International Financial Markets Company - IT Strategy and IT Operating Model

The company is an important player in the international financial markets sector. While financial products and their handling had been one of the first industries that encountered heavy digitalization decades ago, markets and innovations are constantly pushed forward. Still, while innovating and focusing on cost-efficient business processes, complying with strong and evolving regulations play a significant role in all activities.

A well-performing and future-oriented IT is a core element of the company's success. Therefore the new CIO has triggered a major IT strategy project to set the vision, strategic target states, and an overall roadmap for the IT landscape as well as the tailored target IT operating model.

Challenges and opportunities in IT internationalization, new IT leadership paradigms and structures, the establishment of agile and DevOps concepts, and the optimization of IT infrastructure and operations while investing heavily in the modernization of the application landscape are ahead.

The goal of the project was to develop a new IT strategy and operating model for the overall enterprise, considering the following key points in particular:

• Align with the updated business strategies of the divisions
• Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the current IT landscape, the IT operating model as well as the context of architecture, IT sourcing, the project portfolio, and business / IT alignment
• Consider the identified challenges and opportunities in IT internationalization, new IT leadership paradigms and structures, the establishment of agile and DevOps concepts, and the optimization of IT infrastructure and operations while investing heavily in the modernization of the application landscape 

The following approach has been taken to develop the new IT strategy and a corresponding target IT operating model:

• Interviews with selected business executives, board members, and the IT executives
• Analysis of the existing IT strategy and key documents, as well as a briefing workshop series with the IT executives
• Development of an updated IT vision and guiding principles
• Design of an architectural target picture, depicting key elements and formulating vision, requirements, and the road to reach the target state
• Development of an updated capabilities map and cornerstones for the target IT operating model
• Development of a strategic roadmap to implement the IT strategy and the corresponding IT operating model
• Finalization of the formal IT strategy and target IT operating model with the IT leadership team

The project length for developing the IT strategy and the (high-level) target IT operating model was approximately 8 months.