Identifying and Navigating the Technology Lifecycle Stages in Your Business
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This e-book identifies four stages of the technology lifecycle in businesses: stabilize, maintain, modernize, and transform, each with distinct challenges and best practices for improvement. It emphasizes the importance of effective communication with IT partners to navigate these stages and achieve business value from technology investments. The document also showcases Win Technology's services and real-life examples of helping clients through various lifecycle transitions.
Identifying and Navigating the Technology Lifecycle Stages in Your Business
- 1. Identifying and Navigating the Technology Lifecycle Stages in your Business AN E-BOOK BY WIN TECHNOLOGY MODERNIZE MAINTAIN TRANSFORM STABILIZE
- 2. Table of Contents Identifying and Navigating the Technology Lifecycle Stages in your Business We believe there are four technology lifecycle stages that all businesses experience. Often, they will experience two or three stages at a time. Each stage contains its own challenges and prescribed actions to achieve targeted outcomes. To help organizations effectively move through these stages, effective communication with your IT partner is critical. In this e-book we will share best practices we have learned in partnering with our clients. Introduction Communication: Thrive Through All Stages Stages of the Technology Lifecycle Stages of a Technology Lifecycle.....................................................................................................................................................5 The Technology Lifecycle in Any Business................................................................................................................................6 Maintain..................................................................................................................................................................................................................7 How WIN Technology Upgraded Our Client to the Maintain Stage........................................................................8 Stabilize..................................................................................................................................................................................................................9 How WIN Technology Stabilized Our Client’s IT Environment.....................................................................................10 Modernize.............................................................................................................................................................................................................11 How WIN Technology Modernized Our Client’s Technology Architecture........................................................12 Transform.............................................................................................................................................................................................................13 How WIN Technology Transformed Our Client’s Global Data Storage.................................................................14 Who We Are.......................................................................................................................................................................................................1 How We Can Help..........................................................................................................................................................................................2 IT Services At-A-Glance.............................................................................................................................................................................3 The Communication Framework........................................................................................................................................................16 Inform......................................................................................................................................................................................................................17 Guide........................................................................................................................................................................................................................18 Activate...................................................................................................................................................................................................................19 Learn More..........................................................................................................................................................................................................20
- 3. Who We Are Our Headquarters 4955 Bullis Farm Road, Eau Claire, WI 54701 Customers Nationwide Data Centers Eau Claire, WI Green Bay, WI Hiawatha, IA Waukee, IA Operational Office 3636 Westown Parkway, Suite 200 West Des Moines, IA 50266 Operational Office 3601 42nd Street N.E. Cedar Rapids, IA 52402 We deliver connectivity and infrastructure services to businesses; from fiber and network connectivity and optimization, public and private Internet, data security, data centers and storage, outsourced IT services such as network administration, server administration and help desk. Introduction 1 Technologists and engineers who transform business… with technology
- 4. Complete network connectivity options across the US providing transport technology solutions. Information technology management services as an outsourced business function or part of your IT team. A configurable webcasting platform for few-to-many communications within and across enterprises. How We Can Help Your single source for network solutions, managed IT services and streaming solutions Network Solutions IT Services Streaming Solutions WIN is a technology company that is fast, flexible, reliable, and customer focused. Our capabilities span across the physical network connectivity layers, to managing your data assets and day-to-day IT operations, to providing high quality streaming webcasting applications for mass consumption. perigonlive.com wintechnology.com Introduction 2
- 5. IT Services At-a-Glance We Tame Technology so You can Thrive HOW WE WORK WHAT WE DO Professional IT Infrastructure Services Managed IT Infrastructure Services Managed IT Infrastructure Co-Location Co-Managed IT Infrastructure Services Server Management Backup Management Desktop Management Cybersecurity Management Network Management PBX Management VDI Management SD-WAN Help Desk Support Cloud Management Hosted Infrastructure Management Procurement Management 3
- 6. Stages of the Technology Lifecycle SECTION 1
- 7. Stages of a Technology Lifecycle Businesses are constantly changing. Sometimes the use of technology leads, and other times it lags. To attain targeted business value from your use of technology, you need to recognize your current situation. We developed the following framework to help recognize the characteristics of each stage and prescribe pragmatic actions: stabilize, maintain, transform and modernize. Reliably maturing turbulent, inefficient, and otherwise challenged IT infrastructure environments Sensibly managing the continuous evolution of IT infrastructure and cybersecurity Thoughtfully updating aged IT infrastructure and understated cybersecurity Continually evaluating workloads and migrating to the best aligned IT infrastructure environment They Exist In Every Business MODERNIZE MAINTAIN TRANSFORM STABILIZE 5
- 8. The Technology Lifecycle In Any Business Remote Workforce Transformation Collaboration tools and remote applications Application Architectures Differ Operational system modernization Introduction of SaaS Sales and Marketing digital transformation Growth in Analytics Finance and operations applications • An expanded cybersecurity threat surface must be addressed • Requires increased compute, storage, bandwidth and resiliency • ERP, SCM and IoT systems are adding features that change workload characteristics and impact infrastructure differently • Movement of homegrown systems to new hosted environments requires assessments and changes • Deprecation of replaced system critical for security and economics • Backup and recovery for Saas platforms often misunderstood or overlooked • Maintaining security, productivity, and employee experience requires modifications to key infrastructure components such as two-factor authentication, single sign-on, and managed detection and response • Combining operational and financial systems data to produce new insights creates new data movement and data protection scenarios • Using artificial intelligence around these applications generates greater location- based needs for compute and storage The technology applications you use are directly connected to attaining business value. Because the reliability, usability, and security of those applications is reliant upon the underlying infrastructure, understanding the composition of those workloads and the impact on infrastructure is also an important consideration within the framework. MODERNIZE MAINTAIN TRANSFORM STABILIZE 6
- 9. MAINTAIN Maintain Sensibly managing the continuous evolution of IT infrastructure and cybersecurity WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE DESIRED OUTCOMES HOW AN IT SERVICES PARTNER CAN HELP • Comfortable with current state processes and technology • Comfortable with current cybersecurity stance • No destabilizing business events expected • Resources are optimized from cost and use • Cost optimization and symmetry • Sustain prevailing risk position • Harvest ROI from IT investments • Get the most out of the existing infrastructure • Identify and eliminate areas of wasteful spending • Moderate change in the environment to only “must have” items • Form roadmap to allow proper planning and budgeting Technology is constantly progressing, and limited investment results in gaps in critical areas. The Maintain stage focuses on pragmatically adapting to change so you can hold your relative position. It is the goal to convert work occurring in all other stages back into a Maintain state once the unique characteristics of those stages have been successfully addressed. Stages of the Technology Lifecycle 7
- 10. How WIN Technology Upgraded Our Client to the Maintain Stage MODERNIZE MAINTAIN TRANSFORM STABILIZE These efforts established the following: Stages of the Technology Lifecycle 8 After initially stabilizing the environment at an equipment leasing firm, we shifted into the Maintain stage. Over a 2+ year period, we guided many changes including: By sharing our time data alongside our time- based business model, we were able to successfully collaborate to right-size the value equation for this client. User experience improved by decreased incidents and downtime Customer experience enriched by greater systems availability Productivity increased by reliability of systems environment • Migration to a new Operating System • Renewal of support agreements for servers and network gear • Implementation of dozens of zero-day and other critical patches and firmware updates • Employee onboarding/offboarding support • Software lifecycle support (licensing modifications) • Lifecycle management of desktops and laptops to distribute the cost of asset renewal over several years
- 11. STABILIZE Stabilize Reliably maturing turbulent, inefficient, and otherwise challenged IT infrastructure environments and cybersecurity WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE DESIRED OUTCOMES HOW AN IT SERVICES PARTNER CAN HELP • Current state is chaotic • Technology sprawl is a challenge • Security not where you want it • Business is not receiving proper value from IT infrastructure investments • Business events have created some level of disruption • Line of Business applications not performing as needed • Cost containment and predictability • Improve risk position • Increase productivity and employee experience • Enrich customer experience • Expand visibility of efforts and boost decision making confidence and pace • Standardize the existing infrastructure stack to enable efficiency • Identify and eliminate areas of wasteful spending • Instill industry best practices • Leverage data to prioritize areas for improvement • Form roadmap to allow proper planning and budgeting • Form and deliver paced stabilization projects • Effectively manage infrastructure environment through change All organizations face events that create disorder in their IT systems. The disorder is tolerable for some time and later surfaces as a substantial pain point impacting employee experience, profitability and customer experience. The Stabilize stage focuses on near term actions combined with longer-term planning to deliver your IT environment into a more orderly state. Stages of the Technology Lifecycle 9
- 12. How WIN Technology Stabilized Our Client’s IT Environment A healthcare client was experiencing inconsistent user experiences and hardware problems with aging endpoints. We implemented a lifecycle management plan to refresh user endpoints on a predictable schedule with standard equipment. Stabilization of the environment resulted in: User experience improved by a 30% decrease in support incidents Employee productivity increased by greater systems availability Cost of services reduced because less overall systems support was required MODERNIZE TRANSFORM STABILIZE MAINTAIN In addition, the management plan created a predictable and easily budgeted operational expense that keeps endpoint replacements on schedule and out of the capital budget. Stages of the Technology Lifecycle 10
- 13. MODERNIZE Modernize Thoughtfully updating aged IT infrastructure and understated cybersecurity WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE DESIRED OUTCOMES HOW AN IT SERVICES PARTNER CAN HELP • Current state is stable but deteriorating • Technology scalability is a challenge • Security is not utilizing modern tools or methods • Business is not receiving proper value from IT infrastructure investments • Business events have surfaced shortcomings of current infrastructure stance • Cost normalization • Reduce risk • Improve scalability to unlock growth, revenue, and profitability acceleration • Accelerate productivity and employee experience • Enrich customer experience • Prioritize high business impact, low complexity modernization gaps • Surface options for shifts from Capex to Opex • Identify and eliminate areas of wasteful spending • Form roadmap to allow proper planning and budgeting • Identify and eliminate areas of wasteful spending • Form and deliver paced modernization projects • Effectively manage infrastructure environment through change The Modernize stage focuses on accelerating upgrades to infrastructure to extend beyond minimal maintenance of your relative state. Changing marketplace conditions such as regulatory enforcement, insurance renewal requirements, client-driven security expectations and shifting application architectures drive the need to upgrade your infrastructure. Stages of the Technology Lifecycle 11
- 14. How WIN Technology Modernized a Client’s Cybersecurity Posture As the number of successful cybersecurity incidents increased over the last few years, regulatory agencies and insurance underwriters began to increase requirements for modernized cybersecurity practices, including two-factor authentication, advanced antivirus and EDR/MDR/XDR. In response to these requirements, we helped numerous clients from across multiple industries substantially improve their risk profile by upgrading their cybersecurity posture with modern tools and services. MODERNIZE MAINTAIN TRANSFORM STABILIZE Stages of the Technology Lifecycle 12 Modernization of the environment resulted in: 100% of our clients achieving timely renewal of their cybersecurity insurance policies 0 breaches for our clients Substantially improved alignment to regulatory and compliance advisories and requirements
- 15. TRANSFORM Transform Continually evaluating workloads and migrating to the best aligned IT infrastructure environment and cybersecurity WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE DESIRED OUTCOMES HOW AN IT SERVICES PARTNER CAN HELP • Current state is not optimized – business and supporting technology • Technology support of digital transformation is a challenge • Security paradigms are shifting with workload locations • Business is embracing digital transformation and needs technology to enable it • Business events are imposing the need for change on people, process, and technology • Cost alignment • Improve overall risk profile through expanded risk management paths and methods • Accelerate productivity and employee experience • Enrich customer experience • Expand visibility of efforts and boost decision making confidence and pace • Assess IT workloads and propose optimal migration options • Illustrate a more holistic view of IT workload and bandwidth interactions • Guide and assist on new paradigms for DevOps and cybersecurity • Form roadmap to allow proper planning and budgeting • Form and deliver paced transformation projects • Effectively manage infrastructure environment through change The Transform stage focuses on planning, architecting, delivering, and supporting IT infrastructure geared to each phase of the digital transformation journey. Successful digital transformations are not events, but rather occur over longer time windows and therefore require a more holistic and intentional planning approach. Forming, and executing upon, a multiyear roadmap facilitates informed decisions on primary and secondary objectives including workload placement, integration, tech debt deprecation, risk management and application performance. Stages of the Technology Lifecycle 13
- 16. How WIN Technology Transformed Our Client’s Global Data Storage After guiding our high-tech engineering client to widen their planning time horizons and view their IT systems more comprehensively, we developed a roadmap that: These efforts resulted in: CFO delighted with financial planning and impact on use of cash Parent company and cybersecurity auditors pleased with advancement of cybersecurity initiatives and compliance scores User experience improved by planning and implementation of global file cache system MODERNIZE TRANSFORM STABILIZE MAINTAIN Stages of the Technology Lifecycle 14 • Highlighted infrastructure modifications better aligned to current state and future state needs • Increased predictability in the budget • Shifted CapEx costs to OpEx and spread out the incurrence of CapEx costs • Integrated continuous improvement in cybersecurity and risk management stances • Staged implementation of much needed new key systems in the environment
- 17. Communication Thrive Through All Stages SECTION 2
- 18. The Communication Framework Recognizing business value from technology usage is often elusive. One path to surfacing these values is brought about by continuous communication highlighting operational data in context. Regular communications with key contributors ensures awareness and drives action designed to attain targeted business value. There is a specific communication framework that drives success. INFORM GUIDE ACTIVATE GUIDE ACTIVATE INFORM Our proven approach to communicating keeps all members of the team aligned and in the know Communication: Thrive Through All Stages 16 Informative communications is delivered as the baseline data to convey what’s transpiring in your environment with your systems and our services. Guided communications adds benchmarks and other reference points to turn data into knowledge and insights to support your decisions. Activated communications extend guided insights into pragmatic planning and actions that produce value you can recognize and attain.
- 19. INFORM Inform Quarterly Business Reviews focused on information through dashboards provide visibility to Senior Level Executives on the wellness of their technology spend, the maturation of their users, and areas of improvement. Information allows for decision making on IT priorities. 276 335 256 222 148 169 255 349 284 229 159 153 150 187 154 147 96 89 0 50 100 150 200 250 3 00 3 50 400 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20 Jan-21 Feb-21 Ticket Creation/Resolution Sept. 2020 – Feb. 2020 Tickets Opened Tickets Closed Same Day Closure 26% 12% 8% 8% 5% 5% 5% 5% 4% 23% Time By Category GUIDE ACTIVATE INFORM Server Support Email Application Support Security/Data Protection Desktop Support Application Support - Productivity Helpdesk Support Security Issue Other System Alert Server 17 Communication: Thrive Through All Stages
- 20. GUIDE Guide Trends in tickets/user/month show a successful trend, yet guidance is provided by tying industry benchmarks demonstrating achievement below a 0.6 industry checkpoint. The achievement provides the ability to guide priorities toward more forward-facing initiatives with confidence. ACTIVATE INFORM GUIDE 0.95 1.15 0.88 0.76 0.51 0.58 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20 Jan-21 Feb-21 Tickets/User per Month Self-Help IT Governance Cybersecurity • KB Go-Live • Feedback from end users • Refine Documentation • Policy Review • Disaster Recovery Plan • Asset Management • Prioritize Actions • Budget for Solutions • Coordinate with CS SMEs 18 Communication: Thrive Through All Stages
- 21. Managed IT Services provided by WIN are integrated into the business model at this client with clear delineation of accountabilities and demonstrating thoughtful collaboration. Activation is achieved through a hybrid model which provides both efficiencies and effectiveness. Planning, budgeting, decision support Improving business processes Planning, budgeting, decision support Increasing operational effectiveness and expressing value achieved Improving resiliency, security, and performance GUIDE INFORM ACTIVATE ACTIVATE Activate Communication: Thrive Through All Stages 19 Executive Team Line of Business and Functional Areas Risk Management Champion IT Champion WIN Managed Services Application Champion
- 22. Want to Learn More? If you found this ebook interesting... wintechnology.com WIN Website WIN Blog wintechnology.com/ insights/blog wintechnology.com