IT Organization Optimization

Business Problem:

A large product development firm with heavily customized and segmented older legacy systems had been performing full lifecycle support and maintenance within tight functional IT units.  The tier 1 helpdesk was outsourced, and each group managed local maintenance, change control and much of production administration.  The IT infrastructure team had few formal processes and no authority to control the production environment.   As the corporate business model became more complex, poorly managed and uncoordinated change began to result in down time, lost revenue and missed product delivery windows.

Challenges:

1. System downtime at unacceptable levels.
2. Company could not deliver new product in a timely manner.  “Pilots” would be built to get something done, and then released into the production environment without adequate system testing.  
3. Processes and standards were needed to ensure that larger projects were planned with system-wide impact and change was managed and controlled.

Results:

1. Operations organization staffed and empowered to drive needed process changes to ensure stability.
2. Better control at the infrastructure level drove improvement in upstream processes.  
3. The organization is continuing to evolve to a more disciplined and stable environment and several product/project releases have been completed.

Improvement Process:

1. Organization was fully assessed for effectiveness, including people, processes and supporting technology
2. A multi-phase approach was taken to change the key processes, organization and ultimately the system architecture and roadmap
3. Initial standardization was begun with improved infrastructure planning, change control, production acceptance testing, and release management.
4. The company adopted a "virtual" Project Management Office to synchronize project planning, scheduling and critical governance.      
5. Organization is 18 months into the phased organizational plan. 

Business Problem:

As a result of recent mergers and acquisitions, a high technology client found itself with multiple CRM, ERP and reporting systems of varying degrees of complexity and age.  They implemented a business-facing team of IT Strategists to work close to the functional business units to plan for new systems and simplified business processes, but the IT team working behind the scenes was too fragmented to be able to provide basic services – and overwhelmed by the creative solutions that were being proposed. 

Challenges:

1. Company could  not pull timely and consistent reports due to disparate data sources
2. Centralized ERP decision had been made with no migration strategy to move from antiquated existing systems and data stores 
3. Multiple systems were supporting similar functions, like Marketing, completely differently, so business processes were unnecessarily complex
4. Company was growing rapidly in some areas and information technology group was under considerable pressure to scale systems to support the business
5. Cost containment was critical and the cost of maintaining separate systems was escalating
6. Several older systems were on unsupported levels with outmoded databases and hardware.

Results:

1. Increased adoption of new ERP model and retirement of legacy systems.
2. Improved client satisfaction and improved IT employee morale due to ability to deliver solutions.
3. Improved internal governance.
4. Better data management and higher quality reporting.

Improvement Process:

1. Organizational recommendations were made: re-align the IT department to manage client functions in focused groupings.  Business analyst and solutions architect support was strategically places and augmented by consultants where needed.
2. Groups were tasked with rationalizing business processes and data needs and developing plans and priorities to move application areas to ERP or related adjunct systems
3. Plans were prioritized based upon system prerequisites and business need
4. Corporation is in year 2 of a 5 year plan and on track    

Business Problem:

A seven year old firm changed direction and decided to augment its product line with a hosted product that provided data-intensive intelligent services to a target market of sophisticated users.  Their IT requirements infrastructure requirements escalated and the support model mushroomed.  Their organization did not have the staff, processes or technology to handle the rate of change.

Challenges:

1. IT department seriously understaffed across the board.
2. Infrastructure systems, processes and personnel were inadequate.
3. PMO was at the corporate level and not used by IT.
4. Product releases were successful in Beta but implementation plans were inadequate.
5. The organization was lacking a long term IT Roadmap.

Results:

1. Robust infrastructure and disaster recovery capability installed.
2. Key positions currently staffed – approximately 60% outsourced or contracted.
3. Existing organization chart is stable, company may hire more FTE’s if economy improves.
4. IT on basic practices in place for infrastructure and Project Management. 
5. Firm is in year two of a four year IT Roadmap, generally tracking well.

Improvement Process:

1. Immediately assisted in defining infrastructure systems architecture and adding hardware and increased bandwidth
2. Helped define positions needed and utilized a local sourcing firm to fill key support and infrastructure administration roles
3. Provided interim management for operations and applications teams
4. Started IT on basic practices to establish project management in the development group. 
5. Consulted on version 1 and 2 of the IT Roadmap
6. Firm is in year two of a four year plan and generally tracking well.

Download the full overview of our IT Organization Optimization program.