Senior Editor Denise Dubie guides you through the latest developments in management tools and services.
Economic uncertainly drove many IT executives to reduce high-tech spending in 2008 and early 2009, but the same thinking behind slashed costs has renewed interest in projects designed to improve IT service management and streamline processes for infrastructure and operations professionals.
IBM in December 2008 and January 2009 surveyed some 421 organizations to better understand the impact of the economic downturn on IT budgets. More than 60% of those surveyed said the economy is the number one business issue affecting IT investment priorities. Eighty-five percent of the IT decision-makers polled by IBM reported flat IT budgets, while 10% said they had experienced significant reductions.
The survey also found that 75% of respondents continued, expanded or initiated projects designed to improve efficiency and reduce costs of business activities. Another 76% said the same about projects that promised to accelerate workforce productivity. About 72% were focusing their efforts on IT investments that improved access to and leveraged customer information, while 63% were working toward increasing customer retention and loyalty. And 39% indicated they continued to continue, expand or initiate projects to reduce capital costs.
IBM’s poll also revealed that following security and compliance, IT systems management and service management ranked the highest among IT executives’ priorities with 65% and 64% indicating that such projects would be continued, expanded or newly initiated, respectively.
“Organizations are leveraging service management best practices to improve the quality of key IT services and reduce the cost of IT-enabled business activities in an effort to get more value from the capabilities and resources in place,” reads the IBM report, “IT service management: resetting priorities for an uncertain economy.”
Network World wants to hear from you. Are you ready for the recession to end? Which projects is a priority for your IT organization now? What is garnering the most budget dollars and staff hours? How is your company working to ensure it maintains a competitive advantage during and after the downturn? Please share your thoughts with me at ddubie@nww.com.
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Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.
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Comments (3)
Checkout Tufin SecureTrack!By gurmits1960 on June 22, 2009, 2:48 pmSpeaking about slashing IT costs is speaking about Tufin.
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Doing more with lessBy Bleepme on June 23, 2009, 7:20 amI was very interested to read this article - for me IT service management is an area that is often not given enough focus or indeed overlooked entirely. Working...
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UnsustainableBy Anonymous on July 16, 2009, 11:28 amThe thing I have watched happen regarding IT initiatives over the past eight years is they generally seek to streamline process through ADP, and all other forms...
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