Support Infrastructure

Description

• Development of the necessary support in all facets (workflow, technology, organisation, etc..) to enable the business solution after it has become operational in the organisation.

Business  Value

• An adequate support infrastructure needs to be in place and functional during the Implement phase to ensure that desired performance can be maintained after implementation is complete.  Lack of a support infrastructure increases the likelihood that the performance in the organisation will degrade over time through failure to address ongoing implementation issues and other hurdles that inevitably arise.

Approach

1. Conduct interviews or workshops to determine the requirements for the Support Infrastructure
1. All systems require some continuing support and management. In some small systems, the arrangements are left undefined and informal. Although this may be practical in very small organisations, detailing the requirements of the support infrastructure in a formal way is often necessary to obtain resourcing.
2. Common forms of support/management include:
1. Reporting/resolution of “bugs” in implemented IT solutions (internal/vendor)
2. Installation of upgrades of package IT solutions
3. Employee membership/participation in vendor user-group organisations
4. Management of system security, back-up, and disaster recovery policies
5. Creation and maintenance of a user “help-desk” to answer employee questions pertaining to aspects of new business solution (e.g. policy changes)
3. Update/control of supporting documentation such as the Process/User’s Manual or the Information Technology Operations Guide
4. Monitoring of IT system performance and capacity
5. Archiving of system data
6. Maintenance/repair of physical assets (e.g. production machinery)
7. Acquisition of miscellaneous resources required for operation (e.g. paper, disks, toner cartridges, etc.)
8. Establishment of organisational appraisal and reward systems (e.g. suggestion boxes)
9. Communication mechanisms to provide feedback to personnel on system performance (e.g. company newsletters, electronic mail messages).
2. Define responsibilities and institute programs for the support infrastructure.
1. Ensure that responsibilities are unambiguous—they should be held by specified individuals or units.  If certain support functions are provided in part by external organisations or are completely outsourced, take care to completely define the responsibilities of all parties concerned to avoid confusion with these external relationships.
2. Consider various options for assigning internal responsibility for support functions (depending on the level of support required and the structure of the organisation).  The key questions that need to be answered are:
1. Who will perform each support task?
2. Who will manage support functions and be accountable for providing required services?
3. In most cases, there are elements of both functional skills and technical skills required in the management, control and operation of the support infrastructure.  Where the organisation has a specialist MIS department, try to involve them in the technical side of support and management.  Recognise, however, that the overall management and control of the support infrastructure usually remains in the hands of the user-management to ensure service standards expected by customers of support functions are met.
4. In some cases where new roles need to be created or where existing roles are changed substantially, obtain agreement on the organisational and staffing recommendations with senior management and/or  the organisation’s personnel function.

Guidelines

Tactics/Helpful Hints

• In cases where required support functions cross organisational boundaries, ensure that management from all affected functions have been contacted and approve the defined support responsibilities.  This will help to prevent possible future conflicts.