Which of the following options is the BEST set of decisions to make for the services?

Scenario

The IT organization of a manufacturing company is carrying out an annual review of its service portfolio. There is limited budget available for the next year and some projects may be delayed or cancelled. The company has control of most of its IT services, however some are mandated by the company’s corporate owners.

The following services are under review:

– Service 1: Web ordering service. This is a new service that will enable the company to fulfill its strategy to sell products on-line and increase its customer base by 20%. Only high-level business requirements have been established so far but. if the project goes ahead, the system will be provided by a supplier using standard applications and technology. A business case has been created which shows the ratio of value­to-cost to be much greater than one.

– Service 2: Sales office service. The service has grown from a number of separate applications that have been combined into one suite. The technical solution for each application is similar but some use different versions of the same operating system. The applications themselves provide the required utility and support their business outcomes well. There is some overlap in functionality across the set of applications contained in the service suite.

– Service 3: Finance reporting service. The service is used by the finance department to create statutory reports to fulfill legal obligations. The service is hosted on a legacy system. The cost of supporting the service is increasing gradually and the return obtained from the service is decreasing. Eventually the service will be replaced by the new enterprise resource planning (ERP) service. It is projected that, over the next two years, the ratio of value-to-cost will drop to less than one.

– Service 4: This is a new ERP service that is being implemented across all companies in the corporate group. It will eventually replace many existing services including the finance reporting service. The service has been approved and chartered, and has a current status of "design". A large number of assets have been allocated to this project. As this service is mandated by the corporate owners, no further decision is required.

Refer to Scenario:

As part of the service portfolio management team you have been asked to recommend whether investments should be made in these services in the next year.

Which of the following options is the BEST set of decisions to make for the services?
A . Service 1 – invest. Charter the service and set up a service design project
Service 2 – replace. Set up project to replace the set of applications with a single application designed to support the business outcomes
Service 3 – retire. Mark the service for retirement and set up a retirement project. This will make best use of resources and ensure that information is migrated to the ERP service.
B . Service 1 – promote to the service catalogue, project
Service 2 – retain. Keep the service and support
Service 3 – delay decision. It is likely that this project will use assets that will be allocated review. Allocate resources to the transition stage of the it in its current form service will be retired, but not yet. The retirement elsewhere this year. Reconsider at next annual
C . Service 1 – invest. Charter the service and set up a service design project
Service 2 – rationalize. Set up a project to identify the best way of retaining the support of the business outcomes but eliminating the duplication of functionality and supporting components
Service 3 – delay decision. It is likely that this service will be retired, but not yet. The retirement project will use assets that will be allocated elsewhere this year. Reconsider at next annual review.
D . Service 1 – promote to the service catalogue. Allocate resources to the transition stage of the project
Service 2 C re-factor. Set up project to redesign the applications to concentrate on the core functionality of the service
Service 3 – retain. As the service is needed to fulfill legal and statutory compliance it should be retained.

View Answer

Answer: C