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So far you’ve used tables to capture your requirements and identify the functions that define your business. You’ve seen what constitutes an IT system, and you’ve seen the extra features an IT system can bring to your business from a functional perspective.

The approach to defining the IT capabilities was to work from the ground up. To define your business functions, you started at the top and then worked your way down. The final job to undertake in completely mapping your business to your IT solution is to map the two together. To do this, you will use yet another set of tables.

Expanding on the previous example, take a look at Table 1-4 to see the breakdown of the AAA support element of the garage services business described earlier. Here you see there are three subfunctions that can be decomposed from the high-level service, AAA support.

Table 1-4.Three Low-Level Components That Compose AAA Support

AAA Support

Subfunction Customer Description

Communicate with AAA call center AAA Receive calls from call center over the to receive 24/7 emergency call-outs phone. Emergency number is routed to

manager’s cell phone.

Assign calls to appropriate mechanics AAA Manager passes call to on-call service mechanic.

Invoice AAA on a monthly basis Self Invoices are typed from paperwork records of jobs each month and posted to AAA headquarters.

Now take these three services and look at them from an IT perspective. With all the tools and capabilities you’ve seen so far, which aspects of your SBS 2003 system can be matched against these functions?

Look at Table 1-5. You’ll see that all of these functions can be somewhat automated by the introduction of an IT system. They all benefit from the IT solution, but it is essential that you make sure to justify each of the matches before putting a plan in place to implement it.

Table 1-5.Business Functions Mapped Against IT Capabilities AAA Support

Subfunction Customer Description IT Capability Justification

Communicate AAA Receive calls from Email sent to No need for the with AAA call call center over the mobile messaging manager to be center to receive phone. Emergency system, routed the middleman, 24/7 emergency number is routed to directly to on-call although all calls call-outs. manager’s cell phone. mechanic but are still accounted

logged in Microsoft for by the Microsoft Exchange for Exchange logging auditing and billing. system. Manager

can trace all activity the following day. Assign calls to AAA Manager passes Automated, All billing appropriate call to on-call see previous. information is

mechanics. service mechanic. held in one place.

Invoice AAA on a Self Invoices are typed Excel spreadsheet A quick scan of monthly basis. from paperwork generates invoice. the electronic

records of jobs mailbox shows

each month and the call activity.

posted to AAA This data is fed into

headquarters. a preprogrammed

spreadsheet, and an invoice is generated automatically.

After you have completed this task for all your business functions, you will have a clear understanding of exactly what you need Small Business Server 2003 to do for you.

A word of warning though: try not to let your IT system become driven by fabricated requirements. These are ones driven by that fatal flaw in most of us, to play with the latest gadgets. Try to look at every piece of technology in the context of its use in your environment. If there is a possibility it might be misused, look at ways of locking down its features or forcing a particular method of working.

Many of the technologies presented in this chapter have bells and whistles attached that might well be of no use at all to your business, but nevertheless their core capability is of para- mount importance.

A good example is in identifying the need for secure Internet access, so ISA Server is essential, but do you really want everyone in your business surfing the Web whenever they like? Maybe you also don’t want to be seen as a ruthless boss who denies privileges to the workforce, so instead you set a company security policy that permits access to the Internet between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. for the general workers, and access at all times for management. You can even go so far as to still allow email to flow to and from the Internet while still barring access to the Web.

Requirements match capabilities. Capabilities are controlled by policy. Policy is adminis- tered though centralized control of your IT systems.

SBS 2003 can do all of this with as little overhead to your business as is possible. The next part of this chapter takes a look at three real-world example companies. You’ll get to see how three very different businesses captured their requirements, and in each case how they matched those requirements to the capabilities of their proposed IT infrastructure.