This service helps organizations develop a comprehensive overview of their operating model for people, process and technology, providing valuable insight that becomes a starting point for change.
Service overview
The Cogentes Current State Assessment service is designed to help companies develop visibility into the existing alignment of strategic business initiatives with technology investments. This visibility is the starting point for helping organizations define where improvements and changes need to be made so that the IT function delivers more of the business results that the organization requires.
In our experience, many organizations develop their annual IT plans by mapping IT initiatives to strategic business goals. However, in the execution of the initiatives, something goes wrong. Twelve to eighteen months into the plan, business and IT executives often find themselves asking – “where are the results we thought we’d see?” It is not uncommon to find these executives mystified about what went wrong because they planned so carefully up front to ensure business / IT alignment.
At Cogentes we frequently encounter this issue. Often the problem lies not so much in the plan as in the technology operating model of people, process and technology. It takes a close examination of this model, and often an analysis by an objective third party, to uncover the root cause of the problem.
To help our clients truly gain visibility into their operating model, Cogentes consultants engage in a comprehensive discovery and analysis process that includes:
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Consultants review and compare the strategic business plan with the IT operations plan.
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Consultants conduct interviews with key stakeholders in this process across numerous departments and groups – and then interview key IT staff.
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Consultants conduct a high-level inventory of systems, applications and resources as appropriate.
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Consultants closely examine the investment history of the business into technology initiatives to understand the money path.
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Consultants examine technology age, functionality and capability.
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Consultants analyze how operations staff use technology to support and complete business processes.
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Consultants compare the client operating model against industry trends, practices and benchmark operating models to gain insights into how their model compares to other leading companies.
The Cogentes Current State Assessment moves beyond typical departmental vertical silos to understand the enterprise-wide horizontal integration of:
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Processes and automation
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Strategy and implementation
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Differences between where a company thinks its operating model is and where it actually is.
The results of this service
By engaging Cogentes in a Current State Assessment, an organization will realize:
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A thorough analysis of root-cause issues that create disconnects between business strategy and IT results.
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A substantial reduction in blind spots where an organization does not have enough visibility or enough data to validate where operating model problems exist.
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A fine tuning of visibility from typically vertical silos and departmental insights into horizontal insights across all areas of the enterprise operating model.
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A discovery of how and where resources are actually being expended.
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A call to action to help an organization understand what needs to be changed for them to reach business objectives.
Our approach
To deliver this service, Cogentes engages in a four-stage process:
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Discovery
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Synthesis
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Findings
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Recommendations.
In the Discovery phase, Cogentes consultants will:
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Confirm business requirements to begin with a current state assessment or future state visioning engagement.
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Conduct an initial kick-off meeting with the executive team and ask for a commitment to this process and access to documentation, resources, and people.
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Interview the executive team to gain an understanding of where the business is trying to go. Consultants will examine in detail the business plan, strategic objectives and operating model as the executives understand it.
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Interview key operations staff to understand business processes and the operating model today.
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Interview key Human Resources staff to understand how the culture of the business (mores, compensation structure, values, hierarchy) shapes the behavior of staff. We look for unspoken assumptions as much or more than Vision and Mission statements.
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Interview key finance staff to understand the history of investments in technology and look for trends regarding long-term or short-term investments, a history of proactive or reactive expenditures.
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Interview key IT staff looking at automation and efficiencies, the technology operating model, interpretation of strategic business initiatives, and how IT initiatives map to business initiatives.
In the synthesis phase, Cogentes consultants examine all data gathered to that point in the engagement and begin to look for blind spots, inconsistencies and issues. We also compare the actual operating model with industry trends, practices and benchmark operating models to see how our client’s model compares to other companies.
In the findings phase, we prioritize all findings according to the level of impact the issues have on the strategic business plan. We then prepare our findings for presentation to the client.
In this final phase we provide a series of recommendations about technology initiatives, alternative approaches, changes to culture, technology spend strategies and other operating model improvements that will substantially increase the business results of the IT function.
Our deliverables
The deliverables from this service include:
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A Microsoft Word document that contains our Discovery, Synthesis, Findings and Recommendations.
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A PowerPoint document that is used to present the key findings and recommendations of this service.
