We were excited to see how engaged and IT business were at the end of our eight-week assignment. Our ability to overcome the disconnects and aligning the leaders was signicigant to their success moving forward.
Challenges
Public sector client moved to a federated IT model and a significant reorganization moved 32 service departments into five lines of business. These changes led to a situation where IT’s lack of attention to the customer’s voice resulted in a negative impact on business alignment and ultimately harmed IT’s reputation. Further complicating matters was that several initiatives to address these issues had failed to gain traction. The client asked Trissential to help them develop a strategy to improve IT alignment and propose a path forward.
Solution
To understand the perception of the leaders of the Lines of Businesses, we used a “Voice of the Customer” approach. Multiple stakeholder interviews, workshops, learning meetings, and communication events were completed with the purpose of creating alignment.
Our analysis identified pain points and areas of focus. A capability diagnostics survey uncovered gaps in skill sets. In light of these findings, we worked with the client team to organize the improvement areas around five themes. The five themes were governance, 3Cs – communication, collaboration and cooperation, leadership, value, and customer service. A creative “two-in-a-box” sponsorship approach was introduced to cement business and IT alignment.
Results
The public sector client’s CIO accepted the alignment roadmap and “two-in-a-box” strategy and agreed to proceed with the recommendations. Engagement with the sponsor in terms of rhythm, sharing of information, and quick response to adverse feedback gave the sponsoring team confidence to proceed with the Alignment Program even though previous efforts had failed to gain traction.
Rapid Response Intervention completed in only eight weeks:
- 36 interviews
- > 450 artifacts reviewed
- 37 survey respondents
- Feedback Report Out Meeting
- Two workshops with 40+ participants
- Final kickoff workshop with 45+ participants
Connect with our Expert
Diane Prentis, Head of Business Solutions
Email Diane at diane.prentis@trissential.com
Connect with Diane on LinkedIn
