Focusing On Success In Multi Sourced Environment

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Derek Lonsdale, Wendy Clark and Bina Udadia (2006) describe ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) as a best practice framework for service management that provides standard instructions for deployment in one dimensional service delivery environment. Because of complex nature of most organisations aren’t that simple and due to of all that Information Technology is outsourced among several service providers. Individual service providers have several tolls for service management, support models and techniques themselves. According to Derek Lonsdale, Wendy Clark and Bina Udadia (2006) Attempting to deliver ITIL best practice in such complex environments without taking into account needs of your organization often results in the anticipated benefit or "step change" in performance not be done. It will be of benefit to the customer receiving such services managed on ITIL fundamentals.

To gain early success will be easier to achieve by comprehensive and focused implementation and it can help organisation improve rapidly. This type of implementation should be based on clear priorities to succeed in a complex environment. These funds must include a program of activities focusing on the processes that provide visible benefits, a design for the organisation which runs end to end service management, underpinned processes and a continuous drive for benefit delivery (Derek Lonsdale, Wendy Clark and Bina Udvadia, 2006).

Any organisation implementing ITIL based Managed service strategy should divide deployments into list of priority changes because all organisations have different priorities which depend on their current process maturity and business issues. To fit quick wins there are number of processes can be added, service level management, problem management, incident management and change management because they are clear candidates’ prioritization (Derek Lonsdale, Wendy Clark and Bina Udvadia, 2006).

To build better customer relationship by faster service restoration and minimum downtime and deliver most visible and immediate benefit are advantageous by prioritizing the processes. Further than that outcome of prioritizing these process can give organisations the vision to implement the rest of the ITIL deployment. (Derek Lonsdale, Wendy Clark and Bina Udvadia, 2006).

The advantage of these processes to be prioritized is that they deliver the most conspicuous and immediate benefits through lowering service disruption and restore service faster and at the same time establish better relationship with the business. Furthermore, the results obtained by these processes provide organisations with information they need to prioritize there remaining ITIL deployment pieces. For example, management can detect problems that most problems are caused by a shortage of effective capacity management. (Derek Lonsdale, Wendy Clark and Bina Udvadia, 2006).

Derek Lonsdale, Wendy Clark and Bina Udvadia, (2006) concluded in their search found that while the ITIL best practice framework guidelines are standard and easy set of guidelines, it can be changed or modified and implemented according to the organisational needs where this guideline will be implemented. The Implementation can be successful when the complexity of the environment by encouraging a few but important areas, establishment of a clear and accountable service management organization, and ensure that performance information is available right from the start. Implementation of ITIL in any organization wishing to provide managed services can make a real difference for the implementation of ITIL success (Derek Lonsdale, Wendy Clark and Bina Udvadia, 2006).

2.15 Service Integration in a Multivendor Outsourced IT Environment

Imagine asking two teenagers to take out the trash every Wednesday. So anyone who has kids would know that the trash will not be taken out on Wednesday because it involves more than one teenager and they will be pointing at each other and say, "I thought he or she would do it." In an environment where Information Technology is outsourced to multiple service providers, IT is facing similar challenges For example, when you have a complex incident that paralyzed major commercial aspect, suppliers will inevitably towards each other and say "it's their fault." (Jan Vromant, 2010)

Jan Vromant (2010) explores that although there is a less control because of multi outsourcing, why there is always an increasing trend there? Then the best answer would be "different Information Technology vendors have different strengths and capabilities and cost structures. Often, service providers have unique strengths in specific industry sectors (e.g. health care, automotive) or with specific products or technologies (e.g., SAP R/3, network management) and has developed the skills and the knowledge to make a strong value in that particular area" (Jan Vromant, 2010).

Jan Vromant (2010) also explained that the reason of in house application support for the organisation under the same building has weak infrastructure or operation support. One of reasons why this could be that, applications are more a people focused because most applications are cost people rather than operations, resulting in different kind of corporate culture".

2.16 The Drive for Value Management

According to Jon Thorp (2008) every small business, medium business or a large enterprise in USA which is public or privately owned, whether profit or non-profit organisations they all have to deliver value in return to their stakeholders or their owners. Past few years or so this has been the part of enterprises business discussion that how to achieve the value. The present interest in the management of the value is determined by a number of factors, including a poor track record of the value of the catch, the changing nature of value with a larger contribution from intangible assets, complexity increases value, mainly due to the widespread use of IT and globalization, increased transparency driven primarily by regulation such as Clinger-Cohen and Sarbanes-Oxley in the United States

John Thorp (2008) explains the survey taken in 2006, 150 senior executives throughout the word took part in the survey, which was carried out by Economist Intelligence Unit in conjunction with Deloitte considered that the concept of value creation and preservation through investments in business change is still mostly treated as an implicit principle, not a deliberate and widespread thesis leadership behavior. (John Thorp, 2008).

As John Thorp (2008) summarises that Investment involving IT affected by such type of thinking, which changed the views that investment in IT is no longer just about the technology itself but this is the investment for an organisation as whole. Failure to realize the business value of IT investments has enabled organizational change is a symptom of a wider malaise that provides managers with new challenges. Implementation of a major change in is correctly balance terrible record. Value management is not new. It origins dating back many decades, but its promise is largely unsatisfied today. McKinsey has reported that well executed value management policies typically provide between 5 and 15 percent increase in bottom-line results, but in a 2006 survey of 150 senior executives globally, Economist Intelligence Unit, in collaboration with Deloitte.

2.17 Unlocking the Value of IT Investments

According to Georges Ataya, (2007) the importance of the use of information technology, automation of work with management of business information has increased the number of different potential uses of information technology applications. It's not that things cannot be done using an automated request for information, they can be a great help in any type of complex environment to make work easier and faster. Because the application is automated can be very useful for any type of complex business organizations do not invest, but they invest in changing information enabled technology. Most organizations have a lot of old technology applications installed are large enough; they must be maintained and updated in accordance with business needs. With an increasing amount of valuable work potential to make a sum that consistently exceed the available resources, the challenge of selecting investment for reasons other than Information technology business investment is difficult, because there are a lot of issues, such as the increased risk impact on business, making the choice complexity, more visibility and more attention is needed by executives.

It’s not that only more things that may be done by using automated application of information technology, they can be a great assistance in all kind of complex environment to make job easier and faster. As a result automated application can be quite useful for any kind of complex business, organisations are not making IT investments but they invest in Information Technology enabled change. Most organisations have plenty of legacy applications of technology installed which are quite large, they have to be maintained and updated according to the business requirements. With growing numbers of potential useful work to do an amount that consistently surpasses the resources available, the challenge of selecting investment for reasons other than technology business is difficult, since there are many issues, such as making the choice, complexity, higher risk, the impact on businesses, greater visibility and awareness top management required (Georges Ataya, 2007).

Georges Ataya, (2007) describes the challenges organizations must choose investments that have great benefits for businesses and can also provide value to the business. Portfolio management represents a major challenge for organizations. "One of the three processes in the portfolio management ITTM.1 Val has been applied to financial investments for decades to assist decision makers to choose among more opportunities and complicated in an unstable environment." The nucleus of effective corporate governance is combining the performance management and portfolio management.

Georges Ataya, (2007) explores the importance of process management and portfolio management. A portfolio can contain all investments or assets that one organization needs to manage and investments or assets that could be described based on their nature or characteristics. Criteria can be established to support the evaluation of investments or assets in each class depending on what is of interest to management, strategic and financial objectives, including contribution to value, and level of risk. How to manage the portfolio can be decided in on the bases of criteria and portfolio performance, including identification of actions to increase the total value of the portfolio.

The objective of the portfolio management in the original version of Val IT is new investment programs. The programs in the portfolio need to be clearly identified, prioritized, assessed, chosen and managed actively throughout their life cycle to maximize economic value for both individual programs and the overall portfolio. This includes the efficient allocation of resources, risk management, early identification and remediation of the problem which includes the cancellation of the program if applicable, and at the Supervisory Board program portfolio (Georges Ataya, 2007).

According to Georges Ataya (2007) Portfolio management has fueled its importance in recent years, and now often introduced as the solution to business and IT alignment, and demonstrating the value the contribution of IT. While the program portfolio management, as described in the Val IT is certainly the promise, most details about current implementations of portfolio management refers to the management of project portfolio management (PPM), that is generally more focused on Information Technology projects (Georges Ataya, 2007).

Georges Ataya (2007) explains that "although the PPM is surely beneficial in the management of IT resources and costs, and to some degree, in addressing  strategic alignment, portfolio management should be expanded to include programs for IT enabled business investment organizations to realize the potential in IT order to contribute to business value. "for effective IT governance and portfolio management of enterprise governance can be a extremely powerful tool. The connection between portfolio management and investment strategy specific company is also provided by these initiatives and actions to execute strategy. Portfolio management also supports the identification, evaluation, selection, execution and tracking investments. Portfolio Manager also supports the monitoring and assessment of assets of the organization, the results of investment and resources to create, maintain and increase the value of these assets.

2.18 Auditing IT Service Delivery

Serving clients should be the primary priority of the information technology. Information technology is a tool to carry out daily business processes, such as the transfer or reception of funds, goods or recruitment for its users in the operation of of any business. With the help of Information technology, it is much easier to communicate by e-mail, instant messaging, enhance team work through available collaboration tools, promote better decision-making by providing a range of information through many delivery mechanisms. Information technology in creating opportunities for new business models that lead to competitive advantage and value creation for any company (S.Anantha Sayana, 2005).

Since Information systems are business critical need of any type of organisation today, it should not only be secure but also available for its users to respond to make processes faster. Information Technology and business is never the same at all time, they both require change. "Change in either one alters the interface between the two and require a response and resolution". The last step of an application is to provide proper functioning of a great number of components. Complex nature of many information technology and business complexity results many issues with users, these issues should be tackled fast and systematically (S.Anantha Sayana, 2005).

S.Anantha Sayana (2005) said first audit of information systems, which should be the main objective of safety. It is extremely important for IT to ensure together to evaluate the integrity, availability and confidentiality of data through the effective implementation of the of different controls. "An IS auditor needs to perform audits in the areas of general and environmental controls, application security, network security, system administration covering controls in operating systems and database systems, disaster recovery and business continuity, etc. However, security is not the only area of IS audit". The business case for IT investments should be evaluated by an IS auditor (S.Anantha Sayana, 2005).

According to S.Anantha Sayana (2005) "IT service delivery is the aspect of information technology where the fact that IT exists for the business and its and users is clear". Information technology is beneficial to the company when the user is able to accomplish tasks simply and effectively, which in turn increases productivity. The auditor for information security to approach both sides of information technology, users, and information technology services delivery side. The value of information technology can be assessed by carrying out user survey find that many users have been satisfied with the service provided by information technology