Doing more with lessThe constant pressure of having to do more with less
The constant pressure of having to do more with less
IT leaders have rarely been required to be as nimble as they are in today’s
business climate.
If you are like many other IT leaders we work with, having to “do more
with less” has led to increased complexities around the management and
ongoing support of your technology infrastructure.
In the post-GFC business environment, the “do more with less” mantra
has taken root in enterprises big and small as the world’s economies are
buffeted by change.
Rapidly changing technology trends, an increasingly mobile workforce,
budget challenges and globalisation are all conspiring to make the IT
manager’s role in any organisation one of the most crucial.
When the squeeze is on, organisations will employ obvious ways to
become more effective - reducing waste, moth-balling struggling
projects, re-thinking work flow.
But there are limits - and dangers. By ignoring realities like the number of
hours in a day and the physical and mental limitations of the people who
work for you, there is a real risk that the customer service you provide
will be damaged.
If you overburden people and systems, you will succeed only in burning-
out employees, experience equipment and process failures, and cut
corners that will come back to haunt your business.
Smart managers know that the key to success is not so much about doing
more with less, but the opposite - doing less with less.
2
Get fit
Businesses that emerge in relative good health from economic doldrums
share a common trait. When push comes to shove, they let go of
distractions and focus on what they do best. They concentrate on giving
their customers what they want.
Letting things go is hard, but it pays off. Every person, process, system,
program, and policy must be examined through the prism of their
effectiveness in providing value to customers. Those people and things
that are critical to providing value must remain; everything else must go.
It is resource optimisation, and a healthy business must constantly review
its resources to keep ahead of the game.
Nowhere is this more relevant than the IT sector. The role of IT
departments is evolving rapidly, with in-house technology specialists
relishing new opportunities to help employees extract maximum
productivity out of the devices and systems they use rather than
squandering most of their time on the administration of those devices
and systems.
But some IT managers are traditionalists, determined to retain control
of provisioning, set-up and maintenance of technology infrastructure
believing that by doing so they can keep a tight rein on spending.
Unfortunately, this could be holding their enterprise back.
A modern imperative
Take mobilising your workforce for example. Mobility is one of the
biggest revolutions transforming the modern workplace, driving massive
productivity gains.
Your staff demands it and you need to deliver it, all the while maintaining
flexibility, security, and control.
“Many IT leaders deploy and manage a mobile fleet themselves thinking
they have the people, capability and infrastructure to do it effectively
and securely. However, indications are that nearly 80 percent of
enterprises dramatically underestimate the expense of mobile device
management,” says Peter Hobbins, Vita Enterprise Solutions’ Mobility
Practice Lead.
Certainly it requires a big investment in time - time that could be
better spent helping employees get the most out of the technology or
enhancing the customer experience.
There is a strong case, on both economic and productivity grounds,
for outsourcing the management, procurement and provision of your
mobile device fleet, freeing highly skilled IT specialists to add value to
the core business.
That’s doing less with less, but doing it better too.
Great opportunity
If your enterprise is under pressure to do more with less, look on it as an
opportunity to refresh the business.
Instead of having a mindset of “cutting back”, start with a blank page.
Organisations often are full of people who are either in the wrong jobs
or who have talents that are underutilised. This is the time to examine
their roles and re-deploy them. The same can be done with other
resources.
Getting lean doesn’t mean firing people. It means unburdening them of
unproductive tasks and having them focus on what is really important in
the business.
Who is Vita Enterprise Solutions?As part of Vita Group, Australia’s most exciting technology,
communications and electronics provider, Vita Enterprise Solutions
draws on the insight, expertise and know-how generated from 20 years
of servicing the Australian market.
Over this time we’ve built an enviable record of technology and service
delivery. Our strong reputation comes from developing in-house
expertise and aligning with key technology and telecommunications
partners including Telstra and Apple.
We’ll match agile technology outcomes to your business requirements,
simplifying the process for you. From providing the right mobility
solution, increasing collaboration, transitioning to the Cloud or NBN, to
providing hardware and accessory solutions, Vita Enterprise Solutions
will partner with your business to deliver a personalised and fully
integrated end to end solution.
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