Case study · Interim Business Architect
How an interim Business Architect helped DS Smith modernise and simplify its applications estate
DS Smith wanted to hire an interim Business Architect to drive the modernisation and simplification of a large and complex applications estate. Its Enterprise Architecture team was small, and it needed more than an extra pair of hands. It needed governance, ways of working, and an approach to architecture that enabled the business to be fully engaged with the overall digital strategy.
Client
DS Smith
Sector
Packaging and manufacturing
Duration
Six months, October 2023 to April 2024
Architecture resource
Interim Business Architect, with Consulting Director oversight
The challenge
A technology estate that had grown with the business
DS Smith is an international packaging manufacturer. As the business grew, so did its technology estate, which had become large and complex and no longer gave the flexibility and robustness the business needed for the future. To support its goals for customer experience, growth, employee experience and sustainability, DS Smith needed a strategic, portfolio-wide view of IT and a programme of Modernisation and Simplification to remove unnecessary complexity, reduce risk and meet the changing needs of the business.
The Enterprise Architecture team was small and its processes relatively immature. DS Smith needed extra capacity and capability to put the right tooling, skills and ways of working in place to establish Applications Portfolio Management (APM) and define an implementable Applications Portfolio Strategy.
Konvergent had already supported the Discovery phase from June 2023. That work set up an MVP configuration of LeanIX, defined a repeatable APM methodology, brought together an Apps Modernisation Working Group to assess around 100 applications, and produced a playbook, outline business case and roadmap. The next phase had to turn that proof of concept into something the business could run itself, and answer some bigger questions:
- Who owns the applications data, and who makes the decisions on application strategy and selection?
- How does APM fit into existing governance, from Architecture Review Boards to capital planning?
- Which applications should be shared across Group, Division and Region, and which should be different?
- Which applications are strategic, and how does DS Smith converge on them?
- What should change in the FY2024/25 corporate plan as a result?
Our approach
Working as an extension of the architecture team
Konvergent provided an interim Business Architect, supported by our Consulting Director, working as an extension of DS Smith's architecture team to keep collaboration and knowledge transfer high. The work ran in regular sprints, with scope and a Definition of Done agreed at the start of each one and a steady rhythm of review, engagement and show and tell. The work moved from governance, to strategy, to the practical steps each IT division would take:
Governance and ways of working. A decision framework covering new application selection, TIME analysis, reporting, data quality assurance, peer review, LeanIX configuration and roadmap- Accountable owners. The Working Group formalised with Terms of Reference and expanded, as accountable owners of applications data alongside the Architecture Review Board and Technical Design Authority
- Data-led conversations. Best practice for strategic conversations with business leaders about the future of their applications, using data rather than opinion
- Future state application architectures. Built on the capability model across back office, ERP, MES and customer experience, showing what should be shared, the same or different
- Strategic applications agreed. A benefits overlay showing where efficiencies could be gained, and strategic applications mapped and locked in at Group, Division and Regional level
- Strategic steps and interventions. Working directly with the IT divisions to review FY2024/25 corporate plan items and document the steps towards the strategic applications
The result
An applications portfolio DS Smith could run itself
Konvergent delivered every element of the Statement of Work. Applications Portfolio Management moved from a trial to a governed, business as usual process, with clear decision rights, accountable owners and LeanIX at its centre.
DS Smith finished the engagement with future state application architectures, an agreed set of strategic applications across Group, Division and Region, a corporate plan apps modernisation assessment and a strategic applications convergence report. Planning moved out of project and business unit silos towards joined-up, longer-term technology investment aligned to the business strategy.
from governance to an agreed strategic applications roadmap
strategic applications agreed at every level of the business
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Ben Clark · bclark@konvergent.co.uk