Pretoria, 19 May 2010
As much as vendors wish organisations to believe the era of self-healing and management-free IT environments is upon us, the fact of the matter is that this is not the case.
IT management addresses the exploration and understanding of IT as a resource that determines both the strategic and operational capabilities of the enterprise in designing and developing products, as well as services for maximum customer satisfaction, productivity, profitability and competitiveness.
The term typically refers to managerial efforts associated with planning, organising, controlling and directing the introduction and use of computer-based systems within an organisation.
Although, on the most part, technology currently being used is relatively well understood, the effective management thereof is not. This could prove to be a critical point of failure as the management of IT is an attribute that has the potential to deliver a sustainable competitive advantage to the company.
The management of IT introduces the concept of service level agreements (SLAs) for IT service provision, particularly in the case of outsourced service provision. The purpose of an SLA is to define the levels of service that can be expected from the department or outsource partner and to clearly define responsibilities within the process.
The management of these SLAs is usually supported by management tools, which may include solutions such as SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) and SCOM (System Centre Operation Manager) from Microsoft as well as HP's Build to Order (BTO) software.
There are different levels of IT that can be used to support a company's organisational and strategic activities. These levels of IT can be implemented in any of the following ways:
* Insourcing or in-house IT management;
* Outsourcing of IT management; or
* Co-sourcing of IT management (which is a combination of the former).
An insourced solution consists of an internal department that manages the IT needs of a company. One of the difficulties associated with this approach is that the recruitment and training of staff may be lacking as IT may not be the main focus of the company, leading to poor identification of needs.
Insourcing, if managed correctly, could potentially be a more cost-effective option, but the related lack of experience, skills, knowledge and intellectual property often leads to legacy systems being supported and old technology being utilised, equating to higher operational costs.
In terms of outsourcing, it is important to be clear about what is meant by the term "outsourcing" as it has become a commonly misused term, and much of the apparent disagreement over the merits and risks of this type of solution can be traced to the differing definitions.
According to Dr John Houghton in his CIRCIT Policy research paper, "outsourcing is essentially a how rather than a what term. It describes how IT services are obtained, not what the services are."
The outsourcing of IT services is becoming more and more the trend for all large companies, relying on outsourcing partners specialising in recruiting, training and delivering an assortment of IT services. This allows the enterprise to gain value from the newest trends and technologies in IT services and consulting on technology without the hassle of interviewing and appointing IT staff to manage IT needs internally.
Outsourcing allows costs to be fixed and this can be managed better if top-notch SLAs are in place. The biggest advantage is that the outsource partner in most cases follows best practice measures, which lead to well documented strategies and intellectual property retention.
Additional outsourcing benefits include cost savings, allowing the company to focus on core business and budget flexibility. At the same time, drawbacks of this approach can number higher transaction costs, as well as hidden additional charges, HR problems, a lack of contract flexibility and issues around privacy and confidentiality.
Some enterprises do not allow for full disclosure of information and outsourcing of IT services cannot be fully utilised. In these situations only aspects of IT can be outsourced, known as co-sourcing. Outsourcing facets of IT allows a corporate to cut or fix costs on those areas that are difficult to manage or accrue large operational costs. Based on this, it seems that the current trend in terms of IT management is to outsource recurring tasks to specialist service providers.
IT infrastructure and the deployment of software are seldom a one-fit-all-solution. Companies differ, and so do their needs and purpose for IT. Most corporate solutions today require close partnership with specialist service providers to ensure the users of IT have the necessary access, availability and capacity in respect of the systems they use. A business seeking an IT service provider would do well to look for a company that can provide the cutting-edge technologies, deployment solutions and management services needed to fit its unique environment and needs.
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