To DC or not DC that is the question – Data Center (DC) and Cloud Strategies – Part I

As cloud services have proliferated in the last decade, companies are increasingly asking themselves if they really need to have their own in-house datacenter. The digital footprint and budget for small companies often does not warrant the cost …Read More

The first blog in this series identified the phenomenon of Anti-Strategy as well-intentioned decisions made by senior leaders that are functionally focused because of a lack of a clear business strategy. With digital and information technology (IT) getting firmly established as a strategic corporate asset for middle market companies, we turn our attention to …Read More

In the introduction, I identified 5 things you need to do to drive continuous improvement.  They are:

1. Align continuous improvement with strategic objectives
2. Don’t overdo process excellence at outset; this is an evolutionary process
3. Integrate continuous improvement into a culture of strategic execution
4. Blend the best practices from the different methodologies
5. Focus on data, not emotions

In this article, we show how business strategy should drive continuous improvement programs and not the other way around. Continuous improvement …Read More

An earlier blog talked about the building blocks for aligning and integrating IT with the business.  As IT becomes increasingly intertwined with the core operations of the company it’s time to take a fresh look at traditional middle market approaches to IT related Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR). …Read More

In an earlier blog, we examined why having a process in place to capture Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is important for middle market companies, and even more so for Digital Technology organizations.  We saw how any plan for taking out cost, driving revenue, or maximizing asset utilization, can be fraught with risk, without …Read More

For better or worse, business and IT are inextricably linked and IT alignment and integration into the business and its marketplace is of critical importance.  Middle market companies face numerous challenges such as mounting competition from global markets with cheap labor pools, a patchwork quilt of business systems and dealing with clients that expect companies to engage them  when, where and how it suits them.  Leveraging technology to meet these and many other business challenges requires that a business: …Read More

Everyone has been through “Cost Savings Programs” and “Cost Reduction Programs”, but what is the organizational impact of a true Cost Takeout process and what does change management have to do with it?

Key objectives for cost takeout programs are dependent on their time frame and may include: …Read More

Digital Technology organizations are recognized as business enablers and an effective Total Cost of Ownership process is one of the critical tools they should bring to a business. Digital Technology professionals who understand and can articulate the complete business impact of technology products or services become indispensable strategic partners and are sought after by management boards. Revenue growth and increased profits are …Read More

Historically, IT Infrastructure has been viewed as a “cost center” and IT Operations “a necessary evil” because significant human and financial capital expenditures have been required to maintain a functional system.  Over the last few years, middle market companies are beginning to realize that IT infrastructure can be used as a competitive advantage. It needs to be …Read More

McKinsey predicted in its 2016 IT-as-a-Service Cloud and Enterprise Cloud survey that enterprises are rapidly adopting Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud for their primary workloads. It predicted that the adoption of multi-cloud strategies will jump from …Read More