When 161 IT professionals were surveyed by Forrester Consulting, 69% said they have 10+ monitoring tools (many had 30-50+). The survey found that such fragmentation obscures dependencies left-to-right across IT infrastructure domains, and top-to-bottom within application and service stacks, resulting in – on average – a 20% operational hit. This costs firms hundreds of thousands of dollars (or even millions) per year. And if you don’t think that’s reflected in your paycheck, you’re kidding yourself.
[Full Forrester Report: Monitoring IT Business Services: How Too Many Tools Can Impact Your IT Operation Efficiency]
You can download the complimentary report now, and take away real benchmark data that’s typically quite hard to get your hands on. (The IT leaders here responded anonymously – I mean who wants to talk about operational inefficiencies otherwise?) Forrester Consulting has analyzed the findings, translated them into business terminology appropriate for sharing even with non-IT peers, and presented them in clear visuals that can be quickly communicated up the chain of command. Forrester is a trusted name in the analyst community, and will be a credible reference source to your management team.
Of course, they’d be less-than-impressed if you ONLY pointed out a problem. Luckily, you’ll ALSO see Forrester’s product-agnostic recommendations, meaning you don’t have to start the conversation empty-handed. I mean who ISN’T working on making his or her personal brand more proactive (especially during performance-review season)?
The gist of the report is that the data shows far too many organization have that “left hand can’t see what the right hand is doing” disconnect between domains, AND between business services/applications and the underlying infrastructure. You’ll see how much time your peers estimate is wasted because of this, and what they see as the key missing piece in their current tools’ capabilities. Too many teams end up dealing with IT issues for days or even weeks without adequate resolution. Fire-fights abound. Teams juggle conflicting information, which makes setting clear priorities nearly impossible. They’re perceived as giving excuses for missing budget targets, deadlines, and metrics. The annual cost that Forrester calculates is pretty eye-opening. It impacts pay & bonuses far and wide, I’m sure.
Several quotes from individual respondents make it clear you’re not alone; frustration permeates the findings. Nobody wants their team to look (or get paid) like you don’t know what you’re doing. Nobody wants to put forth Herculean efforts only to not be appreciated for it; this is especially ture during family time and/or on nights and weekends. Even the best people can’t take on an ever-increasing workload and become more efficient. Nobody wants to limp along when key people burn out & leave.
So grab the report, stay on top of the latest research, and – if you’re struggling to hit your departmental goals – arm yourself with a clear, data-driven explanation with a way forward. When your initiative can help your team cut costs, fix issues faster, and improve service quality, you should expect to be rewarded. Or you’ll have very good reason to ask why not.
(Not sure if you have colleagues who’d be open to discussing sensitive operational struggles? Try sharing this post on LinkedIn, Google+, Yammer, or your IT chat room, with just a “What do you think?” You might be surprised when like-minded folk in other departments chime in. And now you may have allies to chart a course forward.)
Long live continuous improvement! Especially in that paycheck.
