No IT strategy in place and no insight into IT service demands, usage or customer satisfaction because we view IT as a cost, or perhaps even a liability and keep costs to a minimum.

An IT strategy is in place, but it doesn’t really align with the business strategy although we do have a Service Catalogue.

Customer satisfaction is measured on a regular basis and we have a high-level view of IT service demand and usage. Also, our Service Catalogue is written for business users.

IT performance is measured, user demand and usage are known, our IT Services and business strategy are aligned with our Service Catalogue. IT is a strategic asset.

We don’t measure service capacity, availability, continuity or data integrity and have no cost transparency nor RMM tools.

We measure service capacity, availability, continuity and data integrity. We calculate CapEx/OpEx costs but not on a per user/workload/month basis.

We have a fully integrated RMM platform that provides cost information to each business unit on a CapEx/OpEx basis.

We have a fully integrated RMM platform that provides full cost transparency, i.e. per user, per workload, per month.

We have some IT policies, but they’re frequently not documented nor reviewed. Also, they’re not aligned with business policies.

Documented IT policies are in place focussed on Security, Privacy, Supplier Management, Asset Protection and Acceptable Use Policies. Basic knowledge management is in place too.

Our IT policies are aligned with our business policies and are applied alongside knowledge management for IT operations.

Our business policies are automated and applied alongside knowledge management for the IT organisation (i.e. team, roles and responsibilities).

No insight into IT operational costs, Total Cost of Ownership nor Return on Investment calculated. Instead, we’d like a high level annual IT budget.

Insight into IT operational costs and Total Cost of Ownership upon which our IT budget is based.

All IT budget decisions are data driven, business units are billed for actual use and we calculate a Return on Investment for IT Services.

IT offers full cost transparency to the business, we bill each department per user, per workload (i.e. email), per month. IT is a strategic asset.

Projects begin without a defined outcome, definitive project team, identified stakeholders and customers aren’t involved.

Projects begin with a defined outcome, project team, and stakeholders but customers aren’t really involved.

Projects begin with a Project Initiation Document but aren’t aligned with business or customers desired outcomes.

Projects begin with a Project Initiation Document aligned with business and customers desired outcomes, IT organisation is a strategic partner.

There’s no detailed project plan, nor a detailed functional specification.

There is a detailed project plan with a clearly defined scope, milestones are defined in a GANTT chart and functional specifications are based on IT specifications.

There is a detailed project plan with a clearly defined scope, SMART milestones are defined in a GANTT chart. SDM’s represent customers and internal business customers.

Projects are planned around the business and its customers desired outcomes. The IT organisation works directly with customers to produce functional specifications.

Solutions are simply built without monitoring progress, a bug/defect list, design changes aren’t tracked by process. There’s no development test lab nor solution documentation. Pilot and release phases aren’t used.

Progress is monitored, there’s a process for design changes and a development test lab, however it doesn’t mirror the production environment. Bugs/defects are listed but without issue tracking. Solutions are documented.

Detailed solution and feature design is made before actual development, a formal process for design changes and issue tracking is in place and solution build progress is monitored via milestones. The development and test labs mirror the production environment.

The customer is involved in the decision process of design changes and are aware of bugs/defects and all aspects of pilot preparation. The solution is built around the customer.

No pilot process, just basic testing and the solution still contains bugs. There’s no process for discovered issues.

Tests undertaken according to defined plans which are based upon functional specifications. Issues are recorded.

Tests are automated where possible and issues tracked. There are no active bugs in the released solution and a pilot is undertaken.

Tests are mostly automated and a pilot is undertaken, customer feedback is recorded.

Solutions are simply deployed without the participation of operations and support.

Solutions are deployed according to standard infrastructure management procedures with informal acceptance of solutions by operations and support.

Solutions are deployed with the operations and support team whom explicitly accept the solution.

The operations and support team are responsible for the deployment of the solution.

No insight into IT Service availability and performance with no SLA nor OLA in place. No monitoring nor reporting takes place, little action taken upon events and new IT services aren’t always monitored with RMM/PSA platform.

Monitoring and reporting of IT assets based upon requirements and basic OLA. Events are analysed and solved/escalated, new IT Services are monitored with RMM/PSA platform.

End to end monitoring and reporting in place based on IT requirements with basic SLA’s and OLA’s in place. Events are analysed and solved or escalated if necessary to development teams. RMM/PSA platform provides a single view into IT organisation.

Deep insight into availability and performance of IT services with RMM/PSA platform providing monitoring and reporting into entire business organisation.

No insight into IT Service availability and performance with no SLA in place. No monitoring nor reporting takes place, little action taken upon events and new IT services aren’t always monitored with RMM platform.

Monitoring and reporting of IT assets based upon requirements and basic SLA. Events are analysed and solved/escalated, new IT Services are monitored with RMM platform.

End to end monitoring and reporting in place based on IT requirements with basic SLA’s in place. Events are analysed and solved or escalated if necessary to development teams. RMM platform provides a single view into IT Services.

Deep insight into availability and performance of IT Services with RMM platform providing monitoring and reporting into entire business services.

No or little recording of user requests, no user satisfaction surveys nor ability to restore IT Service disruptions.

Recording of most user requests, ad-hoc user satisfaction surveys, no or little automation of recurring requests. Provide basic ‘how-to’ information and capable of solving basic IT disruptions.

Providing ‘how-to’ information enables self-service solutions, regular user satisfaction measurement and basic automation of recurring requests with self-service portal. Capable of solving more complex IT disruptions.

Single self-service portal for all IT Services and all recurring requests are automated.

No problem management, problems are handled like incidents. Incidents aren’t solved in a methodical and structured manner, most solutions are workarounds without ownership of problems.

Problems are registered, documented and an owner assigned. Regular Monthly Service Reviews take place and problem process management is focussed on time to and quality of resolution.

Root cause analysis of every major problem, workarounds aren’t accepted as final solution. Trend analysis performed to prevent problems.

Proactive search for potential problems undertaken, process information is used to improve the build process and change process.

Unclear and decentralised governance model, IT assets and business demands unaligned, no or little IT policies, IT policies aren’t based on regulations, laws or other policies.

Centralised governance structure in place, IT policies are based on regulations and laws, however IT assets aren’t focussed on complying to IT policies.

IT policies are created in a timely manner with a proactive identification of risks. IT policies are based on regulations and laws and IT assets are designed and deployed to comply.

Risk management is focussed on confidentiality, integrity and availability of IT assets. Management of the impact of laws and regulations takes place to ensure desired business outcomes.

Unclear and decentralised change and configuration management process. The configuration process is more an asset management list with no insight into the impact of changes in production resulting in cancelled projects.

Production changes are known, less disruption to IT Services caused by change, improved customer satisfaction and less reversal of changes. Configuration management database contains all Configuration Items.

Low number of cancelled projects, improved reliability scores, service maps exist for IT Services and historical data is tracked.

Service maps are based on business services and changes don’t cause production failures.

No accountability nor clear owners for IT work, IT staff undertrained.

Accountability for IT work assigned with sufficient training provided.

All work is owned with clear accountabilities, IT staff know roles and are centrally coordinated.

IT teams are knowledge and skill based and the organisation quickly adapts to changing business needs. IT Services drive assignments.

Unclear cloud strategy, undefined service costs, unclear SLA and OLA implementation. On premise services and processes are immature with little understanding or implementation of service delivery management.

Standardised on premise processes (service desk, incident management, change management) are consistently delivered according to ITIL Service management best practices. Service reporting is defined and managed through a Service Level Management process. O365 services are aligned with a service dependency map.

Established service catalogue meets CSF/KPI goals and IT assets employ a balanced and managed demand approach to SaaS, PaaS and IaaS deployed services.

Users cannot distinguish between on premise and cloud-based systems. SLAs are based on service delivery, not service location or owner and O365 service dependency maps are automatically created and maintained in real time.