Whitepaper. planningit Logical IT Inventory

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1 Whitepaper planningit Logical IT Inventory

2 2 A Transparent IT Landscape IT planning takes place in a rapidly changing business environment and involves an overwhelming volume of volatile data hundreds of applications and many thousands of artefacts in multiple locations. Complex interdependencies between distributed specialists, critical business processes, IT support services and the underlying technical infrastructure can be significantly disrupted by isolated actions and incidents. In this context, the essential ingredient for effective IT planning is transparency. Many organizations struggle to document the IT landscape with isolated Office tools. Isolated subject matter experts own fragments of technical information, while organizational and functional information is typically maintained in ad hoc silos. Where available, in-house databases are used which lack the GUI and visualization tools needed to show relationships between data classes (business, technical and financial information). These in-house, standalone solutions are impossible to consolidate and unable to automatically generate useful reports. IT plans based on inaccurate information expose the enterprise to unacceptable and avoidable risk. A transparent and accurate window to the as-is architecture is the essential starting point for every IT project and planning exercise. While many organizations invest as much as 15% of every IT project budget on an initial appraisal of the as-is landscape, transparency can be achieved far more efficiently with a sophisticated inventory system. Powerpoint diagrams Text files and Word documents Visio diagrams Maintaining an accurate, current inventory of the IT landscape is an impossible task with standalone files.

3 planningit Logical IT Inventory 3 An efficient inventory system must: Capture all aspects of the enterprise architecture including people, business processes and technical elements and costs Document information with sufficient detail to align every IT investment with a business objective Enable user-defined queries Export reports to the Office environment Streamline data collection for continual updates Easily configure create, read-only and data entry rights to protect data integrity Disseminate information to a broad community of stakeholders in multiple locations via the web. The Solution: alfabet s Logical IT Inventory alfabet s Logical IT Inventory delivers the transparency needed to plan IT from demand to budget. Comprehensive information about the as-is landscape is captured with sufficient detail to provide a baseline of information that supports any IT project or planning task. alfabet s Logical IT Inventory captures: Organizations and their hierarchical structures, and the roles, responsibilities and contact details of the employees Activities as process hierarchies, ranging from high level processes such as accounting to discrete processes such as credit check Applications and their versions which provide functionality (IT services) to end users, together with their assigned lifecycle states Information flows, which describe data flows between applications and the supporting software Business objects and their versions, which are used in business processes and by applications (and transmitted in information flows) to describe real information such as customers, products and contracts Financials in user-defined cost types such as maintenance, hardware, license and human resource costs

4 4 Infrastructure which is used to carry deployed applications and includes devices and their connections The geographic location of devices Catalogs of standards for IT services, components, business objects Inside planningit s Logical IT Inventory An End-to-End View of the As-Is Environment Any entity in alfabet s Logical IT Inventory can be related to any other entity in an end-to-end view of the as-is environment. Evaluation schemes for any object class can be defined and any entity can be assessed using indicators. Popular examples include business criticality, risk, business impact, standards compliance. Key relations include those between: Business Layer and Application Layer Which organization uses which application for which process? Which IT business services are provided by each application and its re-usable components? What are the operating expenses per application and IT service? What are the business properties of an application, in terms of the services they provide, the information they process and the connecting flows? Which organizations are responsible for which applications and projects?

5 planningit Logical IT Inventory 5 Application Layer and Physical Layer What is the standard technical platform for an application and which components are used? Where are applications and re-usable components deployed? Which devices support specific applications and re-usable components? Where are devices located? How are devices connected with each other? The supported relationships deliver an end-to-end view of the IT landscape as the basis for planning IT from demand to budget. Continuous data collection and information retrieval alfabet s Logical IT Inventory includes features that streamline data collection and navigation processes, to encourage (or compel) widespread user communities to update content. Any member of the organization can access the system by clicking a web link, while simple screens and prompts facilitate error-proof data collection. The system also assigns update responsibilities to named individuals. An easyto-use GUI supports power users and occasional visitors: Data-centric, hierarchical navigation of inventory content using explorers Role-specific explorers help users to find what they need, when they need it (with hyperlinks to drill down for more detail), Browsers that hide detailed technical information from non-technical viewers Simple and advanced search facilities to retrieve objects Automatically generated and user-defined reports for any object in the inventory (applications, components, platforms, processes, organizations ) On-line help with a comprehensive glossary of terms Collaborative work and the office environment The Logical IT Inventory supports several hundred users and information is always available to approved audiences via the intranet. Changes can only be made by power users with assigned create and edit rights, which can be speci-

6 6 fied for any element. Collaborative work features include automatic notification of parametric changes, transfer of bookmarks and a recorded change history for each object. Business Layer: an overview of the business process and sub-processes Application Layer: an overview of applications Physical Layer: all the components deployed on a physical server

7 planningit Logical IT Inventory 7 Relationships between items in planningit s Logical IT Inventory alfabet s Logical IT Inventory seamlessly interfaces to the Office environment Export Windows client reports in HTML, Excel, PowerPoint and MS Project Export web client reports in html and emf and convert to gif and jpeg files Upload and download any documents Create and save links as URLs Automatically (and repeatedly) import data from MS Project and LDAP. External applications can read and write data in alfabet s Logical IT Inventory via a Web Services API. Next Steps: Analysis and Alignment of IT with the Business Once a current snapshot of the as-is landscape (the IT baseline) has been created in the Logical IT Inventory, focused modules can be used to optimize the IT planning process from demand to budget, by aligning IT investments with business objectives. planningit helps IT organizations to see, analyze, control and align IT projects with the business. This modular, scalable solution comprises a Logical IT In ventory for transparency and focused modules that enable collaborative IT planning.

8 8 The Logical IT Inventory captures the as-is landscape with sufficient detail to support any IT project or planning task. The Business Demand module documents demands in the context of their technical and strategic alignment to consolidate proposals and track demand states. The Application Architecture module supports detailed analysis of as-is and target architectures to develop and compare target scenarios for defined projects, perform gap analysis, prepare migration plans, and check plans for standards compliance. The Enterprise Architecture module is used to define enterprise standards and guidelines, analyze and assess the application portfolio (redundancies, costs and usage levels), and consolidate locally developed target architectures. The Program Portfolio module is used to assign defined projects to programs and conduct bottom-up and top-down analysis of budgets and programs The Value module is used to document and align business and IT strategies and to define and assign KPIs, roles and project evaluation criteria. The Enterprise Strategy and Master Planning module is used to analyze and assess the application portfolio (redundancies, costs and usage levels), consolidate locally developed target architectures, and create an IT master plan. The Release module derives operational instructions for deployment and communication with CMDBs from approved solution plans. The Compliance module is used define a centralized framework and the relevant data to make compliance checks more efficient, perform and manage compliance evaluations, and audit for adherence to the control structure and correctness of the evaluated objects. IT organizations use planningit as a catalyst for transformation to an agile IT architecture that supports competitive services and delivery methods. Any member of the organization can access alfabet by clicking a web link, while Windows clients are also available for power users. Hundreds of concurrent users can work with the alfabet solution without experiencing any performance decrease.

9 planningit Logical IT Inventory 9 planningit: Popular Applications IT organizations use alfabet modules to ensure regulatory compliance and reduce costs by eliminating redundancies across the planning process from demand to budget. The software is seen as a valuable catalyst for transformation to an agile IT architecture that supports competitive services and delivery methods. Planning IT from Demand to Budget alfabet s solution planningit supports an integrated process to meet the IT planning challenge from demand to budget. This modular, scalable solution comprises a Logical IT Inventory for transparency and focused modules that align IT investments with business objectives. Value Enterprise Strategy & Master Planning Business Demands Business Demand Application Architecture Enterprise Architecture Program Portfolio Budgets and Projects Compliance Release Cost

10 alfabet enables companies to see, analyze, control and align IT initiatives with business priorities continuously. Its planningit software is unique in tightly coupling business priorities and IT returns with current and future initiatives. Competitive point solutions offer modeling or repository functions with a static view of priorities, architecture and infrastructure. alfabet provides a holistic, integrated and collaborative approach that offers continuous transparency into how IT and business information, processes and roles are changing and need to be managed over time. The company serves a global user community of 40,000 IT professionals in more than 40 countries in a variety of industries, including automotive, financial services, telecommunications, logistics, high-tech and others. Its customers include international corporations such as Credit Suisse, Munich Reinsurance, BMW, AXA Winterthur, Deutsche Bahn, OCBC and T-Systems. Founded in 1997, alfabet is based in Berlin with U.S. headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. Leading analyst firms recognize alfabet as the technology and market leader for enterprise architecture and strategic IT planning solutions. EMEA Head Office alfabet AG Leibnizstraße 53, D Berlin T US Head Office alfabet Inc. One Broadway, CIC 14 th floor, Cambridge MA T APAC Head Office alfabet 16 Collyer Quay, #10-00 Hitachi Tower, Singapore T