Business Technology Optimization a Hit, Survey Finds

IT leaders understand need for better technology management and governance, and they are willing to spend on it now, says Yankee Group

IT leaders understand need for better technology management and governance, and they are willing to spend on it now, says Yankee Group

Boston  July 14, 2004  A consensus is forming that business technology optimization (BTO) is the optimal approach to managing the complexity and inefficiency of organizational information technology (IT), according to a new report from technology consultancy Yankee Group.

In a report on its Business Technology Optimization Allegiance Survey, Yankee said that most respondents thought that BTO could save 15-20 percent of their applications budgets, freeing significant resources for new projects and systems.

Respondents perceived that a lack of BTO for business applications and maintenance costs is sucking up large amounts of fiscal and human resources, and they agreed that with proper added strategic spending on management, IT governance and general BTO benefits, total spending would decrease on systems' total cost of ownership (TCO), thereby opening the opportunity for a new wave of IT investment and a better-run IT environment.

"As IT budgets increase over the next few years, spending will disproportionately favor management and IT governance products and services," said Dana Gardner, senior analyst for application infrastructure and software platforms at Yankee. "We forecast the definition of BTO will extend into the realms of better collaboration between IT and business planners and better optimization around integration activities."

The high involvement of line-of-business leaders bodes well for BTO, but the relatively low attention of CEOs means BTO issues will remain the responsibility of IT and operations staffs, at least from their perspective, according to Yankee.

"BTO's highest value is lowering costs and time-to-value for business applications while creating the means for a virtuous adoption cycle to IT productivity enhancement and investment," Gardner said. "That would make the organization more productive, competitive and profitable, which in turn would validate IT spending  and BTO  in the future on newer and better ways to produce business services."

Technology portfolios don't come in "one-size-fits-all" packages. For some guidelines to follow when deciding how best to invest your company's money, read the SDCExec.com article Tackling Risk Analysis and Asset Portfolio Optimization.

Latest