‘Customer satisfaction increased by 62 per cent’

Recognising an opportunity to greatly improve the contribution of IT to its business, a blue-chip, international organisation appointed Torque Management to develop a new IT strategy.

Working closely with the CIO, executive management and divisional IT directors over a period of three and a half years, significant results were achieved: customer satisfaction increased by 62%; IT capability was increased by 1.8 levels*; project failure became a distant memory; many lower value activities were transferred to external providers who could deliver higher levels of service; and IT became an integral, more effective contributor to the success of the organisation.

This was achieved in three distinct stages:

1. Discovery

A process of ‘discovery’ examined IT capability, technology assessment, IT funding, the value of IT, IT governance and IT organisation. Policies, practices and procedures were assessed based on current best practice. This included formal benchmarking of some aspects of the IT function. On completion of this phase, certain “quick wins” were identified which were immediately actioned, improving customer satisfaction.

2. Development of the IT strategy, together with practical recommendations for the achievement of an IT transformation, including:

• Centralisation of certain common IT activities
• Outsourcing of IT infrastructure
• Cloud-based computing for a specific section of the user community
• Re-organisation of the IT organisation
• The introduction of an IT capability and up-skilling programme, improving capability to deliver and manage IT to new, higher standards
• Standardisation of many common activities across the IT organisation
• Phased funding and implementation plan, including capital and operational budgets, providing a solid footing and targets for the delivery of the IT strategy

The executive endorsed all IT strategy recommendations.

3. Implementation phase

Once the strategy was agreed, Torque Management continued to assist the implementation team, providing a mixture of formal and informal support including:

• External input to project challenges and identification of new opportunities
• Development and delivery of the IT capability programme across the IT community
• Assisting management in the identification and recruitment for new IT roles and providing specific expertise to plug skills gaps
• Coaching and mentoring for key individuals to assist the transformation

* Assessed using the Software Engineering Institute capability maturity model.