LineOne
Scenario
Review of IT strategy in the context of the business requirements.
Situation
LineOne (now merged with Tiscali, the European ISP), has more
than a million UK Internet subscribers, and provides a
wide range of branded content, as well as basic Internet
access services. Lineone had recently established a new
senior management team charged with taking the company
through the next stage of growth, exploiting its unique
strengths to gain more revenue from content and transaction-based
services, and to achieve break-even.
The fast moving and ferociously competitive ISP market-place
requires considerable corporate agility, and the ability
to maintain an unremitting focus on activities critical
to achieving profitable growth. The new management team
had developed a number of business plans to drive LineOne
into the future.
LineOne wished to ensure that its IT plans fully supported the
business objectives, that they were aligned to the overall
corporate strategy, and that they were prioritised based
on business needs. Accordingly, the Lineone Chief Technology
Officer asked Charteris to undertake a short study to
review these plans to ensure they supported and were aligned
with the business needs.
Charteris Role
The Charteris consultant reviewed the IT plans and interviewed
staff in each key business area, covering topics such
as company organisation, budgets, marketing, IT support,
and network performance. Charteris also ran some investigative
workshops with the main board directors to review the
costs and benefits of each planned new IT initiative,
and to establish its relative contribution to the overall
business objectives.
Solution
Charteris delivered a Management Action Report that identified the
key IT challenges, issues and opportunities facing LineOne.
The report answered four key questions:
- Are LineOne doing the right things?
- Are LineOne doing them the right way?
- What are the risks that these initiatives will not succeed?
- Will LineOne gain the benefits planned?
The report assessed how well the IT plans supported the business objectives.
The Management Action Report also recommended that the alignment
between the IT plans and the business should be improved.
This was agreed by the board and was adopted as the basis
for planning LineOne's management and IT initiatives for
the next year.