IT Consulting
IT Service Management (ITSM) is a discipline for managing information technology (IT) systems from the customer's perspective of IT's contribution to the business. in the simplest terms, ITSM is the management of IT services to meet customer requirements. The three objectives of ITSM are:
- Integrating services with the current and future needs of the business and its customers.
- Improving the quality of the services delivered.
- Reducing the long-term cost of service provision.
ITIL® (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is the de facto best practice international standard framework for the design, development and delivery of IT services to internal and external customers and users.
Procept helps organizations design, develop and transform IT organizations to better deliver shareholder value and enhance client capabilities for a transformed information systems organization.
Information technology has become a critical factor for corporate success. The heavy investments needed to install, operate and manage a complex IT infrastructure have become a serious issue. IT service providers are facing tight budget and human resource constraints.
The challenges to the timely provision of high-quality IT services required to underpin a company's business objectives can be overcome through the implementation of a de facto best practice framework for managing IT services — the Information Technology Infrastructure Library. ITIL provides support for Ontario Bill 198 (revisions to Ontario's Securities Act) and U.S. Sarbaness-Oxley requirements.
Procept helps its clients by first undertaking a high-level audit of the IT function in the organization, identifying current inefficiencies in operations, and assessing the impact of these inefficiencies on the company's business objectives. Procept them incorporate the outcome of the audit into a customized service management workshop to both business and IT management. One of the outcomes of the workshop is a framework for a business case which can be developed to assist in future decision making.
An information technology (IT) audit, or information systems audit, is an examination of the management controls within an IT environment or organization. The evaluation of evidence obtained determines whether the information systems are safeguarding assets, maintaining data integrity,and operating effectively to achieve the organization's goals and/or objectives. The audit is conducted under three broad categories.
General Systems Audit
Systems and Applications — Procept verifies that systems and applications are effective, efficient and adequately controlled to ensure valid, reliable, timely and secure input, processing and output. Procept also ensures that the systems and applications support the company's business goals or objectives.
Information Processing Facilities — Procept verifies that the processing facility is controlled to ensure timely, accurate and efficient processing of applications under normal and potentially disruptive conditions.
Systems Development — Procept verifies that systems under development meet the goals and objectives of the organization and will validate that the systems are developed in accordance with generally-accepted standards for systems development.
Client-Server, Telecommunications, Intranets and Extranets — Procept verifies that appropriate communications controls are in place on the clients, servers, and on the network.
Post-Implementation Audit
This is a formal review of project documentation to verify that the company's project management methodology was followed, including validating inputs, activities, outputs, and tools and techniques; that project acceptance criteria were met before going live; that project objectives were achieved; and that customers and project sponsors were satisfied with the project's results.
Benefits Realization Program/Audit
These days, the norm is for organizations to initiate a project after the approval of a formal business case; however, benefits associated with a project may not be realized for several months after going live, by which time the company has closed the project and may not revisit the business case to confirm that the project indeed delivered the intended benefits.
This consulting offering helps companies establish a benefits realization program that could be managed alongside the project management framework during project initiation. Procept then works with the project team to ensure that the benefits in the business case would still be feasible even after going live.
Procept can also help audit an existing implementation to verify that the company indeed achieved the intended benefits.
Procept verifies that IT management has developed an organizational structure, processes, and procedures to ensure a controlled and efficient environment for information systems delivery.
Procept consultants start by understanding customer/user perception of the IT organization through a customer satisfaction survey. The consultants then review the company's information systems strategy (where one exists), and assess whether the existing organization structure will meet the needs of the business. If not, the consultants work with IT management to create a new organization structure, including roles and responsibilities. The consultants match existing job holders to the new organization structure, create a development plan to support each job holder, and/or prepare a recommendation report as to the suitability of each job holder in the new information systems organization.
Procept consultants then update existing or create new high-level processes and procedures to support the new organization structure. After, the consultants conduct two more customer/user satisfaction surveys: the first, six months after implementation of the new organization structure; the second, after twelve months. A final report is then delivered that indicates the value of the restructuring exercise to the business.
A typical service management maturity assessment project involves a meeting with the sponsor and a study of any existing IT management documentation. Following the document review, Procept consultants interview key staff and observe current operations. The audit results that are presented to management include:
- Desired level of IT process maturity based on business objectives.
- The current level of maturity of IT processes.
- Gaps between the current and desired maturity levels.
- Improvement opportunities based on (and prioritized by) the level of conformance and business requirements.
The Process Maturity Framework (PMF) forms the basis of measuring process maturity levels. It is a process capability maturity model that aids in the definition and understanding of an organization's current processes and helps to define targets for improvement. It is important to understand that process maturity has both breadth (how widely it is applied in the organization) and depth (how complete the process is) and thus each level is assessed at five dimensions: vision and steering, process, people, technology, and culture.
This service entails the design of a service management practice for the information systems organization. Practice areas of focus include:
- Creation of a service catalogue and agreements.
- Design of new or changed services.
- Development of new or changed services.
- Operational support for delivering IT services.
- Support for continual service improvement.
Creation of a Service Catalogue and Agreements
Imagine trying to run a restaurant business without a comprehensive view of the company's menu, referred to as products and services. It would be difficult to know what the chef in the kitchen is able to prepare to meet customers' needs and also equally difficult to know the elements and support resources needed to prepare an product.
In this two-week consulting engagement, Procept works with selected IT management and customer groups to identify and define common IT services currently consumed by customers/users, to establish customers' service level requirements and outcomes, and to determine resources and timelines needed to fulfill those needs by internal support groups and external suppliers. The deliverables from this engagement are high level and include:
- Service catalogue.
- Corporate service level agreement (SLA).
- Operational level agreements and underpinning contracts for the service desk.
- Desktop support.
- Network.
- Servers and office productivity software.
Design of New or Changed Services
Procept works with IT management, specifically IT architects, to determine, document, and validate essential elements of creating a new service or amending an existing service. Specifically, Procept consultants use the contents of supporting agreements to identify and document:
- Service management tools required to support the service.
- Application and technology infrastructure required to support the service.
- Processes required to design, develop, operate and improve the service.
- Metrics and measurement systems needed to confirm if the service is effective and efficient.
Typical deliverables for this engagement include design of an organization that will oversee the design of new or changed services, the processes and procedures for performing the design work, and templates that will be used to perform the function. This assignment normally excludes implementation.
Development of New or Changed Services
This entails preparing processes for:
- Transition planning and support.
- Change management.
- Service asset and configuration management.
- Release and deployment.
In addition, Procept works with clients to identify what is required to establish an environment for building and testing services and systems, as well as for establishing a Definitive Media Library.
Procept also designs an organization structure that will oversee and maintain the above service transition activities.
Operational Support for Delivering IT Services
This entails preparing processes for:
- Event management.
- Incident and service request management.
- Problem management.
- Access management.
Procept works with its clients to design an organization structure that will oversee and maintain the above service operation activities.
Establishing a Support Organization to Support Delivery of IT Services
This service entails preparing a process for identifying and implementing improvements, as well as designing an organization structure for maintaining and overseeing the continual improvement activities.
This consulting offering provides subject matter expertise in the implementation of the designed service management practice. Specifically, Procept consultants participate in developing project management plan, executing the plans, monitoring and controlling the results, and closing each practice area.
Procept consultants can act as the project manager for this initiative or as subject matter experts. As the project manager, Procept assigns one of its consultants full time to the project; however, as an SME, Procept may spend only one day per week on the project — the actual allocation is negotiated with clients to align with their budget and timeline.
Consulting Clients
