Have you considered the value of your Digital Assets, Ecosystem, People and Processes? Are they fit for your future growth? Are they suitable for your strategic plans? Do they have an impact on your Business’s value?
For a recent Financial Services client we were asked to assess the readiness of their Digital Ecosystem for it’s next stage of growth.
We were engaged to perform an independent assessment of their internal digital environment in order to provide guidance to the Company Board that the capability met best practices and was appropriately documented.
We were to deliver at a high-level:
- ITIL Maturity Assessment
- Online Applications Health Check
- Systems Architecture Model
As with any engagement we looked to industry standards and frameworks to develop our approach. We then tailored an approach to reflect the organisation’s expectations, capabilities, milestones and budget.
Our activities were as follows:
Initiation
- Initiation and Rapid Planning Workshop
- Finalise Approach, Plan and Report Content
- Stakeholder Introductions & Team Engagement
- Environment Walkthrough
Consideration
- Environment Surveys
- Desktop documentation review
- Individual interviews (Direct & Remote / MS Teams)
Delivery
- Summary Systems Architecture Document / Diagram
- Application/s Health check
- ITIL Assessment
- Findings Presentation/Recommendation
As part of the process we reviewed Security, Procedures & Control Frameworks with recommendations for Immediate and Medium term changes.
Throughout the process we sought to identify any potential opportunities for Intellectual Property that could be documented and registered as well as other points of Competitive Advantage.
High Level ITIL Maturity Assessment
As a starting point for the maturity assessment, we utilised ITIL (formerly Information Technology Infrastructure Library). This is a set of detailed practices for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus on aligning IT services with the needs of business.
ITIL describes processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists which are neither organization-specific nor technology-specific, but can be applied by an organization toward strategy, delivering value, and maintaining a minimum level of competency. It allows the organization to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, and measure. It is used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvement.
The table below summarises the functions and processes that were considered.
There are four essential components of ITIL service value systems.
1. Organisation and People: The organisation needs to operate in a smooth and efficient manner, with all departments clearly defined and know of their role and duties and the way they are contributing to the overall productivity and profitability of the organisation.
2. Information and Technology: This refers to the organisation having modern IT management systems in place, that aid in the overall development of the organisation. Working with the latest technology help the organisation stay relevant and cut costs, as modern technology reduces dependency on humans and increases efficiency.
3. Partners and Suppliers: They are key players that help the organisation function. Partners are the ones who supply with financial funds and suppliers provide raw materials needed to produce the services that the organisation can sell. Both of them are essential to the company to function. With the help of IT and a systematic database can be created that can help track the number of funds and raw materials each partner and supplier has provided.
4. Value Streams and Processes: The company can use IT services to streamline existing processes and services. As time passes, the existing process can become obsolete, with the help of technology patterns where a slow process can be identified and worked up. At the same time value creation is essential to the success of the organisation. Coming up with new channels to create value should be the target of the company. IT service management can help in identifying new trends to create value.
Recommendations
At the highest level we made recommendations including:
- Develop IT Strategy and Business Alignment Documentation
- Develop Solutions Architecture
- Develop Integrated Technology Catalogue & Schedule
- Refine the Deployment Process
- Extend the Technology Operations Model
Online Health Check
We utilised the following model for the generalised assessment of the applications environment within the client.
This is the high level summary of the assessment groupings. We went to considerably more depth during the process.
Recommendations
- Develop Digital Strategy aligned with the Business Strategy.
- Document the Digital Environment including Solution Architecture and Master Data Design.
- Establish Program Management and Operations Management Ownership and Processes.
Findings Summary
The client is a successful business supported by innovative technology applications. They are continuing to invest in their IT capabilities with a focus upon product development and competitive advantage. Their team has grown organically with developments being driven by the business/product operations groups.
With the scaling of the business in terms of both organisational size and new product development there was a growing requirement for a greater focus upon IT Governance. Whilst there were no current significant issues with the technology operations the greater reliance upon their services will become more demanding. In terms of technology maturity the client falls in the mid range. They recognise the need for improvement and have commenced the process of capability assessment and identification of initiatives. There has also been the recent implementation of practical solutions such as the implementation of some project task management and broader technology operations issue management.
IT Roadmap and IT Infrastructure & Architecture documents specific to their core business process provide a partial foundation to build upon.
The broader technology infrastructure was not formerly assessed, however appears to be mature and secure with a strong capability provided by third-party host and the internally hosted/managed office server network for back-up and redundancy.
The primary finding was no single person/executive responsible for IT Governance. There did not appear to be an owner for the IT Strategy and the alignment with client’s business strategy.
Subsequent findings and recommendations build upon this foundation and will be remediated as development of an IT Strategy and ownership is established.