A German trade fair company had adopted a modern IT strategy. The interim manager was hired to find an economical way to implement the strategic measures. The expert acted as a consultant and project manager in the mandate. He reported directly to the Chief Information Officer (CIO).
Outsourcing combined with the establishment of a new IT department
The company and interim manager had already agreed in principle on the complete outsourcing of relevant IT services when the contract was awarded in order to improve the quality of IT projects and IT operations and reduce costs. At the same time, a new and effective in-house IT department was to be created. As a general framework, it had to be taken into account that a large part of the relevant IT budget was tied up in projects initiated and financed by the business and should be taken into account accordingly in terms of content and timing when sourcing.
Organization with Target Operating Model
Under the direct leadership of the CIO, a team of department heads, controlling and purchasing was formed to act effectively. The new IT strategy was broken down into logical building blocks, operationalized and divided into clear sub-projects. Due to the considerable time pressure and the dependencies on planned major trade fairs, the development of the new organization with a new target operating model (IT-TOM) was carried out in parallel with the provider selection. This required very close coordination between the sub-projects in terms of content.
Selection of providers and service level agreements
The interim manager was primarily responsible for managing the selection of the provider. This included conducting negotiations for the contractual provisions and coordinating the HR consequences for around 20 percent of the IT workforce. Based on the EVB IT service contract, the interim manager negotiated the specifics of the IT in almost 20 service specifications and with two providers until a decision was reached on the basis of the "best and final offer".
Business cases and HR consequences
In addition, the interim manager mapped the results of the two sub-projects in a business case, which showed which existing IT service relationships should be replaced or supplemented by the new providers on a monthly basis. The business case also depicted the consequences in terms of personnel management, both qualitatively and financially. The business case was therefore the basis for the entire financial evaluation and time planning of the transition phase.
The particular challenges were that the IT cost accounting was very detailed according to the company's own criteria and there was no internal cost allocation. In addition, there was neither an established database nor sufficient transparency for the existing and utilized IT service relationships with third parties. The outsourcing also affected IT applications and parts of the business that, due to historical structures, were not assigned to the planning or management of the IT department and were organizationally located in other departments.
Enabling the economic further development of IT
As a result, a contractual basis was created for "first generation sourcing" that enabled the economic further development of IT and adaptation to the strategic guidelines. Medium-term and strategic expansion options for the trade fair organization and the international trade fair business were taken into account.
New organizational and operational structure established for the IT department
A new organizational and operational structure for the IT department was established at the same time, along with interfaces to purchasing, controlling and the specialist side and project management. A retained organization was set up using the ITIL approach and in coordination with the selected service packages of the providers. This organization has more than met the quality requirements of the business side in the long term. The business side and projects have now found a partner at eye level in the IT department.
