© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. 0 Presented by: Richard Long March 10, 2015 Business Alignment Or How I Learned to Stop Saying “IT”

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. Agenda 1  MHA Introduction  BCM – High Level  Why or Why Not Alignment  What are the issues?  How to do you do it?  Misc thoughts on DR  Questions

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. Experience & Qualifications 2 Who We Are What We Do What Makes Us Different  Leading boutique consulting firm since 1999  Provider of consulting services to Fortune 1000 companies across the USA  Proven cross-industry experience in Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and IT Optimization  Business Continuity Planning  Disaster Recovery Planning  Business Continuity Program Training & Awareness  Information Technology Optimization & Best Practices  Data Center Moves & Relocations  Experienced professionals that possess a unique blend of knowledge  Experience combines focus, dedication and independence of a specialty firm  Proven methodologies and tools  Financial and management stability  Domestic presence and deep skill-sets of the Big 4 or larger consulting firm “MHA combines the strengths of the large consulting companies and independent alternatives … without compromise” Michael Herrera CEO, MHA Consulting

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. Experience & Qualifications 3 MetroWaterDistrict

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. 4 Business Continuity Planning (BCP) Phases Disaster Recovery Institute International Model Testing, Maint., Execution Project Mgmt Project Mgmt Current State Assessment Current State Assessment BIA Risk Assessment Risk Assessment BRP DRP CMT Testing Maint Cont. Imp. Cont. Imp. Execute Project Initiation Functional Requirements Design, Dev, Implementation Recovery Strategy

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. 5 Project Initiation Develop a standard methodology to manage and administer the BCP program –Review Project Management Materials –Identify Project Manager –Identify Project Sponsor –Identify Stakeholders –Define the Vision –Define the Goals –Define the Objectives –Define the Scope –Define Assumptions –Define Risks –Define Constraints –Definitions –Existing Studies, Processes, Plans

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. Why or Why Not Alignment 6  What is IT?  What is the role of IT?  Business – IT Alignment – What is it?  Business-IT alignment is a dynamic state in which an organization is able to use information technology effectively to achieve business objectives - typically improved financial performance or marketplace competitiveness.  What is the difference between Business-IT Alignment and Business-Business Alignment?  Let’s just start saying Business Alignment

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. 7 Why or Why Not Alignment What are the issues?

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. Why or Why Not Alignment What are the Issues? 8  What do you think?  Business  Don’t always understand technology complexity  Don’t always understand the impacts of decisions  “Everything is like a desktop”  IT  Don’t understand the business processes  Thinks the non-IT departments don’t understand technology  Don’t understand how the technology impacts the business  Lack of alignment between infrastructure and applications  Application = Process

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. How do you do it? 9  IT – Information Technology is just that – Technology, not a department  Learn the Business  You need to have a seat at the table!!!

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. How do you do it? Characteristics- IT 10  Consultant mentality – that is what the IT department should be – Technology consultants. What is the right solution?  Business Impact Assessments  These are more than just DR related  They can help understand the business process  Talk in business language not IT language  Figure out how to say “Yes” - Do not just describe why something can’t be done, but provide alternate solutions  Meet on a regular basis with your business counterpart  Be Honest and Transparent  Teach about technology if necessary.

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. How do you do it? Characteristics- Business 11  Consultant mentality - What is the right solution?  Business Impact Assessments  These are more than just DR related  They can help understand the implication to technology  Technology is more complicated than desktops  Meet on a regular basis with your IT counterpart  Be Honest and Transparent  Teach about business processes if necessary.

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. How do you do it? Process/Organization 12  IT staff meet regularly with peers  Can all members in IT talk about how their job impacts the business goals and primary business functions?  Try to have a single point of contact with a department or business unit. They should be their advocate  They cannot “drink the Kool-aid”  Set Expectations  Remember – be honest/transparent  Ensure managers talk business with their teams  Consider organizing based on the business units if feasible  Possibly dotted-line reporting

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. How do you do it? Process/Organization 13  Governance  Put this in the hands of the owners of the process owners  Help them justify the cost and how it improves the business  Show how Technology projects should demonstrate business value  Invite the business for technology strategy planning  Cost/Benefit  Is it really worth it?  Do the suggested projects/changes actually meet cost/benefit guidelines  Challenge the process owners (difficult without demonstrating the transparency)

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. What is the Result? 14

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. What is the Result? 15

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. Misc DR Thoughts 16  DR Documentation  Develop this during exercises  Focus on the important information – institutional information is the priority  Focus on functional recoveries  If you can’t recover, all other processes and documentation are of little value.  Be honest about functional recovery capability  Biggest issues are:  Integration  Change Management  NOT technology recoveries

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. Misc DR Thoughts 17  Vendor Recovery Capability  Hosted/Outsourced – ensure this is part of the contract  Cloud has become a viable option for less critical applications  High Availability vs. Recovery  DR Testing  Need to also ensure some lower RTOs are tested  Secondary/Tertiary Resources  Surprise Exercises

© 2013 MHA Consulting All Rights Reserved. Richard Long Advisory Consultant MHA Consulting, Inc. Office: Cell: Questions ….