IT Transformation

IT strategy, governance, sourcing and architecture planning and execution services. Helping our clients to achieve IT and operational excellence.

IT transformation projects and programs focus on planning and implementing major strategic changes that provide a company with new or improved IT and business capabilities. IT transformations typically focus on the following: operating model, vendor change, IT cost optimization, cloudification or technology / architecture modernization.

Major transformations require various roles during their entire lifecycle – from advisors to seasoned program managers and change management specialists. Depending on the transformation type and size, Midagon can provide either a full project team or individual experts for selected positions.

Transformations have a strategic context and are often connected to other bigger IT development initiatives on the roadmaps. Therefore, it is recommended to review and refresh IT strategies and roadmaps before getting started with planning an IT transformation. If these essential building blocks are not available, it is recommended to define the overall strategy and roadmaps in order to understand the big picture and make sure that other dependencies are considered.

Our IT Transformation service in brief

Over 20 top-notch IT management professionals with an average of 20 years of professional experience.
15 ongoing IT transformation projects with multiple customers running in parallel.
Skills and experience for the end-to-end delivery of an IT transformation from strategy definition to mobilization, management and post-deployment support.

Typical roles for our consultants in IT transformations

IT advisor or management consultant
IT transition or transformation program lead / manager
Change management expert
Deployment lead
Lead or solution architect

IT Transformation services

Sourcing model changes and transition management

It is crucial to find the optimal split between insourcing and outsourcing and / or changes to vendors and license agreements. The focus can be either on development activities or day-to-day operations and maintenance. Transformation activities can include organization design, competitive bidding and vendor selections, contract negotiations and management of transitions between vendors and/or inhouse IT as a neutral third party. Midagon's consultants help you to plan and manage these steps and provide valuable independent professional insight, helping to make the right choices and avoid pitfalls.

Organizational and methodological change

In this case, the focus is on ways of working, governance, and the underlying organizations (both ICT and business). A typical example of this kind of transformation is moving from traditional waterfall and design-build-run based IT operations towards an enterprise agile type of operating model – in practice, this could mean large-scale deployment of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) or some similar methodology. Midagon's consultants help you to design the target operating model, plan the change, and manage the transformation. We know the methodologies and their limitations. Usually, the outcome is a hybrid model combining the best parts of different methodologies.

IT cost optimization

The objective is to reduce IT costs and effort. This enables, for example, shifting money required for maintenance to development, i.e. rightsizing of the CAPEX / OPEX ratio. Optimization typically requires many different measures: modernization of the IT stack (and reduction of technical debt), harmonization of processes, re-negotiations of contracts and licenses, re-thinking of entire sourcing model etc. This work usually requires application portfolio and infrastructure rationalization. Our outside view stripped from all internal and existing vendor politics helps customer with post-merger overlaps and partially used systems. Our customer cases vary from large, balanced optimization programs to quick wins and raw cost cutting.

Cloudification

Cloudification services involve transferring or migrating applications, data or infrastructure to web-based cloud services offered by partners under “as a service” type of business models (for example: Software as a Service aka SaaS). There can be multiple drivers for this kind of transformation: getting new business capabilities from the new cloud-based platforms, enabling digitalization development, cost-cutting or replacing end-of-life IT components. Most modern ERPs and CRMs are cloud-based. This raises the question of what else should and could be done in the cloud. The modern infrastructures are hybrids of cloud and on-premises solutions. The right balance depends on your industry, regulation, preferences, and ambitions. We can help you with architectural planning and the deployment of application development frameworks as well as solution platforms and infrastructures.

Application and infrastructure modernization

Technology life cycles are becoming shorter. The IT applications and infrastructures have a considerable investment debt, meaning ageing and end-of-life solutions. Sometimes large-scale replacement of legacy infrastructure and / or applications is needed for various reasons: stability issues with current end-of-life components, high costs of maintenance and further development or as a risk mitigation activity. These kinds of transformations include big deployments and cutovers of very business critical components (for example: network infrastructure or renewal of entire ERP platform). Our customers are improving data and information management by building modern data platforms, which enable completely new types of services and business models. Our consultants can help you to identify the bottlenecks, make pre-studies and blue-printing, and manage the transformation.

Interim CIOs and other IT management roles

Sometimes your organization's internal competences and resources are not enough. Either the challenge at hand is too big to chew, or you have lost a valuable expert who is difficult to replace. Midagon’s interim IT managers can provide additional skills and resourcing during the transformation, or used to staff new positions emerging because of the transformation. Many clients have already utilized Midagon’s experts for staffing positions such as: Interim CIO, Chief architect, or Head of IT infrastructure team.

Architecture

Our architect team consists of experienced enterprise and solution architects, who know the architecture frameworks, mainstream core systems, modern integration platforms and evolving new technologies. We provide help with your most complex architecture changes, redesigning the full architecture stack from business process architecture to specific solutions' architectures. Large architecture changes require experience from similar business changes and transformations, in-depth technology know-how as well as excellent planning, conceptualization and communication skills.

In the architecture work, we focus on core ERP and CRM transformations, M&A projects, integrations and data platform design. Additionally, we help to solve specific problems, be it anything from a need to renew an application integration solution or to eliminate issues related to ERP performance.

IT transformation life cycle and phasing

Depending on the size and type of a transformation, there can be multiple waves inside a particular phase - for example, several waves of geographically focused deployments. All major transformations must be connected to IT strategy and roadmaps – therefore, IT strategy definition is highlighted here as a preliminary step that should be completed before the transformation planning starts.

IT strategy definition

Strategy planning should be a recurring activity, so that there is always an up-to-date IT strategy that is consistent with the latest business strategy. Based on the strategy, roadmaps of key development activities and transformations should be defined. All major transformations must be consistent with the priorities and “must-win battles” of the IT strategy. Roadmaps typically have a timespan of several years, so after the strategy definition work it can take months (or years) to mobilize a particular transformation program.

Pre-planning

This phase focuses on defining and validating of the overall scope and schedule. Aligning the transformation with the most recent version of overall IT strategy and roadmaps must be a high priority. Obtaining the needed sponsorship from both business and IT leadership is also essential. As a result of pre-planning, scope definitions, overall phasing / timeline and preliminary cost / resourcing estimates should be in place.

Planning and mobilization

This phase ramps up the actual design and implementation. Depending on the type of transformation, various kinds of high-level design documents are created (for example: to-be capability maps, target architectures or cost calculations). Resourcing for upcoming phases needs to be confirmed and, in many cases, a program (including its own Program Management Office) is established.

Design and implementation

This phase concentrates on all the necessary tasks that are needed to reach the readiness for deployment. Since IT transformations can include very different scope items, it is challenging to exhaustively break down the scope of this phase. Typical activities during this phase include the following: contractual negotiations with vendors, product selections, build of new technical capabilities, design of to-be organizations and processes, and change management activities.

Deployment

This phase typically includes several parts, since big transformations should be broken down into smaller pieces to manage risks and enable more efficient change management. There can be several individual transitions (for example: changes of responsibilities between vendors or teams) that trigger the actual deployment of parts of bigger transformations. The deployment strategy needs to be defined during the planning and mobilization phase. This depends on many factors (for example: business / IT strategy requirements, geographical aspects, and any hard constraints such as technologies reaching their end-of-life).