Features

• Company Saves Millions By Ending IT Outsourcing Deal

  By Stephanie Overby | 19 February, 2010 08:05

  In the realm of IT outsourcing, disengaging from a multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement can be so difficult and costly for customers that it makes a Trump divorce seem like a tea party. But that's exactly what Kellwood did last year, despite the upheaval the company anticipated from ending its 13-year IT outsourcing arrangement with EDS.

• ERP Costs: 3 Signs Companies Are Wasting Less Money

  By Thomas Wailgum | 08 February, 2010 05:37

  ERP investments have long held a stranglehold on corporate IT investments. The Great Recession, however, has pushed boards and budgeting committees to examine IT spending like never before. Not surprisingly, ERP's juicy slice of the corporate spending pie has come under closer scrutiny.

• Cost Saving for IT Infrastructure Management

  By Rama Murthy Prabhala and Rahul M. Joshi | 11 January, 2010 07:08

  Much has been said about best practices in IT management to tide over the economic downturn. Under ever-increasing pressure, many CIOs are now looking at IT Infrastructure management as an effective means to drive business transformation. While most organizations are keen to join in, there are some strategies that may be employed to get quick wins.

• IT Outsourcing: Avoid Multi-Sourcing's Costly Trap

  By Stephanie Overby | 07 January, 2010 06:50

  Multisourcing, or spreading work among several service providers, can offer many advantages to IT shops, from competitive pricing and increased flexibility to access to a deeper pool of talent. But working with multiple vendors can also mean exit costs are multiplied if the arrangement doesn't work out, warns Bob Mathers, principal consultant with Compass Management Consulting.

• Why Benchmarking Cloud vs. Current IT Costs is So Hard

  By Bernard Golden | 03 December, 2009 04:21

  A couple of weeks ago I was asked to moderate an HP-sponsored meeting on the subject of virtualization. Predictably, most of the discussion (attended by press and vendors including Citrix, Microsoft, Red Hat, and VMware) focused on cloud computing. It was a pretty lively session, but what I want to address here is an HP product portfolio called "IT Financial Management" that was discussed, along with its implications for cloud computing. As you might guess, the product focuses on financial analysis of IT operations, which is extremely relevant to the adoption of cloud computing.

• Cost-Saving Secrets of the Outsourcing Insiders

  By Stephanie Overby | 19 November, 2009 04:49

  Sure, you could hire a big, expensive outsourcing consulting firm to guide you step-by-step through the IT services procurement process. They've got experience, off-the-rack SLAs and contractual provisions, and enough templates and processes to fill a large conference room. But not everyone can or will pay $300-plus an hour for outsourcing handholding anymore.

• Beware Cloud Computing's Hidden Costs

  By Chris Curran | 05 November, 2009 08:20

  Cloud service providers can make compelling and simple sales pitches in terms of cost of individual services-$100 per user per year sounds pretty good. But "hidden" expenses can alter a company's outlook. Costs related to people, processes, and architecture associated with both the transition and the operations require analysis and planning before signing up for a business case based on a move to the cloud. CIOs and other IT professionals are already well acquainted with such expenses, but the challenge will lie in uncovering them in the relatively unfamiliar cloud model and determining accountability for each.

• How to make IT more cost effective

  By Kim S. Nash | 12 June, 2009 05:27

  Many employees don't understand all the business events that drive internal IT consumption and determine the cost of providing technology. But if you don't know what moves the needle on IT, you can't make defensible decisions about how to improve those numbers.

• A/NZ CIOs moving quickly to cut costs: Forrester

  By Tim Lohman | 04 June, 2009 11:44

  Despite the fast pace of economic deceleration, CIOs have managed to quickly cut costs across the business without having a considerable impact on business outcomes and staff morale, Forrester Research has found.