LEAN IT – What is it?
Put simply LEAN IT is all about delivering MORE with LESS - i.e. delivering more (better quality) IT Services using less resources (time, money, people).
Adopting a LEAN IT approach to the delivery and support of IT Services leads naturally to cost reduction. But unlike typical cost reduction approaches, with LEAN IT this is not achieved at the expense of Service quality. With LEAN IT the opposite is true – cost reduction is in fact accompanied by an increase in Service quality and customer satisfaction.
The benefits of taking a LEAN approach have long been
known and accepted within the manufacturing sector. At e-Quant we have
taken the principles and practices of LEAN and blended them with key concepts
from Systems Thinking to develop a LEAN IT approach specifically designed
to address the needs of IT Service provision – this is e-VAL.
Some examples of the benefits achieved by organisations that e-Quant has
helped using a LEAN IT e-VAL approach includes:
- A 48% reduction in calls to the IT Service Desk, while
at the same time increasing point of contact resolution from 51% to 87%
of all calls received
- Annual IT Operational budget reduced by 38%
- Cost of contracted 3rd party services reduced by 29%
- Total cost of providing IT per user reduced from £1,789.00 per
annum to £756.00
LEAN IT allows you to systematically identify and
eliminate WASTE from the delivery and support of IT Services; waste being
any activity that consumes resources without directly creating value for
the customer.
It is vital that you do identify and eliminate waste because waste generates costs, consumes resources, and inhibits the delivery of high quality cost effective IT services. By adopting a LEAN IT approach and eliminating waste, you reduce costs and focus your IT resources on the activities that really matter to your customers (which in itself leads to a higher levels of service and customer satisfaction).
The e-VAL approach to LEAN IT focuses on identifying
and eliminating the five specific types of waste that are created and
processed during the delivery and support of IT Services, i.e.:
Failure Demand Waste.
This is waste caused by events such as user service
requests, escalations, incidents, change requests that are in fact preventable
– but IT has failed to prevent their occurrence. Much Failure Demand
waste is caused by the failure of IT to do something ‘right first
time’. Typically over 40% of IT Service Desk calls are Failure Demand
related. By identifying and eliminating this type of waste you not only
greatly improve IT Service quality (by removing the causes of failures
themselves), but you also remove the need for a large number of reactive
IT activities (e.g. dealing with Incidents, Service Requests, etc), thus
substantially reducing IT resource requirements and saving costs.
OverProcessing Waste
This is waste caused by unoptimised, bureaucratic
and overly complex IT operational processes. This type of waste is especially
common in organisations that have adopted the ITIL framework. It is common
to find in processes such as Incident and Change Management c30% of activities
add no value and are actually waste. It occurs primarily because the processes
have been designed from the IT (‘Inside Out’) perspective.
In contrast, with a LEAN IT approach IT processes are designed from the
Customer (‘Outside In’) perspective. By taking this approach
you ensure that key operational processes are designed to meet the true
needs of the customer and not the needs of IT - this eliminates waste
OverProduction Waste
This is the waste associated with IT providing
‘too much’ service. Many IT organisations deliver far higher
levels of e.g. Availability, Capacity, Performance, Functionality etc
than the customer actually needs. This often results in the purchase and
maintenance of over-specified hardware; unnecessarily expensive external
service contracts; money wasted on expensive over-engineered support tools;
and excessive staffing levels and budgets. By identifying and eliminating
this type of waste you focus on delivering the quality / quantity of service
that is actually needed, and resources are not wasted delivering a level
of service that is unnecessary, unwarranted and unjustified.
Command and Control Waste
This is waste associated with typical day to day
IT management activities, such as:
- Measuring and reporting on numerous (often irrelevant) performance targets
- Attending meetings, telephone conferences, generating e-mails etc that
drive no real operational benefits
- Developing and maintaining processes, documentation, standards, etc,
that are of questionable value (to your ability to deliver IT Services)
This type of waste is especially problematic because it is rarely recognised as waste. In general it has become institutionalised and the activities undertaken are thought of as normal working practices. But they are in fact waste...and must be recognised and treated as such. From experience we have found that a typical IT Team Leader / Manager will spend in excess of 70% of their working day generating and processing Command and Control related waste. By eliminating this type of waste your most valuable IT resources (the people) are able to focus their efforts on undertaking the activities that really matter.
Poor Practice Waste
This is common in ‘Pre-ITIL’ (and even some ‘Post ITIL’)
organisations.
It is typified by an ill defined Support Model and/ or lack of process.
Typically - in these organisations:
o There are noticeable IT silos
o The ‘hero’ culture prevails
o There is lots of duplication of effort
o There is a lack of planning and forward thinking
There is one key point to bear in mind about ALL the types of waste described
above. That is, the waste does not just ‘happen’. In every
case the waste is created by IT itself. So IT spends time and effort in
creating the waste, and then spends more time and effort in processing
the waste! Imagine the savings to be achieved if you could simply stop
IT from creating waste in the first place – this is the benefit
of LEAN IT.
How we can help
e-Quant are experts in helping you to identify
waste associated with the delivery and support of IT Services. We have
developed a range of techniques specifically designed to identify Failure
Demand, Command and Control, Operational Process and Overproduction waste.
Once the waste has been identified and accepted as waste you can take
action to remove the cause(s) of that waste. The end result is truly LEAN
IT Service provision, giving you the capability and capacity to deliver
higher quality IT Services using far fewer resources (i.e. MORE with LESS)
– thereby delivering substantial cost savings.
If you want to know more about LEAN IT, or about how e-Quant can help
you to remove waste from your IT Organisation then please contact us enquiries@e-Quant.co.uk
or call on +44 (0)115 966
