See the scenario for additional informational.
CruiseAlong Cars
CruiseAlong Cars is a car manufacturing and sales company with corporate headquarters in the United States of America. It has grown by acquisition over the last 20 years and has operations in over 50 countries.Each country has its own IT organization, with some central corporate IT services provided by the US parent company. In some countries CruiseAlong Cars has outsourced infrastructure and service desks. The largest IT supplier is Global City IT Services (GCITS). In two countries GCITS provides CruiseAlong Cars with full outsourced services. They also provide selected services in other countries.
Some of the issues that CruiseAlong Cars needs to address include:
- Inefficiencies caused by the current IT structure
- Inconsistency of IT services when employees are travelling
CruiseAlong Cars is working with a European university (the University of Bachstein) to research and develop driverless car technology. The venture operates as an independent company called DriveYou.com, and
CruiseAlong Cars owns a 51% share.
DriveYou.com
This is a small, innovative company, that is jointly owned by CruiseAlong Cars and the University of Bachstein
(UoB). DriveYou.com develops custom applications using a highly collaborative, rapid and iterative development approach. Their employees are mostly research and development experts, working from multiple locations, with a significant number working from home. Initial driverless car testing is being conducted in the
US at the Nevegon State Department of Transportation.
Infrastructure and cloud services are purchased from Global City IT Services and other providers, and these relationships are managed by a DriveYou.com supplier manager.
Some of the issues that DriveYou.com needs to address include:
Better structure and accountability around their work practices Compliance with safety and other regulatory requirements.
University of Bachstein (UoB)
The UoB is a university that is based Germany, with a satellite campus in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In the past,
some IT services were funded and run centrally, and some were funded and run independently by each faculty. Centrally owned services include a ‘walk-in’ service desk, plus a separate service desk in the main library, run by library staff. Library services and IT are both part of the university’s administrative services division. Recently, under a new CIO, there has been a drive to centralize and consolidate IT as a corporate function, although this has not been fully achieved.
The central IT department runs a variety of legacy systems, which serve students, administrators, researchers and academics. It also runs some high performance computing systems and high bandwidth networks across the main campus area.
Some of the issues that the UoB needs to address include:
- Complete the centralization and consolidation of IT
- Manage growth and increasing IT demand
- Demonstrate value through competitive, responsive and transparent services
Global City Services (GCITS)
GCITS is a global service provider which has grown through acquisition and which offers a wide range of services, including IT support, infrastructure and consulting. GCITS has mature and efficient IT service management processes, and holds an ISO/IEC 20000 certification.
GCITS provides the entire infrastructure and some cloud services for DriveYou.com, as well as a range of services in different countries to CruiseAlong Cars.Some of the issues that GCITS needs to address include:
- Succeed in establishing a strategic partnership with CruiseAlong Cars
Nevagon State Department of Transportation (NSDoT)
NSDot is a government agency in the US state of Nevagon, where DriveYou.com is running their trials. It is responsible for managing transportation systems and safety. DriveYou.com must work with the agency to ensure that their trials comply with safety regulations, and the program includes bi0directional sharing of large amounts of data.
The NSDoT’s internal IT team writes and manages most of their agency-specific applications, however most other applications and infrastructure are provided by the Nevagon State central IT department.
The IT department at the UoB does not have a service catalogue or a service portfolio, and there is limited understanding of the structure and value of services in the organization. Many of the individual departments and faculties are resistant to the CIO’s vision for global services.
They have decided to appoint business relationship managers (BRMs) who will be expected to address many of the challenges, in order to support collaboration and help to define global services. Some business analysts are going to be transferred to these new positions.
Which is the BEST way for a new BRM at the UoB to understand their customers’ needs?
