Spend less on your IT

You might think it is odd for a software company to encourage you to spend less on your IT. Bear with me. Take a look at this recommendation from Gartner that Directors of ICT should create a recession budget for IT. Although the focus of this recommendation is the commercial sector it is equally applicable in the public sector – particularly in the light of the tighter spending constraints that local authorities need to address as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR07) settlement for local authorities for 2008-2011.

The recommendation raises an intriguing scenario. How would local authority Directors of Finance react if Heads of ICT submitted a budget request that was 10% less than the previous year – with suspicion or open arms? Do let me know if you try it!

Now, back to my original assertion. Why would Microsoft encourage you to spend less on your IT? One answer is that we know local authorities are under pressure to meet sustainability targets and have specific goals for reducing their carbon footprint. On Tuesday, I hosted a Live Meeting (webcast) that examined the challenges of simplifying system management of Microsoft server estates and explored virtualisation and other IT efficiency measures that can be implemented using Microsoft System Center.

After all, the less you have to spend on system management and the more value you can unlock from your existing IT, the greater the investment you can make in using IT for innovation and improvement of citizen service delivery.

You will be able to replay the Live Meeting (title: Building the Dynamic Datacentre) from our Live Meeting web page next week . You can also check our forward programme of Live Meetings and join us for future broadcasts without needing to leave your desk.

Posted by Ian