IT departments have been challenged over the past decade to “get closer” to the business, as well as to link their internal strategies & tactics to the overall business model. They are also being directed to function by using a more “customer facing” model, with improved responsiveness to the business units they service.
The reality is that this has proven very hard to do. The major reason for that difficulty has been the vast investment in large infrastructure and applications that are in place to run the corporation’s day-to-day business. Those structures tend to age rapidly; often being held together by a series of tactical practices. Most companies understand these challenges but are reluctant to commit to the time and expense of a significant re-engineering of their infrastructure or application groups.
Over the past decade a series of Best Practices methodologies; ITIL for infrastructure and CMMI for applications have gained intellectual acceptance. However, most companies have trouble understanding how to leverage them to foster better practices, faster & better customer response time, increased information on internal quality of effort, reduced operating costs, slimmer staffs, reduced hardware/software inventory and increased productivity.
A further Best Practice subset is the use of Application Portfolio Rationalization, (APR). Simply put, this refers to the analysis, categorization, prioritization and consolidation of your software and tools inventory. It leads to a reduction of applications to manage, as well as a consequential reduction of staff and related hardware, software and software tools.
Both ITIL and ARP take time and require senior buy-in. However, if done meticulously they almost always produce faster service, utilize a smaller staff using Best Practices; allowing companies to be more cost competitive; as well as closer to their internal customers.
For more information on TBI’s ITIL and APR services please contact TBI or you can reach us at: 201.573.0400.
