Client's challenge
The executive management team of a premier hospitality real estate company was concerned that its IT organization was unable to keep up with business demands, including Sarbanes-Oxley remediation requirements. The IT department struggled with a help desk group that was overwhelmed, a project queue for application development that was too long and a workload that was poorly understood by the business units and executive management. The company asked PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to assess the IT organization's alignment with the company's business goals as well as identify areas for performance improvement.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory solution
Through interviews with all members of the executive management team, PwC Advisory determined their requirements and expectations of IT performance from a business perspective. Through interviews with senior IT personnel, PwC evaluated the company's IT-related strengths, weaknesses and needs as well as its management methods, tools and techniques. When PwC identified gaps between these two sets of evaluations—such as inconsistencies in understanding help desk activities, prioritizing projects and gaining mutual clarity on business objectives—it dove deeper.
Based on this assessment of the IT organization's governance and organizational structure, operating policies and practices and skill set competencies, PwC Advisory delivered short- and long-term recommendations addressing five key operating imperatives. The IT department needed to: (1) manage IT as a business, (2) attain a high level of business satisfaction, (3) work to meet the company's important business needs, (4) create an environment of business user "self sufficiency" and (5) maintain a cost-effective IT environment.
Impact on client's business
The company accepted PwC's recommendations and began addressing resource management and allocation issues, particularly those relating to the help desk workload and the project development work queue. It provided staff with basic training on the help desk application to encourage self-sufficiency and offload lower priority requests from IT's queue. The help desk group then analyzed, prioritized and reported on help desk requests based on risk and business objectives.
Using a project management and prioritization framework provided by PwC, the IT department evaluated and prioritized a list of over 50 projects, significantly consolidating project work. Acting on PwC's recommendations for a long-term strategic plan focused on providing IT with the organization it would need to support the business, the company reorganized the IT function and created an IT skills and competency development plan for each position.
With these changes, the IT department became more productive. Satisfaction levels among internal customers increased dramatically. As productivity increased, IT management was better able to support more strategic projects, including Sarbanes-Oxley remediation. And as the executive management team gained confidence in the IT organization, it grew more comfortable with IT's strategic vision.
