IS Consulting Process (IS 6005) Masters in Business Information Systems 2009 / 2010 Fergal Carton Business Information Systems

Last week Process of consulting Managing client expectations –Being honest and professional IT strategy lays out priority of investment IT operations is about people management –Eg. Helpdesk duties repetitive and unrewarding Project transition: is client learning something? Case study and frameworks –Models are used as communication tools –If they don’t help to communicate, don’t use them –Models highlight trade-offs in decision making Sample questions

This week High level view of IS Why is planning important? An integration framework More sample questions What do consultants do / not do? Contribution of consultant Sample assignments

IS: the symptoms Overspending : need to rationalise Control: need to centralise Efficiency: need to standardise Unable to see return on investment Outage risk: too reliant on IT? IS organisation not performing

Opposing views of IT function Business Executives view of IT –Apprehensive –Technocracy –New feature focus –Little relevance to real world IT executives view of Business –Short-sighted –Lacking in vision –Unwilling to exploit IT Increasingly complex IT, rapidly changing economy

CEO view of IT function “Black hole of Calcutta” “What’s all the fuss about”? IT = operations

Why is planning important? IT tends to evolve, not follow a plan Difficult to align IT to corporate goals Perception of poor “value” from IT IT considered “too operational” IT can constrain as well as enable IT considered a major driver of cost

ExecutionScheduling ControlPlanning Performance visibility ActualPlan Resource visibility Physical Virtual A framework for integration

Degrees of integration Integration is a matter of organisational design as well as procedure –first degree: people talk to one another (informal) –Second degree: exchange of documents –Third degree: integrated systems shared by several functional areas –Fourth degree: single integrated system shared by the whole firm Substantial preliminary work is required for setting this up

Sample questions (2007) IS consulting sector in Ireland PPARS failure and lessons for consulting Frameworks, value and limitations Gap analysis for evaluating vendor proposals In-house versus packaged approach Roll out strategy for ERP system

Why look to consultants? Experience lacking internally Unable to resolve an issue Haven’t got the resources Need an unbiased opinion Organisational gridlock

Do you know more than the client? No, you’re not in their business Organisations are large and complex In discovery phase, you are unique –Cross functional focus –Up to date –Neutral –Actual process (not Head Office version) “Internalise” what you are hearing Dealing with the “What do you think” trap

What do consultants do? Tell you what you already know? Guarantee project completion? Take ownership of issues? Energise an existing project team? Cost you a lot of money?

What do consultants not do? Give the answer up front Give their services for free Make a client look bad Replace client’s own staff Get involved in politics

Know-how that you bring to the table Frameworks to prioritise requirements Trading off requirements: you can’t do it all Awareness of best practice Project management skills Communication skills …

Sample consulting assignments Advice on cost reduction for IT function IT strategy, improve IT planning Develop requirements for new system Select and justify investment in new s/w Green IT audit System implementation –HR IS upgrade for UCC –ERP system for UCC –CRM strategy and system implementation

Other samples PostCode system for Ireland Strategy for emergency services in Ireland eLearning strategy for UCC …