Managing IT in a Downturn

Description

With the world stumbling through an economic downturn, IT managers are under pressure to shave costs from the technology operations that keep organisations running smoothly. Cutbacks abound, staff cuts look likely and new projects are being back-burnered. These are the days in which IT managers really earn their bread and butter. Against this backdrop of turbulence, we'll examine what IT executives can do to stretch budgets to maintain a useful and reliable network of IT services, and examine where new technologies, free software and licence renegotiation can make budgets work harder. Because all companies are different, the intention is not to recommend specific changes, but to raise the questions and possibilities that will provoke improvements. Boardrooms will increasingly question the value of every IT project and managers will need to prioritise and scrap projects for the good of the company in order to keep essential operations running smoothly. While recession means tough choices for the here and now, managers also need to plan for the recovery, when cash starts flowing through the system once more and companies look to grow and expand as the depression lifts. We've spoken to practitioners, vendors, analysts and industry regulators to find out how to escape the fiscal doldrums.


Contents:

Introduction 8 The state of play 8 Chapter 1: Count your Chickens 10 Chapter 2: Sweating Resources 12 Time to upgrade desktops? 14 Putting PCs out to pasture costs money 15 Chapter 3: Cancelling Peripheral Projects 17 Chapter 4: Staff in the Firing Line 21 Potential costs 22 Guarding the gates 24 Think global 25 Chapter 5: Good Housekeeping 27 It's good to talk, cheaply 27 Root out duplication 27 Dig up diamond data 28 Squeeze suppliers 29 Tighten purchase controls 29 Check those invoices 30 Hit the bottlenecks 30 Chapter 6: Open Source 32 Big stick at negotiating table 35 Is open source ready for the big time? 36 Chapter 7: Boardroom Battles 38 Soft skills 40 Chapter 8: Everything's Going Virtual 42 Chapter 9: Looking Forwards to Expansion 46 Computing in the cloud 47 Choose wisely 50 SaaS 51 Appendix: Further Reading 55 ITG Resources 57