Managing Information Technology

who pulls too hard on the reins will never have a
winning horse. We told them, “Guys, run like your
hair’s on fire.”... We only got involved with
approvals if the group couldn’t agree on what need-
ed to be done, or if the decision involved a high-risk
issue. For example, the steering committee got
involved when we were deciding whether to have
two or three T1 lines.

—Allan Horn, Vice President, Technology

Operations

In merger mode, you have to behave a certain way.
People are watching your confidence. You’re not
only managing the project, but you’re managing
perceptions. You need to keep confidence high
that the merger can be done within budget, with

acceptable risks, and that the management team

can pull it off.

—Hamed Omar, Senior Vice President, Technology

Group

The project office for the DCR employed some of

the same team members who had managed the Eagle II

system a few years earlier. The detailed processes and

review mechanisms developed for Eagle II had been

extensively reviewed by the McKinsey consultants

before the decision was made to manage the IT integra-

tion internally.

After our processes were reviewed at an executive

level, [the consultants] spent about two weeks with

us hand in hand to evaluate whether our project

Case Study IV-2 • FastTrack IT Integration for the Sallie Mae Merger 619

Data Center Relocation

Project Management Office

Work Plan Managers

FPMO

Dot-Coms

HR/Financial

ImDoc

FPMO

L!

BSS, Wired Scholar

Sallie Net

OpenLineSS

SIFT

Cindy Gunn

Jo Lee Hayes

Allan Horn

Larry Morgan

Rick Olson

Hamed Omar

SENDING TECHNOLOGY OWNERS

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

FPMO

FPMO Project Planning

Facilitator

Application Testing Coordinator

Infrastructure Testing Coordinator

TARGET TECHNOLOGY OWNERS

FPMO

Network Infrastructure

Storage & Mainframe

Command Center, Print & Mail,

and Facilities

Sallie Mae Financial (AS/400)

ITL

Systems Management

GroupWise

PVCS Products

FPMO

Acquisitions

Class

Data Warehouse

Concord

Origination Systems

Morgan’s Mics Apps

Contract Admin

Security

Project Manager – John Bennett

IT Approach Consultant

STEERING COMMITTEE

FPMO

Kris Brothers

• Issues/Risk Management


• Change Management


• Project Plan Coordination

EXHIBIT 4 Data Center Relocation Team Structure