Best practices for IT
1 Carefully analyze the problems and potential solutions. Sometimes a software implementation is not the only answer, or even the correct answer, for improving corporate performance, according to the report. In many cases, simple upgrades to existing software are more effective than new systems implementations.
One participant company was under the gun to increase inventory turns, according to Hal Sirkin, a BCG senior vice president based in Chicago. Rather than buy a packaged SCM solution, however, the company found after careful analysis that it could achieve the goal by reworking a few critical work processes. Pre-project analysis should include competitor and best practice benchmarks.
2 Scrutinize vendors and costs. A third of the respondents to the BCG survey said they believed their vendor encouraged unnecessary spending. One in five respondents who had implemented ERP or SCM solutions said they could have achieved the same business value for much less cost.
3 Divide projects into manageable pieces. According to BCG's study, the average size of projects with a strong positive outcome was $10 million, while the average for negative outcomes was $90 million. Said one survey respondent, "Divide and conquer.... Do it piecemeal or none of it will be done right."
4 Know when to stop. Establishing clear metrics is one key to success. At the end of each step, "IS personnel have to work with business managers to figure out whether the next phase will add sufficient value," according to the report. Twenty-three percent of respondents identified "lack of a well-defined endpoint" as a contributor to overspending.
www.cio.com
Symantec Backup Exec 12 and Backup Exec System Recovery 8 deliver industry leading Windows data protection and system recovery. Download this whitepaper to find out the top reasons to upgrade and how to get continuous data protection and complete system recovery.
Data and system loss — from a hard drive failure, malicious attack, natural disaster, or simple human error — can happen anytime. Don’t leave your business vulnerable. Make sure you have a secure recovery strategy in place. Symantec's latest backup and system recovery technology can efficiently restore critical applications, individual emails and documents and even restore your entire system in minutes in the event of a loss.
Businesses face a growing challenge to ensure that the IT environment is properly protected. Backup Exec 12 integrates with other applications in the Symantec family of products, to complement your current data protection strategy, keep your data securely backed up and make it recoverable when you need it most.
