1. Four dimensions

Operational excellence is necessary to achieve consistent, effective, long-lasting product and services that benefit the consumer:

Organizations and people: clear roles/responsibilities, culture of experimentation and continual improvement, governance is defined and balanced, waste analyzed and removed; risk-based decision making

Information and technology: focus on high-value tasks; automation is deployed for repetitive/low-value tasks; integration across the organization to increase flow, transparency, information, knowledge

Partners and suppliers: enables collaboration leading to growth, innovation, continual improvement

Value streams and processes: identify gaps/waste within value streams; clear, repeatable, scalable, efficient, effective processes and practices

2. Competitive advantage

To gain a competitive advantage, use:

• Scale advantage based on growing the organization or customer base:
  • Uses size to achieve economies of scale
  • Uses a platform that becomes the preferred way to interact between consumer/provider
• Incumbency advantage: first to market, preferred provider (to overcome must have credibility, provide high quality or more specialized products or services)
• Resource-based advantage: organization has access to resources that others do not. Resource must be rare, valuable, non-replicable, durable, organization-specific (patents, secrets…)

3. Continual improvement

Strategies based on improvement are not disruptive:

• Strategy is based on a business model that provides the competitive advantage; improvement is to maintain how the organization does business
• Maintains the customer base and market position

Continual improvement is incremental, may leverage innovation or some technology but is not disruptive (suitable for legacy environments and stable markets)

Must be part of every strategy, even with disruption as the goal, must have consistent, stable, improved products/services over the long-term

Improving suboptimal performance:

• Information and technology modernization
• Value stream and process improvement

4. Automation

Use automation strategies to improve performance or expand operational activities to accommodate growth:

• Can improve customer experience, operational excellence
• Provides new products/services
• Changes organization strategy, business model, vision

Automation commoditizes lower-level tasks, freeing up resources for other highvalue tasks: do more with fewer people, repurpose staff to other higher value roles

Include training/education as part of the automation strategy:

• Simple
• Complex
• Intelligent

5. Service optimization

Service optimization aims to improve quality or performance of a service (continual improvement strategy)

Assess the service against expected performance (e.g. achievement of organizational objectives, fulfilling customer needs)

Deploy improvements only if the gap meets improvement criteria based on the strategy

6. Technology replacement modernization

Purpose: improve performance and efficiency

Replace aging equipment

Replace equipment that is too expensive to maintain

Restructure architecture that doesn’t support performance, functionality, business need

7. Sourcing strategies

Shadow IT: the use of IT-related hardware or software by a department or individual without the knowledge of the IT or security group within the organization:

• Embedded IT, fake IT, stealth IT, rogue IT, feral IT, or client IT
• Risk: lack of control over supplier relationships and contracts, lack of oversight on technology investments, different (opposing?) sourcing strategies

Characteristics for sourcing strategies:

• Support for organization’s financial strategy
• Coordinated efforts of multiple suppliers whose performance, services, and products are interrelated
• Provide flexibility within contracts so to change/adapt as situation requires
• Create a good relationship between organization and supplier for strategic alignment

8. Workforce strategies

Workforce strategies impact operational excellence:

• Hire with the future in mind: what skills/capabilities are needed
• Must ensure onboarding, training, development, education, engagement programs reflect the digital organization
• Organizational goals, expectations, roles/responsibilities, attitude toward improvement, existing processes/practices and value streams are known, understood, and followed (conformance/compliance)

9. Employee 360 approaches

Similar to Customer 360 approaches:

• Utilize digital technology (data virtualization and analysis), to analyze employee needs, preference, behaviors
  • Use multiple data sources (internal systems, social media feeds)
  • Combine to provide a comprehensive view of the employees’ experience
• Insights allow organization to learn employee work patterns (job functions, value streams, business outcomes): provide tools, resources to optimize work environment

Employee journey is important for employee experience

Ensure privacy when working with employee data – point is to improve working environment and not ‘spy’ on the employee

Go back to ITIL 4 Strategic Leader Certification Course: Customer/Market Relevance to finish this chapter or to the main page ITIL 4 Strategic Leader Certification Course.