Your Playbook for Creating a Winning Data Transmission Service

STERLING COMMERCE WHITE PAPER
Your Playbook for Creating a
Winning Data Transmission Service
How to transform your
data transmission department
and drive greater value
to your business
This page was intentionally left blank.Your Playbook for Creating a 3Winning Data Transmission Service
Play Page Introduction: Take Your Best Shot...................................................................... 3I. Act Like A Business............................................................................................ 42. Define Your Products......................................................................................... 63. Be More Than A Provider................................................................................... 84. Differentiate Your Service................................................................................ 105. Know Your Customers...................................................................................... 12 Bring It All Together......................................................................................... 14 Final Words: Let's Get Busy.............................................................................. 16
Introduction:Take Your Best ShotTransform your data transmission department. When you grow into a Transmission Service-as opposed to simply being an IT function-your team gains new respect and influence as you bring increased value to the business.
Understand what might be holding you back Normally, the primary goal of any data transmission department (or file transfer, or network operations, etc.) is to move large batch files between different systems for processing. And since transactions and other data in the files represent significant revenue, the role of your team in ensuring delivery is critical. The problem is, moving files and ensuring delivery, is getting tougher every day.
Failures, delays, can have serious financial impacts And there are other hurdles. More files are headed for more places, on different platforms, each with varied automation and scheduling mechanisms and requirements. High profile security breaches intensify concerns about security. And lack of visibility is forcing IT staff to spend resources tracking down problems at the same time that they are being asked to do more. Which leads us to yet another challenge.
Today's "on-demand" customers expect higher levels of service They insist on lower failure rates and shorter time to resolution. They want self-service tools that allow them to track their files. And all of these expectations are being quantified in detailed service level agreements (SLA), with penalties for missing the commitments.
Leading IT departments are becoming service oriented Think of service-oriented architecture (SOA), enterprise service bus (ESB), and Web services as trends that point to the direction IT is headed. Today's winners are upgrading their file transfer department into a Data Transmission Service. Or they plan to do so in the near future.
Use the "Playbook" and begin your transformation now Flip through it, check out the plays-the order is not critical-and then get moving toward that goal.
©2008. Sterling Commerce, Inc.4 Your Playbook for Creating a Winning Data Transmission Service
Play 1Act like a business
ChallengeYour department is viewed as a cost centerSome don't see the entire picture, which shows that data transfers are absolutely critical to the success of the business. You might find yourself in this spot if you fail to provide the metrics that can demonstrate your true value to the organization. Smart playAct like a businessSet your objectives, document your mission, track your contribution, and communicate your value.
A successful Data Transmission Service provides valuable services to both internal and external customers. This requires a clear understanding of key business drivers. It also demands that you be ready to demonstrate the ways you can deliver value:. Achieve economies of scale throughout the enterprise . Provide functionality that otherwise would be unaffordable, or has not been thought about previously
Addition by Subtraction Look to ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) "Remove two things and replace them This proven model is the place to start. ITIL can support you with solid information with one" is a principle... [download for more]