tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23480457192911449452024-03-28T20:30:11.970-07:00Telecommunications Cost Management<center> Understand the telecommunications services and effectively manage the costs of those services. We explains in nontechnical language the most common telecom technologies and services in today’s marketplace. These services fall into four categories: local, long distance, data, and wireless services. Each service offering has its own unique type of bill. </center>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger283125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-16126403079448267272019-07-17T23:36:00.000-07:002019-07-17T23:36:01.803-07:00EBS vs Instance Store <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">EBS-backed means
the root volume is an EBS volume and storage is persistent Instance
store-backed means the root volume is an instance store volume and storage
is not persistent <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">On an EBS-backed
instance, the default action is for the root EBS volume to be deleted upon
termination <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Instance store
volumes are sometimes called Ephemeral storage (non-persistent) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Instance store
backed instances cannot be stopped. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">If the underlying
host fails the data will be lost Instance store volume root devices are
created from AMI templates stored on S3 EBS backed instances can be
stopped. You will not lose the data on this instance if it is
stopped (persistent) EBS volumes can be detached and reattached
to other EC2 instances EBS volume root devices are launched from
AMI's that are backed by EBS snapshots <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Instance store
volumes cannot be detached/reattached <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">When rebooting the
instances for both types data will not be lost <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">By default, both
root volumes will be deleted on termination unless you configured
otherwise </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-68028951669022813912019-07-15T12:36:00.000-07:002019-07-15T12:36:03.721-07:00AWS EC2 Networking<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Public IPv4
addresses are lost when the instance is stopped but private addresses
(IPv4 and IPv6) are retained Elastic IPs are retained when the
instance is stopped.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">All accounts are
limited to 5 elastic IP's per region by default AWS charge for
elastic IP's when they're not being used <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">An Elastic IP
address is for use in a specific region only You can assign custom
tags to your Elastic IP addresses to categorize them <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">By default, EC2
instances come with a private IP Public IP addresses are assigned for
instances in public subnets (VPC) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Public IP addresses
are always assigned for instances in EC2-Classic DNS records for
elastic IP's can be configured by filling out a form <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Secondary IP
addresses can be useful for hosting multiple websites on a server or
redirecting traffic to a standby EC2 instance for HA<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">You can choose
whether secondary IP addresses can be reassigned <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">You can associate a
single private IPv4 address with a single Elastic IP address and vice
versa <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">When reassigned the
IPv4 to Elastic IP association is maintained <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">When a secondary
private address is unassigned from an interface, the associated Elastic IP
address is disassociated <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">You can assign or
remove IP addresses from EC2 instances while they are running or
stopped All IP addresses (IPv4 and IPv6) remain attached to the
network interface when detached or reassigned to another instance <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">You can attach a
network interface to an instance in a different subnet as long as it’s
within the same AZ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">You cannot team by
adding ENIs to an instance Eth0 is the primary network interface and
cannot be moved or detached <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">By default, Eth0 is
the only Elastic Network Interface <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-18595598993775556892019-07-12T11:28:00.000-07:002019-07-12T11:28:00.206-07:00AWS EC2 Instance types <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><u><i>Creating
Instances </i></u><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Option to request a
spot instance and specify the maximum bid price Choose whether to
auto-assign a public IP - default is to use the subnet setting Can
add an instance to a placement group Instances can be assigned to IAM
roles which configures them with credentials to access
AWS resources Termination protection can be enabled and
prevents you from terminating an instance Basic monitoring is enabled
by default (5-minute periods), detailed monitoring can be
enabled (1-minute periods, chargeable) Can define shared or dedicated
tenancy T2 unlimited allows applications to burst past
CPU performance baselines as required (chargeable) Can add a script to
run on start-up (user data) Can join to a directory (Windows instances
only) There is an option to enable an Elastic GPU (Windows instances
only) Storage options include adding additional volumes and choosing
the volume type Non-root volumes can be encrypted Root volumes can be
encrypted if the instance is launched from an encrypted AMI There is
an option to create tags (or can be done later) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">You can select an
existing security group or create a new one You must create or use an
existing key pair - this is required An Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
provides the information required to launch an instance An AMI
includes the following: A template for the root volume for the instance
(for example, an operating system, an application server, and
applications) Launch permissions that control which AWS accounts can
use the AMI to launch instances A block device mapping that specifies the
volumes to attach to the instance when it's launched AMIs are
regional. You can only launch an AMI from the region in which it is stored.
However, you can copy AMI's to other regions using the
console, command line, or the API <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-85353061192641233522019-07-10T23:27:00.000-07:002019-07-10T23:27:50.308-07:00Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud | Amazon EC2 <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web
service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is
designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You are limited to running up to a total of
20 On-Demand instances across the instance family, purchasing 20
Reserved Instances, and requesting Spot Instances per your dynamic spot
limit per region (by default) Amazon EC2 currently supports a
variety of operating systems including: Amazon Linux, Ubuntu,
Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server, Fedora, Debian, CentOS, Gentoo Linux, Oracle Linux, and
FreeBSD EC2 compute units (ECU) provide the relative measure of the
integer processing power of an Amazon EC2 instance <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With EC2 you have full control at the operating system
layer <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><u>Key pairs are used to securely connect to EC2
instances: <o:p></o:p></u></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A key pair consists of a public key that AWS
stores, and a private key file that you store For Windows
AMIs, the private key file is required to obtain the password used to log
into your instance For Linux AMIs, the private key file allows you
to securely SSH into your instance <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><u>Metadata and User Data:</u> </i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
User data is data that is supplied by the user at instance
launch in the form of a script Instance metadata is data about your
instance that you can use to configure or manage the
running instance User data is limited to 16KB User data and
metadata are not encrypted Instance metadata is available at <u>http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data</u> The
Instance Metadata Query tool allows you to query the instance
metadata without having to type out the full URI or category names <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-9149236848534807242012-05-25T05:04:00.000-07:002012-05-25T05:04:00.772-07:00Leveraging the Organization<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="653-4" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
<br /></h3>
<div class="first-para" id="654-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
During times of cost reduction, it is an excellent time to look at the IT resources across the company to determine if IT is organized properly and leveraged. There may be IT resources in the business units or they may be decentralized. Ensure there is a valid business reason for this structure. Consider if you can leverage resources across the organization to reduce overall costs. Ensure you <span class="beginpage" pagenum="235"><a href="" id="655" name="655" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page235" name="page235" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>do not have duplicate functions in other parts of the organization. By leveraging enterprise-wide competencies and skills, you can reduce staff who are unnecessarily embedded in the business units.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch07top26" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 1em; text-align: left;">
<span class="example-title" id="655-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 1: </span>Span of control</span><a href="" id="656" name="656" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top26" name="ch07top26" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top26" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="first-para" id="656-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"To reduce costs, flatten your management team and increase the span of control of managers. Ideally I like to see 6-8:1, but 15:1 is possible for one to two years if necessary."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="656-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Dave Brady<br style="line-height: 1;" />Starkey Laboratories</div>
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="blankspace">
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="ch07top27" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="656-3" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 2: </span>Shared services</span><a href="" id="657" name="657" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top27" name="ch07top27" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top27" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="first-para" id="657-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"Although it can save money, creating a shared service environment is a tremendous culture change for an organization. If you are coming from a distributed environment with organizations geographically dispersed, proceed with extreme caution. The obstacles in both IT and the business are huge."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="657-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Lina Shurslep<br style="line-height: 1;" />Navarre Corporation</div>
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="blankspace">
</div>
</div>
<div class="para" id="657-3" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
You can also leverage skills in the business. For example, during an implementation the business often develops super users, or individuals with a knack for technology and the business. You maybe able to leverage these valuable resources and it may save you from hiring a business analyst. In another example, a company uses a pull system rather than a push system for report generation to reduce IT labor. The users were instructed to get reports and information on the Intranet rather than sending reports and clogging up e-mail in-boxes.</div>
<div class="last-para" id="657-4" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Evaluate if a shared services model would save costs. Bringing IT resources under a single point of control reduces waste created by policy differences and nonstandard operations. However, proceed with caution because moving resources out of the business units can be a political challenge. You have to guarantee service will improve rather than become less than the current level.</div>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-83959318402019965122012-05-22T11:24:00.000-07:002012-05-22T11:24:00.445-07:00Delayering and Streamlining | ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="649-5" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
<br /></h3>
<div class="first-para" id="650-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
Management streamlining or delayering of the organization can be a rich vein to tap when it is time to reduce costs, especially in large IT organizations that have not been changed in awhile. Consider changes to flatten the organization. Rather <span class="beginpage" pagenum="234"><a href="" id="651" name="651" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page234" name="page234" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>than having one person manage six or seven individuals, have them manage 10 to 20 individuals. This change is easier and more viable with a senior experienced group. If you attempt this with less experienced individuals, or in an environment with a lack of procedures, you could actually lose productivity by increasing the number of individuals under a supervisor.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch07top24" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 1em; text-align: left;">
<span class="example-title" id="651-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 1: </span>Hire and keep good resources</span><a href="" id="652" name="652" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top24" name="ch07top24" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top24" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="first-para" id="652-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"We save money in how we hire people. It is always cheaper to hire one really good resource rather that two mediocre individuals. We are careful in who we hire and hire smart business people first and good technical people second. The soft skills are important when looking for quality people. Low turnover is important to keep costs down."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="652-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—David Kaiser<br style="line-height: 1;" />SFM Mutual Insurance</div>
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="blankspace">
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="ch07top25" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="652-3" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 2: </span>Manage people at all levels</span><a href="" id="653" name="653" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top25" name="ch07top25" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top25" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="first-para" id="653-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"We reviewed the organization. Instead of two managers, we had one with broader responsibility so we didn't give up coverage. We took out some redundant skills and used contractors to cover the risk if needed. We also reduced some staff due to project cancelations."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="653-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Greg Hayhurst<br style="line-height: 1;" />Tennant Company</div>
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="blankspace">
</div>
</div>
<div class="last-para" id="653-3" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Make sure the management structure is not too deep or redundant with leads reporting to supervisors, managers, senior managers, directors, and vice presidents, unless the organizations size warrants it. Consider moving to more collaborative, team-based models rather than inflexible hierarchies.</div>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-73279024637953626932012-05-19T02:22:00.000-07:002012-05-19T02:22:00.202-07:00Roles and Responsibilities | Roles and ResponsibilitiesORGANIZATION STRUCTURE<br />
<h2 class="first-section-title" id="annotationlabel-first" style="background-color: white; color: navy; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
<br /></h2>
<div class="section" id="ch07lev2sec9" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="642-1" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<a href="" id="643" name="643" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></h3>
<div class="first-para" id="643-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Make sure roles and responsibilities are clear and that time or labor is not wasted in handoffs or duplication. For example, doing a better job on requirement definitions can save time in programming and reprogramming. Review the roles and responsibilities of employees as well as where they spend their time. Determine if you can shift any tasks to a lower skilled and less-expensive employee. For example, a company has four systems administrators that each spends 25 percent of their time doing security-related administration. By moving security administration to the help desk and having it done by a lower cost individual, the company is able to either eliminate one system administrator position or assign other respon <span class="beginpage" pagenum="232"><a href="" id="644" name="644" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page232" name="page232" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>sibilities to them. Providing additional responsibilities for a lower level person also provides an opportunity for career growth.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch07top21" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="644-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 1: </span>Core competencies</span><a href="" id="645" name="645" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top21" name="ch07top21" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top21" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="first-para" id="645-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"We identified six or seven skills or functions that we wanted as core competencies. We benchmarked the skill set with job families. We standardized the work with repeatable functions, tiers of work, and cross trained. We created centers of expertise that leveraged best practices across teams rather than trying to centralize everything."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="645-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Malcolm McRoberts<br style="line-height: 1;" />Deluxe Corporation</div>
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="blankspace">
</div>
</div>
<div class="para" id="645-3" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Consider focusing the most expensive resources. For example, one company initially had developers doing development and testing. As developers cost more than testers, they centralized testing within a quality group and reduced overall costs. As shown in Figure 1, among the tasks within a typical IT department are a few tasks that require a high level of expertise. Many more tasks require lower expertise. By reviewing your jobs and job definitions, you may be able to reconfigure responsibilities to ensure the higher paid employees are focusing on the high-expertise tasks and leaving the lower expertise tasks to lower paid employees.</div>
<div class="para" id="645-3" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="" id="646" name="646" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07fig01" name="ch07fig01" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><span class="figuremediaobject"></span> <br style="line-height: 1;" /><span class="figure-title" id="646-1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 8em; margin-top: 0.5em;"><span class="figure-titlelabel" style="font-weight: bold;">Figure 1: </span>Tasks in an IT department</span></div>
<div class="para" id="646-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Alternatively, it also may be less expensive to eliminate lower salary administration individuals if a higher level person can complete the work much faster and at a lower cost. For example, one company eliminated two lower salary administration individuals and had one higher-level person do the work of two people. This was accomplished by automating some functions and performing the tasks more efficiently.</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="646-3" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 2: </span>Broader, more experienced roles</span><a href="" id="647" name="647" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top22" name="ch07top22" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top22" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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"We need to reduce staff to address budget cuts, while increasing competencies. We need individuals with multiple, broad, and high-level skill. This will improve service delivery and reduce overall costs."</div>
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—Lynn Willenbring<br style="line-height: 1;" />City of Minneapolis</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="647-3" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 3: </span>Outsource PC configuration</span><a href="" id="648" name="648" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top23" name="ch07top23" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top23" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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<div class="first-para" id="648-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="233"><a href="" id="649" name="649" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page233" name="page233" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>"When implementing new PCs in 500 centers, we contracted with the vendor to configure the PCs rather than configuring them ourselves. The vendor ghosted the image on the PC before delivering. We outsourced the legwork to the vendor and saved time."</div>
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—Sara Braziller<br style="line-height: 1;" />Jenny Craig (former)</div>
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Another alternative to consider is to have roles defined for broader and more experienced individuals. For example, you may be able to have three higher level people with broad skill sets do the work of five lower level, more specialized resources.</div>
<div class="para" id="649-3" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Look for work to eliminate. Determine if you can automate any roles and responsibilities with technology. Although an initial investment is required, it saves on long-term costs and labor. As mentioned in <a class="chapterjump" href="http://www.books24x7.com/assetviewer.aspx?bkid=34187&destid=490#490" style="color: green; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="_parent">Chapter 6</a>, software for password resets can automate a time-consuming and nonvalue-added function.</div>
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Right size the organization and job definitions to fit the size organization. For example, one company has a small IT group but has several functions sized for a large IT shop, as they had three QA testers.</div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-48372087696470933152012-05-16T09:19:00.000-07:002012-05-16T09:19:00.144-07:00Unpaid Time Off | ORGANIZATION SIZE<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="638-3" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
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If supported by the company, enforcing a policy requiring unpaid time off provides short-term cost reduction. Although it has an impact on employee morale, recognizing that the alternative is layoffs helps gain employees’ acceptance. It can be a scheduling challenge, as IT provides coverage for the business, so you will need to rotate unpaid days off so that key employees are not gone at the same time. Alternatively, you could set a time frame for the number of days off that each employee must take as long as you approve and stagger the requests. Due to their unique skill sets, many employees in IT are often on call for off-hour problems and it can get dicey if you need to contact them on their forced, unpaid day off. This would be a good detail to communicate in advance. Project schedules and deadlines are also impacted and would need to be revisited. Of course, delaying projects would delay benefit realization as well, so even this option has ramifications. Employees that cannot afford the day off may also look for other employment options and a negative impact to morale is a distinct possibility.</div>
<div class="para" id="639-2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
Consider temporary staff reductions by offering sabbaticals, long-term time off, or vacations without pay. IT employees who have been working extra hours, those wanting to go back to school, or those starting a family may find this to be an attractive option. You can negotiate items such as keeping benefits and health coverage <span class="beginpage" pagenum="231"><a href="" id="640" name="640" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page231" name="page231" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>in exchange for occasional support, if needed. The employee often returns with increased energy, motivation, and productivity for a win-win solution.</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="640-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 1: </span>Primary and secondary responsibilities</span><a href="" id="641" name="641" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top20" name="ch07top20" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top20" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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"You need to have a primary and a secondary person for every application. Make sure the secondary person is as knowledgeable as the primary. You need to plan now for the eventuality of future layoffs or reductions."</div>
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—Colleen Mlecoch<br style="line-height: 1;" />Amherst H. Wilder Foundation</div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-38423153087787920742012-05-12T01:17:00.000-07:002012-05-12T01:17:00.495-07:00Layoffs | ORGANIZATION SIZE<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="623-2" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
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<div class="first-para" id="624-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
In many companies, personnel reduction is the first area to come up for consideration in order to address cost reduction goals. Layoffs are an emotional process. <span class="beginpage" pagenum="226"><a href="" id="625" name="625" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page226" name="page226" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>Substantial layoffs should be one of the last places you look for cost reduction as it can have long-term detrimental effects when you cut your intellectual capital— particularly your best and most experienced people. Individuals that know your IT environment and your business are extremely valuable and you should treat them as such. Before diving into layoffs, consider all the short-term and long-term consequences and costs, such as:</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="625-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 1: </span>Efficiency of experienced staff</span><a href="" id="626" name="626" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top14" name="ch07top14" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top14" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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"An area we would not look to cut is senior staff. We appreciate the efficiency of having solid experienced staff."</div>
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—Joe Jansen<br style="line-height: 1;" />AmeriPride Services, Inc.</div>
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The company may have to pay severance packages and unemployment costs which can be significant.</div>
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If the downturn or cost reduction need is only over the short term, the costs of recruiting and training new hires when the company rebounds can be more than the savings realized in the layoffs. In many areas of IT, the costs to get fully productive in complex custom environments can be substantial.</div>
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It is difficult to replace the talent of senior experienced staff that has both technical and business knowledge. Do not underestimate the value of these individuals.</div>
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If a company begins to cut current employees, the remaining employees start worrying about their future. It can cause productivity issues and the loss of some good people as they begin to look for work elsewhere.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="626-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider union rules and constraints as well as company policies.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="626-8" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Comply with all federal and state rules and regulations, such as the Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act (WARN) and the COBRA requirements for separated employees. Check with state laws regarding payment of wages, insurance continuation, severance benefits, recommendation letters, and access to personnel records.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="626-9" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Make sure you have proper backup of knowledge and skills. It is critical to avoid deficits of key skills and knowledge. One company offered a laid off employee a $50,000 incentive to train another employee that <span class="beginpage" pagenum="227"><a href="" id="627" name="627" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page227" name="page227" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>would be taking over, but you typically do not have an opportunity for knowledge transfer.</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="627-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 2: </span>Get the right people on the bus</span><a href="" id="628" name="628" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top15" name="ch07top15" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></div>
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"Right-size your organization to align with business conditions. Make sure you have the right people on the bus, in the right seats and have a high-performing organization. Similar to coaching a sports team, you need to field the most effective team you can. Trade players if you must. There is nothing wrong with asking people to do more, especially in bad times. You can run at 130% utilization or higher for a period of time."</div>
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—Dave Brady<br style="line-height: 1;" />Starkey Laboratories</div>
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Prepare to respond to inquiries or complaints regarding how you decide or handle layoffs, how the layoffs will affect other employees, and questions on additional layoff plans.</div>
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<div class="para" id="628-4" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Layoffs can be useful to realign the skill set of your organization. For example, you could choose to eliminate areas of older technology such as mainframe programmers and then when able to, hire a skill-set to match your project needs.</div>
<div class="para" id="628-5" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Layoffs can also be helpful to eliminate the lower performers. This could be due to work ethic or work output, attitude, absenteeism, or history of performance. Every organization has a few employees that are at the bottom. By eliminating them and hiring better performers, you are able to do more with less. Your exceptional employees can be ten times more effective than low performing ones, yet they do not cost ten <span class="beginpage" pagenum="228"><a href="" id="629" name="629" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page228" name="page228" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>times the money. They are a bargain from a financial perspective<sup>[<a href="http://www.books24x7.com/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=34187&chunkid=455332077&noteMenuToggle=0&leftMenuState=1#ftn.ch07fnt01" name="ch07fnt01" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;">1</a>]</sup>. By hiring high-performing employees, you may be able to actually cut your budget. The trick is to know how to spot potentially top-notch employees in an interview as they can be difficult to discover and, of course, there are no guarantees.</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="629-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 3: </span>Relationship management and project management</span><a href="" id="631" name="631" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top16" name="ch07top16" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top16" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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"I would not cut in the areas of relationship management and project management. These areas drive efficiencies."</div>
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—Larry Bonfante<br style="line-height: 1;" />USTA</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="631-3" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 4: </span>Real backup</span><a href="" id="632" name="632" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top17" name="ch07top17" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top17" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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"To mitigate the risk of any potential layoff, we need to make sure that everyone has a true backup. This is not a theoretic backup, but someone that can pick up the work, knows the passwords, and is familiar with the environment."</div>
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—Bruce McIntosh<br style="line-height: 1;" />Graco Inc.</div>
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You should not need a cost reduction layoff to take care of the low performers in your organization. Have a defined process to deal with them on a regular basis with sound management practices. However, the reality is that often in good times and with busy agendas, managers do not always address performance issues with employees. A cost reduction effort can be a good time if you are not performing this management discipline on an on-going basis. Particularly in large IT organizations, the low performing employees can often hide. In a small IT organization, even if you have one bad employee among ten, that is 10 percent of your workforce. You can achieve up to a 10 percent increase in productivity by replacing the bad employee with a high-performing productive one. The increase could be even greater if the bad employee affects the productivity of others. Customers and other IT employees notice low performers so dealing with them improves customer <span class="beginpage" pagenum="229"><a href="" id="633" name="633" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page229" name="page229" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>service as well as employee morale. A forced-ranking process can be helpful to identify low performers in an organization.</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="633-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 5: </span>Temporary assignments</span><a href="" id="634" name="634" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top18" name="ch07top18" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top18" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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"Consider offering employees temporary assignments in other parts of the business instead of making staff reductions. This is a win-win as they learn a new area, get training and exposure to the company, and you are able to reduce costs."</div>
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—Peter Bellavance<br style="line-height: 1;" />Tastefully Simple</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="634-3" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 6: </span>Layoffs</span><a href="" id="635" name="635" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top19" name="ch07top19" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top19" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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"You will experience strong emotions when doing layoffs, you don't have anguish with it, you have gotten too immune and look at people as objects. You need to recognize that it will be difficult."</div>
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—Anonymous CIO</div>
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Downsizing is never pleasant. If layoffs are necessary, do it carefully and plan well with the following recommendations:</div>
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Spend time on honest and open communication to both those who are laid off as well as those remaining.</div>
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Work with human resources and the legal department in order to ensure the process is complete. Follow proper communication policies and laws.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="635-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Work with human resources to plan support for the employee's departure. This may include a transition packet that helps the employee navigate these difficult times. It can address topics like COBRA, 40IK rollover, and job search sources. Even paying a few thousand dollars on job coaching will ease the transition and show others that you took care of the employee.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="635-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Document your discussions and reasons for your decisions.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="635-8" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Determine the best process that treats employees with respect and dignity.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="635-9" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Make sure you do not target any particular ethnic group, gender, age, or protected class as lawsuits can cost more than the money saved in a layoff. Comply with the Older Worker Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA) and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="635-10" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
If a layoff is necessary, do it once and move on. Do not have layoffs on a frequent basis as they significantly affect morale, employee stress, and overall productivity.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="635-11" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
If a layoff is necessary, do it quickly as it does not get better by delaying it. Every month you delay is money lost.</div>
</li>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-37662294950342896412012-05-08T11:11:00.000-07:002012-05-08T11:11:00.243-07:00ORGANIZATION SIZE<br />
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<a href="" id="623" name="623" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07lev2sec4" name="ch07lev2sec4" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a>Eliminate Open Positions</h3>
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The quickest and easiest action to take to impact short-term cost reductions is to freeze hiring and eliminate open positions. Of course, this will only be a cost reduction if the positions were included in the budget. To cover the business need that probably does not go away as easily, you may need to reassign the employees, make organizational changes, re-prioritize through the governance process, change project schedules, or train employees. Therefore, even eliminating open positions has some costs or productivity hits associated with it.</div>
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Early Retirement</h3>
<div class="first-para" id="636-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
To avoid layoffs, many companies ask employees to consider retiring early with an additional monetary incentive. The advantages of this are that you do <span class="beginpage" pagenum="230"><a href="" id="637" name="637" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page230" name="page230" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>not need to pay unemployment costs and the cost of the incentive package is short term. There are difficulties when offering early retirement. The number of employees accepting the offer could be a drain on your pension plan and long-term individuals that take the offer and whose IT and business knowledge are valuable are difficult to replace. Today, many organizations are facing major training issues and turnover costs as the baby-boomer generation is leaving the work force. Additionally, employees with years of experience are not always willing to pass their knowledge on to a young replacement.</div>
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<a href="" id="638" name="638" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07lev2sec7" name="ch07lev2sec7" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a>Schedule Changes</h3>
<div class="first-para" id="638-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Investigate reducing the hours that you provide services in order to reduce wages. For example, if you have a 24/7 help desk, you could discuss options with the business to reduce costs and provide less coverage.</div>
<div class="last-para" id="638-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Consider shifting workers from full-time to part-time. This could be accomplished by either targeting job functions or by asking for volunteers. This option can be helpful as you retain the trained employees and re-engage them full-time, if necessary</div>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-24489847493737062652012-05-06T11:12:00.000-07:002012-05-06T11:12:18.725-07:00Outsourcing and Off-shoring | WORKFORCE OPTIONS<br />
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In the past, it was the latest trend to outsource IT services with the hope that it would reduce costs and improve service. Many organizations that raced to implement the outsourcing or off-shoring model quickly realized that it did not save money and did not improve service. The companies then brought IT back in-house. This change in direction and the transition cost organizations a significant amount of money and a loss of IT credibility. As stated by one CIO interviewed, "Off-shoring is grossly overrated. Some claim a 70 percent savings when in actuality it is 20 percent savings, if that. Do not expect that type of savings."</div>
<div class="para" id="607-2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
There are many studies and opinions on the question if outsourcing and off-shoring actually lower costs. However, if done properly, you typically can save money with outsourcing and off-shoring. For example, one company found offshore rates of $22-$24 per hour, while on-shore the rate was $50 per hour and internal rates were $60 per hour. With pressures of cloud computing and software-as-a-service <span class="beginpage" pagenum="220"><a href="" id="608" name="608" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="IDX-220" name="IDX-220" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>as well as increasing competition, the costs of outsourcing are declining. Outsourcing also supplies resources in a constrained market.</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="608-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 1: </span>Get help for negotiating outsourcing</span><a href="" id="609" name="609" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top06" name="ch07top06" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top06" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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"To negotiate an outsourcing agreement, get industry expertise at the table with you. Even if you have negotiated contracts in the past, it is helpful to understand where the industry has gone since last time you negotiated and use industry best practices. We used an expert and the ROI was six months in a five-year contract."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="609-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Lynn Willenbring<br style="line-height: 1;" />City of Minneapolis</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="609-3" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 2: </span>Off-shore savings</span><a href="" id="610" name="610" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top07" name="ch07top07" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top07" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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"The use of third party off-shoring has reduced our consulting costs overall, and in addition, it provides us flexibility to scale up or down as the business demands change. Although the off-shore hourly rates are approximately 60 to 75% less, the total project savings are more realistically between 25 to 50% due to increased management needed to support the off-shore model."</div>
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—Ursuline Foley<br style="line-height: 1;" />XL Global Services</div>
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Outsourcing is not a panacea. In general, companies seem moderately successful with outsourcing, but you need to do it carefully and manage it well. Ongoing maintenance and management of supplier relationships are critical. The following are recommendations relative to outsourcing, off-shoring, and on-shoring from companies that have tried it and have learned many lessons:</div>
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<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="610-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Do a complete and detailed cost-benefit analysis of outsourcing. Obtain external assistance to validate the model. Remove the emotion and determine if an outside party can truly do it cheaper or better. Do not assume outsourcing or off-shoring is less expensive. Be sure to consider all the costs in transitioning. Include the soft costs, such as quality, service improvements, and productivity, which can affect project costs and schedules.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="610-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Expect costs savings from off-shoring or outsourcing to be longer term. The initial attraction of huge labor savings and hourly rates of off-shoring can be very attractive. However, when considering all costs, the cost savings are usually not huge and definitely not immediate. Although some projects eventually achieve savings through outsourcing, they may cost more in the first year or two of the transition. Typically, there is a significant investment in time and money to build and manage the outsourcing relationship.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="610-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Have a single point of contact on both sides of the outsourcing relationship with a formal combined governance structure. Ensure you have a defined process for communication and escalation of issues. Make sure there is a good channel for honest feedback on both sides. Document all responsibilities, including ownership and clear role definition. <span class="beginpage" pagenum="221"><a href="" id="611" name="611" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page221" name="page221" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>When determining work processes, consider cultural issues, time differences, country demographics, quality, and maturity differences. Identify metrics that measure whether the relationship is working properly.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="611-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider off-shoring services from expensive countries such as Europe and the United States to countries with cheaper labor such as India, the Philippines, and Indonesia.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="611-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider in-sourcing to your own facilities in other countries with cheaper labor.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="611-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider on-shoring using resources in less expensive areas within the same country. For example, one company in Silicon Valley established an on-shore programming facility in Portland, Oregon, and had 30 percent less labor costs and less turnover. A Minneapolis company obtained similar results by having an on-shore facility in rural Minnesota cities.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="611-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Outsourcing does not make problems go away; it just removes them one level, which actually could make problems even worse. Do not take a bad process and try to outsource it. Improve the process, and when it is working, consider outsourcing as an option.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="611-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider outsourcing targeted functions rather than the entire IT organization. For example, one company looked at outsourcing only the help desk. Many companies treat off-shore and local sourcing as either/or whether it is at a company-wide or project-wide level. You are most successful when you combine these two and use the strengths of one to offset the other's weaknesses. Some areas are terrific outsourcing candidates, while others are too high risk. For example, do not try to move the development of a unique mission-critical business system to an off-shore model as it can be high risk and maybe difficult to transfer the business knowledge necessary.</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="611-6" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 3: </span>In-sourcing using internal locations in other countries</span><a href="" id="612" name="612" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top08" name="ch07top08" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></div>
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<div class="first-para" id="612-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"We also looked at outsourcing to internal organizations, using locations of our company in other countries. This is more of an in-sourcing off-shoring model which was more palatable to some people."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="612-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Gail Farnsley<br style="line-height: 1;" />Purdue University<br style="line-height: 1;" />(former Cummins CIO)</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="612-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="222"><a href="" id="613" name="613" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page222" name="page222" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>Carefully consider what you outsource. Although it may work to outsource some functions, such as coding or upgrading software to a new technology, do not outsource areas that require business knowledge or creativity when there is a lack of specificity.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="613-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Make sure your project is large enough to warrant outsourcing. You need size and length of time to warrant the investment and effort of outsourcing.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="613-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider outsourcing the entire business function, not just the IT portion. For example, outsource the payroll function and the supporting IT systems.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="613-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider off-shore work in a staff-augmentation mode rather than full outsourcing. This can be particularly useful to test the model and reduce risk in a phased approach.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="613-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Do not consider outsourcing for areas that are core to the business or mission critical. Do not consider outsourcing areas influenced by relationships or where high touch is necessary. For example, trying to outsource the business-analyst function would be challenging. Do not try to outsource or off-shore the development of a system with complex and evolving requirements as it can result in more waste and rework.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="613-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Off-shoring works only if you put the controls and structures in place to make it work. If your plans and design are wrong, your system will be wrong.</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="613-6" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 4: </span>Know what to off-shore</span><a href="" id="614" name="614" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top09" name="ch07top09" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></div>
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<div class="first-para" id="614-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"The key to using off-shoring successfully is knowing what projects and roles are good candidates for off-shoring and which are not. For example, we would not consider off-shoring projects that are affiliated to providing us a competitive advantage, such as business modeling techniques and projects associated with the revenue stream. Good projects for off-shoring include platform re-engineering, report creation, testing, maintenance releases or software upgrades. The roles we employ include project management, application architecture, design, and technical leadership. We use off-shoring for the roles of coding and quality assurance."</div>
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—Ursuline Foley<br style="line-height: 1;" />XL Global Services</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="614-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="223"><a href="" id="615" name="615" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page223" name="page223" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>Have specific quality metrics and SLAs built into the contract.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="615-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Be aware of features that technically met the specification, but were not usable. Make sure your process does not just throw things over the fence but includes levels of oversight, reviews, and communication.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="615-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Do training on both sides of the relationship. Train the outsourcing company in business, IT, and process functions. Train IT individuals in how to work with the outsourcer in areas of documentation and communication.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="615-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Off-shore resources require more detailed specifications than what was needed previously. Make sure you account for these costs and times in project schedules and plans. The lack of business knowledge requires identifying the how, what, and why.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="615-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Off-shoring can be a challenge with language and location differences. Make sure you have provisions and processes to accommodate the differences, risks, and communication challenges.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="615-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
An option to consider is to bring off-shore resources local. One manager was determined to make off-shore resources work and brought them locally for six months to manage them closely and train them in the business and IT. The manager treated them as part of the team, and the endeavor was very successful. Based on the number of off-shore resources, consider requiring at least one resource to stay onsite to interact and coordinate between both locations.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="615-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider getting outside assistance when negotiating an outsourcing arrangement and contract. It typically involves large, very complex expenses, and terms and conditions are critical. For example, one firm specializes in negotiating outsourcing arrangements for government entities.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="615-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Make sure the contract includes provisions for training and the necessary processes and procedures with which they must comply. Outline how and when problems will be fixed, any financial penalties for <span class="beginpage" pagenum="224"><a href="" id="616" name="616" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page224" name="page224" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>errors, and penalties for disruption of company operations. Outline security, compliance, insurance, and privacy requirements. Structure the contract for mergers and acquisitions on both sides. Include provisions for terminating the relationship and transitioning to in-house or another supplier at no cost.</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="616-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 5: </span>Outsourcing must be an economical fit</span><a href="" id="617" name="617" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top10" name="ch07top10" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></div>
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"We had outsourced to a partner that was not a great fit for us economically. We went from complete outsourcing to more of a staff augmentation model with shorter term contracts, which was a better economic fit for us."</div>
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—Steven John<br style="line-height: 1;" />H.B. Fuller</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="617-3" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 6: </span>Negotiate flexibility in outsourcing</span><a href="" id="618" name="618" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top11" name="ch07top11" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></div>
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"With outsourcing arrangements, negotiate flexibility so you are not locked in for a fixed price amount. If you need to discontinue one service, you want to extract it without opening up the entire contract. Be aware of the inflationary increase rate. Hardware costs are stable or drop. If personnel costs stabilize you should not be tied to a predetermined inflationary rate."</div>
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—Lynn Willenbring<br style="line-height: 1;" />City of Minneapolis</div>
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Ensure you have executive support for outsourcing.</div>
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Obtain multiple competitive bids. Have a cross-functional team assess options. Identify clear selection criteria, such as experience, cultural match, quality, scalability, and costs. Lowest price should not be the most important criteria. Include contract terms in the request for proposal.</div>
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Watch out for hidden costs, both implementation and on-going.</div>
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Evaluate various financing options.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="618-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Include a clause in the contract for benchmarking costs on a regular basis with the right to evaluate and renegotiate based on current mar <span class="beginpage" pagenum="225"><a href="" id="619" name="619" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page225" name="page225" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>ket prices. In times of cost pressure, do not be afraid to ask your outsourcing partner for concessions and reductions. Prices in outsourcing contracts often drop because the outsourcer gets better at managing systems and requires less people once the systems and relationship is familiar. To get lower prices, you may need to be flexible in the terms of the contract or you can make other concessions.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch07top12" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="619-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 7: </span>Off-shore model is complex</span><a href="" id="620" name="620" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top12" name="ch07top12" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></div>
<div class="formalbody" id="ch07top12">
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<div class="first-para" id="620-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"An off-shore model can be complex. You typically spend more for the first six to nine months. It is important to bring them on-shore to learn your business practices. Then, in six months or so, you start to see advantages as they go off-shore. You need to be willing to make the up-front investment to be successful."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="620-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Paul Kay<br style="line-height: 1;" />Long Term Care Group</div>
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<div class="example" id="ch07top13" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="620-3" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 8: </span>Goal alignment with outsourcer</span><a href="" id="621" name="621" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top13" name="ch07top13" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></div>
<div class="formalbody" id="ch07top13">
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<div class="first-para" id="621-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"It is important that your goals are aligned with the outsourcer. Behavior is driven by objectives in the contract. For example, we changed the reward from revenue to margin to incent process improvements."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="621-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Malcolm McRoberts<br style="line-height: 1;" />Deluxe Corporation</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="621-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Re-evaluate your outsource partner on a regular basis and complete an updated cost benefit analysis and audit. Ensure the cost savings are continuously verifiable. Regularly visit off-shore or outsourcing locations to identify process improvements. Also, have off-shore resources come on-site on a regular basis. Obtain competitive bids to ensure prices remain attractive. Objective third-party audits of the processes and relationship can be useful.</div>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-15954716612731648072012-04-02T03:33:00.000-07:002012-04-02T03:33:00.904-07:00Contract Resources | WORKFORCE OPTIONS<br />
<h2 class="first-section-title" id="annotationlabel-first" style="background-color: white; color: navy; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
<br /></h2>
<div class="section" id="ch07lev2sec1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<div class="first-para" id="596-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Carefully review the use of contract resources in your environment as in some cases the cost of contractors is higher than the cost of a salaried employee. However, in some cases temporary labor costs less than employees do. There are <span class="beginpage" pagenum="216"><a href="" id="597" name="597" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="IDX-216" name="IDX-216" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>obvious benefits to using contractors, such as fewer employment liabilities and costs and a more variable cost structure. To determine if you should use contract resources, look at the role. Assess the relative costs of contracting out the work versus retaining full-time, in-house staff. If it is a permanent role and long-term need, do not pay the premium for a contractor and hire an employee. If the need is temporary or part-time, contract resources are more cost-effective. Reduce costs by reviewing your use of contractors and make adjustments as necessary. If it is more cost-effective, reduce your reliance on contract resources. In light of cost reduction needs, consider reducing contracting hours.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch07top01" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="597-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 1: </span>Staff augmentation</span><a href="" id="598" name="598" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top01" name="ch07top01" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top01" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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<div class="first-para" id="598-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"We do not use the really large, high-cost consulting companies. We bring in staff augmentation to do certain things for a short duration, use small boutique firms, and our own staff. We are very selective about outsourcing as we must prove it is more cost effective than doing it internally."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="598-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Beth Nordin<br style="line-height: 1;" />CHS Inc.</div>
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<div class="para" id="598-3" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Renegotiate contract agreements and labor rates. Ask for vendors supplying your contract labor for assistance in meeting cost reduction goals. Evaluate if you can get by with less experienced and less expensive resources for some needs. Consider negotiating single source agreements if you can get a lower rate while still guaranteeing the quality of resources. If contract labor is out-of-town and is charging travel and expenses, consider locating a more cost-effective local resource.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch07top02" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="598-4" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 2: </span>Master services agreements</span><a href="" id="599" name="599" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top02" name="ch07top02" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top02" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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<div class="first-para" id="599-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"We have changed our hiring practices by using master service agreements with local firms. This allows us to quickly flex up and down as the business needs change. We rely on the partners to supply highly specialized and experienced people. We emphasize local to reduce travel costs."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="599-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Anonymous CIO</div>
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<div class="para" id="599-3" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="217"><a href="" id="600" name="600" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page217" name="page217" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>Carefully manage the use of contractors and consultants with the following tactics:</div>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="600-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Have a specific, defined need. It can be common for managers to know they need additional help on a project and send a request out for it. That request for help many times contains few details; for example, it may state, "need Java developers." Ambiguous and general requests will create many questions or produce a large number of unqualified candidates.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="600-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Work with a few partner organizations for contract resources. Get to know the companies that supply your contractors and let them get to know you. The way vendors get to know their clients is usually an indication of how they will work with you. If they see no need to meet and understand your organization, then it is likely they will see no need to truly understand your project, which means they may send you unqualified candidates. If you are working with good vendors, they will have qualified the candidates in the areas of skills, communication, organizational fit, and role match. This should help in minimizing the amount of time that you would spend reviewing and interviewing candidates.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="600-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider using a contracting consolidator or broker. While there is an overhead charge, the consolidated contracting company knows every position available and obtains competitive bids to offer the best rates.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="600-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Have clear roles and responsibilities. Many organizations will want to bring on only very experienced consultants to their project. This can create problems in that everyone wants to be the leader and very few want to be the workers. Knowing the roles that need to be filled and setting expectations ahead of time can help resolve this confusion.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="600-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Manage and ensure that contractors meet the objectives.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="600-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Terminate contract resources when the defined need is complete.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch07top03" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="600-7" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 3: </span>Consultants bench rate</span><a href="" id="601" name="601" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top03" name="ch07top03" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></div>
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<div class="first-para" id="601-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"We get better rates on consultants by purchasing a block of time rather than standard hourly rate. We also get a reduced rate by being flexible in timing and getting a bench rate when consultants are between projects."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="601-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Haseen Alam<br style="line-height: 1;" />Johnson Brothers Liquor Company</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="601-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="218"><a href="" id="602" name="602" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page218" name="page218" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>Make sure you have an appropriate amount of work to keep the consultant fully utilized. This will require on-going interaction with the consultants to understand their workload. Many times the work expands to fill the contractor's time. Periodically ensure the contractor and work are still necessary and that the work has not expanded inappropriately. If you know that the workload will be light for a period, discuss this with the consultant and his or her company so you only pay for the time needed. An underutilized person will likely create issues down the road affecting others’ productivity levels, or they may become bored and quit.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="602-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Manage consultant travel costs which can be significant for out-of-town consultants. Have them use your travel agency, stay in discounted hotels, and place caps on meal expenses.</div>
<div class="first-para" id="602-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
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</li>
</ul>
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<div class="section" id="ch07lev2sec2">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="602-2" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<a href="" id="603" name="603" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07lev2sec2" name="ch07lev2sec2" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a>Less Expensive Labor</h3>
<div class="first-para" id="603-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider hiring less expensive labor. The following are some methods that companies have used to reduce labor costs:</div>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="603-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Use interns for entry-level positions.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="603-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Hire new graduates instead of experienced resources.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="603-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Explore part-time resources if you can address the needs with less than full-time work.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="603-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider retired workers, particularly for older technologies because their cost is less.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="603-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Think about hiring IT resources from the business and then training them in IT. Their business skills can be extremely valuable and it can cost less than hiring people with expensive IT skills.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="603-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider hiring independent consultants rather than a large firm of consultants.</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="example" id="ch07top04" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="603-8" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 4: </span>Independent contractors</span><a href="" id="604" name="604" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top04" name="ch07top04" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top04" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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<div class="first-para" id="604-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"Rather than using companies for temporary consulting resources, consider creating your own temp service with HR. By hiring independent contractors, consulting costs can be cut significantly."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="604-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Peter Bellavance<br style="line-height: 1;" />Tastefully Simple</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="604-3" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip 5: </span>People are critical</span><a href="" id="605" name="605" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch07top05" name="ch07top05" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch07top05" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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<div class="first-para" id="605-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="219"><a href="" id="606" name="606" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page219" name="page219" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>"Whether you are doing work on-shore or off-shore, people are critical. You don't get work done with countries or companies, but with people. Getting the right people on staff is critical, you can't just throw things over the wall and expect to be successful. You need to use the same strategy for an engaged off-shore employee as you would in the U.S."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="606-1" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Mike Degeneffe<br style="line-height: 1;" />Ceridian</div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-2191763837100209692012-03-30T02:22:00.000-07:002012-03-30T02:22:00.155-07:00Metrics Management | MANAGE BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="584-2" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
<br /></h3>
<div class="first-para" id="585-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
Metrics are important for an IT organization to manage and control costs while ensuring the quality and value of service increases. Metrics are a key part of a managed process environment enabling cost reduction. Many organizations have great intentions when selecting and implementing metrics, but often fail for the following reasons:</div>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="585-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The metrics and data are not actionable. For example, many organizations report the number of incidents they solved during the month. If the number of incidents was 100, or 200, what is the meaning of the number, and what are you able to do about it? If you change the metric to report the percent of incidents that were caused by changes, or the percent of changes that caused an incident, now you have a quality and resulting cost measure to impact. For any metric ask yourself if it is good or bad, and if you are able to do anything to affect it. If you cannot answer these questions, it is not a good metric to use.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="585-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="210"><a href="" id="586" name="586" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page210" name="page210" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span><span class="beginpage" pagenum="211"><a href="" id="587" name="587" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page211" name="page211" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>The metrics are not meaningful. Metrics drive behavior. The problem is the wrong metrics drive the wrong behavior. Avoid this by making sure the business drivers are the foundation for your IT guiding principles and that you use the guiding principles to drive the metrics. Do this by asking how you will know when you have that attribute. One company identified a list of possible metrics based on the business drivers as shown in Figure 1. Metrics facilitate the realization and vision of a plan if you ask yourself, "How will we know when we achieve that?" For example, if a guiding principle is flexible systems, how will you know when you have achieved that? A good metric may be to measure the average time to make a modification to the system. Even better than measuring how fast IT completes requests, measure how many requests the business completes themselves. This would be flexible systems at their best.</div>
<div class="first-para" id="585-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
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<div class="miscfigure-informaltable" id="N105">
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<tr valign="top"><th align="center" class="th" scope="col" style="color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><div class="table-para" id="588-1" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Key business drivers</div>
</th><th align="center" class="th" scope="col" style="color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><div class="table-para" id="588-2" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
IT principle</div>
</th><th align="center" class="th" scope="col" style="color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><div class="table-para" id="588-3" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Resulting key metrics</div>
</th><th align="center" class="th" scope="col" style="color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><div class="table-para" id="588-4" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Implementation priority</div>
</th></tr>
</thead><tbody>
<tr valign="top"><td align="left" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-5" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Growth</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-6" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Acquisitions, divestures</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-7" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Agressive</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-8" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Global potential</div>
</li>
</ul>
</td><td align="center" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;" valign="middle"><div class="table-para" id="588-9" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
<b class="bold" style="font-weight: bold;">Scalable</b></div>
</td><td align="left" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-10" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Performance (monthly)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-11" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
% of service level agreements met (annual)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-12" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
IT steering committee meetings (annual)</div>
</li>
</ul>
</td><td align="center" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="table-para" id="588-13" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
High</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-14" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Low</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-15" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Low</div>
</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td align="left" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-16" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Customer focused</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-17" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Cross selling</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-18" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Varied stakeholders</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-19" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Desire for paperless</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-20" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Remote offices and dispersed workers</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-21" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Driven by key metrics</div>
</li>
</ul>
</td><td align="center" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;" valign="middle"><div class="table-para" id="588-22" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
<b class="bold" style="font-weight: bold;">Accessible</b></div>
</td><td align="left" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-23" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
% of applications Web enabled (annual)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-24" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
# of duplicate data groups (annual)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-25" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
# batch interfaces (annual)</div>
</li>
</ul>
</td><td align="center" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="table-para" id="588-26" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Low</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-27" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Low</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-28" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Low</div>
</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td align="left" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-29" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Breadth of business</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-30" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Innovative</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-31" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
New products</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-32" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Need to be nimble</div>
</li>
</ul>
</td><td align="center" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;" valign="middle"><div class="table-para" id="588-33" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
<b class="bold" style="font-weight: bold;">Flexible</b></div>
</td><td align="left" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-34" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
# reusable components (annual)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-35" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Average time to complete requests (monthly)</div>
</li>
</ul>
</td><td align="center" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="table-para" id="588-36" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Low</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-37" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
High</div>
</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td align="left" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-38" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Competition</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-39" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Price pressures</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-40" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Business process improvement</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-41" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Changing profitability curve</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-42" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Capital constraint</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-43" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Economic fluctuations</div>
</li>
</ul>
</td><td align="center" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;" valign="middle"><div class="table-para" id="588-44" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
<b class="bold" style="font-weight: bold;">Efficient and effective</b></div>
</td><td align="left" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-45" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
% projects on time (qtrly)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-46" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
% projects on budget (qtrly)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-47" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Internal client satisfaction (annual)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-48" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Help desk request satisfaction (monthly)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-49" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Post project review satisfaction (qtrly)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-50" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
% of IT costs for maintenance (annual)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-51" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
% maintenance as a percent of revenue (annual)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-52" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
% of applications custom (annual)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-53" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
# improved/paperless business processes (annual)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-54" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Average IT satisfaction rating (annual)</div>
</li>
</ul>
</td><td align="center" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="table-para" id="588-55" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
High</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-56" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
High</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-57" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
High</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-58" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
High</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-59" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
High</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-60" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Medium</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-61" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Medium</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-62" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Low</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-63" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Low</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-64" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Medium</div>
</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td align="left" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-65" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Regulatory</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-66" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Privacy issues</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-67" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Industry forces</div>
</li>
</ul>
</td><td align="center" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;" valign="middle"><div class="table-para" id="588-68" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
<b class="bold" style="font-weight: bold;">Reliable</b></div>
</td><td align="left" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-69" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Overall availability % (qtrly)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-70" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
# audit findings (annual)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-71" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
# disruptions by severity (monthly)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-72" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
% abandon calls (monthly)</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="table-para" id="588-73" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
% calls resolved on first call (monthly)</div>
</li>
</ul>
</td><td align="center" class="td" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="table-para" id="588-74" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
High</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-75" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Medium</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-76" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
High</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-77" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Medium</div>
<div class="table-para" id="588-78" style="margin-left: 0.3em; margin-right: 1em;">
Medium</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br style="line-height: 1;" /><span class="miscfigure-title" style="margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 4em;"><span class="figure-titlelabel" style="font-weight: bold;">Figure 1: </span>Metrics example</span></li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="588-79" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Make sure the business executives and governance process are involved in selecting metrics that are meaningful to them so that you do not have to report endless amounts of meaningless data. If your goal is cost reduction, make sure that you reflect that in your metrics. However, in addition to efficiency, metrics that measure whether you are doing it well can also include effectiveness metrics that measure if you are doing the right things. This will ensure you do not cut costs or decrease value or service to the organization.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="588-80" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Make sure you do not have too many metrics. There is an endless amount of data that you are able to measure in IT. Keep in mind the 80/20 rule and focus on the data that is critical and meaningful. Work with the business to agree on what is meaningful to them. Less is more and fewer metrics drive focus. Too many metrics confuse employees on what is important. As the organization evolves and matures, you can add more metrics, but start small.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="588-81" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Publish and communicate the metrics. Some organizations make the mistake of using metrics at the management level but not communicating them to the entire organization. Make sure targets are attainable. Trend metrics to ensure you are heading in the right direction. Communicating the metrics on a regular basis will tell others it is important. Celebrate success.</div>
</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-88940390750273726102012-03-26T01:11:00.000-07:002012-03-26T01:11:00.088-07:00MANAGE BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP<br />
<h2 class="first-section-title" id="annotationlabel-first" style="background-color: white; color: navy; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
<br /></h2>
<div class="first-para" id="578-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
This section includes processes to manage the business relationship, including understanding the business, marketing IT offerings, satisfaction management, and metrics management. This section outlines specific cost reduction opportunities in these processes.</div>
<div class="section" id="ch06lev2sec32" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="578-2" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<a href="" id="579" name="579" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch06lev2sec32" name="ch06lev2sec32" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a>Understanding the Business</h3>
<div class="first-para" id="579-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
When working with the governance process, IT should challenge the business projects to ensure that requested IT investments result in quantifiable benefits <span class="beginpage" pagenum="208"><a href="" id="580" name="580" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page208" name="page208" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>and to verify alignment with the strategies and priorities. However, to do that effectively, IT must understand the business and have a good relationship with it. Many organizations do this by having liaisons, relationship managers, IT partners, account managers, or analysts for the business. These individuals are responsible for managing the business and IT relationship and are passionate about it. They proactively help the business determine how to use technology and participate in process re-engineering. They know their industry, participate in departmental meetings to understand their challenges, and speak the language. This close relationship will ensure that technology investments are in alignment with the business and will reduce wasted costs on projects that begin but are cancelled, or on projects that are completed but do not deliver the anticipated benefits. This level of involvement will improve IT s credibility and IT will be perceived as a true business partner.</div>
<div class="last-para" id="580-1" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Many popular IT strategic planning methodologies tout alignment with the business. It is only with this deep and thorough understanding of the business that IT is able to go beyond alignment to becoming a transformational leader and business strategist that helps use technology for innovation and differentiation in the marketplace. This knowledge will ensure IT investments are the most effective.</div>
<div class="last-para" id="580-1" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="ch06lev2sec33" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="580-2" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<a href="" id="581" name="581" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch06lev2sec33" name="ch06lev2sec33" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a>Marketing IT</h3>
<div class="first-para" id="581-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
IT must continually market and communicate the services and products available to the business. Only by using the tools and technology will the business realize the most value and payback from investments. The more individuals that use the tools and functionality, the less the unit cost of the functionality. There is nothing more discouraging than having a company invest millions of dollars in a Customer Relationship Management system, then having only one or two power users actually use the technology. As mentioned earlier, most <span class="beginpage" pagenum="209"><a href="" id="582" name="582" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page209" name="page209" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>companies only use a small portion of the functionality provided in monolithic Enterprise Resource Planning and other enterprise systems. Continual training and education will increase the use of systems and return on investments. New employee training should provide an overview of all IT capabilities, policies, and procedures so they are aware of tools to make their jobs easier. Monthly status reports, Intranet sites, and other presentations inform all areas of the business of IT activities and tools. Several companies mentioned wasted efforts and money due to a lack of communication, where one part of the business was investing in technology while another business unit was investing in another similar technology, which created duplicate functionality and excess costs.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch06top13" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="582-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip: </span>Communication</span><a href="" id="583" name="583" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch06top13" name="ch06top13" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch06top13" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="first-para" id="583-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"Communication must be robust in good times so you can leverage it in tough times. We have an online newsletter every two weeks for communication. We have team lunches on a regular basis to talk and listen to concerns."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="583-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Hank Zupnick<br style="line-height: 1;" />GE Com Real Estate</div>
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="blankspace">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="ch06lev2sec34">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="583-3" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<br /></h3>
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="583-3" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<a href="" id="584" name="584" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch06lev2sec34" name="ch06lev2sec34" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a>Satisfaction Management</h3>
<div class="first-para" id="584-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
In times of cost reduction, be sure to communicate changes and level-set expectations of changes that the business should expect in service levels, support, or services. When reducing costs, it is important to ensure that the service and value you provide to the business does not decrease, or does not decrease more than planned. Having documented and agreed-upon service level agreements, as mentioned earlier, will help in communicating changes in services or expectations. Ensure you provide proper communication if service decreases are planned. People are far more tolerant of lower service levels if they understand the cost savings that are driving the changes. Conduct regular surveys that measure the user satisfaction with IT. Ensure cost reductions do not affect satisfaction too deeply or you may need to take appropriate action to shift costs.</div>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-72406049984709852752012-03-22T09:29:00.000-07:002012-03-22T09:29:00.378-07:00Vendor Management<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="571-8" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
<br /></h3>
<div class="first-para" id="572-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
Many organizations save a tremendous amount of money by collaborating with vendors and constructing win-win solutions in times of economic pressure. The <span class="beginpage" pagenum="206"><a href="" id="573" name="573" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page206" name="page206" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>following are specific vendor management tactics that organizations have used to reduce costs:</div>
<div class="example" id="ch06top10" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 1em; text-align: left;">
<span class="example-title" id="573-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip : </span>Consolidate suppliers</span><a href="" id="574" name="574" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch06top10" name="ch06top10" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch06top10" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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<div class="first-para" id="574-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"We realized major cost reductions by consolidating our IT suppliers. We went from hundreds of companies to a handful of preferred vendors and renegotiated key contracts. We acheived anywhere from 25 to 50% reductions for some service suppliers by initiating an RFP process."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="574-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Ursuline Foley<br style="line-height: 1;" />XL Global Services</div>
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<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="574-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Review your procurement process. Ensure someone in the organization is reviewing and approving all software and hardware purchases. Enforce a list of standards. Limiting variety decreases the costs of support and maintenance. Negotiate purchase prices with vendors and consolidate purchases. Centralize policy related to purchasing process, and best practices. Have a documented list of approved or certified suppliers.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="574-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Hire or assign a procurement person that is familiar with IT purchases, or train someone to know IT and how to negotiate with technology vendors.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="574-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Centralize license purchasing to leverage costs and ensure you optimize purchasing decisions for the organization. Software licensing is complex and there are many opportunities for cost savings in how you structure purchase and support agreements. Some companies have realized savings of up to 30 percent by consolidating <span class="beginpage" pagenum="207"><a href="" id="575" name="575" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="page207" name="page207" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span>purchase agreements. Having one program helps achieve larger discounts and increase negotiating leverage. By pooling procurement across business units, departments, divisions, and locations, companies benefit from economies of scale. Consider a purchasing consortium to leverage agreements across related companies or government entities.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch06top11" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="575-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip: </span>Reduce vendors</span><a href="" id="576" name="576" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch06top11" name="ch06top11" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></div>
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<div class="first-para" id="576-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"We looked at our partnership relationships. We had 67 vendors in IT and reduced it significantly. For example, in voice/data we had nine vendors, now we have two. It is a partnership and a win-win relationship. We don't try to carve every last nickel out of it."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="576-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Paul Kay<br style="line-height: 1;" />Long Term Care Group</div>
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<span class="example-title" id="576-3" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip: </span>Standardize purchasing</span><a href="" id="577" name="577" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a><a href="" id="ch06top12" name="ch06top12" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></div>
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"The first place to look for cost reduction is to standardize PCs, phones, and anything you are purchasing. Consolidate suppliers for commodity items and look at purchasing as a partner. Make sure you have good purchasing systems. Even reverse auctions for commodities provide savings."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="577-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Gail Farnsley<br style="line-height: 1;" />Purdue University<br style="line-height: 1;" />(former Cummins CIO)</div>
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Review payment terms. Many vendors will make adjustments on terms, which may provide immediate cash flow benefits.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="577-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
For major purchases, develop a request for proposal and obtain at least three bids. Costs should be a key factor to review, along with vendor support, technology viability, references, etc.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="577-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Monitor and track supplier performance and quality delivery statistics, including vendor support. Make changes as necessary. Establish monthly meetings with large key vendors to review operational performance compliance with established service levels. Claim any credits for noncompliance according to contract terms</div>
</li>
</ul>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-1970734619009573742012-03-19T08:28:00.002-07:002012-03-19T08:28:31.746-07:00Data Center Operations and Facilities Management<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="570-1" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
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<div class="first-para" id="571-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
Technical Infrastructure—outlined many ways to improve operations, such as server virtualization and consolidation. Many of these have an effect on the data center. Be sure to manage the data center to take advantage of changes and look for additional cost reduction opportunities. The following are some ways companies have reduced costs in their data center operations and facilities management:</div>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="571-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider implementing an automated data center to reduce costs. For example, one company implemented a lights-out data center with monitoring, automating, and reporting, which eliminated five full-time equivalent (FTE) resources.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="571-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider consolidating data centers. Running a data center is costly in terms of floor space, power, and FTE resources. Before increasing the number of data centers, complete a careful cost-benefit review to make sure it is necessary.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="571-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider using a co-location facility or using other company locations for backup purposes.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="571-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Review the costs and benefits of outsourcing your data center, particularly for small and medium-sized organizations.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="571-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Review the data center footprint, power consumption, fire protection, cooling consumption to determine proper sizing. Monitor the conditions and ensure proper physical security exists.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="571-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Make sure the operations are efficient with proper procedures, documentation, and trained personnel. Automation significantly improves operations with tools such as job scheduling. Analyze jobs on a regular basis to ensure efficiency in processing time and throughput. Report operational issues to the help desk so you can track, manage, and reduce incidents.</div>
</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-25711461765643184172012-02-07T09:29:00.000-08:002012-02-07T09:29:00.920-08:00Talent Management and Human Resources<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="567-3" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
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<div class="first-para" id="568-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
Information on managing IT individuals through a cost reduction effort as well as specific cost reduction tactics relating to the organization that focus on organization size and structure, employee benefits and motivation, and workforce options. Specific cost reduction tactics related to the processes of managing human resources are:</div>
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<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="568-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Labor is typically the largest portion of the IT budget. It is paramount to understand where you use the labor so you are able to make informed cost reduction actions. Use time reporting to understand the activities and accurately report costs by application, business area, or function. If you have not implemented accurate and detailed time reporting, do it now. Without good information on time, cost reduction efforts are a guess.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="568-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Track productivity levels, employee metrics, and work hours. Using surveys, measure and report employee satisfaction. A motivated and highly productive employee actually saves you money. For example, the best employees can be ten times more effective than the mediocre ones, yet typically cost less than two times as much in salary costs. Therefore, a plan based on having fewer employees, but great ones, always pays off. Unfortunately, the larger the IT organization, the harder it is to find and deal with the worst performers.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="568-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Get new employees productive as soon as possible with comprehensive new employee orientation and mentoring. Encourage and support the integration of new employees and new skill sets into the IT organization.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="568-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Document employee skills in an inventory profile to optimize resources across the organization. In addition to managing resources, it is important to optimize efficiency by ensuring the appropriate resources <span class="beginpage" pagenum="204"><a href="" id="569" name="569" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page204" name="page204" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>are on the right projects. This is easier with visibility to skills. A skills inventory is also useful if you need to make organizational changes or changes in responsibilities or projects. Identifying gaps in skills is helpful when making outsourcing decisions and defining the need for cross-training. Have a formal training plan documented for each IT employee, as properly trained employees are more productive and effective.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="569-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Review the skills necessary against your skills inventory to ensure you have primary as well as secondary backup coverage for each skill area. Invest in cross-training and backup for all key positions and knowledge areas. Being dependent on one person is costly in the event of turnover or if employee reductions are necessary.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="569-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Unwanted turnover costs money in recruitment, retraining, and hiring. Standard industry estimates are that the cost of replacing a good employee is a full year of salary plus benefits. It is far less expensive to keep good employees. Ensure that you clearly document and communicate roles, responsibilities, and career paths. Conduct regular performance reviews providing employees with honest feedback and improvement goals. Do not let the annual performance review be the only feedback, but rather provide honest and sincere feedback, both positive and negative, on a regular basis. Conduct exit interviews for any terminations and resignations as they are a great source of information and can help identify areas needing attention.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="569-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
There is value in terminating bad employees and addressing poor performers. The worst employees have negative productivity as they distract others. You actually make money with their absence.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="569-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Recruit employees through cost-effective methods. Consider using online web posting services as it may reduce recruitment fees and costs.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="569-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Hiring mistakes cost money. There are many direct and hidden costs of a poor hire, such as the time spent in the hiring process, training, retraining, productivity impact of other staff, management coaching, and the termination process. Review your hiring process to determine improvements. Obtain multiple inputs when interviewing prospective employees and do thorough background checks. Consider doing skills and personality profiles or rating assessments to ensure a good fit. Develop an evaluation to clearly identify and rate the job requirements including both hard and soft skills. One example of how to improve the process and avoid hiring mistakes is to set up <span class="beginpage" pagenum="205"><a href="" id="570" name="570" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page205" name="page205" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>two back-to-back interviews. The first one with three key staff is to evaluate technical skills and provide feedback on personality fit. In the second interview, look for key characteristics, such as self-starter, motivation, and so on.</div>
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</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-34680164733525030252012-02-03T06:26:00.000-08:002012-02-03T06:26:00.729-08:00Project Management | MANAGE RESOURCES<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="565-1" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
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<div class="first-para" id="566-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
In times of financial pressure, it is more important than ever to manage project efforts so your organization completes them on time and on budget. Do this through solid project management principles, disciplines, and processes. The following are specific project management recommendations that have an impact on overall costs:</div>
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<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="566-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Make sure projects have short milestones and clear responsibilities to improve manageability of efforts.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="566-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Establish a project steering committee with key IT and business staff to monitor progress and ensure proper resource allocation.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="566-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Closely monitor, track, and communicate action plans, project costs, and project schedules. Project overruns during times of cost reduction can be disastrous. Have monthly (or more frequent) reviews of actions for all projects. If done honestly, project dashboards effectively avoid cost and project overruns. Complete project surveys and interviews to get the true project input as there may be variations from what you report.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="566-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Make sure the business is actively involved in the governance process and in each project. The organization must view projects as business projects, not IT projects. Each one should have a sponsor from the business. If the business does not support a project, or if the project does not have a strong business sponsor, it may be a candidate for cancellation.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="566-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Manage all projects with a consistent and understood project management process. A repeatable approach ensures sustainable delivery.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="566-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Every project must have clear and documented business objectives, a project plan, and project goals. The project business case must be real, not inflated. The business will view even the best-executed project as a failure if it does not meet expectations. Manage expectations properly prior to the beginning of a project. Ensure costs and time frames are realistic and achievable from the beginning and all through the effort.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="566-8" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
If a project falls behind schedule or runs over in cost projections, re-evaluate it against the business case to determine if it should continue. <span class="beginpage" pagenum="203"><a href="" id="567" name="567" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page203" name="page203" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>As a project progresses, it often loses the value that was initially outlined. Also, re-evaluate the risks as the project continues.</div>
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<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="567-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Kill or recharter any project that has drifted out of control or has gone off the rails, and do so quickly. Every day after a project goes awry means waste and lost revenue.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="567-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Develop consistent reporting across all projects which roll-up to a high level to give a quick status of all copmany projects. For example, some companies identify projects as <i class="emphasis">red</i> if they are not meeting schedules and budgets, <i class="emphasis">yellow</i> if there are concerns, and <i class="emphasis">green</i> if all project indicators are fine. This will quickly identify areas on which to focus.</div>
</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-27911308103653652112012-01-31T05:25:00.000-08:002012-01-31T05:25:00.231-08:00Governance and Portfolio Management<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="557-1" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
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<div class="first-para" id="558-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
One way to cut costs in IT is to reign in projects and initiatives. However, you do more harm than good cutting blind without having insight into the overall strategic plan, the scope of planned efforts, and the impact on the business. The IT governance process provides this perspective. In interviews, many companies indicated that they used their governance process during times of cost reduction in order to increase the review of projects and the rigor of project justification and approvals.</div>
<div class="para" id="558-2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
The governance process is where all stakeholders, executives, and business leaders have input into the decision-making process, which includes cost reduction measures. The governance group is extremely valuable in making sure IT cost reductions are made in the right areas and communicating the changes in expectations. Without proper governance, cost reduction activities are haphazard guesswork and have a high probability of failure. Governance ensures you are working on the right things to be effective, whether or not you are in a cost reduction mode.</div>
<div class="para" id="558-3" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
As one CIO stated, "A lot of IT work is based on what people want rather than what they need." Use the governance process to distinguish wants from needs based on true business value and business return. Even if a project is a need and if the return is significant enough, the earlier the business completes the project, the <span class="beginpage" pagenum="199"><a href="" id="559" name="559" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page199" name="page199" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>earlier it will realize the benefit. One company kept hearing a key project had to be done by the end of the year. When pressed during IT steering committee discussions on prioritization, the executive was asked several times why the project had to be done by the end of the year. It was revealed that he just wanted it by then, but there was not a valid business need for the deadline. The governance discussions need to focus on business value for proper prioritization.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch06top07" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 1em; text-align: left;">
<span class="example-title" id="559-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip: </span>Governance council</span><a href="" id="560" name="560" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="ch06top07" name="ch06top07" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch06top07" style="margin-left: 0px;">
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"We have an active governance council with senior leaders talking about priorities and we have a process between meetings. Budgets are not a surprise, as we keep stakeholders in the loop and they have their say. It is important to work out the big issues offline and beforehand so when we are in a room together everyone knows and supports what is going to happen."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="560-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Hank Zupnick<br style="line-height: 1;" />GE Com Real Estate</div>
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<div class="para" id="560-3" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
IT organizations are faced with an increasing backlog and demand of new technology and services. This makes the prioritization and governance process more important than ever. It is possible for an organization to cut costs while retaining, or even improving, its competitive advantage through a well-planned portfolio of initiatives that are properly managed by the governance process. Project portfolio management (PPM) is a discipline and process that provides a decision-making framework to help prioritize projects and deliver value. PPM is beyond project management, linking projects, objectives, and goals with the business. It also helps to provide visibility of demand, resources, benefits, costs, risks, and the business value garnered by requested project efforts.</div>
<div class="para" id="560-4" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
It is important that the governance process not only considers the limited capacity of IT resources but also the limited capacity of the business resources to participate and implement new projects. As business resources are primarily focused on key business activities, it is important not to schedule more projects than the business can efficiently staff. If the business and IT have only enough people to staff three projects at any one time, then taking projects three at a time will result in more business benefit earlier than taking on nine projects at once. An even more significant aspect is that all nine projects will be finished earlier if they are executed three at a time rather than having project participants shift gears and multi-task.</div>
<div class="para" id="560-5" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
The following are specific suggestions for the governance and portfolio management processes of a company in a cost reduction mode:</div>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="560-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Involve the governance process group in the identification of cost reduction goals. Make sure they agree <span class="beginpage" pagenum="200"><a href="" id="561" name="561" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page200" name="page200" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>that the cuts are necessary. There also should be agreement on the timing of the cuts and the general areas in which to make them. Do not address the cost reduction goals in a vacuum. When leading IT, it is paramount to consider the needs and opinions of other executives which is particularly important when deciding cost reduction measures.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch06top08" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="561-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip: </span>Focus on what is needed</span><a href="" id="562" name="562" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="ch06top08" name="ch06top08" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></div>
<div class="formalbody" id="ch06top08">
</div>
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="first-para" id="562-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"Many companies can improve and reduce costs by doing a better job distinguishing between what the corporation needs versus what they want. A lot of IT work tends to be based on what people want."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="562-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Vice President, IT<br style="line-height: 1;" />Energy Company</div>
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<div class="blankspace">
<br />
</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="562-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Carefully review and understand the costs spent and the remaining forecasted costs of each project.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="562-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Make sure that you identify and include all projects in the project portfolio and governance process. Many times organizations spend time reviewing the visible projects but find there are actually many more projects in progress that, in total, have a significant cost. Give visibility to all the projects and initiatives in progress along with their associated costs. Creating an accurate and complete list of projects is the first step in making intelligent cost-cutting decisions.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="562-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Assess the overall portfolio of projects in progress and projects planned. Look for obvious places to reduce costs. Focus on projects that the company truly needs rather than completing projects the company simply wants. Be aware of projects or efforts that have a significant impact on reducing costs in the business. Also, be aware of projects that increase revenue or improve customer service. These projects are not always the best places to look for cuts. Ensure all projects are clearly necessary and tied to business goals and objectives. As efficiencies are lost and costs increase when stopping and starting projects, make sure that any project stopped or delayed is worth the impact.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="562-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Many organizations place a minimum threshold of hours or costs on a project before it is reviewed in the governance process. Review this criterion to see if you should decrease it so the governance process reviews a larger percent of the expenditures in light of cost reduction goals.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="562-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Know and track the costs of projects that are outside the governance process as an indicator of whether you should change criteria for review and prioritization.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="562-8" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Look for opportunities to merge projects or activities to gain efficiencies. There may be projects in different parts of the organization that have similar goals and objectives. An enterprise solution serving multiple needs may be more cost-effective than different solutions meeting narrow objectives.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="562-9" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Review the allocation of resources. It actually may be prudent to shift resources in order to more quickly complete projects that provide a greater cost reduction.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="562-10" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="201"><a href="" id="563" name="563" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page201" name="page201" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>If it reduces costs, consider making schedule changes in projects to deliver more slowly.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="563-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider making scope changes in projects if it reduces costs. Perhaps you can deliver a portion of the project that provides 80 percent of the benefit.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="563-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Have clear project priorities so if additional cuts are necessary, it is clear what projects to review. Priorities and the prioritization process should be consistent and understood by both IT and the business.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="563-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Carefully scrutinize projected project benefits and return on investment. After a project is implemented, audit savings to ensure they were realized.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="563-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Identify all projected costs when initiating and prioritizing projects.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="563-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Consider using a project portfolio management tool as it is extremely useful in managing projects and priorities in addition to management of costs and effort.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="563-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Continue to re-evaluate your decisions, monitor progress, and make adjustments as necessary.</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="para" id="563-7" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
During times of cost reduction, one company changed their governance process to approve only projects that met the following criteria:</div>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="563-8" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The project had started and was near completion</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="563-9" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The project was required to keep the lights on and/or required to be compliant</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="563-10" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The project had one year or shorter return on investment and/or a positive impact on cash flow in the current year</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="563-11" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The project provided longer-term strategic benefits or is a key foundational enabler</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="example" id="ch06top09" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="563-12" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip: </span>IT steering committee decisions</span><a href="" id="564" name="564" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="ch06top09" name="ch06top09" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch06top09" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="first-para" id="564-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"It took nine months to get the steering committee really working and to get IT to partner status. IT needs to show information and options to the steering committee so they can make decisions. We had to begin by getting the basics in place, such as information on costs, time tracking, what we had, and help desk tickets."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="564-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Joe Jansen<br style="line-height: 1;" />AmeriPride Services, Inc</div>
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<div class="blankspace">
</div>
</div>
<div class="last-para" id="564-3" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="202"><a href="" id="565" name="565" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page202" name="page202" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>By raising the criteria to approve projects and increasing the rigor for project justification, the process resulted in a $15 million reduction in necessary capital for the year.</div>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-41527212472259994852012-01-26T07:24:00.000-08:002012-01-26T07:24:00.731-08:00Strategic Planning | MANAGE RESOURCES<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="552-1" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
<br /></h3>
<div class="first-para" id="553-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
This section will not provide the process and details for developing an IT strategic plan. There are other texts that can provide this information. However, this section will outline the components that should exist in an IT strategic plan and planning process that are important to enable cost reduction in your organization.</div>
<div class="para" id="553-2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
Having a solid strategic plan helps a company quickly focus on where to reduce IT costs. It also identifies and prioritizes the ways that technology is used to enable cost reduction throughout the business. For IT, the plan is essential to get the company's infrastructure and application portfolio as a whole to a cost-effective state for on-going maintenance and support. The plan provides overall direction and priorities to help the entire organization make sure it is marching toward the end goal even in light of cost reduction needs and initiatives. The clarity and prioritization that the plan provides will set the stage for easier and quicker identification of needed cost reduction as both the business and IT will know what is important. The following are key components to use as a checklist or self-assessment for your IT strategic plan and planning process:</div>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="553-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The IT strategic planning process involves the business and is regular, rigorous, thorough, and complete.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="553-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The IT plan identifies strategic business opportunities with a thorough review of the business direction and the industry; it is not just a list of requested projects. The strategic business opportunities include areas where the business is able to use technology to make cost reductions. Having identified these opportunities may actually help make the case to keep or increase IT investment as it is an enabler for cost reduction within the business. The plan will help identify how to make the business more agile to improve the ability to react when cost reductions are necessary.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="553-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The IT plan clearly communicates the current IT situation and includes an objective assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in terms the business community understands.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="553-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The IT plan outlines guiding principles that you use on a regular basis to evaluate options. Key business drivers are the foundation for the <span class="beginpage" pagenum="197"><a href="" id="555" name="555" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page197" name="page197" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>principles. Review these guiding principles when making cost reductions to ensure the reductions are in alignment with your principles and business drivers.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch06top06" style="margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="example-title" id="555-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip: </span>Have an IT strategic plan</span><a href="" id="556" name="556" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="ch06top06" name="ch06top06" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></div>
<div class="formalbody" id="ch06top06">
</div>
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="first-para" id="556-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"Have an IT strategic plan in place before budgeting begins. Line up your budget over a three to five year time horizon. Use portfolio management and engage with the business to manage the demand."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="556-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Colleen Mlecoch<br style="line-height: 1;" />Amherst H. Wilder Foundation</div>
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<div class="blankspace">
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</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="556-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The IT plan includes a detailed plan, or roadmap, on how to get to the stated direction. The plan should not be only high-level glossy statements of direction but the specific prioritized projects and action plans. When cost reductions are required, go back to the prioritized projects and determine the impact in timing.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="556-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The plan provides key IT metrics so you know where you want to get to and where you are on the path to the desired destination. These metrics are important when making cost reductions as you are able to ensure that you continue to provide value to the business and do not cut too much.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="556-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
You communicate the IT plan to all areas of the business and IT. When making cost reductions, it is important to communicate, discuss, and have common expectations. Conveying a detailed IT plan across the organization provides that basic understanding. As you start planning and making cost reductions, you are able to use the plan to communicate the impact of changes and reductions.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="556-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Use the plan on a regular basis to determine direction; make sure it is not just a book on the shelf. Use the plan to identify cost reduction actions and determine the impact on your overall plan and direction. Having a plan as a framework will ensure that the organization does not get too reactionary in a cost reduction mode and cancel active projects that are critical for the strategic direction of the company.</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="556-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
The applications, systems, and tools resulting from the plan are easy to use, meet the needs of the business, and provide key business metrics and information necessary to make business decisions.</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="last-para" id="556-8" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="198"><a href="" id="557" name="557" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page198" name="page198" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>After going through a cost reduction phase, be sure to go back to your IT strategic plan and update it based on your changes. The overall direction probably did not change substantially, but the timing to achieve some of the objectives and tactics may have due to cost reduction priorities. It is important to communicate and document these changes in expectations and plans.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-12383999388902861282012-01-23T03:52:00.000-08:002012-01-23T03:52:00.159-08:00Project Initiation and Feasibility | SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTATION<br />
<div class="section" id="ch06lev2sec21" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="542-3" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<br /></h3>
<div class="first-para" id="543-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="193"><a href="" id="544" name="544" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page193" name="page193" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>Obviously, the cheapest time to cancel a project is before it begins. It is well worth your time to scrutinize projects before beginning investments. Ensure every project has a business case for action; specific, quantifiable, and validated benefits; a business sponsor; and alignment with the business goals. Be sure that you identify risks and costs objectively and thoroughly. The following are examples of risk factors to consider when evaluating a project as they could affect the project cost:</div>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Size</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Organizational structure</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Number of parties involved</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Technical complexity</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Length of schedule</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Knowledge of technology being used</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Experience of project management team</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-8" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Skills of staff</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-9" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Experience with tools being employed</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-10" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Data conversion</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-11" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Implementation complexities</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-12" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Flexibility in schedule</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-13" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Number of interfaces</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-14" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Amount of new infrastructure components required</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="544-15" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Amount outside of project team control</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="last-para" id="544-16" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Identify actions to mitigate risks and establish procedures to monitor them as the project progresses. Have a strong governance process to review and prioritize projects based on the feasibility and business case.</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="ch06lev2sec22" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="544-17" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<a href="" id="545" name="545" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="ch06lev2sec22" name="ch06lev2sec22" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a>Requirements</h3>
<div class="first-para" id="545-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Clearly documented requirements reduce waste and ensure that applications meet the needs of the business. Verify that you have documented standards that are followed when requirements are defined. Use prototyping tools or process modeling tools to help develop and visualize the requirements. Redesign the business processes as that is where you find the majority of cost savings.</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="ch06lev2sec23" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="545-2" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<a href="" id="546" name="546" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="ch06lev2sec23" name="ch06lev2sec23" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a>Design and Development</h3>
<div class="first-para" id="546-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
<a class="chapterjump" href="http://www.books24x7.com/assetviewer.aspx?bkid=34187&destid=235#235" style="color: green; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="_parent">Chapter 4</a>—Business Applications—outlines options for doing custom development and advantages to having a buy before build strategy. Whenever possible, do not develop an application unless it is required and unless there are no vendor packages or other options available. In the event you are implementing a vendor package, the <span class="beginpage" pagenum="194"><a href="" id="547" name="547" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page194" name="page194" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>design and development phase consists of configuring the software package and designing minimal customizations, interfaces, and conversions.</div>
<div class="para" id="547-1" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Design and develop applications with reusability in mind. Every time you reuse a portion of code, you save money. Look at the needs of the entire enterprise rather than the needs of one specific department. The more you leverage a solution, the less expensive it is by functionality or user. Review the design with others for additional input.</div>
<div class="para" id="547-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Document and follow concise standards for coding and development. Minimize the number of development languages as each additional language bears costs and resources to support. Plan development tasks with schedules and date commitments for tasks that are less than one week in duration in order to minimize the 90 percent-done syndrome (90 percent done for 90 percent of the project schedule).</div>
<div class="para" id="547-3" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Reduce development cycles and costs with agile development methodologies to get faster results with less cost and effort. Compared to traditional waterfall methodologies with agile software development, companies have improved time to market and quality with increased collaboration and productivity.</div>
<div class="last-para" id="547-4" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Pay particular attention to interfaces and have an overall interface strategy or application architecture. In fact, most application problems that occur can be found in bridges and interfaces between applications. Many companies that have a strategy to purchase vendor packages find themselves in the legendary plate-of-spaghetti interface dilemma where 80 percent of effort and projects go to figuring out and maintaining all the interfaces rather than adding new functionality.</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="ch06lev2sec24" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="547-5" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<a href="" id="548" name="548" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="ch06lev2sec24" name="ch06lev2sec24" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a>Test and Validation</h3>
<div class="first-para" id="548-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Detecting and fixing errors early cost much less than fixing errors at the end of the process or when the system is in production. Depending on your development methodology, introduce testing as early into the development process as possible. Testing small units of code along the way is much more efficient than waiting until completing an entire system before finding issues.</div>
<div class="last-para" id="548-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Have clearly documented test plans. Typically, it is cost beneficial to automate testing with test tools, particularly for regression and stress testing. Ensure the test environment is an accurate representation of the production environment as struggling with incomplete test environments is time consuming and costly. Having a quality assurance program with checkpoints to minimize downstream errors saves time and money and provides consistency in testing in all areas. Identify and report quality metrics to improve processes and quality. Complete user training and certification as an untrained user costs the company money. Document the system to minimize support costs.</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="ch06lev2sec25" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="548-3" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<a href="" id="549" name="549" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="ch06lev2sec25" name="ch06lev2sec25" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a>Post-Implementation Review</h3>
<div class="first-para" id="549-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="195"><a href="" id="550" name="550" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page195" name="page195" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>Many companies have great intentions to review projects after completion but often do not do so as they rapidly move on to the next project. Carefully reviewing project successes and issues helps to reduce costs in the next project if you implement corrective action. Take time to survey users and review project metrics to track quality, delivery, and satisfaction. Document lessons that you have learned and apply them to subsequent projects. Mistakes cost money.</div>
<div class="para" id="550-1" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Although the post-implementation survey or interview should include many aspects of questions related to the project, the following are questions related to cost reduction that the review should include:</div>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Did the project deliver the projected savings identified in the project justification proposal?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
If no, what savings were not achieved?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
What savings have been realized from the project?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Have any savings been realized that were not anticipated?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Will any additional savings be realized in the future? If so, when?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
What must we complete to achieve the savings identified in the initial project proposal?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-8" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Was the project completed on time?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-9" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Was the project completed on budget?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-10" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
What could have been done to complete the project more efficiently?</div>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-11" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
How efficient and effective were project team meetings?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-12" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Were the objectives of the project clearly defined?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-13" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Were the objectives for your work and tasks clearly defined?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-14" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Was your role clearly defined?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-15" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Were you adequately involved in project decisions and activity?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-16" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Did the executives sufficiently support the project?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-17" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Was cross-functional participation adequate?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-18" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Was the team committed to the project schedule and budget?</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-19" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
What were the main bottlenecks or frustrations in the project? How could they be avoided in future efforts?</div>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="550-20" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
What suggestions do you have for improvement? What would you change in the next project?</div>
</li>
</ul>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-62377979095126591082012-01-20T04:24:00.000-08:002012-01-20T04:24:00.312-08:00Managing Changes and Releases<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="538-5" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
<br /></h3>
<div class="first-para" id="539-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
Properly managing and controlling changes improves quality and reduces errors, costs of rework, and costs of fixing errors. Bundle work into releases with established release dates to maximize efficiencies. Have a procedure and process for changes that you follow for all changes whether they are applications, hardware, system software, network, or desktop changes. Some companies claim to have a great change management process but then admit to not using it for infrastructure changes. Have a process in place for emergency changes that still allows for review and approval of changes.</div>
<div class="para" id="539-2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="192"><a href="" id="540" name="540" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page192" name="page192" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>Ensure proper and thorough testing of changes with the amount of testing variable depending on the risk of the change and the level it could affect the business. Make sure you have a complete test environment to accurately test changes. Complete stress tests and regression tests as necessary. Review capacity planning and the impact on capacity for changes that have a major impact. Assess the impact on availability and performance.</div>
<div class="para" id="540-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
A different individual than the person making the change should review and approve the change. Sometimes, multiple sets of eyes can spot quality problems or potential ramifications. Many companies have formal change advisory boards to review changes and to communicate to all areas of the organization. For any change, identify risks and determine an appropriate back-out plan or rollback process for changes that go wrong. Improvising during the stress of a rollback is not a good practice.</div>
<div class="last-para" id="540-2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
Communicate changes to all areas of the organization, including both IT and the business areas that are affected. Properly train users for any changes that affect them or their business process. Companies have found automated tools to help manage changes to be very useful. Whether you use tools or manual methods, document all changes. Use scripts, utilities, or tools to automate the installation process of changes and releases. Track metrics that report the quality of changes or issues resulting from changes.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-76078806073150625072012-01-17T00:20:00.000-08:002012-01-17T00:20:00.106-08:00Asset and Configuration Management<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="535-2" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
<br /></h3>
<div class="first-para" id="536-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
Having up-to-date information on assets with basic asset management software provides the help desk with complete information when the user calls for support, which saves time. There is significant cost savings in implementing inexpensive automated tools (e.g., LANDesk, Zenworks) for inventory of hardware and software. Inventory information is most helpful in an environment with diverse hardware and software. If you do not have asset management software, keep an inventory of hardware and software components in a spreadsheet.</div>
<div class="para" id="536-2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
The inventory should include demographic information, such as the person responsible, the location, and the area of the organization using the asset. Inventory information should also include product information, such as vendor, version, release, serial number, maintenance, license, value, and cost. Update and verify the information as the asset moves throughout the life cycle or is used in other processes, such as the problem management process when issues are <span class="beginpage" pagenum="191"><a href="" id="537" name="537" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page191" name="page191" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>reported. Also, report and review asset information on a regular basis. If you lease equipment, make sure you keep accurate records so you are able to account for and return equipment at the end of the lease period if necessary.</div>
<div class="example" id="ch06top04" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 1em; text-align: left;">
<span class="example-title" id="537-1" style="color: maroon; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em;"><span class="example-titlelabel">Top Tip: </span>Standard image</span><a href="" id="538" name="538" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="ch06top04" name="ch06top04" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><div class="formalbody" id="ch06top04" style="margin-left: 0px;">
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="first-para" id="538-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
"We saved money by standardizing our operations area. All PCs were a global standard and imaged the same. This saved money with volume discounts, reduced support headcount, as well as realized productivity savings."</div>
<div class="last-para" id="538-2" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
—Gail Farnsley<br style="line-height: 1;" />Purdue University<br style="line-height: 1;" />(former Cummins CIO)</div>
<hr class="blueline" style="color: #010100; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />
<div class="blankspace">
</div>
</div>
<div class="para" id="538-3" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Use asset information for inventory management, asset and hardware refresh planning, service history, and license management. Also, have a documented list of standard hardware and software with controls in place so unapproved software or hardware cannot be used. Having effective asset management of software helps in avoiding inflated licensing fees, cost-effectively reallocating licenses, and using only what you need. One company saved a significant amount of money by implementing a tool that provided automatic visibility to installed software and monitored the usage, or lack thereof. They used this information to ensure compliance with software licenses, to monitor adherence to corporate policies, to redistribute software licenses, and to assist with renewal negotiation with the vendors. In fact, some companies reported a cost savings of up to 30 percent of software licenses by having a good asset management process in place.</div>
<div class="last-para" id="538-4" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Have an up-to-date network configuration chart and picture of the business applications environment. It saves time since many people need this information to do their jobs more effectively.</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-1268605630948634242012-01-13T07:18:00.001-08:002012-01-13T07:18:50.789-08:00Help Desk Reporting Metrics | SERVICE SUPPORT<br />
<div class="section" id="ch06lev2sec14" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="528-3" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<br /></h3>
<div class="first-para" id="529-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Use monthly reports to evaluate and compare monthly activities and high-frequency problems as well as to track cost reduction and call avoidance measures. For example, you could identify a piece of hardware that is breaking down on a regular basis and proactively replace the hardware. At a minimum, track:</div>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.9em;">
<li class="first-listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="529-2" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Costs per user</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="529-3" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Calls per user</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="529-4" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Cost per call</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="529-5" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Abandon rate</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="529-6" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
First call resolution</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="529-7" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Calls by type</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="529-8" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Call volume by day and time</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="529-9" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
Calls by agent</div>
</li>
<li class="listitem" style="margin-top: 0.9em;"><div class="first-para" id="529-10" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
End-user satisfaction</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="last-para" id="529-11" style="margin-top: 0.9em;">
Do not just produce reports; use and analyze the reports to take actions to reduce your support costs. Getting trends on calls allows you to determine root causes and proactively solve issues. Also, use reporting metrics to view staff performance.</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="ch06lev2sec15" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="529-12" style="color: maroon; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em;">
<a href="" id="530" name="530" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="ch06lev2sec15" name="ch06lev2sec15" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a>Knowledge Management and User Self-Service</h3>
<div class="first-para" id="530-1" style="margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em;">
<span class="beginpage" pagenum="189"><a href="" id="531" name="531" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page189" name="page189" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>Creating a database of frequently needed solutions and workarounds assists help desk agents to be more productive by quickly solving the same problems over again. Use resolution templates and scripts to address recurring problems, or better yet, fix the root cause of the those problems. Providing users with access to this database of knowledge management empowers employees and helps them solve their own problems, thereby reducing calls and costs. Through interviews, some companies report that self-service capabilities allowed them to reduce calls by 10 percent. If the cost to service a person with self-help is 15 to 20 percent of the cost of traditional calls, it results in an overall cost savings for the help desk of 8 percent. Self-service solutions must be easy to use, easy to navigate, easy to understand, and quick They need to be faster than picking up the phone and making a call to the help desk. To generate savings, publicize self-service tools and options.</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348045719291144945.post-32447216027234711012012-01-08T02:30:00.000-08:002012-01-08T02:30:00.821-08:00Help Desk Software, Call Logging<br />
<h3 class="sect3-title" id="526-2" style="background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.9em; margin-top: 1.3em; text-align: left;">
<br /></h3>
<div class="first-para" id="527-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left;">
There have been significant improvements in tools available for the help desk that are usable for all sizes of companies. Additionally, there are many examples of help desk software such as Track-It and Heat. The software tools vary in cost from free to very expensive and elaborate. They typically have scalable price points. By using <span class="beginpage" pagenum="188"><a href="" id="528" name="528" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="" id="page188" name="page188" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>improved tools in the automation of support, you can reduce the costs and size or increase responsibilities of the help desk.</div>
<div class="para" id="528-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
Companies that track all calls and incidents, complete a regular analysis of types of calls, and implement changes to reduce calls are able to realize significant cost savings. Several companies mentioned doing a Pareto chart to find the most common help desk calls to then determine solutions to those problems and drive down future calls. For example, one company found the largest percent of calls was to fix or replace printers. They took a proactive approach and ordered 400 printers over a two-month period resulting in reduced calls and huge savings. Another company found the majority of calls was for password resets and implemented password reset software.</div>
<div class="last-para" id="528-2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 0.9em; text-align: left;">
Centralizing all calls to a help desk reduces costly interruptions of expensive resources focused on other projects and work. Receive requests for help via the phone, web, or e-mail. If you can log calls into a database where end users will see their status, you can automatically notify them of changes to their issues. This reduces calls back to the help desk by end users seeking status checks. Prioritize and classify incidents to focus on the high-priority items rather than on a first come, first served basis. Make sure you have a procedure for dealing with high-impact incidents as well as escalation procedures. Formal end-user feedback through automatic surveys when tickets are closed provides useful information to improve services and ultimately reduce costs.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1