Globally, businesses want immediate cost savings and are showing a lower risk appetite, says Zensar Technologies.
According to the company`s VP of strategic services, Krishna Ramaswami, companies are also looking for some assurance that their IT projects will provide some measure of success. "Many of our customers are facing challenging financial realities and they want to be reassured that savings will be instantly measurable."
Ramaswami addressed Gartner ITxpo/Symposium Africa 2009, in Cape Town, this week.
Zensar has developed a service that looks specifically at companies` IT solutions and identifies cost culprits that can be eliminated for an instant and measurable cost reduction. "It`s about providing a quantified figure, within a specific timeframe."
Ramaswami said Zensar has identified a pattern of cost problems within its clients` IT systems. Consolidation, licensing and outsourcing are the three problem areas in the infrastructure side.
While consolidation and virtualisation have been a focal point of IT discussion, it should now be implemented, he noted. "Simply consolidating servers can make a cost difference instantly. It creates savings on resources, space, hardware, software and energy."
The company believes software licensing is also troublesome. "On average, companies are overspending on licences by 30%. Simply by using an enterprise licensing structure, businesses could make significant savings."
Ramaswami pointed out that building a standardised procurement practice and standardising technology can also boost money in the bank. "Companies must also realise that not everything needs to be outsourced."
The application side also has saving opportunities, he added. "Some applications are being supported and maintained, but few people in the business are using them. CIOs must consider retiring those applications."
Many of the applications businesses are using have a local vendor help-desk, but are also being supported by an internal IT person, he noted. By eliminating the excess, companies can make the instant savings they are hoping for.
Zensar`s service, called "impact sourcing", promises to provide a minimum of 10% instant savings after an initial evaluation, explained Ramaswami.
With the CFO becoming more involved in the day-to-day procurement decisions, discretionary spend is slowly being cut. "Proposals are being reviewed more strictly and the people who used to sign off on deals are no longer making the decisions."
With a challenging economic environment, companies can only start to implement new projects if they can find savings in a shrinking budget.
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