IT Effectiveness

It is our IT Effectiveness services that make Bollands Consulting unique amongst management consultancies. They involve the measuring, assessing, analysing, diagnosing and enhancing the organisational capability we call Strategic IT Effectiveness.

The most popular way of buying such services is in the form of the SITE Review.  The Full SITE Review includes all of the following elements (related to the first three imperatives of the SITE Methodology), although some elements may be ommitted from the initial review and conducted at a later date:

  • Strategic Metric, an analysis what “Value from IT” means to your organisation, developing a suitable metric and so measuring the level of business value currently being achieved.  This measurement may be repeated at a later time, or on a periodic basis, in order to track progress in enhancing your Strategic IT Effectiveness and measuring the value delivered by IT
  • Quick Wins Plan, drawing upon the results from the first use of the Strategic Metric, addressing those aspects of the use or provision of existing systems that are preventing your organisation achieving the maximum business value possible. The Plan is normally handed over to IT Managers for implementation and the success of that implementation measured thereafter.
  • SITE Assessment, a high-level review of the long-term use and provision of IT services across the organisation, presenting the findings in the form of a Balanced Scorecard and detailed report.  This involves an examination of numerous factors, including IT systems and services, IT strategies, projects and plans, the capabilities and processes of the IT department / service provider and the views of managers and staff from across the organisation
  • Detailed Investigations, where there are issues of particular concern to our client, that may require more in-depth examination using specialist skills.  Examples include an examination of technical infrastructure, of application development processes or a forensic look at projects which have stalled or failed to deliver.  The findings are presented separately from the main report, with key conclusions fed into the main SITE Assessment
  • SITE Diagnostics, in which we work closely with managers to analyse the issues identified by the SITE Assessment in order to understand what is causing them.  From this we build up a ‘systems thinking’ map which allows us to determine the root causes of the problems being experienced, together with any obstacles to change.   In this way, we identify those factors that must be addressed in order for the benefits of IT improvement efforts to be sustainable
  • IT Transformation Plan, taking the outputs from the SITE Assessment and SITE Diagnostics to develop a plan for building long-term sustainable change enabled by IT.  Activities included in such a plan typically include Quick Wins that can add short-term benefits with least cost; the creation of an IT Strategy for maximising value over the longer-term; the strengthening of capabilities to enhance IT effectiveness;  and the implementation of the IT strategy, delivering changes to IT systems and business operations.

In addition, a Departmental SITE Review may be appropriate for large organisations that experience different kinds of issues and organisational dynamics within different departments. A departmental review would normally follow the main SITE Review and aim to build upon the findings and recommendations of the main report.

SITE Reviews typically take between one and three months, depending upon the scope of the review, the size of organisation and the issues being experienced.  They are often followed by the creation of an IT Strategy and the delivery of an IT Transformation programme.