Accelerating the Impact
of Technology and
Process Investments
to achieve transformational business goals while empowering
and engaging employees.
MSS Business Transformation Advisory | MSSBTA.com 1 Table of Contents
PART 1: Aligning People, Process, and Technology for Transformation Success
03 Align People, Process, and Technology for Transformation Success
07 Virtual Requirements Gathering Requires Boldness
11 The Virtual Reality of Change Readiness
14 Improving Team Communication with Sociomapping
PART 2: Streamlining and Optimizing IT and Business Operations
16 Getting Started on Application Optimization
18 A Disciplined Approach to Business Process Improvement
20 User Adoption is Poor. Now What?
PART 3: Enhancing Public Sector Technologies and Services to Digitally Empower
Employees and Enhance Services
22 Charting the Course for a Successful Digital Transformation, Part 1
24 Charting the Course for a Successful Digital Transformation, Part 2
CONTACT US
MSS Business Transformation Advisory | MSSBTA.com 2 Align People, Process,
and Technology for
Transformation
Success
Aligning People, Process, and Technology
If you have been following our series of articles on driving positive business outcomes
and achieving transformation goals, you know that we have covered a variety of topics
around strategic planning, business-IT alignment, and effective project oversight using
Leadership, Governance, and Accountability (LGA). We also acquainted you with our
comprehensive and proven approach to gathering future state business requirements
that can fulfill or exceed agency goals.
Successfully implementing and sustaining the desired business outcomes requires
addressing the People, Process and Technology aspects of the transformation with equal
rigor. To fully achieve business outcomes, you need repeatable and well-performing
processes, technology that can effectively support business requirements, and people
that are able to utilize the technology as it was intended to be used.
Continued
MSS Business Transformation Advisory | MSSBTA.com 3 Align People, Process, and
Technology for Transformation
Success
“Random acts of investment and improvement” in processes, technology/tools, and people will most likely NOT deliver the breakthrough improvement you are looking for. You need a coordinated effort that integrates and synchronizes investments in each of these pillars.
The next series of articles from MSS Business Transformation Advisory (MSSBTA) will focus on our approach to Application Optimization (technology), Business Process Improvement (BPI – process), and Organizational Change Management (OCM – people).
Application Optimization Technology infrastructure and business applications are “strategic assets” that need to be current, effective, and evolve continuously to support agency requirements. Unfortunately, while many solutions meet requirements at implementation, they fail to adapt to changing needs and become irrelevant within a few short years. State and local governments run numerous applications that are built on outdated technologies, using hardware and software platforms that are no longer supported. This creates Shadow IT, elevated support costs, redundant workarounds, employee and citizen dissatisfaction, application sprawl, and overall inability to meet agency goals. In the last decade, there have also been major technology transformations such as Cloud computing and Virtualization that can produce significant benefits, but most agencies cannot utilize these due to the patchwork of purpose-built legacy applications currently in use.
If you believe that a disproportionate amount of your agency’s budget is allocated to IT maintenance and support, we can conduct an enterprise-wide infrastructure and application portfolio assessment. We use our proven methodology to help state and local governments achieve near-term and long-term cost savings while also reducing risk.
However, we realize that most agencies simply do not have the time and resources to do a complete infrastructure and portfolio assessment. It is reasonable, then, to argue that every major investment in technology should be utilized as an opportunity to assess the suitability of in-house technology against alternatives in the marketplace.
Continued
MSS Business Transformation Advisory | MSSBTA.com 4 Align People, Process, and
Technology for Transformation
Success
Our Application Optimization is a rigorous and strategic approach to analyzing your current state application, along 5 key areas: 1. Strategic Alignment to agency goals and objectives 2. Ability to fulfill functional requirements 3. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) 4. End-user and customer experience 5. Technical Fit/Value of application and vendor
This analysis will give you the objective information needed to develop a roadmap to a technology optimized to deliver maximum value to your agency.
Business Process Improvement Without a disciplined approach to Business Process Improvement (BPI) and a solid foundation in leading research, your projects are likely to become part of the staggering 54% of improvement projects that fail. Whether you are designing a process from the ground-up or re-engineering it, the challenges are similar and can be alleviated by following the BPI Best Practices below:
Never make improvements at random or in isolation. Integrate and synchronize. Prioritize and select processes that are strategically aligned. Conduct fact/data-based analysis to ensure true root-causes of issues are identified. Do NOT depend on subjective analysis or opinion. Select approach (Lean, Six Sigma etc.) based upon need. Choose fit over standardization. Manage each improvement initiative as a project with effective sponsorship, communication, and Project Management/Oversight.
Organizational Change Management Organizational Change management (OCM) is all about people—communicating with them, getting their feedback, and providing consistent explanations and directives to them. It involves answering the questions: How do we move the entire organization, including our culture and our employees, to the desired future state? How do we remain a cohesive organization in the process? A large part of the answer to those questions is getting employees to buy into the change and the keys to gaining this support are alignment, accountability, engagement and communication, and measurement.
Continued
MSS Business Transformation Advisory | MSSBTA.com 5 Align People, Process, and
Technology for Transformation
Success
Consider this: Lack of user adoption is the main cause for 70% of failed projects. OCM has been the Achilles Heel for IT departments and business units, putting projects and programs at risk – especially complex, transformational projects. We believe that the root of this problem is twofold:
1. Project planning tends to fixate on technology and neglects the behavioral and cultural factors that inhibit user adoption. To complicate matters further, Change Management is often (incorrectly) reduced to a single activity in the Project Plan: “Training”. Training is just one facet of managing the people side of change. This challenge can be addressed by gaining senior leadership support early, ensuring a seat at the table starting at project initiation, allocating adequate CM resources, and effectively communicating change activities. 2. Accountabilities for managing change and helping to realize the intended business outcom