Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy

Support the workforce of the future.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Focus beyond the device

It’s easy to think that if we give end users nice devices, then they will be more engaged and they will be happy with IT. If only it were that easy.

Info-Tech Research Group has surveyed over 119,000 people through its CIO Business Vision diagnostic. The results show that a good device is necessary but not enough for high satisfaction with IT. Once a user has a decent device, the other aspects of the user’s experience has a higher impact on their satisfaction with IT.

After all, if a person is trying to run apps designed in the 1990s, if they are struggling to access resources through an underperforming VPN connection, or if they can’t get help when their devices and apps aren’t working, then it doesn’t matter that you gave them a state-of-the-art MacBook or Microsoft Surface.

As you build out your end-user computing strategy to reflect the new reality of today’s workforce, ensure you focus on shifting user support left, modernizing apps to support how users need to work, and ensuring that your network and collaboration tools can support the increased demands. End-user computing teams need to focus beyond the device.

Ken Weston, ITIL MP, PMP, Cert.APM, SMC

Research Director, Infrastructure and Operations Info-Tech Research Group

Mahmoud Ramin, PhD

Senior Research Analyst, Infrastructure and Operations Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

IT needs to answer these questions:

• What types of computing devices, provisioning models, and operating systems (OSes) 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?

Your answers need to balance choice, risk, and cost.

Common Obstacles

Management paradigms have shifted:

• OSes, device management, and IT asset management (ITAM) practices have changed.
• Users expect full capabilities on any personal device.
• Virtual desktops are switching to the cloud.
• Low-code/no-code platforms allow the business to manage their own apps or comanage with IT.
• Work-from-anywhere is the default.
• Users have higher customer service expectations.

Take end-user computing beyond the OS.

Info-Tech's Approach

This blueprint will help you:

• Identify desired benefits that align to IT and corporate priorities and strategies.
• Perform a persona analysis.
• Define a vision for end-user computing.
• Define the standard device and app offerings.
• Improve the supporting services surrounding devices.
• Develop a roadmap for implementing your strategy.

A good device is necessary for satisfaction with IT but it’s not enough.

If a user has a prestigious tablet but the apps aren’t built well, they can’t get support on it, or they can’t connect to the internet, then that device is useless. Focus on supportability, use cases, connection, policy – and device.

Your challenge

This blueprint will help you build a strategy that answers these questions:

• What types of computing devices should be offered to end users?
• What provisioning models will be used?
• What operating systems are supported?
• 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?

Definition: End-User Computing (EUC)

End-user computing (EUC) is the domain of information and technology that deals with the devices used by workers to do their jobs. EUC has five focus areas: devices, user support, use cases, policy & governance, and fitness for use.

A good end-user computing strategy will effectively balance:

User Choice

Cost

Risk

The right balance will be unique for every organization.

Strike the right balance

The discussion is larger than desktop support

If IT is an influencer, then you get to drive this conversation. If IT is not an influencer, then you need to support whatever option the business wants.

Good devices are necessary for overall IT satisfaction

BUT

Good devices are not enough for high satisfaction

A bad device can ruin a person’s satisfaction with IT

Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision has shown that when someone is dissatisfied with their device, their satisfaction with IT overall is only 40.92% on average.

When a person is satisfied with their device, their average satisfaction increases by approximately 30 percentage points to 70.22%. (Info-Tech Research Group, CIO Business Vision, 2021; N=119,383)

Improvements in the service desk, business apps, networks and communication infrastructure, and IT policy all have a higher impact on increasing satisfaction.

For every one-point increase in satisfaction in those areas, respondents’ overall satisfaction with IT increased by the respective percentage of a point. (Info-Tech Research Group, CIO Business Vision, 2021; N=119,409)

End-User Paradigms Have Shifted

Take end-user computing beyond the device

Operating System - OS

Only Windows

• More choices than ever before

Endpoint Management System - UEM

Group Policy & Client Management

• Modern & Unified Endpoint Management

Personal Devices - BYOD

Limited to email on phones

• Full capabilities on any device

IT Asset Management - ITAM

Hands-on with images

• Zero-touch with provisioning packages

Virtual Desktops - DaaS

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure in the Data Center

• Desktop-as-a-Service in the cloud

Business-Managed Apps - BMA

Performed by IT

• Performed by the Business and IT

Work-From-Anywhere - WFA

Rare

• Default

Customer Satisfaction - C Sat

Phone calls and transactional interactions

• Self-serve & managing entire experience

Don’t limit your focus to only Windows and Macs

Android is the OS with the largest market share

Users and IT have more choices than ever before

Operating System - OS

Only Windows

• More choices than ever before

Microsoft is still the dominant player in end-user computing, but Windows has only a fraction of the share it once had.

IT needs to revisit their device management practices. Modern management tools such as unified endpoint management (UEM) tools are better suited than traditional client management tools (CMT) for a cross-platform world.

IT must also revisit their application portfolios. Are business apps supported on Android and iOS or are they only supported on Windows? Is there an opportunity to offer more options to end users? Are end users already running apps and handling sensitive data on Android and iOS through software-as-a-service and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) capabilities in Office 365 and Google apps?

OS market share is partly driven by the digital divide

If someone must choose between a smartphone and a computer, they go with a smartphone

IT can’t expect everyone to be fluent on Windows and Mac, have a computer at home, or even have home broadband.

Of US adults aged 18-29:

• 96% have a smartphone (the rest have cellphones).
• Only 70% of US adults aged 18-29 have a home broadband connection.

Further, only 59% of US adults making less than $30,000/year have a laptop or desktop. (“Mobile Technology” and “Digital Divide,” Pew Research, 2021.)

Globally, people are likelier to have a cell subscription than they are to have access to broadband.

Embrace new device management paradigms

Endpoint Management System - UEM

Group Policy & Client Management

• Modern & Unified Endpoint Management

Evaluate enterprise mobility management and unified endpoint management to better support a remote-first, cross-platform reality.

Client Management Tool (CMT)

CMTs such as Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr, aka SCCM) can be used to distribute apps, apply patches, and enforce group policy.

Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)

EMM tools allow you to manage multiple device platforms through mobile device management (MDM) protocols. These tools enforce security settings, allow you to push apps to managed devices, and monitor patch compliance through reporting.

EMM tools often support mobile application management (MAM) and mobile content management (MCM). Most EMM tools can manage devices running Windows, Mac OS, iOS, and Android, although there are exceptions.

Unified Endpoint Management (UEM)

UEM solutions combine CMT and EMM for better control of remote computers running Windows or Macs. Examples include:

• Windows devices comanaged by Intune and ConfigMgr.
• Mac devices managed by Jamf Pro.
• Mac devices comanaged by Jamf Pro and Intune.

Most UEM tools can manage devices running Windows, Mac OS, iOS, and Android, allowing IT to manage all end-user devices from a unified tool set (although there are exceptions).

Mobile Application Management (MAM)

MAM provides the ability to package an app with security settings, distribute app updates, and enforce app updates. Some capabilities do not require apps to be enrolled in an EMM or UEM solution.

Mobile Content Management (MCM)

MCM tools distribute files to remote devices. Many MCM solutions allow for security settings to be applied, such as encrypting the files or prohibiting data from leaving the secure container. Examples include OneDrive, Box, and Citrix ShareFile.

Adopt modern management with EMM and UEM – better toolsets for today’s state of EUC

Sacrifice your Group Policy Objects to better manage Windows computers

IT asset management practices are shifting

IT Asset Management - ITAM

Hands-on with images

• Zero-touch with provisioning packages

Supply chain issues are making computers longer to procure, meaning users are waiting longer for computers (Cision, 2021). The resulting silicon chip shortage is expected to last until at least 2023 (Light Reading, 2021).

IT departments are delaying purchases, delaying refreshes, and/or purchasing more to reserve devices before they need them.

Remote work has increased by 159% over the past 12 years (NorthOne, 2021). New hires and existing users can’t always go into the office to get a new computer.

IT departments are paying vendors to hold onto computers and then drop-ship them directly to the end user. The devices are provisioned using zero touch (e.g. Autopilot, Apple Device Manager, or another tool). Since zero-touch provisioning tools do not support images, teams have had to switch to provisioning packages.

The pandemic saw an increase in spending on virtual desktops

Virtual desktops offered powerful tools for supporting remote devices and personal computers without compromising sensitive data

Virtual Desktops - DaaS

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure in the Data Center

• Desktop-as-a-Service in the cloud

The pandemic helped cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)

Citrix saw subscription revenue increase 71% year over year in 2020 (Citrix 2020 Annual Report, p. 4). VMware saw subscription and SaaS revenue increase 38% from January 2020 to 2021 – while on-premises licensing revenue decreased by 5% (VMware Annual Report 2021, p. 40).

IT no longer needs to manage the underlying infrastructure

Microsoft and AWS are offering desktops as a service (i.e. cloud-based virtual desktops). IT needs to manage only the device, not the underlying virtual desktop infrastructure. This is in addition to Citrix’s and VMware’s cloud offerings, where IT doesn’t need to manage the underlying infrastructure that supports VDI.

Visit the blueprint Implement Desktop Virtualization and Transition to Everything as a Service to get started.

Work-from-anywhere (WFA) is now the default

COVID-19 forced this shift

Work-From-Anywhere - WFA

Rare

• Default

Be prepared to support a hybrid workforce, where people are sometimes working remotely and sometimes working in the office.

• Device provisioning and deployment need to be rethought. In-person deployment is not always possible. IT should evaluate tools such as zero-touch provisioning.
• Service desks need better monitoring and management tools. End-user experience management (EUEM) can allow you to better identify where network issues are occurring – in your data center, at the user’s house, in the cloud, or somewhere in between. Remote control tools can then allow your tier 1 to remediate issues on the user’s device.
• Apps and devices need to be usable from anywhere. Environments that rely on desktops and on-premises apps need to be rearchitected for a remote-first workforce.
• Users are living inside video conferencing tools. With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are about 145 million daily users of Microsoft Teams, almost twice the number of users in 2020 (MUO, 2021). Ensure they have the training and expertise to effectively use these tools.

“More technical troubleshooting due to users working from home a lot more. It can be more difficult to talk users through fixes when they are off site if you cannot remotely assist so more emphasis on the communication skill which was already important.” (Service Desk Institute, 2021)

Visit the Hybrid Workplace Research Center to better support a hybrid workforce.

BYOD fully includes personal computers

It’s no longer about whether IT will allow BYOD

Stop pretending BYOD doesn’t happen

Personal Devices - BYOD

Limited to email on phones

• Full capabilities on any device

• BYOD (including BYOPC) is turned on by default. SaaS tools like Office 365 are built to be used on multiple devices, including multiple computers. Further, the pandemic saw 47% of organizations significantly increase their use of BYOD (Cybersecurity Insiders, 2021; N=271).
• BYOD can boost productivity. When employees can use smartphones for work, they report that it increases their productivity by 34 percent (Samsung Insights, 2016).
• BYOD is hard to support, so most organizations don’t. Only 22% of organizations provide full support for mobile devices, while 20% provide no support, 25% provide ad hoc support, and 26% provide limited support (Cybersecurity Insiders, 2021). If smartphones and tablets are heavily ingrained in business processes, then migrating to BYOD can overload the service desk.
• Securely enable employees. Mobile application management (MAM), mobile content management (MCM), and Office 365 have gotten smarter at protecting corporate data.

Action Item: Identify how IT can provide more support to personally owned computers, tablets, and smartphones.

58% of working Americans say their work devices are “awful to work on." (PCMag, 2021)

But only 22% of organizations provide full support to BYOD. (Cybersecurity Insiders, 2021)

IT must either provide better devices or start fully supporting users on personal PCs.

Build governance practices for low-code development platforms

Managing 1,000 different apps built out on low-code business process management platforms is hard, but it’s not nearly as hard as managing 1,000 unique SaaS apps or access databases

Business-Managed Apps - BMA

Performed by IT

• Performed by the Business and IT

Pros - Opportunities

• Offers DIY to users
• Business can build them quickly
• IT has central visibility
• IT can focus on the platform

Cons - Threats

• Sensitive data can get exposed
• Users may have issues with continuity and backup
• Responding to platform changes will be potentially challenging
• Support may be difficult after the app creator leaves

Action Item: Build a governance framework that describes the roles and responsibilities involved in business-owned apps. Identify the user’s role and end-user computing’s role in supporting low-code apps.

Visit the blueprint Embrace Business-Managed Apps to learn how to build a governance framework for low-code development platforms.

Visit the Low-Code Business Process Management SoftwareReviews category to compare different platforms.

Update your customer service practices

End users expect self-service and help from tier 1

Re-evaluate how you support both corporate-issued and personal-owned computers and mobile devices

Customer Satisfaction - C Sat

Phone calls and transactional interactions

• Self-serve & managing entire experience

Microsoft’s 2019 “Global State of Customer Service” report shows that people have high expectations:

• 31% of people expect call agents to have a “deep understanding of the caller’s relationship with the company”
• 11% expect self-service capabilities

End users have the same expectations of IT, the service desk, and end-user computing teams:

• Users expect any IT person with whom they are talking to have a deep understanding of their devices, apps, open tickets, and closed tickets.
• Users expect tier 1 to be able to resolve their incidents and requests without escalating to tier 2 or tier 3 end-user computing specialists.

Most Important Aspects of Customer Service

Resolving issue in one interaction - 35%

Knowledgeable agent - 31%

Finding information myself - 11%

Not repeating information - 20%

(Microsoft, 2019)

Desktop engineering needs to shift left

Revisit what work can only be done by tier 2 and tier 3 teams

Shifting left involves shifting resolution of incidents and service requests down from more costly resources to the first line of support and to end users themselves through self-service options

• Tier 1 needs up-to-date information on the end users’ devices and open tickets.
• Users should be able to request apps and download those apps through a self-service portal, a software catalog, or an app store.
• Tier 1 needs to be empowered to remote wipe devices, see troubleshooting and diagnostics information, and resolve incidents without needing to escalate.

Action Item: Apply shift-left enablement to train tier 1 agents on troubleshooting more incidents and fulfilling more service requests. Build top-notch self-service capabilities for end users.

Work with your service desk on the blueprint Optimize the Service Desk with a Shift-Left Strategy.

Windows 11 is coming

Prepare to make the jump

The sooner you start, the easier the migration will be

• Begin planning hardware refreshes. Old computers that do not have a TPM 2.0 chip are not currently supported on Windows 11 (“Enable TPM 2.0,” Microsoft, 2021). If you have old computers that will not support the jump to Windows 11– especially given the supply chain disruptions and silicon chip shortages – it is time to consider computer upgrades.
• The end of Windows 10 is coming. Windows 10’s retirement date is currently October 14, 2025 (“Windows 10 Home and Pro,” Microsoft, 2021). If you want to continue running Windows 10 on older computers beyond that time, you will need to pay for extended support or risk those computers being more easily breached.
• Begin testing your apps internally. Run Windows 11 within IT and test whether your apps will work on Windows 11.
• Pilot Windows 11 with IT-friendlies. Find users that are excited for Windows 11 and will not mind a bit of short-term pain.
• What is your risk appetite? Risk-averse organizations will want to wait until Microsoft, DISA, and/or Center for Internet Security have published security configuration best practices.

Info-Tech’s approach

Master the ever-expanding puzzle of end-user computing

User Group Analysis

Supported Devices and Apps

Fitness for Use

Device Support

The Info-Tech difference:

1. Balance user choice, risk mitigation, and cost optimization. The right balance will be unique for every organization.
2. Standardize the nonstandard. Anticipate your users’ needs by having power options and prestigious options ready to offer.
3. Consider multiple personas when building your standards, training, and migrations. Early Adopters, Late Adopters, VIP Users, Road Warriors, and Hoarders – these five personas will exist in one form or another throughout your user groups.

Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy

Focus on the Big Picture

End-User Paradigms Have Shifted

Take end-user computing beyond the device

Operating System - OS

Only Windows

• More choices than ever before

Endpoint Management System - UEM

Group Policy & Client Management

• Modern & Unified Endpoint Management

Personal Devices - BYOD

Limited to email on phones

• Full capabilities on any device

IT Asset Management - ITAM

Hands-on with images

• Zero-touch with provisioning packages

Virtual Desktops - DaaS

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure in the Data Center

• Desktop-as-a-Service in the cloud

Business-Managed Apps - BMA

Performed by IT

• Performed by the Business and IT

Work-From-Anywhere - WFA

Rare

• Default

Customer Satisfaction - C Sat

Phone calls and transactional interactions

• Self-serve & managing entire experience

Don't just focus on the device!

Improvements in the service desk, business apps, networks and communication infrastructure, and IT policy have a higher impact on increasing satisfaction.

Impact of End-User Satisfaction of IT by Area Compared to Devices

Devices (x1.0)

IT Policy (x1.09)

Network & Communications Infrastructure (x1.41)

Business Apps (x1.51)

Service Desk (x1.54)

(Info-Tech Research Group, CIO Business Vision, 2021; n=119,409)

Build your strategy with these components...

End-User Group Analysis

• Work location
• Information interactions
• Apps
• Data and files
• Business capabilities
• Current offering
• Pain points
• Desired gains

Supported Devices & Apps

• Primary computing device offerings
• Power computing device offering
• Prestigious device offerings
• Secondary computing device offerings
• Provisioning models
• Standard apps
• Peripherals

Device Support

• Self-service
• Service Desk
• Specialists

Fitness for Use

• Organizational policies
• Security policies

Vision

...to answer these questions:

1. What devices will people have?
2. How will you support these devices?
3. How will you govern these devices?

Balance choice, risk, and cost

The right balance will be unique for every organization. Get the balance right by aligning your strategy's goals to senior leadership’s most important priorities.

• User choice
• Risk
• Cost

+ Standardize the non-standard

Have a more prestigious option ready for users, such as VIPs, who want more than the usual offerings. This approach will help you to proactively anticipate your users' needs.

+Consider multiple personas when building your standards, training, and migrations

These five personas will exist in one form or another throughout your user groups.

• Early Adopters
• Late Adopters
• VIP Users
• Road Warriors
• Hoarders

Use our approach to answer these questions:

What computers will people have?

Types of computing devices

• Power desktop
• Power laptop
• Desktop
• Laptop
• Virtual Desktop
• Thin Client Device
• Pro Tablet
• Tablet
• Smartphone

Corporate-Issued Approaches

• Kiosk – Shared, Single Purpose
• Pooled – Shared, Multipurpose
• Persistent – Individual
• Personally Owned

Supported Operating Systems

• Windows
• Mac
• Chrome OS
• Linux
• iOS/iPad OS
• Android

How will you support these devices?

Device Management

• Manual
• CMT
• EMM
• UEM
• Pooled Virtual Desktop Manager

Supporting Practices

• Self-Service
• Tier 1 Support
• Specialist Support

How will you govern these devices?

Corporate Policies

• Personal Use Allowed?
• Management and Security Policies
• Personal Device Use Allowed?
• Supported Apps and Use Cases
• Who Is Allowed to Purchase?
• Prohibited Apps and Use Cases
• Device Entitlement
• Stipends and/or Reimbursement to Users

Use our blueprint to improve your EUC practices

1. Devices
   • Corporate-issued devices
   • Standard offerings
2. User Support
   • Self-service
   • Tier 1 support
3. Use Cases
   • Providing value
   • Business apps
4. Policy & Governance
   • Personal device use
   • IT policy
5. Fitness for Use
   • Securing devices
   • Patching

Info-Tech’s methodology for end-user computing strategy

Insight summary

Once users are satisfied with devices, focus on the bigger picture

If end users are dissatisfied with devices, they will also be dissatisfied with IT. But if you don’t also focus on apps and supportability, then giving users better devices will only marginally increase satisfaction with IT.

Bring it back to stakeholder priorities

Before you build your vision statement, make sure it resonates with the business by identifying senior leadership’s priorities and aligning your own goals to them.

Balance choice, risk, and cost

The balance of user choice, risk mitigation, and cost optimization is unique for each company. Get the balance right by aligning your strategy’s goals to senior leadership’s most important priorities.

Communicate early and often with users

Expect users to become anxious when you start targeting their devices. Address this anxiety by bringing them into the conversation early in the planning – they will see that their concerns are being addressed and may even feel a sense of ownership over the strategy.

Standardize the nonstandard

When users such as VIP users want more than the standard offering, have a more prestigious option available. This approach will help you to proactively anticipate your users’ needs.

Consider multiple personas when building your standards, training, and migrations

Early Adopters, Late Adopters, VIP Users, Road Warriors, and Hoarders – these five personas will exist in one form or another throughout your user groups.

Blueprint deliverables

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

User Group Analysis Workbook

Use these worksheets to guide your analysis.

End-User Computing Ideas Catalog

Compare options for your end-user computing environment.

Standard End-User Entitlements and Offerings

Define your supported offerings and publish this document in your service catalog.

Policy Templates

Use these templates as a starting point for addressing policy gaps.

Key deliverable:

End-User Computing Strategy

Document your strategy using this boardroom-ready template.

Blueprint benefits

IT Benefits

• Deliver immediate value to end users.
• Provide the best service based on the user persona.
• Provide better device coverage.
• Use fewer tools to manage a less diverse but equally effective array of end-user computing devices.
• Provide more managed devices that will help to limit risk.
• Have better visibility into the end-user computing devices and apps.

Business Benefits

• Conduct corporate business under one broad strategy.
• Provide support to IT for specific applications and devices.
• Take advantage of more scalable economies for providing more advantageous technologies.
• Experience less friction between end users and the business and higher end-user satisfaction.

Measure the value of this blueprint

Your end-user computing strategy is an investment

Track the returns on your investment, even if those returns are soft benefits and not cost reductions

User Satisfaction

• Satisfaction with device
• Satisfaction with business apps
• Satisfaction with service desk timeliness
• Satisfaction with service desk effectiveness
• Satisfaction with IT Employee engagement

Total Cost

• Spend on each type of device
• Cost of licenses for management tools, operating systems, and apps
• Cost of support agreements # of support tickets per device per employee
• Time spent supporting devices per tier or support team
• Time spent per OS/app release

Risk Mitigation

• # of devices that are end-of-life
• % of devices in compliance
• # of unmanaged devices
• # of devices that have not checked in to management tool

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

DIY Toolkit

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

Guided Implementation

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

Workshop

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

Consulting

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

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

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 10 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

Phase 1: Set the Direction

• Call #1: Review trends in end-user computing and discuss your current state.
• Call #2: Perform a user group analysis.
• Call #3: Identify desired benefits and map to stakeholder drivers.

Phase 2: Define the Offering

• Call #4: Define standard offerings.
• Call #5: Select provisioning models.
• Call #6: Outline supporting services and opportunities to shift end-user computing support left.
• Call #7: Identify gaps in governance and policies.

Phase 3: Build the Roadmap

• Call #8: Develop initiatives.
• Call #9: Plan migration and build roadmap.

EUC Strategy Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative for more information.

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

Phase 1

Set the Direction

Set the Direction

1.1 Identify Desired Benefits

1.2 Perform a User Group Analysis

1.3 Define the Vision

Define the Offering

2.1 Define the Standard Offerings

2.2 Outline Supporting Services

2.3 Define Governance and Policies

Build the Roadmap

3.1 Develop Initiatives

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Current-state analysis
• Goals cascade
• Persona analysis

This phase involves the following participants:

• End-User Computing Team
• IT Leadership

Set a direction that will create value for IT, stakeholders, and end users

Use your insights to build your strategy

Start by downloading Info-Tech’s End-User Computing Strategy Template

1. Perform a stop-start-continue exercise for how IT supports end-user devices.
2. Perform a goals cascade to identify how the end-user computing strategy can align with and support senior leaders’ priorities and strategic objectives.
3. Perform a user group analysis to identify what IT can do to provide additional value to end users.
4. Use the results to define a vision for your end-user computing strategy and in-scope benefits.

Download the End-User Computing Strategy Template.

Step 1.1

Identify Desired Benefits

Activities

1.1.1 Assess the current state of end-user computing

1.1.2 Perform a SWOT analysis

1.1.3 Map benefits to stakeholder drivers and priorities

Optional: Identify current total cost of ownership

This step requires the following inputs:

• Current approach for end-user computing
• List of strengths and weaknesses of the current approach

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO
• End-User Computing Team
• IT Leadership
• End-User Computing Manager

Outcomes of this step

• Defined success metrics that are tied to business value
• Vision statement, mission statement, and guiding principles

Review your current state for each end-user computing practice

1. Devices
   • Corporate-issued devices
   • Standard offerings
2. User Support
   • Self-service
   • Tier 1 support
3. Use Cases
   • Providing value
   • Business apps
4. Policy & Governance
   • Personal device use
   • IT policy
5. Fitness for Use
   • Securing devices
   • Patching

1.1.1 Assess the current state of end-user computing

Discuss IT’s strengths and challenges

Review your success in responding to the trends highlighted in the executive brief.

• Start by reviewing the trends in the executive brief. Identify which trends you would like to focus on.
• Review the domains below. Discuss:
  • Your current approach
  • Strengths about this approach
  • Challenges faced with this approach
• Document the results in the “Current-State Assessment” section of your End-User Computing Strategy.

1. Devices
   • Corporate-issued devices
   • Standard offerings
2. User Support
   • Self-service
   • Tier 1 support
3. Use Cases
   • Providing value
   • Business apps
4. Policy & Governance
   • Personal device use
   • IT policy
5. Fitness for Use
   • Securing devices
   • Patching

Download the End-User Computing Strategy Template.

Consider these aspects of end-user computing in your assessment

Devices: As shown in the executive brief, devices are necessary for satisfaction in IT. In your current-state assessment, outline the principal means by which users are provided with a desktop and computing.

• Corporate-issued devices: Document the types of devices (e.g. laptops, desktops, smartphones) and operating systems that IT currently supports.
  • Strengths: Highlight user satisfaction with your current offerings by referencing recent relationship surveys.
  • Challenges: Document corporate-issued devices where stakeholders and users are not satisfied, platforms that stakeholders would like IT to support, etc.
• Standard offerings: Name the high-level categories of devices that you offer to end users (e.g. standard device, power device).
  • Strengths: Outline steps that IT has taken to improve the portfolio of standard offerings and to communicate the offerings.
  • Challenges: Identify areas to improve the standard offerings.

User support: Examine how the end-user computing team enables a high-quality customer service experience. Especially consider self-service and tier 1 support.

• Self-service: Describe the current state of your self-service capabilities (e.g. name of the self-service portal, number of apps in the app store).
  • Strengths: Outline successes with your self-service capabilities (e.g. use of self-service tools, recently deployed tools, newly supported platforms).
  • Challenges: Identify gaps in self-service capabilities.
• Tier 1 support: Document the number of end-user computing incidents and service requests that are resolved at tier 1 as well as the number of incidents and service requests that are resolvable without escalation.
  • Strengths: Identify technologies that make first contact resolution possible. Outline other items that support tier 1 resolution of end-user computing tickets, such as knowledgebase articles and training programs.
  • Challenges: Document areas in which tier 1 resolution of end-user computing tickets is not feasible.

Considerations (cont’d.)

Use cases: Reflect on how IT and end-user computing supports users’ most important use cases. Consider these aspects:

• Providing value: Identify the number of user groups for which you have completed a user group analysis. Outline your major approaches for capturing feedback, such as relationship surveys.
  • Strengths: Document any successful initiatives around stakeholder relationships and requirements gathering. You can also highlight successful metrics, such as high satisfaction scores from a team, department, or division.
  • Challenges: Identify where there are dissatisfied stakeholders and gaps in product offerings and where additional work around value generation is required.
• Business apps: Outline your major business apps and your approach to improvement for these apps. If you need assistance gathering feedback from end users and stakeholders, you can use Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment.
  • Strengths: Show the EUC team’s successes in supporting critical business apps (e.g. facilitating user acceptance testing, deploying via endpoint management tool).
  • Challenges: Name business apps that are not meeting stakeholder needs. Consider if end users are dissatisfied with an app, if IT is unable to adequately monitor and support a business app, etc.

Policy and governance: Document the current state of policies governing the use of end-user computing devices, both corporate-issued and personally owned. Review Step 2.3 for a list of policy questions to address and for links to policy templates.

• Personal device use: Explain which users are allowed to use personally owned devices, what use cases are supported, and which types of devices are supported. Also, highlight explicit prohibitions.
  • Strengths: Highlight major accomplishments with BYOD, utilization metrics, etc. Consider including any platforms or apps that support BYOD (e.g. Microsoft Office 365).
  • Challenges: Identify where there are gaps in your support for personal devices. Examples can include insufficient management tools, lack of feedback from end users on BYOD support, undefined policies and governance, and inadequate support for personal devices.

Considerations (cont’d.)

IT policies: List your current policy documents. Include policies that relate to end-user computing, such as security policy documents; acceptable use policy documents; purchasing policies; documents governing entitlements to computers, tablets, smartphones, and prestigious devices; and employee monitoring policy documents.

• Strengths: Outline the effectiveness of these policies, user compliance to these policies, and your success in enforcing these policies.
• Challenges: Identify where you have gaps in user compliance, gaps in enforcing policies, many exceptions to a policy, etc.

Fitness for use: Reflect on your ability to secure users, enterprise data, and computers. Document your current capabilities to ensure devices are adequately secured and risks adequately mitigated.

• Securing devices: Describe your current approach to implementing security baselines, protecting data, and ensuring compliance.
  • Strengths: Highlight your accomplishments with ensuring devices meet your security standards and are adequately managed.
  • Challenges: Identify areas that are not adequately protected, where IT does not have enough visibility, and devices on which IT cannot enforce security standards.
• Patching: Describe your current approach to distributing OS patches, distributing app patches, and ensuring patch compliance.
  • Strengths: Outline steps that IT has taken to improve release and deployment practices (e.g. user acceptance testing, deployment rings).
  • Challenges: When is IT unable to push a patch to a device? Outline when devices cannot receive a patch, when IT is unable to ensure patches are installed, and when patches are disruptive to end users.

1.1.2 Perform a SWOT analysis

Summarize your current-state analysis

To build a good strategy, you need to clearly understand the challenges you face and opportunities you can leverage.

• Summarize IT’s strengths. These are positive aspects internal to IT.
• Summarize IT’s challenge. What internal IT weakness should the strategy address?
• Identify high-level opportunities. Summarize positive factors that are external to IT (e.g. within the larger organization, strong vendor relationships).
• Document threats. What external factors present a risk to the strategy?

Record your SWOT analysis in the “Current-State Assessment” section of your End-User Computing Strategy Template.

Download the End-User Computing Strategy Template.

1.1.3 Map benefits to stakeholder drivers and priorities

Use a goals cascade to identify benefits that will resonate with the business

Identify how end-user computing will support larger organizational strategies, drivers, and priorities

1. Identify stakeholders. Focus on senior leaders – user groups will be addressed in Step 1.2.
2. For each stakeholder, identify three to five drivers or strategic priorities. Use the drivers as a starting point to:
   1. Increase productivity
   2. Mitigate risks
   3. Optimize costs
3. Map the benefits you brainstormed in Step 1.1 to the drivers. It’s okay to have benefits map to multiple drivers.
4. Re-evaluate benefits that don’t map to any drivers. Consider removing them.

Record this table on the “Goals Cascade” slide in the “Vision and Desired Benefits” section of your End-User Computing Strategy Template.

Use the CEO-CIO Alignment Program to identify which business benefits are most important.

Sample end-user computing benefits

Optional: Identify current total cost of ownership

Be mindful of hidden costs, such as those associated with supporting multiple devices and maintaining a small fleet of corporate devices to ensure business continuity with BYOD.

• Use the Hardware Asset Management Budgeting Tool to forecast spend on devices (and infrastructure) based on project needs and devices nearing end of life.
• Use the Mobile Strategy TCO Calculator to estimate the total cost of all the different aspects of your mobile strategy, including:
  • Training
  • Management platforms
  • Custom app development
  • Travel and roaming
  • Stipends and taxes
  • Support
• Revisit these calculators in Phase 2. Use the TCO calculator when considering different approaches to mobility and end-user computing.

Insert the results into your End-User Computing Strategy Template.

Download the HAM Budgeting Tool.

Download the Mobile Strategy TCO Calculator.

Step 1.2

Perform a User Group Analysis

Activities

1.2.1 Organize roles based on how they work

1.2.2 Organize users into groups

1.2.3 Document the current offerings

1.2.4 Brainstorm pain points and desired gains for each user group

This step requires the following inputs:

• List of roles and technologies
• User feedback
• List of personas

This step involves the following participants:

• End-User Computing Team
• IT Leadership
• End-User Computing Manager

Outcomes of this step

• List of user groups and use cases for each group
• List of current offerings for each user group
• Value analysis for each user group

Gather the information you need

Use the Application Portfolio Assessment to run a relationship survey.

Dive deeper with the blueprint Improve Requirements Gathering.

List of Roles and Technology

Organization chart: Consult with HR or department leaders to provide a list of the different roles that exist in each department.

Identity access management tools: You can consult tools like Active Directory, but only if the data is clean.

Apps and devices used: Run a report from your endpoint management tool to see what devices and apps are used by one another. Supplement this report with a report from a network management tool to identify software as a service that are in use and/or consult with department leaders.

User Feedback

Relationship surveys: Tools like the End-User Application Satisfaction Diagnostic allow you to assess overall satisfaction with IT.

Focus groups and interviews: Gather unstructured feedback from users about their apps and devices.

User shadowing: Observe people as they use technology to identify improvement opportunities (e.g. shadow meetings, review video call recordings).

Ticket data: Identify apps or systems that users submit the most incidents about as well as high-volume requests that could be automated.

1.2.1 Organize roles based on how they work

Start by organizing roles into categories based on where they work and how they interact with information.

1. Define categories of where people work. Examples include:
   1. In office, at home, at client sites
   2. Stationary, sometimes mobile, always mobile
   3. Always in same location, sometimes in different locations, always in different locations within a site, mobile between sites
2. Define categories of how people interact with information. Examples include:
   1. Reads information, reads and writes information, creates information
   2. Cases, projects, relationships
3. Build a matrix. Use the location categories on one axis and the interaction categories on the other axis.
4. Place unique job roles on the matrix. Review each functional group’s organizational chart. It is okay if you don’t fill every spot. See the diagram on this page for an example.

1.2.2 Organize users into groups

Populate a user group worksheet for each in-scope group.

1. Within each quadrant, group similar roles together into “User Groups.” Consider similarities such as:
   1. Applications they use
   2. Data and files with which they interact
   3. Business capabilities they support
2. Document their high-level profile:
   1. Where they work
   2. Sensitivity of data they access
   3. Current device and app entitlements
3. Document the resulting user groups. Record each user group on a separate worksheet in the User Group Analysis Workbook.

Download the User Group Analysis Workbook.

1.2.3 Document the current offerings

For each user group, document:

• Primary and secondary computing devices: Their most frequently used computing devices.
• Acceptable use: Whether corporate-issued devices are personally enabled.
• BYOD: Whether this persona is authorized to use their personal devices.
• Standard equipment provided: Equipment that is offered to everyone in this persona.
• Additional devices and equipment offered: Equipment that is offered to a subset of this user group. These items can include more prestigious computers, additional monitors, and office equipment for users allowed to work remotely. This category can include items that require approval from budget owners.
• Top apps: What apps are most commonly used by this user group? What common nonstandard apps are used by this user group?

Standardize the nonstandard

When users such as VIP users want more than the standard offering, have a more prestigious option available. This approach will help you to proactively anticipate your users’ needs.

1.2.4 Brainstorm pain points and desired gains for each user group

Don’t focus only on their experiences with technology

Reference the common personas listed on the next page to help you brainstorm additional pain points and desired gains.

1. Brainstorm pain points. Answer these questions for each role:
   1. What do people find tedious about their day-to-day jobs?
   2. What takes the most effort for them to do?
   3. What about their current toolset makes this user frustrated?
   4. What makes working difficult? Consider their experiences working from a home office, attending meetings virtually or in person, and working in the office.
   5. What challenges does that role have with each process?
2. Brainstorm desired gains from their technology. Answer these questions for each role:
   1. For your end-user computing vision to become a reality for this persona, what outcomes or benefits are required?
   2. What benefits will this persona expect an end-user computing strategy to have?
   3. What improvements does this role desire?
   4. What unexpected benefits or outcomes would surprise this role?
   5. What would make this role’s day-to-day easier?
   6. What location-specific benefits are there (e.g. outcomes specific to working in the office or at home)?

Record each user group’s pain points and desired gains on their respective worksheet.

For additional questions you can ask, visit this Strategyzer blog post by Alexander Osterwalder.

Info-Tech Insight

Identify out-of-scope benefits?

If that desired gain is required for the vision to be achieved for a specific role, you have two options:

• Bring the benefit in scope. Ensure your metrics are updated.
• Bring this user group out of scope. End-user computing improvements will not be valuable to this role without that benefit.

Forcing a user group to use an unsatisfactory tool will severely undermine your chance of success, especially in the project’s early stages.

Consider these common personas when brainstorming challenges and desired gains

What unique challenges will these personas face within each of your user groups? What improvements would each of these personas expect out of an end-user computing strategy?

Early Adopters

• Like trying new ways of working and using the latest technology.
• Very comfortable solving their own issues.
• Enjoy exploring and creating new ways of handling challenges.

Late Adopters

• Prefer consistent ways of working, be it tech or business processes.
• React to tech issues with anxiety and need assistance to get issues fixed.

VIP

• Has a prestigious job and would like to use technology that communicates their status.
• Does not like to resolve their own issues.

Road Warriors

• Always on the go, running between work meetings and appointments.
• Value flexibility and want devices, apps, and tech support that can be used anywhere at any time.

Hoarders

• Want to keep all their devices, data, and apps.
• Will stall when they need to migrate devices or uninstall apps and become unresponsive any time there is a risk of losing something.

Step 1.3

Define the Vision

Activities

1.3.1 Prioritize which benefits you want to achieve

1.3.2 Identify how you will track performance

1.3.3 Craft a vision statement that demonstrates what you’re trying to create

1.3.4 Craft a mission statement for your end-user computing team

1.3.5 Define guiding principles

This step requires the following inputs:

• Goals cascade
• List of benefits
• List of critical success factors (CSFs)

This step involves the following participants:

• End-User Computing Manager
• CIO
• Help Desk Manager
• Infrastructure Manager

Outcomes of this step

• End-User computing KPIs and metrics
• Vision statement
• Mission statement

1.3.1 Prioritize which benefits you want to achieve

Use the MoSCoW sorting technique

Select benefits that appear multiple times in the goals cascade from Activity 1.1.3 as well as your challenges from your current-state assessment.

1. Record which benefits are “Must Haves.” Select benefits that are most important to your highest-priority stakeholders.
2. Record which benefits are “Should Haves.” These benefits are important but not critical.
3. Record which benefits are “Could Haves.” These are low-priority benefits.
4. Record the remaining benefits under “Won’t Have.” These benefits are out-of-scope but can be revisited in the future.

Record the output in your End-User Computing Strategy Template under “Benefit Prioritization” in the “Vision and Desired Benefits” section.

Sample output:

1.3.2 Identify how you will track performance

1. List each unique high-priority benefit from Activity 1.3.1 as a critical success factor (CSF).
2. For each CSF, identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can use to track how well you’re progressing on the CSF.
   1. Articulate that KPI as a SMART goal (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timebound).
3. For each KPI, identify the metrics you will use to calculate it.
4. Identify how and when you will:
   1. Capture the current state of these metrics.
   2. Update changes to the metrics.
   3. Re-evaluate the CSFs.
   4. Communicate the progress to the project team and to stakeholders.

Record this information in your End-User Computing Strategy Template.

Sample output:

1.3.3 Craft a vision statement that demonstrates what you’re trying to create

The vision statement communicates a desired future state of the IT organization. The statement is expressed in the present tense. It seeks to articulate the desired role of IT and how IT will be perceived.

Strong IT vision statements have the following characteristics:

• Describes a desired future
• Focuses on ends, not means
• Communicates promise
• Is:
  • Concise; no unnecessary words
  • Compelling
  • Achievable
  • Inspirational
  • Memorable

Sample IT Vision Statements:

• To support an exceptional employee experience by providing best-in-class end-user devices.
• Securely enable access to corporate apps and data from anywhere, at any time, on any device.
• Enable business and digital transformation through secure and powerful virtualization technology.
• IT is a cohesive, proactive, and disciplined team that delivers innovative technology solutions while demonstrating a strong customer-oriented mindset.

1.3.4 Craft a mission statement for your end-user computing team

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 have the following characteristics:

• Articulate the IT function’s purpose and reason for existence
• Describe what the IT function does to achieve its vision
• Define the customers of the IT function
• Can be described as:
  • Compelling
  • Easy to grasp
  • Sharply focused
  • Inspirational
  • Memorable
  • Concise

Sample IT Mission Statements:

• To provide infrastructure, support, and innovation in the delivery of secure, enterprise-grade information technology products and services that enable and empower the workforce at [Company Name].
• To help fulfill organizational goals, the IT department is committed to empowering business stakeholders with technology and services that facilitate effective processes, collaboration, and communication.
• The mission of the information technology (IT) department is to build a solid, comprehensive technology infrastructure; to maintain an efficient, effective operations environment; and to deliver high-quality, timely services that support the business goals and objectives of [Company Name].
• The IT group is customer-centered and driven by its commitment to management and staff. It oversees services in computing, telecommunications, networking, administrative computing, and technology training.

1.3.5 Define guiding principles

Select principles that align with your stakeholders’ goals and objectives

Use these examples as a starting point:

Phase 2

Define the Offering

Set the Direction

1.1 Identify Desired Benefits

1.2 Perform a User Group Analysis

1.3 Define the Vision

Define the Offering

2.1 Define the Standard Offerings

2.2 Outline Supporting Services

2.3 Define Governance and Policies

Build the Roadmap

3.1 Develop Initiatives

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Defining standard device entitlements and provisioning models for end-user devices and equipment
• Shifting end-user computing support left
• Identifying policy gaps

This phase involves the following participants:

• End-User Computing Team
• IT Leadership

Step 2.1

Define the Standard Offerings

Activities

2.1.1 Identify the provisioning models for each user group

2.1.2 Define the standard device offerings

2.1.3 Document each user group’s entitlements

This step requires the following inputs:

• Standard End-User Entitlements and Offerings Template
• List of persona groups
• Primary computing devices
• Secondary computing devices
• Supporting operating systems
• Applications and office equipment

This step involves the following participants:

• End-User Computing Manager
• CIO
• Help Desk Manager
• Infrastructure Manager

Outcomes of this step

• End-user device entitlements and offerings standard

This step will walk you through defining standard offerings

You will define the base offering for all users in each user group as well as additional items that users can request (but that require additional approvals).

1. Primary Computing Device
   • The main device used by a worker to complete their job (e.g. laptop for knowledge workers, kiosk or shared tablet for frontline workers).
2. Secondary Computing Devices
   • Additional devices that supports a worker (e.g. a smartphone, tablet, personal computer).
3. Provisioning Models
   • Whether the equipment is corporate-issued versus personally owned and whether personal use of corporate resources is allowed.
4. Apps
   • The software used by the worker. Apps can be locally installed, cloud-based (e.g. SaaS), and/or virtualized and running remotely.
5. Peripherals
   • Additional equipment provisioned to the end user (e.g. monitors, docking station, mice, keyboards).

There is always a challenge of determining who gets what and when

The goal is balancing cost, risk, and employee engagement

The right balance will be different for every organization

• IT can’t always say no to new ideas from the business. For example, if the organization wants to adopt Macs, rather than resisting IT should focus on identifying how Macs can be safely implemented.
• Smartphones may not be necessary for a job, but they can be a valid employee perk. Not every employee may be entitled to the perk. There may be resentment between employees of the same level if one of the employees has a corporate-issued, business-only phone for their job function.
• The same laptop model may not work for everyone. Some employees may need more powerful computers. Some employees may want more prestigious devices. Other employees may require a suite of apps that is only available on non-Windows operating systems.

Action Item: Provide a defined set of standard options to the business to proactively address different needs.

A good end-user computing strategy will effectively balance:

• User Choice
• Risk
• Cost

Your standard offerings need to strike the right balance for your organization.

Review the End-User Computing Ideas Catalog

Compare pros and cons of computing devices and operating systems for better decision making

The catalog provides information about choices in:

• Provisioning models
• Operating systems
• Device form factors

Review the catalog to learn about items that can help your organization to achieve the desired vision from Phase 1.

As you review the catalog, think about these questions:

• What primary and secondary devices can you provide?
• What operating systems do these devices support?
• What are the provisioning models you will use, considering each model’s weaknesses and strengths?
• How can you more effectively balance user choice, risk, and cost?

Download the End-User Computing Ideas Catalog.

2.1.1 Identify the provisioning models for each user group

1. Review the definitions in the End-User Computing Ideas Catalog.
2. Build a table. List the major user groups along the top of the table and applications down the rows.
3. Brainstorm provisioning models that will be used for primary and secondary devices for each persona group.
4. Record your provisioning models in the Standard End-User Entitlements and Offerings Template.

Download the End-User Computing Ideas Catalog.

Download the Standard End-User Entitlements and Offerings Template.

Identify multiple device options

Offer standard, power, and prestigious offerings

Prioritize offering models and align them with your user groups.

• Standard device: This offering will work for most end users.
• Power device: This offering will provide additional RAM, processor speed, storage, etc., for users that require it. It is usually offered as an additional option that requires approval.
• Prestigious device: This offering will be provided to VIP users.
• Portable device: This offering is for employees within a user group that moves around more often than others. This type of offering is optional – consider having a separate user group for these users that get a more portable laptop as their standard device.

Standardize the nonstandard

When users such as VIP users want more than the standard offering, have a more prestigious option ready to offer. This approach will help you to proactively anticipate your users’ needs.

Who approves?

Generally, if it is a supported device, then the budget owner determines whether to allow the user to receive a more powerful or more prestigious device.

This decision can be based on factors such as:

• Business need – does the user need the device to do their job?
• Perk or benefit – is the device being offered to the end user as a means of increasing their engagement?

If IT gets this answer wrong, then it can result in shadow IT

Document your answer in the Device Entitlement Policy Template.

2.1.2 Define the standard device offerings

Consider all devices and their supporting operating systems.

1. On a flip chart or whiteboard, build a matrix of the supported form factors and operating systems.
2. For each cell, document the supported vendor and device model.
3. Identify where you will provide additional options.

2.1.3 Document each user groups’ entitlements

Not every persona needs to be entitled to every supported option

Use the Standard End-User Entitlements and Offerings Template as a starting point.

• Create a separate section in the document for each persona. Start by documenting the provisioning models for each type of device.
• Record the standard offering provided to members of each persona as well as additional items that can be provided with approval. Record this information for:
  • Primary computing devices
  • Secondary computing devices
• Optional: Document additional items that will be provided to members of each persona as well as additional items they can request, such as:
  • Apps
  • Office equipment

Download the Standard End-User Entitlements and Offerings Template.

Step 2.2

Outline Supporting Services

Activities

2.2.1 Review device management tools and capabilities

2.2.2 Identify common incidents and requests for devices

2.2.3 Record how you want to shift resolution

2.2.4 Define which IT groups are involved in supporting practices

Define the Offering

This step requires the following inputs:

• Standard End-User Entitlements and Offerings Template
• List of supporting devices
• Common incidents and requests
• List of supporting practices

This step involves the following participants:

• End-User Computing Manager
• CIO
• Help Desk Manager
• Infrastructure Manager

Outcomes of this step

• List of IT groups who are involved in supporting devices
• Responsibilities of each group for requests and incidents

2.2.1 Review device management tools and capabilities

Document the tools that you use to manage each OS and identify gaps

If there are different approaches to managing the same OS (e.g. Windows devices that are co-managed versus Windows devices that are only managed by Intune), then list those approaches on separate rows.

Document the results on the “IT Management Tools” slide in the “IT Support” section of your End-User Computing Strategy Template.

2.2.2 Identify common incidents and requests for devices

Analyze your service desk ticket data. Look for the following information:

• The most common incidents and service requests around end-user devices and business apps
• Incident categories and service requests that almost always involve escalations

Record the level at which these tickets can be resolved today. Ensure you include these groups:

• Tier 0 (i.e. end-user self-service)
• Tier 1 (i.e. user’s first point of contact at the service desk)
• Desk-side support and field-support groups
• End-user computing specialist teams (e.g. desktop engineering, mobile device management teams)
• Other specialist teams (e.g. security, enterprise applications, DevOps)

Record the desired state. For each incident and request, to where do you want to shift resolution?

Record this chart on the “Current State of IT Support” slide in the “IT Support” section of your End-User Computing Strategy Template.

2.2.3 Record how you want to shift resolution

Identify opportunities to improve self-service and first contact resolution.

Starting with the chart you created in Activity 2.2.2, record the desired state. For each incident and request, to where do you want to shift resolution?

• Identify quick wins. Where will it take low effort to shift resolution? Denote these items with a “QW” for quick win.
• Identify high-value, high-effort shifts. Where do you want to prioritize shifting resolution? Base this decision on the desired benefits, guiding principles, and vision statement built in Phase 1. Denote these items with an “H” for high.
• Identify low-value areas. Where would shifting provide low value to end users and/or would have low alignment to the benefits identified in Phase 1? Denote these items with an “L” for low.
• Identify where no shift can occur. Some items cannot be shifted to self-service or to tier 1 due to governance considerations, security factors, or technical complexity. Denote these items with an “OoS” for out of scope.

Use the “Opportunities to Provide Self-Service and Articles” and “Desired State” slides in the “IT Support” section of your End-User Computing Strategy Template to document quick wins and high-value, high-effort shifts.

2.2.4 Define which IT groups are involved in supporting practices

Repeat activities 2.2.2 and 2.2.3 with the following list of tasks

IT Asset Management

• Purchasing devices
• Purchasing software licenses
• Imaging devices
• Deploying devices
• Deploying software
• Recovering devices
• Recovering software

Release Management

• Testing patches
• Testing app updates
• Testing OS updates
• User acceptance testing

Managing Service Catalogs

• Defining standard device offerings
• Defining standard software offerings
• Defining device and software entitlements
• Updating published catalog entries

Knowledge Management

• Writing internal KB articles
• Writing user-facing articles
• Training specialists
• Training service desk agents
• Training users

Portfolio Management

• Prioritizing app upgrades or migrations
• Prioritizing OS migrations
• Prioritizing end-user computing projects

Step 2.3

Define Governance and Policies

Activities

2.3.1 Answer these organizational policy questions

2.3.2 Answer these security policy questions

Define the Offering

This step requires the following inputs:

• List of supporting devices
• List of persona groups
• List of use cases

This step involves the following participants:

• End-User Computing Manager
• CIO
• Help Desk Manager
• Infrastructure Manager

Outcomes of this step

• End-user computing organizational and security policies

Focus on organizational policies and enforcement

Policies set expectations and limits for mobile employees

Enforcement refers to settings on the devices, management and security tools, and process steps.

• Policies define what should and should not be done with user-facing technology. These policies define expectations about user and IT behavior.
• Enforcement ensures that policies are followed. User policies must often be enforced through human intervention, while technology policies are often enforced directly through infrastructure before any people get involved.

Use the “Policies” section in the End-User Computing Strategy Template to document the answers in this section. Activities 2.3.2 and 2.3.3 present links to policy templates. Use these templates to help address any gaps in your current policy suite.

2.3.1 Answer these organizational policy questions

Identify if there are different expectations for certain user groups, where exceptions are allowed, and how these policies will be enforced.

Entitlements

• Who is entitled to receive and use prestigious computers?
• Who is entitled to receive and use a smartphone?
• What users are entitled to a stipend for personal device use?

Personal Device Use

• What use cases are supported and are not supported on personal devices?
• What level of visibility and control does IT need over personal devices?

Acceptable Use

• Are people allowed to use corporate resources for personal use?
• What are the guidelines around personal use?
• Are users allowed to install personal apps on their corporate-issued computers and/or mobile devices?

Purchasing and Reimbursement

• Who is allowed to purchase devices? Apps?
• When can users file a reimbursement request?

Employee Monitoring

• What user information is monitored?
• When can that information be used and when can it not be used?

Use the “Policies” section of the End-User Computing Strategy Template to document these answers.

Identify organizational policy gaps

Use these templates as a starting point

Entitlements

Download the Mobile Device Connectivity & Allowance Policy template.

Purchasing & Reimbursement

Download the Purchasing Policy template.

Download the Mobile Device Reimbursement Policy template.

Download the Mobile Device Reimbursement Agreement template.

Acceptable Use

Download the General Security – User Acceptable Use Policy template.

Personal Device Use

Download the BYOD Acceptable Use Policy template.

Download the Mobile Device Remote Wipe Waiver template.

Employee Monitoring

Download the General Security – User Acceptable Use Policy template.

Visit the Reduce and Manage Your Organization’s Insider Threat Risk blueprint to address this gap.

2.3.2 Answer these security policy questions

Identify if there are different expectations for certain user groups, where exceptions are allowed, and how these policies will be enforced.

Use Cases

• What data and use cases are subject to stricter security measures?
• Are certain use cases or data prohibited on personal devices?
• Are there restrictions around where certain use cases are performed and by whom?

Patching

• Are users expected to apply OS and app updates and patches? Or does IT automate patching?

Physical Security

• What does the user need to do to secure their equipment?
• If a device is lost or stolen, who does the user contact to report the lost or stolen device?

Cybersecurity

• How will IT enforce security configuration baselines?
• What does the user need to do (or not do) to secure their device?
• Are certain users allowed to have local admin rights?
• What happens when a device doesn’t comply with the required security configuration baseline?

Use the “Policies” section of the End-User Computing Strategy Template to document these answers.

Identify security policy gaps

Use these templates as a starting point

Use Cases

Download the General Security – User Acceptable Use Policy template.

Visit the Discover and Classify Your Data blueprint to address this gap.

Patching

Download the General Security – User Acceptable Use Policy template.

Physical and Cyber Security

Download the General Security – User Acceptable Use Policy template.

Visit the Develop and Deploy Security Policies blueprint to address this gap.

For help defining your own security configuration baselines for each operating system, reference best practice documentation such as:

National Institute of Standards and Technology’s National Checklist Program.

Center for Internet Security’s solutions.

Microsoft’s security baseline settings for Windows 10 and 11 Configuration Service Providers.

Phase 3

Build the Roadmap

Set the Direction

1.1 Identify Desired Benefits

1.2 Perform a User Group Analysis

1.3 Define the Vision

Define the Offering

2.1 Define the Standard Offerings

2.2 Outline Supporting Services

2.3 Define Governance and Policies

Build the Roadmap

3.1 Develop Initiatives

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Defining initiatives for each EUC domain
• Building a customer journey map for any end-user computing migrations
• Building a roadmap for EUC initiatives

This phase involves the following participants:

• End-User Computing Team

Step 3.1

Develop Initiatives

Activities

3.1.1 Identify initiatives for each EUC practice

3.1.2 Build out the user’s migration journey map

3.1.3 Build out a list of initiatives

Build the Roadmap

This step requires the following inputs:

• User group workbook
• Migration initiatives

This step involves the following participants:

• Infrastructure Director
• Head of End-User Computing
• End-User Computing Team
• Project Manager (if applicable)

Outcomes of this step

• End-user computing roadmap
• Migration plan

3.1.1 Identify the gaps in each EUC area

Build a high-level profile of the changes you want to make

For each of the five areas, build a profile for the changes you want to implement. Record:

1. The owner of the area
2. The objective that you want to accomplish
3. The desired benefits from focusing on that area
4. Any dependencies to the work
5. Risks that can cause the objective and benefits to not be achieved

Identify the initiatives involved in each area.

Document these profiles and initiatives in the “Roadmap” section of your End-User Computing Strategy Template.

1. Devices
   • Corporate-issued devices
   • Standard offerings
2. User Support
   • Self-service
   • Tier 1 support
3. Use Cases
   • Providing value
   • Business apps
4. Policy & Governance
   • Personal device use
   • IT policy
5. Fitness for Use
   • Securing devices
   • Patching

Your initiatives may require a user migration

Plan the user’s migration journey

Consider each user group’s and each persona’s unique needs and challenges throughout the migration.

1. Preparing to migrate: The user may need to schedule the migration with IT and back up files.
2. Migrating: IT executes the migration (e.g. updates the OS, changes management tools).
3. Getting assistance: When a user experiences an error during the migration, how will they get help from IT?
4. Post-migration: How will IT and the user know that the migration was successful one week later?

Understand the three migration approaches

Online

Users execute the migrate on their own (e.g. Microsoft’s consumer migration to Windows 10).

In person

Users come in person, select a device, and perform the migration with a specialist. If the device needs support, they return to the same place (e.g. buying a computer from a store).

Hybrid

Users select a device. When the device is ready, they can schedule time to pick up the device and perform the migration with a specialist (e.g. purchasing an iPhone in advance from Apple’s website with in-store pick-up).

Be prepared to support remotely

Migrations to the new tool may fail. IT should check in with the user to confirm that the device successfully made the migration.

3.1.2 Build out the user’s migration journey map

Contemplate a roadmap to plan for end-user computing initiatives

• As a group, brainstorm migration initiatives.
• For each of the four phases, identify:
  • User activities: actions we need the user to do
  • IT activities: actions and processes that IT will perform internally
  • User touchpoints with IT: how the user will interact with the IT group
  • Opportunities: ideas for how IT can provide additional value to the end user in this phase.
• Use the example in the End-User Computing Strategy Template as a starting point.

Download the End-User Computing Strategy Template.

Embed requirements gathering throughout your roadmap

Use a combination of surveys, focus groups, and interviews

You’re doing more than eliciting opinions – you’re performing organizational change management.

• Use surveys to profile the demand for specific requirements. When a project is announced, develop surveys to gauge what users consider must-have, should-have, and could-have requirements.
• Interviews should be used with high-value targets. Those who receive one-on-one face time can help generate good requirements and allow for effective communication around requirements.
• Focus groups are used to get input from multiple people in a similar role. This format allows you to ask a few open-ended questions to groups of about five people.

The benefits of interviews and focus groups:

• Foster direct engagement: IT is able to hear directly from stakeholders about what they are looking to do with a solution and the level of functionality that they expect from it.
• Offer greater detail: With interviews, greater insight can be gained by leveraging information that traditional surveys wouldn’t uncover. Face-to-face interactions provide thorough answers and context that helps inform requirements.
• Remove ambiguity: Face-to-face interactions allow opportunities to follow up on ambiguous answers. Clarify what stakeholders are looking for and expect in a project.
• Enable stakeholder management: Interviews are a direct line of communication with project stakeholders. They provide input and insight and help to maintain alignment, plan next steps, and increase awareness within the IT organization.

Activity instructions:

1. Early requirements ideation: Identify who you want to interview through one-on-one meetings and focus groups.
2. Requirements validation and prioritization: Identify which user groups you plan to survey and when.
3. Usability testing: Plan to include usability testing during each phase. Build it into your release practices.

3.1.3 Build out a list of initiatives

Download a copy of the Roadmap Tool

On tab “1. Setup”:

• Update category 1 to be all the EUC areas (i.e. Devices, User Support).
• Update category 2 and category 3 with meaningful items (e.g. operating system, device model, persona group).

Use tab “2. Data Entry” to record your list of initiatives.

• Each initiative should have its own row. Write a high-level summary under “Roadmap Item” and include more detail under “Description and Rationale.”
• Enter each initiative’s effort, priority, and timeline for beginning. These are mandatory fields for tab “3. Roadmap” to work properly.

Use tab “3. Roadmap” to visualize your data. You will have to press “Refresh All” under Data in the ribbon for the PivotChart to update.

Copy the roadmap visual on tab “3. Roadmap” into your End-User Computing Strategy Template. You can also copy the list of initiatives over into the document.

Download the Roadmap Tool.

Summary of Accomplishment

Problem Solved

You built a strategy to improve the balance between user enablement, risk mitigation, and cost optimization. Throughout the blueprint, you identified opportunities to provide additional value to end users and stakeholders during these activities:

• Goals cascade
• User group analysis
• Definition of standard device types and platforms
• IT support shift-left analysis
• Policy gap analysis
• Roadmapping

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.

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:

Identify User Groups

Identify each user group based on the business processes, tasks, and applications they use.

Define Standard Device Offerings

Record your provisioning models for each user group and the primary and secondary devices, apps, and peripherals that each group receives.

Related Info-Tech Research

Simplify Remote Deployment With Zero-Touch Provisioning

This project helps you align your zero-touch approach with stakeholder priorities and larger IT strategies. You will be able to build your zero-touch provisioning and patching plan from both the asset lifecycle and the end-user perspective to create a holistic approach that emphasizes customer service. Tailor deployment plans to more easily scope and resource deployment projects.

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.

Govern Office 365

This project will help you conduct a goals exercise and capability assessment for Office 365. You will be able to refine governance objectives, build out controls, formalize governance, build out one pagers, and finalize a communication plan.

Research Contributors and Experts

• Steve Fox, Deputy IT Director, Virginia State Corporation Commission
• Mazen Joukhadar, TransForm Shared Service Organization
• Nathan Schlaud, PMO Senior Director, RPC Inc.
• Rebecca Mountjoy, Infrastructure Systems Manager, BlueScope Buildings
• DJ Robins, Director of Information Technology, Mohawk MedBuy
• Jason Jenkins, Tech. Specialist, Michal Baker Corp.
• Brad Wells, IT Infrastructure Solutions Architect, London Police Service
• Danelle Peddell, Director, Project Management Office, Emco Corporation
• John Annand, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group
• Allison Kinnaird, Research Director and Research Lead, Info-Tech Research Group
• Sandi Conrad, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group
• Andrew Kum-Seun, Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group
• Mark Tauschek, Vice President IT Infrastructure & Operations Research, Info-Tech Research Group

A special thank-you to 6 anonymous contributors

Bibliography

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“2021 BYOD Security Report.” Cybersecurity Insiders, 2021. Web.

Anderson, Arabella. “12 Remote Work Statistics to Know in 2022.” NorthOne, 2021. Accessed Oct. 2021.

Bayes, Scarlett. “ITSM: 2021 & Beyond.” Service Desk Institute, 14 April 2021, p. 14. Web.

Belton, Padraig. “Intel: Chip shortage will extend to at least 2023.” Light Reading, 22 Oct. 2021. Web.

Beroe Inc. “Demand for PC Components Saw a Surge Due to COVID-19, Says Beroe Inc.” Cision PR Newswire, 2 Sept. 2021. Web.

Devaraj, Vivekananthan. “Reference Architecture: Remote PC Access.” Citrix, 2021. Accessed Aug. 2021.

“Elements of the Project Charter and Project Scope Statement.” A Guide to PMBOK, 7th edition, PMI, 2021. Accessed Sept. 2021.

Elliott, Christopher. “This Is How The Pandemic Improved Customer Service.” Forbes, 2021. Accessed Oct. 2021.

“Enable TMP 2.0 on your PC.” Microsoft, Support, Aug. 2021. Web.

“End User Computing Trends to Look Out for in 2021.” Stratodesk, 30 Oct. 2020. Accessed September 2021.

“Global State of Customer Service: The Transformation of Customer Service from 2015 to Present Day.” Microsoft, 2019. Web.

Goodman, Elizabeth et al. “Observing the User Experience” A Practitioner's Guide to User Research, 2nd edition. Elsevier, 2012. Accessed Sept. 2021.

Govindarajulu, Chittibabu. “An Instrument to Classify End-Users Based On the User Cube” Informing Science, June 2002. Accessed September 2021.

Griffith, Eric. “Remote Employees to Bosses: Our PCs Suck!” PCMag, 11 Oct. 2021. Web.

Hutchings, Jeffrey D., and Craig A. de Ridder. “Impact of Remote Working on End User Computing Solutions and Services.” Pillsbury, 2021. Accessed Sept. 2021

“ITIL4 Create, Deliver, and Support.” Axelos, 2020. Accessed Sept. 2021.

“ITIL4 Drive Stakeholder Value” Axelos, 2020. Accessed Sept. 2021.

Mcbride, Neil, and Trevor Wood-Harper. “Towards User-Oriented Control of End-User Computing in Large Organizations” Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 33-41, 2002. Accessed September 2021.

““Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager Documentation.” Microsoft Docs, Microsoft, 2021. Accessed Sept. 2021.

“Microsoft Intune documentation.” Microsoft Docs, Microsoft. Accessed Sept. 2021.

“Mobile Cellular Subscriptions (per 100 People).” The World Bank, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database, 2020. Web.

Morgan, Jacob. “The Employee Experience Advantage: How to Win the War for Talent by Giving Employees the Workspaces they Want, the Tools they Need, and a Culture They Can Celebrate.” Wiley, 2017. Accessed Sept. 2021.

Murphy, Anna. “How the pandemic has changed customer support forever.” Intercom, 2021. Accessed Sept. 2021.

“Operating System Market Share Worldwide, Jan 2021-Jan 2022.” StatCounter GlobalStats, 2022. Web.

“Operating System Market Share Worldwide, Jan-Dec 2011.” StatCounter GlobalStats, 2012. Web.

Pereira, Karla Susiane, et al. “A Taxonomy to Classify Risk End-User Profile in Interaction with the Computing Environment.” In: Tryfonas T. (eds.) Human Aspects of Information Security, Privacy, and Trust. HAS 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 9750. Accessed Sept. 2021.

Perrin, Andrew. “Mobile Technology and Home Broadband 2020.” Pew Research Center, 3 June 2021. Web.

Quan-Haase, Anabel. “Technology and Society: Social Networks, Power, and Inequality” Oxford University Press, 2012. Accessed Aug. 2021.

Reed, Karin, and Joseph Allen. “Suddenly Virtual: Making Remote Meetings Work.” Wiley, 2021. Accessed Aug. 2021.

Rockart, John F., and Lauren S. Flannery. “The management of end user computing.” Communications of the ACM, vol. 26, no. 10, Oct. 1983. Accessed September 2021.

Turek, Melanie. “Employees Say Smartphones Boost Productivity by 34 Percent: Frost & Sullivan Research.” Samsung Insights, 3 Aug. 2016. Web.

Vladimirskiy, Vadim. “Windows 365 vs. Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) – Comparing Two DaaS Products.” Nerdio, 2021. Accessed Aug. 2021.

“VMware 2021 Annual Report.” VMware, Financial Document Library, 2021. Web.

VMworld 2021, Oct. 2021.

Vogels, Emily A. “Digital divide persists even as americans with lower incomes make gains in tech adoption.” Pew Research Center, 22 June 2021. Web.

“What is End-User computing?” VMware, 2021. Accessed Aug. 2021.

“Windows 10 Home and Pro.” Microsoft, Docs, 2021. Web.

Zibreg, Christian. “Microsoft 365 Now Boasts Over 50 Million Subscribers.” MUD, 29 April 2021. Web.

Enterprise Network Design Considerations

It is not just about connectivity.

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

Connectivity and security are tightly coupled

Security, risk, and trust models play into how networks are designed and deployed. If these models are not considered during network design, band-aids and workarounds will be deployed to achieve the needed goals, potentially bypassing network controls.

Many services are no longer within the network

The cloud “gold rush” has made it attractive for many enterprises to migrate services off the traditional network and into the cloud. These services are now outside of the traditional network and associated controls. This shifts the split of east-west vs. north-south traffic patterns, as well as extending the network to encompass services outside of enterprise IT’s locus of control.

Users are demanding an anywhere, any device access model

Where users access enterprise data or services and from which devices dictate the connectivity needed. With the increasing shift of work that the business is completing remotely, not all devices and data paths will be under the control of IT. This shift does not allow IT to abdicate from the responsibility to provide a secure network.

Enterprise networks are changing

The new network reality

The enterprise network of 2020 and beyond is changing:

• Services are becoming more distributed.
• The number of services provided “off network” is growing.
• Users are more often remote.
• Security threats are rapidly escalating.

The above statements are all accurate for enterprise networks, though each potentially to differing levels depending on the business being supported by the network. Depending on how affected the network in question currently is and will be in the near future, there are different common network archetypes that are best able to address these concerns while delivering business value at an appropriate price point.

High-Level Design Considerations

1. Understand Business Needs

Understand what the business needs are and where users and resources are located.

2. Define Your Trust Model

Trust is a spectrum and tied tightly to security.

3. Align With an Archetype

How will the network be deployed?

4. Understand Available Tooling

What tools are in the market to help achieve design principles?

Understand business needs

Mission

Never ignore the basics. Start with revisiting the mission and vision of the business to address relevant needs.

Users

Identify where users will be accessing services from. Remote vs. “on net” is a design consideration now more than ever.

Resources

Identify required resources and their locations, on net vs. cloud.

Controls

Identify required controls in order to define control points and solutions.

Define a trust model

Trust is a spectrum

• There is a spectrum of trust, from fully trusted to not trusted at all. Each organization must decide for their network (or each area thereof) the appropriate level of trust to assign.
• The ease of network design and deployment is directly proportional to the trust spectrum.
• When resources and users are outside of direct IT control, the level of appropriate trust should be examined closely.

Implicit

Trust everything within the network. Security is perimeter based and designed to stop external actors from entering the large trusted zone.

Controlled

Multiple zones of trust within the network. Segmentation is a standard practice to separate areas of higher and lower trust.

Zero

Verify trust. The network is set up to recognize and support the principle of least privilege where only required access is supported.

Align with an archetype

Archetypes are a good guide

• Using a defined archetype as a guiding principle in network design can help clarify appropriate tools or network structures.
• Different aspects of a network can have different archetypes where appropriate (e.g. IT vs. OT [operational technology] networks).

Traditional

Services are provided from within the traditional network boundaries and security is provided at the network edge.

Hybrid

Services are provided both externally and from within the traditional network boundaries, and security is primarily at the network edge.

Inverted

Services are provided primarily externally, and security is cloud centric.

Traditional networks

Resources within network boundaries

Moat and castle security perimeter

Abstract

A traditional network is one in which there are clear boundaries defined by a security perimeter. Trust can be applied within the network boundaries as appropriate, and traffic is generally routed through internally deployed control points that may be centralized. Traditional networks commonly include large firewalls and other “big iron” security and control devices.

Network Design Tenets

• The full network path from resource to user is designed, deployed, and controlled by IT.
• Users external to the network must first connect to the network to gain access to resources.
• Security, risk, and trust controls will be implemented by internal enterprise hardware/software devices.

Control

In the traditional network, it is assumed that all required control points can be adequately deployed across hardware/software that is “on prem” and under the control of central IT.

Info-Tech Insight

With increased cloud services provided to end users, this network is now more commonly used in data centers or OT networks.

Traditional networks

Defining Characteristics

• Traffic flows in a defined path under the control of IT to and from central IT resources.
• Due to visibility into, and the control of, the traffic between the end user and resources, IT can relatively simply implement the required security controls on owned hardware.

Common Components

• Traditional offices
• Remote users/road warriors
• Private data center/colocation space

Hybrid networks

Resources internal and external to network

Network security perimeter combined with cloud protection

Abstract

A hybrid network is one that combines elements of a traditional network with cloud resources. As some of these resources are not fully under the control of IT and may be completely “offnet” or loosely coupled to the on-premises network, the security boundaries and control points are less likely to be centralized. Hybrid networks allow the flexibility and speed of cloud deployment without leaving behind traditional network constructs. This generally makes them expensive to secure and maintain.

Network Design Tenets

• The network path from resource to user may not be in IT’s locus of control.
• Users external to the network must first connect to the network to gain access to internal resources but may directly access publicly hosted ones.
• Security, risk, and trust controls may potentially be implemented by a mixture of internal enterprise hardware/software devices and external control points.

Control

The hallmark of a hybrid network is the blending of public and private resources. This blending tends to necessitate both public and private points of control that may not be homogenous.

Info-Tech Insight

With multiple control points to address, take care in simplifying designs while addressing all concerns to ease operational load.

Hybrid networks

Defining Characteristics

• Traffic flows to central resources across a defined path under the control of IT.
• Traffic to cloud assets may be partially under the control of IT.
• For central resources, the traffic to and from the end user can have the required security controls relatively simply implemented on owned hardware.
• For public cloud assets, IT may or may not have some control over part of the path.

Common Components

• Traditional offices
• Remote users/road warriors
• Private data center/colocation space
• Public cloud assets (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS)

Inverted perimeter

Resources primarily external to the network

Security control points are cloud centric

Abstract

An inverted perimeter network is one in which security and control points cover the entire workflow, on or off net, from the consumer of services through to the services themselves with zero trust. Since the control plane is designed to encompass the workflow in a secure manner, much of the underlying connectivity can be abstracted. In an extreme version of this deployment, IT would abstract end-user access, and any cloud-based or on-premises resources would be securely published through the control plane with context-aware precision access.

Network Design Tenets

• The network path from resource to user is abstracted and controlled by IT through services like secure access service edge (SASE).
• Users only need internet access and appropriate credentials to gain access to resources.
• Security, risk, and trust controls will be implemented through external cloud based services.

Control

An inverted network abstracts the lower-layer connectivity away and focuses on implementing a cloud-based zero trust control plane.

Info-Tech Insight

This model is extremely attractive for organizations that consume primarily cloud services and have a large remote work force.

Inverted networks

Defining Characteristics

• The end user does not have to be in a defined location.
• All central resources that are to be accessed are hosted on cloud resources.
• IT has little to no control of the path between the end user and central resources.

Common Components

• Traditional offices
• Regent offices/shared workspaces
• Remote users/road warriors
• Public cloud assets (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS)

Understand available tooling

Don’t buy a hammer and go looking for nails

• A network archetype must be defined in order to understand what tools (hardware or software) are appropriate for consideration in a network build or refresh.
• Tools are purpose built and generally designed to solve specific problems if implemented and operated correctly. Choose the tools to align with the challenges that you are solving as opposed to choosing tools and then trying to use those purchases to overcome challenges.
• The purchase of a tool does not allow for abdication of proper design. Tools must be chosen appropriately and integrated properly to orchestrate the best solutions. Purchasing a tool and expecting the tool to solve all your issues rarely succeeds.

“It is essential to have good tools, but it is also essential that the tools should be used in the right way.” — Wallace D. Wattles

Software-defined WAN (SD-WAN)

Simplified branch office connectivity

Archetype Value: Traditional Networks

What It Is Not

SD-WAN is generally not a way to slash spending by lowering WAN circuit costs. Though it is traditionally deployed across lower cost access, to minimize risk and realize the most benefits from the platform many organizations install multiple circuits with greater bandwidths at each endpoint when replacing the more costly traditional circuits. Though this maximizes the value of the technology investment, it will result in the end cost being similar to the traditional cost plus or minus a small percentage.

What It Is

SD-WAN is a subset of software-defined networking (SDN) designed specifically to deploy a secure, centrally managed, connectivity agnostic, overlay network connecting multiple office locations. This technology can be used to replace, work in concert with, or augment more traditional costly connectivity such as MPLS or private point to point (PtP) circuits. In addition to the secure overlay, SD-WAN usually also enables policy-based, intelligent controls, based on traffic and circuit intelligence.

Why Use It

You have multiple endpoint locations connected by expensive lower bandwidth traditional circuits. Your target is to increase visibility and control while controlling costs if and where possible. Ease of centralized management and the ability to more rapidly turn up new locations are attractive.

Cloud access security broker (CASB)

Inline policy enforcement placed between users and cloud services

Archetype Value: Hybrid Networks

What It Is Not

CASBs do not provide network protection; they are designed to provide compliance and enforcement of rules. Though CASBs are designed to give visibility and control into cloud traffic, they have limits to the data that they generally ingest and utilize. A CASB does not gather or report on cloud usage details, licencing information, financial costing, or whether the cloud resource usage is aligned with the deployment purpose.

What It Is

A CASB is designed to establish security controls beyond a company’s environment. It is commonly deployed to augment traditional solutions to extend visibility and control into the cloud. To protect assets in the cloud, CASBs are designed to provide central policy control and apply services primarily in the areas of visibility, data security, threat protection, and compliance.

Why Use It

You a mixture of on-premises and cloud assets. In moving assets out to the cloud, you have lost the traditional controls that were implemented in the data center. You now need to have visibility and apply controls to the usage of these cloud assets.

Secure access service edge (SASE)

Convergence of security and service access in the cloud

Archetype Value: Inverted Networks

What It Is Not

Though the service will consist of many service offerings, SASE is not multiple services strung together. To present the value proposed by this platform, all functionality proposed must be provided by a single platform under a “single pane of glass.” SASE is not a mature and well-established service. The market is still solidifying, and the full-service definition remains somewhat fluid.

What It Is

SASE exists at the intersection of network-as-a-service and network-security-as-a-service. It is a superset of many network and security cloud offerings such as CASB, secure web gateway, SD-WAN, and WAN optimization. Any services offered by a SASE provider will be cloud hosted, presented in a single stack, and controlled through a single pane of glass.

Why Use It

Your network is inverting, and services are provided primarily as cloud assets. In a full realization of this deployment’s value, you would abstract how and where users gain initial network access yet remain in control of the communications and data flow.

Activity

Understand your enterprise network options

Activity: Network assessment in an hour

• Learn about the Enterprise Network Roadmap Technology Assessment Tool
• Complete the Enterprise Network Roadmap Technology Assessment Tool

This activity involves the following participants:

• IT strategic direction decision makers.
• IT managers responsible for network.
• Organizations evaluating platforms for mission critical applications.

Outcomes of this step:

• Completed Enterprise Network Roadmap Technology Assessment Tool

Info-Tech Insight

Review your design options with security and compliance in mind. Infrastructure is no longer a standalone entity and now tightly integrates with software-defined networks and security solutions.

Build an assessment in an hour

Learn about the Enterprise Network Roadmap Technology Assessment Tool.

This workbook provides a high-level analysis of a technology’s readiness for adoption based on your organization’s needs.

• The workbook then places the technology on a graph that measures both the readiness and fit for your organization. In addition, it provides warnings for specific issues and lets you know if you have considerable uncertainty in your answers.
• At a glance you can now communicate what you are doing to help the company:
  • Grow
  • Save money
  • Reduce risk
• Regardless of your specific audience, these are important stories to be able to tell.

Build an assessment in an hour

Complete the Enterprise Network Roadmap Technology Assessment Tool.

Dispense with detailed analysis and customizations to present a quick snapshot of the road ahead.

1. Weightings: Adjust the Weighting tab to meet organizational needs. The provided weightings for the overall solution areas are based on a generic firm; individual firms will have different needs.
2. Data Entry: For each category, answer the questions for the technology you are considering. When you have completed the questionnaire, go to the next tab for the results.
3. Results: The Enterprise Network Roadmap Technology Assessment Tool provides a value versus readiness assessment of your chosen technology customized to your organization.

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.

Drive Successful Sourcing Outcomes With a Robust RFP Process

Leverage your vendor sourcing process to get better results.

Research Authors

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.

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) startups.

Bibliography

Ahlgren, Bengt. “Design considerations for a network of information.” ACM Digital Library, 21 Dec. 2008.

Cox Business. “Digital transformation is here. Is your business ready to upgrade your mobile work equation?” BizJournals, 1 April 2022. Accessed April 2022.

Elmore, Ed. “Benefits of integrating security and networking with SASE.” Tech Radar, 1 April 2022. Web.

Greenfield, Dave. “From SD-WAN to SASE: How the WAN Evolution is Progressing.” Cato Networks, 19 May 2020. Web

Korolov, Maria. “What is SASE? A cloud service that marries SD-WAN with security.” Network World, 7 Sept. 2020. Web.

Korzeniowski, Paul, “CASB tools evolve to meet broader set of cloud security needs.” TechTarget, 26 July 2019. Accessed March 2022.

Redesign Your IT Organizational Structure

Designing an IT structure that will enable your strategic vision is not about an org chart – it’s about how you work.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Structure enables strategy.

Allison Straker

Research Director,

Organizational Transformation

Brittany Lutes

Senior Research Analyst,

Organizational Transformation

An organizational structure is much more than a chart with titles and names. It defines the way that the organization operates on a day-to-day basis to enable the successful delivery of the organization’s information and technology objectives. Moreover, organizational design sees beyond the people that might be performing a specific role. People and role titles will and often do change frequently. Those are the dynamic elements of organizational design that allow your organization to scale and meet specific objectives at defined points of time. Capabilities, on the other hand, are focused and related to specific IT processes.

Redesigning an IT organizational structure can be a small or large change transformation for your organization. Create a structure that is equally mindful of the opportunities and the constraints that might exist and ensure it will drive the organization towards its vision with a successful implementation. If everyone understands why the IT organization needs to be structured that way, they are more likely to support and adopt the behaviors required to operate in the new structure.

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Your organization needs to reorganize itself because:

• The current IT structure does not align to the strategic objectives of the organization.
• There are inefficiencies in how the IT function is currently operating.
• IT employees are unclear about their role and responsibilities, leading to inconsistencies.
• New capabilities or a change in how the capabilities are organized is required to support the transformation.

Common Obstacles

Many organizations struggle when it comes redesigning their IT organizational structure because they:

• Jump right into creating the new organizational chart.
• Do not include the members of the IT leadership team in the changes.
• Do not include the business in the changes.
• Consider the context in which the change will take place and how to enable successful adoption.

Info-Tech’s Approach

Successful IT organization redesign includes:

• Understanding the drivers, context, and strategies that will inform the structure.
• Remaining objective by focusing on capabilities over people or roles.
• Identifying gaps in delivery, sourcing strategies, customers, and degrees of centralization.
• Remembering that organizational design is a change initiative and will require buy-in.

Info-Tech Insight

A successful redesign requires a strong foundation and a plan to ensure successful adoption. Without these, the organizational chart has little meaning or value.

Your challenge

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

• Redesign the IT structure to align to the strategic objectives of the enterprise.
• Increase the effectiveness in how the IT function is operating in the organization.
• Provide clarity to employees around their roles and responsibilities.
• Ensure there is an ability to support new IT capabilities and/or align capabilities to better support the direction of the organization.
• Align the IT organization to support a business transformation such as becoming digitally enabled or engaging in M&A activities.

Organizational design is a challenge for many IT and digital executives

69% of digital executives surveyed indicated challenges related to structure, team silos, business-IT alignment, and required roles when executing on a digital strategy.

Source: MIT Sloan, 2020

Common obstacles

These barriers make IT organizational redesign difficult to address for many organizations:

• Confuse organizational design and organizational charts as the same thing.
• Start with the organizational chart, not taking into consideration the foundational elements that will make that chart successful.
• Fail to treat organizational redesign as a change management initiative and follow through with the change.
• Exclude impacted or influential IT leaders and/or business stakeholders from the redesign process.
• Leverage an operating model because it is trending.

To overcome these barriers:

• Understand the context in which the changes will take place.
• Communicate the changes to those impacted to enable successful adoption and implementation of a new organizational structure.
• Understand that organizational design is for more than just HR leaders now; IT executives should be driving this change.

Succeed in Organizational Redesign

75% The percentage of change efforts that fail.

Source: TLNT, 2019

55% The percentage of practitioners who identify how information flows between work units as a challenge for their organization.

Source: Journal of Organizational Design, 2019

Organizational design defined

If your IT strategy is your map, your IT organizational design represents the optimal path to get there.

IT organizational design refers to the process of aligning the organization’s structure, processes, metrics, and talent to the organization’s strategic plan to drive efficiency and effectiveness.

Understand the organizational differences

Organizational Design

Organizational design the process in which you intentionally align the organizational structure to the strategy. It considers the way in which the organization should operate and purposely aligns to the enterprise vision. This process often considers centralization, sourcing, span of control, specialization, authority, and how those all impact or are impacted by the strategic goals.

Operating Model

Operating models provide an architectural blueprint of how IT capabilities are organized to deliver value. The placement of the capabilities can alter the culture, delivery of the strategic vision, governance model, team focus, role responsibility, and more. Operating model sketches should be foundational to the organizational design process, providing consistency through org chart changes.

Organizational Structure

The organizational structure is the chosen way of aligning the core processes to deliver. This can be strategic, or it can be ad hoc. We recommend you take a strategic approach unless ad hoc aligns to your culture and delivery method. A good organizational structure will include: “someone with authority to make the decisions, a division of labor and a set of rules by which the organization operates” (Bizfluent, 2019).

Organizational Chart

The capstone of this change initiative is an easy-to-read chart that visualizes the roles and reporting structure. Most organizations use this to depict where individuals fit into the organization and if there are vacancies. While this should be informed by the structure it does not necessarily depict workflows that will take place. Moreover, this is the output of the organizational design process.

Sources: Bizfluent, 2019; Strategy & Business, 2015; SHRM, 2021

The Technology Value Trinity

All three elements of the Technology Value Trinity work in harmony to delivery business value and achieve strategic needs. As one changes, the others need to change as well.

How do these three elements relate?

• Digital and IT strategy tells you what you need to achieve to be successful.
• Operating model and organizational design align resources to deliver on your strategy and priorities. This is done by strategically structuring IT capabilities in a way that enables the organizations vision and considers the context in which the structure will operate.
• I&T governance is the confirmation of IT’s goals and strategy, which ensures the alignment of IT and business strategy and is the mechanism by which you continuously prioritize work to ensure that what is delivered is in line with the strategy.

Too often strategy, organizational design, and governance are considered separate practices – strategies are defined without teams and resources to support. Structure must follow strategy.

Info-Tech’s approach to organizational design

Like a story, a strategy without a structure to deliver on it is simply words on paper.

Books begin by setting the foundation of the story.

Introduce your story by:

• Defining the need(s) that are driving this initiative forward.
• Introducing the business context in which the organizational redesign must take place.
• Outlining what’s needed in the redesign to support the organization in reaching its strategic IT goals.

The plot cannot thicken without the foundation. Your organizational structure and chart should not exist without one either.

The steps to establish your organizational chart - with functional teams, reporting structure, roles, and responsibilities defined – cannot occur without a clear definition of goals, need, and context. An organizational chart alone won’t provide the insight required to obtain buy-in or realize the necessary changes.

Conclude your story through change management and communication.

Good stories don’t end without referencing what happened before. Use the literary technique of foreshadowing – your change management must be embedded throughout the organizational redesign process. This will increase the likelihood that the organizational structure can be communicated, implemented, and reinforced by stakeholders.

Info-Tech uses a capability-based approach to help you design your organizational structure

Once your IT strategy is defined, it is critical to identify the capabilities that are required to deliver on those strategic initiatives. Each initiative will require a combination of these capabilities that are only supported through the appropriate organization of roles, skills, and team structures.

Embed change management into organizational design

Change management practices are needed from the onset to ensure the implementation of an organizational structure.

For each phase of this blueprint, its important to consider change management. These are the points when you need to communicate the structure changes:

• Phase 1: Begin to socialize the idea of new organizational structure with executive leadership and explain how it might be impactful to the context of the organization. For example, a new control, governance model, or sourcing approach could be considered.
• Phase 2: The chosen operating model will influence your relationships with the business and can create/eliminate silos. Ensure IT and business leaders have insight into these possible changes and a willingness to move forward.
• Phase 3: The new organizational structure could create or eliminate teams, reduce or increase role responsibilities, and create different reporting structures than before. It’s time to communicate these changes with those most impacted and be able to highlight the positive outcomes of the various changes.
• Phase 4: Should consider the change management practices holistically. This includes the type of change and length of time to reach the end state, communication, addressing active resistors, acquiring the right skills, and measuring the success of the new structure and its adoption.

Info-Tech Insight

Do not undertake an organizational redesign initiative if you will not engage in change management practices that are required to ensure its successful adoption.

Measure the value of the IT organizational redesign

Given that the organizational redesign is intended to align with the overall vision and objectives of the business, many of the metrics that support its success will be tied to the business. Adapt the key performance indicators (KPIs) that the business is using to track its success and demonstrate how IT can enable the business and improve its ability to reach those targets.

Strategic Resources

The percentage of resources dedicated to strategic priorities and initiatives supported by IT operating model. While operational resources are necessary, ensuring people are allocating time to strategic initiatives as well will drive the business towards its goal state. Leverage Info-Tech’s IT Staffing Assessment diagnostic to benchmark your IT resource allocation.

Business Satisfaction

Assess the improvement in business satisfaction overall with IT year over year to ensure the new structure continues to drive satisfaction across all business functions. Leverage Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision diagnostic to see how your IT organization is perceived.

Role Clarity

The degree of clarity that IT employees have around their role and its core responsibilities can lead to employee engagement and retention. Consider measuring this core job driver by leveraging Info-Tech’s Employee Engagement Program.

Customer & User Satisfaction

Measure customer satisfaction with technology-enabled business services or products and improvements in technology-enabled client acquisition or retention processes. Assess the percentage of users satisfied with the quality of IT service delivery and leverage Info-Tech’s End-User Satisfaction Survey to determine improvements.

Info-Tech’s methodology for Redesigning Your IT Organization

Insight summary

Overarching insight

Organizational redesign processes focus on defining the ways in which you want to operate and deliver on your strategy – something an organizational chart will never be able to convey.

Phase 1 insight

Focus on your organization, not someone else's’. Benchmarking your organizational redesign to other organizations will not work. Other organizations have different strategies, drivers, and context.

Phase 2 insight

An operating model sketch that is customized to your organization’s specific situation and objectives will significantly increase the chances of creating a purposeful organizational structure.

Phase 3 insight

If you follow the steps outlined in the first three phases, creating your new organizational chart should be one of the fastest activities.

Phase 4 insight

Throughout the creation of a new organizational design structure, it is critical to involve the individuals and teams that will be impacted.

Tactical insight

You could have the best IT employees in the world, but if they aren’t structured well your organization will still fail in reaching its vision.

Blueprint deliverables

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

Communication Deck

Communicate the changes to other key stakeholders such as peers, managers, and staff.

Workbook

As you work through each of the activities, use this workbook as a place to document decisions and rationale.

Reference Deck

Definitions for every capability, base operating model sketches, and sample organizational charts aligned to those operating models.

Job Descriptions

Key deliverable:

Executive Presentation

Leverage this presentation deck to gain executive buy-in for your new organizational structure.

Blueprint benefits

IT Benefits

• Create an organizational structure that aligns to the strategic goals of IT and the business.
• Provide IT employees with clarity on their roles and responsibilities to ensure the successful delivery of IT capabilities.
• Highlight and sufficiently staff IT capabilities that are critical to the organization.
• Define a sourcing strategy for IT capabilities.
• Increase employee morale and empowerment.

Business Benefits

• IT can carry out the organization’s strategic mission and vision of all technical and digital initiatives.
• Business has clarity on who and where to direct concerns or questions.
• Reduce the likelihood of turnover costs as IT employees understand their roles and its importance.
• Create a method to communicate how the organizational structure aligns with the strategic initiatives of IT.
• Increase ability to innovate the organization.

Executive Brief Case Study

IT design needs to support organizational and business objectives, not just IT needs.

INDUSTRY: Government

SOURCE: Analyst Interviews and Working Sessions

Situation

IT was tasked with providing equality to the different business functions through the delivery of shared IT services. The government created a new IT organizational structure with a focus on two areas in particular: strategic and operational support capabilities.

Challenge

When creating the new IT structure, an understanding of the complex and differing needs of the business functions was not reflected in the shared services model.

Outcome

As a result, the new organizational structure for IT did not ensure adequate meeting of business needs. Only the operational support structure was successfully adopted by the organization as it aligned to the individual business objectives. The strategic capabilities aspect was not aligned to how the various business lines viewed themselves and their objectives, causing some partners to feel neglected.

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

DIY Toolkit

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

Guided Implementation

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

Workshop

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

Consulting

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

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

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.

Phase 1

Call #1: Define the process, understand the need, and create a plan of action.

Phase 2

Call #2: Define org. design drivers and business context.

Call #3: Understand strategic influences and create customized design principles.

Call #4: Customize, analyze gaps, and define sourcing strategy for IT capabilities.

Call #5: Select and customize the IT operating model sketch.

Phase 3

Call #6: Establish functional work units and their mandates.

Call #7: Translate the functional organizational chart to an operational organizational chart with defined roles.

Phase 4

Call #8: Consider risks and mitigation tactics associated with the new structure and select a transition plan.

Call #9: Create your change message, FAQs, and metrics to support the implementation plan.

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative for more information.

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

This blueprint is part one of a three-phase approach to organizational transformation

Risk Management: Create, implement, and monitor risk management plan.

HR Management: Develop job descriptions, conduct job evaluation, and develop compensation packages.

Monitor and Sustain Stakeholder Engagement

Phase 1

Establish the Organizational Redesign Foundation

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

1.1 Define the organizational redesign driver(s)

1.2 Create design principles based on the business context

1.3a (Optional Exercise) Identify the capabilities from your value stream

1.3b Identify the capabilities required to deliver on your strategies

1.4 Finalize your list of design principles

This phase involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT Leadership
• Business Leadership

Embed change management into the organizational design process

Articulate the Why

Changes are most successful when leaders clearly articulate the reason for the change – the rationale for the organizational redesign of the IT function. Providing both staff and executive leaders with an understanding for this change is imperative to its success. Despite the potential benefits to a redesign, they can be disruptive. If you are unable to answer the reason why, a redesign might not be the right initiative for your organization.

Employees who understand the rationale behind decisions made by executive leaders are 3.6 times more likely to be engaged.

McLean & Company Engagement Survey Database, 2021; N=123,188

Info-Tech Insight

Successful adoption of the new organizational design requires change management from the beginning. Start considering how you will convey the need for organizational change within your IT organization.

The foundation of your organizational design brings together drivers, context, and strategic implications

All aspects of your IT organization’s structure should be designed with the business’ context and strategic direction in mind.

Use the following set of slides to extract the key components of your drivers, business context, and strategic direction to land on a future structure that aligns with the larger strategic direction.

REDESIGN DRIVERS

Driver(s) can originate from within the IT organization or externally. Ensuring the driver(s) are easy to understand and articulate will increase the successful adoption of the new organizational structure.

BUSINESS CONTEXT

Defines the interactions that occur throughout the organization and between the organization and external stakeholders. The context provides insight into the environment by both defining the purpose of the organization and the values that frame how it operates.

STRATEGY IMPLICATIONS

The IT strategy should be aligned to the overall business strategy, providing insight into the types of capabilities required to deliver on key IT initiatives.

Understand IT’s desired maturity level, alignment with business expectations, and capabilities of IT

Where are we today?

Determine the current overall maturity level of the IT organization.

Where do we want to be as an organization?

Use the inputs from Info-Tech’s diagnostic data to determine where the organization should be after its reorganization.

How can you leverage these results?

The result of these diagnostics will inform the design principles that you’ll create in this phase.

Leverage Info-Tech’s diagnostics to provide an understanding of critical areas your redesign can support:

CIO Business Vision Diagnostic

Management & Governance Diagnostic

IT Staffing Diagnostic

Consider the organizational design drivers

Consider organizational redesign if …

Effectiveness is a concern:

• Insufficient resources to meet demand
• Misalignment to IT (and business) strategies
• Lack of clarity around role responsibility or accountability
• IT functions operating in silos

New capabilities are needed:

• Organization is taking on new capabilities (digital, transformation, M&A)
• Limited innovation
• Gaps in the capabilities/services of IT
• Other external environmental influences or changes in strategic direction

Lack of business understanding

• Misalignment between business and IT or how the organization does business
• Unhappy customers (internal or external)

Workforce challenges

• Frequent turnover or inability to attract new skills
• Low morale or employee empowerment

These are not good enough reasons …

• New IT leader looking to make a change for the sake of change or looking to make their legacy known
• To work with specific/hand-picked leaders over others
• To “shake things up” to see what happens
• To force the organization to see IT differently

Info-Tech Insight

Avoid change for change’s sake. Restructuring could completely miss the root cause of the problem and merely create a series of new ones.

1.1 Define the organizational redesign driver(s)

1-2 hours

1. As a group, brainstorm a list of current pain points or inhibitors in the current organizational structure, along with a set of opportunities that can be realized during your restructuring. Group these pain points and opportunities into themes.
2. Leverage the pain points and opportunities to help further define why this initiative is something you’re driving towards. Consider how you would justify this initiative to different stakeholders in the organization.
3. Questions to consider:
1. Who is asking for this initiative?
2. What are the primary benefits this is intended to produce?
3. What are you optimizing for?
4. What are we capable of achieving as an IT organization?
5. Are the drivers coming from inside or outside the IT organization?
4. Once you’ve determined the drivers for redesigning the IT organization, prioritize those drivers to ensure there is clarity when communicating why this is something you are focusing time and effort on.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Communications Deck

Frame the organizational design within the context of the business

Workforce Considerations:

• How does your organization view its people resources? Does it have the capacity to increase the number of resources?
• Do you currently have sufficient staff to meet the demands of the organization? Are you able to outsource resources when demand requires it?
• Are the members of your IT organization unionized?
• Is your workforce distributed? Do time zones impact how your team can collaborate?

Business context considerations

Business context considerations

Business context considerations

Business context considerations

Business context considerations

1.2 Create design principles based on the business context

1-3 hours

1. Discuss the business context in which the IT organizational redesign will be taking place. Consider the following standard components of the business context; include other relevant components specific to your organization:

• Culture
• Workforce Considerations
• Control and Governance
• Financial Constraints
• Business Perspective of IT
• Business Organization Structure and Growth
• Sourcing Strategy
• Change Tolerance
• Stakeholder Engagement and Focus
• Business Vision, Services, and Products

Record the results in the Organizational Design Communications Deck

How your IT organization is structured needs to reflect what it must be built to do

Structure follows strategy – the way you design will impact what your organization can produce.

Designing your IT organization requires an assessment of what it needs to be built to do:

• What are the most critical capabilities that you need to deliver, and what does success look like in those different areas?
• What are the most important things that you deliver overall in your organization?

The IT organization must reflect your business needs:

• Understand your value stream and/or your prioritized business goals.
• Understand the impact of your strategies – these can include your overall digital strategy and/or your IT strategy

1.3a (Optional Exercise) Identify the capabilities from your value stream

1 hour

1. Identify your organization’s value stream – what your overall organization needs to do from supplier to consumer to provide value. Leverage Info-Tech’s industry reference architectures if you haven’t identified your value stream, or use the Document Your Business Architecture blueprint to create yours.
2. For each item in your value stream, list capabilities that are critical to your organizational strategy and IT needs to further invest in to enable growth.
3. Also, list those that need further support, e.g. those that lead to long wait times, rework time, re-tooling, down-time, unnecessary processes, unvaluable processes.*
4. Capture the IT capabilities required to enable your business in your draft principles.

Source: Six Sigma Study Guide, 2014

Record the results in the Organizational Design Communications Deck

Your strategy will help you decide on your structure

Ensure that you have a clear view of the goals and initiatives that are needed in your organization. Your IT, digital, business, and/or other strategies will surface the IT capabilities your organization needs to develop. Identify the goals of your organization and the initiatives that are required to deliver on them. What capabilities are required to enable these? These capabilities will need to be reflected in your design principles.

Sample initiatives and capabilities from an organization’s strategies

1.3b Identify the capabilities required to deliver on your strategies

1 hour

1. For each IT goal, there may be one or more initiatives that your organization will need to complete in order to be successful.
2. Document those goals and infinitives. For each initiative, consider which core IT capabilities will be required to deliver on that goal. There might be one IT capability or there might be several.
3. Identify which capabilities are being repeated across the different initiatives. Consider whether you are currently investing in those capabilities in your current organizational structure.
4. Highlight the capabilities that require IT investment in your design principles.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Communications Deck

Create your organizational design principles

Your organizational design principles should define a set of loose rules that can be used to design your organizational structure to the specific needs of the work that needs to be done. These rules will guide you through the selection of the appropriate operating model that will meet your business needs. There are multiple ways you can hypothetically organize yourself to meet these needs, and the design principles will point you in the direction of which solution is the most appropriate as well as explain to your stakeholders the rationale behind organizing in a specific way. This foundational step is critical: one of the key reasons for organizational design failure is a lack of requisite time spent on the front-end understanding what is the best fit.

1.4 Finalize your list of design principles

1-3 hours

1. As a group, review the key outputs from your data collection exercises and their implications.
2. Consider each of the previous exercises – where does your organization stand from a maturity perspective, what is driving the redesign, what is the business context, and what are the key IT capabilities requiring support. Identify how each will have an implication on your organizational redesign. Leverage this conversation to generate design principles.
3. Vote on a finalized list of eight to ten design principles that will guide the selection of your operating model. Have everyone leave the meeting with these design principles so they can review them in more detail with their work units or functional areas and elicit any necessary feedback.
4. Reconvene the group that was originally gathered to create the list of design principles and make any final amendments to the list as necessary. Use this opportunity to define exactly what each design principle means in the context of your organization so everyone has the same understanding of what this means moving forward.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Communications Deck

Example design principles

Your eight to ten design principles will be those that are most relevant to YOUR organization. Below are samples that other organizations have created, but yours will not be the same.

Phase 2

Create the Operating Model Sketch

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

2.1 Augment the capability list

2.2 Heatmap capabilities to determine gaps in service

2.3 Identify the target state of sourcing for your IT capabilities

2.4 Review and select a base operating model sketch

2.5 Customize the selected overlay to reflect the desired future state

This phase involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT Leadership

Embed change management into the organizational design process

Gain Buy-In

Obtain desire from stakeholders to move forward with organizational redesign initiative by involving them in the process to gain interest. This will provide the stakeholders with assurance that their concerns are being heard and will help them to understand the benefits that can be anticipated from the new organizational structure.

“You’re more likely to get buy-in if you have good reason for the proposed changes – and the key is to emphasize the benefits of an organizational redesign.”

Source: Lucid Chart

Info-Tech Insight

Just because people are aware does not mean they agree. Help different stakeholders understand how the change in the organizational structure is a benefit by specifically stating the benefit to them.

Info-Tech uses capabilities in your organizational design

We differentiate between capabilities and competencies.

Capabilities

• Capabilities are focused on the entire system that would be in place to satisfy a particular need. This includes the people who are competent to complete a specific task and also the technology, processes, and resources to deliver.
• Capabilities work in a systematic way to deliver on specific need(s).
• A functional area is often made up of one or more capabilities that support its ability to deliver on that function.
• Focusing on capabilities rather then the individuals in organizational redesign enables a more objective and holistic view of what your organization is striving toward.

Competencies

• Competencies on the other hand are specific to an individual. It determines if the individual poses the skills or ability to perform.
• Competencies are rooted in the term competent, which looks to understand if you are proficient enough to complete the specific task at hand.

Source: The People Development Magazine, 2020

Use our IT capabilities to establish your IT organization design

2.1 Augment the capability list

1-3 hours

1. Using the capability list on the previous slide, go through each of the IT capabilities and remove any capabilities for which your IT organization is not responsible and/or accountable. Refer to the Operating Model and Capability Definition List for descriptions of each of the IT capabilities.
2. Augment the language of specific capabilities that you feel are not directly reflective of what is being done within your organizational context or that you feel need to be changed to reflect more specifically how work is being done in your organization.

• For example, some organizations may refer to their service desk capability as help desk or regional support. Use a descriptive term that most accurately reflects the terminology used inside the organization today.

• For example, organizations that leverage DevOps capabilities for their product development may desire to designate this in their operating model.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

Gaps in delivery

Identify areas that require greater focus and attention.

Assess the gaps between where you currently are and where you need to be. Evaluate how critical and how effective your capabilities are:

• Criticality = Importance
• Try to focus on those which are highly critical to the organization.
• These may be capabilities that have been identified in your strategies as areas to focus on.
• Effectiveness = Performance
• Identify those where the process or system is broken or ineffective, preventing the team from delivering on the capability.
• Effectiveness could take into consideration how scalable, adaptable, or sustainable each capability is.
• Focus on the capabilities that are low or medium in effectiveness but highly critical. Addressing the delivery of these capabilities will lead to the most positive outcomes in your organization.

Remember to identify what allows the highly effective capabilities to perform at the capacity they are. Leverage this when increasing effectiveness elsewhere.

High Gap

There is little to no effectiveness (high gap) and the capability is highly important to your organization.

Medium Gap

Current ability is medium in effectiveness (medium gap) and there might be some priority for that capability in your organization.

Low Gap

Current ability is highly effective (low gap) and the capability is not necessarily a priority for your organization.

2.2 Heatmap capabilities to determine gaps in delivery

1-3 hours

1. At this point, you should have identified what capabilities you need to have to deliver on your organization's goals and initiatives.
2. Convene a group of the key stakeholders involved in the IT organizational design initiative.
3. Review your IT capabilities and color each capability border according to the effectiveness and criticality of that capability, creating a heat map.

• Green indicates current ability is highly effective (low gap) and the capability is not necessarily a priority for your organization.
• Yellow indicates current ability is medium in effectiveness (medium gap) and there might be some priority for that capability in your organization.
• Red indicates that there is little to no effectiveness (high gap) and the capability is highly important to your organization.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

Don’t forget the why: why are you considering outsourcing?

There are a few different “types” of outsourcing:

1. Competitive Advantage – Working with a third-party organization for the knowledge, insights, and best practices they can bring to your organization.
2. Managed Service– The third party manages a capability or function for your organization.
3. Staff Augmentation – Your organization brings in contractors and third-party organizations to fill specific skills gaps.

Weigh which sourcing model(s) will best align with the needed capabilities to deliver effectively

Your strategy for outsourcing will vary with capability and capacity

Use these criteria to inform your right sourcing strategy

2.3 Identify capabilities that could be outsourced

1-3 hours

1. For each of the capabilities that will be in your future-state operating model, determine if it could be outsourced. Review the sourcing criteria available on the previous slide to help inform which sourcing strategy you will use for each capability.
2. When looking to outsource or co-source capabilities, consider why that capability would be outsourced:

• Competitive Advantage – Work with a third-party organization for the knowledge, insights, and best practices they can bring to your organization.
• Managed Service – The third party manages a capability or function for your organization.
• Staff Augmentation – Your organization brings in contractors and third-party organizations to fill specific skills gaps.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

What is an operating model?

Leverage a cohesive operating model throughout the organizational design process.

An IT operating model sketch is a visual representation of the way your IT organization needs to be designed and the capabilities it requires to deliver on the business mission, strategic objectives, and technological ambitions. It ensures consistency of all elements in the organizational structure through a clear and coherent blueprint.

The visual should be the optimization and alignment of the IT organization’s structure to deliver the capabilities required to achieve business goals. Additionally, it should clearly show the flow of work so that key stakeholders can understand where inputs flow in and outputs flow out of the IT organization. Investing time in the front end getting the operating model right is critical. This will give you a framework to rationalize future organizational changes, allowing you to be more iterative and your model to change as the business changes.

Info-Tech Insight

Every structure decision you make should be based on an identified need, not on a trend.Build your IT organization to enable the priorities of the organization.

Each IT operating model is characterized by a variety of advantages and disadvantages

Decentralization can take many forms – define what it means to your organization

Decentralization can take a number of different forms depending on the products the organization supports and how the organization is geographically distributed. Use the following set of explanations to understand the different types of decentralization possible and when they may make sense for supporting your organizational objectives.

Line of Business

Decentralization by lines of business (LoB) aligns decision making with business operating units based on related functions or value streams. Localized priorities focus the decision making from the CIO or IT leadership team. This form of decentralization is beneficial in settings where each line of business has a unique set of products or services that require specific expertise or flexible resourcing staffing between the teams.

Product Line

Decentralization by product line organizes your team into operationally aligned product families to improve delivery throughput, quality, and resource flexibility within the family. By adopting this approach, you create stable product teams with the right balance between flexibility and resource sharing. This reinforces value delivery and alignment to enterprise goals within the product lines.

Geographical

Geographical decentralization reflects a shift from centralized to regional influences. When teams are in different locations, they can experience a number of roadblocks to effective communication (e.g. time zones, regulatory differences in different countries) that may necessitate separating those groups in the organizational structure, so they have the autonomy needed to make critical decisions.

Functional

Functional decentralization allows the IT organization to be separated by specialty areas. Organizations structured by functional specialization can often be organized into shared service teams or centers of excellence whereby people are grouped based on their technical, domain, or functional area within IT (Applications, Data, Infrastructure, Security, etc.). This allows people to develop specialized knowledge and skills but can also reinforce silos between teams.

2.4 Review and select a base operating model sketch

1 hour

1. Review the set of base operating model sketches available on the following slides.
2. For each operating model sketch, there are benefits and risks to be considered. Make an informed selection by understanding the risks that your organization might be taking on by adopting that particular operating model.
3. If at any point in the selection process the group is unsure about which operating model will be the right fit, refer back to your design principles established in activity 1.4. These should guide you in the selection of the right operating model and eliminate those which will not serve the organization.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

Centralized Operating Model #1: Plan-Build-Run

I want to…

• Establish a formalized governance process that takes direction from the organization on which initiatives should be prioritized by IT.
• Ensure there is a clear separation between teams that are involved in strategic planning, building solutions, and delivering operational support.
• Be able to plan long term by understanding the initiatives that are coming down the pipeline and aligning to an infrequent budgeting plan.

BENEFITS

• Effective at implementing long-term plans efficiently; separates maintenance and projects to allow each to have the appropriate focus.
• More oversight over financials; better suited for fixed budgets.
• Works across centralized technology domains to better align with the business’ strategic objectives – allows for a top-down approach to decision making.
• Allows for economies of scale and expertise pooling to improve IT’s efficiency.
• Well-suited for a project-driven environment that employs waterfall or a hybrid project management methodology that is less iterative.

RISKS

• Creates artificial silos between the build (developers) and run (operations staff) teams, as both teams focus on their own responsibilities and often fail to see the bigger picture.
• Miss opportunities to deliver value to the organization or innovate due to an inability to support unpredictable/shifting project demands as decision making is centralized in the plan function.
• The portfolio of initiatives being pursued is often determined before requirements analysis takes place, meaning the initiative might be solving the wrong need or problem.
• Depends on strong hand-off processes to be defined and strong knowledge transfer from build to run functions in order to be successful.

Centralized Operating Model #2: Demand-Develop-Service

I want to…

• Listen to the business to understand new initiatives or service enhancements being requested.
• Enable development and operations to work together to seamlessly deliver in a DevOps culture.
• Govern and confirm that initiatives being requested by the business are still aligned to IT’s overarching strategy and roadmap before prioritizing those initiatives.

BENEFITS

• Aligns well with an end-to-end services model; constant attention to customer demand and service supply.
• Centralizes service operations under one functional area to serve shared needs across lines of business.
• Allows for economies of scale and expertise pooling to improve IT’s efficiency.
• Elevates sourcing and vendor management as its own strategic function; lends well to managed service and digital initiatives.
• Development and operations housed together; lends well to DevOps-related initiatives and reduces the silos between these two core groups.

RISKS

• IT prioritizes the initiatives it thinks are a priority to the business based on how well it establishes good stakeholder relations and communications.
• Depends on good governance to prevent enhancements and demands from being prioritized without approval from those with accountability and authority.
• This model thrives in a DevOps culture but does not mean it ensures your organization is a “DevOps” organization. Be sure you're encouraging the right behaviors and attitudes.

Hybrid Operating Model #1: LOB/Functional Aligned

I want to…

• Better understand the various needs of the organization to align IT priorities and ensure the right services can be delivered.
• Keep all IT decisions centralized to ensure they align with the overarching strategy and roadmap that IT has set.
• Organize your shared services in a strategic manner that enables delivery of those services in a way that fits the culture of the organization and the desired method of operating.

BENEFITS

• Best of both worlds of centralization and decentralization; attempts to channel benefits from both centralized and decentralized models.
• Embeds key IT functions that require business knowledge within functional areas, allowing for critical feedback and the ability to understand those business needs.
• Places IT in a position to not just be “order takers” but to be more involved with the different business units and promote the value of IT.
• Achieves economies of scale where necessary through the delivery of shared services that can be requested by the function.
• Shared services can be organized to deliver in the best way that suits the organization.

RISKS

• Different business units may bypass governance to get their specific needs met by functions – to alleviate this, IT must have strong governance and prioritize amongst demand.
• Decentralized role can be viewed as an order taker by the business if not properly embedded and matured.
• No guaranteed synergy and integration across functions; requires strong communication, collaboration, and steering.
• Cannot meet every business unit’s needs – can cause tension from varying effectiveness of the IT functions.

Hybrid Model #2: Product-Aligned Operating Model

I want to…

• Align my IT organization into core products (services) that IT provides to the organization and establish a relationship with those in the organization that have alignment to that product.
• Have roles dedicated to the lifecycle of their product and ensure the product can continuously deliver value to the organization.
• Maintain centralized set of standards as it applies to overall IT strategy, security, and architecture to ensure consistency across products and reduce silos.

BENEFITS

• Focus is on the full lifecycle of a product – takes a strategic view of how technology enables the organization.
• Promotes centralized backlog around a specific value creator, rather than a traditional project focus that is more transactional.
• Dedicated teams around the product family ensure you have all of the resources required to deliver on your product roadmap.
• Reduces barriers between IT and business stakeholders; focuses on technology as a key strategic enabler.
• Delivery is largely done through frequent releases that can deliver value.

RISKS

• If there is little or no business involvement, it could prevent IT from truly understanding business demand and prioritizing the wrong work.
• A lack of formal governance can create silos between the IT products, causing duplication of efforts, missed opportunities for collaboration, and redundancies in application or vendor contracts.
• Members of each product can interpret the definition of standards (e.g. architecture, security) differently.

Hybrid Operating Model #3: Service-Aligned Operating Model

I want to…

• Decentralize the IT organization by the various IT services it offers to the organization while remaining centralized with IT strategy, governance, security and operational services.
• Ensure IT services are defined and people resources are aligned to deliver on those services.
• Enable each of IT’s services to have the autonomy to understand the business needs and be able to manage the operational and new project initiatives with a dedicated service owner or business relationship manager.

BENEFITS

• Strong enabler of agility as each service has the autonomy to make decisions around operational work versus project work based on their understanding of the business demand.
• Individuals in similar roles that are decentralized across services are given coaching to provide common direction.
• Allows teams to efficiently scale with service demand.
• This is a structurally baseline DevOps model. Each group will have services built within that have their own dedicated teams that will handle the full gambit of responsibilities, from new features to enhancements and maintenance.

RISKS

• Service owners require a method to collaborate to avoid duplication of efforts or projects that conflict with the efforts of other IT services.
• May result in excessive cost through role redundancies across different services, as each will focus on components like integration, stakeholder management, project management, and user experiences.
• Silos cause a high degree of specialization, making it more difficult for team members to imagine moving to another defined service group, limiting potential career advancement opportunities.
• The level of complex knowledge required by shared services (e.g. help desk) is often beyond what they can provide, causing them to rely on and escalate to defined service groups more than with other operating models.

Decentralized Model: Division Decentralization (LoB, Geography, Function, Product)

I want to…

• Decentralize the IT organization to enable greater autonomy within specific groups that have differing customer demands and levels of support.
• Maintain a standard level of service that can be provided by IT for all divisions.
• Ensure each division has access to critical data and reports that supports informed decision making.

BENEFITS

• Organization around functions allows for diversity in approach in how areas are run to best serve a specific business unit’s needs.
• Each functional line exists largely independently, with full capacity and control to deliver service at the committed SLAs.
• Highly responsive to shifting needs and demands with direct connection to customers and all stages of the solution development lifecycle.
• Accelerates decision making by delegating authority lower into the function.
• Promotes a flatter organization with less hierarchy and more direct communication with the CIO.

RISKS

• Requires risk and security to be centralized and have oversight of each division to prevent the decisions of one division from negatively impacting other divisions or the enterprise.
• Less synergy and integration across what different lines of business are doing can result in redundancies and unnecessary complexity.
• Higher overall cost to the IT group due to role and technology duplication across different divisions.
• It will be difficult to centralize aspects of IT in the future, as divisions adopt to a culture of IT autonomy.

Enterprise Model: Multi-Modal

I want to…

• Have an organizational structure that leverages several different operating models based on the needs and requirements of the different divisions.
• Provide autonomy and authority to the different divisions so they can make informed and necessary changes as they see fit without seeking approval from a centralized IT group.
• Support the different initiatives the enterprise is focused on delivering and ensure the right model is adopted based on those initiatives.

BENEFITS

• Allows for the organization to work in ways that best support individual areas; for example, areas that support legacy systems can be supported through traditional operating models while areas that support digital transformations may be supported through more flexible operating models.
• Enables a specialization of knowledge related to each division.

RISKS

• Inconsistency across the organization can lead to confusion on how the organization should operate.
• Parts of the organization that work in more traditional operating models may feel limited in career growth and innovation.
• Cross-division initiatives may require greater oversight and a method to enable operations between the different focus areas.

Create enabling teams that bridge your divisions

The following bridges might be necessary to augment your divisions:

• Specialized augmentation: There might not be a sufficient number of resources to support each division. These teams will be leveraged across the divisions; this means that the capabilities needed for each division will exist in this bridge team, rather than in the division.
• Centers of Excellence: Capabilities that exist within divisions can benefit from shared knowledge across the enterprise. Your organization might set up centers of excellence to support best practices in capabilities organization wide. These are Forums in the unfix model, or communities of practice and support capability development rather than deliveries of each division.
• Facilitation teams might be required to support divisions through coaching. This might include Agile or other coaches who can help teams adopt practices and embed learnings.
• Holistic teams provide an enterprise view as they work with various divisions. This can include capabilities like user experience, which can benefit from the holistic perspective rather than a siloed one. People with these capabilities augment the divisions on an as-needed basis.

2.5 Customize the selected sketch to reflect the desired future state

1-3 hours

1. Using the baseline operating model sketch, walk through each of the IT capabilities. Based on the outputs from activity 2.1:
1. Remove any capabilities for which your IT organization is not responsible and/or accountable.
2. Augment the language of specific capabilities that you feel are not directly reflective of what is being done within your organizational context or that you feel need to be changed to reflect more specifically how work is being done in your organization.
3. Add any core capabilities from your organization that are missing from the provided IT capability list.
2. Move capabilities to the right places in the operating model to reflect how each of the core IT processes should interact with one another.
3. Add bridges as needed to support the divisions in your organization. Identify which capabilities will sit in these bridges and define how they will enable the operating model sketch to deliver.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

Document the final operating model sketch in the Communications Deck

Phase 3

Formalize the Organizational Structure

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

3.1 Create work units

3.2 Create work unit mandates

3.3 Define roles inside the work units

3.4 Finalize the organizational chart

3.5 Identify and mitigate key risks

This phase involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT Leadership
• Business Leadership

Embed change management into the organizational design process

Enable adoption of the new structure.

You don’t have to make the change in one big bang. You can adopt alternative transition plans such as increments or pilots. This allows people to see the benefits of why you are undergoing the change, allows the change message to be repeated and applied to the individuals impacted, and provides people with time to understand their role in making the new organizational structure successful.

“Transformational change can be invigorating for some employees but also highly disruptive and stressful for others.”

Source: OpenStax, 2019

Info-Tech Insight

Without considering the individual impact of the new organizational structure on each of your employees, the change will undoubtedly fail in meeting its intended goals and your organization will likely fall back into old structured habits.

Use a top-down approach to build your target-state IT organizational sketch

The organizational sketch is the outline of the organization that encompasses the work units and depicts the relationships among them. It’s important that you create the structure that’s right for your organization, not one that simply fits with your current staff’s skills and knowledge. This is why Info-Tech encourages you to use your operating model as a mode of guidance for structuring your future-state organizational sketch.

The organizational sketch is made up of unique work units. Work units are the foundational building blocks on which you will define the work that IT needs to get done. The number of work units you require and their names will not match your operating model one to one. Certain functional areas will need to be broken down into smaller work units to ensure appropriate leadership and span of control.

Use your customized operating model to build your work units

WHAT ARE WORK UNITS?

A work unit is a functional group or division that has a discrete set of processes or capabilities that it is responsible for, which don’t overlap with any others. Your customized list of IT capabilities will form the building blocks of your work units. Step one in the process of building your structure is grouping IT capabilities together that are similar or that need to be done in concert in the case of more complex work products. The second step is to iterate on these work units based on the organizational design principles from Phase 1 to ensure that the future-state structure is aligned with enablement of the organization’s objectives.

Work Unit Examples

Here is a list of example work units you can use to brainstorm what your organization’s could look like. Some of these overlap in functionality but should provide a strong starting point and hint at some potential alternatives to your current way of organizing.

• Office of the CIO
• Strategy and Architecture
• Architecture and Design
• Business Relationship Management
• Projection and Portfolio Management
• Solution Development
• Solution Delivery
• DevOps
• Infrastructure and Operations
• Enterprise Information Security
• Security, Risk & Compliance
• Data and Analytics

Example of work units

3.1 Create functional work units

1-3 hours

1. Using a whiteboard or large tabletop, list each capability from your operating model on a sticky note and recreate your operating model. Use one color for centralized activities and a second color for decentralized activities.
2. With the group of key IT stakeholders, review the operating model and any important definitions and rationale for decisions made.
3. Starting with your centralized capabilities, review each in turn and begin to form logical groups of compatible capabilities. Review the decentralized capabilities and repeat the process, writing additional sticky notes for capabilities that will be repeated in decentralized units.
4. Note: Not all capabilities need to be grouped. If you believe that a capability has a high enough priority, has a lot of work, or is significantly divergent from others put this capability by itself.
5. Define a working title for each new work unit, and discuss the pros and cons of the model. Ensure the work units still align with the operating model and make any changes to the operating model needed.
6. Review your design principles and ensure that they are aligned with your new work units.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

Group formation

Understand the impact of the functional groups you create.

A group consists of two or more individuals who are working toward a common goal. Group formation is how those individuals are organized to deliver on that common goal. It should take into consideration the levels of hierarchy in your structure, the level of focus you give to processes, and where power is dispersed within your organizational design.

Importance: Balance highly important capabilities with lower priority capabilities

Specialization: The scope of each role will be influenced by specialized knowledge and a dedicated leader

Effectiveness: Group capabilities that increase their efficacy

Span of Control: Identify the right number of employees reporting to a single leader

Choose the degree of specialization required

Be mindful of the number of hats you’re placing on any one role.

• Specialization exists when individuals in an organization are dedicated to performing specific tasks associated with a common goal and requiring a particular skill set. Aligning the competencies required to carry out the specific tasks based on the degree of complexity associated with those tasks ensures the right people and number of people can be assigned.
• When people are organized by their specialties, it reduces the likelihood of task switching, reduces the time spent training or cross-training, and increases the focus employees can provide to their dedicated area of specialty.
• There are disadvantages associated with aligning teams by their specialization, such as becoming bored and seeing the tasks they are performing as monotonous. Specialization doesn’t come without its problems. Monitor employee motivation

Info-Tech Insight

Smaller organizations will require less specialization simply out of necessity. To function and deliver on critical processes, some people might be asked to wear several hats.

Avoid overloading the cognitive capacity of employees

Cognitive load refers to the number of responsibilities that one can successfully take on.

• When employees are assigned an appropriate number of responsibilities this leads to:
• Engaged employees
• Less task switching
• Increased effectiveness on assigned responsibilities
• Reduced bottlenecks
• While this cognitive load can differ from employee to employee, when assigning role responsibilities, ensure each role isn’t being overburdened and spreading their focus thin.
• Moreover, capable does not equal successful. Just because someone has the capability to take on more responsibilities doesn’t mean they will be successful.
• Leverage the cognitive load being placed on your team to help create boundaries between teams and demonstrate clear role expectations.

Source: IT Revolution, 2021

Info-Tech Insight

When you say you are looking for a team that is a “jack of all trades,” you are likely exceeding appropriate cognitive loads for your staff and losing productivity to task switching.

Factors to consider for span of control

Too many and too few direct reports have negative impacts on the organization.

Complexity: More complex work should have fewer direct reports. This often means the leader will need to provide lots of support, even engaging in the work directly at times.

Demand: Dynamic shifts in demand require more managerial involvement and therefore should have a smaller span of control. Especially if this demand is to support a 24/7 operation.

Competency Level: Skilled employees should require less hands-on assistance and will be in a better position to support the business as a member of a larger team than those who are new to the role.

Purpose: Strategic leaders are less involved in the day-to-day operations of their teams, while operational leaders tend to provide hands-on support, specifically when short-staffed.

Group formation will influence communication structure

Pick your poison…

It’s important to understand the impacts that team design has on your services and products. The solutions that a team is capable of producing is highly dependent on how teams are structured. For example, Conway’s Law tells us that small distributed software delivery teams are more likely to produce modular service architecture, where large collocated teams are better able to create monolithic architecture. This doesn’t just apply to software delivery but also other products and services that IT creates. Note that small distributed teams are not the only way to produce quality products as they can create their own silos.

Sources: Forbes, 2017

Create mandates for each of your identified work units

WHAT ARE WORK UNIT MANDATES?

The work unit mandate should provide a quick overview of the work unit and be clear enough that any reader can understand why the work unit exists, what it does, and what it is accountable for.

Each work unit will have a unique mandate. Each mandate should be distinguishable enough from your other work units to make it clear why the work is grouped in this specific way, rather than an alternative option. The mandate will vary by organization based on the agreed upon work units, design archetype, and priorities.

Don’t just adopt an example mandate from another organization or continue use of the organization’s pre-existing mandate – take the time to ensure it accurately depicts what that group is doing so that its value-added activities are clear to the larger organization.

Examples of Work Unit Mandates

The Office of the CIO will be a strategic enabler of the IT organization, driving IT organizational performance through improved IT management and governance. A central priority of the Office of the CIO is to ensure that IT is able to respond to evolving environments and challenges through strategic foresight and a centralized view of what is best for the organization.

The Project Management Office will provide standardized and effective project management practices across the IT landscape, including an identified project management methodology, tools and resources, project prioritization, and all steps from project initiation through to evaluation, as well as education and development for project managers across IT.

The Solutions Development Group will be responsible for the high-quality development and delivery of new solutions and improvements and the production of customized business reports. Through this function, IT will have improved agility to respond to new initiatives and will be able to deliver high-quality services and insights in a consistent manner.

3.2 Create work unit mandates

1-3 hours

1. Break into teams of three to four people and assign an equal number of work units to each team.
2. Have each team create a set of statements that describe the overall purpose of that working group. Each mandate statement should:

• Be clear enough that any reader can understand.
• Explain why the work unit exists, what it does, and what it is accountable for.
• Be distinguishable enough from your other work units to make it clear why the work is grouped in this specific way, rather than an alternative option.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

Identify the key roles and responsibilities for the target IT organization

Now that you have identified the main units of work in the target IT organization, it is time to identify the roles that will perform that work. At the end of this step, the key roles will be identified, the purpose statement will be built, and accountability and responsibility for roles will be clearly defined. Make sure that accountability for each task is assigned to one role only. If there are challenges with a role, change the role to address them (e.g. split roles or shift responsibilities).

Info-Tech Insight

Do not bias your role design by focusing on your existing staff’s competencies. If you begin to focus on your existing team members, you run the risk of artificially narrowing the scope of work or skewing the responsibilities of individuals based on the way it is, rather than the way it should be.

3.3 Define roles inside the work units

1-3 hours

1. Select a work unit from the organizational sketch.
2. Describe the most senior role in that work unit by asking, “what would the leader of this group be accountable or responsible for?” Define this role and move the capabilities they will be accountable for under that leader. Repeat this activity for the capabilities this leader would be responsible for.
3. Continue to define each role that will be required in that work unit to deliver or provide oversight related to those capabilities.
4. Continue until key roles are identified and the capabilities each role will be accountable or responsible for are clarified.
5. Remember, only one role can have accountability for each capability but several can have responsibility.
6. For each role, use the list of capabilities that the position will be accountable, responsible, or accountable and responsible for to create a job description. Leverage your own internal job descriptions or visit our Job Descriptions page.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

Delivery model for product or solution development

Can add additional complexity or clarity

• Certain organizational structures will require a specific type of resourcing model to meet expectations and deliver on the development or sustainment of core products and solutions.
• There are four common methods that we see in IT organizations:
• Functional Roles: Completed work is handed off from functional team to functional team sequentially as outlined in the organization’s SDLC.
• Shared Service & Resource Pools (Matrix): Resources are pulled whenever the work requires specific skills or pushed to areas where product demand is high.
• Product or System: Work is directly sent to the teams who are directly managing the product or directly supporting the requestor.
• Skills & Competencies: Work is directly sent to the teams who have the IT and business skills and competencies to complete the work.
• Each of these will lead to a difference in how the functional team is skilled. They could have a great understanding of their customer, the product, the solution, or their service.

Info-Tech Insight

Despite popular belief, there is no such thing as the Spotify model, and organizations that structured themselves based on the original Spotify drawing might be missing out on key opportunities to obtain productivity from employees.

Sources: Indeed, 2020; Agility Scales

There can be different patterns to structure and resource your product delivery teams

The primary goal of any product delivery team is to improve the delivery of value for customers and the business based on your product definition and each product’s demand. Each organization will have different priorities and constraints, so your team structure may take on a combination of patterns or may take on one pattern and then transform into another.

Delivery teams will be structured according to resource and development needs

Functional Roles	Shared Service and Resource Pools	Product or System	Skills and Competencies
When your people are specialists versus having cross-functional skills	Leveraged when specialists such as Security or Operations will not have full-time work on the product	When you have people with cross-functional skills who can self-organize around a product’s needs	When you have a significant investment in a specific technology stack

For more information about delivering in a product operating model, refer to our Deliver Digital Products at Scale blueprint.

3.4 Finalize the organizational chart

1-3 hours

1. Import each of your work units and the target-state roles that were identified for each.
2. In the place of the name of each work unit in your organizational sketch, replace the work unit name with the prospective role name for the leader of that group.
3. Under each of the leadership roles, import the names of team members that were part of each respective work unit.
4. Validate the final structure as a group to ensure each of the work units includes all the necessary roles and responsibilities and that there is clear delineation of accountabilities between the work units.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook & Executive Communications Deck

Proactively consider and mitigate redesign risks

Every organizational structure will include certain risks that should have been considered and accepted when choosing the base operating model sketch. Now that the final organizational structure has been created, consider if those risks were mitigated by the final organizational structure that was created. For those risks that weren’t mitigated, have a tactic to control risks that remain present.

3.5 Identify and mitigate key risks

1-3 hours

1. For each of the operating model sketch options, there are specific risks that should have been considered when selecting that model.
2. Take those risks and transfer them into the correct slide of the Organizational Design Workbook.
3. Consider if there are additional risks that need to be considered with the new organizational structure based on the customizations made.
4. For each risk, rank the severity of that risk on a scale of low, medium, or high.
5. Determine one or more mitigation tactic(s) for each of the risks identified. This tactic should reduce the likelihood or impact of the risk event happening.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

Phase 4

Plan for Implementation & Change

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

4.1 Select a transition plan

4.2 Establish the change communication messages

4.3 Be consistent with a standard set of FAQs

4.4 Define org. redesign resistors

4.5 Create a sustainment plan

This phase involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT Leadership
• Business Leadership
• HR Business Partners

All changes require change management

Embedding change management into organizational design

Implementing the new organizational structure

Implementing the organizational structure can be the most difficult part of the process.

• To succeed in the process, consider creating an implementation plan that adequately considers these five components.
• Each of these are critical to supporting the final organizational structure that was established during the redesign process.

Define the type of change the organizational structure will be

As a result, your organization must adopt OCM practices to better support the acceptance and longevity of the changes being pursued.

Info-Tech Insight

How you transition to the new organizational structure can be heavily influenced by HR. This is the time to be including them and leveraging their expertise to support the transition “how.”

Transition Plan Options

4.1 Select a transition plan approach

1-3 hours

1. List each of the changes required to move from your current structure to the new structure. Consider:
1. Changes in reporting structure
2. Hiring new members
3. Eliminating positions
4. Developing key competencies for staff
2. Once you’ve defined all the changes required, consider the three different transition plan approaches: big bang, incremental, and pilot. Each of the transition plan approaches will have drawbacks and benefits. Use the list of changes to inform the best approach.
3. If you are proceeding with the incremental or the pilot, determine the order in which you will proceed with the changes or the groups that will pilot the new structure first.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

Make a plan to effectively manage and communicate the change

Success of your new organizational structure hinges on adequate preparation and effective communication.

The top challenge facing organizations in completing the organizational redesign is their organizational culture and acceptance of change. Effective planning for the implementation and communication throughout the change is pivotal. Make sure you understand how the change will impact staff and create tailored plans for communication.

65% of managers believe the organizational change is effective when provided with frequent and clear communication.

Source: SHRM, 2021

Communicate reasons for organizational structure changes and how they will be implemented

Leaders of successful change spend considerable time developing a powerful change message, i.e. a compelling narrative that articulates the desired end state, and that makes the change concrete and meaningful to staff.

The organizational change message should:

• Explain why the change is needed.
• Summarize what will stay the same.
• Highlight what will be left behind.
• Emphasize what is being changed.
• Explain how change will be implemented.
• Address how change will affect various roles in the organization.
• Discuss the staff’s role in making the change successful.

Five elements of communicating change

• What is the change?
• Why are we doing it?
• How are we going to go about it?
• How long will it take us to do it?
• What will the role be for each department and individual?

Source: Cornelius & Associates, 2010

4.2 Establish the change communication messages

2 hours

1. The purpose of this activity is to establish a change communication message you can leverage when talking to stakeholders about the new organizational structure.
2. Review the questions in the Organizational Design Workbook.
3. Establish a clear message around the expected changes that will have to take place to help realize the new organizational structure.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

Apply the following communication principles to make your IT organization redesign changes relevant to stakeholders

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) provide a chance to anticipate concerns and address them

As a starting point for building an IT organizational design implementation, look at implementing an FAQ that will address the following:

• The what, who, when, why, and where
• The transition process
• What discussions should be held with clients in business units
• HR-centric questions

Questions to consider answering:

• What is the objective of the IT organization?
• What are the primary changes to the IT organization?
• What does the new organizational structure look like?
• What are the benefits to our IT staff and to our business partners?
• How will the IT management team share new information with me?
• What is my role during the transition?
• What impact is there to my reporting relationship within my department?
• What are the key dates I should know about?

4.3 Be consistent with a standard set of FAQs

1 hour

1. Beyond the completed communications plans, brainstorm a list of answers to the key “whats” of your organizational design initiative:

• What is the objective of the IT organization?
• What are the primary changes to the IT organization?
• What does the new organizational structure look like?
• What are the benefits to our IT staff and to our business partners?

• How will the IT management team share new information with me?
• What is my role during the transition?
• What impact is there to my reporting relationship within my department?
• What are the key dates I should know about?

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

The change reaction model

(Adapted from Cynthia Wittig)

Info-Tech Insight

People resist changes for many reasons. When it comes to organizational redesign changes, some of the most common reasons people resist change include a lack of understanding, a lack of involvement in the process, and fear.

Include employees in the employee development planning process

Prioritize

Assess employee to determine competency levels and interests.

Draft

Employee drafts development goals; manager reviews.

Select

Manager helps with selection of development activities.

Check In

Manager provides ongoing check-ins, coaching, and feedback.

Consider core and supplementary components that will sustain the new organizational structure

Supplementary sustainment components:

• Tools & Resources
• Structure
• Skills
• Work Environment
• Tasks
• Disincentives

Core sustainment components:

• Empowerment
• Measurement
• Leadership
• Communication
• Incentives

Sustainment Plan

Sustain the change by following through with stakeholders, gathering feedback, and ensuring that the change rationale and impacts are clearly understood. Failure to so increases the potential that the change initiative will fail or be a painful experience and cost the organization in terms of loss of productivity or increase in turnover rates.

Support sustainment with clear measurements

• Measurement is one of the most important components of monitoring and sustaining the new organizational structure as it provides insight into where the change is succeeding and where further support should be added.
• There should be two different types of measurements:

1. Standard Change Management Metrics
2. Organizational Redesign Metrics

1. Every measurement should be rooted to a goal. Many of the goals related to organizational design will be founded in the driver of this change initiative
2. Once the goals have been defined, create one or more measurements that determines if the goal was successful.
3. Use specific key performance indicators (KPIs) that contain a metric that is being measured and the frequency of that measurement.

Info-Tech Insight

Obtaining qualitative feedback from employees, customers, and business partners can provide insight into where the new organizational structure is operating optimally versus where there are further adjustments that could be made to support the change.

4.4 Consider sustainment metrics

1 hour

1. Establish metrics that bring the entire process together and that will ensure the new organizational design is a success.
2. Go back to your driver(s) for the organizational redesign. Use these drivers to help inform a particular measurement that can be used to determine if the new organizational design will be successful. Each measurement should be related to the positive benefits of the organization, an individual, or the change itself.
3. Once you have a list of measurements, use these to determine the specific KPI that can be qualified through a metric. Often you are looking for an increase or decrease of a particular measurement by a dollar or percentage within a set time frame.
4. Use the example metrics in the workbook and update them to reflect your organization’s drivers.

Record the results in the Organizational Design Workbook

Related Info-Tech Research

Build a Strategic IT Workforce Plan

• Continue into the second phase of the organizational redesign process by defining the required workforce to deliver.
• Leveraging trends, data, and feedback from your employees, define the competencies needed to deliver on the defined roles.

Implement a New IT Organizational Structure

• Organizational design implementations can be highly disruptive for IT staff and business partners.
• Without a structured approach, IT leaders may experience high turnover, decreased productivity, and resistance to the change.

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

• 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.

Research Contributors and Experts

Jardena London

Transformation Catalyst, Rosetta Technology Group

Jodie Goulden

Consultant | Founder, OrgDesign Works

Shan Pretheshan

Director, SUPA-IT Consulting

Chris Briley

CIO, Manning & Napier

Dean Meyer

President N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc.

Jimmy Williams

CIO, Chocktaw Nation of Oklahoma

Info-Tech Research Group

Cole Cioran, Managing Partner

Dana Daher, Research Director

Hans Eckman, Principal Research Director

Ugbad Farah, Research Director

Ari Glaizel, Practice Lead

Valence Howden, Principal Research Director

Youssef Kamar, Senior Manager, Consulting

Carlene McCubbin, Practice Lead

Baird Miller, Executive Counsellor

Josh Mori, Research Director

Rajesh Parab, Research Director

Gary Rietz, Executive Counsellor

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Appendix

IT Culture Framework

This framework leverages McLean & Company’s adaptation of Quinn and Rohrbaugh’s Competing Values Approach.

Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget

Build in approvability from the start.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

A budget’s approvability is about transparency and rationale, not the size of the numbers.

It’s that time of year again – budgeting. Most organizations invest a lot of time and effort in a capital project selection process, tack a few percentage points onto last year’s OpEx, do a round of trimming, and call it a day. However, if you want to improve IT financial transparency and get your business stakeholders and the CFO to see the true value of IT, you need to do more than this. Yourcrea IT budget is more than a once-a-year administrative exercise. It’s an opportunity to educate, create partnerships, eliminate nasty surprises, and build trust. The key to doing these things rests in offering a range of budget perspectives that engage and make sense to your stakeholders, as well as providing iron-clad rationales that tie directly to organizational objectives. The work of setting and managing a budget never stops – it’s a series of interactions, conversations, and decisions that happen throughout the year. If you take this approach to budgeting, you’ll greatly enhance your chances of creating and presenting a defensible annual budget that gets approved the first time around.

Jennifer Perrier Principal Research Director IT Financial Management Practice Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight
CIOs need a straightforward way to create and present an approval-ready IT budget that demonstrates the value IT is delivering to the business and speaks directly to different stakeholder priorities.

IT struggles to get budgets approved due to low transparency and failure to engage

Reflect on the numbers…

To move forward, first you need to get unstuck

Today’s IT budgeting challenges have been growing for a long time. Overcoming these challenges means untangling yourself from the grip of the root causes.