Can you lower support costs while improving service levels?
With the economic climate likely to remain unsettled for a while yet, IT departments are still faced with the dilemma of how to cut their cloth while continuing to provide the quality of service expected by their customers. Chris Lovesey, marketing manager at NetSupport, provides a timely reminder of the steps organisations can take to enable them to deliver ‘more with less’.
David Cameron’s recent stark message to government departments outlining the extent to which they will need to cut costs will not have been lost on the wider business community. In fact, in all probability, private sector organisations have no doubt become past masters at tightening their belts, and until we start to see tangible evidence that the new coalition’s plans are going to deliver the required results, the belt is likely to remain firmly buckled!
For IT Support departments the need to be seen as a team player when it comes to doing their bit on the cost cutting front presents them with a major dilemma. What impact will reducing their cost base have on their ability to maintain, let alone improve, the quality of service demanded by their customers? For today’s forward looking IT managers buzzwords like ROI and TCO are almost part of everyday vocabulary but in these difficult times how easy is it to ‘blind’ the budget holder with science as you try to justify your request for the latest time and money saving device?
Desktop management
Back in 1989 when NetSupport first started producing Desktop Management software the business case was simple. The relatively new concept of being able to ‘remote control’ a PC located in one part of the building, or worse, a totally different building, while sat at the comfort of your own workstation brought instant appeal to the new breed of increasingly overworked helpdesk analysts. Modernisation through the use of computers was great but with this came the distinct possibility that things would break. In those halcyon days it was easy to present a compelling case as to why, with a little upfront investment, you would see a rapid return on your investment.
Remote control software enabled you to diagnose and resolve the majority of PC- and system-related issues without the need for a physical visit to the user. The combined benefits being that you cut out a lot of the wasted travel time and the associated costs, while at the same time the support desk instantly became more productive.
In the intervening 21 years technology has moved on apace but the underlying issues remain the same. Support teams are still expected to work leaner and smarter, maybe even more so at the moment, but when push comes to shove, if you are finding that the bean counters are using the current economic climate as an excuse to be a little more blinkered to the benefits that can be realised from that bit of initial investment perhaps it’s an ideal time to give them a nudge in the right direction.
Fire up the Quattro!
Let’s fast forward to today’s internet and gadget driven world, where fuel and utility bills are rocketing and decision makers have to consider the environmental impact of their choices. The modern corporate IT landscape and working practices have certainly changed dramatically and support software has had to evolve with it.
Remote control products still aim to provide the same cost and productivity benefits that they did in the 80s but it is no longer simply about being able to view a DOS-based machine located down the corridor or ‘firing up the Quattro’ so you can dash out to one of your branch offices because someone has asked you what ‘Format C:’ means!
Products such as our own NetSupport Manager have needed to adapt in order to satisfy different demands, key among these being the ability to support the increasingly diverse range of devices, platforms and operating systems now in use across the modern enterprise and the move among cost conscious employers to offer home or mobile working as an alternative to using office resources.
The business case surely stacks up more today than it ever did. Corporate IT departments need their Remote Access tools to connect them securely to users located anywhere in the world, irrespective of the type of system they are using. While Windows desktops may still dominate; Mac, Linux and the raft of mobile related devices should also not present any barriers to the successful operation of your service desk.
Luxury or necessity?
It’s clear that using remote access software pays big dividends and quantifying the savings to be gained and improvements in productivity for both the service desk and end user isn’t difficult, and a few years ago that’s where the story would end. However, today’s IT departments have access to a plethora of complementary tools to aid network management tasks. But when times are tight are these solutions considered luxury goods, nice to haves?
Flick through your copy of VitAL or one of the many lesser titles and it quickly becomes clear that Service Management and IT Asset Management are hot topics right now, just how did Service Desks function before ITIL!
I’m probably preaching to the converted here but organisations where, and I’m afraid it’s acronym time again, TCO is high on the agenda will appreciate the relevance of solutions that can effectively help you manage your IT assets or enable helpdesks to react to incidents and problems in a timely fashion.
Ensuring IT assets are properly managed and maintained should be a high priority for any organisation but without the appropriate reporting mechanisms in place how easy is it to identify when a piece of kit is past its sell by date, which machines needs migrating to Windows 7 or if you are about to breach your software licensing agreements.
IT assets can cost far more than necessary through waste and redundancy (direct costs) and overly complex management and maintenance (indirect costs). An effective IT asset management program allows you to control and manage assets, eliminate waste and redundancy and comply with ever-tightening government compliance regulations.
The annual cost of supporting your IT infrastructure can often result in costs spiralling out of control, where the initial purchase price of IT assets pales into insignificance. Understanding leasing arrangements and undertaking proactive asset management ensures compliance with software license agreements and makes budget forecasting more accurate. Knowing how many of your users are using a specific application at any given time will allow for both effective trimming of software budgets and a realistic prediction of future software investment.
In your genes
NetSupport DNA is typical of the new genre of ITAM solutions that are helping organisations make informed decisions about upgrades and the rollout of new technology. Based on its powerful Hardware and Software Inventory component, DNA helps you uncover savings through process improvement, gain control of all inventory across the enterprise, increase accountability to ensure compliance and enhance the performance of assets and their life cycle management. And to help you meet your environmental responsibilities while also saving you a few quid, we even provide an Energy Monitoring component that will identify areas of potential energy wastage across your enterprise. (Although NetSupport solutions can of course be used to remotely power off systems just in case you can’t rely on your staff to do it themselves!)
For many IT service desks the tools are already in place to ensure you can do ‘more with less’ but for those who may be using the current economic climate as a reason not to dip a toe in the water, I hope I’ve presented a compelling case as to how deploying the right combination of Desktop and Asset Management solutions can give you that immediate ROI!
NetSupport solutions are available to trial free for 30 days.
