Capability Modelling
What the business does, stated once and independently of the org chart — the frame everything else in the review hangs off.
Part of the review. Not sold separately. It is the first part of the application estate review, and the review is bought as one piece.
Anyone who has tried to compare applications against each other and found there is nothing to compare them on.
Two systems are both described as essential by their owners, and no one can say whether they do the same job.
Every application in an estate has an advocate. Ask whether you need it and the answer comes back in terms of who uses it and how long they have used it, which is not an answer to the question. Without a common frame, a portfolio review turns into a negotiation between the people who shout loudest.
What a capability is
A capability is something the business does, stated so that it stays true regardless of who does it, what department they sit in, or what software they use. Supplier management is a capability. The purchasing team is an org unit, the procurement module is a system, and three-way matching is a process. Only the first survives a reorganization.
Two levels is usually enough. A first level of eight to ten — the things a business of your kind has to be able to do — and a second level beneath each, fine enough that an application lands on one or two rather than on all of them.
Why it comes first
Applications can only be compared once they are attached to something. Attach them to capabilities and three questions answer themselves: where you run four systems to do one job, where you run none and the work happens in a mailbox, and where the money is going relative to what the business actually competes on.
That last one is usually the uncomfortable finding. Spend tends to accumulate where systems are old and loud, not where the business wins.
Where it goes wrong
Most capability models fail in one of two directions. Either they are copied from an industry reference model and nobody recognizes their own business in it, or they are drawn from the current org chart and quietly become a map of the current departments — in which case they will be wrong within a year and they will never surface a duplication, because each department’s systems sit neatly under that department.
We build from how your business describes its own work, then test the model against the parts that fit badly: the acquired division that does things differently, the work that happens in a spreadsheet between two systems, the job one person has done for fifteen years.
What it is not
It is not a maturity assessment, and it is not a target operating model. It is a frame for reading your estate. See it carrying a real estate on the worked example, then how applications get mapped onto it.
What this part produces
The work we do
- Build a two-level capability model of what the business does, from the way the business describes its own work
- Keep it independent of the org chart, the ERP module list and the current systems — capabilities outlive all three
- Test it against the awkward cases: the acquired division, the work done in a spreadsheet, the thing one person does
- Mark which capabilities the business actually competes on and which are simply required
- Agree the wording with the people who do the work, not just the people who sponsor the review
What you receive
- A two-level capability model in language your own business uses
- A marked distinction between capabilities that differentiate you and capabilities that merely have to work
- A frame that stays valid after the next reorganization, acquisition or ERP decision
How we know it is finished
The model is agreed by the business, and every application in the estate can be attached to at least one capability on it.
What we need from you
- An hour each with the people who run the work, not only the people who own the budget
- Whatever process documentation exists, however dated
What you keep
The code and the data·Your existing relationships·Approval and control·The ability to stop·The off switchWhat that means
Application Landscape Mapping
Every application you run, with its owner, cost and connections, mapped onto the capability model until the duplication and the gaps are visible.
Learn more ↗Assessment & Disposition
A verdict on every application, what that verdict commits you to, and the order the moves have to happen in.
Learn more ↗Start with a 45-minute briefing.
Bring the renewal you cannot answer, the list nobody trusts, or the two systems that do the same job. We will tell you honestly where to start.