ARCHITECTURE FOR TRANSFORMATION OF ICT SERVICE MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTION
STRATEGY FOR TRANSFORMATION
The FINDEF had IT Management distributed to all its units, and each provincial command had a provider for communication services before 2004. All ICT was mixed as same units were providing both tactical, operational and strategic services. A strategy was defined to consolidate gradually existing structure and then specialise and network towards future in creating more core value to information enabled Defence Forces. This transformation is depicted in figure 26.
Figure 26: a plan for transformation of ICT service production in the Defence Forces of Finland 2004
From all distributed and organic ICT units, the first step was to consolidate them under one umbrella of ICT service provider for all operational and strategic services. Only tactical ICT remained with Services and units. The Services (Air, Navy, Land) also became ICT service providers as tactical services were also delivered in the operational and support domains. The consolidation also prevented hasty and sub-optimized decisions of outsourcing as single units were facing a lack of human resources.
The consolidated in-house ICT service provider, C4I Agency, was then planned to network and co-operate with other providers of ICT services in the public sector and also with major telecommunication service providers in the private sector. The networking was after increased cost-efficiency while using the whole weight of the FINDEF ICT budget. There was also some out-sourcing done while ICT infrastructure was transformed. The telephony was outsourced to two operators: Erillisverkot providing TETRA -trunk radio services and Telia-Sonera providing GSM-services. Partnering with them also accelerated the maturing process of the C4I Agency.
As the professionalism of ICT service provider was improving more production responsibility was given to it. The Services were tasked to provide tactical information services in tactical domains, but the C4I Agency was ordered to provide them in operational domain. So Land Command became a sub-provider to the C4I Agency, who provided Army Command and Control Information System as a service to all troops that were operating on land. The sourcing steps gradually matured the capabilities of ICT providers for network operations in the time of war.
The final step in ICT business strategy was to improve the National Co-operation in crises times by providing common operational information to key agencies within the Government. The C4I Agency then provided service to Police, Border Guards, Customs, Civil Defence and all ministries. The new segments of users also provided more volume for ICT services, ensured critical mass and helped to sustain both competence of people and negotiation status with vendors. There was also a plan to partner with other service providers. The Enterprise Resource Management system built on SAP-platform was decided to be a joint venture with prominent SAP service providers as the FINDEF did not have enough flexibility in their policy of hiring high-level IT-experts. The other dimension for partnering was considered to be in basic network services when the initiative for government network was launched by the Ministry of Finance.
MATURING ICT SERVICE PROVIDER CULTURE AND PROCESSES
The transforming ICT business architecture called after maturing service operations and culture. There was a vision that ICT would be gradually considered as an enabler for improvement and finally a bringer of new opportunities for the core military affairs instead of considered only as support or worst case just a cost item. The vision in Figure 27 was based on a gradually improving understanding of information and its value for military affairs. As the value of information increases, the focus turns towards information and knowledge management. Technology turns into an asset for Command, Control and Information. The information defence becomes essential as the value and dependence increases.
Figure 27: The vision and Journey for maturity in ICT Service Production in the FINDEF 2004
The journey towards the end state defined in the vision started from very low-level goals in improving existing system management capabilities. The movement towards process and team based working was launched substituting the way where isolated individuals were doing heroic deeds. With new ICT system management technology some manual functions and processes were also automated.
The second step included steps towards more mature value chain management in all C4I matters. The relationship between provider and client needed more trusted foundation. The cost awareness and cost projection required to be established in Enterprise Resources Management. There was a degree of force behind this change since new requirements were expected to rise during major change of Defence Forces towards 2008.
The third step would bring C4I Agency to level that it would be up to the level with other Service Providers. Teams inside Agency needed also be more responsible and connected with other to shorten the reaction time and improve efficiency in process based service delivery. There was also need to clarify the differences between ICT Management and Information Management as the role of Chief Information Officer was introduced in each unit.
BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE AND MARKET SEGMENTS FOR ICT SERVICE PRODUCTION
As the Defence ICT transformed and matured towards the vision, there was a need to define market segments and specific business strategy for each segment. The six main segments illustrated in Figure 28 were:
- Administrative customers within the Finnish Defence Forces included all units within FINDEF in their peacetime role
- Operational customers within the Finnish Defence Forces included all units within FINDEF in their crisis time role and units of other government security agencies
- Other Security Agencies via Security Network Operator as TETRA mobile service.
- Other governmental entities via the IT-centre of the Government mainly with IT related services.
- International operations either via NATO ICT-service provider or Crises Management Office, CMO (intended avenue for further United Nations Operations)
- Open ICT-market via commercial service providers (mainly telecommunications related services).
Figure 28: The business and market plan for ICT service provider of FINDEF 2004
All ICT services were delivered with metrics for quality and cost. They were measured by agreements, contracts or objectives defined with clients in each market segment. Service Level Agreement, SLA was typically used within Defence Forces, where costs were transferred but there was no in-house billing in place. Service Level Contract, SLC was used with other service providers when money was transferred against delivered value.
There were different pricing and billing policy in each segment because of their market status. Within government only direct costs were charged. The value creation of open market was tightly controlled by the law preventing the distortion of private markets with public financing.
Besides the pricing and different quality of service attributes, all services to each segment were produced in the similar process, which simplified the actual ICT service production. Network connections between air defence radar stations for the Air Force were provided the same way as connections between TETRA base stations for the SECNET operator.
There were two main ways to provide the service: centralized and distributed. The centralized meant that there was only one unit providing that service. The distributed meant that several regional units were providing ICT services in their particular area of responsibility.
The ICT value chain included sub-providers both in-house FINDEF and outside of Defence Forces. They were bundled in as channels and integrated by contracts and processes. Architecture Team was taking care of the interoperability through changes and migrating in new systems. Business Team was taking care of advising in contracting, vendor management and measuring value through the chain.
Development of new ICT features was accomplished through Development Department. It managed several integrators that were assembling material, information and programs together before delivering them to C4I Agency for final integration.
TRANSFORMING THE ROLE, RESPONSIBILITY AND MINDSET OF LOCAL CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
With rationalization of ICT structure and service production, the role of local ICT unit changed the most. The local Chief of IT or Technology or Signals that used to manage the whole stack of technology, administrators, operators, end users and their information changed within few years as depicted in Figure 29.
Figure 29: The role and responsibility of local Chief of IT before rationalisation 2004
The workstations and terminals were provided as service and the only thing remaining was to monitor the quality and cost-efficiency of working tools. All servers were consolidated to C4I Agency together with their administrators. All applications were provided as service, so only their usage and cost-efficiency remained under local responsibility. All cabling, networks, exchanges and their operators and technicians were transferred to the C4I Agency and provided as service to units. Even ICT service support was rationalised with ITIL processes and accessed via phone and trouble ticketing systems. Problems with workstations were solved online with remote access. The once so great manager for IT and Technology was suddenly left with no job or responsibility – or so it seems at a quick glance.
The new role of Chief Information Officer, CIO was created. She turned the focus from technology towards information, users, and processes to provide benefits. As C4I Agency provided all ICT assets as service from cable installations to applications, there was but planning, ordering and monitoring left for CIO in managing technology. She was supported by Liaison Officer from C4I Agency, who helped in transforming the items in ICT Service Catalogue to valuable services for her unit and agreeing on all this in Service Level Agreement as illustrated in Figure 30.
Figure 30: The new role of Chief Information Officer after 2006
Then the actual information management was begun. With improved cost-awareness in technology, there was a foundation to start planning and monitoring the cost-efficiency of the information usage within the unit. Focus was also turned to process improvement and skills development as information was creating more value to core functions of military affairs. The CIO was improving the working habits, ergonomics and productivity of those involved in staff and knowledge working. She also started to pay attention to staff processes and their improvement as the heads of 6 in each Service became more aware of this potential.
The change was major from an individual perspective. People were supported with information, training for further understanding, workshops to create participation and with recognition of successes in change. Some of the former technical chiefs were able to change, but many moved to other responsibilities and gave room to new competencies. The figurative change in gender actually happened in some units.
End of part VI
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