Schedule

Are you wrestling with poor service provider performance, lack of service accountability, cost takeout pressures and a business that sees you as a supplier, not partner?

This session, using the backdrop of a case study, will explore the journey that one of West Monroe’s clients went through to address these issues and emerge with a focus on inspiration, not perspiration. Additional anecdotes from several client engagements, will be interspersed to illustrate typical challenges and methods for overcoming them.

The Challenge

Improve IT service delivery and flexibility while also reducing IT costs to enable better business experience and customer outcomes​.

The client was looking to reduce operational costs but was unclear on how to achieve the end goal. The client decided to outsource some of their Infrastructure towers and realized they needed assistance with contracting. West Monroe was engaged. ​

We quickly realized that the outsourcing transaction needed to better align with the overall business strategy and how IT would operate in the future. That lead to a broader engagement on developing an IT operating model that aligned with the business transformation goals and an execution strategy to achieve ambitious savings targets.​

Returns that can be measured

• Shifted focus of the IT organization towards inspiration, value-add business enablement and future direction vs. keep-the-lights-on.​
• Leveraged managed service providers for day-to-day perspiration operations and project delivery at scale​.
• Increased focus in retained roles for strategy and architecture (e.g., domain owners and solution architects) to enable better roadmap alignment with the business and ownership of architecture​.
• Established baseline for over $300M in savings over 5 years.
• Improved operational performance levels and higher SLAs​.

An undeniable approach

Executed key activities to achieve strategic objectives​, as follows:

• Facilitated service delivery vision discussions with executive leadership to drive alignment on strategic objectives of the future-state operating model; re-designed the IT operating model and developed future state organization structure​.
• Developed a strategic sourcing strategy and conducted RFPs in phases for IT infrastructure and application development + maintenance for applications.
• Managed vendor selection and negotiated contracts​.
• Established good governance over a multi-sourced environment via service integration and management (SIAM).
• Leveraged international standards as part of a continual improvement strategy, e.g., ISO/IEC 38500 (governance) and ISO/IEC 20000 (IT service management).
• Managed multiple service transitions to implement a “one team” approach between the client retained organization and the vendor extended teams and minimized business disruption​.

Takeaway

1. Strategies to avoid the pitfalls when optimizing the IT operating model
2. Utilizing international standards as a guide path to improvement, not necessarily for certification
3. Practical hints and tips based on a real-world case study