Minimize the Damage of IT Cost Cuts
When IT cuts costs, everyone feels it.
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Contributors
- Jeremy Albritton, Vice President Financial Planning & Analysis, USO Inc.
- Ken Piddington, CIO and Executive Advisor, MRE Consulting
- Joe Evers, Consulting Principal, JcEvers Consulting Corp.
Your Challenge
- Average growth rates for Opex and Capex budgets are expected to continue to decline over the next fiscal year.
- Common “quick-win” cost-cutting initiatives are not enough to satisfy the organization’s mandate.
- Cost-cutting initiatives often take longer than expected, failing to provide cost savings before the organization’s deadline.
- Cost-optimization projects often have unanticipated consequences that offset potential cost savings and result in business dissatisfaction.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- IT costs affect the entire business, not just IT. For this reason, IT must work with the business collaboratively to convey the full implications of IT cost cuts.
- Avoid making all your cuts at once; phase your cuts by taking into account the magnitude and urgency of your cuts and avoid unintended consequences.
- Don’t be afraid to completely cut a service if it should not be delivered in the first place.
Impact and Result
- Take a value-based approach to cost optimization.
- Reduce IT spend while continuing to deliver the most important services.
- Involve the business in the cost-cutting process.
- Develop a plan for cost cutting that avoids unintended interruptions to the business.
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should take a value-based approach to cutting IT costs, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.
1. Understand the mandate and take immediate action
Determine your approach for cutting costs.
2. Select cost-cutting initiatives
Identify the cost-cutting initiatives and design your roadmap.
3. Get approval for your cost-cutting plan and adopt change management best practices
Communicate your roadmap to the business and attain approval.
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is a five call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Understand the mandate and take immediate action
Call #1 - Start cost-cutting project and determine the cost-cutting stance.
Call #2 - Decide on quick wins for the project and determine how to report progress to Finance.
Guided Implementation #2 - Select cost-cutting initiatives
Call #1 - Decide on how to determine initiatives for cost cutting.
Call #2 - Review cost-cutting initiatives and select those to be put on a roadmap.
Guided Implementation #3 - Get approval for your cost-cutting plan and adopt change management best practices
Call #1 - Transform roadmap into a finalized plan and engage stakeholders to achieve adoption.
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Cost Optimization
When IT cuts costs, everyone feels it.
This course makes up part of the Financial Management Certificate.
Course information:
- Title: Cost Optimization
- Number of Course Modules: 4
- Estimated Time to Complete: 2-2.5 hours
- Featured Analysts:
- David Yackness, Sr. Research Director, CIO Practice
- Gord Harrison, SVP of Research and Advisory
- Now Playing: Academy: Cost Optimization | Executive Brief
Book Your Workshop
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Understand the Mandate and Take Immediate Action
The Purpose
- Determine your cost-optimization stance.
- Build momentum with quick wins.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Understand the internal and external drivers behind your cost-cutting mandate and the types of initiatives that align with it.
Activities
Outputs
Develop SMART project metrics.
Dissect the mandate.
- Project metrics and mandate documentation
Identify your cost-cutting stance.
Select and implement quick wins.
- List of quick-win initiatives
Plan to report progress to Finance.
Module 2: Select Cost-Cutting Initiatives
The Purpose
- Create the plan for your cost-cutting initiatives.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Choose the correct initiatives for your roadmap.
- Create a sensible and intelligent roadmap for the cost-cutting initiatives.
Activities
Outputs
Identify cost-cutting initiatives.
- High-level cost-cutting initiatives
Select initiatives.
Build a roadmap.
- Cost-cutting roadmap
Module 3: Get Approval for Your Cost-Cutting Plan and Adopt Change Management Best Practices
The Purpose
- Finalize the cost-cutting plan and present it to the business.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Attain engagement with key stakeholders.
Activities
Outputs
Customize your cost-cutting plan.
- Cost-cutting plan
Create stakeholder engagement plans.
- Stakeholder engagement plan
Monitor cost savings.
- Cost-monitoring plan
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this Blueprint, and what our clients have to say.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Varian Medical Systems, Inc.
Guided Implementation
10/10
$31,106
5
Cloetta Sverige ab
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
SUNY New Paltz
Guided Implementation
7/10
N/A
N/A
Adtran, Inc.
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
Jefferies LLC
Guided Implementation
7/10
N/A
N/A
Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services
Guided Implementation
8/10
$13,236
N/A
