Case Study of an Organizational Information Technology Health Check

“The NegenIT IT Health Check is just what we were looking for. Within a short time, NegenIT was able to identify the major challenges and provide the advice and recommendations to impact our operational effectiveness. NegenIT’s IT Health Check is ideal for stakeholders and executives who need to quickly get a snapshot of their IT, its people, resources and effectiveness.”
Anne Martin, President, United Van Lines (Canada) Ltd.

Background

United Van Lines (Canada) Ltd. transports electronic equipment, trade show exhibits and displays, works of art, and specialized freight, in addition to household goods. With headquarters located in Mississauga, Ontario, United maintains a network of 1,000 affiliated agencies in 135 countries around the world.

Opportunity

United Van Lines (Canada) Ltd, is a leader in coordinating moving activities from coast to coast. With a large network of affiliates the challenges faced by United Van Lines (Canada) Ltd. are daunting. Information Technology (IT) is a critical component in delivering and providing services to the business units. As a key provider of service, IT needs to be a driving force of innovation, not only to provide basic support, but to take advantage of technology to provide a competitive advantage. United Van Lines (Canada) Ltd. IT direction and strategy needed an objective review to help identify the key challenges and to recommend a clear path to meeting new goals.

Solution

NegenIT was engaged to provide an “IT Health Check”, an Objective Professional Opinion of the IT function, its people, resources, projects and challenges. NegenIT’s approach is first to understand the business imperatives for IT, then understand the history of the organization and IT within it, then meet and understand the people. NegenIT conducted a series of interviews to review existing practices and processes, to define the current (As Is) state, then to identify gaps in industry Best Practices. Utilizing extensive experience and an objective viewpoint, the NegenIT consultants were able to quickly identify the main IT challenges faced by United Van Lines (Canada) Ltd.

Summary of Project Steps:

Interviews with key Stakeholders (board members) and Senior Management
Tour of business operations and IT facilities.
Interviews with senior IT and user representatives
Discussions with the IT management to share results
Consolidate and present Observations, Conclusions and Recommendations to senior management.

Impact

The NegenIT IT Health Check Report has now established a baseline to measure and report on success. With clear observations and recommendations NegenIT quickly laid the ground work to start the process to facilitate the alignment of IT with the business units. NegenIT has created a starting point to allow them to create action plans for changes for service evolution and progress monitoring. By laying down the foundation of “change”, NegenIT’s report is also the basis for a score card to provide a senior management view of progress to success. The result, the stakeholders now have a clearer vision into the IT function and the IT department has the direction to implement the changes.

For more details of this case study and others, please visit the Negenit website: www.negenit.com