Office of the CIO

In today’s business world, agility and speed of change is more important than ever. Changes happen with an increased cadence. The life cycle of business processes and products as well as IT strategies is “shorter”. Companies need to change constantly, be it because of changing customer needs, technology-driven trends which lead to convergence, economic crises, regularity shifts or mergers and acquisitions.

CIOs today must cope with cost pressures while ensuring they stay tuned to ever-increasing and complex business requirements. They must provide flexible business applications, underpinned by a basic architecture and platform to manage the speed of change.

Our topical expertise is focused around six key areas of IT management and IT services to business, bringing business and IT viewpoints to the table.

Through our multi-layered approach, we deal with Board and Management concerns, while at the same time making sure that the operational reality is in line with the Company and the IT-specific objectives.

We help ensure that bottom-up performance reporting is designed to accurately measure and report the right indicators.

Align IT to the Business

IT Governance

We advise our clients on determining the right IT governance model and in deploying their IT plans in line with their business model.

• We analyse how business strategies are translated into IT strategies and how IT strategies are implemented.
• Based on the overall business strategy, we define the required governance mechanisms - a specific solution for the business.

IT strategy alignment

We validate and, where required, adapt the IT strategy against the underlying profit and other business drivers and priorities of the business. We develop and monitor action plans to execute the strategy and provide the following services:

• Design of long-range IT plan (IT Strategy)
• Design, implementation and evaluation of ICT infrastructure
• Evaluation of IT investments and projects
• Selection and procurement process for ERP system

Implement IT cost and value management

Cost transparency

We advise our clients on demonstrating cost transparency to allow the organisation to understand where it is spending its IT budget and to identify the cost drivers which can deliver cost reduction. We use proven concepts and methods:

• Activity-Based Costing
• Total Costs of Ownership

Value transparency

We advise our clients on better understanding the planned financial benefits from an IT investment (including an analysis of the underlying assumptions) before making the investment, during the implementation and after completion, using proven concepts such as:

• Benchmarking against similar organisations and industries
• IT Portfolio Management

Assisting in package selection and deployment

Package selection

Package selection is typically aligned with the replacement of an existing package and its integration into a given system landscape. Therefore a selection project has to deal with functional requirements as well as infrastructure, interfaces and the communication with external business partners. PwC enables the client to:

• Identify the specific differentiating criterion of packages relating to the client’s industry
• Examine different business architecture alternatives to ensure the best fit to the client’s business
• Better understand and control all contract-related issues (i.e. vendor selection, contract negotiations)

Systems deployment

We assist our clients in implementing solutions driven by business-specific issues. We assist the client during all stages of the implementation process so that the client’s challenges in business alignment, risk management and regulatory compliance can be realised in the most efficient and effective manner. 

Our clients benefit through:

• Reduced deployment times with structured and proven methodologies
• Improved alignment between business issues and technological solutions
• Sustainable solutions through embedded risk management

Making large IT projects perform

IT projects funding advice

Successful change requires a robust and complete business case. Benefits management is an integral part of the IT effectiveness approach to process improvement.

We assist with:

• Investment evaluation
• Development of business cases or ROI modelling
• Monitoring the benefit contribution

Project review

We conduct IT project audits to assist with:

• Foreseeing and planning change
• Assessing program interdependencies
• Monitoring the integrator or other external suppliers

Improve sourcing and service management

Improving IT processes

Our services include :

• The design and implementation of IT Service Management for different business functions within an organisation
• The design and implementation of a Service Management function within an outsourcing relationship
• The analysis of existing IT Service Management (including assessment of the IT processes of external IT service providers)
• Restructuring of existing IT support functions

Evaluating the IT sourcing alternatives
Our services include :

• Evaluation of strategic sourcing alternatives
• Feasibility studies and business case analysis
• Measurement of supplier performance, improvement of existing outsourcing processes
• Contract negotiation, tax and corporate finance advice on contract set-up and organisation structuring

Realise the benefits from an ERP system implementation

ERP system implementation project management

Our services include :

• Definition of implementation strategy
• Specification of business case, business requirements and selection of system implementation vendors
• Definition of business operating model and system blueprint
• Management of IT service providers, risk management, budget management and change management
• Delivery of testing, training and ensuring data quality

Quality Assurance of ERP system

Our services include :

• Evaluation of project risks and vendor performance
• Ensuring the system meets regulatory compliance i.e. IFRS
• Review of data migration and data quality
• Gap analysis: business requirements and benefits realisation plan vs. implemented ERP system
• Crisis management for underperforming projects