Whitlock Infrastructure Solutions
Proven ITSM Methodologies for Business Success

Atypical client engagement strategy meeting at Whitlock Infrastructure Solutions involves these factors: define, document, and deliver value. Leading the meeting is an animated Jeffrey M. Jamieson, the president of Whitlock, who comprehends the specific business needs and encourages the clients to go through a ValueFirst workshop. “The workshop serves as a ‘beacon’ of process initiation where we can make our clients understand the value that needs to be accomplished, and the key constituents involved,” he mentions. “The documented goals and objectives assist in the later stages of the project as it ensures that we don’t stray away from them.” ValueFirst, as Jamieson calls it, is the methodology that governs the engagement. While most goal-setting exercises begin by soliciting inputs from key stakeholders, ValueFirst goes one step further to focus on ensuring consensus on expectations, budgets, and outcomes. In addition, after Whitlock Infrastructure Solutions completes the project, the clients are assisted in tracking the value delivered through the company’s ValueOps methodology. “What we have done with our ValueFirst and ValueOps methodologies is that we have made it clear that while organizations have to consider people, process, and technology, they also have to apply these in a way that aligns with their business goals,” says Jamieson.

By delivering their enterprise-grade and time-tested methodologies, Whitlock is bridging the gap between businesses and IT and ensuring that the overall organization is thinking in terms of the business goals. Jamieson illustrates a specific example to substantiate his company’s work, “When we write a statement of work, we add specific tasks to be operationalized and the consecutive value outcomes. Many customers who have come back to us for a new implementation project, request specifically for mentioning the value outcomes as it helps them in getting the approval from their senior leadership seamlessly.” Whitlock typically collaborates with Fortune 1000 and 500 companies, and in one such instance, they were working with a financial organization that was planning to undergo an on-premise implementation but were not ready operationally.

While organizations have to consider people, process, and technology, they also have to apply these in a way that aligns with their business goals

Through Micro Focus’ containerization strategy and ValueFirst methodology, Whitlock was able to keep the project onschedule, carry out the full implementation on-premise, and eventually move them to the cloud.

In its pursuit toward delivering value in the ITSM landscape, Whitlock is equally supported by its partner ecosystem. The company leverages the tools and technology of its core partners, such as Micro Focus in the pre-sales health and support function and in ensuring that the clients’ needs are met as far as future capabilities are concerned. “Micro Focus provides us the benefit of flexibility that helps us in our ValueFirst methodology,” adds Jamieson. No wonder Whitlock has won the 2017 Micro Focus global partner of the year award for demonstrating success and growth in meeting customers’ needs consistently.

Jamieson mentions that Whitlock is focused on understanding the latest trends in the industry such that they can create new go-to-market solutions and explore new partner sets. While Micro Focus’s containerization strategy will help Whitlock expand its managed service offering, going forward, the firm will also focus on DevOps. The entire move toward the cloud, hybrid IT, and agile methodology has ensured the maturity of DevOps after years of struggle. “A chasm always existed between a company’s ‘Dev’ and ‘Ops’ till now, but the movement to the cloud and improvement in the automation system have broken it, and we are uniquely positioned to support our customers in the near future,” concludes Jamieson.