The College, a historic institution within a leading UK university, serves over 400 students and offers a range of undergraduate and graduate programs.

Challenge

The IT department was struggling with resource capacity and demand management, seeking to create operational efficiencies and improve their response to changes and future demands. The goal was to develop a roadmap and business case for future investment to transform IT functional efficiency, benefiting students and fellows. 

Additionally, the College needed immediate support to control and govern the implementation of a critical operational system after a recent technology failure forced a return to manual systems. The new system needed to be successfully implemented within a defined timeframe to provide immediate benefits. 

Solution

Over a short period, we conducted a series of interviews and information requests with the IT department, categorising them into seven distinct operational towers. The findings were analysed and aligned with the College’s themes of Control, Govern, and Improve. This prioritisation guided the College on which areas to address first to achieve control within each operational tower. 

Mason Advisory suggested three areas for immediate attention: 

1. Creating capacity:  

• Fixing persistent issues causing demand. 
• Restructuring the IT department for better alignment. 
• Adopting systems to manage demand efficiently. 

2. Focusing on Finance:  

• Implementing tighter control and governance over IT spend. 
• Conducting detailed cost/value analysis.

3.Defining the IT Service Catalogue 

• Improving service offerings. 
• Developing a strategy to educate the user base. 

Outcome

Our analysis resulted in a comprehensive and accepted report detailing observations across the seven operational towers, with recommendations aligned to Control, Govern, and Improve themes. Additionally, a roadmap was outlined to achieve these objectives. We provided the College with a future-focused framework to create additional capacity and control within the team and achieve a higher functioning IT department.

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