ITAM Program Implementation: Bring Your Roadmap to Life

In this latest series of articles, we’ve been exploring the four distinct phases of the strategic process of successfully transforming your ITAM function. In the first article, we looked at the importance of defining outcomes so that your design matches your goals. In the second piece, we examined the critical role of stakeholders in launching this effort and how to earn their support. The third phase of ITAM transformation, once you’ve completed the stages of planning and getting buy-in, is your ITAM Program Implementation.

The role of the steering committee

To implement the many pieces of your new ITAM program, we recommend harnessing the power of a dedicated steering committee. You may well be starting from scratch when it comes to defining the best process of governance and a structure that fits the needs and culture of your organization. You will need to proactively recruit and engage your Steering Committee Members and keep their interest with ongoing value to ensure they support the processes that have been outlined to enable them to make informed sponsorship decisions.

Anglepoint recommends organizing Steering Committee workshops, preparing pre-read materials, recording votes, coordinating actions & escalations, and managing expectations during your ITAM program implementation.

During these workshops Steering Committee members can be provided will structure using focused, executive-level training materials on key concepts & principles:

• Roles & duties of Steering Committee members
• Complexities of licensing & limitations of tools
• Conceptual models to understand the aims of SAM

Composable business

In the recent Gartner^® report, Predicts 2023: Economic Pressure Drives IT Sourcing Governance and Vendor Management Innovation, Gartner writes, “The siloed nature of roles and responsibilities has led to enterprises struggling to obtain and leverage accurate data for software and SaaS consumption within their cloud environments. This is leading to conflicting reporting and governance standards between functions.”

Composable business—made up of autonomous innovation centers around the business—is a key driver for many organizations. In this scenario the SAM service evolves to become a customer centric internal service provider.

There are a number of direct benefits to composable business:

• Quicker fulfillment of requests through profile/departmental catalogs
• Varying guardrails (cost/approval) depending on the strategic importance of the project
• Empowered financial decision-making on IT infrastructure from project/department-level
  reporting.

To ensure the smooth integration of this new structured ITAM Framework and to avoid the siloed roles mentioned by Gartner, all units must understand this new role and way of working.

The best way to do this is by adopting Composable Business thinking. This will accelerate innovation & modularity at the edge. If you are working with a partner, they must be aligned in this way of thinking too.

Assigning a spokesperson from each business function to join an operational team will help open a two-way line of communication to ensure each department’s needs and capabilities are represented. This process ensures messages are communicated efficiently to each department and the SAM/ITAM team. The team can then work with the steering committee to ensure the embedded processes are adhered to and work for the entire business.

The SAM function must adopt a service-provider mentality to the internal business owners it exists to serve. This will deliver speed, quality and spend management ensuring the SAM Service remains a relevant business enabler.

The Gartner report just mentioned also states, “Digital transformation in uncertain times requires IT leaders to support an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders and technology requirements. Successful leaders must develop an adaptive approach to governance and managing vendor performance, prioritizing the most impactful business outcomes.”

Composable Business thinking will deliver this approach.

Curious to learn more? Check out our ITAM Program transformation e-book.