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CIO Advisory Services
Today's CIOs and CTOs are faced with difficult decisions on a daily basis. It can take years of experience to develop an expertise in all of the diverse IT issues within the domain of CIOs and CTOs. Some of the key questions facing CIO/CTOs are:
- How to develop IT strategies that support your business
- How to set up an IT Organization that is aligned to the business, provides excellent client service and is cost effective
- How to deal with Merger/Acquisitions
- How to develop strong relationships with your business executives
- How to leverage infrastructure across your business environment
- How to implement governance processes to manage the IT environment
- How to improve key processes in your IT organization
- How to increase project performance
The Hastings Group offers one-on-one advice and counsel to assist the CIO/CTO with these issues and many more. We provide direct access to a found team of IT experts, comprised of an ex-CIO, ex-CTO, and a planning and program management specialist who, combined, have over 60 years experience in running IT organizations for global fortune 500 companies.
The principles of The Hastings Group are available to you on a retainer basis. We will tailor a program to your individual needs, providing you insights based on our extensive experience. As part of this confidential and personalized service, you will have the opportunity to share experiences and hear from Key Industry thought-leaders.
CTO Sounding Board
One-on-one services from a former CTO with over 20 years experience as a senior IT executive. Assisting CTOs with:
- Optimization of IT Infrastructure (Consolidation, Standardization, Process Improvement)
- Enterprise IT Security
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
- Improving Client Satisfaction
- Developing sourcing strategies (Outsourcing, Out-Tasking, and Off-Shoring)
- Implementing Systems Management solutions
- Network/Telecom Optimization
- Development of IT Infrastructure Chargeback Models
IT Planning and Program Management
One-on-one services from an expert in IT Planning & Program Management with over 15 years experience in developing IT Strategic Plans and implementing IT Program Offices. Assisting CIOs/CTOs with:
- Establishing the IT Strategic Planning Process
- Setting up an Application & Project Portfolio Management Process
- Creation of a Program Management Office
- Implementation of Project Management Improvement Initiatives
- Facilitation of key IT issues
CTO Sounding Board
One-on-one services from a former CTO with over 20 years experience as a senior IT executive. Assisting CTOs with:
- Optimization of IT Infrastructure (Consolidation, Standardization, Process Improvement) As Corporations evolve, merge or consolidate, their IT infrastructures are frequently incremented in an ad hoc manner. This eventually results in an overly complex architecture that is difficult to maintain and expensive to operate. Typically this will involve underutilized computing and network platforms and unnecessary geographic dispersion of data centers and other support operations. Determining the proper blueprint to converge these underutilized and distributed resources is a complex task, often involving the integration of dissimilar technologies and significant re-alignment of human resources. Also, while a strong business case can usually be developed to support the convergence of IT infrastructures, it will require the allocation of significant incremental funding and potential short-term disruption of status quo operations. We can provide valuable real life experience in how to formulate such a project, develop a sound business case, and plan the necessary organizational design to support the new environment.
- Enterprise IT Security While significant progress was made over the past two years in mitigating the impact of malicious activities, corporations remain exposed to the threat of cyber-attacks on their information technology resources and infrastructures. The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated security strategy is a difficult task, because fundamentally it involves protecting the firm from events that are yet to be seen in the production environment. An integrated strategy is one that crosses technology boundaries and considers the computing infrastructure, the network and applications access from both internal and external users. Security improvements also require some changes in the way people work (e.g. using secure ID's for remote access, restricting external e-mail access from internal systems, prohibiting the downloads of certain file types, etc.) and these changes can be met with resistance from your business clients. We have experience in formulating a plan that helps mitigate this resistance, while allowing the necessary work practice changes to take place. Also while the potential damage to a company can be huge, it is often difficult to secure incremental funding for an IT program that is by definition only "a possibility". Our experiences in formulating an integrated and comprehensive security plan, including strategies to secure the associated funding can be an invaluable asset to your firm. We will help you demonstrate the significance of the security risk and how the needed IT investments are very highly leveraged, when considered in a context that is relative to that risk.
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Too frequently Disaster Recovery programs are thought of as IT exercises, focused on the backup and restoration of technology. Absent a business perspective, the relative priority of the systems to be protected may be misaligned because they are defined by the IT team (rather than the business owner). At The Hastings Group we have experience in establishing comprehensive business Continuity strategies that are led by Business clients and are based on materiality of the risk. This approach starts with assessing the impact of potential disruptions to a business process in terms of lost revenue and/or lost opportunities over a fixed period of time. For example, a process that would result in $500M lost revenue in 30 days might be considered highly material and in need of full, real time backup, while other processes not meeting that level of materiality (in terms of revenue and time) would require less aggressive recovery strategies. The Hastings Group will help you work with your business clients to formulate this type of business continuity plan, including materiality assessment workshops and technology plans needed to implement the needed recovery.
- Improving Client Satisfaction Describing the delivery of IT Infrastructure services in terms that are meaningful to an enduser is critical to understanding the true level of customer satisfaction. Too often, IT Infrastructure Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are defined in ways that are meaningful to IT professionals, but are not really representative of true enduser perceptions of service quality. This sometimes is caused by the way outsourcing contracts are structured, where SLAs created for the management of the contract are inappropriately used as surrogates for customer satisfaction. The Hastings Group has extensive experience in these areas and can help you work with key clients to establish measures that truly reflect customer satisfaction levels and prepare strategies to close any gaps that may exist. We also have experience in facilitating internal Customer Advisory Boards (CAB) that meet on an annual or semiannual basis and involve representatives from your primary business functions. These people meet with your IT executives to discuss the things that are working well and areas for improvement. Our experience with these “CAB” sessions is that they are invaluable in surfacing customer satisfaction gaps as well as important “blind spots” that IT needs to address. The result again is a better understanding of real business issues and improved customer satisfaction.
- Developing Sourcing Strategies (Outsourcing, Out-Tasking, and Off-Shoring) Operating a high performance IT Infrastructure is a difficult task, whether it is done with internal staff, outsourced entirely to a third party or some combination of both. Also the changing circumstances of most businesses require flexibility to modify sourcing strategies as events change. Unfortunately many sourcing decisions are made without a strong linkage to the firm’s business strategy and usually involve long contracts that are difficult to modify during the terms of the agreement. The Hastings Group has real world experience that can help you target the optimal sourcing strategies for your company, whether that be the establishment of a new contract, or a plan to modify or fix an existing contract.
- Implementing Systems Management Solutions At The Hastings Group we define IT Systems Management as the business of running an effective IT Infrastructure. It is an extremely comprehensive area that involves both the engineering of process and the implementation of tools and techniques to operate the infrastructure environment. The idea of “engineering” process is key to this approach because we believe it is critical to determine how the environment should be operated, before you begin picking the tools (software and hardware) to run the related infrastructure systems. These processes include Problem Management, Change Control, Asset Management, Network Management, Data Center Operations and others. The payback in terms of lowered operating costs and higher service levels can be very significant when this exercise is implemented well. At The Hastings Group we can help you formulate plans to systematically map these processes and then select the requisite technologies to implement solutions.
- Network/Telecom Optimization In many cases telecommunications can represent a significant portion of a firm's total IT infrastructure expense. At the same time, networking can represent the lifeblood upon which a firm's IT systems depend. For this reason, high performing, optimally priced networks are critical to the success of any IT infrastructure. At The Hastings Group we can augment the value equation in two primary ways. First we have significant experience in developing strategies that can help define the optimal networking operating model, including technology selection and migration, vendor selection and network operations. We also have a very unique position of interfacing closely with KII Telecommunications Partners. KII is a purchasing consortium involving some of the largest corporations in the world and offering telecommunications services from all the major suppliers (at&t, MCI, Sprint, etc). By sponsoring firms to KII, The Hastings Group can offer the potential for a firm to be admitted to the KII consortium and benefit from the very best in class pricing available*. This scenario alone can often result in an annualized benefit in excess of any fees The Hastings Group would apply.
- Development of IT Infrastructure Chargeback Models The decision to chargeback expenses associated with the IT infrastructure depends on the unique objectives of individual organizations. The Hastings Group can work with you to determine whether or not chargeback is good strategy for your company and if so, what models might work best in your environment. If chargeback is your direction, seeking the “optimal” chargeback model can too often result in a process that is overly complex and expensive to operate. We have real world experience with approaches that balance the realistic assignment of infrastructure expenses to cost drivers, without the creation of a costly and difficult to manage chargeback process.
* KII Telecommunications Partners is not associated with The Hastings Group and is a closed general partnership. The Hastings Group executives enjoy a close relationship with several KII members and have demonstrated success in sponsoring new members into KII. However, it should be noted that the final decision for admitting new members to KII, is dependant on approval by KII's Management Committee and cannot be guaranteed by The Hastings Group.
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