IT Spend Optimization

Spend Optimization in today’s economic environment continues to challenge the best of IT Leadership. Along with the constant change and evolution of business functions from decentralization to centralization or vice versa, today’s CIOs are being tasked with not only providing efficient and effective Business Information to the enterprise but also matching the business environments economics and reducing the Total Cost of Ownership.

If this describes your position, you might consider the following spend optimization programs which have allowed other companies to realize their goals in a time of shrinking budgets and increased demands:

• Leveraging corporate IT spend by consolidating the supplier base
  
• Establishing and implementing enterprise class strategic sourcing methodology
  
• Leaving negotiations with suppliers to a few highly skilled IT negotiators
  
• Standardizing equipment, services and maintenance
  
• Establishing an aggressive asset management program

Resources Connection offers a highly experienced/accomplished team of IT and Procurement professionals who work directly for the CIO to address his/her spend management challenges.

The depth of our associate experience allows us to take a variety of avenues to evaluate and address cost drivers including:

• Performing an assessment of a company’s IT acquisition processes to prioritize and pursue large spend areas for cost savings.
  
• Creating a hit list of business initiatives that mirrors the CIO’s priority list, and implementing the plan to manage those specific spend areas.
  
• Teaching IT associates the fundamentals of negotiations and acquisition strategies so that they don’t “give away” corporate leverage when seeking outside supplier support.
  
• Building executive relationships with key suppliers.
  
• Driving organizational change to meet evolving requirements of your enterprise; in either a centralized or decentralized fashion.
  
• Position the organization to perform “Strategic Sourcing”.
  
• Deploying immediate resources to address current acquisition requirements (on your site, working in your culture).
  
• Providing a flexible professional workforce to address the fluctuating demands of the IT organization.

Resources Connection IT Spend Management team works directly for the CIO/IT organization. This enables the team to understand and embrace the organizations objectives so that IT Spend “Best Practices” are custom fit to internally drive improvement to the company’s bottom line.

Return to March 2004 eNewsletter