Allied Domecq
Implementing ITIL standards worldwide
Allied Domecq is a global operator in wines and spirits with some of the best known brands in the sector. They had a desire to implement a set of globally consistent IT policies and processes across the entire organisation, with particular reference to Sarbanes Oxley compliance. A new global IT operating model which was subsequently rolled out across the world, which both standardised and improved IT service as well as helping Allied Domecq achieve its Sarbanes Oxley compliance.
As a global operator in branded spirits, premium wines and quick service restaurants, the Allied Domecq IT organisation supports more than 12,000 staff in over 50 countries. The company has grown steadily in recent years through acquisition, which led to a situation where different parts of the organisation were working to their own local IT policies and standards, inevitably resulting in inconsistencies and inefficiencies.
The Service Delivery organisation had already recognised the need to develop and document a company-wide set of policies and standards to ensure consistent delivery of service to its customers worldwide. However, an imminent Sarbanes Oxley compliance audit acted as a further driver behind the programme and increased the imperative to work quickly.
Phil Abraham, Allied Domecq's Global Service Delivery Manager, explained his reasons for choosing Plan-Net for the assignment. "With the high profile nature of the project, we needed a partner with a successful track record of similar-sized projects in other global organisations. With Plan-Net, we had that plus their approach to ITIL is pragmatic rather than academic."
Given the breadth of the Allied Domecq organisation, the initial scoping and planning stage was always going to be challenging. Plan-Net's first task was to understand and review the company from an organisational viewpoint, both in terms of how its IT was delivered and also as to how the business was structured. A project plan was developed and documented outlining the required tasks, milestones, dates, priorities, dependencies, owners and deliverables, highlighting the considerable steps necessary for a successful transformation of Allied Domecq's IT operating model.
Key to the Plan-Net consultants' initial value to the project was their ability to help Allied Domecq understand and prioritise their requirements, as well as what they were looking to achieve, something which the client appreciated and Phil Abraham reinforced. "We were all impressed with Plan-Net's flexibility in a project that contained a number of unknowns. Plan-Net repeatedly demonstrated the ability to adapt style and content ‘in-flight'."
At first, Allied Domecq's primary goal was to implement the ITIL framework as a platform for a new global IT operating model. However, it soon became apparent that work towards Sarbanes Oxley compliance would need to take priority and would therefore shape the order and urgency that some of the tasks were scheduled and progressed. Plan-Net identified the crossovers between Sarbanes and ITIL, and as a consequence work on Security, Change Management and Service Continuity was brought forward in order to help the client demonstrate that it was making clear headway with its Sarbanes obligations.
Once the project was fully underway, Plan-Net needed to ensure that the momentum was maintained. Jon Efford, one of the Plan-Net consultants working on the project explains how this worked: "The Allied Domecq organisation is very diverse, which is a reflection of how the business has grown. A major part of Plan-Net's role was helping to sell the benefits of ITIL to all parts of the IT organisation and bring those groups on board with the project. This was particularly challenging as the Allied Domecq IT organisation is globally dispersed, and in some of the operating countries there is not the same awareness of ITIL as there is in the UK and Europe."
Plan-Net facilitated and led discussions with the key IT stakeholders, often via global video conference, to help crystallise the standards that Allied Domecq would seek to apply globally to its IT operations. Once these had been agreed, work on detailed policies and procedures followed naturally based on the ITIL framework.
Despite the difficulty of encompassing all the demands of the global structure, and ensuring translation of the new operating model across various countries, cultures and languages, Plan-Net, in conjunction with the Global Service Delivery team, presented Allied Domecq with a new Global Service Delivery model. This consisted of a complete set of IT service management policies and procedures reviewed and agreed with global service managers.
In addition, the key Sarbanes Oxley touch-points were highlighted through a matrix that cross-referenced COBIT control points and objectives with the global service delivery operating model processes and procedures. This supported the existing Allied Domecq strategy, approach and process for assessing the Sarbanes Oxley compliance of the company's IT capability and ensuring that any remediation activities were catered for in the corresponding Global IT Operating Model developed by Plan-Net.
