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Technology Strategy
Approach
Analyze Environment
Develop a Road Map
Execute Strategy
Program Management
Approach
Understand Your Customers
Define Your Services
Specify the Level of Control
Benefits
Technology Strategy
In order to succeed in
today's competitive environment, it is imperative that
companies align their IT strategy with their business
strategy. An IT strategy can help answer key questions
such as:
Is our use of IT
strategically aligned with the overall business strategy?
How do we utilize technology
to enable our business strategy and business
process?
How much should we invest in
technology to gain a competitive advantage and
are we
investing in the right things?
Software selections involve multiple stakeholders that are not always
objective. How
do we ensure we select the right software that will meet
the
needs of all stakeholders?
Are we capable of keeping up
with the rapid change in technology or should we
consider
outsourcing?
Is the IT organization
structured to add real value to the business and do we
have the right skill sets?
Smart business
FZE (SBF) works with organizations on a range of
IT strategy solutions:
IT Strategy Development -
An independent evaluation of the IT requirements and
capabilities driven by an organization's business strategy, resulting in a
documented IT strategic plan for
management.
IT Assessments - A
subset of IT strategy used primarily as a health check on
the IT organization.
Sourcing Assessments and
Strategy - An evaluation of sourcing options including
full or partial outsourcing, Application Service Providers (ASP's), and vendor
alliances.
IT Due Diligence -
Assistance with merger integration or systems
implementation.
Approach
SBS combines business and
technical expertise to provide a systematic approach in
delivering an IT strategy. The SBS approach is broken into
three phases:
Analyze Environment
We emphasize the alignment
of Information Technology with business strategy. All
engagements begin with a clear understanding of business
strategy and documentation of the current IT environment.
Working closely with the client, the team develops a
future state vision of technology and identifies any key
gaps between the current state and future state. SBS
evaluates an organization along three dimensions - people,
process, and technology.
People - SBS works
with companies to fully understand the end goals of the
organization as whole. SBS obtains a clear understanding of the roles played
by individuals supporting IT
functions. In doing so, a complete picture of the
business's current IT focus is obtained.
Process - By
leveraging industry knowledge of technical best practices, SBS
performs analysis of the current IT-related processes. In performing the
analysis, strengths and inefficiencies
of current practices are identified.
Technology - SBS will
perform an up-to-date assessment of all current systems.
During this phase, significant gaps, weakness, and/or
risks of IT infrastructure
and architecture are
identified.
Develop a Road Map
A Road Map is developed to
provide a realistic plan for implementing the company's
overall IT Strategy. The SBS Road Map includes the
following recommendations and solutions:
Establishes a framework for
tactical and operational IT decisions
Pinpoints opportunities
which contribute to tangible results for the entire
business
Focuses on both short-term
and long-term results and goals
Addresses potential issues
and problems
Anticipates changing
business environments
Recommends additions and/or
changes of key IT components
Proposes timelines for
current initiatives and recommendations
Considers budget constraints
and limitations
SBS believes in developing
strategies that can be implemented. Because of our deep
experience implementing large-scale technology solutions,
we work with clients to develop Road Maps that provide
realistic, phased solutions based on experience - not the
latest analyst report.
Execute Strategy
The ability to develop a
sound IT strategy is not enough to ensure the success of
an IT organization. An organization must have the ability
to execute strategy in order for it to become a reality.
We pride ourselves on the ability to work with clients to
execute the recommended strategies. This involvement can
cover a broad range including assistance with program
management, selection of software and solution partners,
and even hands on development and integration of systems.
Program Management
More and more companies are
taking on increasingly complex initiatives that require
synchronization between multiple projects or
organizations. A Program Management Office (PMO) is often
a solution to these problems; however, many companies are
unsure where to begin or how to make their PMO operate
effectively. This uncertainty is fuelled by the lack of
understanding of the problem that will be solved with the
implementation of the PMO.
Approach
SBS works closely with
clients to facilitate the design, implementation and
operation of a highly effective PMO. Our approach to
establishing the PMO is based on three core principles:
understand you customer, define you services, and specify
your level of control.
Understand Your Customers
In order to implement an
effective PMO, you must first understand your customer
base. The SBS approach will guide you through an exercise
that will help you identify the event or events that
triggered the request for the set up of a PMO and the
challenges that the PMO is expected to solve.
Understanding the customer motivation will allow the team
to define appropriate success criteria for the PMO.
Define Your Services
A PMO has the potential of
providing a vast set of services to the enterprise. These
services may be restricted to reporting on project status
or may be as far reaching as development and rollout of
process, training, standards definition, and audits, and
management of resources. SBS will aid you in determining
the right service offering for your business.
Specify the Level of Control
The challenge faced by all
organizations is defining the level of control that the
PMO will have within the organization. The PMO can be
instituted as strictly a support group for the projects or
as a governing body that views itself as a catalyst for
change. SBS will work with you to determine the level of
control that coincides with your corporate culture and
values.
Once the scope of the PMO
has been clearly defined, SBS can work within your
organization to implement the new capabilities. Services
provided by SBS include:
Definition of the Office
scope
Assistance with
implementation and operation of a PMO
Assistance with the
implementation of key PMO methodologies and tools
Senior level mentoring of
your PMO staff
Independent third party
review of existing PMO operations
Benefits
An effective PMO provides
many of the following benefits:
More projects completed on
time and within budgets
Better long range planning
of projects and alignment of projects with business
plans
A clearer enterprise view of
the status of complex projects
More effective management of
project risk
Better use of existing
resources - more time spent on activities that are the
highest
priority for
the entire organization
Senior project management
skills developed internally
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