BSG aimed to introduce value into the environment as early as possible and ensure continuous feedback and improvement.

Firstly, an IT operating model was designed to be used as the foundation for the IT transformation programme — to clearly communicate changes in IT within the organisation, as a representation of IT to the business and as a means of assigning accountability and measuring internal functions and external vendors.

The strategic principles which would support the IT operating model were tailored to the client, thereby ensuring the model was designed with the customer (i.e. the business units) and the federated model in mind.  By clearly identifying roles and responsibilities, a transparent and trusting relationship between business and IT could be encouraged, enabling a structure where the client can strive to meet and exceed their customer expectations.  Tailoring the model for the client and their sense of purpose and existence — ensured their guiding values, culture and value proposition would be part of the considerations.

Secondly, BSG defined an IT service catalogue as a basis for the definition of service level agreements, which was the starting point for the consolidation and optimisation of IT services and the definition of an internal costing and chargeback model.  While the client knew their IT department was very busy serving a complex business, they were unsure how to better organise to address this complexity.  BSG identified 200 items in the service catalogue and grouped these into 12 high-level capabilities and thus improved the visibility of IT’s value offering to business.

With the definition of the IT operating model and service catalogue having a far reaching impact, over 50 stakeholders across IT were consulted to assist in designing and validating the IT operating model, which greatly assisted with the buy-in and commitment from this group to the change process.

A transition roadmap was designed by BSG to enable IT to move from the current state to the future state, through focused initiatives over six months, to enable rapid and positive change for the 400 IT staff.  This roadmap included sponsors for each initiative.  Furthermore, BSG identified 24 necessary functions within central IT, as well as the 20 functions needed within each of the four business segments.

Metrics were integral to this project.  BSG introduced a dashboard to visually show how the client’s IT department was tracking against their five strategic objectives, as the client had not been measuring progress effectively.  IT was also advised which key metrics they needed to deliver on, to drive performance.