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We’d have to think hard to remember a time when IT leaders weren’t being asked to ‘do more with less’. It’s part of the job description to find innovative ways to extract ‘optimal value’ from existing or shrinking budgets.
But in these uncertain economic times, with higher costs of capital, increasing competition for talent, and higher costs of raw materials, holding on to the capital we do have for re-investment is even more important.
Optimisation of IT spend has always come down to some basic principles of identifying and prioritising which projects or activities will enable us to meet our organisational objectives and deliver the best returns. And then, ensuring the ‘spend’ or ‘investment’ is used in the most effective way.
Strategic alignment through the roadmap ensures IT spend is aligned with the organisational vision or strategy, and is used in the best way. Resource optimisation practices then ensure we use existing resources before we commit budget to buying new ones.
If we’re using our ITIL framework for effectively managing IT services throughout the entire service lifecycle, we’ll be regularly assessing hardware, software, and infrastructure to identify opportunities for consolidation, virtualisation, or decommissioning. Thus, ensuring we leverage as much value as possible from existing IT investments, as well as new ones.
With effective management, consultancy, and advisory at the key stages of development, we know this process will optimise IT spend.
So, the question is, which projects should we be focusing on? Because there are some key emerging technologies, which when applied using this methodology, will enable to us to do this.
Data modernisation ensures we have high data integrity, so we can make the right decisions through the entire strategic road mapping process.
Data-driven insights provide a deep understanding of where budget can be allocated to reduce costs, optimise processes and operations, and most importantly, empower people.
When we leverage data in this way, we enable a culture of constant assessment to take hold of the organisation. This empowers us to look more closely at resource allocation and utilisation, so we can project for technology investments and model operational efficiencies.
This culture enables us to swiftly identify opportunities for cost savings, reallocate resources strategically, and align expenditures with business goals. What’s really important is that this commitment to continuous improvement or ongoing optimisation allows us to not only optimise IT spend, but also drive innovation and maximise the value of technology investments.
The role IT Managers play in optimising IT spend revolves around identifying and implementing technologies that will drive innovation and improve operational efficiency. Increasingly, these strategies are being built around intelligent automation services, which include robotic process and experience automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), and platform integration.
There’s no doubting the effectiveness of automation on driving performance and operational efficiencies, but these investments can often stretch into $millions, putting them well out of reach of many mid-market organisations.
It’s for this reason that Tecala advocates for an ‘intelligent automation as a service’ model, because it allows mid-market organisations to implement automation in incremental and continuous projects, so we can achieve our goals within agreed timeframes and budgets.
Focusing on achievable projects, for which the business case is deeply compelling, ensures a quicker return on investment. It also ensures investments in emerging technology are deeply rooted in the overall ICT strategy, thus ensuring we all achieve the business or operational outcomes we need.
The huge adoption of cloud and cloud native applications is testament to the maturity and ease-of-use of Software-as-a-Service and cloud native platforms.
IDC predicts that “750 million cloud-native applications will be created globally by 2025, as businesses work toward building these sustainable digital value engines.”
Cloud native, SaaS applications optimise IT spend because they reduce infrastructure overhead and operational complexity. They allow for scalable resource allocation that’s based on demand, eliminating the need for upfront hardware investments.
This agility in the cloud enables organisations to not only be on the front foot and forward thinking, it also eliminates waste, keeping IT budgets nice and streamlined.
Remote working and mobility have always been important in some industries, but now they’re essential in all.
With hybrid and flexible working becoming the new normal, investments in integrated communication and collaboration platforms, like Microsoft Teams with Enterprise Voice, are essential. They are the catalyst for creating empowered teams who can do their roles more effectively, thus driving efficiency and productivity.
The challenge arises when you need to enable flexible and mobile working in a cyber security environment that can no longer be dependent on security at the perimeter of the network.
Zero Trust is the key enabler for this modern way of working because it puts in place strict access controls, with continuous authentication, and micro-segmentation. By reducing the ‘attack surface’ it mitigates risks and prevents costly data breaches.
When combined with SIEM and MDR, we have an effective approach to cyber security that minimises the need for expensive perimeter defences and reduces the financial impact of security incidents. This means more of our IT budget can be focused on ‘innovation’ rather than ‘prevention’.
Often represented as the solid foundation or platform for IT, effective IT governance puts the frameworks and policies in place to ensure IT activities are aligned with business goals and adhere to industry regulations and standards.
IT Governance, incorporating environmental and social responsibility, enables the strategic technology roadmap to be intricately woven into the organisation’s vision and mission, from a regulatory, compliance and operational point of view.
Arguably, it’s in this framework that an organisation achieves optimisation of IT spend, as it ensures technology spend transcends profitability and growth to include societal and environmental responsibilities too.
With environmental sustainability becoming a genuine concern in the tech industry, optimising IT spend has to be put in perspective with adopting more energy-efficient hardware and implementing strategies to reduce electronic waste, for example.
Tecala specialises in delivering end-to-end IT management and support, but more importantly, we ensure each part of your IT ecosystem seamlessly integrates to ensure the holistic performance and experience is exceptional.
We achieve this through our approach and methodology which is built around the four disciplines of Strategise, Transform, Manage and Optimise (STMO). This methodology aligns perfectly with ITIL in that it supports the five main aspects of IT Service Management: service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continual service improvement.
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The way we should be assessing the viability, relevance, and value of emerging technology is to assess it in relation to whether it can deliver an intelligent business outcome.
Our Data Landscape Maturity Assessment is the key to unlocking the potential of your data, so it drives your automation and AI.
