Business Simulation duration:
1 day
Grab@Pizza
Synopsis
Grab@Pizza is a Business & IT Alignment business simulation. A business simulation is an interactive workshop in which teams of people work on challenging issues within a simulated environment. In a simulation each participant will play a role and has specific tasks, responsibilities and authority.
Do you recognise these challenges in Business and IT Alignment?
- Business & IT ‘Alignment’ is STILL an issue
- An explosive demand for IT is straining resources
- A need to shift IT investments from ‘keeping the lights on’ to ‘innovation’.
Business and IT alignment has been a top scoring issue for more than 15 years. Despite enormous investments in frameworks such as COBIT, ITIL®, and now the latest addition BRM, we still struggle. The frameworks often become the goal in themselves, rather than what the frameworks are expected to deliver. We spend too much time developing processes and controls and fail to recognise it is primarily about changing attitude, behavior and culture.It is about people and how they communicate and collaborate. It is also about working as one team, making the right decisions, learning from each other, and applying good practices that are fit-for-use and fit-for-purpose. With the growing importance of IT for all businesses we can no longer afford to fail to realise Business & IT Alignment, or rather ‘Convergence’. This business simulation can be used to help the team learn how to organise the way they work together, how to ensure an end-to-end set of process capabilities and how to continually evaluate and improve the way they work to improve the overall performance.
Outlines
Grab@Pizza is a leading Pizza franchise organisation selling millions of Pizza’s every year. But after 6 months in the current year, the sales figures are far below expectations.
IT is posing a significant business risk due to downtime and the inability of IT to respond to changing business needs. The CEO urged the Business Directors to make a challenging recovery plan. This plan is based on a 6-month strategy to increase revenue, reduce costs and realise the annual profit target. The strategy is highly reliant upon the innovative use of IT. Existing IT capabilities are poor, resources are tied up in ‘keeping the lights on’ rather than supporting and enabling new innovations.
The CEO has tasked the Sales, Finance and Product teams to own and manage the business projects and ensure that IT will deliver cost effective, timely, reliable solutions. The CEO has also tasked the CIO to improve the existing infrastructure and IT capabilities to reduce wasted costs and downtime, guaranteeing availability of critical services. Not everything can be done at the same time. The team must learn to balance ‘innovation’ goals of the business with stability and availability goals for IT. By using the principles of Business and IT Alignment, the team can reach their objectives and maximise their revenue and profit objectives.
Objectives
This Business Simulation will teach the participants how to become a High Performing IT department. The team(s) will be faced with the need to align their IT capabilities to changing business needs, reflecting the challenges facing many IT organisations.
- How to deliver agreed IT Services with limited resources. Limited in terms of budget and employees
- How to minimise your IT costs by optimizing ITSM people, processes and supporting technology
- How to use your Supplier effectively;
- How to prioritise IT investments and workload, in terms of Maintenance & Support and Innovation & Development
- How to translate Business Requirements into the required IT Services
- How to plan application development activities, prioritise the projects/changes planned on the Change Calendar
- How to minimise potential Business risks & threats to continuity caused by poor availability, capacity and security of the IT services
- How to realise and demonstrate Business value
- The role of the Business in effectively governing IT and supporting decision making and prioritisation mechanisms throughout the lifecycle
- This Business Simulation will teach the group how to deploy the People, Process, Product and Partner capabilities to create a high performing IT department.
Audiences
This simulation can be used for many different situations. For each of the scenario’s we can offer separate reflections and discussions during the improvement cycles.
COBIT
The game can be used in combination with Cobit foundation or implementation training, and can also be used during Cobit deployment initiatives to create awareness, and buy-in and help capture improvements. When played in this context we can focus on aspects such as:
- Exploring business drivers and stakeholder needs
- Using the goals cascade to align Business and IT goals
- Understanding RACI requirements for both Business AND IT
- Balancing decision making and priority mechanisms around ‘Benefits Realisation’, Resource Optimisation’ & ‘Risk Optimisation’
- Using Cobit to assess capabilities, agree and prioritize improvements between game rounds.
Business Relationship Management (BRM)
The game can be used in combination with the BRMP or CBRM training. It can also be used by BRM teams to promote BRM within their own organisations. Bringing Business and IT people together to explore and agree the role and importance of BRM and to capture improvements. When played in this context we can focus on aspects such as:
- Moving BRM from an Order taker’ to a ‘Strategic partner’
- Understand the role of BRM as ‘Connector’, ‘Orchestrator’, ‘Navigator’
- Understanding sources of ‘Value Leakage’ and how to optimise ‘Value Realisation’
- Explore the BRM role in Service Management and how frameworks such as COBIT and ITIL® can help.
ITIL®
The game can be used in combination with ITIL® training, as it provides ample opportunity to apply ITIL® theory and experiment with ITIL® in a case organisation. It can also be played within organisations as a CSI instrument (or continual improvement) and to support OCM (Organisational Change Management) initiatives to create-buy in and surface resistance. When played in this context we can focus on aspects such as:
- Using the Guiding principles ‘focus on value’ & ‘design for experience’ to align with business needs
- How to effectively communicate and collaborate E2E
- Using CSI between game rounds to populate a CSI register and prioritise improvements to ‘progress iteratively’ using measurements and metrics that relate to business value and outcomes.
Certification and Exam Info
Grab@Pizza is a great add-on to COBIT and Governance Training and Certification.
Pre-requisites
No prior specific knowledge is required.
As Principal Consultant, Lionel Seaw offers extensive technical and managerial depth across government, pharmaceutical, and financial sectors. A trusted advisor, he combines real-world experience with a strategic helicopter-view to manage complex changes. Lionel is dedicated to building high-performance teams through effective methodologies and best practices, achieving mission-critical objectives with perseverance and focus.
Feisal Ismail is an experienced technology and management leader who has supported organisations across government, pharmaceutical, technology, and financial services sectors. An ITIL and DevOps Institute Ambassador, he helps organisations align digital and technology strategies with broader business objectives through pragmatic, results-oriented guidance grounded in globally recognised best practices and real-world operational constraints. Meticulously organised and highly collaborative, Feisal is recognised for delivering effective and sustainable outcomes in complex engagements.
Tan Hoon Wee is an accomplished IT professional with extensive international experience in managing shared services and complex project delivery. Expert in both Waterfall and Agile methodologies, he holds prestigious certifications including PMP, PRINCE2, and CSM. He specialises in advising on organisational change and process optimisation, leveraging exceptional communication skills to maintain outstanding client relationships.
Huang Yi-Jen is a specialist consultant in IT Governance and Management Frameworks. With a portfolio spanning Service Management, Agile, and Risk Management, she is recognised for achieving sustainable results through an organised, proactive delivery model. Yi-Jen is a natural communicator who excels at managing diverse stakeholders and solving complex challenges with an innovative, value-driven and professional mindset.
Luqman Haniff is an IT security specialist with over a decade of experience advising SMEs on infrastructure and information security management. A meticulous problem solver, Haniff utilises a balanced macro-and-micro approach to tackle organisational vulnerabilities. He specialises in creating targeted, custom solutions that bridge the gap between technical necessity and cost-effective business strategy for robust protection.
Why Us?
Participants can attend a complimentary refresher if they wish (1-year validity and subject to approval)
Should you have questions after the course, you may contact the trainer for assistance regarding course material
1 year access to our E-learning portal. Including:
– E-books available for download
– Official sample exam
– Randomised quiz formulated by Sapience Trainers based on past examinations
