Welcome to B & M Bulletin, produced specifically for users of IT technical services. In this issue:
• Bridging the redeployment gap
• Tech View: Open Source
• 10 ways to save on IT support services
• Real Skills. Real People - B & M's Charmaine Ward
• B & M ProSupport. Proactive IT support
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Bridging the redeployment gap
Amanda Dunn, Sales Director of B & M, looks at how the trend towards redeploying IT professionals from task-oriented to strategic work can create a serious skills gap
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Re-deployment can leave a gap
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This month, we are considering the impact of MOOSE on the IT function - not the large Canadian deer, but rather the standard indicator used to calculate the cost to Maintain and Operate the IT Organisation, Systems, and Equipment as a percentage of revenues. MOOSE enables different organisations to compare performance between similar IT functions and links the performance of the IT Organisation with bottom-line business goals such as reducing risk and costs while encouraging growth.
This focus on reducing risk and cost has lead to a trend of redeploying skilled IT professionals from operations-oriented support, maintenance and management to more strategic activities. However this approach can leave a gap in an IT function's resources to support operations-oriented tasks, which are inevitably the essential underpinnings of successful business service delivery.
Organisations need to be mindful of the potential impact of re-allocating resources in terms of the risk of increasing downtime and impeding business continuity - both of which could be extremely costly. Any downtime in a major retail bank, for example, could potentially cost the organisation hundreds of millions of pounds an hour [source: My View: The CIO and The CEO by George F. Colony, President of Forrester], so it is not surprising that business continuity is being placed further up the corporate agenda than ever before.
Whatever your motivation for putting in place a plan to the reduce risk of failure in IT operations, it is worth looking at what external providers can offer. Cost is always an important consideration - but it is not always the driving factor when it comes to choosing truly reliable back-up support or managed service, or when considering outsourcing. The most important criteria, according to Information Week, are reliability, cost, value and technical skills.
For information about our proactive IT Support service, B & M ProSupport, please contact sales@bmeurope.com
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It's wide Open for business
Paul Smith, B & M's Technical Manager, looks at how Open Source software has moved into the mainstream
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The author Gerald Weinberg observed, "If builders built houses the way programmers built programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization." When this was written, it certainly applied to much of the software which would eventually become Open Source. With the marketplace now supporting Open Source programs as full-blown commercial 'products', it seems that Weinberg's observations are no longer accurate.
The freeware operating system GNU (GNU is Not Unix) was first used in 1984. In 1991 Linus Torvalds lit the fuse of 'Linux Kernel', a system which started slowly but which has now seen an explosion of usage all over the world. Early forms of open software such as these created the conditions for what has effectively become a massive development project, with notable proponents such as Apache, Redhat, The Open Software Foundation and Google.
In 1995, it seemed almost inevitable that Microsoft would dominate the high-end, PC-based server market. However a survey by Forrester in 2005 found that even over two years ago, 52 per cent of companies were replacing Windows servers with Linux servers - a trend that is continuing. Estimates by IDC show that the growth in Linux-based server sales has kept pace with Windows and that Linux-based machines accounted for 13.6 per cent of server revenues in the second quarter of 2007. And significantly, some of the organisations taking this approach are giants such as Google, Yahoo and Amazon.
What has made Open Source commercially viable is the funding of development by organisations such as Redhat, Eclipse, Google and IBM, which give Open Source the professional credibility and indemnity that business needs to feel comfortable. Anecdotally, Google seems to have the most creative approach, by encouraging development using the principle "a happy developer is a good developer".
But why are large enterprises choosing to head for 'Open' water? Reducing TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) is a major driving force. There are an increasing number of organisations whose developments are in the JBoss middleware environment, from where they port the finished product to WebSphere Application Server. This may not be the simplest route in the world technically speaking, but if you compare the hundreds of thousands of pounds that it costs to license WebSphere on large systems with the few thousand it costs for JBoss licences, then this approach becomes easier to understand. An additional benefit is that Open Source models tend to have commonly agreed interfaces, making it easier to interconnect product suites - a factor for which IBM's proprietary MQ did much to pave the way.
We are now seeing commercial organisations begin to source skills to progressively adopt Open Source offerings from accredited sources. For resources and services to support Open Source projects, please contact sales@bmeurope.com.
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Real Skills, Real people: B & M's Charmaine Ward
This month, we find how HR Administrator Charmaine travelled from care to HR
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After completing NVQ Levels 2 and 3 in Integrated Care for the Elderly, Charmaine worked as a carer in nursing, residential and rest homes for 10 years. She decided to broaden her horizons by embarking on a CLAIT computer training course, and on completing levels 1 and 2, moved into a new career as a Warehouse Administrator for a national catering equipment supplier. Charmaine remained with the firm for several years and was promoted to IT Administrator for the Data Processing department, where she provided first-line support to over 300 employees. She also worked closely with the Finance Director, producing monthly sales figures and reports.
Charmaine held an administration role for a satellite and communications repair company before joining B & M in May 2007 as an Administrator in the HR team, where she provides vital support to the B & M Account Managers.
Charmaine and her husband are registered Kennel Club dog breeders and she, together with her two children, works alongside the RSPCA to foster and re-home stray or neglected dogs into loving and caring homes. Charmaine has two Old English Sheep dogs of her own and enjoys taking them for long walks in the countryside.
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10 ways to save on IT support services
Using professional IT services from an experienced and specialised external source can deliver real savings for organisations with large IT functions - here are some probable areas:
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1. Save staff costs by back-filling skilled employees who have been redeployed
2. Save business failure costs by maintaining IT business continuity
3. Save the cost of training and deploying new specialist employees in-house
4. Save the money that would be lost in downtime
5. Save project slippage (in cases where employees have to be temporarily diverted)
6. Save the risk of failure by using experienced specialists
7. Save HR resource to support recruitment
8. Save internal project management resource
9. Save on redundancy caused by fluctuations in workload
10. Save management time
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Different businesses need appropriate support services that fulfil the needs of their varying IT circumstances. This is why we have introduced B & M ProSupport, the proactive IT service which offers second and third-tier support - right up to on-site, 24 x 7 support. B & M ProSupport can be delivered as an outsourced IT support service as required.
We deliver multi-disciplined teams of specialists who proactively monitor systems software on large platforms and work to prevent problems wherever possible. Any problems that do arise are dealt with swiftly and effectively, minimising any potential impact on the business. B & M ProSupport is delivered on-site or remotely, complying with our best practice standards and guaranteed levels of service. For more information about how our services could help your organisation achieve its business goals, please contact sales@bmeurope.com.
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B & M has specialised in delivering skilled ICT specialists to meet the needs of leading organisations throughout Europe since 1992. We focus exclusively on providing consultancy, technical services and support for z/OS, UNIX and Linux enterprise systems, including third-party systems software, open systems and networking connectivity. We add real value for HR and IT professionals by taking the time to understand their needs and applying best practice methods to deliver results. To find out more about our approach to providing the best skills for each business, go to www.bmeurope.com B & M Europe Limited
www.bmeurope.com
+44 (0)118 981 1880
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