Page 488 - Handbook of Modern Telecommunications

Network Organization and Governance 4-19

4.2.3.1 What Business Strategies Will Be Supported, and across What Time Period?
Business and IT leaders must determine the organization’s business strategy across the strategic plan-
ning time period by defining a target vision for the end of the period and the strategies the organization
will pursue to achieve it. A key complication for many multidivisional businesses is that many corporate
level “strategic plans” for these organizations consist of financial and other quantitative projections. The
operational strategies and plans to achieve them are developed at the business unit level and are less well
articulated and specific as the plans extend over time.
4.2.3.2 What Elements of the Strategic Plan Will Depend on the IT Organization?

Identify the business functionality and capabilities that will have to be developed, delivered, and sup-
ported by IT to fulfill the strategies. Define the implications of developing these for IT infrastructure,
applications, data, and (especially if e-business strategies are to be supported) business processes. For
many enterprises, a significant operational and organizational transformation might be on the horizon
with significant impact on IT planning. For instance, an electric company that goes from selling power
in its local area to reselling energy on the international market can expect to make significant invest-
ments in IT to support the endeavor.
4.2.3.3 What Is the Scope and Scale of the Investments
Required in IT to Support the Plan?
Using the information developed in Step 2, define “big picture” development programs that will be
required for infrastructure, as well as applications and data management needed to deliver the required
functionality and capabilities.
4.2.3.4 Are These Investment Programs Manageable?
Standard project management work breakdown processes can be used to divide these programs into
more manageable project-sized pieces, identifying specific key deliverables and dependencies. This cre-
ates several smaller projects that are more visible (as opposed to one or two large ones) and give the
enterprise greater flexibility.
4.2.3.5 Is It Feasible to Assign or Acquire the Necessary Resources
To Do All the Work in the Required Time Period?
Develop high-level estimates of time and resource requirements for implementing each project and
develop a sourcing strategy to collectively support the efforts. One of the purposes of this process is to
establish the feasibility of executing the required development workload in the specified time period.
To determine this, the enterprise must consider the specific requirement for skills, competencies, and
manpower and decide whether resources should, and could, be sourced from inside or outside the orga-
nization. If outsourcing or using external services providers is planned, the IS organization must also
identify and evaluate the likely suppliers.

4.2.3.6 Is the Strategy Affordable?
Given the development of the resource requirements, develop high-level capital and expense estimates.
These provide the necessary feedback to business planners and managers to allow them to address the
question, “Is this affordable?” If it is not, an iterative process can be used to either trim functionality or
extend the time periods until an affordable spending level is attained.

4.2.4 Real-Time Enterprise (RTE)
Real-time enterprise initiatives remove delays from critical business processes. IT plays a crucial part in
this since only electronic systems can work with the necessary speed. A variety of specific technologies