Introduction › Managing Information Technology › Reduce Costs

Reduce Costs

To become a fully aligned business partner for an enterprise, IT must reduce costs. Total implementation costs are reduced significantly when products do the following:

• Make deployment and administration easier
• Enable better decision making
• Provide the means to automate business processes

IT management software should provide simple and flexible options that can deploy products one module at a time or by functional suite. When data sources are shared, fewer systems need to be administered, managed and monitored; and fewer staff resources are required. Increased visibility and timely access to integrated IT management data help managers make the best possible decisions.

Business process automation may eliminate the costs of manual processes. However, full automation requires complete information, which may be provided best when products share a single data source. For example, a CIO weighing expensive hardware or software purchases may obtain utilization rates for existing hardware and software--and review current lease agreements and contracts--prior to making a purchasing decision.