It Expo Deck V1.1 20101027

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Cut Costs. Improve Service. Start Today. 10 Things You Must Do to Improve IT Now!

Russell Girten

Vice President

Process Transformation & Information Technology

Alaska Communications

October 28, 2010


Where does the money go?

• Companies who use computers spend the most on machines, facilities & the people who support them.

• That spending drives some of the least tangible benefit to the business.

15%

12%

5% 68%

Applications

Network

Support

Infrastructure

19

22

38

18 3

Hardware

Software

Personnel

Outsourcing

Other

Spending by Type

Spending by Area

IT Metrics: IT Spending & Staffing Report, 2010 - Gartner


What Can I Do About It?

1. Adopt Standard Practices

2. Grow Process Maturity

3. Turn Off What You Don’t Use

4. Focus on Fill Rate

5. Grow Scale


What Can I Do About It?

6. Outsource What Makes Sense

7. Introduce Variability into Models

8. Align to Business Strategy

9. Repeat & Share – With Yourself, With Others

10. Buy only the IT you need


1. Adopt Standard Processes

• Lots of thinking has gone into processes, from very bright minds, and they’ve been tested.

• Plenty of models available: ITIL, Microsoft Process Template, Agile, Infrastructure Management Process Design (MIKE 2.0)

• If you can’t adopt, hire someone who can help.

IT Service Management - Information Technology Infrastructure Library


2. Grow Process Maturity

• Mature processes cost less to operate.

• Don’t change process because something didn’t work. Improve it.

• Use standard frameworks and peers to assess maturity.

Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model


3. Turn Off What You Don’t Use

• Unmanaged IT infrastructure(s) can often be reduced 50% through focused management.

• Cost of powering a rack is $3-400/month in Alaska.

• We’ll decommission 40% this year.

• Each year, refresh, replace or remove significant components of infrastructure.


4. Focus on Fill Rate

• Consolidation is important – space savings, power savings, labor savings.

• Attempt to reach at least 70% fill for each component class in your infrastructure.

• Adopt providers who are incented to maximize fill rates.


5. Grow Scale

• Scale builds purchasing efficiencies

• Scale builds communities

• Scale causes vendors to behave differently

• Work with others who can help you increase scale.


6. Outsource What Makes Sense

• For items that are not a part of your businesses’ critical value chains: outsource everything you can.

• For items that are on critical value chains: outsource where you can achieve additional scale.

• Take all the time necessary to strike a clear agreement that defines responsibilities for all involved. If you don’t know them, find a partner who does.


7. Introduce Variability into Models

• Purchase everything you can in a way that scales with your business.

• Transaction counts (or user counts) often work best.

• Maniacally manage the units of measure in variable models (user counts, transactions, etc.)

• Find a partner to conduct periodic audits of the IT infrastructure.


8. Align to Business Strategy

• Only work projects that: – Protect from obsolescence or

disaster – Grow or reduce necessary capacity,

or – Are clearly aligned to the strategy of

the business as a whole.

• These are the projects that deliver

value and survive cuts.

• These are the projects that users will use and improves efficiency with capital.

• Conduct a strategy alignment audit on a yearly basis to forecast spend and align outcomes.


9. Repeat & Share – With Yourself, With Others

• Work you haven’t done before has a 50% higher failure rate.

• If a project plan has an unknown estimate, the plan in its entirety has no certainty.

• Reuse, repeat and share infrastructure whenever possible.


10. Buy Only the IT You Need

• It is incredibly easy to buy too much IT… and vendors may not stop you.

• Demand-driven models are much more effective to manage capacity, when they are available.

• Purchase in ways and from vendors who make it easy to expand or contract IT as you need it… by the seat, by the user, by the invoice, etc.


How can TekMate and Alaska Communications Help?

• Scalable Bandwidth – Business Extreme Broadband – Dedicated Private Circuits – MPLS – Enhanced Metro Ethernet

• Constantly On IT • Hardware as a Service

– Desktops – Servers – Storage

• Software as a Service – Microsoft Applications – Vertical Applications


October 28, 2010

It Expo Deck V1.1 20101027

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