The document introduces a 5E framework for IT consolidation that includes expenditure, effectiveness, efficiency, exposure, and execution. It provides guidance on using each element of the framework to identify consolidation targets and ensure alignment with business strategy. For example, under expenditure it advises considering total lifecycle costs and indirect benefits. Under effectiveness it stresses the importance of strategic alignment and how consolidation can improve business processes. The framework is intended to provide a methodical approach for prioritizing consolidation projects and building a strong business case.
This document discusses how to effectively plan, manage, and deliver on IT's promise to businesses. It notes that while IT plays an integral role in today's businesses, many companies do not approach major IT initiatives in a businesslike way by failing to tie large IT investments and decisions to clearly defined business results. The document outlines Crowe's IT advisory solution which provides a methodology for developing an appropriate IT strategy, making sound IT investment decisions, and executing and managing initiatives in a way that relates them to organizational performance measures. It also discusses common issues businesses face with IT and how critical business events can trigger the need for improved IT management.
This document provides a guide for medium-sized companies to make informed IT investment decisions with confidence. It recommends taking time for early planning, setting clear targets, prioritizing investments based on anticipated returns, optimizing processes before selecting technologies, and using a multi-stage selection process to choose the right software, hardware, and telecommunications solutions while considering technical, financial, employee, and service factors. The goal is to implement successful IT projects that accompany business growth in a cost-effective manner.
This ISG white paper discusses the benefits of linking IT costs to business activity, and of analyzing the potential impact of IT investment on performance improvement
Investment in business information technology (IT) should not be valued in a vacuum. The investment must be for business purpose that is used to increase company revenue, market share and profit (via reduced expenses); therefore, IT projects need to be evaluated as any corporate use of funds.
Creating IT Value-A Better Way to Make IT Investment DecisionsScottMadden, Inc.
All IT organizations are resource constrained—demand exceeds supply. Organizations need criteria to decide which projects warrant allocation of high-value constrained resources. This is the second in a series on maximizing IT investment value.
The number of cyber attacks against organizations continues to grow in complexity, frequency, and severity. SSOs handle confidential and restricted personal data, making them a target for cyber crimes. Since the SSO is accountable for protecting sensitive corporate and employee information, care must be taken to understand and protect the flow of this sensitive data.
How do you properly manage cyber threats? A robust cybersecurity program is imperative to protect your organization, employees, and customers.
In this report, find out about the building blocks needed for an effective SSO cybersecurity program.
To learn more, please visit www.scottmadden.com.
The document discusses managing IT investments and business transformations. It begins by surveying organizations on where they fall on the transformation continuum. It then discusses four essential aspects of managing IT investments: defining success criteria upfront in collaboration with business partners, measuring and validating returns on investment, gaining C-suite support, and regularly reviewing results. Specific processes for investment portfolio management, validating returns, and identifying "tipping points" that can derail transformations are also summarized.
Ben Chamberlain, UMT360: PPM + Financial Intelligence = Greater ROIUMT
Ben Chamberlain, UMT360 gave this presentation at Microsoft and UMT event Project Portfolio Management Exchange at Microsoft San Francisco office on January 14, 2014.
This document discusses how to effectively plan, manage, and deliver on IT's promise to businesses. It notes that while IT plays an integral role in today's businesses, many companies do not approach major IT initiatives in a businesslike way by failing to tie large IT investments and decisions to clearly defined business results. The document outlines Crowe's IT advisory solution which provides a methodology for developing an appropriate IT strategy, making sound IT investment decisions, and executing and managing initiatives in a way that relates them to organizational performance measures. It also discusses common issues businesses face with IT and how critical business events can trigger the need for improved IT management.
This document provides a guide for medium-sized companies to make informed IT investment decisions with confidence. It recommends taking time for early planning, setting clear targets, prioritizing investments based on anticipated returns, optimizing processes before selecting technologies, and using a multi-stage selection process to choose the right software, hardware, and telecommunications solutions while considering technical, financial, employee, and service factors. The goal is to implement successful IT projects that accompany business growth in a cost-effective manner.
This ISG white paper discusses the benefits of linking IT costs to business activity, and of analyzing the potential impact of IT investment on performance improvement
Investment in business information technology (IT) should not be valued in a vacuum. The investment must be for business purpose that is used to increase company revenue, market share and profit (via reduced expenses); therefore, IT projects need to be evaluated as any corporate use of funds.
Creating IT Value-A Better Way to Make IT Investment DecisionsScottMadden, Inc.
All IT organizations are resource constrained—demand exceeds supply. Organizations need criteria to decide which projects warrant allocation of high-value constrained resources. This is the second in a series on maximizing IT investment value.
The number of cyber attacks against organizations continues to grow in complexity, frequency, and severity. SSOs handle confidential and restricted personal data, making them a target for cyber crimes. Since the SSO is accountable for protecting sensitive corporate and employee information, care must be taken to understand and protect the flow of this sensitive data.
How do you properly manage cyber threats? A robust cybersecurity program is imperative to protect your organization, employees, and customers.
In this report, find out about the building blocks needed for an effective SSO cybersecurity program.
To learn more, please visit www.scottmadden.com.
The document discusses managing IT investments and business transformations. It begins by surveying organizations on where they fall on the transformation continuum. It then discusses four essential aspects of managing IT investments: defining success criteria upfront in collaboration with business partners, measuring and validating returns on investment, gaining C-suite support, and regularly reviewing results. Specific processes for investment portfolio management, validating returns, and identifying "tipping points" that can derail transformations are also summarized.
Ben Chamberlain, UMT360: PPM + Financial Intelligence = Greater ROIUMT
Ben Chamberlain, UMT360 gave this presentation at Microsoft and UMT event Project Portfolio Management Exchange at Microsoft San Francisco office on January 14, 2014.
Outsourcing from a strategic management perspective by friedrich blase and da...David Cunningham
1) IT outsourcing from a strategic perspective requires assessing opportunities, designing solutions, selecting vendors, and managing the transition to allow lawyers to work more effectively and efficiently.
2) Historically, law firms outsourced some IT functions like data processing to service bureaus before insourcing most IT. Rising costs are now causing firms to reconsider outsourcing some services again to improve performance over just reducing costs.
3) Common IT functions considered for outsourcing include help desk, network and data center management, email hosting, and disaster recovery. Outsourcing is a strategic issue that can impact overall firm performance, not just costs.
Creating Optimized Business Relationships - Article #1Lawrence Dillon
This document summarizes an article about creating optimized business relationships between IT departments and business units. It discusses how business units currently drive isolated technology development, leading to redundant systems. The document advocates for a partnered approach where shared business processes across units leverage single, standardized technology components maintained centrally. Business units could then customize components for unique needs. This balances centralized efficiencies with flexibility for individual units.
Portfolio Agility– From Elusive Imperative to Practical Reality: Seven Dimens...UMT
More efficient and effective setting and implementing of strategy can be potentially achieved by leveraging a new style of PMO that is more comprehensive than in the past.
Agility is the elusive executive imperative of the day; long term success or failure depends on an organization’s skill at identifying and capturing opportunities faster than rivals do in this volatile and global business environment.
Bridging the gap between strategy and execution and facilitating better decisions and their deployment requires a non-ad-hoc, comprehensive roadmap to laying an enterprise-wide web of information sharing and structural change that is adopted at all levels of the company.
Digital Fuel- Achieving IT cost visibility-Id gresearch cio_study_1009yisbat
The document discusses the challenges organizations face in achieving visibility into their IT costs. It found that while having detailed cost visibility is important, over half of respondents were less than satisfied with their current level of visibility. The biggest challenges are a lack of an explicitly defined IT cost model and difficulties obtaining detailed cost breakdowns and mapping costs to specific services. Achieving true cost visibility requires new processes and tools to capture both direct and indirect costs associated with delivering various IT services.
Worried that you have too few applications? Convinced your run rate is as efficient as it could be? Congratulations: you are almost certainly unique.
According to Forrester Research1, "for IT operating budgets, enterprises spend two-thirds or more on ongoing operations and maintenance."
In order to deliver significant benefits, technology leaders need to do more than ‘tinker at the edges’ of the application portfolio.
In our direct experience there are significant benefits to be had from a strategic approach to application rationalisation: typically a 30% reduction in applications and 40% savings on annual costs (potentially tens of £ millions a year) are achievable through a considered analysis of your application portfolio.
IT Project Success through Corporate ProfilingITPSB Pty Ltd
Corporate profiling is a process that provides an in-depth blueprint of an organization's structure, technology, people, processes, and relationships with customers. It promotes visibility, collaboration, and accountability to improve decision making for IT projects. The document discusses how corporate profiling involves unbundling an organization into different categories and layers, profiling core processes, and examining external factors to assess drivers for new IT systems and ensure success.
The document discusses IT governance and the challenges faced by SMB CIOs in managing IT. It summarizes that IT governance aims to ensure IT dollars are spent on the right projects at the right time. However, the tools and processes typically used by large enterprises are too expensive, complex, and specialized for SMBs. The document then introduces the concept of on-demand CIO services as a more cost-effective solution for SMBs to access expert guidance and management of their IT operations and projects.
CIO Advisory Services Guide | White Paper from Brittenford SystemsBrittenford Systems
IT departments are under stress as the need for financial resources becomes overwhelming and technology departments are required to do more with less, using existing IT systems while having to also move or keep systems online. This white paper serves as a guide to CIO advisory services and discusses the current stress on the IT industry.
IT Outsourcing: Engaging with the Market to Leverage your Buying PowerWalter Adamson
This presentation covers the following 5 core issues: 1. Strategic Sourcing – what does it mean?
2. What factors influence the decision-making process?
3. Assessing different models for streamlining buying and effectively structuring procurement
4. Effectively managing risk while delivering business value and constructing back-to-back deals
5. Expanding the sourcing options to include offshore in-house.
Business Performance Solutions Clash Of The Titans The Market Remains Vibrant...Cezar Cursaru
This document provides an executive summary of a Forrester Research report on the business performance solutions (BPS) software market. It finds that the BPS market has seen significant growth and vendor consolidation in recent years. Forrester expects BPS software revenues to grow 12.7% through 2012 to $3.2 billion, despite temporary slowing due to the recession. The market is dominated by six large vendors, but also includes smaller BI, ERP, and pure-play BPS vendors. The report provides an overview of the BPS software category and functional elements.
M&A’s are among the biggest challenges for companies and their IT organizations to navigate. They often create issues that cannot be dealt with conventional leadership and management techniques. The role of information systems in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) becomes increasingly important as the need for speed of reaction and information is growing.
Given the current world of IT evolving and expanding all around the company, adopting and adapting innovations is not optional. The CIO’s most important role in business effectiveness is in managing this IT change to sustain the value of internal information.
The document discusses a framework called the CIO Support Services Framework (CSSF) that aims to strengthen the office of the CIO. The CSSF identifies six core components that support a CIO: enterprise architecture, capital planning and investment control, a project management office, customer relationship management, IT security, and business performance management. Together these six areas constitute a fully capable Office of the Chief Information Officer and allow the CIO to strategically direct IT operations rather than focus only on reactive firefighting.
The document outlines 10 critical success factors for successful project portfolio management: 1) Senior management commitment and consensus, 2) Communication of strategic objectives, 3) Strategically aligned investment selection, 4) Institutionalized investment management process, 5) Governance framework aligned with enterprise decision making, 6) Integrated program/project management discipline, 7) Consistent risk and performance measurement, 8) Portfolio reviews to support investment priority realignment, 9) Effective balance of investments, and 10) Strategic focus transforming strategy into operational excellence. Adopting more of these factors provides more value, but success is still possible if senior management commits to the process. Project portfolio management infuses strategy into investment decisions.
The document discusses business-IT alignment (BITA), including definitions, issues, strategies, and maturity levels. It argues that BITA is not just a technical process but involves social and organizational factors. Two case studies are presented comparing banks with different IT strategies and BITA capabilities. The conclusion is that developing vision and increasing BITA maturity requires focusing on relationships between business and IT through initiatives that develop skills, communication, and shared goals.
This presentation by Gartner discusses key issues related to IT budgeting for upcoming years. It addresses aligning IT investment levels with organizational strategy using categories of "Run", "Grow", and "Transform". It also discusses how industrialization is resetting prices for IT performance and various IT budgeting tools. The presentation provides examples and recommendations to help organizations plan IT budgets and spending in a way that supports business priorities and strategic goals.
1) The document describes a case study of creating an IT strategy for an organization. The initial state of IT was unfocused and under-delivering without an overall strategy or project management.
2) By building trust through delivering projects and gaining business input, a new IT strategy was created that focused IT on business priorities. This resulted in a 3,000% increase in profits while reducing IT costs by 60%.
3) Key lessons included the importance of collaboration, an iterative process, and changing IT KPIs and organization to align with and support the new business-focused strategy.
Applying IT to Sweeten Divestitures: The Seller PerspectiveCognizant
A lion’s share of companies plan to divest in the next two years, according to industry gurus, but a significant number of divestment projects are delayed or deferred due to misalignment of the business strategy and the IT strategy. Here’s how sellers can leverage IT as an enabler to achieve the business objectives that drive the divestiture agenda.
IT Optimization: Navigation Fiscal AusterityOmar Toor
The Federal Government faces a situation similar to that of the private sector in the early 2000s. Many corporations experienced rapid growth in the late 1990s. Companies spent tens of millions of dollars on ERP, CRM, and other enterprise IT systems. As the below graphic illustrates, large enterprise systems grew corporate expense budgets at an unprecedented rate in the form of support, maintenance, enhancement, operations, and amortization. The late 1990’s technology and dot com busts, multiple downturns, and a recession caused industry to change their spending habits and drive cost out of their baseline. Some succeeded, many failed, and a few went bankrupt.
The question is whether Federal COOs, CFOs, and CIOs will wait for OMB to levy cuts on them or whether Federal executives will act to address the systemic drivers of IT expense so they are ready to respond to the inevitable round of forthcoming budget cuts. In the words of George Bernard Shaw, “The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.” Acting now could protect agency missions and even redirect additional funds to critical needs. If CFOs and CIOs wait for the inevitable budget mandate, it will be too late to identify waste - and the only thing left to cut will be investment dollars.
www.pwc.com/publicsector
Primary concerns of CTOs with IT Outsourcing.pdfMindfire LLC
The document discusses the history and growth of the IT outsourcing industry. It began in the 1990s to help companies cut costs and access efficient resources. The global IT outsourcing market was worth $92.5 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a 4.5% CAGR through 2026. India is a leading destination for outsourced IT services, with the industry contributing around 7.7% to India's GDP currently. The document then outlines some common issues with outsourcing like selecting the right vendor, uncertainty regarding business needs and technologies, inaccurate cost estimates, security and compatibility concerns, and poor communication due to cultural differences. Solutions provided include thorough vendor assessments, clearly defining requirements and budgets,
Craft an End-to-End Data Center Consolidation Strategy to Maximize BenefitsInfo-Tech Research Group
Info-Tech Research Group provides IT research and advice to help organizations address their full spectrum of IT concerns. The document discusses Info-Tech's services for data center consolidation, including actionable insights and templates to help plan and execute consolidation projects. It emphasizes that 12-18 months of planning is key to consolidation success in order to properly inventory equipment, address requirements, and mitigate risks and unexpected costs.
Outsourcing from a strategic management perspective by friedrich blase and da...David Cunningham
1) IT outsourcing from a strategic perspective requires assessing opportunities, designing solutions, selecting vendors, and managing the transition to allow lawyers to work more effectively and efficiently.
2) Historically, law firms outsourced some IT functions like data processing to service bureaus before insourcing most IT. Rising costs are now causing firms to reconsider outsourcing some services again to improve performance over just reducing costs.
3) Common IT functions considered for outsourcing include help desk, network and data center management, email hosting, and disaster recovery. Outsourcing is a strategic issue that can impact overall firm performance, not just costs.
Creating Optimized Business Relationships - Article #1Lawrence Dillon
This document summarizes an article about creating optimized business relationships between IT departments and business units. It discusses how business units currently drive isolated technology development, leading to redundant systems. The document advocates for a partnered approach where shared business processes across units leverage single, standardized technology components maintained centrally. Business units could then customize components for unique needs. This balances centralized efficiencies with flexibility for individual units.
Portfolio Agility– From Elusive Imperative to Practical Reality: Seven Dimens...UMT
More efficient and effective setting and implementing of strategy can be potentially achieved by leveraging a new style of PMO that is more comprehensive than in the past.
Agility is the elusive executive imperative of the day; long term success or failure depends on an organization’s skill at identifying and capturing opportunities faster than rivals do in this volatile and global business environment.
Bridging the gap between strategy and execution and facilitating better decisions and their deployment requires a non-ad-hoc, comprehensive roadmap to laying an enterprise-wide web of information sharing and structural change that is adopted at all levels of the company.
Digital Fuel- Achieving IT cost visibility-Id gresearch cio_study_1009yisbat
The document discusses the challenges organizations face in achieving visibility into their IT costs. It found that while having detailed cost visibility is important, over half of respondents were less than satisfied with their current level of visibility. The biggest challenges are a lack of an explicitly defined IT cost model and difficulties obtaining detailed cost breakdowns and mapping costs to specific services. Achieving true cost visibility requires new processes and tools to capture both direct and indirect costs associated with delivering various IT services.
Worried that you have too few applications? Convinced your run rate is as efficient as it could be? Congratulations: you are almost certainly unique.
According to Forrester Research1, "for IT operating budgets, enterprises spend two-thirds or more on ongoing operations and maintenance."
In order to deliver significant benefits, technology leaders need to do more than ‘tinker at the edges’ of the application portfolio.
In our direct experience there are significant benefits to be had from a strategic approach to application rationalisation: typically a 30% reduction in applications and 40% savings on annual costs (potentially tens of £ millions a year) are achievable through a considered analysis of your application portfolio.
IT Project Success through Corporate ProfilingITPSB Pty Ltd
Corporate profiling is a process that provides an in-depth blueprint of an organization's structure, technology, people, processes, and relationships with customers. It promotes visibility, collaboration, and accountability to improve decision making for IT projects. The document discusses how corporate profiling involves unbundling an organization into different categories and layers, profiling core processes, and examining external factors to assess drivers for new IT systems and ensure success.
The document discusses IT governance and the challenges faced by SMB CIOs in managing IT. It summarizes that IT governance aims to ensure IT dollars are spent on the right projects at the right time. However, the tools and processes typically used by large enterprises are too expensive, complex, and specialized for SMBs. The document then introduces the concept of on-demand CIO services as a more cost-effective solution for SMBs to access expert guidance and management of their IT operations and projects.
CIO Advisory Services Guide | White Paper from Brittenford SystemsBrittenford Systems
IT departments are under stress as the need for financial resources becomes overwhelming and technology departments are required to do more with less, using existing IT systems while having to also move or keep systems online. This white paper serves as a guide to CIO advisory services and discusses the current stress on the IT industry.
IT Outsourcing: Engaging with the Market to Leverage your Buying PowerWalter Adamson
This presentation covers the following 5 core issues: 1. Strategic Sourcing – what does it mean?
2. What factors influence the decision-making process?
3. Assessing different models for streamlining buying and effectively structuring procurement
4. Effectively managing risk while delivering business value and constructing back-to-back deals
5. Expanding the sourcing options to include offshore in-house.
Business Performance Solutions Clash Of The Titans The Market Remains Vibrant...Cezar Cursaru
This document provides an executive summary of a Forrester Research report on the business performance solutions (BPS) software market. It finds that the BPS market has seen significant growth and vendor consolidation in recent years. Forrester expects BPS software revenues to grow 12.7% through 2012 to $3.2 billion, despite temporary slowing due to the recession. The market is dominated by six large vendors, but also includes smaller BI, ERP, and pure-play BPS vendors. The report provides an overview of the BPS software category and functional elements.
M&A’s are among the biggest challenges for companies and their IT organizations to navigate. They often create issues that cannot be dealt with conventional leadership and management techniques. The role of information systems in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) becomes increasingly important as the need for speed of reaction and information is growing.
Given the current world of IT evolving and expanding all around the company, adopting and adapting innovations is not optional. The CIO’s most important role in business effectiveness is in managing this IT change to sustain the value of internal information.
The document discusses a framework called the CIO Support Services Framework (CSSF) that aims to strengthen the office of the CIO. The CSSF identifies six core components that support a CIO: enterprise architecture, capital planning and investment control, a project management office, customer relationship management, IT security, and business performance management. Together these six areas constitute a fully capable Office of the Chief Information Officer and allow the CIO to strategically direct IT operations rather than focus only on reactive firefighting.
The document outlines 10 critical success factors for successful project portfolio management: 1) Senior management commitment and consensus, 2) Communication of strategic objectives, 3) Strategically aligned investment selection, 4) Institutionalized investment management process, 5) Governance framework aligned with enterprise decision making, 6) Integrated program/project management discipline, 7) Consistent risk and performance measurement, 8) Portfolio reviews to support investment priority realignment, 9) Effective balance of investments, and 10) Strategic focus transforming strategy into operational excellence. Adopting more of these factors provides more value, but success is still possible if senior management commits to the process. Project portfolio management infuses strategy into investment decisions.
The document discusses business-IT alignment (BITA), including definitions, issues, strategies, and maturity levels. It argues that BITA is not just a technical process but involves social and organizational factors. Two case studies are presented comparing banks with different IT strategies and BITA capabilities. The conclusion is that developing vision and increasing BITA maturity requires focusing on relationships between business and IT through initiatives that develop skills, communication, and shared goals.
This presentation by Gartner discusses key issues related to IT budgeting for upcoming years. It addresses aligning IT investment levels with organizational strategy using categories of "Run", "Grow", and "Transform". It also discusses how industrialization is resetting prices for IT performance and various IT budgeting tools. The presentation provides examples and recommendations to help organizations plan IT budgets and spending in a way that supports business priorities and strategic goals.
1) The document describes a case study of creating an IT strategy for an organization. The initial state of IT was unfocused and under-delivering without an overall strategy or project management.
2) By building trust through delivering projects and gaining business input, a new IT strategy was created that focused IT on business priorities. This resulted in a 3,000% increase in profits while reducing IT costs by 60%.
3) Key lessons included the importance of collaboration, an iterative process, and changing IT KPIs and organization to align with and support the new business-focused strategy.
Applying IT to Sweeten Divestitures: The Seller PerspectiveCognizant
A lion’s share of companies plan to divest in the next two years, according to industry gurus, but a significant number of divestment projects are delayed or deferred due to misalignment of the business strategy and the IT strategy. Here’s how sellers can leverage IT as an enabler to achieve the business objectives that drive the divestiture agenda.
IT Optimization: Navigation Fiscal AusterityOmar Toor
The Federal Government faces a situation similar to that of the private sector in the early 2000s. Many corporations experienced rapid growth in the late 1990s. Companies spent tens of millions of dollars on ERP, CRM, and other enterprise IT systems. As the below graphic illustrates, large enterprise systems grew corporate expense budgets at an unprecedented rate in the form of support, maintenance, enhancement, operations, and amortization. The late 1990’s technology and dot com busts, multiple downturns, and a recession caused industry to change their spending habits and drive cost out of their baseline. Some succeeded, many failed, and a few went bankrupt.
The question is whether Federal COOs, CFOs, and CIOs will wait for OMB to levy cuts on them or whether Federal executives will act to address the systemic drivers of IT expense so they are ready to respond to the inevitable round of forthcoming budget cuts. In the words of George Bernard Shaw, “The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.” Acting now could protect agency missions and even redirect additional funds to critical needs. If CFOs and CIOs wait for the inevitable budget mandate, it will be too late to identify waste - and the only thing left to cut will be investment dollars.
www.pwc.com/publicsector
Primary concerns of CTOs with IT Outsourcing.pdfMindfire LLC
The document discusses the history and growth of the IT outsourcing industry. It began in the 1990s to help companies cut costs and access efficient resources. The global IT outsourcing market was worth $92.5 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a 4.5% CAGR through 2026. India is a leading destination for outsourced IT services, with the industry contributing around 7.7% to India's GDP currently. The document then outlines some common issues with outsourcing like selecting the right vendor, uncertainty regarding business needs and technologies, inaccurate cost estimates, security and compatibility concerns, and poor communication due to cultural differences. Solutions provided include thorough vendor assessments, clearly defining requirements and budgets,
Craft an End-to-End Data Center Consolidation Strategy to Maximize BenefitsInfo-Tech Research Group
Info-Tech Research Group provides IT research and advice to help organizations address their full spectrum of IT concerns. The document discusses Info-Tech's services for data center consolidation, including actionable insights and templates to help plan and execute consolidation projects. It emphasizes that 12-18 months of planning is key to consolidation success in order to properly inventory equipment, address requirements, and mitigate risks and unexpected costs.
Aligning business and tech thru capabilities - A capstera thought paperSatyaIluri
Enterprises the world over spend billions of dollars on technology enablement of business functions. A significant portion of those dollars end up creating suboptimal solutions. Most IT project problems are rooted in ambiguous business definition, churn in requirements gathering, scope creep beyond a minimum marketable feature set, wild cost guestimations, not planning for interdependencies, and a lack of strong governance.
This Capstera white paper seeks to address some of these problems and provide a framework to minimize the challenges.
The document discusses how CFOs can better evaluate IT departments and technology investments. It recommends that CFOs focus on three key areas: communication between finance and IT, governance over technology spending and projects, and assessing IT capabilities and risks.
For communication, the document suggests CFOs and CIOs develop a shared language focused on business value and processes rather than just technology. For governance, it advises implementing two levels - one for strategic initiatives and one for individual projects. And for assessment, it provides questions for CFOs to ask about information quality, technology capabilities, reliability, and risks. Taking steps in these three areas can help CFOs optimize IT spending and prepare their companies technologically for the future
The document discusses how technology companies should approach integrating acquisitions in a modular way that keeps options open. It recommends loosely coupling integrations so that acquired assets can be easily divested if strategies change. This approach treats acquisitions like Legos that can be moved in and out of the corporate structure flexibly. It provides examples of how different business functions like IT, HR and accounting could have loosely coupled integrations.
RFG believes the overwhelming majority of corporate and governmental IT departments were not built to be agile, low-cost, low-risk operations and changing that culture will require CFOs and IT executives to work together to change financial strategies and the operational paradigm.
Bending the IT Op-Ex Cost Curve Through IT SimplificationCognizant
CIOs can cut back operations expenditures (Op-Ex) and redirect the funds to strategic digital transformation by reducing IT complexity and rooting out inefficiencies while engaged in IT simplification.
Roland berger managing-the-it-cost-challenge_20090522Karthik Arumugham
This document discusses eleven levers that companies can use to significantly reduce IT costs within 12-18 months. These levers include eliminating redundant management functions, simplifying procedures, optimizing project management, capping budgets, standardizing products, industrializing operations, adjusting service levels, simplifying architecture, improving sourcing mixes, and leveraging sourcing power. Implementing cost reduction measures can be challenging due to impacts on headcount and business operations. Measures must focus on both reducing change costs and ensuring costs remain low to achieve sustainable savings. Roland Berger Strategy Consultants can help identify high-impact actions and implement a comprehensive cost reduction program.
This document discusses the concept of a CTO-On-Demand, which provides IT consulting services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that may not be able to afford or justify hiring a full-time CTO. A CTO-On-Demand acts as an external IT consultant, guiding businesses strategically and tactically on technology issues and implementation. This concept addresses the gap for SMEs in aligning existing IT consulting services to their business objectives. The document outlines the advantages of a CTO-On-Demand model and scenarios where it could be useful, as well as some challenges the model may face.
This document provides 7 tips for beating the IT compliance budget crunch through streamlining risk and compliance efforts using IT governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) automation software. Such software can help automate manual processes like asset inventory, control testing, and data collection to reduce costs while improving compliance. The document also discusses how focusing on critical issues, eliminating process overlap, and developing a continuous risk management infrastructure can provide ongoing budget relief through more effective resource allocation.
IT investment decision-making with confidence - A practical guide for medium-...Girish Kumar Ayyappath
This document provides a guide for medium-sized companies to make informed IT investment decisions with confidence. It recommends taking time for early planning, setting clear targets, prioritizing investments based on anticipated returns, optimizing processes before selecting technologies, and using a multi-stage selection process to choose the right software, hardware, and telecommunications solutions while considering technical, financial, employee, and service factors. The goal is to implement successful IT projects that accompany business growth in a cost-effective manner.
Leveraging IT to create business agility: Why leading IT organisations are re...3gamma
CIOs are under pressure. Some analysts are even predicting the end of the CIO role. In the light of digitalisation and an ever-increasing need for business agility, IT is becoming an embedded part of the business. Information technology is no longer just a utility but a deeply integrated driver of products and services within most companies. An ever-changing environment means that old assumptions on how to deliver IT services need to be revisited if the IT organisation is to remain relevant.
In Automated Controls It’s No Longer the Traditional Build vs. BuyMelissa Luongo
Exploring an Alternative Perspective | An Infogix Position Paper by Lane Lambert and Chris Kosin
Decades of experience and research have shown that organizations maximize their return on investment (ROI) when they build or buy solutions that automate core processes. While making the build versus buy decision for automated or ancillary data integrity controls, an organization needs to determine if it is in the business of controls and how each option impacts Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditures (OPEX) budgets. “Buy to standardize, build to compete” has been an IT mantra for many years. Yet, executives responsible for developing an automated controls strategy continue to struggle with this question. The decision not only impacts the ability of an organization to meet its immediate controls needs but also has longstanding influence on the ability to maintain and sustain an internal control environment that is aligned with business needs. The rule of thumb has been: if the system is a requirement for business, “buy” is the answer; conversely if the system provides a competitive advantage, then the answer
is “build.”
In this paper, we propose an alternative way to look at Build vs. Buy by splitting “buy” into two options: – pre- packaged offering and configurable solution. The pre- packaged offering refers to an off-the-shelf product, while a highly configurable solution combines the virtues of a “build” solution with the flexibility and adaptability of a “buy” solution that is faster to deploy and removes the risk inherent in building internal controls. Regardless of the solution, the decision points remain the same: CAPEX vs. OPEX cost, time to deployment, internal politics, regulatory compliance mandates, architecture, IT staff competencies and strategic importance to the organization’s bottom line. However; as IT departments are increasingly stretched thin, in part due to increased data governance, audit, and overall challenges to close fragmented data integrity gaps, the case for a highly configurable data integrity controls solution becomes a compelling consideration to deliver a tailored system that capitalizes on the benefits of both building and buying. Leading organizations that use Infogix Controls have achieved significant cost savings (up to 80%) compared to internal development options. In addition, implementing Infogix Controls has enabled these organizations to rapidly deploy controls to efficiently meet changing business and audit needs. This position paper provides a framework to compare and contrast build versus buy by evaluating buy in two dimensions – pre-packaged vs. configurable – to delve into the financial and non-financial implications of these options.
The document discusses the Strategic Alignment Model (SAM) framework for aligning IT and business strategy. It describes how SAM is based on strategic fit between external and internal views, and functional integration between organizational and technology views. SAM includes four domains - business strategy, IT strategy, business infrastructure, and IT infrastructure. For alignment, three of the four domains must be aligned. The document also outlines four perspectives of SAM - strategy execution, technology potential, competitive potential, and service level. Each perspective defines different roles for top management and IS management. Case studies are provided for each perspective.
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IT Consolidation: The 5E Framework
1. IBM Global Business ServicesWhite Paper
IT Consolidation: The 5E Framework
A Methodical Approach to Align Business Strategy and IT Consolidation
2. 2 IT Consolidation: The 5E Framework IBM Global Business Services 3
Introduction
Ted Levitt, a marketing author, observed “People don’t want
to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”
When considering IT consolidation, it’s easy to be snared in
the vicious circle of how, when and what. Instead of initially
focusing on what needs to be done (“We need a quarter inch
hole on the north facing wall”), organizations may fritter
energies on the mandating methods of performing the task
(“Let’s buy a quarter inch drill”). Make no mistake, the latter is
important too, but the CIO’s valuable time should be focused
on the former. Operational details can be formulated by
internal IT resources and/or external system integrators.
Drilling a quarter inch hole without severing the wires and
pipes in the wall requires a blueprint, experience and the
knowledge of an experienced professional to execute the
blueprint flawlessly. In other words, IT must be aligned with
the business strategy.
This approach is in consonance with the Federal Government’s
performance-based services acquisition (PBSA)1
methodology.
It also frees up leadership for the core mission. It gives latitude
to internal IT and external system integrators to pick
approaches to best meet strategic objectives that consolidate
objectives. Finally, it simplifies procurement, reduces
contracting oversight and significantly reduces the probability
of expensive contractor protests2
.
But is there a methodical approach to identifying IT
consolidation targets in alignment with the business strategy?
The 5E Decision Framework is such a method - it can
facilitate the due diligence discussion, aligning consolidation
with strategy. With no reprieve from a budget deficit on the
horizon and greater investment scrutiny, this framework
– comprised of expenditure, effectiveness, efficiency, exposure
and execution –allows CIO’s to prioritize projects and
formulate a strong business case.
Expenditure
The basic principle of finance is a dollar spent
today is more expensive than a dollar spent
tomorrow due to cost of capital. Furthermore,
tomorrow’s innovations will likely render today’s technology
cheaper in future (think Moore’s law). CIOs, in partnership
with their CFOs, should balance the need for consolidation
today with savings that postponement can bring. Likewise,
they should scrutinize the relative merits of cost saving
alternatives. For instance, virtualization and cloud technology
solutions will likely meet long-term budget objectives more
effectively than simple hardware consolidation. It’s also
possible, though rarely so in our experience, that a bold cost
avoidance strategy best meets the mission critical needs of the
organization. For investments that cannot be deferred,
calculate the return on investment (ROI) with the following
recommendations:
a) Consider sunk costs with respect to the magnitude of past
investments.
b) Don’t understate indirect costs that are difficult to
determine. Examples of such costs include faster
provisioning and de-provisioning, improved compliance
and risk profile, better availability through expeditious
disaster recovery.
c) Consider benefits outside of the immediate unit with
associated spending.
Expenditure
Effectiveness
Achievement
EfficiencyExecution
Exposure
5E Framework
for IT
Consolidation
3. 2 IT Consolidation: The 5E Framework IBM Global Business Services 3
Introduction
Ted Levitt, a marketing author, observed “People don’t want
to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”
When considering IT consolidation, it’s easy to be snared in
the vicious circle of how, when and what. Instead of initially
focusing on what needs to be done (“We need a quarter inch
hole on the north facing wall”), organizations may fritter
energies on the mandating methods of performing the task
(“Let’s buy a quarter inch drill”). Make no mistake, the latter is
important too, but the CIO’s valuable time should be focused
on the former. Operational details can be formulated by
internal IT resources and/or external system integrators.
Drilling a quarter inch hole without severing the wires and
pipes in the wall requires a blueprint, experience and the
knowledge of an experienced professional to execute the
blueprint flawlessly. In other words, IT must be aligned with
the business strategy.
This approach is in consonance with the Federal Government’s
performance-based services acquisition (PBSA)1
methodology.
It also frees up leadership for the core mission. It gives latitude
to internal IT and external system integrators to pick
approaches to best meet strategic objectives that consolidate
objectives. Finally, it simplifies procurement, reduces
contracting oversight and significantly reduces the probability
of expensive contractor protests2
.
But is there a methodical approach to identifying IT
consolidation targets in alignment with the business strategy?
The 5E Decision Framework is such a method - it can
facilitate the due diligence discussion, aligning consolidation
with strategy. With no reprieve from a budget deficit on the
horizon and greater investment scrutiny, this framework
– comprised of expenditure, effectiveness, efficiency, exposure
and execution –allows CIO’s to prioritize projects and
formulate a strong business case.
Expenditure
The basic principle of finance is a dollar spent
today is more expensive than a dollar spent
tomorrow due to cost of capital. Furthermore,
tomorrow’s innovations will likely render today’s technology
cheaper in future (think Moore’s law). CIOs, in partnership
with their CFOs, should balance the need for consolidation
today with savings that postponement can bring. Likewise,
they should scrutinize the relative merits of cost saving
alternatives. For instance, virtualization and cloud technology
solutions will likely meet long-term budget objectives more
effectively than simple hardware consolidation. It’s also
possible, though rarely so in our experience, that a bold cost
avoidance strategy best meets the mission critical needs of the
organization. For investments that cannot be deferred,
calculate the return on investment (ROI) with the following
recommendations:
a) Consider sunk costs with respect to the magnitude of past
investments.
b) Don’t understate indirect costs that are difficult to
determine. Examples of such costs include faster
provisioning and de-provisioning, improved compliance
and risk profile, better availability through expeditious
disaster recovery.
c) Consider benefits outside of the immediate unit with
associated spending.
Expenditure
Effectiveness
Achievement
EfficiencyExecution
Exposure
5E Framework
for IT
Consolidation
4. 4 IT Consolidation: The 5E Framework IBM Global Business Services 5
Exposure
Black swan5
events are highly improbable but
highly consequential events that can only be
explained in retrospect. While these outlier
events are non-computable and unpredictable by definition,
the good news is most negative events can be effectively
modeled. Crafting the Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP)
should be one of the top priorities of the CIO’s team. They
need to ask whether proposed system changes will have
negative implication on the organization’s risk profile. A more
sophisticated CIO will go a step further and ensure that
proposed changes will make the systems more resilient,
minimize the organization’s risk profile and ensure compliance
with regulations. That said, we caution against analysis-
paralysis and over-focus on issue du jour, both of which can
stagnate organizational progress.
Modeling exposure scenarios against catastrophic events,
security breaches, internal failures and human errors to prevent
operational disruption and ensure disaster recovery is fairly
prescriptive, but compliance risk avoidance sometimes doesn’t
get the limelight it deserves. For example, an organization may
pick a “right-priced” third-party data center or cloud
computing provider, but may not have paused to ask itself if
the service provider’s facility is FISMA compliant. If it is
compliant, what level of FISMA exists? As threats intensify and
regulations become more complex, robust management of
“exposure” will increasingly determine the success or failure of
the organization.
Execution
Having skilled personnel and management,
including governance, in place is another
foundational element of picking consolidation
targets. Budget constraints, investment scrutiny and customer
satisfaction concerns necessitate investigation of this final and
likely the most expensive criterion. The consolidation roadmap
requires that personnel demands of proposed systems be
supplied internally or externally within a reasonable timeframe.
Appropriate governance, tools and processes should also be in
place or planned to allow the initiative to succeed.
Some managers erroneously apply Gertrude Stein’s advice – “a
rose is a rose is a rose” – to personnel staffing, probably as a
result of successful marketing by staff augmentation
companies. They forget that people come with different skills
and strengths. For example, a superstar technical manager may
not be an effective project manager and vice-versa. Even those
with the same skills have different levels of expertise that need
to be assessed before considering them interchangeable. It’s
not important to have IT personnel but it’s vital to have the
right IT personnel who are empowered with the right tools.
Another common oversight while evaluating viability is to
derive direct time costs without accounting for the time
personnel will spend in meetings, over the phone and other
sundry tasks.
Effective IT governance is absolutely critical to successful
execution of consolidation projects. The governance
management structure must have representatives from all
stakeholders with decision-making authority. Many projects
fail without an effective governance initiative. According to
Gartner6
“To avoid the most common causes of failure in IT
governance initiatives, design governance as a set of end-to-
end processes to define roles and responsibilities, and create a
practical and action-oriented governance mechanism tailored
to your enterprise's decision-making style and management
culture.” In addition, metrics must be a fundamental element
of the governance structure to enable clear visibility into the
status of projects and value to the business. A tool to capture
an end-to-end view of all investments and business results to
validate the business case will provide the decision makers with
facts to reassess decisions and shape future decisions.
d) Avoid double counting and overlaps.
e) Interlock and reconcile all spending elements (total
lifecycle – concept to end of life for all components of
development, deployment, run and retirement) and
benefits.
It is important that ROI calculations attempt to maximize the
use of the scarcest resources, which typically is the capital.
Finally, check whether the Pareto principle may be applicable
i.e. large value may be achieved from consolidating a small
number of diverse resources.
Effectiveness What does strategic align-
ment mean other than a cliché? It means there
has to be a discernable affinity between systems
proposed for consolidation, business processes,
compliance with regulations and the overall institutional
strategy. While IT-centric view believes that technology drives
business, the fact is that business processes and performance
drive decisions. CIOs should evaluate whether the proposed
system changes will make business processes more effective,
strengthen coupling between them and more effectively meet
organization’s core mission. Moreover, the new systems should
allow flexibility for future changes as the mission evolves.
“Business value”, sometimes deemed an unquantifiable and
fuzzy parameter, can be determined by taking an enterprise
view and determining the delta between current costs vs. the
expected values and impact to the organization.
When evaluating the effectiveness of consolidation, remember
that there is strong evidence3
for Conway’s Law or Mirroring
Hypothesis that states that system boundaries are based on
organization communication patterns. An extension of this
logic would indicate that effectiveness of the system is highly
likely to be limited by abstruse intra-organizational moats.
These impediments should be considered while identifying
consolidation targets. Once the vision is set, the CIO should
mandate the migration new systems by all appropriate
constituents. A Gartner study4
found that “organizations that
mandate usage report satisfaction with their solutions more
than 80% of the time, whereas less than 25% of organizations
that make participation voluntary report satisfaction with the
results.” The barriers to adoption of change is directly
associated with the culture of the organization. Effective
communication of the business value is critical to successfully
restructuring an enterprise’s communication patterns. It
enhances the adoption of change and helps to reshape culture
and organizational boundaries.
Efficiency
The CIO needs to ask whether proposed
consolidation will weed out underperforming
assets and fuel operational efficiency, including
process and IT. Demonstrable changes could be realized as
faster deployment, improved business execution and service
levels, shorter response time, higher availability, ease of use,
quicker environment set-up and automated work flow. These
factors can, for most part, be easily quantified through basic
metrics like reductions in cycle time, man-hours, equipment
down time, capex, opex and help desk tickets.
Customization should also factor in the efficiency assessment.
Deep dives usually reveal parochial interests rather than a real
need for use of non-standardized versions across the
organization. Some customization is understandable and
acceptable to meet specific needs of constituents. But over-
customization is inversely correlated to overall efficiency. It
prevents reuse, increases complexity and reduces business
agility. It may also lead to unique risks and an undesirable risk
profile.
Performance-based services acquisition (PBSA) or contracting
(PBSC) has been a cornerstone of federal acquisition for more
than a quarter century. Prime objective of PBSA is to mandate
objectives rather than methods of performance, thereby
encouraging industry-driven, competitive solutions. This policy
is even part of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart
37.6, yet it remains grossly underutilized by many agencies and
departments. The Output of efficiency assessment should be
incorporated in either performance work statements (PWS) or
statement of objectives (SOO) for any new systems.
Achievement
5. 4 IT Consolidation: The 5E Framework IBM Global Business Services 5
Exposure
Black swan5
events are highly improbable but
highly consequential events that can only be
explained in retrospect. While these outlier
events are non-computable and unpredictable by definition,
the good news is most negative events can be effectively
modeled. Crafting the Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP)
should be one of the top priorities of the CIO’s team. They
need to ask whether proposed system changes will have
negative implication on the organization’s risk profile. A more
sophisticated CIO will go a step further and ensure that
proposed changes will make the systems more resilient,
minimize the organization’s risk profile and ensure compliance
with regulations. That said, we caution against analysis-
paralysis and over-focus on issue du jour, both of which can
stagnate organizational progress.
Modeling exposure scenarios against catastrophic events,
security breaches, internal failures and human errors to prevent
operational disruption and ensure disaster recovery is fairly
prescriptive, but compliance risk avoidance sometimes doesn’t
get the limelight it deserves. For example, an organization may
pick a “right-priced” third-party data center or cloud
computing provider, but may not have paused to ask itself if
the service provider’s facility is FISMA compliant. If it is
compliant, what level of FISMA exists? As threats intensify and
regulations become more complex, robust management of
“exposure” will increasingly determine the success or failure of
the organization.
Execution
Having skilled personnel and management,
including governance, in place is another
foundational element of picking consolidation
targets. Budget constraints, investment scrutiny and customer
satisfaction concerns necessitate investigation of this final and
likely the most expensive criterion. The consolidation roadmap
requires that personnel demands of proposed systems be
supplied internally or externally within a reasonable timeframe.
Appropriate governance, tools and processes should also be in
place or planned to allow the initiative to succeed.
Some managers erroneously apply Gertrude Stein’s advice – “a
rose is a rose is a rose” – to personnel staffing, probably as a
result of successful marketing by staff augmentation
companies. They forget that people come with different skills
and strengths. For example, a superstar technical manager may
not be an effective project manager and vice-versa. Even those
with the same skills have different levels of expertise that need
to be assessed before considering them interchangeable. It’s
not important to have IT personnel but it’s vital to have the
right IT personnel who are empowered with the right tools.
Another common oversight while evaluating viability is to
derive direct time costs without accounting for the time
personnel will spend in meetings, over the phone and other
sundry tasks.
Effective IT governance is absolutely critical to successful
execution of consolidation projects. The governance
management structure must have representatives from all
stakeholders with decision-making authority. Many projects
fail without an effective governance initiative. According to
Gartner6
“To avoid the most common causes of failure in IT
governance initiatives, design governance as a set of end-to-
end processes to define roles and responsibilities, and create a
practical and action-oriented governance mechanism tailored
to your enterprise's decision-making style and management
culture.” In addition, metrics must be a fundamental element
of the governance structure to enable clear visibility into the
status of projects and value to the business. A tool to capture
an end-to-end view of all investments and business results to
validate the business case will provide the decision makers with
facts to reassess decisions and shape future decisions.
d) Avoid double counting and overlaps.
e) Interlock and reconcile all spending elements (total
lifecycle – concept to end of life for all components of
development, deployment, run and retirement) and
benefits.
It is important that ROI calculations attempt to maximize the
use of the scarcest resources, which typically is the capital.
Finally, check whether the Pareto principle may be applicable
i.e. large value may be achieved from consolidating a small
number of diverse resources.
Effectiveness What does strategic align-
ment mean other than a cliché? It means there
has to be a discernable affinity between systems
proposed for consolidation, business processes,
compliance with regulations and the overall institutional
strategy. While IT-centric view believes that technology drives
business, the fact is that business processes and performance
drive decisions. CIOs should evaluate whether the proposed
system changes will make business processes more effective,
strengthen coupling between them and more effectively meet
organization’s core mission. Moreover, the new systems should
allow flexibility for future changes as the mission evolves.
“Business value”, sometimes deemed an unquantifiable and
fuzzy parameter, can be determined by taking an enterprise
view and determining the delta between current costs vs. the
expected values and impact to the organization.
When evaluating the effectiveness of consolidation, remember
that there is strong evidence3
for Conway’s Law or Mirroring
Hypothesis that states that system boundaries are based on
organization communication patterns. An extension of this
logic would indicate that effectiveness of the system is highly
likely to be limited by abstruse intra-organizational moats.
These impediments should be considered while identifying
consolidation targets. Once the vision is set, the CIO should
mandate the migration new systems by all appropriate
constituents. A Gartner study4
found that “organizations that
mandate usage report satisfaction with their solutions more
than 80% of the time, whereas less than 25% of organizations
that make participation voluntary report satisfaction with the
results.” The barriers to adoption of change is directly
associated with the culture of the organization. Effective
communication of the business value is critical to successfully
restructuring an enterprise’s communication patterns. It
enhances the adoption of change and helps to reshape culture
and organizational boundaries.
Efficiency
The CIO needs to ask whether proposed
consolidation will weed out underperforming
assets and fuel operational efficiency, including
process and IT. Demonstrable changes could be realized as
faster deployment, improved business execution and service
levels, shorter response time, higher availability, ease of use,
quicker environment set-up and automated work flow. These
factors can, for most part, be easily quantified through basic
metrics like reductions in cycle time, man-hours, equipment
down time, capex, opex and help desk tickets.
Customization should also factor in the efficiency assessment.
Deep dives usually reveal parochial interests rather than a real
need for use of non-standardized versions across the
organization. Some customization is understandable and
acceptable to meet specific needs of constituents. But over-
customization is inversely correlated to overall efficiency. It
prevents reuse, increases complexity and reduces business
agility. It may also lead to unique risks and an undesirable risk
profile.
Performance-based services acquisition (PBSA) or contracting
(PBSC) has been a cornerstone of federal acquisition for more
than a quarter century. Prime objective of PBSA is to mandate
objectives rather than methods of performance, thereby
encouraging industry-driven, competitive solutions. This policy
is even part of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart
37.6, yet it remains grossly underutilized by many agencies and
departments. The Output of efficiency assessment should be
incorporated in either performance work statements (PWS) or
statement of objectives (SOO) for any new systems.
Achievement
6. 6 IT Consolidation: The 5E Framework IBM Global Business Services 7
Conclusion
Investment, deliverables, benefits and metrics require interlock.
Interlock is a sign-off between the CIO, the stakeholders and
the CFO. Even the best laid plans can falter due to lack of
executive support and employee resistance. People want to
understand how the change will impact them. So, it’s vital to
sell the plan to the leadership team while continuing
complementary efforts to champion consolidation at the
grassroots level. Also, bear in mind that incorrect procurement
methodology can debilitate all benefits of consolidation; pure
cost focus is a sign of shallow organizational maturity. It’s more
important to consider the long-term overall total cost of
ownership rather than insisting on low cost during acquisition.
For More Information
To learn more about IBM Global Business Services, please
visit: ibm.com/gbs
About the Author
Ravi Bansal, PMP®
Project Executive
IBM Global Business Services
Ravi Bansal is a project executive and a strategist at IBM
Global Business Services. He is one of IBM Americas’ top
consultants and has also been inducted in IBM’s delivery
excellence circle. Mr. Bansal has experience proposing, leading
and delivering multimillion-dollar business solutions. He
authored 5E framework for targeted IT consolidation and the
strategic framework for cloud alliances. Currently, Mr. Bansal
is a strategist for IBM federal’s cloud computing and smarter
government initiatives.
Contributor
Johnny Barnes
Chief Technology Officer, Public Sector
IBM Global Business Services
Johnny Barnes is the General Manager Technology and CTO
for IBM's Global Business Services. He has held a variety of
product, solution development, system architecture,
management and executive positions. He was appointed to
several critical IBM product and strategy task forces
responsible for establishing the future technical and business
direction for IBM. Currently, Mr. Barnes has responsibility for
IBM’s worldwide Public Sector technical and solution strategy.
Footnotes
1
Seven Steps to Performance-Based Services Acquisition
(www.acquisition.gov/sevensteps/library/SevenSteps_
execversion.pdf)
2
Google claims U.S. excluded it from contract
(www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/technology/02google.html),
New York Times (November 1, 2010).
3
Alan MacCormack, John Rusnak, Carliss Baldwin,
“Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational
Architectures: A Test of the Mirroring Hypothesis,”
Harvard Business Review (October 2008).
4
Deborah Wilson, “Strategies for Public-Sector Investment in
Procurement Applications,” Gartner Research (July 2010)
5
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, "The Black Swan: The Impact of
the Highly Improbable" (May 2010).
6
Michael Gerrard, “Creating an Effective IT Governance
Process,” Gartner Research (January 2010).
7. 6 IT Consolidation: The 5E Framework IBM Global Business Services 7
Conclusion
Investment, deliverables, benefits and metrics require interlock.
Interlock is a sign-off between the CIO, the stakeholders and
the CFO. Even the best laid plans can falter due to lack of
executive support and employee resistance. People want to
understand how the change will impact them. So, it’s vital to
sell the plan to the leadership team while continuing
complementary efforts to champion consolidation at the
grassroots level. Also, bear in mind that incorrect procurement
methodology can debilitate all benefits of consolidation; pure
cost focus is a sign of shallow organizational maturity. It’s more
important to consider the long-term overall total cost of
ownership rather than insisting on low cost during acquisition.
For More Information
To learn more about IBM Global Business Services, please
visit: ibm.com/gbs
About the Author
Ravi Bansal, PMP®
Project Executive
IBM Global Business Services
Ravi Bansal is a project executive and a strategist at IBM
Global Business Services. He is one of IBM Americas’ top
consultants and has also been inducted in IBM’s delivery
excellence circle. Mr. Bansal has experience proposing, leading
and delivering multimillion-dollar business solutions. He
authored 5E framework for targeted IT consolidation and the
strategic framework for cloud alliances. Currently, Mr. Bansal
is a strategist for IBM federal’s cloud computing and smarter
government initiatives.
Contributor
Johnny Barnes
Chief Technology Officer, Public Sector
IBM Global Business Services
Johnny Barnes is the General Manager Technology and CTO
for IBM's Global Business Services. He has held a variety of
product, solution development, system architecture,
management and executive positions. He was appointed to
several critical IBM product and strategy task forces
responsible for establishing the future technical and business
direction for IBM. Currently, Mr. Barnes has responsibility for
IBM’s worldwide Public Sector technical and solution strategy.
Footnotes
1
Seven Steps to Performance-Based Services Acquisition
(www.acquisition.gov/sevensteps/library/SevenSteps_
execversion.pdf)
2
Google claims U.S. excluded it from contract
(www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/technology/02google.html),
New York Times (November 1, 2010).
3
Alan MacCormack, John Rusnak, Carliss Baldwin,
“Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational
Architectures: A Test of the Mirroring Hypothesis,”
Harvard Business Review (October 2008).
4
Deborah Wilson, “Strategies for Public-Sector Investment in
Procurement Applications,” Gartner Research (July 2010)
5
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, "The Black Swan: The Impact of
the Highly Improbable" (May 2010).
6
Michael Gerrard, “Creating an Effective IT Governance
Process,” Gartner Research (January 2010).