ISG helps guide an Australian utility company through several changes to its IT operating model during a seven-year relationship focused on business alignment and end-user requirements.
Opportunity
A major Australian energy and utility company wanted to undergo a major transformation. The goals were to:
- transition workplaces services from in-house to external, and
- reorganize the way internal IT serviced the business overall.
The company engaged ISG to conduct a baseline diagnostic of the end users’ experience with workplace technology services and the IT unit’s relationship with other business units. ISG used an online survey to measure the end-user experience. We utilized a series of face-to-face interviews with senior business and IT stakeholders to learn more about the health of the IT/business relationship. The initial program was so successful that the company instituted an ongoing contract for the work to be conducted twice every year.
Imagining IT Differently
The relationship is now in its seventh year, and ISG has already helped the company navigate widespread organizational changes, including leadership shifts and a new operating model across the company. In addition, many employees had to shift to remote work during the pandemic, adding complexity. During the most recent cycle of the relationship-health engagement, ISG identified and helped the company begin addressing three IT challenges that will help define its success in delivering to the business:
- It had to determine whether to transition away from being a build-run IT shop, since the business expected IT to transition to more of an integrator role. This would require rethinking its capabilities.
- It had to undertake the business’ challenge to focus on effective financial management, requiring it to broaden its ecosystem.
- It had to consolidate and establish a unified voice after an extended period of change.
Future Made Possible
- The utility company received guidance on how to measure and improve relationships, including those between IT and other business units.
- The new IT leadership received concrete data that the company’s operating-model change had been successfully delivered and that business-IT alignment was getting stronger.
- ISG delivered a roadmap identifying focus areas for the next 12 months, along with a proposed governance model to drive change.
- The company intends to work with ISG to measure again in a year to determine its progress against the identified challenges.
- The energy company continues to utilize ISG as an ally in improving its relationship health.
