Operational Development Case Study
Background
The client is a major transport infrastructure provider with a wide range of complex systems and a user base of around 20,000 staff.
The client’s Service Support group (ITSS) was perceived, by both the department and end users, as delivering neither acceptable levels of support nor value for money.
The brief was to review the whole of the Service Support group, understand what actually happens and who does what (“as is” analysis), develop an objective measure of the performance of the group and plan a series of incremental changes to develop a single, consistent support model across the individual teams making up ITSS.
What We Did
Zeroarena performed an initial People, Process & Technology assessment through interviews with the ITSS management team, stakeholders, other key staff and representatives from related or dependant parts of the organisation. We also undertook a statistical assessment of such performance data as was available against industry averages and targets.
We identified that: there was little objective data with which to confirm or deny the poor perception of the group, the management team was demoralised and the group was an agglomeration of historically disparate functions and therefore had few common processes or policies.
We resolved, with the agreement of the project sponsor, to focus on delivering a stable base, including a clear strategy, common processes and united management team, from which the group could move forward towards a more formalised, in-
This programme involved:
- Arranging for managers have input to the budgeting process for their section and ongoing visibility of financial performance. (Previously managers had been held accountable for their budget without such visibility.)
- Developing an integrated mission and objectives for the group as a whole and its component teams individually.
- Cherry picking the most appropriate initiatives within the individual teams and expanding them across all parts of Service Support.
- Reassigning those functions that were not a logical component of Service Support to other parts of the organisation.
- Implementing cross-
charging for services provided to capital projects so that provider groups within ITSS could respond to demand without compromising budgets. - Developing a plan for further practical steps for improvement and an approach for restructuring the group in the longer term.
- Defining a new Management Reporting package containing accurate and objective measurements and indicators of ITSS performance.
Results
- ITSS had a clearer vision of its purpose and how to achieve this purpose and contribute to the business. This included an agreed plan that would enable the group to seek independent “certification” within 12 months.
- Impact of incidents reduced and reduction in on-
going problems (no empirical data available) due to clarification of roles and processes within the Service Desk, Problem Management and Incident Management teams. - A Management Team with a stronger sense of direction, greater results focus and confidence that it had the ability to achieve results.
- The ITSS group saw a steady improvement in performance statistics over time.
- The group commenced a significant further restructuring based on the strategy and recommendations of our initial review.
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