Business Problem
The Australian division of an international pharmaceutical company needed to evaluate its current IT portfolio and decide where to make new IT investments.

Solution

The CEO hired me to apply my IT planning process. In the course of a two-day session we:

• documented the most pressing business needs and determined how IT could help;
• created a portfolio of existing IT resources, and assessed their value and cost;
• identified gaps between urgent business needs and current IT solutions; and
• developed a plan to close the gaps.

The session revealed three surprising facts:

• Recently-deployed systems were actually reducing productivity, a problem that could be fixed through training and better support.
• The most critical information problems for the company were caused by a lack of data needed to link information from key applications. A small tactical project could quickly address this shortcoming, while a larger project would eventually integrate the applications.
• The division did not have to wait for headquarters to select an enterprise-wide customer relations tool; it could immediately begin to modify existing systems, thereby moving up their implementation plan by two years.

Outcomes:  

• The senior staff was excited to discover that they could realize productivity gains quickly through training and better support instead of having to wait for the completion of additional IT projects.
• The human resources director was given the mandate to create training and organizational development programs that would realize the productivity potential of existing systems.
• The IT manager was thrilled because he was able to greatly enhance the value of existing applications with a small project.
• The CEO was satisfied because the planning session enabled him to address morale issues, focus on business needs, set priorities, and delegate tasks and responsibilities.