Client Situation
Our client is a Government-based Board institutionalized to establish housing projects. The client's efforts and resources are concentrated on managing and maintaining the infrastructure of local landlords. The client recognized that utilizing technology can deliver cost-effective and efficient services. To ensure it is in line with international best practices, the client wanted to formulate a comprehensive IT strategy.
Cedar’s Approach
The program objective was to formulate the IT Strategy for the client in alignment with its overall business objectives and develop a Performance Management System for the IT function using the Balanced Scorecard.
- An internal assessment was conducted to review the existing IT infrastructure and relevant documentation. A review of KPIs was done along with the identification of various initiatives by the IT department
- Meetings were conducted with the client's management team to understand strategic issues impacted by IT. Cedar developed an understanding of the expectations by the management with regards to the current & future states of the organization
- The existing IT strategy was presented along with the new IT vision, Application and Technical Architecture was presented using a comprehensive strategy map
- The Balanced Scorecard design, sample measurement templates and projects were finalized, and process maps for 5-6 key IT processes were developed
- A review of the work performed in the first workshop and developments since was conducted. The Balanced Scorecard design was populated & target setting was initiated with a planned Scorecard roll-out
- The work done by the client team in terms of targets set, Scorecard implementations, budget alignment was assessed & further recommendations were provided
Outcome
The following recommendations were deployed by Cedar:
- Cedar recommended that the IT Vision of the client needed to be well aligned with the Business Vision. Understanding business requirements well and building business ownership of IT were critical imperatives
- The JD Edwards Software Suite was to be implemented to form the backbone of the client's IT infrastructure. All new applications needed to be integrated with the JDE system
- The E-services initiative was to be tightly integrated with the JDE system to ensure stabilization
- The technical infrastructure of the client needed to be improved with sufficient provision for backup storage and server consolidation
- IT organization of the client was to be realigned to accommodate a more prominent role in external vendor management