Project performance is often measured in terms of on-budget or on-time, but most business units fail to understand the repercussions of project changes after work has begun.
With 57% of application development projects completed on-time, and 67% of projects delivered On-budget many IT organizations attribute their inability to meet project schedule to poor initial scope, project scope creep and resource constraints.
IT spending as a percent of revenue is the most common measure of total IT investment relative to top-line business results. IT spending as a percent of revenue needs to be considered in tandem with the context of business objectives, the rate of change and the overall circumstances affecting the numerator as well as the denominator.
Gartner's U.S. dollar growth forecast for global IT spending in 2012 has been revised downward from 4.6% in the previous quarter to 3.7%. Faltering global economic growth, the eurozone crisis and the impact of Thailand's floods on hard-disc drive production have taken their toll on IT spending.
Enterprises that outsource IT services should consider including benchmarking clauses in many of their contracts. Benchmarking reduces the price of outsourcing deals and ensures that contracts remain cost-effective and efficient.
End-user computing staff makes up roughly 12% of the total IT FTE. Variables to consider in tandem with this metric include: IT staffing distribution: contract vs. insourced FTEs, the percentage of the environment outsourced (supported by a third party), as well as the evolving business requirements.
IT spend as a percent of operating expense is another view of IT investment levels in terms of the role IT plays in overall business spending patterns.
Project managers take care of the administrative activities of application development projects with a view toward smooth operation and the achievement of its aims. Activities include coordinating, following up and scheduling the activities of the development teams.
Many organizations are challenged with communicating IT investment as it relates to business stakeholders. Classifying IT spend into categories that show impact on business outcomes or success can aid alignment and quantify underinvestment in information technology.
Forty eight% of Applications spend is dedicated to support activities. By measuring Application Support spend distribution by assets class as well as by activity, organizations can gain insight into what cost areas are consuming applications support budget. More...
Best in class organizations measure cost efficiency metrics with the associated quantity and quality of services delivered. However, we find some organizations have difficulty taking inventory of the total cost structure. More...
Mainframe cost per installed MIPS is often used to evaluate the relative cost efficiency level of the mainframe environment, although with only 67% of the environment utilized, many organizations find the need to dig beyond this metric.
Understanding the relative level of IT support dedicated to an IT environment can also assist in identifying whether staff size is appropriate. Receive a complimentary report containing Unix Server Cost & Staffing measures from Gartner by completing a short survey.
Mainframe cost per installed MIPS is often used to evaluate the relative cost efficiency level of the mainframe environment, although with only 67% of the environment utilized, many organizations find the need to dig beyond this metric.
The distribution of Applications staff helps to determine the level of external and "temporary" support applications receive. Higher levels of external support can expose an organization to risk of losing critical knowledge and processes that may leave when the contractors' terms are up.
The IT Help Desk environment is made up of Personnel and non-personnel (Hardware, Software, Transmission and Occupancy) related assets & expenses. While all of these are important, one category dominates the cost to support the environment.
Free Application Project Metrics for Participants Include: Percentage of Applications Projects Completed On Time; Variance From Planned Project Delivery Schedule; Percentage of Projects Completed on Budget; and Variance From Planned Project Budget.
All companies who outsource require internal resources to manage their contracts. IT outsourcing dollars managed per FTE helps to evaluate the level of workload supported by the vendor management support staff in terms of contracted outsourced dollars spent.
While information security breaches remain at the top of global headlines, Intrusion Detection & Prevention had the largest drop in Information Security & Risk Management priority ranking (from 1 to 6 ranking) based on the IT Key Metrics Data 2011 publication.
Worldwide IT spending is forecast to total $3.67 trillion in 2011, a 7.1 percent increase from $3.43 trillion in 2010, according to the latest outlook. Gartner has slightly raised its outlook for 2011 from its previous forecast of 5.6 percent growth largely due to US dollar exchange rate fluctuations.
The outlook for IT Spending growth in 2011 remains modestly positive despite a short-term downgrade in global economic growth. The time is right for the disruptive force that is cloud services to gain traction.
Non-personnel expenses make up 55% of the annual TCO of a Wintel server environment. The degree in which an organization outsources can play a significant role in altering this distribution as can the depreciation cycle related to hardware or software investments.
IT spending per employee is often used to determine the amount of IT support the average organization's workforce receives. This measure helps to establish a link between IT investment and automation levels within the context of the workforce that supports revenue.
In terms of per unit cost efficiency, large organizations do have an advantage when it comes to economies of scale. However, as organizations grow in size, they tend to become more complex coupled with an elevated level of demand requirements.
Distribution of work across the applications project lifecycle can be an effective measure to understand where time and effort are typically spent and can help identify opportunities for performance improvement.
Complimentary Metrics Include: Data Network Budget/Cost as a % of Total IT Budget, Data Network Budget/Cost per Employee, Voice Network Budget/Cost as a % of Total IT Budget and Voice Network Budget/Cost per Employee.
Free Metrics Include: Installed Terabytes per Dedicated Storage Support FTE, Storage Cost per Installed Terabyte, Hardware % of Storage Cost, Software % of Storage Cost, Personnel % of Storage Cost, DR % of Storage Cost, and more...
Free Metrics Include: IT Outsourcing spend as a percentage of IT budget by industry, dollars managed per vendor management FTE, service distribution by function, service satisfaction level by function, and more...
Free Information Security & Risk Management Metrics Include: IT Security Spend as a % of IT Spend — By Industry, IT Security Spend Per Company Employee, Distribution of Security Spend: Hardware, Software, Personnel, Outsourcing, Information Security Priorities, and more...
Annual Client & Peripheral Support costs consume roughly 11.2% of the total IT budget. As complexity and demand increases, cost metrics should be positioned alongside quality and quantity metrics to provide a complete picture of IT services delivered in the context of increased user demand.
Annual IT Application support & maintenance of existing systems consumes roughly 48% of the Applications budget, with the total Applications spend (development and support) driving 34% of the total IT budget.
While total OS instances represent total capacity under management, it should be considered within the context of business requirements (service levels); utilization levels, virtualization density, and overall enterprise compute strategy.
While there remain budget challenges for both enterprises and consumers, there is at least a willingness to look forward and plan for a more optimistic future. It is in this environment that IT will flourish, enabling new usage models and new growth opportunities.
The distribution of spending between hardware, software, personnel, and outsourcing costs can show the dynamics of IT investments. To best understand the value of such high level metrics, best practice is to understand what may be driving these investments directionally.
17% of an IT budget is spent to support the enterprise data and voice network environment (10% and 7% respectively). Given the growing interdependencies with sourcing solutions and the network infrastructure, measuring your network cost is essential to managing the environment.
Annual IT Application development and support investment is roughly 34% of total IT spend. 52% of that investment is for new development projects while the remaining 48% is for maintenance of existing systems.
On average, the mainframe budget consumes 7.1% of the total IT budget. Understanding this metric is helpful in identifying the relative level of IT costs to support the environment from an IT portfolio perspective as well as helps to identify between cost transfers and efficiency gains.
Enterprises that outsource IT services should consider including benchmarking clauses in many of their contracts. Benchmarking reduces the price of outsourcing deals and ensures that contracts remain cost-effective and efficient.
On average, 5.6% of an organization's total IT budget is allocated to information security. While this may be acceptable in some industries, it may fall short for others that are high-visibility, in regulated environments or require higher levels of risk mitigation.
With 57% of application development projects completed on-time, and 67% of projects delivered on-budget, many IT organizations attribute their inability to meet project schedules to poor initial scope, project scope creep and resource constraints.
2010 IT spend increased 2.5%, almost twice the expected increase of 1.3% clients indicated last year. Yet, 2010 IT spend as a % of revenue increased by only 0.1% to 3.5%. Understanding IT intensity relative to revenue, expense and the workforce is now a communication mandate.
Worldwide IT spending is forecast to total $3.6 trillion in 2011, a 5.1 percent increase from 2010, according to the latest outlook. Join Gartner's Chief Forecaster, Richard Gordon as he discusses the latest IT Spend data.
Worldwide IT spending is forecast to total $3.6 trillion in 2011, a 5.1 percent increase from 2010, according to the latest outlook. In 2010, worldwide IT spending totaled $3.4 trillion, up 5.4 percent from 2009 levels.