Optimising The Use Of IT

Optimising the use of IT in an economic downturn Martin Atherton Research Director Freeform Dynamics Ltd +44 208 943 5324 [email_address] www.freeformdynamics.com

Topics
Review of recent research
IT imperatives in a tight economy
3 ways optimise the IT infrastructure and operations
3 ways to optimise the way IT is used in the business
3 ways to enable the business to be more efficient
Helping the business drive the top line
Q&A

Has the ‘credit crunch’ had a specific impact on IT investment in your company or do you expect it to? 1125 Respondents

Has the ‘credit crunch’ had a specific impact on IT investment in your company or do you expect it to?

If you are expecting an impact in 2009, how great do you think it will be?

Summing it up
Few have yet been hit by the downturn
But the majority in IT are preparing themselves
View seems to be consistent across segments
Little difference between geographies
Little difference by company size
Everyone ultimately likely to be affected
However, we are from widespread panic
Most anticipating a selective/limited impact on IT
So how can we maintain this controlled view?

Maintaining control
Not just about cost cutting within IT
Need for a more balanced approach
Economic pressure IT DEPT RESPONSE

3 ways of optimising IT
Server virtualisation
Underutilisation = excessive overhead & power consumption
Solutions now mature, costs coming down (e.g. MS option)
Desktop management
Desktops account for significant IT related costs and overhead
Asset and licence management can have a quick ROI
Challenge/qualify proposed upgrades very hard
Consider desktop virtualisation
Systems management
Prevention is cheaper than cure
Integration is cheaper than fragmentation
Efficiencies reduce costs and free up resource

3 ways of optimising the way IT is used
Application training
From office tools to core business systems
Make users more self sufficient (and productive)
Reduce support costs
Defer investments (learn to use what you have!)
Power and waste management
Configuration/user behaviour re desktop PCs, printers, etc
Define and implement end user policies
Implement basic IT governance
Make all IT related activity count in business terms
Review of existing systems and projects (and shoot the dogs!)
Prioritise proposed projects via objective cost/value criteria

3 ways of enabling business efficiency
Get people better connected
Mobile access: hand-held devices, data cards, etc
Unified communications: telephony, conferencing, messaging
Remote access: home working, branch office working
Reduce travel costs, reduce dead time, boost productivity
Make smarter use of the Web
End user driven content management/maintenance
Extranets and collaboration portals
Unlock the value in your information assets
Most businesses capture lots of data but don’t use it
Business intelligence is no longer a black art
Work with users to understand what drives performance

Help the business drive the top line
Generating income is fundamental
Nothing happens without it
Looking after the top line is even important in a downturn
Need to improve, just to stand still
Sales and marketing activity is:
Information intensive
Communication intensive
Time sensitive
Repetitive and formula driven
IT can make big difference

Focus on business objectives
Enable maximum individual productivity
Get people working together as effectively as possible
Present the best possible image to the market
Operate in an intelligent, informed and joined up manner
Time to market Time to competitive response Lead generation efficiency Sales conversion rates Level of repeat business Overall cost of sales

1. Make smarter use of office tools
Templates and process
Re-use of content
Re-use of formatting
Lever talent/experience
End user training
Tools
Processes
Basic collaboration
Document shares
Team sites
Simple workflow
Search
Individual productivity Effective team working Image/presentation Intelligent execution

2. Get your people better connected
Mobile access
Hand-held devices
Notebook data cards
Email, diary, contacts
Other apps via browser
Unified communications
Telephony integration
Messaging integration
Multi-media conferencing
Remote access
Home working
Branch office working

3. Make smarter use of the Web
Revisit your Website
Image, clarity, accessibility
Use of rich media
Interactivity, rich interfaces
User generated content
Consider and extranet
Partner/channel
Customers
Investigate social media
Blogs, wikis, networking
Your own and others
Sales, marketing and competitive

4. Unlock your data and put it to work
Improve business understanding
Customer segmentation
Performance analysis
Affinity analysis
Focus development
Market gaps/opportunities
Optimise marketing
More effective messaging
Smarter targeting
Optimise sales
Better qualification
Propagate best practice

5. Close the loop with integrated CRM
Support CRM holistically
Business planning
Product development
Marketing campaigns
Sales force automation
Transaction execution
Customer service
Integrated BI
Sales perspective
Financial perspective
Operational perspective
Exploit single view of customer

Maintaining control
QUESTIONS?
Economic pressure IT DEPT RESPONSE

Optimising The Use Of IT

by Freeform Dynamics on Aug 24, 2009

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