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How to achieve best -in- class IT application delivery with limited resources
June 2013
Mid-market organisations live or die by the quality of the applications that drive their business operations; from sales generation through supply chain management to post-sales services. Similar IT complexity to that in large enterprises has to be managed to support these, but with more limited resources. Somehow, the aspiring mid-market CIO needs to achieve peace of mind, confident that these applications are consistently delivering the desired business outcomes. Most acknowledge that they cannot achieve best-in-class application performance, availability and security, at an affordable cost, based purely on their own resources. To deliver a given application effectively requires the help of an IT service provider (ITSP). The conundrum is finding the right partner with both an applications focus and flexible access to the necessary resources to adapt as workload and technology change. The research presented in this report shows the extent to which UK-based midmarket IT leaders recognise these problems and how effectively they are working with ITSPs to deliver improved services to their business.
Bob Tarzey Quocirca Ltd Tel : +44 7900 275517 Email: bob.tarzey@quocirca.com
Bob Brown Quocirca Ltd Tel: +44 7940 526801 Email: bob.brown@quocirca.com
Mid-market CIOs recognise that they must deliver desired business outcomes Best-in-class applications are a key competitive asset for any mid-market business Mid-market businesses need the capability to scale people, processes and technology Finding partners with the right skills who are willing to engage is a key challenge Help with facing up to current IT trends must be part of package Both end user organisation and ITSP need a partnering mind set to succeed
The majority of mid-market IT directors already have a CIO (chief information officer) mind set. They focus on applications over infrastructure and take a holistic view of both the application and the supporting infrastructure to ensure delivery of the only thing that really matters; the desired business outcome. Only when this is the case will they achieve the peace of mind that a given application will perform reliably, be available and secure on a day-to-day basis and free up time to focus on other strategic initiatives. 97% of mid-market organisations transact directly with users from partners, customer organisations and/or consumers and 72% of their employees rely on access to applications to do their jobs. On average the number of external users engaged with is 40 times the number of internal users; for some organisations it is considerably higher than this as they run hundreds of thousands or millions of external transactions per year. Any inefficiency or inaccuracy that results from poorly implemented or integrated business-critical applications is instantly visible to key stakeholders and will lead to competitive disadvantage and lost revenue. Most mid-market IT leaders recognise that if they rely on internal resources alone, they will not be able to deliver best-in-class applications. On average they have 73 users per IT staff member; with smaller organisations being half as efficient as larger ones. So most work with third party IT service providers (ITSPs) to gain access to scalable resources including people, processes and technology. Mid-market businesses cannot afford the upfront capital and ongoing investment that this requires, but ITSPs can as they share the costs across multiple customers. Mid-market businesses are typically not of interest to most large system integrators, and they become less interesting the smaller they are. Companies with just a national focus are also less likely to deal with larger providers. The quality of service provided by smaller IT service providers (ITSP) that do focus on the mid-market is variable and inconsistent; all too often the experience is disappointing and for a better-than-expected service to be delivered is a rarity. This explains why their mid-market IT directors are often serial experimenters. Mid-market organisations accept that new technologies are a key part of the solution to their challenges, including support for mobility and cloud-based services that provide an opportunity to enhance operational efficiency. Help is also needed in other areas such as big data and consumerisation. Mid-market IT directors and their management teams need access to partners with proven skills and capabilities to enable them to harness these technologies with confidence and in a way that ensures the desired business outcomes are achieved. A better experience of working with ITSPs is usually reported if both parties see a partnership as the basis for the relationship. However, many mid-market organisations engage on a tactical basis, which leads to fragmented overall delivery. They struggle to find the right balance, with the number of suppliers going up and down over relatively short timescales. Those organisations that seek to engage in a true partnering fashion, with risk shared between both parties, are the ones that will achieve real long term benefit from their ITSP engagements.
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LEVEL OF ENGAGEMENT
Does the team that you engage with at the ITSP have the ability to speak to your organisations business managers as confidently as they can with your IT managers? Do they ask for access to the business stakeholders? At what stage can you meet the service delivery team? An early introduction should inspire confidence. Are they people that you can work with in the long term? Are you confident that the ITSP can help you overcome barriers within your organisation about the business value of cloud-based services and other emergent technologies?
DELIVERY CAPABILTY
Does the ITSP demonstrate an understanding of hybrid delivery? i.e. the ability to make best use of your organisations existing in-house IT resources, supplemented by its own and other third party resources, and delivery models, as required? Does the ITSP offer a broad portfolio of services to help reduce the number of overall contracts that your organisation has to manage? Can the ITSP integrate and work with other partners with whom your organisation is already committed? Can the ITSP help your organisation to benefit from, and cope with, the changing trends in IT such as public cloud, big data and consumerisation? Is the contract offered flexible enough to cope with changes to your business requirements over time?
PROOF POINTS
Can the ITSP demonstrate that it has delivered best-in-class IT services? Have you spoken to any of its existing customers as a reference?
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References
1 Quocirca 2013; The adoption of cloud based services July 2013 freely available on request from Quocirca, to be published on the Quocirca web site later in 2013. 2 Quocirca 2013; Digital identities and the open business freely available at the link below: http://www.quocirca.com/reports/855/digital-identities-and-the-open-business
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Demographics
100 UK-based mid-market organisations were interviewed in this survey. The demographic breakdown of the sample was as follows.
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About Attenda
We (www.attenda.net), are the UKs leading managed service and cloud platform provider, specialising in running business-critical applications. Our Business Critical IT approach combines business outcome focus with a structured engagement methodology and supporting services and infrastructure. Through building enduring relationships, and by harnessing technology to drive successful business outcomes, we deliver complete Peace of Mind; enabling our clients to focus on strategy and their business making them more competitive. We have built up a commanding market reputation, with the industry's leading accreditations, and an unrivalled portfolio of UK enterprise clients who share our passion for application availability. We are ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and ISO 20000 accredited, a Microsoft Gold Hosting Partner, VMware Premier Service Provider, a SAP Partner, SAP Certified in Cloud Services and a G-Cloud iii certified service provider. We are also th positioned 35 in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for 2013.
REPORT NOTE: This report has been written independently by Quocirca Ltd to provide an overview of the issues facing organisations seeking to maximise the effectiveness of todays dynamic workforce. The report draws on Quocircas extensive knowledge of the technology and business arenas, and provides advice on the approach that organisations should take to create a more effective and efficient environment for future growth.
About Quocirca
Quocirca is a primary research and analysis company specialising in the business impact of information technology and communications (ITC). With world-wide, native language reach, Quocirca provides in-depth insights into the views of buyers and influencers in large, mid-sized and small organisations. Its analyst team is made up of real-world practitioners with first-hand experience of ITC delivery who continuously research and track the industry and its real usage in the markets. Through researching perceptions, Quocirca uncovers the real hurdles to technology adoption the personal and political aspects of an organisations environment and the pressures of the need for demonstrable business value in any implementation. This capability to uncover and report back on the end-user perceptions in the market enables Quocirca to provide advice on the realities of technology adoption, not the promises.
Quocirca research is always pragmatic, business orientated and conducted in the context of the bigger picture. ITC has the ability to transform businesses and the processes that drive them, but often fails to do so. Quocircas mission is to help organisations improve their success rate in process enablement through better levels of understanding and the adoption of the correct technologies at the correct time. Quocirca has a pro-active primary research programme, regularly surveying users, purchasers and resellers of ITC products and services on emerging, evolving and maturing technologies. Over time, Quocirca has built a picture of long term investment trends, providing invaluable information for the whole of the ITC community. Quocirca works with global and local providers of ITC products and services to help them deliver on the promise that ITC holds for business. Quocircas clients include Oracle, IBM, CA, O2, T -Mobile, HP, Xerox, Ricoh and Symantec, along with other large and medium sized vendors, service providers and more specialist firms. Details of Quocircas work and the services it offers can be found at http://www.quocirca.com Disclaimer: This report has been written independently by Quocirca Ltd. During the preparation of this report, Quocirca may have used a number of sources for the information and views provided. Although Quocirca has attempted wherever possible to validate the information received from each vendor, Quocirca cannot be held responsible for any errors in information received in this manner. Although Quocirca has taken what steps it can to ensure that the information provided in this report is true and reflects real market conditions, Quocirca cannot take any responsibility for the ultimate reliability of the details presented. Therefore, Quocirca expressly disclaims all warranties and claims as to the validity of the data presented here, including any and all consequential losses incurred by any organisation or individual taking any action based on such data and advice. All brand and product names are recognised and acknowledged as trademarks or service marks of their respective holders.