RAG 2 Riches
In an attempt to maximise profitability organisations have focused on their core operation as a source of efficiency gains. Over the past 10 years most sectors have seen an unprecedented increase in IT budgets for the provision of core process and process failure mitigation. Many industry insiders believe the key activity over the next economic cycle will be to maximise the benefit of this investment.
At Texonet we have been working with our clients and partners to devise best practice for developing, delivering and supporting this activity.According to Gartner, 78% of existing IT budget is spent on maintaining the operation of existing infrastructure. Mature organisations should now be looking at leveraging value from the significant investment they have made, thus reducing maintenance expenditure. At Texonet we believe that the key to this is an improved understanding of how their core functions are being delivered.
By leveraging the nascent value in existing core process, there is a proven opportunity to:
- reduce operating expenses
- improve service consistency
- improve operational flexibility
In aligning IT service delivery to business drivers, benefit can be realised through an organisational focus on revenue and cost performance. With the introduction of management techniques such as TQM, the natural operational behaviour is now a continuous cycle of feedback reporting. We believe that continuous improvement is the key to sustainable growth. The practices developed by Texonet apply this principle to the delivery of complex core IT functions.To apply this continuous improvement practice an organisation must align its service delivery with a value based assessment of the internal and external supplier capabilities. As a result the business will be able to identify the contribution support functions make to its service delivery.Most organisations will enjoy significant benefit from this approach on day one, as large efficiency gains can be achieved early on in the process. On an ongoing basis stakeholders are able to see a sustained business improvement as well as a track record of managed capital investment.
By developing a proactive operational behaviour the business is able to more effectively manage the performance of its delivery and that of its suppliers. This approach moves beyond the established RAG (red, amber, green) service level management tools to take into account business benefit. This is based around understanding qualitative value in conjunction with quantative measures. Importantly, this approach demonstrates the effectiveness of service management, through the establishment and monitoring of key controls and indicators.
At the core of these business controls are the trinity of risk, cost and value. These key metrics reveal an end to end picture of how the business is operating. Not only does this improve reactive behaviour but informs strategic decision making by exposing the impact of future decisions on the business. By aligning business benefit to the operational delivery, the organisation will improve profit. Further more, this identifies opportunities for the improvement of operational performance, and feeds the development of a more focussed capital investment programme.Over the past 3 years Texonet has been working with its clients and partners to resolve this issue. With our unique mix of process and tools we are allowing our clients to work smarter, not harder, in the pursuit of high quality service provision.
Niall Wright, CEO, Texonet Ltd
