IT Target Operating Model & IT Organization

What Is an IT Target Operating Model (IT TOM)?

An IT Target Operating Model (IT TOM) is the strategic and organizational blueprint of a modern IT organization. It defines the desired future state and how strategy, organizational structure and processes, decision rights, skills and capabilities, and the Digital Workplace must work together to deliver maximum business value.

As part of our TOM consulting services, we address the following key questions:

• How should the IT organization be structured and positioned for the future?
• Which roles, IT capabilities, and skill profiles are required?
• How are decisions made and priorities set across the IT portfolio?
• Which processes and delivery models support agile service delivery?
• How should IT, business functions, and external partners (sourcing and ecosystem) collaborate?
• How can IT operational performance be measured and managed effectively?

Distinction: IT Operating Model (Current State) vs. IT Target Operating Model (Future State)

The terms IT Operating Model and IT Target Operating Model are often used interchangeably, but they describe different perspectives:

• IT Operating Model (Current State): Describes the existing organization, interfaces, roles, and day-to-day IT processes.
• IT Target Operating Model (Future State): Describes the strategic target concept that defines how IT must be organized in the future to achieve business objectives efficiently.

The 6 Design Dimensions of the IT TOM Framework

Comprehensive IT organizational consulting involves much more than creating a new organizational chart. We focus on six key design dimensions:

1. Organizational Structure & Governance: Structuring centralized, decentralized, or federated IT units and defining decision rights.
2. Roles & RACI Processes: Establishing clear responsibilities, authority, and accountability.
3. Business-IT Partnering: Managing interfaces and building trust between IT and business functions.
4. Skills & Capabilities: Developing a forward-looking skills management approach to build new digital capabilities, such as AI, cloud, and cybersecurity.
5. Sourcing & Ecosystem Governance: Managing internal resources, external partners, and managed service providers.
6. Digital Workplace & Collaboration: Providing secure, hybrid working environments and collaborative platforms.

The Future-Ready IT Organization: From Administration to Value Creation

While IT was once primarily responsible for infrastructure and operations, it now directly shapes business models, innovation, and hybrid working environments. Strategic IT Operating Model Consulting creates the balance between stable core operations and the ability to deliver digital solutions quickly.

Key Drivers of IT Target Operating Model Development

• Optimized Delivery Model: Breaking down silos, simplifying interfaces with the business, and reducing time-to-market.
• Integrated Digital Workplace: Seamlessly integrating modern collaboration tools, flexible workplace services, and hybrid working environments into IT operations.
• Future-Proof Skills Management: Building capabilities in AI, cloud architectures, and modern development standards.
• Efficient Ecosystem Management: Effectively managing internal teams and external managed service partners.

4 Phases to a Practical IT Target Operating Model

The Digital Workplace as the Operational Heart of IT Transformation

The Digital Workplace is more than a collection of software tools: it is the tangible manifestation of your IT organization. An effective operating model combines modern workplace technologies, user lifecycle processes, and collaboration platforms into a productive working environment that brings together scalability and a user-centric approach.

EFS Consulting’s IT Organization & Operating Models Service Portfolio

EFS Consulting’s IT Organization & Operating Models service portfolio aims to strategically align IT organizations, clarify structures and responsibilities, and sustainably improve processes and collaboration models. Organization, governance, skills, performance, and the Digital Workplace are brought together in an actionable target model.

Areas Covered by EFS Consulting

The following service areas illustrate how EFS Consulting helps organizations build high-performing IT functions, establish clear accountability, and sustainably improve collaboration between IT, the business, and external partners:

1. IT Target Operating Model, Strategy & Governance
2. Process Performance & Business Alignment
3. Digital Workplace Strategy & Transformation
4. Modern End-User Services & Digital Collaboration

1. IT Target Operating Model, Strategy & Governance

We translate your corporate strategy into a viable target state and establish lean governance and management models.

EFS Consulting Services:

• IT Target Operating Model (TOM) Design: Developing future-ready target models for organizational structures and processes.
• Role & Interface Design: Clearly defining decision rights, responsibilities (RACI), and governance bodies.
• Operational Governance & Steering: Designing steering committees, escalation paths, and KPI reporting structures.
• Skills & Competency Management: Identifying future capability gaps and developing organizational transformation roadmaps.

2. Process Performance & Business Alignment

We simplify processes and build a strong bridge between IT and business functions.

EFS Consulting Services:

• End-to-End Process Optimization: Analyzing and harmonizing processes and eliminating media discontinuities in line with Lean IT principles.
• IT Business Partnering: Establishing modern business partner roles to improve the alignment of requirements and priorities.
• Agile & Hybrid Ways of Working: Integrating flexible delivery models and reliable performance KPIs.
• IT Culture & Change Management: Supporting organizational change to establish a shared understanding of value.

3. Digital Workplace Strategy & Transformation

We design future-ready working environments that connect technology, processes, and employee needs.

EFS Consulting Services:

• Workplace Strategy & New Work: Developing modern workplace concepts for hybrid and mobile working.
• Transformation Roadmaps: Aligning user requirements, technology options, and standardization objectives.
• Enablement & Adoption: Supporting organizational change to embed new digital ways of working.
• Workplace Governance: Defining clear policies for the use of mobile devices, tools, and data.

4. Modern End-User Services & Digital Collaboration

We create integrated platforms and reliable services that enable a productive digital working environment.

EFS Consulting Services:

• End-User & Service Management: Optimizing user lifecycle processes, support models, and service quality.
• Provider Management: Establishing structured management and quality control for internal and external managed service providers.
• Collaboration Platforms: Harmonizing, selecting, and rolling out modern tools for teamwork and document management.
• Information & Knowledge Architecture: Establishing structured information repositories and usage concepts.

When an IT TOM Should be Evolved—and When it Becomes Essential

An IT Target Operating Model can be developed further to support the strategic realignment of IT—for example, when IT needs to evolve from a reactive service provider into a business enabler, increase its value contribution, or effectively implement new strategic priorities. In these cases, the IT Target Operating Model provides the organizational framework for consistently aligning strategy, governance, structures, processes, capabilities, and delivery models with the desired target state.

However, in the event of fundamental technological or organizational changes, adapting the IT Target Operating Model is not an optional optimization exercise but a prerequisite for successful transformation. Introducing new systems, platforms, or enterprise-wide tool suites changes responsibilities, decision-making paths, capabilities, processes, and collaboration with business functions and external partners. The same applies when new business areas are established, units are merged, responsibilities are reassigned, or centralized and decentralized services are reorganized.

If the operating model remains unchanged in such situations, technology, organizational structures, and ways of working will no longer be aligned. This can lead to unclear responsibilities, parallel structures, additional interfaces, and investments whose potential is not fully realized.

Why EFS Consulting?

EFS Consulting combines years of experience gained through numerous technology, transformation, and organizational development projects. We translate strategic realignments, as well as the need for mandatory adjustments resulting from technological or organizational changes, into practical IT Target Operating Models—not theoretical organizational charts, but effective structures, roles, and ways of working.

• Pragmatic & Results-Oriented: We derive the necessary adjustments to governance, organization, processes, roles, and capabilities from the specific transformation drivers and support their consistent implementation.
• Transformation & Organizational Development Under One Roof: We combine technological transformation with in-depth organizational development, empowering leaders and employees to embed new responsibilities and ways of working sustainably.
• Integrated Perspective: We treat strategy, technology, governance, processes, skills, delivery models, and the Digital Workplace as an integrated whole, ensuring that the IT Target Operating Model fully reflects the new target state and changing conditions.

Are you strategically realigning your IT organization or undertaking fundamental technological and organizational changes? EFS Consulting supports you in evolving your IT Target Operating Model to meet your specific needs—from analysis and design through implementation and sustainable adoption. Get in touch for a consultation!