Louisiana Council of
Information Services Directors
Maximizing Internal IT Effectiveness
9331 Bluebonnet Boulevard
Baton Rouge, LA 70810
225-769-2676
www.consultssa.com
Presentation Overview
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•
•
•
Introduction
Identifying the four keys
Breaking down the four keys
Questions and answers
Presenter’s Background
• Over 24 years of IT-related experience
• Industry experience includes finance,
healthcare, IT outsourcing, and
state government
• Consulting for just over three years
– Organizational restructure
– Business process redesign
– Project management/facilitation
– Interim IT management
Identifying the Four Keys
1. IT Governance
Practices
3. Customer
Service and
Marketing
2. Organizational
Structure
Effective IT Requires:
•
Proper interconnectivity
•
Proper balance of roles
•
Proper alignment of focus
4. Performance
Management
Defining the Four Keys
1. Governance: How your business organization
manages utilization of IT resources (e.g. people,
funding, and assets)
2. IT Organization Structure: How well your
application support aligns with your agency
operations structure
3. Customer Service and Marketing: Getting your IT
staff to operate like an external party that has to earn
their business and promoting your services
4. Performance Management: Using employee
performance reviews to reinforce a customer service
philosophy
Key 1:
Effective IT Governance
• IT governance is specifying the decision rights and
accountability framework to encourage desirable
behaviors in the use of IT
• Effective IT governance requires a significant
amount of management time and attention
• Well-designed IT governance arrangements
distribute IT decision making to those responsible
for outcomes
Source: IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage I/T Decision Rights for Superior Results
By: Peter Weill and Jeanne W. Ross
Key 1:
Effective IT Governance cont…
• The best predicator of IT governance performance
is the percentage of managers in leadership roles
who can accurately describe IT governance
• Research shows that organizations implementing
effective IT governance to support their business
strategies realize superior results
Source: IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage I/T Decision Rights for Superior Results
By: Peter Weill and Jeanne W. Ross
IT Governance Must Address …
• What decisions to make
• Who should make the decisions
• How to make and monitor
the decisions
Source: IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage I/T Decision Rights for Superior Results
By: Peter Weill and Jeanne W. Ross
Governance Structure Models
• Model 1: For small organizations where a single
tiered central steering committee, chaired by
highest level executive, can effectively govern IT
deployment for entire organization
• Model 2: For medium size organizations that have
two to four operational divisions that are highly
dependent on IT resources
• Model 3: For large organizations the have five or
more operational divisions highly dependent on
IT resources
IT Governance Structure:
Model 2
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Governance
Committee
(ITGC)
Administrative
Steering
Committee
Division A
Steering
Committee
Chaired by Secretary or appointed official
Meets bi-monthly or quarterly
Defines IT governance structure
Sets decision parameters for committees
Approval board for IT business policies
Includes steering committee chairs
Includes senior IT executive
eServices
Inter/Intranet
Division B
Steering
Committee
•
•
•
•
•
IT Steering Committees (ITSC)
Chaired by appointed official
Meets bi-weekly or monthly
Plan/prioritize division projects
Management level participants
IT Governance Structure:
Model 3
Executive
Committee
(ITEC)
Governance
Committee
(ITGC)
Administrative
Steering
Committee
Division A
Steering
Committee
•
•
•
•
•
•
Chaired by Secretary or appointed official
Includes appointed officials
Meets quarterly
Approves decision parameters for ITGC
Oversees/approves governance structure
Includes ITGC chair and IT Director
•
•
•
•
•
Chaired by high appointed official
Meets monthly initially
Includes Steering Committee chairs
Approval board for IT Business policies
Oversees multi-division IT initiatives
eServices
Inter/Intranet
Division B
Steering
Committee
•
•
•
•
•
IT Steering Committees (ITSC)
Chaired by ITGC member
Meets monthly
Plan/prioritize area projects
Management level participants
Important Governance Factors
• Ideally, your highest level governance
committee should be chaired by the
agency Secretary
• Active involvement by the highest level
of organization management
• Committees should be chaired by
business executives
Important Governance
Factors cont…
• Committees should be organized around
key business operations or divisions
rather than IT operations
• Top IT executive should sit on the
organization’s highest level executive
business committee
• Formalized business based methodology
for prioritizing IT projects
IT Governance Practices
Example: Project Priority Matrix
Priority
Business Drivers
WT
A
B
C
D
6.0
> 30 %
( )
6.0
> 20 %
( )
4.5
> 15 %
( )
3.0
> 10 %
( )
1.0
> $500K
( )
( )
6.0
> $250K
( )
( )
4.0
> $100K
( )
( )
2.0
< $100K
( )
( )
0.0
High
( )
( )
5.0
Medium
( )
( )
4.0
Low
( )
( )
2.0
Indirect
( )
( )
1.0
4.0
2.0
> or = 6
( )
( )
6.0
> or = 4
( )
( )
4.0
> or = 2
( )
( )
2.0
=1
( )
( )
1.0
-2.0
-1.5
Hi/Long
( )
( )
5.0
Lo/Long
( )
( )
4.0
Hi/Short
( )
( )
3.0
Lo/Short
( )
( )
1.0
Return on Investment
Efficiency Gains
- One-Time Savings
- Annual Savings
Marketing Impact
- Improves Customer
Service
- Provides New Service
Scope of Impact
- Multi-Department
- Single Department
Business Risk:
- Key IT Resources
- Implementation
Timeline
4.0
6.0
3.0
4.0
Score
Key 2:
Business-Driven IT Structure
• Application team structure needs to effectively
align with major operational divisions and
governance structure
• “Big Picture” thinking is prevalent amongst the IT
management team
• Single point of accountability for these IT areas:
– Overall agency IT management
– Business applications management
– Infrastructure management and support
– eServices development and support
Aligning Applications with
Business Operations
Appointed
Secretary
Administrative
Division
Finance
Purchasing
Human
Resources
Payroll
Audit
Legal
Operations
Division A
Customer Services
Billing
Collections
Remote Offices
IT Director
or CIO
Operations
Division B
Mail Processing
Imaging
Document
Management
Customer
Service Manager
Application
Director/Manager
Infrastructure
Manager
Administrative
Applications
Division A
Applications
Division B
Applications
Finance
Purchasing
Human
Resources
Payroll
Audit
Legal
Customer Services
Billing
Collections
Remote Offices
Mail Processing
Imaging
Document
Management
eServices
Applications
Business-Driven IT Model
Customer  Vendor
Customer
Demands
Customer  Vendor
Business
Services
Customer  Vendor
Application
Requirements
Technical
Infrastructure
I/T Foundation: Balancing Business Needs and Technology Infrastructure
Key 3:
Customer Service and Marketing
• Developing an “Internal Consultant” mindset
– Every encounter with a customer is a perception
opportunity (favorable or unfavorable)
– Of the individual and the IT division
• Getting IT personnel to identify with the business
operations rather than the IT business
• Develop IT business practices that make it easier
on the customers to do business with IT
• Job shadowing: spending time walking in your
customer’s shoes in their element
Key 3:
Customer Service
and Marketing cont…
• When IT organizations do their job best, customers
notice you least; IT becomes transparent
• When things are going well you sometimes have to
promote your organization, it’s called marketing
• You have to be pro-active in telling your customers
about your organization and your efforts; consider
an IT Road Show
• The link: the better your customer services are the
more credibility your marketing efforts will have
Key 4:
Performance Management
• Developing a performance management system that
encourages the desired behaviors related to
customer service
• Highly-disciplined management team that provides
consistent and equitable evaluation of personnel
– Maintain a personnel folder on each direct report and their
direct reports
– Top IT executive serves a single point of preview and
feedback on every personnel review
• Assemble a management team that understands
their role is to put their staff in the best possible
position to be successful
Include Customer Service
in Employee Reviews
• Solicit customer feedback and include in each
employee’s performance review
• Require IT staff to spend a half to a full day each
quarter job shadowing a customer
• Require each employee to provide a half page
report on what they learned and share with the
entire IT staff
Assessing Where
You are Today
• Ask your staff:
– What business are you in?
• Ask your managers:
– Are our processes designed to make life easier for our IT
staff or for our customer?
– Have you seen demonstrations of applications you do not
have to support?
• Ask your employees:
– How much time do you spend with your customer learning
their business operations?
• Ask your customers:
– What is the most valuable service IT provides?
Suggested Reading
• IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage
IT Decision Rights for Superior Results, by
Peter Weill and Jeanne W. Ross
• Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your
Expertise Used, by Peter Block
• How to Market The I/S Department Internally,
by L. Paul Ouelette
Thank You!
Questions?
Errol Labat
SSA Consultants
(225) 769-2676
elabat@consultssa.com