For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Charging Back For Your Virtual Infrastructure

How To Allocate Costs For Virtual Machines And Drive Greater Adoption

by James Staten, November 18, 2009

As you continue to consolidate your server infrastructure and make it more cloudlike, a key hurdle that you must overcome is cost allocation for the virtual infrastructure. While most enterprises are not yet charging back or tracking virtual machine (VM) . . .

For CIOs

Benchmarking ANZ IT Budgets

Despite A Resilient Economy, IT Spending Plans Remain Conservative

by Tim Sheedy, November 13, 2009

Since the credit crunch began to bite, Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) IT leaders have faced more positive market conditions than their peers in many other countries around the world — particularly those in North America and Europe. This is reflected . . .

For CIOs

Best Practices In IT Financial Management

The Foundation For Running IT Like A Business

by Craig Symons, November 6, 2009

In a recent Forrester survey of 84 enterprise IT decision-makers, only 52% said that they have a formal IT chargeback process in place. It is difficult to run IT like a business when the product appears to be free to customers but costs the business hundreds . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The State Of WAN Services Adoption In North America 2009: CIOs Lead On Cost Reduction

by Phil Sayer, October 30, 2009

The need to cut costs dominates North American enterprises' 2009 plans for wide-area networks (WANs). This is the top priority for almost three-quarters of enterprises as part of IT budget cuts mandated at board level. At the same time, network traffic . . .

For CIOs

IT In The Public Sector In Australia

Benchmarking Your Practice Against Your Global Peers

by Tim Sheedy, October 28, 2009

With the tightening of IT budgets in the Australian federal government due to the review of IT operations by Sir Peter Gershon, the considerable consolidation of public sector agencies at the state level, and the considerable drop in tax revenues brought . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

European Offshoring Shows Moderate Growth

by Sudin Apte, October 28, 2009

Offshoring of IT jobs from Europe shows signs of slow growth as firms try to cut costs. While the percentage of IT services that go offshore — especially from the non-UK market — is very small, Forrester's Enterprise IT Services Survey, North America . . .

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 CIOs

Role Descriptions For The Office Of The CIO

Key Roles Support The CIO In Driving IT's Success

by Marc Cecere, October 22, 2009

Forrester has assembled job descriptions for several roles within the Office of the CIO — the group of IT leaders who report to the CIO and provide services outside of applications and infrastructure. Based on analyst expertise and a sampling of actual . . .

For CIOs

Reducing The Costs Of IT — Views From Consultancies

by Marc Cecere, October 22, 2009

How do you reduce the costs of IT? To answer this question, Forrester interviewed 21 consultancies that provide cost-reduction services. What did we find? Nearly all consultancies suggested upgrading governance and establishing foundational pieces before . . .

For CIOs

The Value Of A Green IT Maturity Assessment

Introducing Forrester's Green IT Maturity Assessment Methodology

by Doug Washburn, Christopher Mines, October 20, 2009

CIOs recognize the importance of environmental considerations in planning IT operations, but they are often unsure about how to put that recognition into action. With sustainability rising on the corporate agenda, and the cost, risk, and revenue benefits . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Economic Pressures Reshape Ideas About Outsourcing Deal Financing Options

by Paul Roehrig, Ph.D., October 19, 2009

Extreme financial pressures can make people — and companies — explore options they may not have considered in more flush times. Even though the credit crisis has hit almost every firm in some way, many major IT service providers still have the means to . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Trends: Selective Sourcing For IT Services  (718 KB PPT)

by Euan Davis, October 15, 2009

These data charts from Forrester's Enterprise IT Services Survey highlight market trends for selective sourcing. The data reveals that more firms are moving from selective sourcing to systematic multisourcing approaches and offers an industry insight . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Assessing Your Onshore/Offshore Staffing Ratios

Shifting More Staff Offshore Drives More Savings Than 5% To 10% Rate Reductions

by John C. McCarthy, October 13, 2009

With the economic collapse and the sudden downturn in IT budgets, we have seen a large spike in the number of inquiries from clients asking about the best mix of onshore versus offshore staff at their global delivery model suppliers. Based on more than . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Business Context Self-Assessment For Sourcing Leaders  (108 KB XLS)

by Andrew Parker, October 8, 2009

Sourcing executives should use this self-assessment workbook to help them understand the business context of their firm and provide a background to work on setting sourcing strategy priorities.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

A Sample IT Infrastructure And Operations Balanced Scorecard  (41 KB XLS)

by Rachel A. Dines, Evelyn Hubbert, October 1, 2009

The Balanced Scorecard is built around four dimensions that have been adjusted for use in information technology: the value perspective, the user orientation perspective, the operational excellence perspective, and the future orientation perspective. . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Building The IT Infrastructure And Operations Balanced Scorecard

The Eight Essential Metrics That Infrastructure And Operations Should Be Measuring

by Rachel A. Dines, Evelyn Hubbert, October 1, 2009

"You can't manage what you can't measure" is the stated adage, but when it comes to infrastructure and operations (I&O), what to measure is the first challenge. Many firms don't know which metrics to use, or how to collect the information they need . . .

For CIOs

Inquiry Spotlight: Demand Management, Q3 2009

by Tim DeGennaro, September 30, 2009

Despite reduced IT budgets, demand for IT services continues and in some cases accelerates as the business strives to use IT to cut its own costs. Organizations that simply roll with the punches with a FIFO approach quickly find that IT's efforts produce . . .

For Technology Sales Enablement Professionals

North American Insurance IT Spending In 2009

Despite Gloom, Most North American Insurer Budgets Remain Stable

by Ellen Carney, September 22, 2009

The North American insurance industry is still plowing forward in an economy that fell completely off the rails during the third quarter of 2008. This year, insurers are tackling the impacts of a long global recession, hefty declines in rates and written . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

A Formal Policy Is Needed To Reduce Mobility Costs

by Brownlee Thomas, Ph.D., September 9, 2009

Corporate mobile is growing fast, which naturally increases costs — for usage, support, and administration. By 2012, nearly three-quarters of corporate employees will use mobile devices for work. To control costs while also ensuring employee productivity, . . .

For Technology Sales Enablement Professionals

Demand Insights: Healthcare Budgets And Spending Trends

Data Shows Hospital IT Buyers Need Strong Business Cases And Proof Of ROI

by Eric G. Brown, September 2, 2009

Hospitals' historically lackluster IT spending continues through 2009, with the recurring themes of low outsourcing, tight budgets, and focus on operational stability over innovation. But after years of waiting for widespread adoption of electronic health . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Q&A: The Value Of TEM Solutions In A Recession

Telecom Expense Management Cuts Costs In Challenging Economic Times

by Phil Sayer, August 28, 2009

Telecom expense management (TEM) solutions aren't new, but with IT budgets and headcount under the microscope they are getting more attention as organizations look for quick wins and to gain greater visibility and control over costs. With telecom expenses . . .

For CIOs

A Framework For Managing IT Investment Risk

by Craig Symons, August 25, 2009

There is no shortage of articles, reports, and blogs on the topic of IT risk; however, they almost always focus on security-related risks, including computer viruses and worms, denial of service attacks, and theft of data, or infrastructure-related risks, . . .

For Technology Sales Enablement Professionals

US Government Spending Slows

Sales Teams Need To Be Ready To Have Compelling Financial Conversations

by Eric G. Brown, August 14, 2009

Taking a closer look at Forrester's Enterprise And SMB Global Budgets And Spending Survey, Q2 2009, government IT budget decision-makers are cautious with their spending and planning. Budgets are down, and some staffing cuts should be expected. There . . .

For B2B Market Research Professionals

The State Of Enterprise IT Budgets: 2009

Business Data Services North America And Europe

by Heidi Lo, Andrew Bartels, August 7, 2009

This document provides enterprise highlights of an extensive data set collected via Forrester's Enterprise And SMB Global IT Budgets And Spending Survey, Q2 2009. Overall, the global recession has North American enterprises expecting to decrease 2009 . . .

For B2B Market Research Professionals

IT Services: Banking And Insurance Services Budget Data  (542 KB PPT)

by Ellen Carney, August 6, 2009

A data chart on IT services banking and insurance budget data.