Consulting for ICT Users
Support for IT Strategy and IT Architecture
Modern and innovative companies need an IT strategy that is both transparent and easy to communicate. This strategy shows where the IT in the company is going to and how it is related to the lines of business. It should be suitable for internal as well as external use. Internally it gives orientation for the IT department, the lines of business and the management. There should exist an external version for suppliers and partners, that helps adapting the processes to the needs of both partners. The technical realisation of the IT strategy defines the IT architecture. This includes several components, e.g. a blueprint, definition of standards, and the middleware architecture.
The goal is an adaptive architecture that allows the use of IT to be adjusted quickly and flexibly to the changes of the business processes.
Issues of this topic are:
- Creating an IT strategy (IT architecture) – processes & people
- Quality management of the IT strategy (IT architecture)
- Communicating the IT strategy (IT architecture) – internally and externally
Support for Planning and Adapting the IT Infrastructure
IT infrastructure is the direct implementation of the IT strategy and architecture, and therefore should support IT and business processes. Ths makes it very important to plan the infrastructure not only with respect to costs and functions, but also to keep in mind future requirements. This means that flexibilty is as essential for the infrastructure as it is for the architecture. Important additional goals are effectiveness and cost optimization.
Issues of this topic are:
- Planning and implementing an adaptive and cost optimized IT infrastructure
- Review of the existing IT infrastructure and defined parts of it
- Support for dealing with infrastructure vendors
Support for Planning and Executing IT Operation
Efficient and reliable IT operation is an important component of the value and benefit of the IT department for the company. Executives in the company expect a cost optimized solution that safely and reliably meets the required SLAs (Service Level Agreements) according to availability and performance.
IT operations can be doen internally as well as externally (outsourcing, outtasking). Typically there is a mixture of both, which makes managing the interfaces between internal and external services a real challenge. Shaping of the processes and the techological implementation are the main issues, keywords are e.g. Service Management, System Management and ITIL.
Issues of this topic are:
- Planning and implementing an adaptive and cost optimized IT operation
- Service Management, System Management and ITIL processes
- Benchmarking, metrics and SLAs
- Support for dealing with outsourcing vendors