Securitas gains insight and supports business transformation with LeanIX

When Securitas needed to better manage its enterprise architecture, reduce risk, and improve agility, it turned to LeanIX. The result? Securitas now has a holistic view of its Business Capability and Application Architecture and understands how the business is supported by it. The main goal of the project was to establish clarity and visibility to help Securitas make informed decisions as it pursued strategic business transformations. This case study highlights the importance of finding a reliable partner to provide a comprehensive view of the IT landscape and how it supports the business.

"LeanIX has provided great and responsive support for our internal enterprise architecture practice. By providing a better picture of our IT landscape and improving the way we manage enterprise architecture, we aim to rationalize where needed, improve target architecture planning, and respond more quickly to changing business needs. LeanIX has enabled better collaboration and communication between teams within Securitas IT and provides much-needed transparency to our business stakeholders as well. We're very happy with the level of knowledge and insights captured with LeanIX, in conjunction with Konfident, and look forward to continuing our partnership to further optimize our IT operations." – Thomas Teglund, Lead Enterprise Architect – IT, Securitas

Securitas is a leading global security services provider. Headquartered in Sweden, it has operations in 45 markets and more than 1,300 branch offices.

Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Securitas is a leading global security services provider with operations in 45 markets and more than 1,300 branch offices. With a workforce of over 358,000 employees, the company provides security consulting, security personnel, monitoring, and response services to a wide range of industries, including retail, healthcare, and aviation.

To achieve their goals of focusing on client centricity and being data-driven as a people-focused, competitive business, Securitas recognized the need for digital transformation (among many other things). But, with so many employees spread across the world, along with a heavily decentralized IT department, the process was challenging.

The enterprise architecture function at Securitas consists of a handful of people working to map out the disparate IT and application portfolios manually using tools like Excel, Visio, and PowerPoint. The company quickly recognized that was neither scalable nor efficient.

Securitas felt the need to improve the situation. That led them to seek out an enterprise architecture management tool that could achieve the following:

1. Increased visibility into how IT supports the business: Securitas has a large and complex IT and Application portfolio spread across different regions and business units, which was not centrally managed. This limited the understanding of what applications supported the business.
2. Better overview of redundant applications: Without proper visibility into its IT landscape, it was challenging for Securitas to identify and rationalize redundant applications, leading to increased risk and rising costs.
3. Increased speed in responding to changing business needs: The inability to effectively plan a target architecture meant Securitas was unable to respond quickly to business transformation agendas. It needed reliable data to support decision-making.

Securitas looked for an enterprise architecture (EA) tool that would manage and provide visibility into its entire application and technology portfolio. Implementing the right tool would provide the transparency to map applications and technology against business capabilities, allowing Securitas to identify application overlap as well as cost saving opportunities or potential risks. Above all, it would give them the opportunity to optimize their application and  technology portfolio and make faster decisions from the insights gained.

Securitas conducted an extensive procurement process to find the right technology partner for its needs. They sought a SaaS solution that could meet the following requirements: excellent user experience (UX), easy integration with a cloud identity provider (IdP), and superior security capabilities.

Securitas ultimately selected LeanIX, a leading enterprise architecture management software vendor, to power its business transformation. At a later stage, Securitas engaged an implementation partner, Konfident, to support its team. Konfident helped Securitas to prioritize resources and build the skills required to drive adoption of LeanIX across the wider community beyond the EA function so as to take full advantage of the tool.

“Our collaboration with Securitas is, in our opinion, an ideal scenario between a client, an implementation partner, and a vendor. Securitas put a lot of trust in us, and that supported an agile and pragmatic approach to continuously drive progress and value. Securitas remains in full control of decision making while we bring inspiration to the table, ensuring continuous progress and user adoption while minimizing the strain on the internal organization.”  – Brian Halkjær, Co-founder & CEO, Konfident.

When executing a digital transformation project, success depends on having total visibility into IT, applications, and data within the context of the overall enterprise. A partner like Konfident can help companies achieve this transparency, develop an enterprise architecture management (EAM) strategy, and identify as well as implement the right technology. Konfident helps customers develop strong EAM practices through a combination of business insight, tool expertise, and recognition of each customer's unique situation. Since 2020, Konfident has opted to work exclusively with LeanIX as its EAM solution of choice.

Securitas went with LeanIX to help with their business transformation. The company enlisted the services of Konfident, an implementation partner, to provide additional support to its team.

Konfident has supported Securitas to drive user adoption of the LeanIX Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) solution. Securitas initially leveraged LeanIX’s application portfolio management (APM) module to conduct a baseline architecture assessment of its IT portfolio, create an inventory of all its applications, and accurately map business capabilities to each of them.

The team at Securitas quickly realized that for LeanIX to add maximum value, they’d need additional resources to anchor LeanIX in the business. That’s where Konfident came in. They worked with Securitas to identify the business and IT stakeholders responsible for each application. These people would consequently be accountable for capturing and maintaining data in LeanIX. The small EA team grew from a handful of enterprise architects to a number of what they refer to as “champions,” who provide reliable data directly into the leading repository.

Securitas continues to identify applications with APM - an ongoing activity based on the size and complexity of the organization - and have recently added the business transformation management (BTM) module to support target architecture planning. Konfident’s role is to act as an advisor with regards to how applications are managed (and ultimately changed), how to best document the integration landscape and how to utilize this with the business transformation (BTM) module. Together, Securitas and Konfident develop training materials for and train various personas across the organization. LeanIX - being the single source of truth - profoundly improved collaboration between business and IT, effectively supporting business transformation.

By partnering with LeanIX and Konfident, Securitas has:

• Improved visibility and created a trusted-data source for its application and IT portfolio
• Aligned applications with business capabilities to understand how IT supports the business
• Began to drive IT standardization, e.g., recommended applications and IT components for best practice IT
• Better supported overall business transformation by mapping programs and projects to Business Objectives and Capabilities

About Securitas

Securitas is a world-leading safety and security solutions partner that helps make your world a safer place. Almost nine decades of deep experience means we see what others miss. By leveraging technology in partnership with our clients, combined with an innovative, holistic approach, we’re transforming the security industry. With 358 000 employees in 45 markets, we see a different world and create sustainable value for our clients by protecting what matters most - their people and assets. https://www.securitas.com/

About Konfident

Konfident is a consultancy focused on digital transformation and Enterprise Architecture Management leveraging the LeanIX platform. Konfident enables customers to build or improve their Enterprise Architecture Management with a combination of business insight, LeanIX tool expertise, and recognition of each customer's unique situation. Konfident customers range from midsize to large organizations across different sectors. The company is headquartered in Odense, Denmark. Learn more at https://www.konfident.dk.