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Consolidate your management software—and put money back in your budget

 
Content starts here Build a compelling business case for consolidation to increase efficiencies and reduce redundancies
In enterprise environments, it’s common to find overlapping management software in use. Mergers and acquisitions, changing technologies and internal organizational structures have left many companies with multiple toolsets that do pretty much the same things.

Whether you’re talking about redundant software in use for service desk operations, event and performance management or quality management, the end result is the same: higher costs. These increased costs stem from duplication of staff effort, additional staff training, higher software licensing fees and non-standardized processes, among other issues.

By consolidating your management software, you can increase process efficiencies, reduce redundancies and remove underutilized resources. And if your business is like most, consolidation of management software is one of the easier steps you can take to cut costs. That’s because the relative risk is low, and so is the investment. Best of all, you can realize the benefits of consolidation quickly.

Building the business case for consolidation

So how do you make the case for consolidation? Here are some key building blocks for a strong business case.

Reduce costs. If you have different people using different tools to perform a job that is pretty much the same, you are driving up your operational costs. Redundant applications can lead to duplication and higher costs for software licenses, hardware, maintenance and training.

Increase efficiency. When different work groups use the same management software, they all speak the same language and can work together more efficiently. A common platform also simplifies integration of different areas of management—from network and systems management to service desk operations.

Standardize processes. It’s hard, if not impossible, to standardize your IT management processes if staff in different buildings, business units or geographies are using different software applications. With one set of tools, it’s easier to create one set of processes.

Improve system uptime. When staff members use a common set of processes built around a shared management platform, they are in a better position to work in a coordinated manner to proactively maintain the availability of critical infrastructure and meet service level agreements (SLAs). This equates to better business outcomes.

Increase agility. Change is easier when you’re working with a consolidated set of management tools. Whether you’re rolling out new business services, adding data center capacity, or combining two business units, you can move more nimbly if you’re not dealing with the complexity involved in different management tools.

Simplify compliance. In many industries, organizations need to be able to demonstrate to regulators that they are taking steps to maintain the availability of critical IT systems and services. A common set of reporting tools makes this job a lot easier.

Consolidating your service desk

One area that is particularly ripe for management-software consolidation is the service desk. That was a key takeaway point from a recent King Research report, “Benefits of service desk consolidation: in-depth customer interviews.” Study participants reported that service desk consolidation helped them reduce costs, increase quality of service, improve reporting and demonstrate compliance.

“Consolidating teams, processes, and software licenses appears to be an obvious way for IT to save costs while delivering improved service to business users,” the firm noted. Among other benefits, participants in the King Research study cited:

  • Saving 30–50 percent in software licenses and maintenance
  • Reducing costs associated with supporting hardware and systems by up to 60 percen
  • Cutting overtime pay for service desk staff in half
  • Resolving 75 percent of incidents on first call, compared to 60 percent prior to consolidation

Consolidated event and performance management

Just as with service desks, many organizations have experienced an explosion of event and performance management responsibilities within IT. Each new technology or merger results in new tools. Unfortunately, with multiple siloed tools there is no visibility into event correlation. The result: multiple people chasing the same event.

To optimize costs and increase IT efficiency, one best practice is to funnel all alerts into a single location known as an operations bridge for consolidation and correlation. One large utility company achieved the following benefits with HP Operations Manager software:

  • Reduced average Time to Resolution of hours/days to minutes/hours
  • Improved service levels from 99.5 percent to 99.99 percent
  • Cut staff interruptions in half
  • Reduced complexity from 13 different tools to one standard console

How HP can help

With its vast portfolio of software and services, HP is ideally positioned to help you consolidate your service desk, event and performance management and quality management activities. We can help you evaluate your issues and opportunities, build a business case for consolidation and move forward with solutions designed to reduce your software, hardware and staffing costs.

For a closer look at the topics discussed in this article, explore these resources:

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Follow the series

This article is part two of a four-part series on cost optimization. IT cost optimization can be achieved through four initiatives, including IT financial management, management software consolidation (covered in this article), virtualization management and automation (each to be discussed over the next few months). Continue to check back with HP Software and Solutions for more advice on how to optimize your IT costs.

IT cost optimization

How do you spend less during a downturn, while laying the groundwork to exit stronger, more efficient and competitive when the economy recovers? It’s a critical question facing many IT organizations today. IT cost optimization can help you overcome this challenge. By maintaining focus on an organization’s operational and financial health, IT cost optimization enables smart cost reductions that don’t undermine business performance or competitive edge. While transformational cost optimization projects are a tough sell while budgets are tight, operational initiatives can produce results in six to 12 months while laying the groundwork for future endeavors. Operational initiatives include IT financial management (ITFM), virtualization management, automation and management software consolidation. Learn more about how HP’s IT cost optimization solutions can help you gain operational advantage .