Industry watchers argue that when economic times are tough, enterprise IT managers need to get lean.
IT organizations with less budget money to spend could find ways to re-align existing technology and human resources to optimize services — without making a large capital investment.
Enterprise IT managers faced with budget cuts and headcount reductions might not think there is anything left to lose, but industry watchers argue that most IT organizations can continue to squeeze more fat from their departments by way of inefficient processes and outdated software licenses.
“The economy is forcing IT departments to go back to basics, in a sense, to squeeze more out of existing infrastructure. Because the management of existing systems can be up to 70% of IT costs, IT is starting to understand the importance of better management in their efforts to get leaner,” says Evelyn Hubbert, senior analyst at Forrester Research.
IT management and automation technologies could help lessen manual labor associated with operational tasks, especially if headcount is lower than normal. Such technologies might warrant an IT budget investment even in a downturn considering the potential ROI they could deliver.
“IT management solutions play a key role in the quality of IT services and the cost of resources used to deliver these services to business users. In tough economic times, increasing business productivity through better IT services and decreasing costs are top priorities,” reads a recent Forrester Research report.
One area IT managers needs to investigate is software license usage, Hubbert says, because vendors during the downturn could be looking collect on outstanding contract fees. By keeping up-to-date asset inventories and tracking usage, Hubbert says IT managers can better prepare to turn away software vendors hoping to make money off existing customers during the recession.
“Understanding your hardware and software assets is essential to operating a leaner IT environment,” Hubbert says. “For many software vendors, sales are down so they want proof of asset licenses.”
And taking a look at existing resources and how to better utilize them doesn’t require a large capital investment, others say. In some cases, it could require another look at how to optimize human assets. For Tom Peck, senior vice president and CIO at Levi Strauss, part of his job is being the head sales guy for IT, and the other part is about assessing in-house resources and finding the best fit between current projects and existing staff.
“We started to reshape the talent we mix we had in IT,” Peck says.
Do you Tweet? Follow me on Twitter here.
