For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

How Efficient Is Your Storage Environment?

The KPIs That Matter Most In Enterprise Storage and How To Measure Them

by Andrew Reichman, October 22, 2009

Building an effective storage environment is a balancing act between performance, reliability, and efficiency. For years, improving storage efficiency took a back seat to the other goals. Now, with infrastructure budgets being cut and data growth continuing . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

EA Can Facilitate IT Cost Transparency

by Alex Cullen, June 19, 2009

IT is directly tied to most businesses' products and services, but in most cases 100% of IT's cost is allocated to the general and administrative (G&A) portions of the business' financial reports. While this produces a distorted view of financial . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Keep An Eye On All IT Costs

Do You Know Your IT Cost Of Goods Sold?

by Simon Yates, June 17, 2009

Understanding your IT cost of goods sold can lead to a more agile and competitive organization. Cost of goods sold (COGS) includes the variable and fixed costs — for example, materials and labor — directly linked to the product or service. The key to . . .

For CIOs

Do You Know Your IT Cost Of Goods Sold?

by Craig Symons, April 28, 2009

As IT has become more pervasive in most organizations, it has migrated from a supporting role to an enabling role for products and services. As a result, IT costs represent a growing and sometimes significant part of products' and services' total cost . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Best Practices: Aligning Your Infrastructure And Operations Department Around Virtualization

by Galen Schreck, Rachel A. Dines, March 20, 2009

Getting the most out of virtualization requires firms to overcome cultural divides that exist within even the most functional of IT departments. Persuading the business to make the upfront investment in virtualization is no small task, but even companies . . .

For CIOs

IT Must "Get" Business Satisfaction

Measuring And Improving Business Satisfaction Requires A Framework

by Alexander Peters, Ph.D., March 20, 2009

Today's business execs have high expectations for technology's contribution to their organizations, but they tend to be dissatisfied with IT's delivery. In order to close this gap, IT must be able to understand the components of business satisfaction . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: Green IT, Q1 2009

by Doug Washburn, Onica King, February 10, 2009

Green IT awareness and action are on the rise. In 2008, Forrester received 130 inquiries from IT end user professionals on green IT, the majority of which focused on benchmark data — such as quantifiable benefits and meaningful metrics — and identifying . . .

For CIOs

Governance Communications

Measuring And Improving Governance With A Balanced Scorecard

by Craig Symons, February 6, 2009

Implementing strong IT governance is on the agenda for many organizations as they continue the seemingly endless pursuits of aligning IT and business strategy and getting more value from their IT investments. Developing a governance framework by defining . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Adapt To Changing IT Requirements

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., February 3, 2009

Forrester has argued that a fundamental shift from information technology (IT) to business technology (BT) is occurring. As part of this shift, the metrics upon which IT executives are evaluated will change, and tech vendors need to be prepared for this.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

What's After BSM? Understanding The Financials

Enterprises That Reach BSM Maturity Extend Their Projects To Financial Management

by Peter O'Neill, January 6, 2009

Enterprises with mature business service management (BSM) systems are able to measure and report quality of service at the business level; they can also assign sensible, business-centric prioritization to service performance events and other incidents. . . .

For CIOs

US IT Spending Benchmarks For 2008

More Options For CIOs To Find The Best IT Budget Benchmark

by Andrew Bartels, Craig Symons, December 23, 2008

Forrester's annual report on US IT spending benchmarks has been one of our most popular and eagerly awaited documents each year. We first offer CIO-based data and analysis on the whys and hows of IT benchmarking and the impact of cash-outlay-based IT . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

IT To BT — An Opportunity For Vendors

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., November 13, 2008

Forrester has argued that a fundamental shift from information technology (IT) to business technology (BT) is occurring. Vendor strategists need to realign their value proposition to take into account the different needs IT executives will develop when . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Role Overview: IT Marketing Manager

The Time Is Right: Ready, Aim, Hire!

by Evelyn Hubbert, November 7, 2008

The lack of marketing in IT is obvious when we take a look at the changes in how IT is perceived. Back in 2006 when Forrester asked how IT's perception had changed, 50% of the respondents stated that IT was viewed about the same as one year before. Forty-five . . .

For CIOs

Measuring The Effectiveness Of Your PMO

by Alex Cullen, October 29, 2008

Program management offices (PMOs) are too frequently viewed as IT management overhead, especially when they focus on portfolio governance and oversight, rather than management of individual projects. The justification for a PMO must be just as compelling . . .

For CIOs

Learning And Growth Metrics For CIOs

Best Practices For Managing IT Human Capital

by Craig Symons, October 28, 2008

The skills and competencies of the people in the IT organization are integral to its success. Recruiting, retaining, and motivating IT staff (permanent as well as contractors) to deliver superior performance is extremely challenging in this era of globalization . . .

For CIOs

In A Down Economy, Can Green IT Save Your Business Money?

by Alex Cullen, October 24, 2008

The top motivation for pursuing green IT is to reduce costs — and in a down economy, every dollar helps. But CIOs should be warned: Without upfront measurement, you cannot credibly quantify these benefits. To plan for success, CIOs should calculate their . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Calculating Your Relative Cost Of Operations  (102 KB XLS)

by Andrew Reichman, James Staten, October 7, 2008

This document provides a simple methodology for calculating the cost impacts of a new technology investment, process change, or project. Rather than conduct a full TCO analysis that can be prohibitively cumbersome, or short cut your analysis with a basic . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

What Does IT Do For The Business?

The Five Essential Metrics For Managing IT

by Robert Whiteley, September 29, 2008

Providing understandable and relevant metrics to business leaders is an integral part of the transformation from traditional IT to service-oriented business technology. However, many IT metrics lack clear relevance to business outcomes and are difficult . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Is Green IT Your Emperor With No Clothes?

Measure Your Green IT Baseline Or Risk Being Caught With Your Pants Down

by Doug Washburn, August 29, 2008

Awareness for green IT is increasing, driven by corporatewide greening efforts as well as practical IT concerns like running out of space, power, or budget. As a result, IT ops executives are tasked to formulate and enact their green IT strategy. While . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

TCO Is Overrated

Use Relative Cost Of Operations For Most Infrastructure Investment Justifications

by Andrew Reichman, James Staten, August 26, 2008

Total cost of operations (TCO)-based financial analysis is held up as the gold standard for technology investment justification, but most firms don't have the rigor to apply the discipline to their environment. To really implement TCO-based analysis it . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Enabling Business Technology

Five Essential Best Practices For The IT-To-BT Transformation

by Robert Whiteley, August 15, 2008

As technology becomes increasingly integral to firms' offerings, strategy, and organization, the traditional model of IT as an independent and monolithic entity within the larger business is outmoded. Business technology (BT) will replace IT's technology . . .

For CIOs

Five Essential Best Practices For The IT-To-BT Transformation

CIOs Must Prepare IT For Its Future Role As BT Enabler

by Alexander Peters, Ph.D., May 13, 2008

Each wave of technology change challenges IT's management practices. Two forces coming together will frame IT's next set of challenges: ubiquitous computing and business technology (BT). Each will affect the CIO's organization differently, but the end . . .

For CIOs

The Five Essential Metrics For Managing IT

by Craig Symons, April 4, 2008

CIOs frequently ask what IT should measure and report to business executives. The key to success is choosing a small number of metrics that are relevant to the business and have the most impact on business outcomes. The five metrics that meet the criteria . . .

For CIOs

Managing IT When Times Get Tough

Proactive CIOs Will Help Firms Amid Economic Uncertainties

by Alex Cullen, Phil Murphy, March 25, 2008

Macroeconomic conditions, whether they are downturns or boom times, broadly shape the CIO's job, but the firm's own context drives action. The reality is that any business at any time may need to shift its executive focus toward running lean — whether . . .

For CIOs

Justifying And Funding Infrastructure Investments

by Craig Symons, February 6, 2008

IT-enabled business change investments by definition are linked to business strategic objectives and business benefits. These benefits can and should be quantified using an IT value methodology and documented in a business case. This makes for straightforward . . .