It will be easier to understand the IT Business Management arithmetic if we make a hierarchy of the business functions. A simple top-bottom level methodology is adopted, and here is how it works:
The top-level: Investment Planning : The top-level involves planned work. A set of executives and IT professionals take investment portfolio decisions, which also acts as the blueprint for the bottom-level. The planning involves setting up a strategy, which is crucial for business transformation!
The bottom-level: Work Delivery : This level involves the day-to-day groundwork operations of the business. Since the thinking and planning are already done by the top-level, the work delivery team is solely concerned with following the course of that plan.
But of course, in the technical environment of large-scale IT firms, there are a lot more factors to account for. Below we break down what each level consists of
Strategic planning shall revolve around the visions of the business. It practically lays the outline for business growth. With that said, strategic planning AKA. Top-level shall involve ideas of new products, maintaining competition with the market, or adopting new technology. These decisions are pivotal for the business, as it sets the base for operational activities.
Coming to the operational level, just because it is on the bottom, does not mean it is any less critical. The activities range from enhancement requests, dealing with changes and problems first hand, and moreover, rationalising risks and portfolio. At a microlevel, operational activities keep the business moving forward.
The disconnect between the levels, Inconsistency between the two levels is something very commonly observed with modern businesses. A company shall very likely employ a large number of workers who are all taking a different approach to getting the job done. A good portion of the workers shall be proficient with the traditional waterfall approach, while the remaining workforce may prefer an agile method. With different speeds and feeds across the workforce, it becomes complicated for the organization to keep the strategy or planned work in line with the operation or unplanned work.
So how does ServiceNow remedy the situation? What ServiceNow do is -
Combine the strategic and operational activities and help coordinate them on a single platform. ServiceNow emphasises a model where a business leans more towards the strategic initiatives and decreases operation scale to maximize total efficiency at the same time.
With more focus towards efficient and continuous planning, a business can save more on operations while increasing the value of every individual work unit. The activities shall be designed to align with the strategy and can be scaled easily regardless of whether the workforce is waterfall or agile. And then, the outcomes or results can be measured to improve the plan further, to yield yet better results!
ServiceNow ITBM offers a single platform for all the planning and operational needs of businesses. It's vast collection of tools are specially designed to add value to the company and achieve end-goals. Further, the platform goes the extra mile to provide information to make value-based decision.
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