Bringing it all together
Aligning IT and business strategy to achieve results
Client’s challenge
Our client is a government agency responsible
for transit within a major metropolitan region.
The agency’s overarching mandate is to
coordinate and integrate all public transportation activities
across a number of municipalities, ensuring it can provide
sustainable services that align with projected ridership
estimates and regional growth plans.
During the development of its new strategic plan, the
agency realized that it had to strengthen and enhance
its IT systems and processes so that IT could enable
strategy implementation rather than act as a barrier. The
challenge was that the agency’s IT infrastructure was
highly fragmented. Since amalgamation, the organization
had made little effort to align and integrate the IT systems
being used by each of the legacy organizations.
In order to facilitate the implementation of its new strategic
plan, the agency knew it had to move quickly to make its
IT function and processes more streamlined, effective and
cost-efficient. Any time delays could hinder its ability to
provide sustainable public transportation infrastructure
over the long term.
PwC’s solution
In order to help the agency address its IT
challenges, our team recognized the need
to develop a strong IT strategy. We worked
collaboratively with client stakeholders in order to move
the organization’s thinking from a tactical IT approach to a
strategy approach fully aligned with the outcomes outlined in
the agency’s strategic plan.
As a part of the IT strategy development process, we analyzed
the organization’s business strategy in addition to the
individual operating strategies of different units within the
client organization. Our team also identified and shared a
range of relevant leading IT practices in order to inform the
development of the agency’s new IT approach. Together,
we used the internal insights and our understanding of
leading practices to identify, assess and map the agency’s IT
requirements as a whole.
Recognizing the client had to move forward on a number of
critical IT projects during the strategy development process,
we worked in tandem with the implementation project team to
ensure both strategy and implementation activities were fully
aligned within the strategy’s implementation roadmap.
Our flexible approach allowed the client to think strategically
even while moving forward with specific IT initiatives –
minimizing delays in the implementation of key elements of
the agency’s strategic plan. The client is now well-positioned
to achieve its mandate to develop and encourage sustainable
public transportation infrastructure in the region.
Moving to a new way of thinking
Our team recognized that the agency had a low
level of maturity within its IT function. Since the
amalgamation of its legacy organizations, the IT
function had focused primarily on tactical and
day-to-day activities. This led to the entrenchment of a wide
range of IT systems and processes within the organizations.
Our approach included helping the client look at IT through a
more strategic lens – evaluating opportunities and challenges
as they related to the organization’s ability to achieve the
outcomes identified in its strategic plan. Over the course of
the project, client management and staff bought into the
need to see IT in a more strategic light: as a partner in the
organization’s ability to make change happen. This led to
recognition that an enterprise approach to IT systems and
processes would allow them to implement projects far more
effectively than in the past.
Building on leading practices
In order to support the business case for the
client’s IT strategy, we educated our client on
a range of leading IT practices – not just from
Canada, but from public sector organizations globally. This
conversation around leading practices allowed us to show
agency staff the value of thinking more strategically about
IT and the potential it offers when aligned to a business’s
strategic objectives.
Collaboration across the organization
A critical aspect of our approach was the
inclusion of a wide range of stakeholders from
across the organization in the development of
the IT strategy. Prior to our work, business users were rarely
included in consultations related to IT solutions. By engaging
end users throughout the process, we were able to foster
buy-in for the strategy and for the corresponding roadmap for
change.
Impact on our client’s business
We believe that in order for an IT strategy to be
implemented successfully, there needs to be buy-in
across an organization for changes to the IT function’s
role and mandate. Over the course of our work, we helped our
client gain an appreciation for how IT can be used to enable
strategic outcomes ranging from stakeholder communications to
just-in-time transportation information. Our work has helped our
client achieve value in a number of ways, including:
• Clearly understanding how IT can support the business: Our
client was able to move from a tactical approach to IT to a more
strategic one. When it comes to achieving future transportation
objectives, our client now recognizes that IT is a fundamental
building block for success – enabling data collection and
analysis, communications and customer engagement.
• Creating buy-in and ownership for the role of IT across the
organization: We showed our client that including affected
stakeholders in the strategic process can have a significant
impact on success and buy-in. Our collaborative approach
helped promote the value of IT, in addition to fostering
commitment among senior management and directors for the
changes required to successfully implement a more strategic IT
approach.
• Ability to scale IT structure to meet new capacity needs of
the business: Our client’s IT strategy recognizes how its scope
and reach is set to grow in the future. As ridership increases and
demand on the transportation system grows, the organization
will be able to scale its initiatives effectively as a result of flexible
and long-term strategic IT planning.
• Improving the use of resources: Historically, our client had
a number of different IT systems and processes in place which
have hindered its ability to gather and analyze data. By moving
forward with a more harmonized approach to IT, our client will
be able to use resources more effectively (e.g. people, systems,
budget).
• Digitally optimizing operations across the transportation
system: Our client is in the process of digitally enabling
operations across its transportation system and providers.
This will allow the organization to meet the demands of end
customers for real-time communications, manage risks more
effectively, and enable the rapid identification of issues and
mitigation actions across the system.
• Minimizing wait times for customers: Our client is now
well positioned to achieve its strategic objectives, including
minimizing wait times for customers by providing mechanisms
to share information across different service providers (e.g. next
bus, next train, multi-system trip planning).
Our team is currently working collaboratively with the agency
to implement a range of activities identified in the IT strategy
roadmap.
Recognizing IT as an enabler
101010
01010101 In the public sector, transformation is becoming the
101010 norm. Demand for higher levels of transparency and the
more efficient use of resources is forcing organizations to
rethink how they operate. In numerous cases, separate organizations
are being amalgamated in order to achieve economies of scale and
to allow organizations to do more with less resources. However, such
transformation initiatives are only effective if supported by the changes
required to allow them to work as a single organization. This is where
IT can help. IT can be a strategic enabler of an organization’s business
strategy. Consider these lessons learned from our client’s experience as
you determine a plan for moving forward:
• Understand where you are and where you want to go: If you’re
in the process of amalgamating organizations or business units,
recognize where each is in terms of its IT maturity, and create a
roadmap to align IT activities and processes over time.
• Think strategically about IT: IT can help your organization
achieve its business objectives. Rather than looking at your IT
function as a tactical problem solving group, give IT the mandate
to support strategic initiatives as a whole. By aligning IT activities
with your strategic plan, you will be more likely to be able to
execute your plan accordingly.
• Get buy-in from across the organization: IT transformation
affects everyone within an organization. Look beyond your IT
function when it comes to developing your IT strategy as this will
allow you to create buy-in among all affected stakeholders and
create solutions that work for the business. The more people that
buy-in to a change, the more likely the change will be successful.
• Align IT and related processes: To be efficient and effective,
your IT architecture and processes should be fully aligned. Lack of
integration can create significant challenges to data comparability
and usability and undermine your ability to achieve your longterm goals. When developing an IT strategy, consider the need to
align processes and technologies across your organization.
Learn more about PwC IT Transformation and connect with
our Technology Advisory team members:
Richard Jhang
Partner, Technology Advisory Leader
416 814 5805
[email protected]
ca.linkedin.com/in/richardjhang
Arnold Liwanag
Director, Technology Advisory
416 687 8012
[email protected]
ca.linkedin.com/in/arnoldliwanag
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