Background and justification of IT4IT adoption
Delta Lloyd Group is Dutch insurer that operates in the countries like Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. It is the sixth biggest insurer within Netherlands. It has a market share of about eight percent. The Delta Lloyd has formed the basis of “Delta Lloyd Group”. It provides various functionalities like insurance, financial planning and saving accounts (Hoek & Trubel 2013).The reference architecture of the IT4ITTM on the other hand has been prescribing the holistic management in Information technology or IT businesses. It delivers various guidance on designing, procuring and implementation the functionality required to run the company (ITDavis 2015).
The IT41ITTM has been utilized in the Delta Lloyd that has helped in “cloud computing” for the company. This adoption of IT4IT™ at the “Delta Lloyd” has been needed to get documented. Further, reflection is required to develop on the process of the adoption.
The background with justification of the IT4IT adoption has been discussed here. Its reasons with the challenges, problems opportunities and the desired outcomes have been explored. Further, the adoption of a road map and challenges rising with Delta Lloyd has been analyzed. Lastly, the outcomes of the IT4IT™ adoption with proper recommendation for the company have been done.
The traditional IT services have been providing different opportunities to the business. However, currently Delta Lloyd has been receiving scopes by buying the services up to market standards directly like “Software as a service” and “cloud services”. Technology has been changing and transforming the insurance businesses. In order to facilitate this change new kind of skills and infrastructure has been required. It should not only support the highly developing technology but also ensure that the systems were secure and stable. Moreover, it must be innovated so that Delta Lloyd could use technology for their purpose and their customer benefits (Josey 2015).
The “open group IT4IT reference architecture standard” comprises of the “reference architecture”. Moreover, it has also been valuing the “chain based operating model” in order to manage IT business. Applying this in Delta Lloyd has provided support to impose, design and secure the functionalities required to run the IT. The “IT Value Chain” comprises of some “value streams” supported by the “reference architecture” tracked systematically around the “service life cycle”.
Every “IT Value Stream” has been centered on the primary aspect of the required data objects like the information model. It also considers the service models and functional components like the functional model supporting it. The above value systems collectively play as a crucial factor in helping IT to manage the “service model”
as its progression through the lifecycle (Osório 2016).
Functionalities of IT4IT
The functionalities of the “IT4I4 reference architecture” have been:
- Providing authoritative support on the particulars of and communication with a persistent service model backbone”. It is done in the context of the “common data model”.
- It has been supporting the “practical world” use cases directed by the “Digital Economy” like the Agile, Cloud-sourcing, service brokering and DevOps.
- It has been embracing and complementing the current process methodologies and frameworks like the CoBIT®, ITIL®, TOGAF® and SAFe®. It is done by implementing a model perspective which is data-perspective. It essentially specifies a data model around the complete value chain (Architecture, 2017).
Thus the, “IT Value Chain” has been servicing as a guiding model to take over the service life cycle with broker services for Delta Lloyd. The “IT4IT operating model” has been allowing the function of IT to gain the similar standard of business efficiency, predictability and discipline like the other functions in Delta Lloyd (Davis 2014).
The demonstration or roadmap of sophisticated understanding of adopting IT4IT undergoes through the following value processes or streams:
i. “Strategy to portfolio”:
Here the management solution has been done by integrated service or application, the PPM or portfolio management and the Enterprise Architecture or EA system. This roadmap manages the portfolio of the IT services and the related projects.
ii. “Requirement to Deploy”:
The management solution done here is by the test management platform and standard development including the “source code management”. It includes the test and building automation.
iii. “Request to Fulfill”:
Here the standard self-service portal is used.
The standard portal of self-service performs the remedies for IT solution here. In this stream, the self-service of requested portal is done like requesting of new laptop. This stream has the access to business applications.
iv. “Direct to Correct”:
The “IT management” solutions are solved by the ITSM systems. Here the standard monitoring system is done.
v. “Supporting Activities”:
The problems of IT management are solved by the Software Asset Management or SAM and the IT Business Management or ITBM. Here the “standard information risk management system” manages the compliance, risks and findings (Davis 2015).
The architectures explained above have helped in identifying the systematic challenges and create remediation on a planned platform. Despite this, Delta Lloyd should remind the following reasons while opting for IT4IT:
- The IT41IT requires architectures and strategies enabling it to perform like a well-oiled machine. It has been delivering increasing on-demand services which Delta Lloyd could be devoid of any time (Vesterinen 2015).
- Delta Lloyd can selectively apply relevant techniques to solve the critical problems. However it should also be reminded that all the points could only be connected within a uncontrollable architecture.
- The IT leaders of Delta Lloyd should be able to manage the transformation within. The way it has been tackling the transformations in the business it must also to adopt the IT4IT likewise properly (Guide, 2017).
The core outcomes of adopting IT4IT by Delta Lloyd have been the following:
- Delta Lloyd has expected a better cost-effective IT ambiance. Delta Lloyd has been able to manage a developing complicated IT estate more cost-effectively. The technology has also freed up budget and time for new products and innovations. The Reference architecture has provided strict framework for managing approaches that were multi-sourcing (Vlietland, van Solingen & van Vliet 2016).
- Another key outcome of IT4IT is that its model has been designed to complement the already existing approaches and has worked equally effective for Delta Lloyd using Waterfall, Agile and DevOps.
- The ambiance created by the IT4IT has given Delta Lloyd much more visibility with accountability on its IT performance. Moreover, it has also considered who and how the services have been consumed (Betz 2016).
Conclusion:
In Delta Lloyd the controlling of the “IT Value chain” along the end-to-end has been mandatory. The company needs to set up IT4IT architect and delivery units ensuring executive sponsorship for the management. Architectural guidance must be provided to the management capabilities of IT. In order to impose IT4IT, all the management solutions must be managed within an integrated and single portfolio. IT4IT as a service must be provided in order to build and deploy IT tools by setting up a core IT41T organization. Rationalized and standardized IT4IT “tooling portfolio” must be developed according to management practices. Delta Lloyd should also build relationship strategically with restricted amount of management vendors. An IT4I4 roadmap as discussed in the report must be defined properly using the “Open Group IT4IT reference architecture” as the blueprint. As Delta Lloyd has believed in a community guided open standard, hence it must be committed to utilize IT4IT.
The factors that could be recommended for Delta Lloyd are:
- Keeping IT4IT in mind while going for tool upgrades and changes:
Currently there has been no IT4IT-compliant “tool vendors” but in future the standard would evolve. This would include the in detailed prescriptive framework that the tool vendors required to create the APIs and compliant functions. Hence Delta Lloyd must keep the IT4IT in mind if any tool change or upgrading approach is needed to be done (De Haes, Huygh & Joshi 2017).
- Considering the IT4IT as the template to deploy effective “hybrid service management”:
This has to be done because of the current collaboration with external service partners like the call centers to the cloud vendors. This can create a lot of friction. Besides it could tie Delta Lloyd with costly one-off integrations.
- Consideration of getting involved:
IT professionals of Delta Lloyd who are eager to take the ITSM and IT4IM to more up-graded level must join the discussion as its level evolves. Delta Lloyd must amplify the voice by collaborating with other various experts around the world (Schoen 2015).
References:
Architecture, T., 2017. The IT4IT™ Reference Architecture. [online] Bliyoo. Available at: <https://tablisto.bruna.nl/e-book/the-it4it-reference-architecture-version-20/9789401805971/index.html> [Accessed 24 Mar. 2017].
Betz, C 2016, Implications of digital transformation, Agile, and DevOps for IT curricula, with recommendations, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Davis, CJ 2015, The IT4IT™ reference architecture, version, Kit Publishers, Amsterdam.
Davis, VD 2014, Impactof Multi-Sourcingonthe IT4ITReference Architecture. IT4IT Consortium, Kit Publishers, Amsterdam.
De Haes, S, Huygh, T & Joshi, A 2017, Exploring the Contemporary State of Information Technology Governance Transparency in Belgian Firms. Information Systems Management, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Guide, I., 2017. IT4IT™ for Managing the Business of IT – A Management Guide. [online] Bliyoo. Available at: <https://tablisto.bruna.nl/e-book/it4it-for-managing-the-business-of-it-a-management-guide/9789401805926/index.html> [Accessed 24 Mar. 2017].
Hoek, N & Trubel, G 2013, a Multi-Channel Strategy: The Delta Lloyd Group Case Study, Handbuch Wertmanagement in Banken und Versicherungen,,Brill, Leiden-Boston.
Josey, A 2015, The IT4IT™ Reference Architecture, Version 2.0–A Pocket Guide. Van Haren, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Osório, AL 2016, October. Towards Vendor-Agnostic IT-System of IT-Systems with the CEDE Platform. In Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises .Springer International Publishing,Amsterdam.
Schoen, JW 2015, The single-track reporting approach: The development of finacial and prudential reporting requirements and their impact on the reporting practices of Dutch insurance companies in the period 1880-2005, Kit Publishers, Amsterdam.
Vesterinen, P 2015, Towards Lean-Agile Portfolio Management–Case Kela, Wolters Kluwer,Alphen aan den Rijn.
Vlietland, J, van Solingen, R & van Vliet, H. 2016, Aligning codependent Scrum teams to enable fast business value delivery: A governance framework and set of intervention actions. Journal of Systems and Software, Brill, Leiden-Boston.
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