Collaborating to transform Telkom SA

alfabet Case Study Collaborating to transform Telkom SA ensuring IT powers business success CASE STUDY I TElkom sa Telkom is one of the largest communications service provid- ers in Africa and a Forbes Top 2000 company. To meet consumer expectations in a converging world, it needs to completely overhaul its operational support and business support systems (OSS and BSS). Telkom recruited an independent Systems Integrator to work alongside its IT team. Together, they used planningIT to cre- ate a roadmap to the future and manage the challenging transformation. 2 I ensuring IT powers business success CASE STUDY I TElkom SA Transformation and ‘business as usual’ Like successful telecommunications companies the world over, South Africa’s Telkom SA has been innovating its products and services to meet changing demands. Con- sumer patterns are clear: people want integrated fixed and mobile communications, as well as high-speed multi-device digital connectivity. Telkom already operates fixed, mobile and data services, but it knew there were a number of technology overlaps, duplications and inefficiencies, resulting in high costs and slow time-to-market for new products. To achieve its vision of becoming South Africa’s leading ICT services provider, Telkom SA embarked on a complete transformation of its operational support systems (OSS) and business support sys- tems (BSS), with the aim of promoting fixed/mobile convergence. “Convergence has changed our business model,” said Riekie Erasmus, Se- nior IT/Telecommunications Specialist at Telkom. “We need to transform not only our network, but also all our support systems. We need to ratio- nalize an old fixed-line product set, and the capabilities that support it. We also need to rationalize business processes, inefficiencies and legacy environments that are costly, high-maintenance and no longer serve the business.” ensuring IT powers business success I 3 CASE STUDY I TELKOM SA Telkom required TOGAF-aligned, reusable, architecture artifacts for 12 major projects, integrated with maximum automation. The program is set to run for three years, and Telkom is jointly developing the business case for Phase II implementation. “The expected outcome is to have a complete set of architecture artifacts, building a completely new IT landscape to position Telkom South Africa for the future,” says Erasmus. For Telkom, there was no question of interrupting services. The company’s technol- ogy had powered the international television broadcast of the 2010 football World Cup finals, without a second’s ICT downtime, and it wanted to keep its exemplary record. Erasmus adds: “It’s easy to plan, but execution is critical, and business had to be maintained while we carried out the program”. Bringing in outside partners with planningIT Telkom’s Enterprise Architecture team searched for outside partners to help it trans- form itself effectively. It was looking for an independent Systems Integrator (ISI) who could give an unbiased view of the best software, technology and applications. “We were looking for the global experience to take us on a journey and achieve our goals in the shortest possible time,” Erasmus says. “In our RFP process, we explicitly stipulated that we wanted partners that would work with us as one team, and that they would use planningIT as the core of this transformation journey. We needed to establish a knowledge base – one ‘truth’ that everyone could use. Every stakeholder, every team, had to be familiar with the vision and the objectives at all times.” 4 I ensuring IT powers business success CASE STUDY I TELKOM SA The Business Value Release Plan demanded that 12 major projects be simplified. Telkom’s breakthrough was to integrate planningIT into its architecture process. This gave complete visibility of what everyone was doing, allowing individuals and teams to innovate and be creative, while allowing the Enterprise Architecture team to keep control centrally. Telkom branded planningIT as ‘Karabo’, a name meaning ‘the answer’ in Setswana. This was the name given by the Enterprise Architecture team in an exercise designed to give them ownership of the tool. Creating the foundation of business value With a complete view of the IT landscape, the partners developed a road map for up- dating the legacy systems, and integrating them into the structures defined by the ISI for the Business Value Release Plan. Over a 12-week period, enabled by planningIT, the internal and external teams worked closely together to build a three to four year plan. Thanks to this vital teamwork, Telkom understands how to build its network infra- structure, and rationalize its IT landscape and support systems, while being totally confident of maintaining business as usual. “If you build on a solid foundation, you can’t go wrong,” Erasmus says. Telkom SA >>  ounded 1991 F >> A semi-privatized, 39% state-owned company >>  perates in 38 African countries O >>  .2 million mobile subscribers 1 >>  .1 million landline subscribers 4 ensuring IT powers business success I 5 www.alfabet.com about alfabet Business IT Management is the task of ensuring that IT powers business success. It combines a deep understanding of the business and its strategy with the insight, planning and execution required to evolve the IT landscape. alfabet is the only vendor providing a comprehensive software suite that supports all aspects of Business IT Management - from accurate insight into the enterprise architecture to IT planning, risk management, compliance, road-mapping and IT Program Control.