IT landscape assessment and 90-day steering plan
Ten consulting days spread over three to four weeks. At the end you know which IT decision comes first, which can wait and which cannot be made yet, plus a plan for the following 90 days with a sponsor for each decision.
Designed for managing directors, executive boards, CFOs and CIOs of organizations with roughly 250 to 1,200 employees.
- Decide first
- Then
- Can wait
- Can wait
- Cannot be decided today: what is missing, who has it
on site and remote, within three to four calendar weeks, at a fixed price.
Decisions in sequence, a sponsor for each, three checkpoints.
of your organization's time in total, all participants combined, about four of them with the sponsor.
When the assessment is useful
A provider contract, the budget round, a project that will not finish, a security question: each on its own, with no order and no shared basis.
A contract expiry, a tender, a change in IT leadership or the next budget round. By then it should be clear what to decide first.
One side hears that things are running; the other knows what keeps them running. An evidence-based picture that both can check is the shared basis.
What you have on day 10
- The assessment as a presentation for executive management and as a full report
- A rating for each domain, with evidence. A domain is a coherent part of the IT landscape, such as workplace, telephony or ERP; six to eight per organization
- An accountability map for the domains examined in depth: who decides, who executes, who carries the risk
- The page "What cannot be decided today": for each item, what is missing, who has it and how to obtain it
- The 90-day steering plan with a sponsor for each decision. The sponsor is the person in your organization who can make that decision and own it
- The decision log from the closing meeting
What an assessment looks like
| Domain | Operational stability | Responsibility and authority | Capacity bound | Change load | Risks and dependencies | Business criticality | Relevance for next steps | Steering priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workplace | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | watch |
| Telephony | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | now |
| ERP | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 90 days |
| Network | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | watch |
| CRM | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | sponsor decides |
| Security | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | hold |
| Providers | 3 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | now |
Five controllability ratings, each from 1 to 5 and backed by evidence: operational stability; responsibility and authority; capacity tied up in operations; project and change load; risks and dependencies. Plus two weightings set with the sponsor: business criticality and relevance for the next steps.
The steering priority comes from ratings, weightings and an estimate of the change effort, together with dependencies between decisions and dates that are coming anyway, such as contract expirations. The lowest rating is a signal, not automatically the first decision.
Where a role carries responsibility without the authority to decide, the other values rarely stay stable.
How the engagement runs
- Day 0
Your entry question: which decision should be possible on day 10? Documents requested, sponsor meetings fixed.
- Day 5
Mid-point with the sponsor: first picture. You choose the two or three domains to examine in depth, usually from the lowest-rated ones.
- Days 9 and 10
Your IT lead reviews the facts in the report. Then assessment, 90-day steering plan and decision log in the meeting with executive management.
- 90 days after
Three checkpoints you run yourself.
Days 1 to 10 are consulting days, spread over three to four calendar weeks.
Scope, prerequisites and questions
Ten consulting days within three to four calendar weeks, mostly on site, at a fixed price plus travel; further days on request at the day rate. The offer fits on one page and follows the first conversation.
About 14 to 18 hours across all participants: around four with the sponsor, around six with the IT lead, the rest with two or three business unit heads and one or two providers.
A sponsor who can decide on the 90-day plan. An IT lead whom the sponsor has informed in advance. A basic set of documents: org chart, legal entities, project list, provider list with contract end dates, IT budget overview, open problem list.
One round of factual corrections within ten working days is included: figures, system names, roles, dates. Where views still differ, the report records them.
Questions that come up before the start
How does it start?
Before day one you answer one question: which decision should be possible on day 10? The answer is the first acceptance criterion.
What are the ratings based on?
Every rating states what it rests on. The report distinguishes what documents show, what interviewees report, what several sources confirm, and what is an assessment. A document proves what it contains, not that anyone follows it; two matching statements make a claim more likely, not certain. So alongside the number of sources, how current and relevant they are matters. As a minimum rule, no rating rests on a single person's statement alone. Indications of serious risk appear in the report.
What if the IT lead sees the facts differently?
Your IT lead reviews the facts in the report on day 9: figures, system names, responsibilities, time periods. Corrections go in before the closing meeting. The assessment is backed by evidence and open to discussion; where views still differ after review, the decision log records both.
What is not included?
No technical audit and no implementation. The assessment rates structures, controllability and risks. An individual appraisal of staff is not part of this assessment. The report also states what was not examined.
What can follow after day 10?
The plan is yours; you run the checkpoints yourself. Three follow-ons are possible, each as a separate engagement, when the occasion arises: support for the first decisions as a block with a fixed scope; preparation and support for the three checkpoints, with the plan staying your plan; interim IT leadership if the role is vacant or needs relief for a period. If none of these occasions arises, that is a good sign: the plan works with the roles you have.
Let's talk
If an IT decision is coming up or a role needs covering for a while, pick a time for a first 30-minute conversation. Or send me a note; I reply personally.
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