Case Studies Core Infrastructure Optimization Helps Maclean-Fogg “Move Away from Constant Fire Fighting” and Build IT Strategic Value

Core Infrastructure Optimization Helps Maclean-Fogg “Move Away from Constant Fire Fighting” and Build IT Strategic Value

Summary

Maclean-Fogg CIO Brian Duffy and his team had significantly improved IT services over the past three years. When he asked Microsoft to demonstrate System Center as a way to formalize more IT processes, Microsoft asked Concurrency to participate. Maclean-Fogg was impressed with System Manager 2012 and chose to move forward with Concurrency as a strategic partner. But rather than immediately deploying System Center, Maclean-Fogg chose to begin with a Core IO engagement. CIO Brian Duffy explains:

“We wanted a formal process to review our current state and help us understand how to get to the next level or future state of IT. We wanted an outside pair of eyes to provide and unbiased assessment of our needs and maturity. We wanted to do this with someone that has done this before as there is no room for errors in our industry. We wanted to force ourselves to break away from the day-to-day in order to have a clear focus on our future directions.”

Solution

The Core IO project analyzed IT services on the spectrum of Basic–Standardized–Rationalized–Dynamic. Says Brian Duffy, “We had to be open and honest with ourselves and Concurrency in order for this to be a valid discovery and assessment. Concurrency reviewed all of the data and facts with a goal of presenting a formalized report out and plan. “ The result was a roadmap toward “Dynamic” IT services across workloads. In addition to System Center, the Core IO project identified other technologies—and their priority—which were needed to meet Maclean-Fogg’s service-delivery goals. CIO Brian Duffy explains further:

“Concurrency gave us an outside / objective view to our environment. They brought clarity to the potential structure of our infrastructure as a service to the company. Concurrency push back was good, fair, and balanced. During the process they would ask challenging questions such as ‘why are you doing it this way?’ This made us truly think through the process and make a path from the way things are vs. the way things could or should be. In the end, there were no big surprises—we know we still have a long way to go, but now we have more clarity for the journey. Throughout the engagement we gained education about new technologies and potential benefits from implementing them. We came to find a level of comfort that allows us to deal with the monster staring at us, but more importantly how to overcome and standardize and achieve ‘world-class’ IT at MacLean-Fogg. My goal is to establish processes and procedures that move us away from constant fire fighting and to become a trusted and proactive business partner for the organization.”