Delivery Documentaries are a behind the scenes look at how our Enterprise Architects (EAs) in the field perform Value Realization activities for customers. The documentaries are raw and real, and the purpose is to share what actually happens on the ground. They are always a learning opportunity, and we hope that over time we can help bridge the state of the art with the state of the practice, and continue to move the ball forward.
How does an insurance company determine the best options for supporting employee productivity outside the office, while complying with necessary security requirements? Let’s take a look …
This is a Delivery Documentary of an engagement led by the Microsoft Enterprise Strategy Program (ESP), which provides services to help customers realize the most value from their technology investments. In this engagement, an Enterprise Architect helped a client develop a security strategy that would protect data while enabling employees to use their own devices for accessing company resources and services.
We had already guided Contoso Insurance towards creating a roadmap that aligned business goals enabling devices with technology. A service delivery plan was prepared, and I joined the engagement as part of the delivery team.
I had previously helped Contoso Insurance with some architecture planning, and had also driven a prior initiative. At the time, I was also participating in several technical efforts around device strategy, security and compliance, and remote access.
Although I originally intended to focus most of my efforts on solution architecture, the company did not have the right combination of internal resources to move the work forward, so I changed my focus to enterprise architecture to help orchestrate delivery while ensuring that Contoso would receive value throughout the planning process.
During the engagement, I also collaborated with other people from Microsoft, including enterprise architects, technology specialists, and members of the account team.
To optimize the engagement, we began applying components of the Enterprise Services Value Realization Framework (VRF).
During the first few weeks of this initiative, we performed an initial assessment of capabilities, and reviewed the enterprise agreement to identify ways to realize the most value from Contoso’s existing IT investments.
Contoso had previously been approaching the challenges of device security in a siloed way, separately attempting to transform several different areas: mobile device management, virtual desktops, and support for diverse end user devices. The company had a goal of increasing employee productivity, even while at home, turning couch time into productive time.
I introduced the Contoso architecture team to some of the larger issues involved in the transformation they were pursuing, such as multi-factor authentication, digital certificate management, enabling multiple operating systems. We had to carefully evaluate the scope of capabilities that Contoso was pursuing, looking for ways to enable the necessary security infrastructure.
After doing some focused assessment, we began conducting stakeholder interviews. I had an idea of the people I wanted to talk to, and began reaching out using prior relationships, as well as cold calling. I showed people the executive level briefing material we had used, and used it to start conversations.
I was able to obtain information from many business units throughout the company, including claims, legal, sales, external party management, and enterprise services.
We discussed how certain capabilities could address Contoso’s business drivers and investment objectives, and identified measurable benefits. The Contoso team was most interested in hearing their options, without rushing towards any particular solution.
For most of the stakeholders, we talked about the ways they wanted to do their business, not technical architecture. I never walked into a meeting with a solution, just questions and options.
For more technical meetings, such as with the core cross-disciplinary team responsible for device security, our discussions evaluated tradeoffs between the benefits and problems of a range of infrastructure solutions.
We looked at requirements from across the organization, looked at the best products to address those requirements, and considered how to integrate new technology with existing solutions already in place.
After gathering information from stakeholders about their pains, needs, and desires, we presented several options that would provide features to support various end user devices, mobility, security, and other important capabilities, while not incurring additional costs for hardware or licensing.
I then reviewed the enterprise portfolio with an eye toward eliminating redundancy, reducing licensing fees, and standardizing processes. We identified several security-related products, and others, that could be eliminated, as they were redundant with core platform services and other licensed applications.
After performing the assessment, stakeholder meetings, and portfolio review, we built out a vision for a program of change, identified a structure for the change. We aligned investment objectives, new capabilities, and benefits for the recommended changes.
Our recommendations presented solutions in a conceptual way that focused on capabilities and business outcomes, referencing architecture only at times.
Our services also included recommendations for adoption and change management, aligned to the new business processes and underlying architecture. For example, though many unnecessary applications needed to be eliminated, there was resistance, as some stakeholders had invested much time and money in the redundant software. Our recommendations for adoption planning promoted the use of the streamlined tools, highlighted the business value and business case, and addressed cultural changes.
Welcome to the Value Realization Team Blog!
Delivery Documentary: Contoso Hospital Goes Mobile
Delivery Documentary: Establishing a Value Realization Center of Excellence (COE) at Contoso Bank
Mobile in the Enterprise: Value Realization with Enterprise Mobility
Introducing the Enterprise Agreement Value Roadmap Service
Introducing the Value Discovery Service
Introducing the Portfolio Optimization Consulting Service
Introducing the Architecture Options and Recommendations Consulting Service