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E xecutive
creation of the new company. “We were aware of authenticates and authorizes all users and
the challenges, and we had help from Onex, but computers in a Windows network and enforces
nevertheless the IS transition to independence security policies for all computers and for
took longer than we first anticipated.” Since installing or updating software. Separating
Carestream didn’t exist legally until the actual Carestream and Kodak was contingent on
divestiture took place, contracts and service level separating the Active Directory. This proved
agreements (SLAs) couldn’t be implemented until considerably more difficult than expected. “We
then. As a result, Carestream inherited a “mini- had estimated six months and $25 million, and it
Kodak” IS function on Day 1. took three times that in both time and money,” said
Donovan.
Carestream Health
The Transformation Mandate
Carestream Health is a worldwide provider of dental and
medical imaging systems and IS solutions, x-ray and medi- Hobert knew he needed an experienced
cal printing film, and advanced materials for the precision and proven CIO to formulate a vision for a
films and electronics markets. It holds more than 800 transformed IS function. He hired a consultant as
patents for medical and dental imaging and information acting CIO while he searched for the right person
technology. Headquartered in Rochester, New York, in
2012 the company had over 7,000 employees, sales in 150
for the job. The acting CIO assessed Carestream’s
countries and $2.5 billion in revenue. current situation and helped identify appropriate
industry benchmarks to serve as goals for the
revitalized IS function. He also identified areas
“We had a smorgasbord of technology,” recalled of opportunity for consolidating applications,
Peter Hood, Carestream’s Director of Global IT infrastructure and people.
Operations and Infrastructure. All applications, Hobert knew that the new CIO would face a
data and infrastructure were replicated to create challenging transformation on multiple fronts.
a parallel organizational structure. “We had one “I hired a good search firm that specialized in
of every type of machine Sun ever created,” said IS leaders. They helped me craft a detailed and
Hood. “Our systems were not integrated and were tailored CIO specification and then helped me find
not designed for our type of company,” said Hobert. the right person.” The leader selected was Bruce
Carestream inherited 150 locations Leidal, a career IS executive with demonstrated
worldwide and a variety of global network skills in IS transformation. He joined Carestream
services contracts to support them. It also in August 2008.
inherited 300 IS people in 44 locations around “I knew during the interview process that
the world. The IS staff for the new company was Carestream had three major problems,” recalled
selected in a variety of ways. “In applications, Leidal. “First, we were still tethered to Kodak.
most positions were filled voluntarily,” explained The plans to disconnect had slipped four or
Cindy Donovan, a former Kodak IS manager and five times, and there was now a major lack
now Carestream’s Director of IT Strategy, PMO of confidence about this separation. Second,
[project management office] and Governance. the inherited systems were outdated and not
“But in infrastructure, most came as part of the designed for a company dealing with healthcare
divestiture agreement. We had people who were products for medical practitioners. Our systems
strong on execution but who didn’t have the needed had been designed to support Kodak’s primary
solution architecture, strategy, technology design, business, which was consumer fulfillment. Third,
or contract negotiating experience. No one was our [IS] operations cost structure was too high
skilled in operations,” said Hood. Not only were and unpredictable. We needed to get our costs
operations partly in-house (insourced) and under control in order to free up funds for new
partly outsourced, but there was considerable investments. We had 700 core applications and
duplication and confusion between the groups. needed 200-300 at the most. We had multiple
However, the most challenging inherited financial and email systems, no architecture
problem was the Active Directory, a foundational or standards and exact copies of every type of
technology that provides a central location infrastructure and application that Kodak had. It
for network administration and security. It was like the Wild West!”
168 MIS Quarterly Executive | September 2013 (12:3) misqe.org | © 2013 University of Minnesota
Restructuring Information Systems Following the Divestiture of Carestream Health
“Bruce walked into a real challenge,” said application development and support, global
Hobert. “Our IS infrastructure and services IS operations and infrastructure, and people
did not provide the information and capability management. Table 1 summarizes the initial,
needed to operate our business effectively and interim and transformed states achieved (or
efficiently. We knew that IS was key to our future. anticipated) for each of the seven areas, which are
We believed that a strong IS organization would discussed below.
provide capabilities and information that would
IS Strategy
differentiate our company.” He was confident
he had hired a CIO with the right combination Engagement & Strategic
Non-existent → visioning → framework
of leadership and technology savvy who could
transform IS as well as sell the needed changes to “The day Bruce arrived, the entire data center
the business. crashed,” recalled Donovan. “Our IS organization
was a minefield. Our tactical staff spent their time
The IS Transformation firefighting, but it wasn’t working.” Leidal spent
Carestream’s IS transformation took five years, his first few weeks gathering information and
the last four of them under Leidal. The changes listening to business leaders, trying to understand
have been evolutionary, but constant, putting their pain points. “Bruce made sure he understood
significant pressure on the IS organization in the issues and then grouped them into categories,
every area. “This was a multi-faceted change,” such as problems with prioritization, high costs,
said Leidal. “The spin-off came from a very large poor service levels or the lack of an integrated
company with a very large IS group. I had to IS vision,” explained Hobert. “Then he engaged
reduce the complexity to something manageable.” our leadership team in resolving these issues
He identified seven primary areas of change: IS and developing a vision for IS.” The plan for IS
strategy, relationship management, enterprise was much like any roadmap for new product
architecture, governance and the PMO, development in that it had an architecture,
requirements and several phases of development organization it would take to deliver on this vision,”
and commitment from the business. “Developing said Donovan.
commitment to a vision and a set of priorities
requires collaboration and cannot be forced,” Relationship Management
Hobert said. “Bruce refined and sold the vision
and then developed the credibility for continued Solution Strategic
Order-taker → →
investment by delivering on what he promised.” provider partner
The strategic framework he developed for IS Strong relationships were essential to building
had three major components: a new and more valuable IS function. In addition
●● Strategy development for both business to building strong personal relationships at the
and technology senior management level, IS needed to change
●● Execution, including an improved project how it worked with the business units. “We had
management office and applications to make a cultural shift from ‘do whatever the
development activities customer asks’ to ‘plan and execute’ and ‘monitor
and control’,” explained Leidal. To accomplish this,
●● Ongoing operations to manage service he established a portfolio-management process
levels, infrastructure and operations. that facilitated IS decision making, prioritization
To support this framework, new IS-governance and global portfolio management, and reshaped
processes and people-management practices the IT Council to include key business executives.
were needed. Once the overall vision was Through the IT Council, Leidal then led business
established, Leidal and his IS management team leaders through the steps needed for sound,
undertook several phased initiatives to improve agreed-on portfolio decisions, gaining agreement
and enhance each component. Figure 1 illustrates on IS’s strategies and confirming the business’s
how these components fit together. direction.
With this strategic framework, “Bruce was able To further strengthen business relationships
to take the frustrated business community who saw and better understand business strategy and
IS as a cost and give them a different perspective, direction, Leidal appointed both a Director of
helping them see the potential value of IS. Then IT Relationship Management and relationship
he engaged them in envisioning the type of IS managers for each of the business units and
functions. The relationship managers are the
170 MIS Quarterly Executive | September 2013 (12:3) misqe.org | © 2013 University of Minnesota
Restructuring Information Systems Following the Divestiture of Carestream Health
face of IS to the business units and functional and collaboration. In addition, the IT Architecture
leadership, as well as partners in delivering Council established a Master Data Management
solutions to help the business achieve its Council with business participation to develop
strategies. Relationship managers have clear strong standards for master data.
accountability for solutions that deliver expected Governance and the
results according to pre-established metrics.
Project Management Office
Relationship management is also a high
priority for the future. According to Leidal, “We Limited PMO; new IS Comprehensive
need to do a better job of understanding what and overly → organizational → governance
complex design framework
the business wants and developing stronger
relationships.” To this end, he is hiring people Leidal soon found that the IS organization had
with management consulting backgrounds who complex and ineffective governance. “I needed to
know how to build trusted relationships with quickly set the tone for the future,” he explained.
the business while the rest of IS acts as a delivery Using the strategic IS framework as a guide,
engine. Leidal created four core IS governance forums
for policy deployment, IS architecture, change
Enterprise Architecture advisory and supplier management.
Although Carestream had inherited a PMO, it
Comprehensive
Non-existent → Technology → architecture was too deep in the organization to be effective
standards governance and was focused on IS internals only. “We needed
Leidal first created an IT Architecture Council the execution discipline to successfully deliver
staffed by senior IS leaders who collaboratively business value through IS portfolio projects
developed guiding architectural principles for the and programs,” said Leidal. In early 2009, he
organization. These included: appointed Cindy Donovan as Director of IT
Strategy, PMO and Governance. She was given the
●● Monitoring mega-trends and ensuring mandate to develop the role and principles of the
Carestream is positioned to adopt new PMO and establish the governance, standards and
technologies if desired best practices needed to deliver IS value. Over
●● Guiding and maintaining IS standards the past four years, the PMO has been improved
with dedicated and certified project managers,
●● Establishing master data management
and new methodologies have been introduced to
●● Ensuring that projects adhere to streamline project delivery and enhance quality.
architecture standards New processes and tools to monitor IS have also
●● Exploring the potential of new been added for time tracking and billing, project
technologies. planning and reporting, financial planning and
tracking, and enterprise resource management.
The Council identified specific projects,
such as creating a single sign-on capability Application Development and Support
and developing the IS project portfolio that The first step in improving application
would demonstrate the value of architecture
Standardized
to the business. “We’ve pretty much put all the Disjointed, Consolidated, processes, clear
architecture pieces in place now,” said Leidal. inappropriate → streamlined → responsibilities,
systems systems & development
“The only parts still missing are our global service strategies
platform and online strategy.”
IS leaders are responsible for implementing development and support was to assess the
architectural principles in their own areas. entire application portfolio of the divestiture
Infrastructure architecture and solutions and the competencies of the inherited staff.
are implemented by architects in Global IT First, Leidal consolidated IS development staff
Operations and Infrastructure, and solutions into three locations worldwide. Then he re-
architecture by staff in Applications Development evaluated Carestream’s sourcing contracts and
and Support. For example, Carestream now has insourced application support to give staff more
server standards and has implemented Global incentives to resolve the root causes of problems.
SharePoint for document management, workflow In keeping with his strategic approach to change,
Leidal established guiding principles for this than the industry benchmark of 1.55%. Leidal
function, including use of industry best practices, also hired a Director of Global IT Operations
the creation of centers of excellence to improve and Infrastructure, Peter Hood, who joined
productivity, and adoption of commercial off-the- Carestream in early 2009 and had over 40 years’
shelf and industry best-of-breed solutions. He and experience in managing IS. Leidal mandated Hood
his team then targeted the number of applications to sort out the people and costs in operations.
in the company. “We didn’t have a single one of In spite of its high level of spending,
anything,” Leidal recalled. “We had 11 financial “Operations was in poor shape when I arrived,”
systems alone!” After four years, the 700 systems stated Hood. “We were partly insourced and
Carestream inherited were reduced to 400.With partly outsourced, and there were people in both
this reduction has come less complexity and places doing the same job.” Hood made a quick
greater ability to deliver business solutions. Major evaluation of the situation and developed clear
new applications, such as ERP, CRM, contract statements of work and lines of delineation
management and financial planning were also between Carestream’s operations and the
introduced. New development methodologies, outsourcer. “We kept technical support for
tools, metrics and templates developed by SAP and database administration and moved
the PMO have improved productivity and system administration and the help desk to the
substantially reduced variance from development outsourcer.” Inherited operations in 44 locations
schedule and cost estimates. worldwide were also consolidated into four
According to Leidal, “We still have a number of centers. Both of these changes enabled him to
applications to reduce. Considerable bloat remains reduce staff by almost 50% while improving
in our cost structure. Once we have reduced our service levels.
applications to 300 or fewer, there will be more to Working with the outsourcer, Hood
invest in improved infrastructure. ... We want to established industry benchmark SLAs and ITIL-
establish ‘the Carestream Way,’ where every part of based improvements in service and customer
our business uses the same processes and the same satisfaction. “Previously, our service desk only
systems in the same way. We hope to be there by operated from 9-5 EST, Monday to Friday. With our
the end of 2014.” improved processes and metrics, thanks to weekly
monitoring and quality improvement initiatives,
Global IS Operations and Infrastructure we were able to get service levels to industry
norms within one year for both response time and
Costs below problem resolution,” said Hood.
Expensive, Simplified, benchmarks, He also attacked network costs by building
complex, → predictable costs, → high customer
unreliable improved service a global VOIP wide-area network, cutting the
satisfaction
networking budget from $8 million to $3 million.
Carestream’s IS operations had two significant However, in spite of these streamlining efforts, a
problems when Leidal joined the organization. significant cost loomed ahead. “When Carestream
First, Carestream and Kodak were still tethered was set up as a standalone entity, the company
together through a joint Active Directory in spite spent about $30 million to buy infrastructure,” said
of several efforts to separate them. To counteract Hood, “but no one considered the cost involved in
a growing sense of hopelessness, Leidal refreshing it in a few years’ time.” To address this
worked with his senior leaders to determine need, he engineered a capital lease program that
dependencies and develop a plan for separation. maintains a constant depreciation level with
Then, he challenged his IS team to implement continual built-in refreshes. Thus, instead of
it by October 2008, rallying IS staff with mouse spending $30 million every five years, $6 million
pads emblazoned with “Cut the Kord!” On October is depreciated every year and capital spending is
20, 2008, Carestream operated as a separate not affected.
business for the first time. “It was a lesson that These savings were enabled by improved
we could push ourselves to accomplish a goal and technology architecture capabilities that clarified
it was a first step in changing our culture,” said the company’s technical direction. For example,
Leidal. creating a virtual environment eliminated over
The second problem was IS operations cost: 200 physical machines by the end of 2011. As a
at 3% of revenue, it was significantly higher
172 MIS Quarterly Executive | September 2013 (12:3) misqe.org | © 2013 University of Minnesota
Restructuring Information Systems Following the Divestiture of Carestream Health
result, IS operations expenses had been reduced The textbox below lists some of Carestream’s
from 3.0% to 1.5% of revenue by the end of IS transformation metrics for 2007-2012.
2011. “We now have predictable operations and
infrastructure costs that our business can count ●● Operating costs reduced from 3% of revenue to 1.5%
on,” said Leidal. of revenue, below industry benchmarks
By 2012, however, there was some concern ●● Operations locations consolidated from 36 to four
that keeping operations expenses at 1.5% of ●● Service desk customer satisfaction improved: 4.5-5.0
revenues was too low. “That’s just a ‘keep the
●● Service levels improved to industry norms
lights on figure’. … We now recognized we need
to invest in our infrastructure as well as our ●● Number of applications reduced from 700 to 400
applications,” said Leidal. ●● Development locations consolidated from 36 to 3
●● Staff reduced from 300 to 170
People Management ●● Productivity improved
Too many Upgraded skills ●● Cost and schedule variances reduced by 50%
Talent
people, → & improved → management
wrong skills productivity
these strategies fit together (see Figure 1). The ●● Oversee “course corrections” to guide
description of the IS governance transformation effective performance.
below illustrates how change was designed and Next, a governance structure and set of
executed for each of the components in Figure 1. desirable practices were developed that indicate
First, Leidal and his team established the IS how all parts of governance interact (see Figure
mission: 2).
With these foundations in place, Leidal and
The IS governance mission is the his team were then able to create a roadmap
development and maintenance of effective outlining specific new governance initiatives for
controls for management, execution and several years against which progress could be
measurement processes, which result in high monitored and reported.
performance and low risk while ensuring
strategic alignment and maximum value for 2. Strong, Effective Processes
the business. Today, Carestream’s IS processes are widely
regarded as important components of the IS
Then, to guide the design and implementation organization’s ability to deliver value to the
of this mission and to communicate the company.
responsibilities and expectations of governance “We are now viewed as process change experts
practices to others, the following principles were within the company,” said Leidal. “We have
established: the skills and capabilities, not only to make IS
●● Ensure that core definitions, structures better, but also to help the business operate and
and processes exist to shape all IS efforts innovate.”
●● “Ensure” as opposed to “execute”—i.e., do The PMO transformation provides a good
not just execute required activities, ensure illustration of how new IS processes have been
they are well carried out developed at Carestream. When Leidal arrived,
project managers were scattered throughout
●● Monitor the results of IS management, the organization, portfolio management was
execution and measurement processes as non-existent and PMO governance was only
an input for continuous improvement internal. “Our ability to execute was weak,”
174 MIS Quarterly Executive | September 2013 (12:3) misqe.org | © 2013 University of Minnesota
Restructuring Information Systems Following the Divestiture of Carestream Health
recalled Donovan “And we had an overly complex end of 2010, portfolio management was added,
and outdated project-delivery methodology.” and the PMO played the role of financial advisor.
Furthermore, project managers lacked the Finally, by the end of 2011, the PMO took on
necessary competencies to be successful. As a an enterprise focus, driving value from the IS
result, the business lacked confidence in IS’s portfolio from inception to implementation.
ability to lead, plan and execute a portfolio of These transformational process steps are
strategic projects. summarized in Table 3.
Together, Donovan and Leidal identified the The PMO now trains employees across
next steps that would be needed to develop these Carestream’s business in project management
disciplines: fundamentals. More than 75 business colleagues
●● Research PMO models and functions have learned the process, concepts and basic
structure of project management in a series of
●● Define the PMO mission, role and two-day courses run by IS. “Bruce has adopted a
principles model of introducing process change to the rest of
●● Identify process management methods the company,” said Olney. “He puts together the
and tools processes and tools and then leads the way for the
rest of us.”
●● Drive process change and value over the
next three years and beyond 3. Leadership
●● Measure value, assess lessons learned and The depth and breadth of cultural
drive continuous improvement. transformation that often accompanies a
divestiture requires a CIO who has depth and
Digging deeper, Donovan identified three breadth in leadership experience and ability.
foundational components of a PMO and their Hobert invested considerable time and attention
associated processes: governance, standards in selecting the right person for the CIO job and
and best practices, and coaching, mentoring and then gave him a clear mandate and stepped
training (see Table 2). out of the way. “I value IS and see it as a great
As Donovan implemented the processes enabler,” he said. “It is essential to helping us
involved in each component, the role of the PMO differentiate ourselves, but building effective
changed. In 2009, it focused on establishing IS systems and business processes also requires
standards. Over time, measurement was added, consensus and cooperation.” In addition to
and the PMO became a project auditor. By the monthly senior leadership team meetings, Leidal
Portfolio • Established a project scoring • Established project launch • Established resource supply
Management system and portfolio- (kick) process management foundation
management process, • Improved project charter • Improved change-
balancing risk, cost and return process management process
• Created portfolio planner role • Improved estimating
process
Governance • Standardized project status • Improved stakeholder • Moved gate-review
reporting network governance governance to business
• Established project risk review • Established PMO monthly steering team
process projects review • Improved monthly variance
• Defined project stakeholder cadence and reporting
network
Standards and • PMO obtained certification • Introduced prototyping • Created flexible paths
Best Practices • Improved project-initiation project framework through project
and project-closure templates • Delivered project methodology tailored to
methodology makeover business and project profile
• Improved lessons-learned • Automated project status
template and process reporting and EVA metrics
• Launched public project
dashboard
Coaching, • Established project • Created PMO steward role • Project execution
Mentoring and management community • Established project fundamentals training
Training forum management expectations • WBS/schedule management
• Launched PMO website • Improved project • Resource management
• Provided Microsoft project management forum focus • Developed project
schedule training management career path
model
meets with Hobert one-on-one every three to work smarter, not harder. … With [a strong
weeks to work through the IS vision. master] plan now in place, we can view resource
Cultural change and good communication pinch points for the first time. We’ve set some rules
with IS staff are high on the IS leadership in place so that people don’t have to take on too
team’s agenda. In addition to quarterly IS town many projects, and we know where to cross-train
halls, where accomplishments are recognized, staff or bring in new resources.”
questions answered and plans for the future
presented, Leidal holds a monthly two-hour Concluding Comments
roundtable with between 8 and 10 non- Given the “burning IS platform” on Day 1,
management staff from across his organization. change was inevitable. “It was much more difficult
“This gives me an opportunity to hear what people than I anticipated,” Donovan recalled. “It was
care most about and what they’re troubled about,” a confusing time, and nothing went well. But
said Leidal. At the end of the meeting, he always now, with five years’ of hindsight, I’ve come to
asks them to write down and present what they appreciate what a phenomenal transformation
would change or do differently if they were in his we’ve been through, and I’m very grateful to have
job. “Much of our transformation pace came out of been part of it.” Today, there is considerable
these meetings and our town halls,” he said. optimism about IS’s future at Carestream and
Although the initial IS transformation goals a strong desire to ramp up its strategic use now
have largely been accomplished, Leidal faces a that the initial transformation mandate has been
new challenge: staff fatigue. “People are telling largely accomplished.
me that they’re tired, so we have to find new ways
176 MIS Quarterly Executive | September 2013 (12:3) misqe.org | © 2013 University of Minnesota
Restructuring Information Systems Following the Divestiture of Carestream Health
Heather A. Smith
Heather Smith (heather.a.smith.queens@gmail.
com) is Senior Research Associate with Queen’s
University School of Business at Kingston,
Canada. A former senior IT manager, she is
the author of five books on IT strategy and
management, the most recent being IT Strategy
(John Wiley) with James D. McKeen. She is also
Co-director of the IT Management Forum and
CIO Brief, which facilitate inter-organizational
learning among senior IT executives. Her
research has been published in, among others,
MIT Sloan Management Review, Communications
of the AIS, Knowledge Management Research
and Practice, Journal of Information Systems
and Technology, and Journal of Information
Technology Management.
Richard T. Watson
Richard Watson (rwatson@terry.uga.edu) is the
J. Rex Fuqua Distinguished Chair for Internet
Strategy in the Terry College of Business at the
University of Georgia. He is a former President
of the Association for Information Systems and
the current Research Director for the Advanced
Practices Council of the Society of Information
Management. In 2011, he received the Association
for Information Systems’ LEO award, which is
given for exceptional lifetime achievement in
Information Systems.