eROI tool automates IT management across the infrastructure

In a tight economy, the bottom line rules company decision-making more than ever. All IT investments must make economic sense, and proven, rapid return on investment (ROI) is a key prerequisite.

To achieve the best ROI from the Internet infrastructure - often the most vital investment - companies must have a management solution that drives down operations costs and leverages the investment.

"When selecting a management tool, insist on proof of significant ROI," says Tony Pollastrini, Enterprise Systems Manager at Dimension Data Service Provider Solutions. As part of its services strategy, the global integrator offers a service that calculates the savings its solutions can bring to companies by automating the management of complicated infrastructures.

The eROI tool demonstrates how companies save money in the areas of networks, systems and applications. In the networking area, for example, it accurately assesses actual WAN capacity and alleviates the need for companies to buy excess bandwidth. It also automates routine tasks such as capacity planning, base-lining and performance management, allowing IT staff to focus on strategic tasks.

"CFOs need to see the real-world business case for automating IT management across the entire infrastructure and why automation saves money and improves efficiency over time," says Pollastrini. The eROI tool, from next-generation performance management solutions company Concord Communications, also reveals the percentage of IT staff`s routine time freed up by automating IT management.

According to several industry analyst reports, about 29% of an IT employee`s work time (or 12 hours per person per week) focuses on such network issues as capacity planning, base-lining, fault management and performance management.

"IT management today must take a global view of a company`s entire infrastructure, and so we focus on providing a service that helps a company ensure its networks, systems and applications deliver peak performance," says Pollastrini.

When first deploying eROI, Dimension Data works with a potential customer to determine its business model as well as its size as these factors can illustrate the type of IT infrastructure demands a company has. For example, a smaller company would probably have fewer WAN links than a mid-sized company and therefore would not need to devote as many resources to maintaining uptime. Details on the size of IT staff and their salaries also help determine the cost of maintaining networks, systems and applications.

Once this information is assimilated, Dimension Data works with the customer to tailor eROI to account for that customer`s particular business model and gauge the ROI.

"eROI is a revelation for most IT managers," says Pollastrini. "Many have never undertaken a simple ROI/cost-benefit analysis for such issues as network capacity purchasing and server availability from a business or financial, rather than technical, perspective."