2017 02-09 how to improve your it decision making

Thrive. Grow. Achieve.

IT Decision MakingTechnology Guidance

Paul Williams/ Nate SollowayFebruary 9. 2017

AGENDA

Strategy – Who needs a Strategy ?–Business Strategic Plan–IT Strategy–Tactical Execution

Project / Strategic / Change Management (doing new things)–Core Business Competences–Differentiators / Competitive edge–Commodities–Governance

Operational Imperatives (Run the engine)–Compliance–Maintenance / Obsolescence–Prioritization / Resource Management–Measurement

Build or Buy, Rent or Own (How to do it better)–How to help you choose–Where’s my data

Can your business survive without technology ?

Can your IT team help you achieve business goals ?

Are you compliant with the law ? With best practice ?

How can you manage change? What’s the right priority ?

Who can assess vendors independently ?

Is there a different way to do this ?

IT Decision Making

IT Decision Making 3

WHO NEEDS A BUSINESS STRATEGY ?- EVERYONE

Can be as simple as a single sentence• Is the yardstick for decisions• There can be no wrong or right decisions unless there is an objective• Cannot measure progress towards a goal without the goal

Needs to be Communicated (to)• Everyone who makes decisions (about priority or using resources, including time)• Stakeholders (who manage resources you need)• Contributors (who actually perform the work)

•Provides for Common objectives• Different functions have common alignment: Fund raising, Marketing, Finance, IT• Allows for Authority to be delegated• Supports accountability• Allows contribution towards organizations objectives

I understand what my role is and what the organization expects of me

I am doing what the business needs me to do

My contribution towards the business goals can be measured

I can help the business meet its goals

IT Decision Making 4

THE IT STRATEGYHOW TECHNOLOGY CONTRIBUTES

Technology supports the business byMeeting Basic needs: Commodity Services• Communications, Equipment, Capabilities (Phone, Email, Fax, Word, Excel, Computers,

Printers)• Efficiency, cost control, non differentiating services

Servicing Operational needs: Specific Applications• Digital web presence, Storage, Data, Accounting, Business process, network,

Payments• Effectiveness, fit with business goals, moderate differentiation, Value model

Enhancing efficiency and execution: Custom and configuration• Automation, Workflow, Integration, reporting, management and exploitation of data• Differentiators, investments, Improvements, Returns on investment

Risk Management•Backups, resilience, disaster preparedness, security, compliance•Compliance, Mandates, Best practices ‘cost of doing business’

Very little work gets done today without technology

Many different ways of doing the same things: Apple vs PC vs Chromebook, Microsoft vs Google

Business strategy will determine best fit strategy for IT

Having even a small IT footprint means maintenance and support will be required

CAPACITY AND CAPABILITY: DO YOU HAVE WHAT YOU NEED ?

•How does my Inventory translate into Capability• What you HAVE today is a constraint – created by past decisions

• Resources are focused around status quo and stability (reliability, repeatability, Routine, Maintenance)

–Not the best environment for change – but do you need to change ?

–If the Inventory doesn’t match the Enterprise you can change the inventory !

What you have and what you need may not be aligned

IT tends to over estimate capacity and capability to deliver change

Result is delivery below expectations

Processes and people are harder to change than systems

IT Decision Making

WHAT’S YOUR TECH INVENTORY ?

End user computers (and software)

Back Office Computers, Storage, Data (and software)

Security: Passwords and more

Network: All the connected devices

How important is technology to your enterprise ?

Critical ?

Essential ?

Peripheral ?

Will it stay the same?

What are your technology lifecycles ?

• Hardware ?

• Software ?

• End of Life ?

• End of Use ?

IT Decision Making

Expensive. Don’t last long (3-5 years)

Hate power spikes, heat, water ~ 5 year life

Keys to the kingdom

TheDomain, LAN or WAN

WHAT’S YOUR SKILLS INVENTORY ?

How many people / what people

Generalists• Helpdesk : Internal or External

• Supporting Functions: Supervision, Project Management, Business Analyst

Specialists–Administrators

–Engineers

–Developers

What resources do I have ?

What are their competencies

Certifications ?

What do I need ?

Is there a gap ?

What’s most valuable to my business ?

Where are my biggest risks ?

IT Decision Making

•Future specialists•Can be a commodity•Low investment•Generic Skills

•Specific Skills•Privileged Access•Out of hours support ?

•Key System architects•Hard to replace•‘On demand’ ?

•Should not have ‘1’•Need governance

WHAT DECISIONS SHOULD YOU BE MAKING?

–What Processes you have in place• WHAT does IT do, HOW is it done

–Are you getting what you need ?– Are you really getting good value ?

• Main Elements: People, Processes, Technology (Services, Software, Hardware)

• What Information you are processing and storing –Compliance – HIPPA, PCIDSS, PII–Accuracy / Quality and standards–Completeness / Controls–Security

The world is changing and your enterprise needs to keep up. It’s a survivability issue.

Tech is everywhere. There are complex rules that can hurt you

IT Decision Making

• Look at what you HAVE / ARE DOING / CAN DO with technology in your Enterprise, Compared to what you SHOULD HAVE / SHOULD be doing – and act to close the gaps.

WHAT DO YOU NEED FROM ITMIS MANAGER VS CIO

When is a CIO the right choice

May not need a CIO all the time, but role is critical :

•During major change

•When IT is no longer meeting the enterprise needs

•New Initiatives / New Business

IT Decision Making

CIO Manager / SupervisorPrimary focus is Business opportunities and drivers

Primary focus is maintenance / IT Operations

External and Enterprise focus – How IT is leveraged

Business area inward focused on IT

Proactive, Opportunity seeking to improve Responsive to demands, reactive

Strategy and execution focused – What to perform Process and Procedure focused – How to perform

Critical during times of change or in larger environments

Works in a smaller or stable environment

Generates and drives strategic plans Requires Strategic leadership from outside, may generate tactical plans

SIMPLE TOOLS AND PROCESSESIT STRATEGY / DELIVERABLES

Annual or longer view of multiple changes or projects

Simple presentation of complex issues

Present IT and projects to a board

IT Decision Making

Time scale / Item

Q1 16

Q2 16

Q3 16

Q4 16

Q1 17

Q2 17

Exchange Upgrade

ERP Migration

New Location opens

Office 2013 deployment

IP Video Deployment

Intranet / SharePoint

Simple depiction of major initiatives that can be easily shared and digested. High level summary – Low level details can be built as required

ITS NOT AS SIMPLE AS IT SEEMSSOMETIMES YOU NEED EXPERT KNOWLEDGE

Does your business have a web address or business email ?

Your web address

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Do you have legal exposure for sensitive data

What does the group do all day

Outsourced and Hosted services are not secure

IT Decision Making page 11

Do you own the web address

No its Rented – the ‘DNS’ record links that name with specific “Addresses”

Is your data secure?

Do you have it backed up?

Are copies off site (fire) ? Have you ever tried to restore data ?

How long could you be down without irreparable Harm

Do you know your legal obligations about data

Employees ? Customers ? Donors ?

PII, HIPPA,PCIDSS – who has access and how

Not just digital data. Voicemail, paper records. Birthday including year ? Address and phone ?

Do you know what they are doing ?

Do you know what they can do ?

Expectation gaps:Never want to say ‘No’. Set up to fail

Keeping the lights on (Housekeeping)

Maintenance (Obsolescence)

Growth (Volume / Size, Projects, Features)

Capacity and Capability

What are you getting for your spend ?

Software is not really a good asset

Maintenance and housekeepingHigh RiskHigh CostLow added value

DELIVERING CHANGE: PROJECTS SIMPLE TOOLS AND PROCESSES

Project reporting is about how well change is being executed

Do you know what projects IT are executing on ?

What are your expectations on scope and delivery ?

How are you gate keeping and prioritizing projects ?

IT Decision Making

USUALLY MONTHLY EXCEL 1 LINE PER PROJECT.

Item ContentName Name and code for project (if coded)

Description Business name / meaningful to all

Purpose Why do this project (type, benefit, priority, risk)

Budget Project Lifetime (original) budget to actual. Performance to plan. Estimate to complete, contingency balance

Scope management

Changes to scope – Approved, waiting, declined

Dates Approved, planned start, Planned end, Projected end

Status Green (on plan / target), Yellow (at Risk), Red (off target –Time, Budget, scope, outcome)

ACCOUNTABILITY AND STAYING IN CONTROL

Where a project is high risk, or a large project, with cross functional teams or enterprise wide impact

E.g. changing ERP systems

Copies from MS project

Use Excel data Bars for complete %

IT Decision Making

PROJECT STEERING / STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS

Item ContentObjective / Milestone

Project Component being reportedE.g. Cleaned up Vendor Master file, Chart of accounts sign off

Dates Planned start, Due, projected

Completion Percentage Complete

Actions Responsibilities and actions due / performed

SIMPLE TOOLS AND PROCESSESRUN THE ENGINE

Cyclical tool to manage a department

Formal communication between execution and management

Over time see trends and patterns

Suggested Weekly or bi weekly

Can have meeting notes on reverse or second page

IT Decision Making/

Broad Focus Areas

■What’s Important in the function at the moment

■Where are we spending time money and effort

New Information

■What’s New this cycle■What did we achieve in the last

cycle■What did we find out

Targets for this cycle / week

■What are we going to get done■Who is doing it■What’s the status of ongoing efforts

Open items / Roadblocks

■Open Decisions■Things I am waiting for others

(who) on■Carried forward open issues

THE 4-BLOCK REPORT : DATE / PRESENTED BY

GROWTH VS MAINTENANCEPROJECTS VS SUPPORT

Good support requires active management

Metrics make support accountable as well as proving value proposition to the business

Recognized stress point in many methodologies: ITIL, Six Sigma TQM

IT Decision Making

Constant Conflict:New Imperatives vs Maintain current status means Generally:• MINIMUM 30% of resources dedicated to maintenance (normal range is 40-70%)• Business wants new capabilities but neglects support for existing needs• Lower cost / value resources dedicated to maintenance

• Helpdesk• Configuration management• Hardware support• Patching and upgrading• Low value perception (until it breaks !)

ACCOUNTABILITYROUTINE KPI’S / METRICS

Usually Monthly

Aligns with Enterprise Objectives / Strategic Plan

Meaningful indication of performance

IT Decision Making

MONTHLY IT METRICS DATE / PRESENTED BYItem ContentBudget Operating budget with narrative. Performance to

Plan / Last year

Reliability Uptime %, failure rates, downtime stats. Trended over time (Network Phones, Backups, Servers)

Helpdesk Tickets handled, average time to close, Outstanding unresolved by importance (critical)

Capacity Utilization: Storage, Compute, NetworkInventory Bought, Broken, Repaired, Retired, Lost/Stolen

(phones and aircards if owned as well)

Staff Gaps, new, exits, promo’s, Training, SkillsServices SAAS provider performance by provider

Change Management

Planned and Deployed changes. Outcome summary

WHAT SHOULD I BUY OR RENT TODAY

Possible Strategies / viewpoints

Are we BIG enough to have enough skills to support specific technologies in house ?

Using SAAS we can avoid having to hire skill set specialists

Should IT functions be a primary competence of our business ?

Can also consider full outsource models

17IT Decision Making Page

Product SAAS Status Impact Results

Email Common High Reliability, resilience, Frees resource for Enterprise mission

Payroll Common High Compliance, Security, Risk

SharePoint Rare (but growing) High Resilience, Accessibility

Website Common High Security, Reliability, Capacity

ERP / Accounting Becoming common High Reliability, Accessibility, Key skills

Helpdesk (system) Common Med Reliability, Accessibility - Stays up even if you are down !

Telephony Becoming common Med Depends on installed base and equipment

HR Systems Common High Security

CRM systems Common Med Reliability, accessibility

POS Common is small orgs High Risk, compliance. Can be more efficient in house but higher risk

Network / Connectivity

Growing High In house skill is expensive. Key man dependencies. Critical infrastructure

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CLOUD SECURITY

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CLOSING VIEWPOINT

Things change – Entropy vs Development

•We make decisions with what information we can gather and digest• Research• Experts• Evaluations

•As new choices (and mandates) become available• Need to re-evaluate options• Context of past decisions and current status• Some ‘trigger points’ – Obsolescence, Contracts, Strategy, Staff turnover, Compliance,

Growth

•Not all new options are right – Change vs Stability• Lots of marketing hype. Don’t get sold on shiny toys• Biggest benefits are not always cost• Will it help achieve the goals of the enterprise - how

How do you stay informed ?•People like us. Field experts, Benchmarks, Peer review, Sector experience, Passion in our fields.

Where am I compared to best practice

Where am I compared to my peers

For my type and size of enterprise

What keeps me awake at night

Am I happy with what IT is doing for me now

IT Decision Makin

THANK YOU!

Paul WilliamsDirect: 202.730.7237E-mail: [email protected]

Seth ZarnyDirect: 301.279.6500E-mail: [email protected] Q

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Who needs a CIO? Page 25

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