The IT and Business Operations Audit

Is Data Complexity slowing your business down?

Most organizations do not suffer from a lack of data but rather from a tremendous amount of data complexity . Data is sourced from a dizzying array of disconnected systems making it very difficult for stakeholders to compile information into a useable format to meet the needs of the business.

Before the organization can turn data into useable information the data must be first vetted. Who owns the data? Where did it come from? How old is it? How is it used? These questions are critical to understand if this data is to be trusted. Without a source of trusted information, sound business decisions can be very difficult to make.

This challenge is repeated across every use case and every department in the business. The inability to make decisions impacts the organization’s ability to react to changing market conditions. Therefore, a focus on reducing data complexity is key to transforming the organization into an agile business.

Process Tempo offers a unique approach to solving this problem.

As the first cloud-based analytics platform designed to target data complexity, Process Tempo is uniquely suited to turn tangled, disconnected datasets into useable, consumable and trusted information.

What is the IT and Business Operations Audit?

Process Tempo IT and Business Operations Audit is a fixed-fee, 60-day services engagement designed to help organizations understand the interrelationships that exist between the different components of the organization.

The main deliverable is a comprehensive map of the business that captures the interactions between IT assets, data assets, applications, business practices, policies and people. With this valuable map as a guide, the organization can begin to find ways to implement positive change and reduce the amount of complexity which often chokes innovation. In addition, key analysis opportunities are created:

• SWOT Analysis - with the Process Tempo map in place, the business can perform analysis which will help to spot Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that may impact business operations
• Impact Analysis - prior to implementing change, the impact of this change must first be analyzed. This is often very difficult to perform in complex scenarios. The IT-BO Audit helps to reduce this complexity and paves the way for solid impact analysis
• Network Analysis - the "network" is a map of the connected parts of your business. Analyzing this map can help spot anomalous patterns and/or behavior or areas of strategic importance.
• Improved Reporting and Analysis - overall the ability to build contextual reports and analyses is greatly improved once data complexity is reduced.

Why Do You Need the IT-BO Audit?

There are many common scenarios in which the need for clean, organized and accessible data is critical. These scenarios include:

• The business has recently completed an acquisition and needs to organize and integrate data in order to operate as a single entity
• The organization is contemplating onboarding a complex project - or - a project underway is struggling to meet deadlines and/or goals
• A change in leadership or direction creates an increased desire in fact-finding and analysis in order to create an "as-is" and "to-be" state of the business
• The organization has become overly dependent on spreadsheets which creates risk, increases cost and impacts productivity

Organizations that have conducted the Process Tempo IT-BO Audit have also realized additional benefits such as:

• Identification of cost savers across processes, capabilities and IT assets
• Identification of gaps in business processes or data collection
• Identification of the misuse of data assets (particularly legacy data assets)
• Improvements in data quality and improvement in the consistent use of data
• Improvements in the ability to capture, share and reuse knowledge

What Specific Deliverables Can You Expect from the IT-BO Audit?

In addition to providing insight into your specific reason for commissioning the audit, the engagement will produce a number of key deliverables:

• Knowledge Graph – a database of content that can act as a knowledge-base in the form of an interactive and searchable graph
• Process Maps – visual models that identify process flows and dependencies
• Lineage Maps – visual models that identify dependencies between data assets
• Business Glossary – a breakdown of the terms used in the business
• Reports – a set of reports and queries the organization can use to quickly analyze data

What does the audit implementation look like?

Process Tempo employs a disciplined approach in every audit that includes the following steps:

• Identify Target Use Case(s) and Key Metrics - Process Tempo works with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to define the target use case or use cases that will benefit from this exercise. In addition, we jointly define the key metrics we will need to track and apply to these efforts.
• Develop Conceptual Models - The team develops conceptual models to visualize the current state and the desired to-be state. These models then serve to communicate the moving parts of the project such as the people, processes and technology involved. They also describe the required data model which becomes the basis for data loading.
• Develop a Data Asset Inventory - The team documents and defines the data assets (along with data lineage) that are pertinent to the target use case(s). This is achieved by modeling the data assets, where they are sourced from, how are they used and how they can/cannot be joined.
• Gather and Load Data - With the data model defined, the team can load the required data into Process Tempo. This requires the development of the preliminary scripts required to extract, parse and load the data. The process starts with smaller datasets prior to bringing larger datasets into a common data domain in Process Tempo.
• Perform Analysis - With data in place users can now begin to develop the reports they need. This is accomplished using the Process Tempo Report Builder or Recommendation Engine. In addition, opportunities to create custom scores or weights to further enrich the data can exist.
• Co-develop the Post Audit Plan - The Post Audit Plan accounts for changes to or extensions of the Audit along with identifying requisite Statements of Work and licensing for future expansion (or not).

What’s Next?

The next step is to contact a Process Tempo sales associate to start the discussion. Contact us .