Xcel Energy Case

The business needs are addressed by the current criterion, weighting, IT portfolio management processes, activities and steps. The IT portfolio has assisted the company in delivering the results. For instance, in mid-year 2004, Xcel Energy’s IT portfolio was generating an EVA of 10.24% against a 10.30% target. However, in August the same year, the business units attained the highest forecast-to-actual performance of any business unit during the prior period, a variance of four percent on anticipated spending. This improvement is attributed to the new systems and processes. The business uses business value as well as technology innovation criteria. Many projects appear on the screen at the initial evaluation and those projects that appear toward

The process can be modified to better meet the business needs. The processes that were implemented in the program were complex. Thus, there is need to implement processes which the system can manage. This would save time and the implemented processes require little “tuning” later on.

Are the right members and the right mixture present at decision-making investment review and evaluation meetings?

Xcel Energy has the right members and the right mixture when major decisions are being made at evaluation meetings and investment reviews. The company’s members were

Chosen based on the skills they had and which would make the business to succeed. The PMO director was supposed to have skills in organizational management, and business reengineering and transformation know-how. Also, the manager for policy, process, and standards was required to have management skills as well as experience in process engineering. The manager who oversees the PMO project manager is from a financial company and has assisted in the building of foundations. The business unit liaisons were required to facilitate as well as promote the use of end-to-end process in their organizations. All these individuals were supposed to have “a bias for results” alongside with having a passion for

In Xcel Energy, utilities would require two to three systems. Initially the disparate systems weren’t seen as a problem as the management believed that the downward trend of deregulation would lead to a group of autonomous business units, where each business unit has its own systems. However, the waning of the deregulation trend led the IT strategy to shift towards consolidating the disparate systems and functions. The Xcel Energy management found out that its difficult consolidating the disparate IT into the overall IT demand, to create technology synergy in the entire company, or controlling the aggregate IT Spend. Also, there were many IT organizations that were already contributing to technology footprint which was already getting worse as well as out of control. The over-budgeted as well as delayed projects were becoming too common. To address this issue, the company partnered with IMB Global Services where the business system unit runs and governed IT as a business with well laid out processes, commercial rigor and