Utf8''it organizational planning report

IT Organizational Assessment and Improvement Project Report

<Insert Company Name>

Executive Summary

Source: www.knowledgeleader.com/3

Assessment Methodology Approach

• Reviewed appropriate IT documentation to gain an understanding of the environment.

• Reviewed Disaster Recovery documentation for applications and hardware.

• Interviewed management and staff in IT, Sales, Logistics, HR, Customer Service and Finance at <Company X> Corporate, Shared Financial Services ((Insert subsidiary name)), and Bottling Plants. The objectives of these interviews were to:

– Understand how IT interacts with the business.

– Identify IT strengths and the areas in which IT could operate more effectively.

• Developed an improvement roadmap based on our findings and observations.

– The findings and IT roadmap in this report are categorized based on the IT Governance Model, which appears in the subsequent slide.

Review IT Policies, Procedures, and

Strategic Plan

Document Findings

and Create IT Roadmap

Conduct Plant IT Interviews

Conduct<Company X>

Corporate Interviews

Conduct Plant Business Interviews

Conduct SharedFinancial Interviews

(Business & IT)

Assess Application & Hardware

Portfolio


Common Themes

Several common themes, organized by the components of the IT Governance Model, were identified throughout the course of our review:

• IT Architecture – <Company X> business operations are heavily reliant on the current technology platform. However, there has been little investment to correct ongoing issues or to make improvements to processes.

• IT Process Activities – Most IT activities are informal and inconsistently followed resulting in inefficient operations and incomplete or potentially duplicated efforts.

• IT Demand/Service Management – Prioritization of IT requests are initially guided by finance personnel, resulting in non-finance requests often receiving lower priority.

• IT Governance – The IT department is not integrated into the development of corporate strategy, resulting in vague and/or unrealistic IT objectives.

• IT Organization – The current organizational structure does not facilitate the sharing of IT resources and skills throughout the ABC Group. In addition, this further disconnects (Insert subsidiary name) IT from the business. As a result, IT knowledge is in silos and business owners perceive that IT lacks urgency when dealing with their requests.


Business Value Drivers

Through the interviews with <Company X> management and staff, the following characteristics were identified as necessary attributes to create value throughout the business:

• Customer Focus – Providing quality products and service to the customer to drive sales and revenue growth.

• Quality – Deliver a consistent product that is superior to its competitors.

• Decentralization – Dispersed decision making throughout the business.

• Flexibility/Scalability – Adapting to changing business environments and enabling business growth.

• Reduced Cost – Keeping operating costs low to drive margin.

• Productivity – Creating a higher level of output using existing resources.

• Communication – Facilitating the exchange of thoughts, information, and ideas across business units.

• Innovation – Creating or introducing new ideas, processes, services and products.

Because these characteristics drive business value at <Company X>, they must be at the core of the solutions IT provides to the business.


Recommended ImprovementsOverview

Based on our findings, we recommend that <Company X>:

• Restructure the IT department to include a reporting relationship between (Insert subsidiary name) IT and Plant IT personnel.

• Change the role of the Director of IT to report directly to the President of <Company X>.

• Define specific roles and responsibilities for all IT personnel.

• Create an IT strategic plan through which the IT department can prioritize strategic technological initiatives.

• Revise the (insert subsidiary name) charter to include representatives from outside of the finance group, and identify tactical business issues that can be addressed through the use of technology.

• Reprioritize current IT requests to reflect the needs of the entire organization, not just Finance.

• Document and implement IT processes that manage IT service delivery.

• Consider outsourcing IT infrastructure management, particularly the (insert IT system).


Recommended ImprovementsProposed Improvement Roadmap and Timeline

Q1 Q3Q2

Create Detailed IT Strategic

Plan

Define and Rollout new IT Organizational Structure and

Roles

Define and Implement the

IT Demand Management

Process

Implement Centralized IT Service Desk

Process

Redefine IT Governance

Structure

Identify All Current

Technology Needs of Business

Implement New Incident/Problem Management

Process

Implement New Change/

Configuration Management

Process

Implement New Project

Management Process

Define New IT Performance

Metrics

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Legend:Internal Resources

Consider External Services

Make Decision Related to Co-locating

(insert IT system)


Recommended ImprovementsImplement Organizational Restructuring

The following slides discuss the recommended improvements that impact the business. The recommendations related to IT process and architecture are discussed in the detailed findings section of this document, as they are for the most part transparent to the business.

The proposed organizational structure provides several key benefits:

• Having the (Insert subsidiary name) Director of IT report to the President of <Company X> ABC Group, the department and its objectives become better aligned to all aspects of the business not just finance.

• Having the IT Managers at each plant report to (Insert subsidiary name) IT helps to define and implement consistent IT processes across the organization. Additionally, (Insert subsidiary name) IT can potentially leverage these individuals skill sets outside of end-user and desktop support.

• IT’s workload can be better balanced across the department by assigning individuals to specific roles.

• The proposed organization structure can be used to better understand and identify the skill gaps within the current department that need to be filled through training or hiring additional personnel.

• The reorganization will align the IT cost structure with the business by eliminating unnecessary expenditures and support costs, while allowing IT to focus on strategic investments.


Recommended ImprovementsImplement Organizational Restructuring (Concluded)

President of <Client X> Beverage Group

IT Leader

End UserSupport

Corporate

Desktop Support

End User Support

(insert location) IT

Desktop Support

End User Support


Desktop Support

End User Support


Desktop Support

End User Support

Applications

Operational Applications

Financial Applications

Infrastructure

Security

Network / Telecomm

Server Administration

Database Administration

Beverage Leadership Team

Plant General Managers

Beverage User Group

Project Management

The chart below shows a proposed organizational structure based on our findings:

The levels of the organizational chart correspond to typical capabilities that should exist within the IT department. A single individual can fill multiple roles in the chart.

In the new organizational structure, the IT leader becomes a member of the ABC Leadership Team.


Recommended ImprovementsRedefine IT Governance Structure

• The ABC Leadership Team should work with President of ABC business to define strategic business objectives.

– Because the Director of IT reports to the President of the ABC business, these objectives can be filtered and prioritized based on the organization’s overall objectives.

• (insert subsidiary name) charter is revised to include members throughout the business (Sales, Logistics, HR, Finance, IT, etc.).

– (insert subsidiary name) identifies tactical business and technology issues.

– Creates proposed prioritization of tactical issues to provide to Director of IT and President, ABC business.


Recommended ImprovementsRoadmap Benefits and Rationalization

The focused investment in IT will increase:

• Awareness of IT capabilities and involvement in defining IT objectives.

• The responsiveness of the IT department to addressing business needs and expectations.

• IT’s flexibility and agility to address changing business priorities.

• Information available to decision makers.

• IT solutions that solve business issues and drive value.

• Incorporation of <Company X> business value drivers.

Detailed Findings and Improvement Roadmap


IT Architecture

IT Governance

Strategy, Risks, Costs, Requirements,Maturity, Efficiency, Metrics

IT Process Activities

Asset, Change, Project,Security, Operations, etc.

IT Architecture

Applications, Databases, Networks,Operating Systems, Hardware


IT Service Management

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Corporate Governance

Corporate Strategy, Enterprise Risks,Board of Directors, Business Goals

IT Architecture

• The applications and infrastructure components that support business operations and processes.

• The most customer-facing level of the IT Governance Model as it impacts every user of technology.

• Managed through the IT processes implemented within the organization.


IT Architecture Findings – Areas for Improvement

• <Company X> has been addressing Disaster Recovery requirements, but has not addressed ongoing service interruptions.

– Example: Power outages at (Insert subsidiary name) shut down business operations at the plant locations causing users to rely on manual workarounds.

• The latency of the corporate network slows down business operations.

– Example: Drivers often sit unproductive for 20 minutes after their trucks have been loaded while their handheld devices sync to the corporate server.

• Information is not readily available to facilitate business operations.

– Example: Customer orders are sometimes “lost” in the system when dispatching and loading orders.

• System/application functionality is not fully utilized.

– Example: Salesman are able to process orders for unauthorized products in the handhelds because the application has not been configured to restrict those sales, resulting in product being written off.


IT ArchitectureFindings – Areas for Improvement (Concluded)

• <Company X> business operations are dependent on the (insert IT system).

– It is a commonly held perception within (Insert subsidiary name) that the plan is to replace the applications running on the (insert IT system) at some point in the future, although a timeline for the retirement or replacement has not been established. As a result, there is little emphasis in (Insert subsidiary name) IT to implement program changes on the (insert IT system) including break and fix changes, resulting in manual workarounds performed by the business to correct common errors.

– Support for the Garman application is dependent on the knowledge of one individual. This single threaded support model creates a risk that the application may become unsupportable if the individual leaves the organization without an appropriate knowledge transfer or the creation of additional documentation.

– <Company X> should evaluate their reasoning for moving towards SAP, as the current (insert IT system) platform may be sufficient to meet the needs of the business.

• Technology does not facilitate the inventory management processes, from sales to product delivery and billing, due to limitations in the current IT architecture.


IT ArchitectureConsiderations

Based on these findings, <Company X> should consider:

• Co-locating the (insert IT system) hardware to an outsourcing provider:

– Allows IT to focus on meeting the needs of the business, while relieving them of administrative work, such as tape backups and hardware administration.

– Addresses (insert IT system) continuity issues related to power outages in data center.

• Re-evaluating their strategic direction of moving towards SAP, as investment in the current platform may be sufficient to meet the needs of the business.




• The processes performed by the IT department to manage the underlying IT architecture.

• Execution of the IT processes is governed by IT demand management and managed by IT service management.

• Strong IT processes allow an organization to manage their architecture with:

– Fewer late projects

– Better change success rates

– Less unplanned work

– Shorter repair times for system outages

– Better overall customer satisfaction

IT Governance




IT Architecture




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IT Process ActivitiesFindings – Strengths

• (Insert subsidiary name) IT presents a well thought out financial case for IT capital expenditures, as well as creating detailed plans for project implementations.

– The cost of the proposed technology solutions are detailed out to the Plant General Managers.

– Shared Financial Services provides a breakdown of IT cost when requested.

– Requirement analysis includes the appropriate individuals to define the needs of a proposed technology solution.


IT Process ActivitiesFindings – Areas for Improvement

IT processes appear to be informal and followed inconsistently. Specifically, we found the following related to key process:

• Service Desk – The first line of support that handles end user requests including user access.

– Plant IT personnel are consistently the single point of contact for technology issues at their plant. Conversely, there is no single point of contact for requests coming into (Insert subsidiary name).

○ Users often bypass IT support personnel in favor of direct communication with IT administrators.

○ Because users call IT resources directly, many issues are never recorded, resulting in support personnel having to research and troubleshoot issues that have already been resolved by others in the department.

– There is no central repository to track support requests. Without such a repository, support personnel cannot effectively balance their workload or leverage prior knowledge to resolve current issues.



• Service Desk (Continued)

– There is no follow through on requests indicating status, expected completion date, or the actual completion of a request.

– Plant IT personnel have been restricted or prohibited from performing some tasks without the involvement of (Insert subsidiary name) IT, such as creating user accounts and some administrative duties on the (insert IT system).

○ While the Plant IT have access within the system to grant user’s access, according to policy (Insert subsidiary name) IT does not allow them to grant user’s access.

○ The Plant IT often has to go against policy to create a user account when (Insert subsidiary name) IT is not available.



• Change and Release Management – The processes to introduce changes to the IT applications and infrastructure.

– Requirements for changes are informally communicated, resulting in additional development effort and a lower success rate for changes.

– Applications do not have test environments requiring IT to implement changes directly into the production environment, and changes are not consistently or thoroughly tested, resulting in unidentified impacts to other functionality and a potentially unreliable production environment.

○ Major changes are often tested by end users, while minor changes are usually entered directly into production without the involvement or testing by end users.

○ Changes are not formally approved for release into the production environment.

– The perception in the business is that changes to business applications are often unsuccessful on the first attempt, which results in additional system downtime and unplanned outages.



• Project Management – The process of organizing time, cost, and personnel in support of implementations, and infrastructure upgrades.

– In general, projects are initiated well, but break down in their execution.

– Time is not effectively managed for IT projects.

○ IT projects commonly run over budget and schedule.

○ The handheld implementation has been in process for the last three years.

– (Insert subsidiary name) IT has difficulty managing multiple projects at one time, primarily because of ineffective time management, which results in a degradation to project execution and end user support.

○ Handheld implementation was the primary objective for the previous few years.

○ The Disaster Recovery project has recently taken precedence over day-to-day support requests.



• Incident and Problem Management – The processes to resolve issues and to build a correlation between issues to understand the root cause.

– There is no known issue database or knowledgebase for the Plant IT staff to reference for troubleshooting purposes.

○ Inconsistently documenting incidents results in an incomplete record and management of incidents/problems.

○ Troubleshooting of incidents/problems is often dependent on individual knowledge or starting from square one.

– Incidents are often resolved by addressing the symptom rather than fixing the underlying problem.

– The Plant has difficulty receiving timely support from (Insert subsidiary name) to resolve issues.


IT Process ActivitiesConsiderations

• Based on our findings, <Company X> should consider:

– Revising the current IT processes and activities to resolve day-to-day service issues by improving key operational activities.

– Formally documenting the IT process that they have in place.

– Introducing new processes to address the gaps identified in this section.

– Introducing manual or system based tracking mechanisms to log and monitor the status of IT requests.

– Consider introducing metrics to monitor IT’s performance in these processes.


IT Demand and Service Management

IT Governance




IT Architecture




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• The mechanism through which IT manages and prioritizes the business’ request for improvements/projects to the IT architecture and services.

• Effective demand management enables IT to balance the departmental workload and provide the business with realistic expectations for their requests.


• Provides the business with knowledge of IT’s capabilities and services and monitors IT’s success at providing those services.

• Effective service management enables IT to deliver a variety of high-quality services to the business.

Together these areas allow IT to better understand and manage the business’ expectations.


IT Demand and Service ManagementFindings – Areas for Improvement

• Demand Management – The process to identify and prioritize the technology needs of the business.

– IT is struggling to respond to the current demands of the business.

○ IT does not effectively categorize requests according to priority.

○ Break/Fix requests are prioritized along with projects and IT initiatives.

– The IT department is faced with a significant backlog of requests from the business.

○ The lack of demand management has created an environment that prevents IT from proactively addressing business needs.

– The IT department does not have a central request-tracking mechanism to prioritize, schedule, assign, and monitor the status of IT requests or deployment of IT resources.

○ Lack of central tracking mechanism gives business the perception that there isn’t a prioritization scheme in place.

○ IT workloads are unbalanced because there is no visibility into what tasks an IT resource is currently working on or scheduled to work on.



• Demand Management (Continued)

– The prioritization of IT initiatives is not currently defined in an objective and standardized manner. The current prioritization process of IT initiatives is dependent upon:

○ How vocal the individual making the request is.

○ Whether or not the Finance and IT members of the (insert subsidiary name) are aware of the request and perceived relevance to business objectives.

– Prioritization of requests is defined by the ABC Users Group with minimal involvement or influence from non-Finance personnel.

○ Business users do not have a direct forum to voice their needs to IT.

○ IT initiatives are prioritized by Finance and IT, causing a misalignment with the priorities of the business.

– There are no dashboards for the (insert subsidiary name) to view the current incidents and/or IT priorities.



• Service Management – The process of communicating IT’s value, status, and capabilities to the business.

– IT’s communication with the business is typically reactive.

– The business does not have confidence in IT or is aware of IT’s capabilities, so they are rarely included in strategic discussions.


IT Demand and Service ManagementConsiderations


– Implementing an objective process for demand prioritization and a process for monitoring IT progress.

– Installing tools to support demand management, such as a centralized helpdesk ticketing system and/or project management tools.

– Installing tools to enable monitoring activities, such as executive dashboards and key indicator reports.

– Identify the current needs of business and incorporate demand into the IT strategic plan.


IT Governance

IT Governance




IT Architecture




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• Defines the corporate strategy and goals as they relate to the organization as a whole.

• Driven by the Board of Directors and business executives.

IT Governance

• The mechanism through which IT translates business objectives to define how information technology can support the corporate strategy.

• Guides IT to improve efficiency, lower cost, and better align themselves with the business while managing risks and service delivery.

• Effective IT Governance drives business productivity through IT solutions while increasing ROI for IT capital investment.


GovernanceFindings – Strengths

• The (insert subsidiary name) and X groups provide the structure for IT governance.

– <Company X> has a commitment to decentralized decision making as seen in yearly Summit's and (insert subsidiary name) groups.

• <Company X> Summits drive innovation and collaboration throughout the business.


GovernanceFindings – Areas for Improvement

• Users avoid (Insert subsidiary name) IT’s assistance for technology initiatives.

– Users avoid going to (Insert subsidiary name) IT because they know they will not be able to respond to their needs in the near future.

– Business and IT strategies are not aligned, resulting in IT’s inability to meet business expectations and effectively support the organization.

• (Insert subsidiary name) IT not involved in the Bottling Plants strategic planning, resulting in:

– Plants losing potential efficiencies from implementation of technology.

– IT losing because they are expected to support potentially unrealistic initiatives.

– This contributes to a reactive approach in meeting the needs of the business, as opposed to IT being enabled to proactively make preparations to meet future demand.


GovernanceFindings – Areas for Improvement

• IT is not involved in business Summits.

– The business discusses ideas for innovation and collaboration at the Summits, but IT is not involved in the Summits to suggest technology solutions to business challenges.

– IT does not have the full picture of the challenges and initiatives that the business is encountering.

• IT lacks an overall technology strategy, which defines how technology will assist <Company X> in the future.

• There is an overall lack of monitoring related to the consistent execution of IT processes and the achievement of IT objectives.


GovernanceConsiderations


– Assessing IT leadership, IT strategic plans, and aligning the IT strategy to address <Company X> business needs and expectations.

– Redefining (insert subsidiary name) membership, charter, and responsibilities to align with new organizational structure.


IT Organization

IT Organization

• The personnel and associated skill sets that are necessary to administer and support the levels of the IT Governance Model.

• Influences all IT activities.

• An effective IT organization is aligned with the business, is responsive to end-user needs, and proactively works to solve business challenges through IT solutions.

IT Governance




IT Architecture




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IT OrganizationOrganizational Structure

• <Company X> IT department consists of two groups of personnel:

– Shared Financial Services IT

○ Director of IT reports to (Insert subsidiary name) Director of Finance.

○ IT Staff reports to (Insert subsidiary name) Director of IT.

– Plant IT

○ IT Managers report to Plant Director’s of Finance.

○ The IT Staff reports to the IT Manager.


IT OrganizationFindings – Strengths

• The IT Staff has tenure with <Company X> and many years experience supporting the ABC group and its personnel.

• The IT Staff at (Insert subsidiary name) and each plant has a genuine desire to support the end-users.


IT OrganizationFindings – Areas for Improvement

• IT/Business Alignment

– The perception exists within the business that (Insert subsidiary name) IT personnel lack the urgency of the business in their response to support requests from bottling plants.

– Due to the reporting relationship to (Insert subsidiary name), IT’s priorities are focused on finance initiatives, rather than the customer facing and revenue generating aspects of the business.

– The Plant IT staff understands the business challenges and needs, yet they have no reporting relationship to (Insert subsidiary name) IT.

– Additionally, the Plant IT Staff are not involved in the IT Strategic planning and prioritization process.

• Plant IT resources are not fully leveraged in providing IT services

– The Plant IT staff spends a great deal of time performing finance activities, which detracts from providing IT support to the business.

– They report to the Plant Finance Managers and are restricted to servicing the needs of the plant that they are employed by.

– The Plant IT staff have skills outside of the requirements for their positions, but they are not leveraged across the organization.


IT OrganizationFindings – Areas for Improvement

• IT Skill Sets

– The IT department needs additional skills in the following areas to sufficiently align with and support customer needs: Windows Applications Administration, Network Administration, (insert IT system) Administration, Project Management.

– IT is limited by their current technical skill sets in the breadth of services and solutions they can offer to the business.

○ In-house development resources are primarily trained in (insert IT system) platform.

○ (Insert subsidiary name) IT lacks strong Windows applications administration skills, and as a result, has to rely on external consultants to provide application support.

• IT does not appear to be making productivity gains, and in some cases, appears to be regressing, such as:

– (Insert subsidiary name) IT personnel are not held accountable to their deadlines nor rewarded for their accomplishments.


IT OrganizationConsiderations


– Restructuring the current organizational structure, roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships.

– Creating a training plan to develop current resources.

Recommendations and Improvement Roadmap


Recommendations & Improvement RoadmapRoadmap Assumptions

• The estimated duration, level of effort, and internal resource requirements of the projects outlined in this improvement roadmap are based on a number of assumptions:

– Processes will be implemented throughout the ABC business.

– Estimated level of effort assumes that personnel involved have some expertise in process design.

– Estimated percentage of internal resource time required assumes that <Company X> will opt to utilize external resources in the form of either a system implementer or other third-party expert.

• Our process improvement recommendations are described using terminology from the ITIL Framework.

• Any deviations from these assumptions could alter the timeframe and/or the ultimate outcome of the project.

• The suggested activities included in the roadmap are directly related to the business value drivers detailed in the subsequent slides.


Recommended ImprovementsProposed Improvement Roadmap and Timeline

Q1 Q3Q2

Create Detailed IT strategic

plan

Define and Roll-out new IT Organizational Structure and

Roles

Define and Implement the


Process

Implement Centralized IT Service Desk

Process

Redefine IT Governance

Structure

Identify All Current

Technology Needs of Business

Implement New Incident/Problem Management

Process

Implement New Change/

Configuration Management

Process

Implement New Project

Management Process

Define New IT Performance

Metrics

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Legend:Internal Resources

Consider External Services

Make Decision Related to Co-locating (insert

IT system)


Proposed Improvement Roadmap and Timeline Details – IT Organization

Define and Rollout New IT Organizational Structure and Roles

Project Activities:

• Define the necessary roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships.• Assign staff to the newly defined roles and responsibilities.• Fill any vacant positions.• Assess skill gaps and create a training plan to address them.

Value Driver(s): All

Duration: 1.5 Months

Benefits/Rationalization:

• The new structure and roles aligns organizational capabilities to <Company X’s> business value drivers: Customer Focus, Quality, Decentralization, Flexibility/Scalability, Reduced Cost, Productivity, Communication, Innovation

• Facilitates coordination and communication with the IT lead and President of (insert subsidiary) through new reporting relationships.

• Increases employee productivity by leveraging all IT resources for (insert subsidiary) needs.

• Allows for creation of an IT career path and enables IT professionals to focus on the technology needs of the business.

• Creates an IT team that leverages strengths of team members and delivers innovative solutions to meet plant and (insert subsidiary) needs.

Resources:(insert resource

titles/names)


Proposed Improvement Roadmap and Timeline Details – Governance, Demand and Service

Redefine IT Governance Structure

Project Activities:

• Create a new vision statement for the IT department.• (insert subsidiary name) charter is revised to include members

throughout the business (e.g. Sales, Logistics, HR, Finance, IT) and to reflect new responsibilities.


Duration: 1 Month


• Aligns IT initiatives to (insert subsidiary) and plant-level strategic business goals and value drivers.

• Creates an awareness of customer needs and requirements in IT.• Provides innovative solutions through increased involvement and cross-

functional teaming.• Creates a common framework for IT decision making that enables a

centralized function, with dispersed resources, to meet the needs of a decentralized business.


titles/names)



Identify All Current Technology Needs of Business

Project Activities:

• The BLT will meet regularly with the (insert subsidiary) President to communicate short and long term strategic objectives.

• The (insert subsidiary name) identifies opportunities for technology improvement and defines technology requirements for innovative business solutions.

• Conduct quarterly (insert subsidiary name) meeting to discuss tactical technology issues.


Duration: 1 Month


• Enables IT to be flexible to meet the needs of the business.• Increases the quality of services provided to the business.• Reduces cost by identifying local redundancies that can be managed at

an (insert subsidiary) IT level.• Identifies innovative solutions to common problems throughout the

business.


titles/names)



Create Detailed IT strategic plan

Project Activities:

• Create guiding principles for IT based upon their vision statement and incorporate them into the strategic plan.

• Define a plan for utilizing information technology to achieve (insert subsidiary) strategic objectives.

• Create a financial plan to budget for IT capital expenditures.• Update and maintain the IT strategic plan.

Value Driver(s):

Customer Focus,

Productivity, Communication

Duration: 1 Month


• Aligns IT with the customer focus of the plant and (insert subsidiary) level businesses.

• Enables IT to increase productivity by managing to stated objectives.• Increases transparency and communication with the business related to

capital expenditures.• Provides a higher quality of service at the (insert subsidiary) level

through a strategic and prioritized approach to achieving IT initiatives.


titles/names)



Define New IT Performance Metrics

Project Activities:

• Develop quantifiable metrics to measure whether the organization is effectively using information technology and strategic objectives are appropriately leveraging IT.

• Distribute and discuss this scorecard at each IT Steering Committee Meeting.

Value Driver(s):Productivity,

Quality, Reduced Cost

Duration: 2 Months


• Enables IT to proactively address performance issues.• Increases IT productivity through monitoring and corrective action.• Delivers a higher quality of service to the business.• Reduces cost related to business downtime related to system issues.


titles/names)


Proposed Improvement Roadmap and Timeline Details – IT Process Activities

Define and Implement the IT Demand Management Process

Project Activities:

• Establish a prioritization-tracking mechanism (scheduled and actual).• Identify types of incoming requests (e.g. change or service requests).• Define prioritization classifications, as well as standard, objective,

quantitative criteria for each.• Identify types of requests that need to be assessed by the advisory

board.• Identify a mechanism to share prioritization scheme and criteria to

business and IT personnel. • Develop a location for posting up-to-date prioritization schedule. • Refocus steering committee to address Business Priorities to be enabled

by information technology.• Once the IT Demand Prioritization Strategy has been defined, the IT

Steering Committee and IT leadership should review the existing IT demands and prioritize them according to the defined strategy.

• IT Priorities should then be reviewed Quarterly and priorities should be revised and adjusted based on business needs.

Value Driver(s):Flexibility/Scalability,

Communication

Duration: 2 Months

Benefits/ Rationalization:

• Enables IT to proactively address customer demand.• Creates a more flexible and scalable IT organization that can effectively

manage the needs of the three bottling plants and (insert subsidiary) wide needs in a timely manner.

• Aligns IT objectives to business objectives.• Facilitates communication between business and IT related to priorities.


titles/names)



Implement Centralized IT Service Desk Process

Project Activities:

• Define the Service Desk strategy, model and staffing.• Define and establish Service Desk policies.• Process Engineering – Service Desk

– Design Process Flows (e.g. Inputs/Outputs and Integration)– Integrate defined control activities into the relevant processes.– Define Organizational RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted,

Informed)– Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and their reporting criteria.

• Define new process training requirements.

Value Driver(s):Customer

Focus, Communication

Duration: 1 Month


• Increases customer focus by servicing the needs of IT’s customers.• Facilitates communication between members of IT and the business.• Reduces resource requirements for local IT support (e.g. break/fix) by

centralizing aspects of end-user support.


titles/names)



Implement New Incident/Problem Management Process

Project Activities:

• Refine Problem policies and controls created for the Service Desk.• Process Engineering – Incident/Problem Management

– Design Process Flows (Inputs/Outputs and Integration)– Integrate defined control activities into the relevant processes.– Define Organizational RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted,


• Define new processes training requirements.

Value Driver(s):Productivity,

Customer Focus

Duration: 2 Months


• Increases productivity through lessened system downtime and a structured approach to resolving system issues/problems.

• Provides IT customers with workarounds to common issues allowing them to focus on the customer.

• Enables IT to create innovative solutions to common IT and business problems.


titles/names)



Implement New Change/Release Management Process

Project Activities:

• Define and charter the Change Advisory Board.• Define Change and Release policies.• Process Engineering - Change/Release Processes

– Design Process Flows (Inputs/Outputs and Integration)– Integrate defined control activities into the relevant processes.– Define consequences for unauthorized changes.– Establish Maintenance Windows– Define Organizational RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted,


• Integrate detected changes into the Standardized Change and Release process.

• Define new processes training requirements.• Institute monitoring processes to identify unauthorized changes.

Value Driver(s):

Quality, Flexibility/ Scalability,

Productivity, Reduced Cost

Duration: 3 Months


• Allows IT to be flexible and scalable to changing business needs.• Increases productivity through lessened system downtime and greater

first fix rate for changes.• Reduces cost normally associated to a low first fix rate and effects to

other systems.• Enables innovative solutions to be implemented within the (insert

subsidiary) environment through a structured and controlled change process.


titles/names)



Implement New Project Management Process

Project Activities:

• Improve Project Management Process (PMP) and Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Processes– Identify all stakeholders and assign the appropriate owner(s).– Conduct project kickoff meetings to layout project expectations.

○ Seek buy-in from business and IT, but ensure availability of key parties on both sides beforehand.

○ Define project roles and responsibilities of both IT and business personnel.

– Involve business users at all stages of the process, especially requirements documentation and testing.

– Let the business drive the discussions based on their understanding and needs.

– Assess whether the appropriate level of end-user testing has been performed prior to going live.

Value Driver(s):

Customer Focus,

Productivity, Reduced Cost,

Innovation

Duration: 2 Months


• Increases productivity of IT resources.• Creates a structured process to manage technology implementations to

reduce the cost associated with late or failed projects.• Enables innovation through the execution of business projects involving

technical implementations.


titles/names)


Proposed Improvement Roadmap and Timeline Details – IT Architecture

Make Decision Related to Co-locating (insert IT system)

Project Activities:

• Perform a Cost/Benefit analysis of co-locating (insert IT system) at an offsite location.

• Make a final decision whether to co-locate (insert IT system) or not.• Co-locate (insert IT system) equipment, if applicable.

– Assess the required changes to infrastructure, IT processes, and user support related to co-location of (insert IT system).

– Identify a vendor to co-locate (insert IT system).– Implement the required changes to infrastructure, IT processes, and

user support.– Cutover to the co-located (insert IT system).– Perform a post-implementation review to verify success of the cutover.

Value Driver(s):Customer

Focus, Quality

Duration: 2 Months


• Provides a higher quality of service to the end users of technology by reducing power outages.

• Allows <Company X> to focus on customer needs and process improvement by removing the burden of (insert IT system) administration.

• Creates a more flexible and scalable infrastructure by relieving (insert subsidiary) IT of the (insert IT system) administration and environmental requirements.


titles/names)