Context

In early 2014, the States of Guernsey commissioned CBO to deliver a detailed report on the organisational structure and delivery of their IT Services, following a number of service delivery challenges experienced by the organisation. The States commissioned CBO in October 2014 to manage and deliver the IT Improvement Project, which addressed the challenges outlined in the report.

The objectives of the project were to:

• develop a Target Operating Model (TOM) for an IT function that could deliver ‘business as usual’ work and projects effectively, and also aligned with the States’ strategic direction of travel.
• implement immediate improvements to address the identified problems within the constraints of the current organisational structure.

CBO’s Approach

To develop a TOM for the States’ IT function, CBO utilised a process based on the following five clear deliverables:

• As-is Analysis
• Strategic Assumptions Framework
• high-level TOM
• detailed TOM
• detailed Implementation Plan.

CBO’s first step was to conduct an As-is Analysis. The purpose of this was to build a rounded and nuanced understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the current provision of IT within the States. To build this understanding, we used a range of tools, including:

• interviews and workshops with staff currently delivering across the States;
• development of a network of ‘Departmental Representatives’, who articulated their IT needs and their current experiences through 1:1 interviews;
• ‘rapid reviews’ of major IT projects currently underway, to understand why they were consistently failing to deliver to time and budget.

As a result of this work, we built a ‘triangulated’ understanding of what was currently preventing the delivery of IT services required by the States.

Bringing evidence sources together allowed us to develop the second of our deliverables: a rounded articulation of the States’ strategic intent for IT known as the Strategic Assumptions Framework.

This Strategic Assumptions Framework was then used to underpin the third step in CBO’s process: the development of a high-level TOM. In this high-level TOM, we converted the strategic ambitions in the Strategic Assumptions Framework into a practical design for a new IT function.

The TOM was not developed in isolation, but rather included input from staff and managers currently delivering IT to the States, and also from the Departmental Representatives, who were acting as the ‘voice of the customer’. While binding together these multiple viewpoints could be challenging, it was vital in building a model that was realistic, and would gain support from across the organisation.

Following approval of the high-level TOM, CBO moved to the fourth step of its process, the development of a detailed TOM. In this stage we built a significant amount of detail into the model, including (amongst others) staffing structures, role profiles, service and process catalogues and performance indicators.

Finally, CBO complemented this detailed TOM with an Implementation Plan, a Business Case and a Financial Model.

CBO’s Impact

CBO’s work to develop this TOM has been highly successful. The project’s board, which includes two Chief Officers, has accepted the TOM and its related Business Case and Implementation Plan in full.