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Discover Performance Blog - HP Enterprise Business Community

Discover Performance Blog - HP Enterprise Business Community

Changing Face of Managed services: A Threat to Likes of HP, IBM

For long the enterprises were outsourcing their IT to become efficient and profitable. Outsourcing IT was making an enterprise more productive and cut costs. The traditional Outsourcing model includes

·         Multi-year contracts  and Time bound charging

·         Developing and maintaining custom code for the applications

·         Teams Of Programmers  and onsite system Integrators

·         Cost advantage end-to-end service providers

The arrival of Cloud computing is changing everything. The Big IT vendors like HP and IBM are taking a hit and they better watch out. If they don’t change fast enough, they will get extinct like Dinosaurs.

The benefits of Cloud Computing are:

·         Everything is as a service solution

·         No Onsite Code to install, maintain or develop. No onsite Teams Of Programmers and system Integrator

·         IT Now Part of working capital Short term contracts Volume based charging

·         Cost advantage and Flexibility to choose best of breed applications

·         standardized Services outsourcing entire process .Ease of set up and cost benefits

It’s the beginning of the end of IT infrastructure outsourcing as we know it.  To compete, established ITO vendors will likely need to find ways to efficiently transition their operations to the cloud, protecting market share in the process with tactics such as reconfiguring their legacy IT assets to deliver cloud-like performance at cloud-like prices. The IT vendors would need to innovate and develop competence for product development, risk handling. Today an application development population explosion is taking place. The advent of platform-as-a-service (PaaS), in which users buy access to cloud-hosted development platforms and tools on a subscription basis, has almost completely broken down the barrier to entry to the application development business. By reducing the need for large up-front investments in servers, data centers, and platforms, PaaS makes it possible for anyone with an Internet connection and a credit card to set up an application development shop.

The virtual vendor. With the cloud opening the door to outsourcing practically anything that can be done or delivered on the Internet, business models such as “vendor as broker” and “vendor as retailer” has become economically feasible.

 Enterprises like Sapient  are now deploying  enterprise grade applications on Microsoft Azure and Amazon Public cloud. Lets take the example of Sapient.

Sapient is deploying mission critical enterprise application on public cloud like Microsoft Azure and amazon. It’s offering these applications as SAAS model. For security purposes, it creates a site to site VPN with the enterprises and it has various layers of security and authentication.  Some of the sapient application are below:

·         Compliance Management Reporting System (CMRS): An end-to-end enterprise platform for more efficiently and effectively meeting various regulatory reporting commitments

·         Client Connect Solution: A managed platform that helps asset managers, investment managers and fund service providers enhance the quality of their client servicing

·         Close of Business Services (CoBS): A fully outsourced shared services solution for managing time-sensitive close of business processing and reporting

·         Trading Operations as a Managed Service: A hosted solution that combines access and support of top-notch trading and risk management applications

·         ICEx: A tailored solution that consolidates and improves access to a vast universe of research content

·         CCS, CCSi and CCSv: A margin statement connectivity platform that makes clearing and communications more concise and efficient

·         Energy Data Hub (EDH): A new commodity market utility that allows firms to perform benchmarking and use new metrics

·         European DataWarehouse: A combination of services that help companies meet requirements for communicating loan-level performance data under the ECB’s ABS loan-level data initiative

·         Structured Finance Risk Manager: An automated, enterprise-level system that helps firms value, monitor and manage the risk of structured assets

·         Client Clearing Portal: An HTML5-based, configurable portal solution for the provision of client clearing and collateral management services

Sapient will be responsible for Operating system and Database support.

So it begs the question, if the application vendor starts providing support for OS and DB, then what’s its impact on IT service providers like HP and IBM?

Market is changing with cloud computing. All IT services providers have to change their offering radically. They now have to focus on more building applications, transitioning and modernizing existing applications for cloud environment. The dollars are only in SAAS model.

HP as a company has an advantage, its own public cloud offerings hpcloud. It has a very good strategy for application modernization and transformation.

The cloud computing will in the give  a big blow to employment of IT professionals, specifically who works in Operations.

Here comes the next big churn

TOGAF: Practical implementation-1

TOGAF is a generic framework. I believe no enterprise uses the TOGAF in its generic form. Every enterprise customizes the TOGAF as per its needs. TOGAF can be used in two ways: Enterprise level and Individual level. Individual level means how a professional can use on a project level in more practical manner. This topic covers individual level TOGAF usage. How TOGAF is used practically instead of just being a theory. This whole discussion is about using a framework in a real environment, a practical implementation. TOGAF is an enterprise framework. We will break down TOGAF and use it as  a solution framework.It No more will be a TOGAF. It will more of a stripped down TOGAF.

First, we will divide the TOGAF framework into different sections and then we will go deep in each section.

I have divided TOGAF under following categories

1)      Requirements

2) Solutioning

3)   Delivery

4)       Governance/Change Management

As part of our discussion, we will go through different phases. This topic will be complete in multiple blogs. I

Now we have down the ground work of breaking and stripping of TOGAF into different parts. In my next blog, we will start with Requirements section. This is the most important and the biggest part. This section will be further divided into 4 parts. Each part tells us how to get requirements. Once the requirement section is done, then rest is easy.

So For Requirements
1) Business Architucture- http://technologyandarchitecture.blogspot.in/2014/05/togaf-practical-implementation-2.html 

TOGAF: Practical Implementation-2: Requirement Gathering- Business Architecture

Requirements are core to any solution. If you don't have right requirements, then the solution created will be wrong. You won’t be able to address the problem or an opportunity. Requirements show what elements and functions are necessary for the particular project.

Requirements has 4 parts

1)    Business Architecture

2)    Information and systems Architecture

3)    Technology Architecture

4)    Opportunities

In this section we will discuss Business Architecture.

Before, we start, I advise anyone reading this blog to keep an open mind. Here the attempt is to use TOGAF an enterprise level framework as a solution framework which can be used by anyone in his or her projects.

As per TOGAF, development of a business architecture to support an agreed Architecture vision. It includes process and people, Principles and their relationships to each other.

I believe, from solution framework point of view, we need to understand

·         What is the business strategy ?

·         What are the internal and external drivers?

·         What are the business models and processes?

·         Who participates in the business processes?

·         What are the project goals?

·         How will the success of the solution be measured?

·         Why is the project important to you now?

·          What is so compelling that a new solution is needed?

Answer to these questions helps us to create an overall business requirement. It gives us a big picture.

Primary stakeholders are

–  Business managers

–  System acquirer

–  Business analyst

 It further tells us

So lets describe them in detail 

A business driver is a business condition that motivates the customer to seek a solution. They might be an external force or an internal effort to take advantage of an external condition. Business drivers are statements about changes in the marketplace or environment that present problems and/or opportunities.

A business goal is an objective of the solution – what the solution must accomplish in

Business terms.

 A business Metrics

–        A clearly measurable test for a business goal

–        A numeric value or other testable criterion for assessing the degree to which a business goal has been achieved

•         Used as a key component of acceptance criteria

•         Generally applies to full scope of architecture

Example business metrics:

•         15% of sales will be web-based electronic commerce by the end of the calendar year

•         Certify compliance with regulation ABCD at least a month before deadline

•         Merge payrolls and expense systems within 8 months

A business principle is an approach or means for achieving a goal.

Let me try to explain each of these in detail.

Business Goal and Business drivers are the driving force for any solution. Below is an example of Goals and drivers

Once we have collected this information, we now know the challenges an organization is facing. We know its goals and drivers. Our Objectives get clarity and now we know what the solution should deliver.

Principle

•         A fundamental approach or means for achieving
a goal

•         Timeless; how the system is meant to work

−        Constrain and identify decisions about the solution and its realization

−        Provide an agreed reference framework for evaluation
of alternatives and decisions

−        Require input from stakeholders to define effective principles

Example business principles:

−        Allow customers to transact business directly through web-based access to our information systems without the need for a customer representative intermediary

−        Our existing dealers are an integral part of our future business strategy

Tests of a good principle

–        Clear, concise, and stated in present tense

–        Prescriptive

•         Describes an overall approach for achieving the future state, i.e., a means, not an end

•         Not a short-term action

–        Constructive

•         Helps you make decisions and progress toward future solution

•         Specific enough to drive behavior

–        Testable

•         You can tell if the principle is being practiced

–        Compelling

•         Strongly motivated by drivers, goals, and other principles

•         Avoids truisms and trivialities (realistic alternatives exist)

•         Likely to result in many right decisions if followed

–        Memorable

Every Principle has

Rationale

–        The motivation behind the principle, the business benefit of achieving the principle, or the cost/business impact of not achieving it (why this is a good principle)

Implication

–        An explicit statement of work or condition needed to achieve this principle (what must be done to implement the principle in terms of IT, process, and people)

Obstacle

–        Known issues, problems, or constraints that may impede the achievement of a principle (what can get in the way of progress)

Action

–        Specific tasks to address an obstacle or carry out an implication of a principle (what, when, who)

An example of Principle

Principle:

–        Extend web shopping to include nearby store information and services

Rationale:

–        Unique capability that will attract & retain customers

Implication:

–        Business must support merging of web business information and store business information

Obstacle:

–        If web business is directly connected to store, online shopping must charge local tax

Action:

–        Determine greatest level of integration possible while retaining tax independence

VERIFICATION

• Analysis

• Does each goal help address one or more drivers?
• Does each principle help achieve one or more goals?
• Will achieving the goals address each driver adequately?
• Will following each principle achieve each of the goals?

•Discussion

• Does this feel right?
• Are these the most useful principles for this area?
• Are there other important principles that need to be added?
• Are there some of these that are questionable?
• How close is this view to what’s needed?
• Is it compelling?

Now we have the Business principles. Any solution that will be made will take in consider these principles which are based on Goals and drivers for a business.