an EA function. EA goals are important because they establish the milestones the EA function can strive toward to deliver their promises of value.

    Inform EA goals by examining:

    Promises of value

    —›
    EA goals produce:

    Targets and milestones

    Promises of value

    Produce EA strategic outcomes that can be classified into four categories. The four categories are:

    • Business performance
    • IT performance
    • Customer value
    • Risk management
    EA goals

    Support the strategic outcomes. EA goals can be strategic or operational:

    • EA strategic goals support the strategic outcomes.
    • EA operational goals help measure the architecture capability quality and supporting processes.

    3.1.3 Create EA goals

    2 hours

    Input: Identified promises of value

    Output: EA goals

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Begin the creation of EA goals by following the steps below:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team and the identified promises of value from Phase 2, Create the EA Value Proposition.
    2. Open the EA Goals and Objectives Template and examine the list of default EA goals already within the template.
    3. Take the identified promises of value and discuss with the team if any of the EA goals in the template relate to the promises of value. Record the related EA goal and promise of value. See example below:
      • Promises of value example: Increase the number of investments that have a direct tie to corporate strategy.
      • Related EA goal example: Alignment of IT and business strategy.
    4. Repeat step 3 until all identified promises of value have been examined in relation to the EA goals in the template.
    5. If there are promises of value that are not related to an EA goal in the template, create EA goals to relate to those promises of value. Keep in mind that EA goals need to support the strategic outcomes produced by the promises of value. Record the EA goals in the template and document the related promises of value.

    Download the EA Goals and Objectives Template to assist with completing this activity.

    Starting with COBIT, select the appropriate objectives to track EA goals – Sample

    Below are examples of EA goals and the objectives that track their performance:

    IT performance-oriented goals Objectives
    Alignment of IT and business strategy
    • Increase the percentage of enterprise strategic goals and requirements supported by IT strategic goals by X percent in the fiscal year.
    • Improve stakeholder satisfaction with planned function and services portfolio scope by X percent in the fiscal year.
    • Increase the percentage of IT value drivers mapped to business value drivers by X percent in the next fiscal year.
    Increase in IT agility
    • Improve business executive satisfaction with IT’s responsiveness to new requirements by X percent in the fiscal year.
    • Increase the number of critical business processes supported by up-to-date infrastructure and applications in the next three years.
    • Lower the average time to turn strategic IT objectives into agreed-upon and approved initiatives.
    Optimization of IT assets, resources, and capabilities
    • Increase the frequency of capability maturity and cost optimization assessments.
    • Improve the frequency of reporting for assessment result trends.
    • Raise the satisfaction levels of business and IT executives with IT-related costs and capabilities by X percent.

    3.1.4 Define EA objectives and link them to EA goals

    2 hours

    Input: Defined EA goals

    Output: EA objectives linked to EA goals

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Begin the process of defining EA objectives and linking them to EA goals using the following steps:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team and open the EA Goals and Objectives Template.
    2. Have the goals laid out, and refer to the objectives already in the EA Goals and Objectives Template. Examine if any of them will fit the goals your team has created.
    3. If some of the goals your team has created do not fit with the objectives in the template, begin the process of creating new objectives. Remember, EA objectives are SMART metrics that help track the progress toward the EA goals.
    4. Create an EA objective and check if it is SMART by asking some of the questions below:
      • Specific: Is the objective specific to the goal? Is the objective clear to anyone who has basic knowledge of the goal?
      • Measurable: Is it possible to figure out how far the team would be away from completing the objective?
      • Agreed Upon: Does everyone involved agree the objective is the correct way to measure progress?
      • Realistic: Can the objective be met within the availability of resources, knowledge, and time?
      • Time Based: Is there a time-bound component to the goal?
    5. Continue to create new objectives until each goal has an objective linked to it.

    Download the EA Goals and Objectives Template to assist with completing this activity.

    For each of the objectives, determine how they will be collected, reported, and implemented

    Add details to the enterprise architecture objectives previously defined to increase their clarity to stakeholders.

    EA objective detail category Description
    Unit of measure
    • The unit in which the objective will be presented.
    Calculation formula
    • The formula by which the objective will be calculated.
    Objective baseline, status, and target
    • Baseline: The state of the objective at the start of measurement.
    • Status: The current state of the measurement.
    • Target: The target state the measurement should reach.
    Data collection
    • Responsible: The individual responsible for collecting the data.
    • Source: Where the data originates.
    • Frequency: How often the data will be collected to calculate the objective.
    Reporting
    • Target Audience: The people the objective will be presented to.
    • Method: The method used to present the data collected on the objective (e.g. report, presentation).
    • Frequency: How often the data will be presented to the target audience.

    3.1.5 Record the details of each EA objective

    2 hours

    Input: Defined list of EA objectives

    Output: Increased detail into each defined EA objective

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Record the details of each EA objective. Use the following steps below to assist with recording the details:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team, and open the EA Goals and Objectives Template.
    2. Select one objective that has been identified and discuss the formula for calculating the objective and in what units the objective will be recorded. Record the information in the “Calculation formula” and “Unit of measure” columns in the template once they have been agreed upon.
    3. Using the same objective, move to the “Data Collection” portion of the template. Discuss and record the following: the source of the data that generates the objective, the frequency of reporting on the objective, and the person responsible for reporting the objective.
    4. Move to the “Reporting” portion of the template. Discuss and record the target audience for the objective and the reporting frequency and method to those audiences.
    5. Examine the “Objective baseline,” “Objective status,” and “Objective target” columns. Record any measurement you may currently have in the “Objective baseline” column. Record what you would like the objective measurement to be in the “Objective target” column. Note: Keep track of the progression towards the target in the “Objective status” column in the future.
    6. Select the next objective and complete steps 2–5 for that measure. Continue this process until you have recorded details for all objectives.

    Download the EA Goals and Objectives Template to assist with completing this activity.

    Step 3.2

    Finalize the EA Fundamentals

    Activities
    • 3.2.1 Define the organizational coverage dimension of the EA function scope
    • 3.2.2 Define the architectural domains and depth dimension
    • 3.2.3 Define the time horizon dimension
    • 3.2.4 Create a set of EA principles for your organization
    • 3.2.5 Add the rationale and implications to the principles
    • 3.2.6 Operationalize the EA principles
    • 3.2.7 Discuss the need for classical methodology and/or a combination including Agile practices

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Define the EA function scope dimensions.
    • Create a set of EA principles.
    • Discuss the organization’s current methodology, if any, and whether it works for the business.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • EA Team
    • IT Leaders
    • Business Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Defined scope of the EA function.
    • A set of EA principles for your organization.
    • A decision on traditional vs. Agile methodology or a blend of both.

    Build the EA Fundamentals

    Step 3.1 Step 3.2

    A clear EA function scope defines the EA sandbox

    The EA function scope constrains the promises of value the EA function will deliver on by taking into account factors across four dimensions. The EA function scope ensures that the EA function is not stretched beyond its current/planned means and capabilities when delivering the promised value. The four dimensions are illustrated below:

    Organizational coverage
    Determine the focus of the enterprise architecture effort in terms of specific business units, functions, departments, capabilities, or geographical areas.
    Depth
    Determine the appropriate level of detail to be captured, based on the intended use of the enterprise architecture and the contingent decisions to be made.

    EA Scope

    Architectural Domains
    Determine the EA domains (business, data, application, infrastructure, security) that are appropriate to address stakeholder concerns and architecture requirements.
    Time horizon
    Determine the target-state architecture’s objective time period.

    The EA function scope is influenced by the EA value proposition and previously developed EA fundamentals

    Establish the EA function scope by using the EA value proposition and EA fundamentals that have been developed. After defining the EA function scope, refer back to these statements to ensure the EA function scope accurately reflects the EA value proposition and EA fundamentals.

    EA value proposition

    +

    EA vision statement
    EA mission statement
    EA goals and objectives

    —›
    Influences

    Organizational coverage

    Architectural domains

    Depth

    Time horizon

    —›
    Defines
    EA function scope

    EA scope – Organizational Coverage

    The organizational coverage dimension of EA scope determines the focus of enterprise architecture effort in the organization. Coverage can be determined by specific business units, functions, departments, capabilities, or geographic areas. Info-Tech has typically seen two types of coverage based on the size of the organization.

    Small and medium-size enterprise

    Indicators: Full-time employees dedicated to manage its data and IT infrastructure. Individuals are IT generalists and may have multiple roles.

    Recommended coverage: Typically, for small and medium-size businesses, the organizational coverage of architecture work is the entire enterprise. (Source: The Open Group, 2018)

    Large enterprise

    Indicators: Dedicated full-time IT staff with expertise to manage specific applications or parts of the IT infrastructure.

    Recommended coverage: For large enterprises, it is often necessary to develop a number of architectures focused on specific business segments and/or geographies. In this federated model, an overarching enterprise architecture should be established to ensure interoperability and conformance to overarching EA principles. (Source: DCIG, 2011)

    EA objectives track the progression towards the target set by EA goals

    Enterprise architecture objectives are specific metrics that help measure and monitor progress towards achieving an EA goal. Objectives are SMART.

    EA goals —› EA objectives
    • EA strategic goals:
      • Business performance
      • IT performance
      • Customer value
      • Risk management
    • EA operational goals
    • Specific
    • Measurable
    • Agreed upon
    • Realistic
    • Time bound
    (Source: Project Smart, 2014)

    Download the EA Goals and Objectives Template to see examples between the relationship of EA goals to objectives.

    Measure the EA strategy effectiveness by tracking the benefits it provides to the corporate business goals

    The success of the EA function is influenced by the following:

    • The delivery of EA-enabled business outcomes that are most important to the enterprise.
    • The alignment between the business and IT from a planning perspective.
    • Improvements in the corporate business goals due to EA contributions (standardization, rationalization, reuse, etc.).
    Corporate Business Goals Measurements
    • Reduction in operating costs
    • Decrease in regulatory compliance infractions
    • Increased revenue from existing channels
    • Increased revenue from new channels
    • Faster time to business value
    • Improved business agility
    • Reduction in enterprise risk exposure
    • Cost reductions based on application and platform rationalization
    • Standard-based solutions
    • Time reduction for integration
    • Service reused
    • Stakeholder satisfaction with EA services
    • Increase customer satisfaction
    • Rework minimized
    • Lower cost of integration
    • Risk reduction
    • Faster time to market
    • Better scalability, etc.

    3.2.1 Define the organizational coverage dimension of the EA function scope

    2 hours

    Input: EA value proposition, Previously defined EA fundamentals

    Output: Organizational coverage dimension of EA scope defined

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Define the organizational coverage of the EA function scope using the following steps below:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team. As well, gather the EA value proposition, the EA vision and mission statements, and the EA goals and objectives your team has already created.
    2. Ask the team to read each of the documents gathered in the previous step. This ensures the concepts are fresh in the team members’ minds when defining the EA function scope organizational coverage.
    3. Consider how much of the organization the EA function would need to cover. Refer to the gathered materials to assist with your decision. For example:
      • EA mission statement: Optimize, transform, and innovate by defining and implementing the [Company]’s target enterprise architecture.
      • Implications on organizational coverage: If the purpose of the EA function is to help optimize, transform, and innovate with target-state architecture mapping, then the scope should cover the entire organization. Only by mapping the entire organization’s architecture can the EA function assist with optimizing, transforming, and innovating.
    4. Work with the EA strategy creation team to examine all the gathered materials and document the implications on organization coverage as shown in step 3.
    5. Discuss with the team and select the organizational coverage level that best fits the documented implications for all the gathered materials. Refer back to the gathered materials and make any changes necessary to ensure they support the selected organizational coverage.

    EA scope – Architectural Domains

    A complete enterprise architecture should address all five architectural domains. The five architectural domains are business, data, application, infrastructure, and security.

    Enterprise Architecture
    —› Data Architecture
    Business Architecture —› Infrastructure Architecture
    Security Architecture
    —› Application Architecture

    “The realities of resource and time constraints often mean there is not enough time, funding, or resources to build a top-down, all-inclusive architecture encompassing all four architecture domains. Build architecture domains with a specific purpose in mind.” (The Open Group, 2018)

    Each architectural domain creates a different view of the organization

    Below are the definitions of different domains of enterprise architecture (Info-Tech perspective; others can be identified as well, e.g. Integration Architecture).

    Business Architecture

    Business architecture is a means of demonstrating the business value of subsequent architecture work to key stakeholders and the return on investment to those stakeholders from supporting and participating in the subsequent work. Business architecture defines the business strategy, governance, organization, and key business processes.

    Data Architecture

    Describes the structure of an organization’s logical and physical data assets and data management resources.

    Application Architecture

    Provides a blueprint for the individual applications to be deployed, their interactions, and their relationships to the core business processes of the organization.

    Infrastructure Architecture

    Represents the sum of hardware, software, and telecommunications-related IT capability associated with a particular enterprise. It is concerned with the synergistic operations and management of the devices in the organization.

    Security Architecture

    Provides an unified security design that addresses the necessities and potential risks involved in a certain scenario or environment. It also specifies when and where to apply security controls.
    (Sources: The Open Group, 2018; IT Architecture Journal, 2014; Technopedia, 2016)

    EA scope – Depth

    EA scope depth defines the architectural detail for each EA domain that the organization has selected to pursue. The level of depth is broken down into four levels. The level of depth the organization decides to pursue should be consistent across the domains.

    Contextual
    • Helps define the organization scope, and examines external and internal requirements and their effect on the organization. For example, enterprise governance.
    Conceptual
    • High-level representations of the organization or what the organization wants to be. For example, business strategy, IT strategy.
    Logical
    • Models that define how to implement the representation in the conceptual stage. For example, identifying the business gaps from the current state to the target state defined by the business strategy.
    Physical
    • The technology and physical tools used to implement the representation created in the logical stage. For example, business processes that need to be created to bridge the gaps identified and reach the target stage.
    (Source: Zachman International, 2011) Business Architecture Data Architecture Application Architecture Infrastructure Architecture Security Architecture

    Each architectural depth level contains a set of key artifacts

    The graphic below depicts examples of the key artifacts that each domain of architecture would produce at each depth level.

    Contextual Enterprise Governance
    Conceptual Business strategy Business objects Use-case models Technology landscaping Security policy
    Logical Business capabilities Data attribution Application integration Network/ hardware topology Security standards
    Physical Business process Database design Application design Configuration management Security configuration
    Business Architecture Data Architecture Application Architecture Infrastructure Architecture Security Architecture

    3.2.2 Define the architectural domains and depth dimension of the EA function scope

    2 hours

    Input: EA value proposition, Previously defined EA fundamentals

    Output: Architectural domain and depth dimensions of EA scope defined

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Define the EA function scope for your organization using the following steps below:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team. As well, gather the EA value proposition, the EA vision and mission statements, and the EA goals and objectives that your team has already created.
    2. Ask the team to read each of the documents gathered in the previous step. This ensures the concepts are fresh in the team members’ minds when defining the architectural domains and depth of the EA function scope.
    3. Consider the architectural domains and the depth those domains need to reach. Refer to the gathered materials to assist with your decision. For example:
      • Promise of value: Increase the number of IT investments with a direct tie to business strategy.
      • Implications on architectural domains: The EA function will need business architecture. Business architecture generates business capability mapping, which will anticipate what IT investments are needed for the future.
      • Implications on depth: Depth for business architecture needs to reach a logical level to encompass business capabilities.
    4. Work with the EA strategy creation team to examine all the gathered materials and document the implications on architectural domains and depth as shown in step 3.
    5. Discuss with the team and select the architectural domains and the depth for each domain that best fits the documented implication. Refer back to the gathered materials and make any changes necessary to ensure they support the selected architectural domains and depth.

    EA scope – Time Horizon

    The EA scope time horizon dictates how long to plan for the architecture.

    It is important that the EA team’s work has an appropriate planning horizon while avoiding two extremes:

    1. A planning horizon that is too short focuses on immediate operational goals and strategic quick wins, missing the “big picture,” and fails to support the achievement of strategic long-term enterprise goals.
    2. A planning horizon that is too long is at a higher risk of becoming irrelevant.

    Target the same strategic planning horizon as your business. Additionally, consider the following recommendations:

    Planning Horizon: 1 year 2-3 years 5 years
    Recommended under the following conditions:
    • Corporate strategy is not stable and frequently changes direction (typical for small and some mid-sized companies).
    • There will be a major update of the corporate strategy in one year.
    • The company will be acquired by or merged with another company in one year.
    • The business' strategic plan spans the next two to three years, and corporate strategy is moderately stable within this time frame (typical for mid-sized and some large companies).
    • The business' strategic plan spans the next five years and corporate strategy is very stable (typical for large companies).

    3.2.3 Define the time horizon dimension of the EA function scope

    2 hours

    Input: EA value proposition, Previously defined EA fundamentals

    Output: Time horizon dimension of EA scope defined

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Define the EA function scope for your organization using the following steps below:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team. As well, gather the EA value proposition, the EA vision and mission statements, and the EA goals and objectives your team has already created.
    2. Ask the team to read each of the documents gathered in the previous step. This ensures the concepts are fresh in the team members’ minds when crafting the EA function scope.
    3. Consider the time horizons of the EA function scope. Refer to the gathered materials to assist with your decision. For example:
      • EA Objective: Increase the percentage of enterprise strategic goals and requirements supported by IT strategic goals by 30% in the next 3 years.
      • Implications on time horizon: Because it will take 3 years to measure the success of these EA objectives, the time horizon may need to be 3 years.
    4. Work with the EA strategy creation team to examine all the gathered materials and document the implications on time horizon as shown in step 3.
    5. Discuss with the team and select the time horizon that best fits the documented implication. Refer back to the gathered materials and make any changes necessary to ensure they support the selected architectural time horizon.

    EA principles capture the EA value proposition essence and provide guidance for the decisions that impact architecture

    EA principles are shared, long-lasting beliefs that guide the use of IT in constructing, transforming, and operating the enterprise by informing and restricting target-state enterprise architecture design, IT investment portfolio management, solution development, and procurement decisions.

    EA value proposition Influences
    —›
    EA Principles Guide and inform
    —›
    Decisions on the Use of IT Direct and control
    ‹—
    Specific Domain Policies
    ‹———————

    What decisions should be made?
    ————— ————— —————
    How should decisions be made?
    ————— ————— —————————›
    Who has the accountability and authority to make decisions?

    EA principles must be carefully constructed to make sure they are adhered to and relevant

    Info-Tech has identified a set of characteristics that EA principles should possess. Having these characteristics ensures the EA principles are relevant and followed in the organization.

    Approach focused EA principles are focused on the approach, i.e. how the enterprise is built, transformed, and operated, as apposed to what needs to be built, which is defined by both functional and non-functional requirements.
    Business relevant Create EA principles specific to the organization. Tie EA principles to the organization’s priorities and strategic aspirations.
    Long lasting Build EA principles that will withstand the test of time.
    Prescriptive Inform and direct decision making with EA principles that are actionable. Avoid truisms, general statements, and observations.
    Verifiable If compliance can’t be verified, the principle is less likely to be followed.
    Easily digestible EA principles must be clearly understood by everyone in IT and by business stakeholders. EA principles aren’t a secret manuscript of the EA team. EA principles should be succinct; wordy principles are hard to understand and remember.
    Followed Successful EA principles represent a collection of beliefs shared among enterprise stakeholders. EA principles must be continuously “preached” to all stakeholders to achieve and maintain buy-in.

    In organizations where formal policy enforcement works well, EA principles should be enforced through appropriate governance processes.

    Review ten universal EA principles to determine if your organization wishes to adopt them

    1. Enterprise value focus We aim to provide maximum long-term benefits to the enterprise as a whole while optimizing total costs of ownership and risks.
    2. Fit for purpose We maintain capability levels and create solutions that are fit for purpose without over-engineering them.
    3. Simplicity We choose the simplest solutions and aim to reduce operational complexity of the enterprise.
    4. Reuse › buy › build We maximize reuse of existing assets. If we can’t reuse, we procure externally. As a last resort, we build custom solutions.
    5. Managed data We handle data creation, modification, and use enterprise-wide in compliance with our data governance policy.
    6. Controlled technical diversity We control the variety of technology platforms we use.
    7. Managed security We manage security enterprise-wide in compliance with our security governance policy.
    8. Compliance to laws and regulations We operate in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
    9. Innovation We seek innovative ways to use technology for business advantage.
    10. Customer centricity We deliver best experiences to our customers with our services and products.

    3.2.4 Create a set of EA principles for your organization

    2 hours

    Input: Info-Tech’s ten universal EA principles, Identified promises of value

    Output: A defined set of EA principles for your organization

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Create a set of EA principles for your organization using the steps below:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team, download the EA Principles Template – EA Strategy, and have the identified promises of value opened.
    2. Select one universal principle and relate it to the promises of value by discussing with the EA strategy creation team. If there is a relation, record “Yes” in the template on the slide “Select the applicability of 10 universally accepted EA principles.” See example below:
      • Universal principle: Enterprise value focus – We aim to provide maximum long-term benefits to the enterprise as a whole while optimizing total costs of ownership and risks.
      • Related promise of value example: Increase the number of investments that have a direct tie with corporate strategy.
    3. Continue the process in step 2 until all ten universal EA principles have been examined. If there is a universal principle that is unrelated to a promise of value, discuss with the team whether the principle still needs to be included. If the principle is not included, record “No” in the template on the slide “Select the applicability of 10 universally accepted EA principles.”
    4. If there are any promises of value that are not captured by the universally accepted EA principles, the team may choose to create new principles. Create the new principles in the format below and record them in the template.
      • Name: The name of the principle, in a few words.
      • Statement: A sentence that expands on the “Name” section and explains what the principle achieves.

    Download the EA Principles Template – EA Strategy to document this step.

    Organizational stakeholders are more likely to follow EA principles when a rationale and an implication are provided

    After defining the set of EA principles, ensure they are all expanded upon with a rationale and implications. The rationale and implications ensure principles are more likely to be followed because they communicate why the principles are important and how they are to be used.

    Name
    • The name of the EA principle, in a few words.
    Statement
    • A sentence that expands on the “Name” section and explains what the principle achieves.
    Rationale
    • Describes the business benefits and reasoning for establishing the principle.
    • Explicitly links the principle to business/IT vision, mission, priorities, goals, or strategic aspirations (strategic themes).
    Implications
    • Describe when and how the principle is to be applied.
    • Communicate this section with “must” sentences.
    • Refer to domain-specific policies that provide detailed, domain-specific direction on how to apply the principle.

    3.2.5 Add the rationale and implications to the principles that have been created

    2 hours

    Input: Identified set of EA principles

    Output: EA principles that have rationale and implications

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Add the rationale and implication of each EA principle that your organization has selected using the following steps:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team and open the EA Principles Template – EA Strategy.
    2. Examine the EA Principles Template – EA Strategy. Look for the detailed descriptions of all the applicable EA universal principles, and discuss with the team whether the pre-populated rationale and implications need to be changed.
    3. Make sure all the rationale and implication sections of the applicable universal EA principles have been examined. Record the changes on the slide devoted to each principle in the template.
    4. Examine any new principles created outside of the universal EA principles. Create the rationale and implication sections for each of those principles. Use the slide “Review the rationale and implications for the applicable universal principles” in the EA Principles Template – EA Strategy to assist with this step.

    Download the EA Principles Template – EA Strategy to document this step.

    3.2.6 Operationalize the EA principles to ensure they are used when decisions are being made

    1-2 hours

    Input: Defined set of EA principles

    Output: EA principles are successfully operationalized

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Begin to operationalize the EA principles by reviewing the proposed principles with business and technology leadership to secure their approval.

    1. Publish the list of principles, their rationale, and their implications.
    2. Include the principles in any existing policies that guide decision making for the use of technology within the business.
    3. Provide existing governance bodies with the authority to enforce adherence to principles, and communicate the waiver process.
    4. Ensure that project-level teams are aware of the principles and have at least one champion guiding the decisions of the team.

    Review a use case for the utilization of EA principles – Sample

    After operationalizing the EA principles for your organization, the organization can now use those principles to guide and inform its IT investment decisions. Below is an example of a scenario where EA principles were used to guide and inform an IT investment decision.

    Organization wants to provision an application but it needs to decide how to do so, and it considers the relevant EA principles:

    • Reuse › buy › build
    • Managed security
    • Innovation

    The organization has decided to go with a specialized vendor, even though it normally prefers to reuse existing components. The vendor has experience in this domain, understands the data security implications, and can help the organization mitigate risk. Lastly, the vendor is known for providing new solutions on a regular basis and is a market leader, making it more likely to provide the organization with innovative solutions.

    An oil and gas company created EA fundamentals to guide the EA function

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Oil & Gas
    Source: Info-Tech

    Challenge

    As an enterprise architecture function starting from ground zero, the organization did not have the EA fundamentals in place to guide the EA function. Further, the organization also did not possess an EA function scope to define the boundaries of the EA function.

    Due to the lack of EA scope, the EA function did not know which part of the organization to provide contributions toward. A lack of EA fundamentals caused confusion regarding the future direction of the EA function.

    Solution

    Info-Tech worked with the EA team to define the different components of the EA fundamentals. This included EA vision and mission statements, EA goals and objectives, and EA principles.

    Additionally, Info-Tech worked with the EA team to define the EA function scope.

    These EA strategy components were created by examining the needs of the business. The components were aligned with the identified needs of the EA stakeholders.

    Results

    The defined EA function scope helped set out the responsibilities of the enterprise architecture function to the organization.

    The EA vision and mission statements and EA goals and objectives were used to guide the direction of the EA function. These fundamentals helped the EA function improve its maturity and deliver on its promises.

    The EA principles were used in IT review boards to guide the decisions on IT investments in the organization.

    3.2.7 Discuss the need for a classical methodology and/or a combination including Agility practices

    1 hour

    Input: Existing methodologies

    Output: Decisions about need of agility, ceremonies, and protocols to be used

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Add the rationale and implication of adopting an Agile methodology and/or a combination with a traditional methodology.

    1. Is there an EA methodology adopted by the organization? Is there a classical one, or is it purely Agile?
    2. What would need to happen to address the business goals of the organization (e.g. is there a need to be more agile?)? Do you need to have more decisions centralized (e.g. to adopt certain standards, security controls)?
    3. Where on the decentralization continuum does your organization need to be?
    4. What role would Enterprise Architects have (would they need to be part of existing ceremonies? Would they need to blend traditional and agile processes?)?
    5. If a customized methodology is required, identify this as an item to be included as part of the EA roadmap (can be run as a Agile Enterprise Operating Model workshop).

    Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy

    Phase 4

    Design the EA Services

    Phase 1

    • 1.1 Explore a general EA strategy approach
    • 1.2 Introduce Agile EA architecture

    Phase 2

    • 2.1 Define the business and technology drivers
    • 2.2 Define your value proposition

    Phase 3

    • 3.1 Realize the importance of EA fundamentals
    • 3.2 Finalize the EA fundamentals

    Phase 4

    • 4.1 Select relevant EA services
    • 4.2 Finalize the set of services and secure approval

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Select relevant EA services
    • Finalize the set of services and secure approval

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • EA Team
    • IT Leaders
    • Business Leaders

    Step 4.1

    Select Relevant EA Services

    Activities
    • 4.1.1 Select the EA services relevant to your organization
    • 4.1.2 Identify if your organization needs additional services outside of the recommended list
    • 4.1.3 Complete all of the service catalog fields for each service to show the organization how each can be consumed

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Communicate a definition of EA services.
    • Link services to the previously identified EA contributions.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • EA Team
    • IT Leaders
    • Business Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • A defined set of services the EA function will provide.
    • An EA service catalog that demonstrates to the organization how each provided service can be accessed and consumed.

    Design the EA Services

    Step 3.1 Step 3.2

    The definition of EA services will allow the group to communicate how they can add value to EA stakeholders

    Enterprise architecture services are a set of activities the enterprise architecture function provides for the organization. EA services are important because the services themselves provide a set of benefits for the organization.

    Enterprise Architecture Services

    • A means of delivering value to the business by facilitating outcomes service consumers want to achieve.
    • EA services are defined from the business perspective using business language.
    • EA services are designed to enable required business activities.

    Viewing the EA function from a service perspective resolves the following pains:

    • Business users don’t know how EA can assist them.
    • Business users don’t know how to request access to a service with multiple sources of information available.
    • EA has no way of managing expectations for their users, which tend to inflate.
    • EA does not have a holistic view of all the services they need to provide.

    Link EA services to the previously identified EA contributions

    Previously identified EA contributions can be linked to EA services, which helps the EA function identify a set of EA services that are important to business stakeholders. Further, linking the EA contributions to EA services can define for the EA function the services they need to provide.

    Demonstrate EA service value by linking them to EA contributions

    1. EA stakeholders generate drivers
    2. Drivers have pains that obstruct them
    3. Pains are alleviated by EA contributions
    4. EA contributions help define the EA services needed

      • EA Contributions
        Example EA contribution: Business capability mapping shows the business capabilities of the organization and the technology that supports those capabilities in the current and target state. This provides a view for the set of investments that are needed by the organization, which can then be prioritized.

        • EA Services
          Example EA service: Target-state business capability mapping

    4.1.1 Select the EA services relevant to your organization

    2 hours

    Input: Previously identified EA contributions from the EA value proposition

    Output: A set of EA services selected for the organization from Info-Tech’s defined set of EA services

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Begin the selection of EA services relevant to your organization by following the steps below:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team, and the list of identified EA contributions that the team formulated during Phase 2.
    2. Open the EA Service Planning Tool, select one sub-service, and read its definition.
    3. Based on the definition of the sub-service, refer back to the identified list of EA contributions and check if there is an identified EA contribution that matches the service.
      • If the EA service definitions matches one of the identified EA contributions, then that EA service is relevant to the organization. If there is no match, then the EA service may not be relevant to the organization.
    4. Highlight the sub-service if it is relevant. Add a checkmark beside the EA contribution if it is addressed by a sub-service.
    5. Select the next sub-service and repeat steps 2-4. Continue down the list of sub-services in the EA Service Planning Tool until all sub-services have been examined.

    Download the EA Service Planning Tool to assist with this activity.

    4.1.2 Identify if your organization needs additional services outside of the recommended list

    2 hours

    Input: Expertise from the EA strategy creation team, Previously defined EA contributions

    Output: A defined set of EA services outside the list Info-Tech has recommended

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Identify if services outside of the recommended list in the EA Service Planning Tool are relevant to your organization by using the steps below:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team and the list of EA contributions with checkmarks for contributions addressed by EA services.
    2. Take the list of unaddressed EA contributions and select one EA contribution in the list. Assess whether an EA service is required to address the EA contribution. Ask the group the following:
      • Can the EA practice provide the service now?
      • Does providing this EA service line up with the previously defined EA function scope and EA fundamentals?
    3. Decide if a service needs to be provided for that contribution. If yes, give the service a name and a definition.
    4. Then, decide if the service fits into one of the service categories in the EA Service Planning Tool. If there is no fit, create another service category. Define the new service category as well.
    5. Continue to the next unaddressed EA contribution and repeat steps 2-4. Repeat this process until all unaddressed EA contributions have been assessed.

    Download the EA Service Planning Tool to assist with this activity.

    Create the EA service catalog to demonstrate to the organization how each service can be accessed and used

    The EA service catalog is an important communicator to the business. It shifts the technology-oriented view of EA to services that show direct benefit to the business. It is a tool that communicates and provides clarity to the business about the EA services that are available and how those services can assist them.

    Define the services to show value Define the service catalog to show how to use those services
    Already defined
    • EA service categories
    • The services needed by the EA stakeholders in each EA service category
    Need to define
    • Should EA deliver this service?
    • Service triggers
    • Service provider
    • Service requestor

    Info-Tech Insight

    The EA group must provide the organization with a list of services it will provide to demonstrate value. This will help the team manage expectations and the workload while giving organizational stakeholders a clear understanding of how to engage EA and what lies outside of EA’s involvement.

    4.1.3 Complete all the service catalog fields for each service to show the organization how each can be consumed

    4 hours

    Input: Expertise from the EA strategy creation team

    Output: Service details for each EA service in your organization

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Complete the details for each relevant EA service in the EA Service Planning Tool by using the following steps:

    1. Gather the EA strategy creation team, and open the EA Service Planning Tool.
    2. Select one of the services you have defined as relevant and begin the process of defining the service. Define the following fields:
      • Should EA deliver this service? Should the EA team provide this service? (Yes/No)
      • Service trigger: What trigger will signal the need for the service?
      • Service provider: Who in the EA team will provide the service?
      • Service requestor: Who outside of the EA team has requested this service?
    3. Have the EA strategy creation team discuss and define each of the fields for the service above. Record the decisions in the corresponding columns of the EA Service Planning Tool.
    4. Select the next required EA service, and repeat steps 2 and 3. Repeat the process until all required EA services have their details defined.

    Download the EA Service Planning Tool to assist with this activity.

    Step 4.2

    Finalize the Set of Services and Secure Approval

    Activities
    • 4.2.1 Secure approval for your organization’s EA strategy
    • 4.2.2 Map the EA contributions to business goals
    • 4.2.3 Quantify the EA effectiveness
    • 4.2.4 Determine the role of the architect in the Agile ceremonies of the organization

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Present the EA strategy to stakeholders.
    • Determine service details for each EA service in your organization.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • EA Team
    • IT Leaders
    • Business Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Secured approval for your organization’s EA strategy.
    • Measure effectiveness of EA contributions.

    Design the EA Services

    Step 4.1 Step 4.2

    Present the EA strategy to stakeholders to secure approval of the finalized EA strategy

    For the EA strategy to be successfully executed, it must be approved by the EA stakeholders. Securing their approval will increase the likelihood of success in the execution of the EA operating model.

    Outputs that make up the EA strategy —› Present outputs to EA strategy stakeholders
    • Business and technology drivers
    • EA function value proposition

    • EA vision statement
    • EA mission statement
    • EA goals and objectives
    • EA scope
    • EA principles

    • EA function services
    • Identified and prioritized EA stakeholders.








    • The checkmark symbol represents the outputs this blueprint assists with creating.

    4.2.1 Secure approval of your organization’s EA strategy

    1 hour

    Input: Completed EA Function Strategy Template, Expertise from EA strategy creation team

    Output: Approval of the EA strategy

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team, Key EA stakeholders

    Use the following steps to assist with securing approval for your organization’s EA strategy:

    1. Call a meeting between the EA strategy creation team and the identified key EA stakeholders. Key stakeholders were defined in activity 2.1.1.
    2. Open the completed EA Function Strategy Template. Use it to help you discuss the merits of the EA strategy with the key stakeholders.
    3. Discuss with the stakeholders any concerns and modifications they wish to make to the strategy. If detailed questions are asked, refer to the other templates created as a part of this blueprint. Record those concerns and address them at a later time.
    4. After presenting the EA strategy, ask the stakeholders for approval. If stakeholders do not approve, refer back to the concerns documented in step 3 and inquire if addressing the concerns will result in approval.
    5. If applicable, address stakeholder concerns with the EA strategy.
    6. Once EA strategy has been approved, publish the EA strategy to ensure there is a mutual understanding of what the EA function will provide to the organization. Move on to Info-Tech’s Define an EA Operating Model blueprint to begin executing upon the EA strategy.

    Use the EA Function Strategy Template to assist with this activity.

    4.2.2 Map the EA contributions to the business goals

    3 hours

    Input: Expertise from EA strategy creation team

    Output: Service details for each EA service in your organization

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Map EA contributions/services to the goals of the organization.

    1. Start from the business goals of the organization.
    2. Determine Business and IT drivers.
    3. Identify EA contributions that help achieve the business goals.

    Download the EA Service Planning Tool to assist with this activity.

    Trace EA drivers to business goals (sample)

    A model connecting 'Enterprise Architecture' with 'Corporate Goals' through 'EA Contributions'.

    4.2.3 Quantify the EA effectiveness

    1 hour

    Input: Expertise from EA strategy creation team

    Output: Defined KPIs (SMART)

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Use SMART key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure EA contributions vis-à-vis business goals.

    Measure the EA strategy effectiveness by tracking the benefits it provides to the corporate business goals

    The success of the EA function spans across three main dimensions:

    • The delivery of EA-enabled business outcomes that are most important to the enterprise.
    • The alignment between the business and IT from a planning perspective.
    • Improvements in the corporate business goals due to EA contributions (standardization, rationalization, reuse, etc.).
    Corporate Business GoalsEA ContributionsMeasurements
    • Reduction in operating costs
    • Decrease in regulatory compliance infractions
    • Increased revenue from existing channels
    • Increased revenue from new channels
    • Faster time to business value
    • Improved business agility
    • Reduction in enterprise risk exposure
    • Alignment of IT investments to business strategy
    • Achievement of business results directly linked to IT involvement
    • Application and platform rationalization
    • Standards in place
    • Flexible architecture
    • Better integration
    • Higher organizational satisfaction with technology-enabled services and solutions
    • Cost reductions based on application and platform rationalization
    • Standard based solutions
    • Time reduction for integration
    • Service reused
    • Stakeholder satisfaction with EA services
    • Increase customer satisfaction
    • Rework minimized
    • Lower cost of integration
    • Risk reduction
    • Faster time to market
    • Better scalability, etc.

    The oil and gas company began the EA strategy creation by crafting an EA value proposition

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Oil & Gas
    Source: Info-Tech

    Challenge

    The oil and gas corporation faced a great challenge in communicating the role of enterprise architecture to the organization. Although it has the mandate from the CIO to create the EA function, there was no function in existence. Thus, few people in the organization understood EA.

    Because of this lack of understanding, the EA function was often undermined. The EA function was seen as an order taker that provided some services to the organization.

    Solution

    First, Info-Tech worked with the enterprise architecture team to define the EA stakeholders in the organization.

    Second, Info-Tech interviewed those stakeholders to identify their needs. The needs were analyzed and pains that would obstruct addressing those needs were identified.

    Lastly, Info-Tech worked with the team to identify common EA contributions that would solve those pains.

    Results

    Through this process, Info-Tech helped the team at the oil and gas company create a document that could communicate the value of EA. Specifically, the document could articulate the issues obstructing each stakeholder from achieving their needs and how enterprise architecture could solve them.

    With this value proposition, EA was able to demonstrate value to important stakeholders and set itself up for success in its future endeavors.

    The oil and gas company defined EA services to provide and communicate value to the organization

    CASE STUDY

    Industry: Oil & Gas
    Source: Info-Tech

    Challenge

    As a brand new enterprise architecture function, the EA function at the oil and gas corporation did not have a set of defined EA services. Because of this lack of EA services, the organization did not know what contributions EA could provide.

    Further, without the definition of EA services, the EA function did not set out explicit expectations to the business. This caused expectations from the business to be different from those of the EA function, resulting in friction.

    Solution

    Info-Tech worked with the EA function at the oil and gas corporation to define a set of EA services the function could provide.

    The Info-Tech team, along with the organization, assessed the business and technology needs of the stakeholder. Those needs acted as the basis for the EA function to create their initial services.

    Additionally, Info-Tech worked with the team to define the service details (e.g. service benefits, service requestor, service provider) to communicate how to provide services to the business.

    Results

    The defined EA services led the EA function to communicate what it could provide for the business. As well, the defined services clarified the level of expectation for the business.

    The EA team was able to successfully service the business on future projects, adding value through their expertise and knowledge of the organization’s systems. Because of the demonstrated value, EA has been given greater responsibility throughout the organization.

    4.2.4 Determine the role of the architect in the Agile ceremonies of the organization

    1 hour

    Input: Expertise from EA strategy creation team

    Output: Participation in Agile Pre- and Post-PI, Architect Syncs, etc.

    Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

    Participants: EA strategy creation team

    Document the involvement of the enterprise architect in your organization’s Agile ceremonies.

    1. Document the Agile ceremonial used in the organization (based on SAFe or other Agile approaches).
    2. Determine ceremonies the System Architect will participate in.
    3. Determine ceremonies the Solution Architect will participate in
    4. Determine ceremonies the Enterprise Architect will participate in.
    5. Determine Architect Syncs, etc.

    Note: Roles and responsibilities can be further defined as part of the Agile Enterprise Operating Model.

    The EA role relative to agility

    The enterprise architecture role relative to agility specifies the architecture roles as well as the agile protocols they will participate in.
    This statement will guide every architect’s participation in planning meetings, pre- and post-PI, syncs, etc. Use simple and concise terminology; speak loudly and clearly.

    A strong EA role statement relative to agility has the following characteristics:

    • Describes what different architect roles do to achieve the vision of the organization
    • In an agile way
    • Compelling
    • Easy to grasp
    • Sharply focused
    • Specific
    • Concise

    Sample EA mission relative to agility

    • Create strategies that provide guardrails for the organization, provide standards, reusable assets, accelerators, and other decisions at the enterprise level that support agility.
    • Participate in pre-PI and post-PI planning activities, architect syncs, etc.

    A clear statement can include additional details surrounding the Enterprise Architect role relative to agility

    Likewise, below is a sample of connecting keywords together to form an enterprise architect role statement, relative to agility.

    Optimize, transform, and innovate by defining and implementing the [Company]’s target enterprise architecture in an agile way.

    Optimize – We collaborate with the business to analyze and optimize business capabilities and business processes to enable the agile and efficient attainment of [Company name] business objectives.

    Transform – We support IT-enabled business transformation programs by building and maintaining a shared vision of the future-state enterprise and consistently communicating it to stakeholders.

    Innovate – We identify and develop new and creative opportunities for IT to enable the business. We communicate the art of the possible to the business.

    Defining and implementing – We engage with project teams early and guide solution design and selection to ensure alignment to the target-state enterprise architecture and provide guidance as well as accelerators.

    Target enterprise structure in an agile way – We analyze business needs and priorities and assess the current state of the enterprise. We build and maintain the target enterprise architecture blueprints that define:

    • Business capabilities and processes (business architecture)
    • Data, application, and technology assets that enable business capabilities and processes (technology architecture)
    • Architecture principles
    • Standards and reusable assets
    • Continuous exploration, integration, and deployment

    Move to the enterprise architecture operating model blueprint to execute your EA strategy

    Once approved, move on to Info-Tech’s Define an EA Operating Model blueprint to begin executing on the EA strategy.

    Enterprise architecture strategy

    This blueprint focuses on setting up an enterprise architecture function, with the goal of maximizing the likelihood of EA success. The blueprint puts into place the components that will align the EA function with the needs of the stakeholders, guide the decision making of the EA function, and define the services EA can provide to the organization.

    Agile enterprise architecture operating model

    An EA operating model helps you design and organize the EA function, ensuring adherence to architectural standards and delivery of EA services. This blueprint acts on the EA strategy by creating methods to engage, govern, and develop architecture as a part of the larger organization.

    Research contributors and experts

    Photo of Milena Litoiu, Senior Director Research and Advisory, Enterprise Architecture Milena Litoiu
    Senior Director Research and Advisory, Enterprise Architecture
    • Milena Litoiu is a Principal/Senior Manager of Enterprise Architecture. She is Master Certified with The Open Group and she sits on global architecture certification boards.
    • Other certifications include SABSA, CRISC, and Scaled Agile Framework. She started as a certified IT Architect at IBM and has over 25 years experience in this field.
    • Milena teaches enterprise architecture at the University of Toronto and led the development of the Enterprise Architecture Certificate (a course on EA fundamentals, one on EA development and Governance, and one on Trends going forward).
    • She has a Masters in Engineering, an executive MBA, and extensive experience in enterprise architecture as well as methodologies and tools.
    Photo of Lan Nguyen, IT Executive, Mentor, Managing Partner at CIOs Beyond Borders Group Lan Nguyen
    IT Executive, Mentor, Managing Partner at CIOs Beyond Borders Group
    • Lan Nguyen has a wealth of experience driving the EA strategy and the digital transformation success at the City of Toronto.
    • Lan is a university lecturer on topics like strategic leadership in the digital enterprise.
    • Lan is a Managing Partner at CIOs Beyond Borders Group.
    • Lan specializes in Partnership Development; Governance; Strategic Planning, Business Development; Government Relations; Business Relationship Management; Leadership Development; Organizational Agility and Change Management; Talent Management; Managed Services; Digital Transformation; Strategic Management of Enterprise IT; Shared Services; Service Quality Improvement, Portfolio Management; Community Development; and Social Enterprise.


    Photo of Dirk Coetsee, Director Research and Advisory, Enterprise Architecture, Data & Analytics Dirk Coetsee
    Director Research and Advisory, Enterprise Architecture, Data & Analytics
    • Dirk Coetsee is a Research & Advisory Director in the Data & Analytics practice. Dirk has over 25 years of experience in data management and architecture within a wide range of industries, especially Financial Services, Manufacturing, and Retail.
    • Dirk spearheaded data architecture at several organizations and was involved in enterprise data architecture, data governance, and data quality and analytics. He architected many operational data stores of ranging complexity and transaction volumes and was part of major enterprise data warehouse initiatives. Lately, he was part of projects that implemented big data, enterprise service bus, and micro services architectures. Dirk has an in-depth knowledge of industry models within the financial and retail spaces.
    • Dirk holds a BSc (Hons) in Operational Research and an MBA with specialization in Financial Services from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
    Photo of Andy Neill, AVP, Enterprise Architecture, Data and Analytics Andy Neill
    AVP, Enterprise Architecture, Data and Analytics
    • Andy is AVP Data and Analytics and Chief Enterprise Architect at Info-Tech Research Group. Previous roles include leading the data architecture practice for Loblaw Companies Ltd, Shoppers Drug Mart and 360 Insights in Canada as well as leading architecture practices at Siemens consultancy, BBC, NHS, Ordnance Survey, and Houses of Parliament and Commons in the UK.
    • His responsibilities at Info-Tech include leading the data and analytics and enterprise architecture research practices and guiding the future of research and client engagement in that space.
    • Andy is the Product Owner for the Technical Counselor seat offering at Info-Tech, which gives world-class holistic support to our senior technical members.
    • He is also a instructor and content creator for the University of Toronto in the field of Enterprise Architecture.


    Photo of Wayne Filin-Matthews, Chief Enterprise Architect, ICMG Winner of Global Chief Enterprise Architect of the Year 2019 Wayne Filin-Matthews
    Chief Enterprise Architect, ICMG Winner of Global Chief Enterprise Architect of the Year 2019
    • Wayne is currently the EA Discipline Lead/Chief Enterprise Architect – Global Digital Transformation Office, COE at Dell Technologies.
    • He is a distinguished Motivator & Tech Lead as well as an influencer.
    • Wayne has led multiple Enterprise Architecture practices at the global level and has valuable contributions in this space managing and growing Enterprise Architecture and CTO practices across strategy, execution, and adoption parts of the IT lifecycle.
    Photo of Graham Smith, Experienced lead Enterprise Architect and Independent Consultant Graham Smith
    Experienced lead Enterprise Architect and Independent Consultant
    • Graham is an experienced lead enterprise architect specializing in digital and data transformation, with over 33 years of experience, spanning financial markets, media, information, insurance, and telecommunications sectors. Graham has successfully established and led large teams across India, China, Australia, Americas, Japan, and the UK.
    • He is currently working as an independent consultant in digital and data-led transformation and his work spans established businesses and start-ups alike.

    Thanks also go to all experts who contributed to previous versions of this document:

    • Zachary Curry, Director, Enterprise Architecture and Innovation, FMC Technologies
    • Pam Doucette, Director of Enterprise Architecture, Tufts Health Plan
    • Joe Evers, Consulting Principal, JcEvers Consulting Corp
    • Cameron Fairbairn, Enterprise Architect, Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC)
    • Michael Fulton, Chief Digital Officer & Senior IT Strategy & Architecture Consultant at CC and C Solutions
    • Tom Graves, Principal Consultant, Tetradian Consulting
    • (JB) Brahmaiah Jarugumilli, Consultant, Federal Aviation Administration – Enterprise Services Center
    • Huw Morgan, IT Research Executive, Enterprise Architect
    • Serge Parisien, Manager, Enterprise Architecture, Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation

    Additional interviews were conducted but are not listed due to privacy and confidentiality requirements.

    Bibliography

    “Agile Manifesto for Software Development,” Ward Cunningham, 2001. Accessed July 2021.

    “ArchiMate 3.1 Specification.” The Open Group, n.d. Accessed July 2021.

    “Are Your IT Strategy and Business Strategy Aligned?” 5Q Partners, 8 Jan. 2015. Accessed Oct. 2016.

    Bowen, Fillmore. “How agile companies create and sustain high ROI.” IBM. Accessed Oct. 2016.

    Burns, Peter, et al. Building Value through Enterprise Architecture: A Global Study. Booz & Co. 2009. Web. Nov. 2016.

    “Demonstrating the Value of Enterprise Architecture in Delivering Business Capabilities.” Cisco, 2008. Web. Oct. 2016.

    “Disciplined Agile.” Disciplined Agile Consortium, n.d. Web.

    Fowler, Martin. “Building Effective software.” MartinFowler.com. Accessed July 2021.

    Fowler, Martin. “Agile Software Guide.” MartinFowler.com, 1 Aug. 2019.

    Accessed July 2021.

    Haughey, Duncan. “SMART Goals.” Project Smart, 2014. Accessed July 2021.

    Kern, Matthew. “20 Enterprise Architecture Practices.” LinkedIn, 3 March 2016. Accessed Nov. 2016.

    Lahanas, Stephen. “Infrastructure Architecture, Defined.” IT Architecture Journal, Sept. 2014. Accessed July 2021.

    Lean IX website, Accessed July 2021.

    Litoiu, Milena. Course material from Information Technology 2690: Foundations of Enterprise Architecture, 2021, University of Toronto.

    Mocker, M., J.W. Ross, and C.M. Beath. “How Companies Use Digital Technologies to Enhance Customer Findings.” MIT CISR Working Paper No. 434, Feb. 2019. Qtd in Mayor, Tracy. “MIT expert recaps 30-plus years of enterprise architecture.” MIT Sloan, 10 Aug. 2020. Web.

    “Open Agile ArchitectureTM.” The Open Group, 2020. Accessed July 2021.

    “Organizational Design Framework – The Transformation Model.” The Center for Organizational Design, n.d. Accessed 1 Aug. 2020.

    Ross, Jeanne W. et al. Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution. Harvard Business School Press, 2006.

    Rouse, Margaret. “Enterprise Architecture (EA).” SearchCIO, June 2007. Accessed Nov. 2016.

    “SAFe 5 for Lean Enterprises.” Scaled Agile Framework, Scaled Agile, Inc. Accessed 2021.

    “Security Architecture.” Technopedia, updated 20 Dec. 2016. Accessed July 2021.

    “Software Engineering Institute.” Carnegie Mellon University, n.d. Web.

    “TOGAF 9.1.” The Open Group, 2011. Accessed Oct. 2016.

    “TOGAF 9.2.” The Open Group, 2018. Accessed July 2021.

    Thompson, Rachel. “Stakeholder Analysis: Winning Support for Your Projects.” MindTools, n.d. Accessed July 2021.

    Wendt, Jerome M. “Redefining ‘SMB’, ‘SME’ and ‘Large Enterprise.’” DCIG, 25 Mar. 2011. Accessed July 2021.

    Wilkinson, Jim. “Business Drivers.” The Strategic CFO, 23 July 2013. Accessed July 2021.

    Zachman, John. “Conceptual, Logical, Physical: It is Simple.” Zachman International, 2011. Accessed July 2021.

    Tactics to Retain IT Talent

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}549|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: Engage
    • Parent Category Link: /engage
    • Regrettable turnover is impacting organizational productivity and leading to significant costs associated with employee departures and the recruitment required to replace them.
    • Many organizations focus on increasing engagement to improve retention, but this approach doesn’t address the entire problem.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Engagement surveys mask the volatility of the employee experience and hide the reason why individual employees leave. You must also talk to employees to understand the moments that matter and engage managers to understand turnover triggers.

    Impact and Result

    • Build the case for creating retention plans by leveraging employee data and feedback to identify the key reasons for turnover that need to be addressed.
    • Target employee segments and work with management to develop solutions to retain top talent.

    Tactics to Retain IT Talent Research & Tools

    Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

    1. Tactics to Retain IT Talent Storyboard – Use this storyboard to develop a targeted talent retention plan to retain top and core talent in the organization.

    Integrate data from exit surveys and interviews, engagement surveys, and stay interviews to understand the most commonly cited reasons for employee departure in order to select and prioritize tactics that improve retention. This blueprint will help you identify reasons for regrettable turnover, select solutions, and create an action plan.

    • Tactics to Retain IT Talent Storyboard

    2. Retention Plan Workbook – Capture key information in one place as you work through the process to assess and prioritize solutions.

    Use this tool to document and analyze turnover data to find suitable retention solutions.

    • Retention Plan Workbook

    3. Stay Interview Guide – Managers will use this guide to conduct regular stay interviews with employees to anticipate and address turnover triggers.

    The Stay Interview Guide helps managers conduct interviews with current employees, enabling the manager to understand the employee's current engagement level, satisfaction with current role and responsibilities, suggestions for potential improvements, and intent to stay with the organization.

    • Stay Interview Guide

    4. IT Retention Solutions Catalog – Use this catalog to select and prioritize retention solutions across the employee lifecycle.

    Review best-practice solutions to identify those that are most suitable to your organizational culture and employee needs. Use the IT Retention Solutions Catalog to explore a variety of methods to improve retention, understand their use cases, and determine stakeholder responsibilities.

    • IT Retention Solutions Catalog
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Tactics to Retain IT Talent

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Identify Reasons for Regrettable Turnover

    The Purpose

    Identify the main drivers of turnover at the organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Find out what to explore during focus groups.

    Activities

    1.1 Review data to determine why employees join, stay, and leave.

    1.2 Identify common themes.

    1.3 Prepare for focus groups.

    Outputs

    List of common themes/pain points recorded in the Retention Plan Workbook.

    2 Conduct Focus Groups

    The Purpose

    Conduct focus groups to explore retention drivers.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Explore identified themes.

    Activities

    2.1 Conduct four 1-hour focus groups with the employee segment(s) identified in the pre-workshop activities.

    2.2 Info-Tech facilitators independently analyze results of focus groups and group results by theme.

    Outputs

    Focus group feedback.

    Focus group feedback analyzed and organized by themes.

    3 Identify Needs and Retention Initiatives

    The Purpose

    Home in on employee needs that are a priority.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A list of initiatives to address the identified needs

    Activities

    3.1 Create an empathy map to identify needs.

    3.2 Shortlist retention initiatives.

    Outputs

    Employee needs and shortlist of initiatives to address them.

    4 Prepare to Communicate and Launch

    The Purpose

    Prepare to launch your retention initiatives.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A clear action plan for implementing your retention initiatives.

    Activities

    4.1 Select retention initiatives.

    4.2 Determine goals and metrics.

    4.3 Plan stakeholder communication.

    4.4 Build a high-level action plan.

    Outputs

    Finalized list of retention initiatives.

    Goals and associated metrics recorded in the Retention Plan Workbook.

    Further reading

    Tactics to Retain IT Talent

    Keep talent from walking out the door by discovering and addressing moments that matter and turnover triggers.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Many organizations are facing an increase in voluntary turnover as low unemployment, a lack of skilled labor, and a rise in the number of vacant roles have given employees more employment choices.

    Common Obstacles

    Regrettable turnover is impacting organizational productivity and leading to significant costs associated with employee departures and the recruitment required to replace them.

    Many organizations tackle retention from an engagement perspective: Increase engagement to improve retention. This approach doesn't consider the whole problem.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Build the case for creating retention plans by leveraging employee data and feedback to identify the key reasons for turnover that need to be addressed.

    Target employee segments and work with management to develop solutions to retain top talent.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Engagement surveys mask the volatility of the employee experience and hide the reason why individual employees leave. You must also talk to employees to understand the moments that matter and engage managers to understand turnover triggers.

    This research addresses regrettable turnover

    This is an image of a flow chart with three levels. The top level has only one box, labeled Turnover.  the Second level has 2 boxes, labeled Voluntary, and Involuntary.  The third level has two boxes under Voluntary, labeled Non-regrettable: The loss of employees that the organization did not wish to keep, e.g. low performers, and Regrettable:  The loss of employees that the organization wishes it could have kept.

    Low unemployment and rising voluntary turnover makes it critical to focus on retention

    As the economy continues to recover from the pandemic, unemployment continues to trend downward even with a looming recession. This leaves more job openings vacant, making it easier for employees to job hop.

    This image contains a graph of the US Employment rate between 2020 - 2022 from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 2022, the percentage of individuals who change jobs every one to five years from 2022 Job Seeker Nation Study, Jobvite, 2022, and voluntary turnover rates from BLS, 2022

    With more employees voluntarily choosing to leave jobs, it is more important than ever for organizations to identify key employees they want to retain and put plans in place to keep them.

    Retention is a challenge for many organizations

    The number of HR professionals citing retention/turnover as a top workforce management challenge is increasing, and it is now the second highest recruiting priority ("2020 Recruiter Nation Survey," Jobvite, 2020).

    65% of employees believe they can find a better position elsewhere (Legaljobs, 2021). This is a challenge for organizations in that they need to find ways to ensure employees want to stay at the organization or they will lose them, which results in high turnover costs.

    Executives and IT are making retention and turnover – two sides of the same coin – a priority because they cost organizations money.

    • 87% of HR professionals cited retention/turnover as a critical and high priority for the next few years (TINYpulse, 2020).
    • $630B The cost of voluntary turnover in the US (Work Institute, 2020).
    • 66% of organizations consider employee retention to be important or very important to an organization (PayScale, 2019).

    Improving retention leads to broad-reaching organizational benefits

    Cost savings: the price of turnover as a percentage of salary

    • 33% Improving retention can result in significant cost savings. A recent study found turnover costs, on average, to be around a third of an employee's annual salary (SHRM, 2019).
    • 37.9% of employees leave their organization within the first year. Employees who leave within the first 90 days of being hired offer very little or no return on the investment made to hire them (Work Institute, 2020).

    Improved performance

    Employees with longer tenure have an increased understanding of an organization's policies and processes, which leads to increased productivity (Indeed, 2021).

    Prevents a ripple effect

    Turnover often ripples across a team or department, with employees following each other out of the organization (Mereo). Retaining even one individual can often have an impact across the organization.

    Transfer of knowledge

    Retaining key individuals allows them to pass it on to other employees through communities of practice, mentoring, or other knowledge-sharing activities.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Improving retention goes beyond cost savings: Employees who agree with the statement "I expect to be at this organization a year from now" are 71% more likely to put in extra hours and 32% more likely to accomplish more than what is expected of their role (McLean & Company Engagement Survey, 2021; N=77,170 and 97,326 respectively).

    However, the traditional engagement-focused approach to retention is not enough

    Employee engagement is a strong driver of retention, with only 25% of disengaged employees expecting to be at their organization a year from now compared to 92% of engaged employees (McLean & Company Engagement Survey, 2018-2021; N=117,307).

    Average employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

    This image contains a graph of the Average employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

    Individual employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPS)

    This image contains a graph of the Individual employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPS)

    However, engagement surveys mask the volatility of the employee experience and hide the reason why individual employees leave.

    This analysis of McLean & Company's engagement survey results shows that while an organization's average employee net promoter score (eNPS) stays relatively static, at an individual level there is a huge amount of volatility.

    This demonstrates the need for an approach that is more capable of responding to or identifying employees' in-the-moment needs, which an annual engagement survey doesn't support.

    Turnover triggers and moments that matter also have an impact on retention

    Retention needs to be monitored throughout the employee lifecycle. To address the variety of issues that can appear, consider three main paths to turnover:

    1. Employee engagement – areas of low engagement.
    2. Turnover triggers that can quickly lead to departures.
    3. Moments that matter in the employee experience (EX).

    Employee engagement

    Engagement drivers are strong predictors of turnover.

    Employees who are highly engaged are 3.6x more likely to believe they will be with the organization 12 months from now than disengaged employees (McLean & Company Engagement Survey, 2018-2021; N=117,307).

    Turnover triggers

    Turnover triggers are events that act as shocks or catalysts that quickly lead to an employee's departure.

    Turnover triggers are a cause for voluntary turnover more often than accumulated issues (Lee et al.).

    Moments that matter

    Employee experience is the employee's perception of the accumulation of moments that matter within their employee lifecycle.

    Retention rates increase from 21% to 44% when employees have positive experiences in the following categories: belonging, purpose, achievement, happiness, and vigor at work. (Workhuman, 2020).

    While managers do not directly impact turnover, they do influence the three main paths to turnover

    Research shows managers do not appear as one of the common reasons for employee turnover.

    Top five most common reasons employees leave an organization (McLean & Company, Exit Survey, 2018-2021; N=107 to 141 companies,14,870 to 19,431 responses).

    Turnover factorsRank
    Opportunities for career advancement1
    Satisfaction with my role and responsibilities2
    Base pay3
    Opportunities for career-related skill development4
    The degree to which my skills were used in my job5

    However, managers can still have a huge impact on the turnover of their team through each of the three main paths to turnover:

    Employee engagement

    Employees who believe their managers care about them as a person are 3.3x more likely to be engaged than those who do not (McLean & Company, 2021; N=105,186).

    Turnover triggers

    Managers who are involved with and aware of their staff can serve as an early warning system for triggers that lead to turnover too quickly to detect with data.

    Moments that matter

    Managers have a direct connection with each individual and can tailor the employee experience to meet the needs of the individuals who report to them.

    Gallup has found that 52% of exiting employees say their manager could have done something to prevent them from leaving (Gallup, 2019). Do not discount the power of managers in anticipating and preventing regrettable turnover.

    Addressing engagement, turnover triggers, and moments that matter is the key to retention

    This is an image of a flow chart with four levels. The top level has only one box, labeled Turnover.  the Second level has 2 boxes, labeled Voluntary, and Involuntary.  The third level has two boxes under Voluntary, labeled Non-regrettable, and Regrettable.  The fourth level has three boxes under Regrettable, labeled Employee Engagement, Turnover triggers, and Moments that matter

    Info-Tech Insight

    HR traditionally seeks to examine engagement levels when faced with retention challenges, but engagement is only a part of the full picture. You must also talk to employees to understand the moments that matter and engage managers to understand turnover triggers.

    Follow Info-Tech's two-step process to create a retention plan

    1. Identify Reasons for Regrettable Turnover

    2. Select Solutions and Create an Action Plan

    Step 1

    Identify Reasons for Regrettable Turnover

    After completing this step you will have:

    • Analyzed and documented why employees join, stay, and leave your organization.
    • Identified common themes and employee needs.
    • Conducted employee focus groups and prioritized employee needs.

    Step 1 focuses on analyzing existing data and validating it through focus groups

    Employee engagement

    Employee engagement and moments that matter are easily tracked by data. Validating employee feedback data by speaking and empathizing with employees helps to uncover moments that matter. This step focuses on analyzing existing data and validating it through focus groups.

    Engagement drivers such as compensation or working environment are strong predictors of turnover.
    Moments that matter
    Employee experience (EX) is the employee's perception of the accumulation of moments that matter with the organization.
    Turnover triggers
    Turnover triggers are events that act as shocks or catalysts that quickly lead to an employee's departure.

    Turnover triggers

    This step will not touch on turnover triggers. Instead, they will be discussed in step 2 in the context of the role of the manager in improving retention.

    Turnover triggers are events that act as shocks or catalysts that quickly lead to an employee's departure.

    Info-Tech Insight

    IT managers often have insights into where and why retention is an issue through their day-to-day work. Gathering detailed quantitative and qualitative data provides credibility to these insights and is key to building a business case for action. Keep an open mind and allow the data to inform your gut feeling, not the other way around.

    Gather data to better understand why employees join, stay, and leave

    Start to gather and examine additional data to accurately identify the reason(s) for high turnover. Begin to uncover the story behind why these employees join, stay, and leave your organization through themes and trends that emerge.

    Look for these icons throughout step 2.

    Join

    Why do candidates join your organization?

    Stay

    Why do employees stay with your organization?

    Leave

    Why do employees leave your organization?

    For more information on analysis, visualization, and storytelling with data, see Info-Tech's Start Making Data-Driven People Decisions blueprint.

    Employee feedback data to look at includes:

    Gather insights through:

    • Focus groups
    • Verbatim comments
    • Exit interviews
    • Using the employee value proposition (EVP) as a filter (does it resonate with the lived experience of employees?)

    Prepare to draw themes and trends from employee data throughout step 1.

    Uncover employee needs and reasons for turnover by analyzing employee feedback data.

    • Look for trends (e.g. new hires join for career opportunities and leave for the same reason, or most departments have strong work-life balance scores in engagement data).
    • Review if there are recurring issues being raised that may impact turnover.
    • Group feedback to highlight themes (e.g. lack of understanding of EVP).
    • Identify which key employee needs merit further investigation or information.

    This is an image showing how you can draw out themes and trends using employee data throughout step 1.

    Classify where key employee needs fall within the employee lifecycle diagram in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook. This will be used in step 2 to pinpoint and prioritize solutions.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The employee lifecycle is a valuable way to analyze and organize engagement pain points, moments that matter, and turnover triggers. It ensures that you consider the entirety of an employee's tenure and the different factors that lead to turnover.

    Examine new hire data and begin to document emerging themes

    Join

    While conducting a high-level analysis of new hire data, look for these three key themes impacting retention:

    Issues or pain points that occurred during the hiring process.

    Reasons why employees joined your organization.

    The experience of their first 90 days. This can include their satisfaction with the onboarding process and their overall experience with the organization.

    Themes will help to identify areas of strength and weakness organization-wide and within key segments. Document in tab 3 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

    1. Start by isolating the top reasons employees joined your organization. Ask:
      • Do the reasons align with the benefits you associate with working at your organization?
      • How might this impact your EVP?
      • If you use a new hire survey, look at the results for the following questions:
      • For which of the following reasons did you apply to this organization?
      • For what reasons did you accept the job offer with this organization?
    2. then, examine other potential problem areas that may not be covered by your new hire survey, such as onboarding or the candidate experience during the hiring process.
      • If you conduct a new hire survey, look at the results in the following sections:
        • Candidate Experience
        • Acclimatization
        • Training and Development
        • Defining Performance Expectations

      Analyze engagement data to identify areas of strength that drive retention

      Employees who are engaged are 3.6x more likely to believe they will be with the organization 12 months from now (McLean & Company Engagement Survey, 2018-2021; N=117,307). Given the strength of this relationship, it is essential to identify areas of strength to maintain and leverage.

      1. Look at the highest-performing drivers in your organization's employee engagement survey and drivers that fall into the "leverage" and "maintain" quadrants of the priority matrix.
        • These drivers provide insight into what prompts broader groups of employees to stay.

      This is an image of a quadrant analysis, with the following quadrants in order from left to right, top to bottom.  Improve; Leverage; Evaluate; Maintain.

      1. Look into what efforts have been made to maintain programs, policies, and practices related to these drivers and ensure they are consistent across the entire organization.
      2. Document trends and themes related to engagement strengths in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      If you use Info-Tech's Engagement Survey, look in detail at what are classified as "Retention Drivers": total compensation, working environment, and work-life balance.

      Identify areas of weakness that drive turnover in your engagement data

      1. Look at the lowest-performing drivers in your organization's employee engagement survey and drivers that fall into the "improve" and "evaluate" quadrants of the priority matrix.
        • These drivers provide insight into what pushes employees to leave the organization.
      2. Delve into organizational efforts that have been made to address issues with the programs, policies, and practices related to these drivers. Are there any projects underway to improve them? What are the barriers preventing improvements?
      3. Document trends and themes related to engagement weaknesses in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      If you use a product other than Info-Tech's Engagement Survey, your results will look different. The key is to look at areas of weakness that emerge from the data.

      This is an image of a quadrant analysis, with the following quadrants in order from left to right, top to bottom.  Improve; Leverage; Evaluate; Maintain.

      If you use Info-Tech's Engagement Survey, look in detail at what are classified as "Retention Drivers": total compensation, working environment, and work-life balance.

      Mine exit surveys to develop an integrated, holistic understanding of why employees leave

      Conduct a high-level analysis of the data from your employee exit diagnostic. While analyzing this data, consider the following:

      • What are the trends and quantitative data about why employees leave your organization that may illuminate employee needs or issues at specific points throughout the employee lifecycle?
      • What are insights around your key segments? Data on key segments is easily sliced from exit survey results and can be used as a starting point for digging deeper into retention issues for specific groups.
      • Exit surveys are an excellent starting point. However, it is valuable to validate the data gathered from an exit survey using exit interviews.
      1. Isolate results for key segments of employees to target with retention initiatives (e.g. by age group or by department).
      2. Identify data trends or patterns over time; for example, that compensation factors have been increasing in importance.
      3. Document trends and themes taken from the exit survey results in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      If your organization conducts exit interviews, analyze the results alongside or in lieu of exit survey data.

      Compare new hire data with exit data to identify patterns and insights

      Determine if new hire expectations weren't met, prompting employees to leave your organization, to help identify where in the employee lifecycle issues driving turnover may be occurring.

      1. Look at your new hire data for the top reasons employees joined your organization.
        • McLean & Company's New Hire Survey database shows that the top three reasons candidates accept job offers on average are:
          1. Career opportunities
          2. Nature of the job
          3. Development opportunities
      2. Next, look at your exit data and the top reasons employees left your organization.
        1. McLean & Company's Exit Survey database shows that the top three reasons employees leave on average are:
          1. Opportunities for career advancement
          2. Base pay
          3. Satisfaction with my role and responsibilities
      3. Examine the results and ask:
        • Is there a link between why employees join and leave the organization?
        • Did they cite the same reasons for joining and for leaving?
        • What do the results say about what your employees do and do not value about working at your organization?
      4. Document the resulting insights in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      Example:

      A result where employees are leaving for the same reason they're joining the organization could signal a disconnect between your organization's employee value proposition and the lived experience.

      Revisit your employee value proposition to uncover misalignment

      Your employee value proposition (EVP), formal or informal, communicates the value your organization can offer to prospective employees.

      If your EVP is mismatched with the lived experience of your employees, new hires will be in for a surprise when they start their new job and find out it isn't what they were expecting.

      Forty-six percent of respondents who left a job within 90 days of starting cited a mismatch of expectations about their role ("Job Seeker Nation Study 2020," Jobvite, 2020).

      1. Use the EVP as a filter through which you look at all your employee feedback data. It will help identify misalignment between the promised and the lived experience.
      2. If you have EVP documentation, start there. If not, go to your careers page and put yourself in the shoes of a candidate. Ask what the four elements of an EVP look like for candidates:
        • Compensation and benefits
        • Day-to-day job elements
        • Working conditions
        • Organizational elements
      3. Next, compare this to your own day-to-day experiences. Does it differ drastically? Are there any contradictions with the lived experience at your organization? Are there misleading statements or promises?
      4. Document any insights or patterns you uncover in tab 2 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      Conduct focus groups to examine themes

      Through focus groups, explore the themes you have uncovered with employees to discover employee needs that are not being met. Addressing these employee needs will be a key aspect of your retention plan.

      Identify employee groups who will participate in focus groups:

      • Incorporate diverse perspectives (e.g. employees, managers, supervisors).
      • Include employees from departments and demographics with strong and weak engagement for a full picture of how engagement impacts your employees.
      • Invite boomerang employees to learn why an individual might return to your organization after leaving.

      image contains two screenshots Mclean & Company's Standard Focus Group Guide.

      Customize Info-Tech's Standard Focus Group Guide based on the themes you have identified in tab 3 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      The goal of the focus group is to learn from employees and use this information to design or modify a process, system, or other solution that impacts retention.

      Focus questions on the employees' personal experience from their perspective.

      Key things to remember:

      • It is vital for facilitators to be objective.
      • Keep an open mind; no feelings are wrong.
      • Beware of your own biases.
      • Be open and share the reason for conducting the focus groups.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Maintaining an open dialogue with employees will help flesh out the context behind the data you've gathered and allow you to keep in mind that retention is about people first and foremost.

      Empathize with employees to identify moments that matter

      Look for discrepancies between what employees are saying and doing.

      1. Say

      "What words or quotes did the employee use?"

      3.Think

      "What might the employee be thinking?"

      Record feelings and thoughts discussed, body language observed, tone of voice, and words used.

      Look for areas of negative emotion to determine the moments that matter that drive retention.

      2. Do

      "What actions or behavior did the employee demonstrate?"

      4. Feel

      "What might the employee be feeling?"

      Record them in tab 3 of the Retention Plan Workbook.

      5. Identify Needs

      "Needs are verbs (activities or desires), not nouns (solutions)"

      Synthesize focus group findings using Info-Tech's Empathy Map Template.

      6. Identify Insights

      "Ask yourself, why?"

      (Based on Stanford d.school Empathy Map Method)

      Distill employee needs into priority issues to address first

      Take employee needs revealed by your data and focus groups and prioritize three to five needs.

      Select a limited number of employee needs to develop solutions to ensure that the scope of the project is feasible and that the resources dedicated to this project are not stretched too thin. The remaining needs should not be ignored – act on them later.

      Share the needs you identify with stakeholders so they can support prioritization and so you can confirm their buy-in and approval where necessary.

      Ask yourself the following questions to determine your priority employee needs:

      • Which needs will have the greatest impact on turnover?
      • Which needs have the potential to be an easy fix or quick win?
      • Which themes or trends came up repeatedly in different data sources?
      • Which needs evoked particularly strong or negative emotions in the focus groups?

      This image contains screenshots of two table templates found in tab 5 of the Retention Plan Workbook

      In the Retention Plan Workbook, distill employee needs on tab 2 into three to five priorities on tab 5.

      Step 2

      Select Solutions and Create an Action Plan

      After completing this step, you will have:

      • Selected and prioritized solutions to address employee needs.
      • Created a plan to launch stay interviews.
      • Built an action plan to implement solutions.

      Select IT-owned solutions and implement people leader–driven initiatives

      Solutions

      First, select and prioritize solutions to address employee needs identified in the previous step. These solutions will address reasons for turnover that influence employee engagement and moments that matter.

      • Brainstorm solutions using the Retention Solutions Catalog as a starting point. Select a longlist of solutions to address your priority needs.
      • Prioritize the longlist of solutions into a manageable number to act on.

      People leaders

      Next, create a plan to launch stay interviews to increase managers' accountability in improving retention. Managers will be critical to solving issues stemming from turnover triggers.

      • Clarify the importance of harnessing the influence of people leaders in improving retention.
      • Discover what might cause individual employees to leave through stay interviews.
      • Increase trust in managers through training.

      Action plan

      Finally, create an action plan and present to senior leadership for approval.

      Look for these icons in the top right of slides in this step.

      Select solutions to employee needs, starting with the Retention Solutions Catalog

      Based on the priority needs you have identified, use the Retention Solutions Catalog to review best-practice solutions for pain points associated with each stage of the lifecycle.

      Use this tool as a starting point, adding to it and iterating based on your own experience and organizational culture and goals.

      This image contains three screenshots from Info-Tech's Retention Solutions Catalog.

      Use Info-Tech's Retention Solutions Catalog to start the brainstorming process and produce a shortlist of potential solutions that will be prioritized on the next slide.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Unless you have the good fortune of having only a few pain points, no single initiative will completely solve your retention issues. Combine one or two of these broad solutions with people-leader initiatives to ensure employee needs are addressed on an individual and an aggregate level.

      Prioritize solutions to be implemented

      Target efforts accordingly

      Quick wins are high-impact, low-effort initiatives that will build traction and credibility within the organization.

      Long-term initiatives require more time and need to be planned for accordingly but will still deliver a large impact. Review the planning horizon to determine how early these need to begin.

      Re-evaluate low-impact and low-effort initiatives and identify ones that either support other higher impact initiatives or have the highest impact to gain traction and credibility. Look for low-hanging fruit.

      Deprioritize initiatives that will take a high degree of effort to deliver lower-value results.

      When assessing the impact of potential solutions, consider:

      • How many critical segments or employees will this solution affect?
      • Is the employee need it addresses critical, or did the solution encompass several themes in the data you analyzed?
      • Will the success of this solution help build a case for further action?
      • Will the solution address multiple employee needs?

      Info-Tech Insight

      It's better to master a few initiatives than under-deliver on many. Start with a few solutions that will have a measurable impact to build the case for further action in the future.

      Solutions

      Low ImpactMedium ImpactLarge Impact
      Large EffortThis is an image of the used to help you prioritize solutions to be implemented.
      Medium Effort
      Low Effort

      Use tab 3 of the Retention Plan Workbook to prioritize your shortlist of solutions.

      Harness the influence of people leaders to improve employee retention

      Leaders at all levels have a huge impact on employees.

      Effective people leaders:

      • Manage work distribution.
      • Create a motivating work environment.
      • Provide development opportunities.
      • Ensure work is stimulating and challenging, but not overwhelming.
      • Provide clear, actionable feedback.
      • Recognize team member contributions.
      • Develop positive relationships with their teams.
      • Create a line of sight between what the employee is doing and what the organization's objectives are.

      Support leaders in recommitting to their role as people managers through Learning & Development initiatives with particular emphasis on coaching and building trust.

      For coaching training, see Info-Tech's Build a Better Manager: Team Essentials – Feedback and Coaching training deck.

      For more information on supporting managers to become better people leaders, see Info-Tech's Build a Better Manager: Manage Your People blueprint.

      "HR can't fix turnover. But leaders on the front line can."
      – Richard P. Finnegan, CEO, C-Suite Analytics

      Equip managers to conduct regular stay interviews to address turnover triggers

      Managers often have the most visibility into their employees' personal and work lives and have a key opportunity to anticipate and address turnover triggers.

      Stay interviews are an effective way of uncovering potential retention issues and allowing managers to act as an early warning system for turnover triggers.

      Examples of common turnover triggers and potential manager responses:

      • Moving, creating a long commute to the office.
        • Through stay interviews, a manager can learn that a long commute is an issue and can help find workarounds such as flexible/remote work options.
      • Not receiving an expected promotion.
        • A trusted manager can anticipate issues stemming from this, discuss why the decision was made, and plan development opportunities for future openings.

      Stay interview best practices

      1. Conducted by an employee's direct manager.
      2. Happen regularly as a part of an ongoing process.
      3. Based on the stay interview, managers produce a turnover forecast for each direct report.
        1. The method used by stay interview expert Richard P. Finnegan is simple: red for high risk, yellow for medium, and green for low.
      4. Provide managers with training and a rough script or list of questions to follow.
        1. Use and customize Info-Tech's Stay Interview Guide to provide a guide for managers on how to conduct a stay interview.
      5. Managers use the results to create an individualized retention action plan made up of concrete actions the manager and employee will take.

      Sources: Richard P. Finnegan, CEO, C-Suite Analytics; SHRM

      Build an action plan to implement the retention plan

      For each initiative identified, map out timelines and actions that need to be taken.

      When building actions and timelines:

      • Refer to the priority needs you identified in tab 4 of the Retention Plan Workbook and ensure they are addressed first.
      • Engage internal stakeholders who will be key to the development of the initiatives to ensure they have sufficient time to complete their deliverables.
        • For example, if you conduct manager training, Learning & Development needs to be involved in the development and launch of the program.
      • Include a date to revisit your baseline retention and engagement data in your project milestones.
      • Designate process owners for new processes such as stay interviews.

      Plan for stay interviews by determining:

      • Whether stay interviews will be a requirement for all employees.
      • How much flexibility managers will have with the process.
      • How you will communicate the stay interview approach to managers.
      • If manager training is required.
      • How managers should record stay interview data and how you will collect this data from them as a way to monitor retention issues.
        • For example, managers can share their turnover forecasts and action plans for each employee.

      Be clear about manager accountabilities for initiatives they will own, such as stay interviews. Plan to communicate the goals and timelines managers will be asked to meet, such as when they must conduct interviews or their responsibility to follow up on action items that come from interviews.

      Track project success to iterate and improve your solutions

      Analyze measurements

      • Regularly remeasure your engagement and retention levels to identify themes and trends that provide insights into program improvements.
      • For example, look at the difference in manager relationship score to see if training has had an impact, or look at changes in critical segment turnover to calculate cost savings.

      Revisit employee and manager feedback

      • After three to six months, conduct additional surveys or focus groups to determine the success of your initiatives and opportunities for improvement. Tweak the program, including stay interviews, based on manager and employee feedback.

      Iterate frequently

      • Revisit your initiatives every two or three years to determine if a refresh is necessary to meet changing organizational and employee needs and to update your goals and targets.

      Key insights

      Insight 1Insight 2Insight 3

      Retention and turnover are two sides of the same coin. You can't fix retention without first understanding turnover.

      Engagement surveys mask the volatility of the employee experience and hide the reason why individual employees leave. You must also talk to employees to understand the moments that matter and engage managers to understand turnover triggers.

      Improving retention isn't just about lowering turnover, it's about discovering what healthy retention looks like for your organization.

      Insight 4Insight 5Insight 6

      HR professionals often have insights into where and why retention is an issue. Gathering detailed employee feedback data through surveys and focus groups provides credibility to these insights and is key to building a case for action. Keep an open mind and allow the data to inform your gut feeling, not the other way around.

      Successful retention plans must be owned by both IT leaders and HR.

      IT leaders often have the most visibility into their employees' personal and work lives and have a key opportunity to anticipate and address turnover triggers.

      Stay interviews help managers anticipate potential retention issues on their teams.

      Workshop Overview

      Contact your account representative for more information.
      workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

      Info-Tech AnalystsPre-workPost-work
      Client Data Gathering and PlanningImplementation Supported Through Analyst Calls

      1.1 Discuss participants, logistics, overview of workshop activities

      1.2 Provide support to client for below activities through calls.

      2.1 Schedule follow-up calls to work through implementation of retention solutions based on identified needs.
      Client

      1.Gather results of engagement survey, new hire survey, exit survey, and any exit and stay interview feedback.

      2.Gather and analyze turnover data.

      3.Identify key employee segment(s) and identify and organize participants for focus groups.

      4.Complete cost of turnover analysis.

      5.Review turnover data and prioritize list of employee segments.

      1.Obtain senior leader approval to proceed with retention plan.

      2.Finalize and implement retention solutions.

      3.Prepare managers to conduct stay interviews.

      4.Communicate next steps to stakeholders.

      Workshop Overview

      Contact your account representative for more information.
      workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

      ActivitiesDay 1Day 2Day 3Day 4
      Assess Current StateConduct Focus GroupsIdentify Needs and Retention InitiativesPrepare to Communicate and Launch

      1.1 Review data to determine why employees join, stay, and leave.

      1.2 Identify common themes.

      1.3 Prepare for focus groups.

      2.1 Conduct four 1-hour focus groups with the employee segment(s) identified in the pre-workshop activities..

      2.2 Info-Tech facilitators independently analyze results of focus groups and group results by theme.

      3.1 Create an empathy map to identify needs

      3.2 Shortlist retention initiatives

      4.1 Select retention initiatives

      4.2 Determine goals and metrics

      4.3 Plan stakeholder communication4.4 Build a high-level action plan

      Deliverables

      1.List of common themes/pain points recorded in the Retention Plan Workbook

      2.Plan for focus groups documented in the Focus Group Guide

      1.Focus group feedback

      2.Focus group feedback analyzed and organized by themes

      1.Employee needs and shortlist of initiatives to address them1.Finalized list of retention initiatives

      Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

      DIY Toolkit

      “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

      Guided Implementation

      “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

      Workshop

      “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

      Consulting

      “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

      Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Jeff Bonnell
      VP HR
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Phillip Kotanidis
      CHRO
      Michael Garron Hospital

      Michael McGuire
      Director, Organizational Development
      William Osler Health System

      Dr. Iris Ware
      Chief Learning Officer
      City of Detroit

      Richard P. Finnegan
      CEO
      C-Suite Analytics

      Dr. Thomas Lee
      Professor of Management
      University of Washington

      Jane Moughon
      Specialist in increasing profits, reducing turnover, and maximizing human potential in manufacturing companies

      Lisa Kaste
      Former HR Director
      Citco

      Piyush Mathur
      Head of Workforce Analytics
      Johnson & Johnson

      Gregory P. Smith
      CEO
      Chart Your Course

      Works Cited

      "17 Surprising Statistics about Employee Retention." TINYpulse, 8 Sept. 2020. Web.
      "2020 Job Seeker Nation Study." Jobvite, April 2020. Web.
      "2020 Recruiter Nation Survey." Jobvite, 2020. Web.
      "2020 Retention Report: Insights on 2019 Turnover Trends, Reasons, Costs, & Recommendations." Work Institute, 2020. Web.
      "25 Essential Productivity Statistics for 2021." TeamStage, 2021. Accessed 22 Jun. 2021.
      Agovino, Theresa. "To Have and to Hold." SHRM, 23 Feb. 2019. Web.
      "Civilian Unemployment Rate." Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2020. Web.
      Foreman, Paul. "The domino effect of chief sales officer turnover on salespeople." Mereo, 19 July 2018. Web.
      "Gross Domestic Product." U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 27 May 2021. Accessed 22 Jun. 2020.
      Kinne, Aaron. "Back to Basics: What is Employee Experience?" Workhuman, 27August 2020. Accessed 21 Jun. 2021.
      Lee, Thomas W, et al. "Managing employee retention and turnover with 21st century ideas." Organizational Dynamics, vol 47, no. 2, 2017, pp. 88-98. Web.
      Lee, Thomas W. and Terence R. Mitchell. "Control Turnover by Understanding its Causes." The Blackwell Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behaviour. 2017. Print.
      McFeely, Shane, and Ben Wigert. "This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion." Gallup. 13 March 2019. Web.
      "Table 18. Annual Quit rates by Industry and Region Not Seasonally Adjusted." Bureau of Labor Statistics. June 2021. Web.
      "The 2019 Compensation Best Practices Report: Will They Stay or Will They Go? Employee Retention and Acquisition in an Uncertain Economy." PayScale. 2019. Web.
      Vuleta, Branka. "30 Troubling Employee Retention Statistics." Legaljobs. 1 Feb. 2021. Web.
      "What is a Tenured Employee? Top Benefits of Tenure and How to Stay Engaged as One." Indeed. 22 Feb. 2021. Accessed 22 Jun. 2021.

      Drive Technology Adoption

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}111|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: Strategy and Organizational Design
      • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-organizational-design

      The project isn’t over if the new product or system isn’t being used. How do you ensure that what you’ve put in place isn’t going to be ignored or only partially adopted? People are more complicated than any new system and managing them through the change needs careful planning.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      Cultivating a herd mentality, where people adopt new technology merely because everyone else is, is an important goal in getting the bulk of users using the new product or system. The herd needs to gather momentum though and this can be done by using the more tech-able and enthused to lead the rest on the journey. Identifying and engaging these key resources early in the process will greatly assist in starting the flow.

      Impact and Result

      While communication is key throughout, involving staff in proof-of-concept activities and contests and using the train-the-trainer techniques and technology champions will all start the momentum toward technology adoption. Group activities will address the bulk of users, but laggards may need special attention.

      Drive Technology Adoption Research & Tools

      Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:

      1. Drive Technology Adoption – A brief deck describing how to encourage users to adopt newly implemented technology.

      This document will help you to ensure that newly implemented systems and technologies are correctly adopted by the intended recipients.

      • Drive Technology Adoption Storyboard
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Drive Technology Adoption

      The project is over. The new technology is implemented. Now how do we make sure it's used?

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      Technology endlessly changes and evolves. Similarly, business directions and requirements change, and these changes need to be supported by technology. Improved functionality and evolvement of systems, along with systems becoming redundant or unsupported, means that maintaining a static environment is virtually impossible.

      Enormous amounts of IT budget are allocated to these changes each year. But once the project is over, how do you manage that change and ensure the systems are being used? Planning your technology adoption is vital.

      Common Obstacles

      The obstacles to technology adoption can be many and various, covering a broad spectrum of areas including:

      • Reluctance of staff to let go of familiar processes and procedures.
      • Perception that any change will add complications but not add value, thereby hampering enthusiasm to adopt.
      • Lack of awareness of the change.
      • General fear of change.
      • Lack of personal confidence.

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      Start by identifying, understanding, categorizing, and defining barriers and put in place a system to:

      • Gain an early understanding of the different types of users and their attitudes to technology and change.
      • Review different adoption techniques and analyze which are most appropriate for your user types.
      • Use a “Follow the Leader” approach, by having technical enthusiasts and champions to show the way.
      • Prevent access to old systems and methods.

      Info-Tech Insight

      For every IT initiative that will be directly used by users, consider the question, “Will the final product be readily accepted by those who are going to use it?” There is no point in implementing a product that no one is prepared to use. Gaining user acceptance is much more than just ticking a box in a project plan once UAT is complete.

      The way change should happen is clear

      Prosci specializes in change. Its ADKAR model outlines what’s required to bring individuals along on the change journey.

      AWARENESS

      • Awareness means more than just knowing there’s a change occurring,
      • it means understanding the need for change.

      DESIRE

      • To achieve desire, there needs to be motivation, whether it be from an
      • organizational perspective or personal.

      KNOWLEDGE

      • Both knowledge on how to train during the transition and knowledge
      • on being effective after the change are required. This can only be done
      • once awareness and desire are achieved.

      ABILITY

      • Ability is not knowledge. Knowing how to do something doesn’t necessarily translate to having the skills to do it.

      REINFORCEMENT

      • Without reinforcement there can be a tendency to revert.

      When things go wrong

      New technology is not being used

      The project is seen as complete. Significant investments have been made, but the technology either isn’t being used or is only partially in use.

      Duplicate systems are now in place

      Even worse. The failure to adopt the new technology by some means that the older systems are still being used. There are now two systems that fail to interact; business processes are being affected and there is widespread confusion.

      Benefits not being realized

      Benefits promised to the business are not being realized. Projected revenue increases, savings, or efficiencies that were forecast are now starting to be seen as under threat.

      There is project blowout

      The project should be over, but the fact that the technology is not being used has created a perception that the implementation is not complete and the project needs to continue.

      Info-Tech Insight

      People are far more complicated than any technology being implemented.

      Consider carefully your approach.

      Why does it happen?

      POOR COMMUNICATION

      There isn’t always adequate communications about what’s changing in the workplace.

      FEAR

      Fear of change is natural and often not rational. Whether the fear is about job loss or not being able to adapt to change; it needs to be managed.

      TRAINING

      Training can be insufficient or ineffective and when this happens people are left feeling like they don’t have the skills to make the change.

      LACK OF EXECUTIVE SUPPORT

      A lack of executive support for change means the change is seen as less important.

      CONFLICTING VIEWS OF CHANGE

      The excitement the project team and business feels about the change is not necessarily shared throughout the business. Some may just see the change as more work, changing something that already works, or a reason to reduce staff levels.

      LACK OF CONFIDENCE

      Whether it’s a lack of confidence generally with technology or concern about a new or changing tool, a lack of confidence is a huge barrier.

      BUDGETARY CONSTRAINTS

      There is a cost with managing people during a change, and budget must be allocated to allow for it.

      Communications

      Info-Tech Insight

      Since Sigmund Freud there has been endless work to understand people’s minds.
      Don’t underestimate the effect that people’s reactions to change can have on your project.

      This is a Kubler-ross change curve graph, plotting the following Strategies: Create Alignment; Maximize Communication; Spark Motivation; Develop Capability; Share Knowledge

      Communication plans are designed to properly manage change. Managing change can be easier when we have the right tools and information to adapt to new circumstances. The Kubler-Ross change curve illustrates the expected steps on the path to acceptance of change. With the proper communications strategy, each can be managed appropriately

      Analyst perspective

      Paul Binns – Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech

      The rapidly changing technology landscape in our world has always meant that an enthusiasm or willingness to embrace change has been advantageous. Many of us have seen how the older generation has struggled with that change and been left behind.

      In the work environment, the events of the past two years have increased pressure on those slow to adopt as in many cases they couldn't perform their tasks without new tools. Previously, for example, those who may have been reluctant to use digital tools and would instead opt for face-to-face meetings, suddenly found themselves without an option as physical meetings were no longer possible. Similarly, digital collaboration tools that had been present in the market for some time were suddenly more heavily used so everyone could continue to work together in the “online world.”

      At this stage no one is sure what the "new normal" will be in the post-pandemic world, but what has been clearly revealed is that people are prepared to change given the right motivation.

      “Technology adoption is about the psychology of change.”
      Bryan Tutor – Executive Counsellor, Info-Tech

      The Fix

      • Categorize Users
        • Gain a clear understanding of your user types.
      • Identify Adoption Techniques
        • Understand the range of different tools and techniques available.
      • Match Techniques To Categories
        • Determine the most appropriate techniques for your user base.
      • Follow-the-Leader
        • Be aware of the different skills in your environment and use them to your advantage.
      • Refresh, Retrain, Restrain
        • Prevent reversion to old methods or systems.

      Categories

      Client-Driven Insight

      Consider your staff and industry when looking at the Everett Rogers curve. A technology organization may have less laggards than a traditional manufacturing one.

      In Everett Rogers’ book Diffusion of Innovations 5th Edition (Free Press, 2005), Rogers places adopters of innovations into five different categories.

      This is an image of an Innovation Adoption Curve from Everett Rogers' book Diffusion of Innovations 5th Edition

      Category 1: The Innovator – 2.5%

      Innovators are technology enthusiasts. Technology is a central interest of theirs, either at work, at home, or both. They tend to aggressively pursue new products and technologies and are likely to want to be involved in any new technology being implemented as soon as possible, even before the product is ready to be released.

      For people like this the completeness of the new technology or the performance can often be secondary because of their drive to get new technology as soon as possible. They are trailblazers and are not only happy to step out of their comfort zone but also actively seek to do so.

      Although they only make up about 2.5% of the total, their enthusiasm, and hopefully endorsement of new technology, offers reassurance to others.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Innovators can be very useful for testing before implementation but are generally more interested in the technology itself rather than the value the technology will add to the business.

      Category 2: The Early Adopter – 13.5%

      Whereas Innovators tend to be technologists, Early Adopters are visionaries that like to be on board with new technologies very early in the lifecycle. Because they are visionaries, they tend to be looking for more than just improvement – a revolutionary breakthrough. They are prepared to take high risks to try something new and although they are very demanding as far as product features and performance are concerned, they are less price-sensitive than other groups.

      Early Adopters are often motivated by personal success. They are willing to serve as references to other adopter groups. They are influential, seen as trendsetters, and are of utmost importance to win over.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Early adopters are key. Their enthusiasm for technology, personal drive, and influence make them a powerful tool in driving adoption.

      Category 3: The Early Majority – 34%

      This group is comprised of pragmatists. The first two adopter groups belong to early adoption, but for a product to be fully adopted the mainstream needs to be won over, starting with the Early Majority.

      The Early Majority share some of the Early Adopters’ ability to relate to technology. However, they are driven by a strong sense of practicality. They know that new products aren’t always successful. Consequently, they are content to wait and see how others fare with the technology before investing in it themselves. They want to see well-established references before adopting the technology and to be shown there is no risk.

      Because there are so many people in this segment (roughly 34%), winning these people over is essential for the technology to be adopted.

      Category 4: The Late Majority – 34%

      The Late Majority are the conservatives. This group is generally about the same size as the Early Majority. They share all the concerns of the Early Majority; however, they are more resistant to change and are more content with the status quo than eager to progress to new technology. People in the Early Majority group are comfortable with their ability to handle new technology. People in the Late Majority are not.

      As a result, these conservatives prefer to wait until something has become an established standard and take part only at the end of the adoption period. Even then, they want to see lots of support and ensure that there is proof there is no risk in them adopting it.

      Category 5: The Laggard – 16%

      This group is made up of the skeptics and constitutes 16% of the total. These people want nothing to do with new technology and are generally only content with technological change when it is invisible to them. These skeptics have a strong belief that disruptive new technologies rarely deliver the value promised and are almost always worried about unintended consequences.

      Laggards need to be dealt with carefully as their criticism can be damaging and without them it is difficult for a product to become fully adopted. Unfortunately, the effort required for this to happen is often disproportional to the size of the group.

      Info-Tech Insight

      People aren’t born laggards. Technology projects that have failed in the past can alter people’s attitudes, especially if there was a negative impact on their working lives. Use empathy when dealing with people and respect their hesitancy.

      Adoption Techniques

      Different strokes for different folks

      Technology adoption is all about people; and therefore, the techniques required to drive that adoption need to be people oriented.

      The following techniques are carefully selected with the intention of being impactful on all the different categories described previously.

      Technology Adoption: Herd Mentality; Champions; Force; Group Training; One-on-One; Contests; Marketing; Proof of Concept; Train the Trainer

      There are multitudes of different methods to get people to adopt new technology, but which is the most appropriate for your situation? Generally, it’s a combination.

      Technology Adoption: Herd Mentality; Champions; Force; Group Training; One-on-One; Contests; Marketing; Proof of Concept; Train the Trainer

      Train the Trainer

      Use your staff to get your message across.

      Abstract

      This technique involves training key members of staff so they can train others. It is important that those selected are strong communicators, are well respected by others, and have some expertise in technology.

      Advantages

      • Cost effective
      • Efficient dissemination of information
      • Trusted internal staff

      Disadvantages

      • Chance of inconsistent delivery
      • May feel threatened by co-worker

      Best to worst candidates

      • Early Adopter: Influential trendsetters. Others receptive of their lead.
      • Innovator: Comfortable and enthusiastic about new technology, but not necessarily a trainer.
      • Early Majority: Tendency to take others’ lead.
      • Late Majority: Risk averse and tend to follow others, only after success is proven.
      • Laggard: Last to adopt usually. Unsuitable as Trainer.

      Marketing

      Marketing should be continuous throughout the change to encourage familiarity.

      Abstract

      Communication is key as people are comfortable with what is familiar to them. Marketing is an important tool for convincing adopters that the new product is mainstream, widely adopted and successful.

      Advantages

      • Wide communication
      • Makes technology appear commonplace
      • Promotes effectiveness of new technology

      Disadvantages

      • Reliant on staff interest
      • Can be expensive

      Best to worst candidates

      • Early Majority: Pragmatic about change. Marketing is effective encouragement.
      • Early Adopter: Receptive and interested in change. Marketing is supplemental.
      • Innovator: Actively seeks new technology. Does not need extensive encouragement.
      • Late Majority: Requires more personal approach.
      • Laggard: Resistant to most enticements.

      One-on-One

      Tailored for individuals.

      Abstract

      One-on-one training sometimes is the only way to train if you have staff with special needs or who are performing unique tasks.
      It is generally highly effective but inefficient as it only addresses individuals.

      Advantages

      • Tailored to specific need(s)
      • Only relevant information addressed
      • Low stress environment

      Disadvantages

      • Expensive
      • Possibility of inconsistent delivery
      • Personal conflict may render it ineffective

      Best to worst candidates

      • Laggard: Encouragement and cajoling can be used during training.
      • Late Majority: Proof can be given of effectiveness of new product.
      • Early Majority: Effective, but not cost efficient.
      • Early Adopter: Effective, but not cost-efficient.
      • Innovator: Effective, but not cost-efficient.

      Group Training

      Similar roles, attitudes, and abilities.

      Abstract

      Group training is one of the most common methods to start people on their journey toward new technology. Its effectiveness with the two largest groups, Early Majority and Late Majority, make it a primary tool in technology adoption.

      Advantages

      • Cost effective
      • Time effective
      • Good for team building

      Disadvantages

      • Single method may not work for all
      • Difficult to create single learning pace for all

      Best to worst candidates

      • Early Majority: Receptive. The formality of group training will give confidence.
      • Late Majority: Conservative attitude will be receptive to traditional training.
      • Early Adopter: Receptive and attentive. Excited about the change.
      • Innovator: Will tend to want to be ahead or want to move ahead of group.
      • Laggard: Laggards in group training may have a negative impact.

      Force

      The last resort.

      Abstract

      The transition can’t go on forever.

      At some point the new technology needs to be fully adopted and if necessary, force may have to be used.

      Advantages

      • Immediate full transition
      • Fixed delivery timeline

      Disadvantages

      • Alienation of some staff
      • Loss of faith in product if there are issues

      Best to worst candidates

      • Laggard: No choice but to adopt. Forces the issue.
      • Late Majority: Removes issue of reluctance to change.
      • Early Majority: Content, but worried about possible problems.
      • Early Adopter: Feel less personal involvement in change process.
      • Innovator: Feel less personal involvement in change process.

      Contests

      Abstract

      Contests can generate excitement and create an explorative approach to new technology. People should not feel pressured. It should be enjoyable and not compulsory.

      Advantages

      • Rapid improvement of skills
      • Bring excitement to the new technology
      • Good for team building

      Disadvantages

      • Those less competitive or with lower skills may feel alienated
      • May discourage collaboration

      Best to worst candidates

      • Early Adopter: Seeks personal success. Risk taker. Effective.
      • Innovator: Enthusiastic to explore limits of technology.
      • Early Majority: Less enthusiastic. Pragmatic. Less competitive.
      • Late Majority: Conservative. Not enthusiastic about new technology.
      • Laggard: Reluctant to get involved.

      Incentives

      Incentives don’t have to be large.

      Abstract

      For some staff, merely taking management’s lead is not enough. Using “Nudge” techniques to give that extra incentive is quite effective. Incentivizing staff either financially or through rewards, recognition, or promotion is a successful adoption technique for some.

      Advantages

      Encouragement to adopt from receiving tangible benefit

      Draws more attention to the new technology

      Disadvantages

      Additional expense to business or project

      Possible poor precedent for subsequent changes

      Best to worst candidates

      Early Adopter: Desire for personal success makes incentives enticing.

      Early Majority: Prepared to change, but extra incentive will assist.

      Late Majority: Conservative attitude means incentive may need to be larger.

      Innovator: Enthusiasm for new technology means incentive not necessary.

      Laggard: Sceptical about change. Only a large incentive likely to make a difference.

      Champions

      Strong internal advocates for your new technology are very powerful.

      Abstract

      Champions take on new technology and then use their influence to promote it in the organization. Using managers as champions to actively and vigorously promote the change is particularly effective.

      Advantages

      • Infectious enthusiasm encourages those who tend to be reluctant
      • Use of trusted internal staff

      Disadvantages

      • Removes internal staff from regular duties
      • Ineffective if champion not respected

      Best to worst candidates

      • Early Majority: Champions as references of success provide encouragement.
      • Late Majority: Management champions in particular are effective.
      • Laggard: Close contact with champions may be effective.
      • Early Adopter: Receptive of technology, less effective.
      • Innovator: No encouragement or promotion required.

      Herd Mentality

      Follow the crowd.

      Abstract

      Herd behavior is when people discount their own information and follow others. Ideally all adopters would understand the reason and advantages in adopting new technology, but practically, the result is most important.

      Advantages

      • New technology is adopted without question
      • Increase in velocity of adoption

      Disadvantages

      • Staff may not have clear understanding of the reason for change and resent it later
      • Some may adopt the change before they are ready to do so

      Best to worst candidates

      • Early Majority: Follow others’ success.
      • Late Majority: Likely follow an established proven standard.
      • Early Adopter: Less effective as they prefer to set trends rather than follow.
      • Innovator: Seeks new technology rather than following others.
      • Laggard: Suspicious and reluctant to change.

      Proof of Concepts

      Gain early input and encourage buy-in.

      Abstract

      Proof of concept projects give early indications of the viability of a new initiative. Involving the end users in these projects can be beneficial in gaining their support

      Advantages

      Involve adopters early on

      Valuable feedback and indications of future issues

      Disadvantages

      If POC isn’t fully successful, it may leave lingering negativity

      Usually, involvement from small selection of staff

      Best to worst candidates

      • Innovator: Strong interest in getting involved in new products.
      • Early Adopter: Comfortable with new technology and are influencers.
      • Early Majority: Less interest. Prefer others to try first.
      • Late Majority: Conservative attitude makes this an unlikely option.
      • Laggard: Highly unlikely to get involved.

      Match techniques to categories

      What works for who?

      This clustered column chart categorizes techniques by category

      Follow the leader

      Engage your technology enthusiasts early to help refine your product, train other staff, and act as champions. A combination of marketing and group training will develop a herd mentality. Finally, don’t neglect the laggards as they can prevent project completion.

      This is an inverted funnel chart with the output of: Change Destination.  The inputs are: 16% Laggards; 34% Late Majority; 34% Early Majority; 13.3% Early Adopters; 2% Innovators

      Info-Tech Insight

      Although there are different size categories, none can be ignored. Consider your budget when dealing with smaller groups, but also consider their impact.

      Refresh, retrain, restrain

      We don’t want people to revert.

      Don’t assume that because your staff have been trained and have access to the new technology that they will keep using it in the way they were trained. Or that they won’t revert back to their old methods or system.

      Put in place methods to remove completely or remove access to old systems. Schedule refresh training or skill enhancement sessions and stay vigilant.

      Research Authors

      Paul Binns

      Paul Binns

      Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

      With over 30 years in the IT industry, Paul brings to his work his experience as a Strategic Planner, Consultant, Enterprise Architect, IT Business Owner, Technologist, and Manager. Paul has worked with both small and large companies, local and international, and has had senior roles in government and the finance industry.

      Scott Young

      Scott Young

      Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

      Scott Young is a Director of Infrastructure Research at Info-Tech Research Group. Scott has worked in the technology field for over 17 years, with a strong focus on telecommunications and enterprise infrastructure architecture. He brings extensive practical experience in these areas of specialization, including IP networks, server hardware and OS, storage, and virtualization.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      User Group Analysis Workbook

      Use Info-Tech’s workbook to gather information about user groups, business processes, and day-to-day tasks to gain familiarity with your adopters.

      Governance and Management of Enterprise Software Implementation

      Use our research to engage users and receive timely feedback through demonstrations. Our iterative methodology with a task list focused on the business’ must-have functionality allows staff to return to their daily work sooner.

      Quality Management User Satisfaction Survey

      This IT satisfaction survey will assist you with early information to use for categorizing your users.

      Master Organizational Change Management Practices

      Using a soft, empathetic approach to change management is something that all PMOs should understand. Use our research to ensure you have an effective OCM plan that will ensure project success.

      Bibliography

      Beylis, Guillermo. “COVID-19 accelerates technology adoption and deepens inequality among workers in Latin America and the Caribbean.” World Bank Blogs, 4 March 2021. Web.

      Cleland, Kelley. “Successful User Adoption Strategies.” Insight Voices, 25 Apr. 2017. Web.

      Hiatt, Jeff. “The Prosci ADKAR ® Model.” PROSCI, 1994. Web.

      Malik, Priyanka. “The Kübler Ross Change Curve in the Workplace.” whatfix, 24 Feb. 2022. Web.

      Medhaugir, Tore. “6 Ways to Encourage Software Adoption.” XAIT, 9 March 2021. Web.

      Narayanan, Vishy. “What PwC Australia learned about fast tracking tech adoption during COVID-19” PWC, 13 Oct. 2020. Web.

      Sridharan, Mithun. “Crossing the Chasm: Technology Adoption Lifecycle.” Think Insights, 28 Jun 2022. Web.

      Implement Your Negotiation Strategy More Effectively

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}225|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: Vendor Management
      • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
      • Forty-eight percent of CIOs believe their budgets are inadequate.
      • CIOs and IT departments are getting more involved with negotiations to reduce costs and risk.
      • Not all negotiators are created equal, and the gap between a skilled negotiator and an average negotiator is not always easy to identify objectively.
      • Skilled negotiators are in short supply.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Preparation is critical for the success of your negotiation, but you cannot prepare for every eventuality.
      • Communication is the heart and soul of negotiations, but what is being “said” is only part of the picture.
      • Skilled negotiators separate themselves based on skillsets, and outcomes alone may not provide an accurate assessment of a negotiator.

      Impact and Result

      Addressing and managing critical negotiation elements helps:

      • Improve negotiation skills.
      • Implement your negotiation strategy more effectively.
      • Improve negotiation results.

      Implement Your Negotiation Strategy More Effectively Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should create and follow a scalable process for preparing to negotiate with vendors, 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. During

      Throughout this phase, ten essential negotiation elements are identified and reviewed.

      • Implement Your Negotiation Strategy More Effectively – Phase 1: During
      • During Negotiations Tool
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Implement Your Negotiation Strategy More Effectively

      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 12 Steps to Better Negotiation Preparation

      The Purpose

      Improve negotiation skills and outcomes.

      Understand how to use the Info-Tech During Negotiations Tool.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A better understanding of the subtleties of the negotiation process and an identification of where the negotiation strategy can go awry.

      The During Negotiation Tool will be reviewed and configured for the customer’s environment (as applicable).

      Activities

      1.1 Manage six key items during the negotiation process.

      1.2 Set the right tone and environment for the negotiation.

      1.3 Focus on improving three categories of intangibles.

      1.4 Improve communication skills to improve negotiation skills.

      1.5 Customize your negotiation approach to interact with different personality traits and styles.

      1.6 Maximize the value of your discussions by focusing on seven components.

      1.7 Understand the value of impasses and deadlocks and how to work through them.

      1.8 Use concessions as part of your negotiation strategy.

      1.9 Identify and defeat common vendor negotiation ploys.

      1.10 Review progress and determine next steps.

      Outputs

      Sample negotiation ground rules

      Sample vendor negotiation ploys

      Sample discussion questions and evaluation matrix