Managing Diverse IT Infrastructure

Lecture 13 Chapter 7 Managing Diverse IT Infrastructures

Old Business Model Each company develops own infrastructure for communication with customers and partners Duplication Lack of interoperability Required separate software simply to convert between incompatible systems Proprietary systems locked in relationships over a long term, removing bargaining power

Business Model with Internet Open standards of communication Leverage work done by others Shared infrastructure with partners Bridging software simple, cheap Less locking of partnerships Services can come from separate providers instead of IT departments Incremental services instead of large commitments Virtual integration of partners Service Level Agreements

New Service Models Client-server computing Locally stored documents, software High capacity networks allow software, servers, storage to be distant from users Not every company needs every specialization of IT capability Develop new capabilities quickly, reducing time to market Shift to 24-7 operations Better cash-flow (see fig)

Fig 7.1 Purchase vs subscribe cashflow

New Service Models ctd. Cost reduction Centralization of updates Eliminated need for specialized support Less vulnerable points of security breach Economies of scale Global accessibility Physical location Device

Web Services Model Online, automated negotiation for service Currency conversion example

Grid/On Demand/Utility Computing Reconfiguration online of resources Web-enabled contracts Sharing of resources Requires Short term, simple contracts Restructuring of existing applications Advanced infrastructure Middleware to manage Provisioning Resource virtualization Change Management Performance Monitoring See fig 7.2

Fig 7.2(a) On Demand Computing Environment

Fig 7.2(b) On-Demand Computing

Risk Management Which services should we outsource? Generic processes that others can do better Commodities Not core capability or competitive advantages Incremental service outsourcing is smaller scale and more reversible than production outsourcing

Incremental Outsourcing: Hosting House computers for net services Different level of services available See table 7.1 Service levels Collocation hosting Shared hosting Dedicated hosting

Relationship Management Trust is extremely important Often put out a RFP (Request for Proposal) Look for Descriptive Information Financial Information Proposed plan for meeting requirements Mitigation of critical risks Service guarantees Pricing

Exercise Look at tables 7.2, 7.3 and make a recommendation of selection for one service provider out of the three offered

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) Align incentives in relationships Careful definitions Penalties – large or small – for failure to provide Trusting with data Clear who owns it See table 7.4

Legacy Management Illustration of IT and accounting team (p348) Typical challenges Technology Residual Process complexity Local Adaptation Nonstandard data definitions Adding interfaces called enterprise application integration (EAI) Work-around solutions tend to grow in complexity See table 7.5

Managing infrastructure Assets Difficulty to recognize who is using what machine etc. Need to know if assets are used efficiently, if they are being used across business lines, etc. Total Cost Ownership (TCO) IT services measured in terms of measured costs and benefits Per use or time dedicated Theoretically efficient, but can be cumbersome and lead to wrong valuation and incentives

MIT Study on Infrastructure 180 business initiatives 118 businesses in 89 enterprises 4.2% of revenue spent on IT 50% of capital budget 55% of IT budget goes toward fusion of technology, processes and human assets

Findings Leading companies used incremental modular steps rather than a few large investments Service level agreements become more stable in better companies Variety of classes of service that make up infrastructure

Clusters of IT-infrastructure services Channel-management Security and Risk-management Communication Data-management Application-infrastructure IT-facilities-management IT-management IT-architecture-and-standards IT-education IT R&D

Matching Capabilities to Strategic Direction Found significant correlation between strategic agility and IT-infrastructure capability Three major categories of initiatives: Internally focused (51%) Demand side: Links to Customers (55%) Supply side: links to suppliers (76%) 56% of initiatives covered at least two, and 26% covered all three

Classifying Initiatives Position on value net (suppliers/buyers/internal) Technology enables communication and drops transaction costs Type of exchange (B2B or B2C) B2B involves small, focused customer set with large transaction volume per customer B2C large no. of individual customers with less transactions per customer Both require significant data Type of innovation: products or markets?

Critical Capabilities Supply-side Business-unit level decisions required different systems Internally-focused Broadly enforced standards, but business-unit specific IT Demand-side Rely heavily on enterprise-wide architecture (note conflict with above – data best at enterprise level) Critical to Exchange Type B2B at business-unit level B2C centrally managed Innovation Type New products have local management New market require centralized

Investing in IT for strategic agility Requires time, money and focus Under-investing reduces agility, slows time to market Over-investing wastes resources Like buying an option Critical for senior executives to understand which IT-infrastructure is required for what initiatives

Managing Diverse IT Infrastructure

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