Make or break success A well constructed IT platform.
2013 www.innovationagency.com | South Africa, Johannesburg
Make or break success Scenario: A network study was recently commissioned by a large financial institution to aid them in the restructuring of their IT systems.The number of users for the new system was set to increase four times from the old and the integration of multiple separate IT divisions brought onto a single platform. There were certain challenges highlighted through the study. Some of them being different necessary resources, levels of customer satisfaction across the separate divisions and the different levels of expertise required for the separate divisions.
Approach: Consistent patterns of high frequency interaction and perceived working efficiency amongst specific roles were recognised. Some shared resources were evident, while other resource clusters showed specific interactions. Project management and business analyst roles showed huge deviation in their coordination patterns. The recommended way forward was to consider increasing skills and recruiting additional project managers with more domain specific experience to cater for business specific needs.The project managers and business analysts would become part of the client facing IT structures. Key dependencies highlighted the strain under which these individual had to work. The additional information collected during the network study indicated that key functions were lacking – new heads were assigned to look after these functions.
Results: Using an organisational network analysis (ONA) within the Group Enabling Function within IT (GEFIT) division it was possible to consolidate the necessary approaches to ensure that all resource requirements were correctly allocated, highlight the organisational structure of the separate divisions and how they could be integrated into a consolidated IT platform. Several measures were applied in the research design among which included frequency of access, awareness of skill, perceived value add (or efficiency/effectiveness).
www.innovationagency.com | South Africa, Johannesburg