| | It’s time to simplify your IT, slash the cost of your IT services and refocus the investment on things that add value to your business.
Let’s be honest about this, information technology may be very important to running a business but for most of us it is not strategic and it does not provide a competitive edge. How can it - everyone else has access to the same technology. So, do you really need a server room full of complicated equipment and a squad of people on-site just to provide commodity IT services?
Why it all so expensive?
The traditional IT set-up is based around an assumption that most or all of the infrastructure required to provide IT services for the company should be located in-house. As soon as company grows beyond a very small size, the need to share information leads to the set up of an email system, file servers and networked applications. These in turn require additional infrastructure to connect to the outside world, to prevent unauthorised access and to make backup copies in case of failure.
Over time, layer after layer of technology is deployed, all of which adds complication and requires specialist technical staff to keep going. Ask your technical people for a list of the hardware and software in your server room. Now you know where the money goes!
Empty the server room and slash the cost of IT
Challenge the assumption that this is the way it has to be. Why do you have to be a producer as well as a consumer of IT services? What if you decided to get rid of it all?
There is little you need that cannot now be provided more efficiently from outside your organisation. Corporate class email, document management, CRM, ERP, even hosted telephone systems are available on-demand over the Internet. The great advantage of on-demand services is that they are not dependent upon location – your people can access them from wherever you want. Moving offices, people on the road and working from home cease to be an issue. Try asking that of your existing IT set-up.
The companies that provide on-demand services have secure data centres, running 24x7 and have built-in disaster sites. Economies of scale enable them to provide these services far more economically than you can do yourself. In some areas, such as CRM, virtually all-new implementations are done this way. The idea of deploying a system in-house is becoming redundant.
Aim for Zero IT
The ultimate goal should be Zero IT infrastructure, nothing more than the PCs on the desks, a network and a connection to the outside work.
When you start to unpick the in-house assumption, the layers of technology, complexity and cost fall away. Zero IT will slash the cost of your IT services.
What's next?
If you would like to know more about this topic and find out by how much you can slash your IT costs, click on the Contact Us box.
Click here to return to the ICT Practice Area
Link Management Group Home Page
|
|