TECHNOLOGY FROM A CLIENT POINT OF VIEW

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE JUSTIFIES TECHNOLOGY

For business customers, the novelty of tech is long over. Clever technology, hype, and amusement value are no longer impressive. Your customers, staff, and partners expect technology to be easy and effective. Sub-par IT applications cause prospective customers to walk, leaving your tech environment for a better option. It makes good business sense that your network and computing infrastructure is rock solid, reliable, and effective. The revelation is that technology too often is disconnected from the business, and even one technology from another. Businesses want more from their applications and infrastructures — especially the ability to flexibly optimize cost, reduce risk and enable growth. Every technology touch point of your firm is integral to business relationships, so that image cannot save companies from poor technology touch points. Definition 6 takes a holistic approach and invests in unique skill sets for project teams with the specific objective of creating environments that entice customers, attract partners, and energize staff.

CLIENTS STATE RECENT OBSERVATIONS ABOUT IN-HOUSE TECHNOLOGY

This is a perspective from the field, understanding client points of view and relating those to client goals of staying ahead of opportunities for improved performance and lower costs. Periodically, Definition 6 reviews emerging Information Technology (IT) requirements and trends to help customers leverage new opportunities that drive revenues and lower costs. They listen, focusing on your business needs and goals. Some recent concerns are clearly interrelated and reflect disillusionment with the status of technology in client organizations and a difficulty in moving forward. Common concerns are:

MOVING FROM REACTIVE TO PROACTIVE

In essence, organizations want to switch from reactive to proactive in their approach to IT. At the same time, they feel trapped by existing technology and its expense. Switching to proactive means that many companies want to flip the ratio of expenditure on operations and maintenance from 70% of IT spending to 30% and, correspondingly, flip the ratio of expenditure on the latest competitive IT initiatives from 30% to 70% of IT budget. Companies are desperate to move in this direction, funding projects that support the development of new business capabilities. For many, dissatisfaction with their current situations reflects an ability to see the future, but inability to get there.

BIG APPETITE FOR TECH, BUT CONTINUING DISSATISFACTION

For many, IT infrastructure reacts too slowly to business requirements. This dissatisfaction is a symptom of a business world where technology has become pervasive and basic infrastructure is mandatory, yet costly. Often, our appetite for technology and adoption rate increases more rapidly than can be managed and funded predictably. Average IT budgets spend over 70 percent of their money on just infrastructure and operations. Hiring, training, and retaining qualified personnel to handle even the basics of technology infrastructure takes time and distracts from driving the business.

The concerns also reflect disenchantment with technology effectiveness. Companies have technology, but are not satisfied with the value, especially when they add up what they spend and have little funding left for new initiative. There is a gap between what they need and what they have. Budgetary and time constraints prevent companies from developing and implementing the strategy to take them to the next level that improves their competitive position with advances in technology. Moreover, many concerns boil down to quality issues because IT performance simply does not conform to business requirements, yet change requires funding.

CAPITALIZE ON MAJOR SHIFTS IN TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION & MANAGEMENT

Changes in hardware, software, and services are creating new ways - services models - to meet the technology needs of business. The shifts address the specific issues raised. In addition, these new methods are cost-effective for smaller and medium-sized businesses. Needs are shifting, with many medium sized firms requiring global network access of a big enterprise. Shifts, such as remote management in combination with specialized server management software tools, enable outsourcing of many IT services, to achieve lower costs with a higher quality of server administration. Outsourcing itself is not new, but the effectiveness and breadth of IT outsourcing has changed dramatically, especially for firms below the Global 100. Previous service models, such as hourly billing to fix what's broken, were not predictable and incurred emergency service fees. Businesses need a more manageable model for obtaining and utilizing necessary IT services, such as stable, monthly fees. Over the past year, Definition 6 built the methodology and acquired tools and staffing to provide you with high levels of service at low, consistent price levels. These Managed Service offerings beat previous models and free in-house staff to enjoy working on new, strategic projects.

PAY-AS-YOU-GO, UTILITY COMPUTING MODEL OFFERS AGILITY & SAVINGS

The concept of software-as-a-service (SaaS), applications piped over the Internet at a customer's request, was heralded in the 1990's under the banner of Application Service Provider (ASP). The potential fell short of the hype. Finally, hosted models are a reality, especially through Web-based applications, on-demand. Web services and the underlying frameworks are enabling far easier and cost effective utilization of point services (purchased ASP-style services) within overall business application solutions. The concepts of IT-Utility style computing and Real Time Infrastructure (RTI) now enable companies to meet infrastructure needs at much lower baseline costs and with higher levels of hardware and software stability. This on-demand model lets you "pay-as-you-go" with great predictability of cost and the ready ability to expand quickly with talented staff, hardware, software, networks and bandwidth.

A March 2005 report from Gartner predicts that by 2010, 25 percent of application demands will be delivered through RTI/IT utility, either in-house or from service providers, up from less than 5 percent. This 25 percent will realize the benefits and free them to drive the business. A change requires your businesses to look at what you want to tackle in-house and what you want to buy from your local IT-Utility provider, such as the routine of managing existing applications and infrastructure. RTI and IT-Utility computing leads to greater business agility, with IT budget items becoming variable rather than fixed costs. The striking value from Managed Services is reduced IT operations and infrastructure costs.

REAL-TIME INFRASTRUCTURE (RTI) REACTS QUICKLY TO BUSINESS NEEDS

Real-Time Infrastructure (RTI) enables dynamic changes in IT that align rapidly with business need, for real time optimization of organizational resources, such as people, applications, and supporting technologies. Above all, RTI harnesses IT to support changing business needs and for the immediate advantage of the firm. Gartner's survey results, published in October 2005, show that 67 percent of enterprises view Real-Time Infrastructure (RTI) as an imperative. Building toward this real-time capability is crucial to long-term success.

RTI value propositions parallel common business goals: reduced costs, through efficient use of computing resources and labor expense redirected from system-management to strategic initiatives; improved service levels, from availability of dynamic resources, updates, and tuning; and increased organizational agility, from rapid deployment and scaling of applications that meet immediate business needs. RTI benefits include a higher IT service level, with automated management for reduced complexity and less labor. Business agility is enhanced through IT because computing and networking resources are allocated or repurposed in step with changing business requirements. RTI is active, automated management through one or more suppliers.

The right supplier for your RTI lets the business requirements and Service-Level Agreement (SLA) power an automatic, optimized response of the IT infrastructure, which reduces costs, increases Quality of Service (QoS) and attains higher utilization rates with lower hardware and maintenance cost. Through an alliance partnership, Definition 6 developed flexible systems that can be remotely managed and configured.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES LOWER BASELINE COSTS

There has also been a supporting shift in the past few years in infrastructure technologies that enables better monitoring of network devices such as servers, including proper security patching and updating, vulnerability analysis and remediation, and advanced remote administration. A company using these technologies spends less time performing the routine maintenance required to stay operational. Additionally, the need to actually put hands physically on the network equipment and servers becomes near negligible. The ability to take advantage of low-cost remote labor to perform routine administration is far more available then it was just a few years ago.

EVALUATE TRANSITION OPTIONS

Your business must evaluate the cost advantages and staff leverage from software-as-a-service and Real Time (R-T) Infrastructure (RTI), for both in-house and outsourced technologies. Along with savings, you may get an up-to-date infrastructure that is actually less expensive. Shared IT services and staffing, providing a pool of experienced time staff and resources, are likely to yield higher levels of service to support your growing needs at lower costs.

With great diligence, Definition 6 defined new service offerings, established working partnerships, engineered new network and computing infrastructure, and organized skilled project teams to provide clients with the specific needs to adapt to the changes occurring in the market and accordingly to the shifting needs of customers. Definition 6 has already embraced the use of software as a service where appropriate to meet application needs in the solutions they build for clients. Definition 6 has also invested heavily in building the necessary operational and support structure to help clients take advantage of Real Time Infrastructure capabilities. Recognizing that off-shore and near-shore are becoming critical components to lowering IT costs but often challenging to implement and manage effectively, Definition 6 has taken it upon themselves to leverage it for clients, to help where appropriate, while still maintaining high levels of quality and service. Definition 6 has a highly trained and diversely experienced staff that is always at the ready to help clients transform their business and better manage their costs.

START A DIALOGUE TO FREE YOUR BUDGET

Free your organization; explore the new service models and technologies by speaking with Definition 6. The firm has a unique ability to: understand and evaluate a client's needs, recognize opportunities, set key performance metrics, analyze business processes, leverage technology for higher revenues, and lower costs with quick payback, solid Return On Investment (ROI), and high certainty.