IT Operations engineered to be simple, transparent, and unified

Today, cars have become more intelligent than ever. Engineers play an even more critical role in ensuring vehicles are well-designed and properly maintained. Engineers help create automobiles with the latest technology. They design with the driver in mind and the overall experience, so they embed cars with all the bells and whistles to keep us safe.

While reflecting on the innovation in the automotive industry, I'm reminded that modernization is taking place in my own backyard. So, this year I will embark on a new journey that includes this newsletter. Here, I'll discuss our talented team's great work transforming IT Services and Operations for the IBM CIO. Writing will help me organize my thoughts and see my mission from a different perspective.

In 2023, we will continue the journey we started in 2022, but we will be laser-focused on reducing IT complexity, improving operational visibility, and unifying our IT operations practices. We're ultimately responsible for delivering stable and performant IT services, which are foundational to the success of any IT organization and the businesses it serves. This mission requires planning, coordination, and responsiveness and relies on advanced technology solutions.

Anyone who has purchased a car in recent years knows that touchscreens, voice-activated computers, and gestures have replaced buttons and manual functions. If you've ever been inside a smart car, you may have seen a signal that prompts you to pump air into your tires or change your fluids when needed. More likely than not, a whole team of engineers behind these innovations has connected the software in your car to the physical parts. This engineering renaissance has provided drivers with vehicles that propel us into the future.

In a complex parking lot like IBM, we constantly develop discoveries and automation for new technologies. Similarly, our IT Services and Operations team has the mission to undertake a rigorous effort to provide better visibility into all the moving parts that make up an IT Inventory. For example, through discovery exercises, we understand the location of our physical technology, our software, our servers, who owns them, what they control, and when it's time to make updates.

In parallel, we're also creating an enhanced dashboard for the car in the form of a functional Operational Hub. Similar to a vehicle's panel, where drivers find necessary switches, our hub will help us manage our tech data, like what data needs to be refreshed, how the hardware and software inventory relate to financial investments, or what inventory components might be vulnerable to security exposure. As a result, Cybersecurity is also strengthened as our data has more context and depth.

We don't have silos blocking us from working as one team to instrument other parts of the business. We manage a platform as a service to provide a complete, flexible, and cost-effective cloud platform for running and managing many different areas of the company, including the IBM help desk and device provisioning. We're streamlining how we handle this platform this year, creating more robust governance to manage the number of licenses and usage.

However, no matter how smart a car gets, there will always be unexpected situations, whether a rainy day makes it difficult to see or an expected driver merging in our lane. These clandestine moments can lead to a hazardous situation, but engineers develop essential warning signals that help us stay safe during these moments.

A unified IT operation process will be another focus for my team this year. We're aligning processes that utilize monitoring technologies, on-call management, and support teams to provide a conscientious approach to managing incidents. Part of this initiative is ensuring every application team has the proper level of service, ensuring consistent benefits and experience for all users. This will be like the vehicle's computer chip, providing adequate alerts to transition from reactive to proactive. In addition, we leverage continuous process improvement and automation. We perform post-incident reviews, including root cause analysis and expanded learning from the incident process to recognize patterns, scale learning, and prevent similar future issues. We resolved 36% more incidents within resolution targets in 2022, which set the bar high for continuous improvement in 2023.

Companies rely heavily on various applications to support their business processes in today's digital age. However, as the number of applications used by a company grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage and optimize them effectively. In the same way, we are undertaking an Application Portfolio Management initiative that will enhance our decision-making practices. Application Portfolio Management is used to optimize a company's entire set of applications to support its business processes. The goal is to ensure that a company's application portfolio is aligned with its overall business strategy.

IT Services and Operations is a team of fearless agents ready and prepared for whatever challenges lie ahead.

We see value in empowering our teams with strategic services and practices. I am excited about these focus areas and how they simplify, transform, and unify IT Services and Operations. This year will be a joy ride with exciting things coming our way, but like any good trip, the journey is half the fun, so we hope you join us on this exhilarating adventure.

Esdras Moraes is the Director of CIO IT Services and Operations at IBM in Armonk, New York. The opinions expressed in the article above are solely his own and do not necessarily reflect IBM's official positions or strategies.