Management of IT Services Report

This report discusses the adoption of IT4IT by Delta Lloyd, a financial services company, to enhance its IT operations. It covers the background, implications for cloud computing, the adoption roadmap, challenges faced during the process, and recommendations for future improvements. The report highlights the importance of efficient IT management in meeting customer demands and improving business efficiency.

Management of IT
services

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Scientific developments have helped business organisations to adapt to more efficient
ways and methodologies that are further useful in increasing business efficiencies. IT4IT™ is
one such reference architecture that has been adopted by Delta Lloyd company which
provides customers financial services and banking helps with interaction on mobile based
platforms and applications. There are about 1200 servers working with this company for
managing operations with regards to 404 million customers. This implies that information
technology is capable of handling bulk data without creating any sort of negative impact on
the business functioning.
The current scenario or market structure is changing which implies requirements and
demands of customers and business organisations are also transforming. The new IT
services which are realised by companies must have speed, accuracy, sustainability and
flexibility in operations. There has been a roadmap developed by Delta Lloyd for
performing the adoption process of IT4IT™ efficiently. The seven stage adoption process
has resulted in major changes in the current architecture of the company. Being a crucial
cycle of change there had been certain challenges addressed by organisation which are
effectively resolved by using proper management tactics. This standardised process has to
be implemented in a strategic way so that any sort of errors or loop holes in the system can
be managed within stipulated time.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
ACTIVITY A: JOURNAL.............................................................................................................4
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.......................................................................................................5
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................6
Background and justification of IT4IT adoption ........................................................................6
Implications of IT4IT™ for cloud computing............................................................................7
Adoption road map......................................................................................................................8
Challenges encountered during adoption process........................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
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ACTIVITY A: JOURNAL
Date of activity: 1st April, 2017
Sources of information: Books and Journals
Online source: https://youtu.be/j6u8y7S-WOg?list=PL4uhUsJo0STkg-
wCy6QyVg8KcYfzjtTIA. [Accessed on 1 st April, 2017].
This activity had been helpful in enriching my knowledge regarding information
technology and the various aspects related with its application in business processes. The
significant adoption of IT4IT by Delta Lloyd has been completely explained in the online
sources that I have referred. I came to know about the current structure of information
technology or IT operations in the business case scenarios. On the other hand, I came to
know about the various aspects of IT4IT that have been configured in the current structure
of Delta.
Overall experience acquired by me during this activity has helped in gaining more
knowledge about what an IT architecture is and its implications on cloud computing. I have
also realised that it is not easy to implement large scale transformations in one day. I had
completed this activity in about 2-3 days with extensive research and reference to different
books and journals. It not only helped in enhancing knowledge but also enriched my skills
of developing a report.
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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
April 1, 2017
_______________
______
Department of _
University name
Subject: Letter of Transmittal
Dear Sir/Madam,
I ____, the student of _____________________ have reported on “Management of IT services”
under the course :______________.
Although I had been on the verge of learning processes, I have gained a lot of knowledge
regarding the management of IT services through this assessment. Despite of a challenging yet
enlightening journey, it would not have been possible without the support and trust of you and
the management.
I sincerely present my thanks and regards to you for considering me eligible to perform this
project research.
Thanking You,
Yours faithfully,
XYZ
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INTRODUCTION
Information technology is based on the use of computer based applications in performing
business operations. Storing, transferring, transmitting, manipulating or interpreting of
information are some of the tasks that are classified as a part of information technology. The
application of this branch of science is very wide. Modern day administration is entirely guided
by the omnipresence of information technology. In this report, the use of IT4IT by Delta Lloyd
company has been presented. Right from the need to application, all the aspects are described in
this assessment. The changes that have caused the company to move to a more advanced process
of information technology and related challenges have also been discussed in this report.
Background and justification of IT4IT adoption
Delta Lloyd is an organisation that provides financial services to customers in the form of
different types of insurances, pensions, banking services, etc. The major transformation that has
shifted the strategic approaches to business operations is internet. It has decreased the distances
and gaps amongst business organisations and customers through use of various social networking
sites and mobile applications. The function of information technology in this aspect is to manage
and organise operations in such a way that customer support is provided with efficiency (Segall,
2010). The new mobility perspective has encouraged businesses to develop mobile based
applications which can be handled by clients irrespective of the time and place of operation.
The company has developed mobility perspective in the form of smart phone applications
(apps). Delta Lloyd has about 700 employees working in information technology. About 404
million customers are being handled in one time frame by the organisation all because of the
advanced tactics of information technology. This humongous task of handling 1200 servers with
600 business applications amongst such wide network of individuals is not easy. It requires
efficient systems which can bring in more stability and faster response without affecting the
security requirements (Osório, 2016). Hence, to operate in such a challenging business
environment, Delta Lloyd requires a new system that is fast, flexible and more organised
information technology.
The IT4IT Reference Architecture is considered as one of the most powerful and efficient
techniques which can transform the entire IT operations scenario. The company finalised to
adopt this reference architecture for gaining more stability in terms of information technology
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operations and customer requirements. Apart from Big Data and Cloud computing, asset
management and operations management are enabled in this reference structure. The company
decided to adopt IT4IT because security compliance of mobile applications was a growing issue.
The storage requirements and access of information regarding this old IT architecture were not
fulfilled effectively. Hence, the new reference architecture was adopted.
Implications of IT4IT™ for cloud computing
IT4IT Reference Architecture offers the IT operations functions, information flows,
specifications regarding API, roadmap that helps in automating the different layers of
activities. Current models which are applied by different business organisations for
supporting their manual processes can now be automated or integrated with strategies more
efficiently if IT4IT is applied. Cloud computing is a technology which involves dense
network of servers that are hosted by internet for performing strategic information
management in the targeted strategic information system (Marković and Brodersen, 2012).
This model helps in providing access to shared resources whenever required by the user.
When selecting a cloud computing facility for the company, there are various
requirements that need to be considered. For example: memory requirement, disk or storage,
operating system, performance parameters, back-up requirements and availability. This
indicates that organisation has to select the best possible option without getting affected
from various attributes. Implementation of IT4IT Reference architecture, brings in more
flexibility in selecting host and storage with a service platform that provides more scope for
access, interfacing and data handling. Moreover, there is also a scope for applications and
their configurations when considering the tools provided by vendors (Josey, 2015).
IT4IT is considered as the futuristic model for information technology operations.
Delta Lloyd has adopted this Reference Architecture in its IT operations because this system
is more agile, simplified and inclines the workflow towards continuous improvements.
Current operations are quite complex with involvement of more than 100 entities using more
than 50 tools and 30 processes. This implies that management of information with such
perspectives is quite difficult and it can incur more cost of operations (Maes and et. al.,
2016). Hence, positive impact can be assessed on business environment when adoption of
IT4IT is considered.
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Adoption road map
Stage 1: IT4IT Blueprint
IT4IT adoption roadmap is was initialised by development of an idea in 2015. The
company developed a vision which was defined and Strategic IT management blueprint was
defined. This stage was referred to as IT4IT blueprint. It involved basic clarification
regarding processes, tools and organisation with their significant impact.
Stage 2: ITSM Platform
Strategic information technology management platform was developed which
involved service catalogues, request management systems, incidents, problems, SLA,
CMDB and definition of change management. The service portfolio management function
was also performed at this stage. Since, entire operations management and service
management in terms of information technology has to be optimised and automated, this
stage is crucial beginning.
Stage 3: Request to fulfill
The next milestone in this roadmap was to develop a request to fulfill requirements
and provisioning of required resources which were concerned with cloud. Servers, storage,
databases, access rights, etc. are some of the components of cloud which were updated
according to current requirement of new architecture. CMDB was automated for up-date.
Stage 4: Detect to correct
The cloud services once activated have to be monitored or supervised so that threats
and complications which occur to security can be managed effectively. Hence, a detection
mechanism was activated with event management i.e. monitoring of usage and capacity with
automated recovery options.
Stage 5: Requirement to Deploy
ITSM i.e. information technology strategic management/CMDB were integrated with
ALM platform. Application was also released with automation at this stage by the company.
Stage 6: Application performance monitoring
The initialised application once deployed has to be monitored for gaining the insight
whether any sort of dysfunctional factors are dominant or not. Hence, the company
implemented performance monitoring system which had log analytics, root cause analysis,
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business chain/processes monitoring. Overall performance was supervised from every
perspective so that easy detection and resolution of flaws can be performed.
Stage 7: Strategy to Portfolio
A portfolio is created In 2017 regarding the investments and integration of prepared
application. This shall help the company to gain sponsors who would provide sufficient
finance regarding this proposal.
Challenges encountered during adoption process
The overall process of adoption of IT4IT™ Reference Architecture by Delta Lloyd
was supported by strategic planning and efficient project management systems. Despite of
this fact, there were some challenges which were faced by the company during the entire
process. These include:
 Integration of entire idea: Once a vision is developed, it is important for the entire
project to be aligned with this mission. The objectives and goals which were defined
for different stages helped in sticking to the plan that was strategically designed.
 Maintaining the flow: When a information system is designed, a flow of instructions
is developed that helps in understanding every activity of the process and its
application in respective areas. Project management can be efficient when this flow
is not broken and is maintained until the entire application process is complete (Audi,
2013). Delta faced this challenge but managed to restrict the effect simultaneously.
 Architectural fit: The design which is prepared and executed is at high risk of
meeting the architectural requirements. Company was posing a severe challenge at
the execution stage regarding appropriateness of the structure. It had to be accurate
because a lot of time, efforts and resources were applied in building one set of
design. Any sort of mismatch would result in more investment of resources and
development of greater risks (Josey, 2015).
CONCLUSION
Through this report, it has been evaluated that current information technology operations
that are utilised by businesses for simplifying manual processes can be made better with adoption
of IT4IT. It is a Reference Architecture not so popular in the present scenario of business
environment. Delta Lloyd the financial service providing company has implemented this IT
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architecture in enhancing its IT operations with regards to mobile applications and security
management. The company adopted IT4IT™ for gaining more command and flexibility in
performance as compared to the previously proposed information technology structures.
Moreover, the challenges or roadblocks which have been experienced by company are also
mentioned in this report.
RECOMMENDATIONS
IT4IT™ is a value-chain based model which helps in managing business process in
terms of information technology with open standards from the vendor. While developing the
roadmap, the most crucial is vision and objective which drives entire activities related with
the plan. Hence, IT companies should develop SMART objectives and a realistic vision
which helps in maintaining other processes with proper alignment. Moreover, it is
recommended that provisioning and listing of requirements has to made precisely and
accurately so that misfits are not produced.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Audi, R., 2013. The Architecture of Reason. The American Philosophical Association
Centennial Series, pp.541-573.
Josey, A., 2015. The IT4IT™ Reference Architecture, Version 2.0–A Pocket Guide. Van Haren.
Maes, S. H. and et. al., 2016. Execution of end-to-end processes across applications. U.S. Patent
9,229,795.
Marković, D. and Brodersen, R.W., 2012. DSP architecture design essentials. Springer Science
& Business Media.
Osório, A.L., 2016, October. Towards Vendor-Agnostic IT-System of IT-Systems with the
CEDE Platform. In Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises (pp. 494-505). Springer
International Publishing.
Segall, M. M. L., 2010. Experimentation and the understanding and mastering of languages in
the design process in architecture’s academic environment: critical or relatively
unimportant?. In iceri2010 proceedings (pp. 3794-3806). Iated.
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