IT master plan: Testimonial from CIO Région Centre Val de Loire

The IT Department of the Centre Val de Loire Region gives you some concrete examples in this article on How to build an IT Master Plan.

An information system master plan is a strategic document, validated by the local authority's elected representatives and senior management. Its aim is to structure the local authority's IT strategy over the medium term (3 to 5 years).

This testimonial takes you through the 5-year genesis of the master plan. An incredibly rich sequence in which digital technology was invested with the responsibility of transformation, of putting the community in citizens' smartphones, of ensuring continuity of service when everyone was improvising their living room into an office, and a digital technology that widened exposure to malware.

Interview:

Frédéric DAUDIN - Chief Information Officer
Mireille BUSSON - Head of Research and Applications Department

In this article:

How do you build an IT master plan?
Immersion in the IT Master Plan of the Centre Val de Loire Region
How do you manage the governance of the master plan?

What are the main challenges and challenges of the Master Plan?

An IT master plan is a major step in defining, formalizing, implementing or updating an information system.

Here are some of the challenges issues that organizations face in their master plans:

How do you build an IT master plan?

Steps to build an IT master plan

An IT master plan is built in several stages:

Audit of existing system and assessment of previous IS
Definition of major axes, survey of the needs of the various departments
Scenario proposals to the Executive Committee
Arbitration to smooth out workloads and budgets

Case study: drawing up the Master Plan for the Centre-val-de-loire region

The development process was carried out in 3 stages, under the guidance of the General Management Committee (CODIR):

Step1: Take stock of the existing situation

What objectives were achieved?

What are the points of weakness/progress?

Example of the Centre Val-de-Loire Region: lessons learned from 5 years of IT master planning to set course for 2027

A positive balance sheet

75% of planned projects were completed, a better rate than in the previous period
Adjustment of roadmap with business units (COSSIN)
Project and program COPILs operate within a continuous improvement framework, enabling decisions to be taken.
Project methodology in progress
Double the capital expenditure budget: €4m/year
Organizational chart changes with increased resources at CIO : + 8 agents

Difficulties encountered

An ISDS built on the basis of management needs without alignment with strategy (bottom-up vs. top-down approach).
Cross-functional projects
A changing context: taking new demands into account
Difficulties in prioritizing and arbitrating projects to be launched in a strategic project portfolio management approach.

Step 2: Taking needs into account

In order to put the master plan into practice, it is important to unite all project stakeholders.

Holding information meetings and workshops on the importance of the master plan and digital transformation is a good practice.

The Centre Val de Loire Region has organized a timetable from 2021 to 2023 to prepare for implementation of the SDSSI.

Q2 2021 - Seminar with General Management: sharing the results of the previous plan and the desire to move towards a more strategic plan.
T3 2021 - Managers' Committee: one-day theme around digital transformation, with collaborative development work.
T1 2022 - AMOA consultation: Solicitation of a consulting firm to assist with the project
T3 2022 - Drawing up the SDSSI
S1 2023 - Implementation of SDSSI in the first half of 2023.

Step 3: Prioritize projects

3 major axes have been set for the 2017-2021 Master Plan:

High-performance regional e-administration
An agile, secure and adapted information system
Digital services for the regions

The main objective is to position CIO as a federator of skills to amplify value creation.

The challenges challenges for the next master plan :

The final stage involves proposing the scenarios to the Executive Committee and defining the trade-offs to smooth out the workload and budgets:

Divide projects into axes and programs
Define investment requirements and allocate budgets by type
Estimate overall workload j/h

How do you manage the governance of the master plan?

The Region Centre Val de Loire's project portfolio review is carried out using Project Monitor project portfolio management software. The dashboards are designed to be customizable and integrate naturally into the governance processes.

Discover Project Monitor

Governance leadership

Halve the time spent collecting your indicators and simplify your plan reviews.

White Paper - What balance between strategy and operations?

Expert opinion on the new challenges facing CIO - how to make your projects the operational extension of your strategy.

What are the differences between project, program and portfolio management?

Project: a temporary organization created to deliver a unique product, service or result.
Program: related projects managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available if projects are managed individually
Portfolio: projects, programs, activities managed as a whole to achieve strategic objectives

Whereas portfolios and programs focus on a more general view of a company's activities, a project is a single initiative.

The difficulties of managing these concepts :

Not based on the same information.
Do not call on the same skills.
Analyzing a project as a single unit or as part of a portfolio does not lead to the same decisions.

The need for better project portfolio management :

A strategic vision
Implement methodologies to ensure consistency between ambitions and capacity to deliver

To this end, they are moving towards a Strategic Information Systems Master Plan for the next 2022-2027 plan. To take more comprehensive charge of processes at strategy level:

Questions & Answers on the organization of the Centre Val de Loire Region

How do you use Project Monitor for project portfolio management?

We use the project monitor portfolio management software to track project progress, project reviews, agent activity and overall portfolio monitoring. Using the software to support arbitration is part of challenges our next master plan.

Who is responsible for the Master Plan at CIO ? Do you have a PMO at CIO ?

We have a collegial approach through our weekly Project Office. Governance meetings are held every Thursday morning on 4 themes: infrastructure, digital, application and organization. Each department head leads, monitors and contributes. For the moment, the creation of a PMO is still under study.

Cybersecurity - is the CISO part of CIO or more 'external'?

We have just recruited an Information Systems Security Manager. He or she will report to the IS Department, and in future we'll probably have a dedicated risk management unit. We are currently carrying out a global IS audit in conjunction with the national information systems security agency.

Were you assisted by a consulting firm?

Yes, we were supported by a consultancy firm for the various stages in the development of the master plan. However, we kept the implementation in-house, in particular the monitoring of governance.