With economic times creating difficult budget decisions for companies these days; some companies have already started implementing ways to save money. Taking a look at all of your IT servers is a great start.
The Colorado Department of Human Services refreshed their server infrastructure. Which saved the department over $141,000 in maintenance costs over a 2-year period. The result of this paid for the server refresh. The CDHS eliminated 70+ servers by converting to virtual machines hosted by 4 servers. Along with this the CDHS centralized local server provided edge site services using iFolder, iPrint, and Portal technologies.
Creating a backup utility combined with iFolder eliminated the cost in tape drives, software, media, and support.
The CDHS used an open source Liferay Portal and removed the Novell extend platform they were using. By making this change the reduced the cost of software licensing by $80,000.
Removed GroupWise e-mail post offices to a primary data center. Then converted their users to Web Access for e-mail. This reduced licensing costs also.
Some government agencies are using mobile technologies to increase production and eliminate unnecessary spending.
Agencies extended Local Area Networks (LAN) through a "virtual information cubicle" to employees in the field. Maintaining secure connectivity and reliability.
Using applications such as e-citations, provided new revenue generation opportunities.
This resulting in facilities decreasing as enterprise employees become mobile. Employees working at a location or out of their vehicles.
By using commercial wide area networks, agencies lowered capital expenses and operating expenses.
Benefits they experienced by going mobile: Improving speed and quality of responses, they were aloud to access data from remote locations, real time reports-permits reducing human error, share video and data at increased speed. This allowed employees to function on the same systems and applications as employees in the office. This lead to enhanced response, gaining operational efficiencies, and increasing productivity.
Standardizing common device platforms across agencies lowered training costs, maintenance, spares, and upgrades.
Being able to use real time asset management and the ability to update inventory databases immediately also cut costs.
Implementing new management tools can also create solutions to a budget crisis.
Business Process Management Systems provides a framework to achieve goals of improving agility and operational performance.
BPMS creates a framework allowing interaction with your existing case management system to better manage activities, and enable a modern Graphical User Interface.
This acquires performance data automatically to use in a variety of ways. Identifies tasks requiring employee action, assigns tasks to the appropriate employee, moves cases through processes and activities with speed and coordination. This provides monitoring and management information that allows decisions to be made immediately which improves operational effectiveness.
BPMS is highly configurable to processes and organization models. Also changes as needed by the agency or as legislation is implemented.
This system has an intuitive, process centric user interface that adapts allowing integration with existing systems, which if desired could eliminate manual processes. Creating automated processes and streamlining steps involving human interaction and judgment.
BPMS reduces error in processes allowing agencies to redeploy workers to more valued tasks. This system provides transparency into existing processes, shows bottlenecks allowing adjustments to be made in real time.
There are newer tools also that support SOA environments. These tools are implemented easily; reducing the number of work steps needed, and eliminating redundant processes.
The use of BPMS is the first step in an incremental modernization of human service systems.
This improves efficiency and reduces learning curves for employees, creating increased flexibility in a requirements changing program.
Businesses are often spending time and funds on managing large amounts of unregulated information. Such as web pages, file systems, text documents and paper files. Without effective strategies to manage this information, businesses operate less efficient. Causing unintentional delays for people requesting this information.
Some businesses are using Enterprise Content Management.
ECM helps effectively and efficiently manage content, and provide common platforms to access this content.
This is a proven way to reduce operating costs.
ECM provides information from any location, defines systematically content driven processes, and also reduces risks of compliance infractions by regulation.
Due to budgetary constraints businesses need to identify new sources of funding. This can be done through collaboration with private partners and the use of alternative funding models. This will improve productivity and services.
Collaborating approaches yield short and long term benefits with no up front costs.
Alternative funding models; Benefits Funding, Share in Savings, Revenue Sharing-Transaction Based, Managed Services Flat Rate, and Capital Investment.
Benefits Funding: Private partners are paid as technology solutions and process investments yield revenue benefits above established baselines.
Share in Savings: Private partners are paid as technology and process efficiencies drop costs relative to an established baseline.
Revenue Sharing-Transaction Based: Private partners are paid for a unit of work through a fixed fee or percentage. This is based on the transaction amount or transaction fees.
Managed Services- Flat Rate: Private partners give a flat rate for all services and this payment remains the same during the contract period.
Capital Investment: Private partners are paid through fees for operating in managed services.
Using one of the Alternative funding models companies need to maximize revenues while minimizing operating expenses.
Private partners can bring cutting edge business processes to redefine what businesses can do for their customers.
The company GE tried another approach to cost reduction. TRIZ " the theory of solving inventor's problems" It's called TRIZ, a Russian acronym for the phrase "the theory of solving inventor's problems".
This system is used for analyzing problems and generating solutions. TRIZ use of deep analysis for possibilities based on math and science algorithms.
Today TRIZ is being used at corporations trying to find new ways to improve innovation and productivity, more so than what has been achieved with the widely adopted Six Sigma and Lean techniques.
Some companies that have adopted this system are GE, Intel, Proctor & Gamble, and a few smaller innovating companies such as FuelCell Energy. FuelCell used TRIZ and ended up making changes that cut costs by 50%.
This is known only as a niche tool.
GE has trained 70 employees and green lighted 90% of conceptual designs for production.
One of the largest influences on reducing costs is to optimize or decrease spending.Self-started cost reduction programs are the focus of many businesses. And the 2008 economic situation has affected IT in some way. Incorporating strategies to help eliminate costly spending will give a boost to new project ideas. Steps need to be taken when changes are made to budgets. Avoid negative impact to staff morale, choose the right budget items to cut back. Understand that staff will be impacted by certain policy changes. Taking some of the actions described here,costs will drop productivity and operational functions will be more efficientand business will have increased revenues.
Information for this article came from the Information Technology Association of America's website (www.itaa.org and Business Week's website. (www.businessweek.com)