Systems Management

A Canadian financial institution was seeking to improve service and operational efficiencies by deciding to manage both the Service Desk and the Desktop themselves.  Balardo Group was engaged to assist with this plan and developed a clear 3 to 5 year service desk roadmap with well articulated deliverables and measures of success.  The roadmap also provided a plan to improve the user experience and improve operational efficiencies and addressed processes, tools, stakeholders and the organization.  The client used the roadmap to achieve their service and operational efficiency goals.

This large Canadian bank had a major program underway to upgrade / automate its IMAC process which was expected to be completed in 24 months.  To provide short-term improvement, Balardo Group was engaged to identify quick wins that could be rapidly implemented with a modest investment.  Over a period of one month 60 opportunities were identified.  Subsequent to the engagement, the client developed a plan and implemented many of the changes recommended

A major Canadian bank observed two consecutive years with a seasonal peak in major incidents.  To better understand the implications of this observation it engaged Balardo Group.  The key elements of this engagement involved:

• Determining the root cause(s) of the summer peaks;
• Comparing the clients’ data to other major Canadian financial institutions to identify like challenges and lessons learned; and
• The identification of options to reduce the peaks in major incidents with supporting recommendations.

This large Canadian bank was experiencing an unacceptable mean time to recover from major incidents with its outsourced IT operations.  Balardo Group was engaged to identify how best to improve recovery time.  Working with the client and the outsource company, it was determined that both process and behavioral changes were necessary.  The client has subsequently implemented Balardo Group’s recommendations.

A Canadian bank had determined that over 50% of its application production outages were not caused directly by its IT infrastructure or computer operations.  Balardo Group was engaged to examine the development test environment and delivery process.  This analysis confirmed that differences between the test environments and production, combined with a labour intense delivery process, required change.  Using this data, Balardo Group developed a long-term roadmap for improvement.  Over a period of several years, the client has used this roadmap to improve pre-production technology and processes which have resulted in improved availability.