Challenges facing IT Production

Challenges facing IT Production

A recent study by HP showed that, in some organisations, as much as 80% of the IT Budget is required to Support and Maintain the Existing Infrastructure. The majority of this cost is manpower-related.

At the same time, the number of Applications going Live increases year on year.

Faced with the pressure to ensure that systems remain up and running, and solving urgent Support Issues, IT Production can be tempted to respond with a "reactive", short-term "Mr. Fix-it" approach.

• Concentrating on solving urgent Support issues, it is tempting to neglect Management techniques such as Activity Reporting.
• Adopting a short-term viewpoint, they can become less client-focused.
• The Support Culture can be reactive. Forward Planning can be neglected.
• They become the team that gets blamed when things go wrong.
• Without a client-focused approach, neither the IT Development teams (nor the Business Teams who sponsor them) are aware of IT Production Costs or Activity.
• If Costs and Activity are not visible to clients, then it becomes difficult to justify further Investment in Infrastructure or Headcount.
• Lacking in visibility of the true Nature, Activity, or Costs of IT Production, it is not surprising that some Businesses see Outsourcing as an appropriate solution.

Whilst significant time and effort is put into managing the IT Development (in terms of tools, processes, management controls etc.), the IT Production side can sometimes be neglected.

IT Production Managers sometimes need external assistance, in order to put in place a more Strategic Approach to Managing IT Production.