Evert Smit
ERNI Switzerland
Initial situation
Being an organisation close to the academics and a state institution, the customer was not going after something commercial organisations would. On the other hand, the organisation anyways also strongly focuses on innovation. Based on an existing mandate, the customer approached us with some allocated budget to form the strategy for IT. The strategy was needed due to the fact, that the market did not perceive them as a modern organisation. The main pain point and goal was to be seen as an innovative institution. They wanted to move to a new platform and become more agile in the way they work gaining more flexibility. Putting it into three simple bullet points, the company desired the following:
- The company wants to expand the potential of its IT and become state of the art.
- A few pain points and strategic points need to be prioritised and specified.
- Finding best solutions for the relevant stakeholders in the future.
Process
During the project, from the side of ERNI two people were assigned working firstly on the identification and overview of the status quo in the IT department of the customer. We sat together with their team and formed a target definition. We organised a workshop to find out where is it that the customer wants to go to using some ideation processes and innovation methods based on the experience of my colleague Lara Müller.
The following questions need to be answered:
- Do the current IT applications ideally meet the user needs?
- What could be improved in the future?
- Is the IT department ready for the future?
The future plan was based on three different scenarios that we worked out.
Solution and result
We delivered and presented the strategy with three possible solutions for the future strategic IT direction to the Board of Directors. Critical factors were the budget and the time frame of realisation that decided the entire outcome. We identified gaps and strategic inputs that require a possible change of direction. Finally, we created a high-level vision of a future IT landscape with the best solutions. The main benefits the project brought for the customer:
- Development of a long-term strategy for the IT department in several workshops (iterations)
- Better understanding of stakeholder needs
- Simplification and standardisation of technologies
- Overview, challenge and rethinking the status quo.
This case study is part of our Digital Business Consulting offering.
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