Trends
Larger enterprises taking to SaaS
More than half of Fortune
500 and other large enterprises expect to
spend more than previously or the same on
software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for
their organization in the future. More than
seven out of 10 (73 percent) of the 100
executives interviewed in a survey conducted
by Kelton Research stated their enterprise
has adopted SaaS or plans to adopt SaaS
within the next 18 months. The survey also
indicated that confidence in SaaS solutions
in the largest global enterprises is gaining
ground.
The survey was
commissioned by Acumen Solutions, a business
and technology consulting firm. Among the
findings in the survey are:
- Subscription
costs? No big deal. Just more than one
in five (21 percent) execs say the
subscription fees are an issue vs. the
old model of a one-time cost that
depreciated over time.
- They
are budgeting for it. A majority (55
percent) plan to spend the same amount
of money-if not more-on their on-demand
software in the future.
Large enterprises, such
as global financial institutions or
multinational telecommunications companies,
have invested heavily in technology over the
past decade to support software
implementations from "cradle to grave."
Expensive software licenses, months of
development time to create customized
applications, quality assurance testing, and
then ongoing maintenance and hosting of
business applications involve millions of
dollars and a large part of their ongoing
budget expenditure every year. Championed by
such companies as Salesforce.com, WebEx,
Oracle and Google, SaaS delivers services on
demand over the Internet on a subscription
basis.
SaaS allows organizations
to launch software for business functions
almost immediately, while maintaining the
ability to customize the software in the
future for their specific business needs.
With a pricing model based on monthly user
fees, the initial cost of entry for an
organization to launch a new software
application is often significantly lower.
The survey found that
large enterprises have unique considerations
when making a buying decision about SaaS:
More than six in 10 (62 percent) executives
admit that they still worry about the
security of sensitive data outside their
firewall; 56 percent also express concern
about how easily all their information can
be integrated into new applications.
"Done properly, SaaS can
be a very effective tool in the corporate IT
arsenal for rapid launch of technology
solutions and a flexible approach to
development," says Shally Bansal Stanley,
managing director of Acumen Solutions Global
Services.
CIOs jump on UC bandwagon
CIOs are seeing the
benefits of unified communications,
according to IT infrastructure firm Ensynch.
This is a recurring theme among midsize and
enterprise organizations in Arizona and
Southern California, says Gene Holmquist,
the firm's president and CEO.
"CIOs are telling us that
business productivity sees tangible
increases within three months and strong ROI
after one year, and that's why we have seen
a 50 percent increase in unified
communications opportunities in the last six
months," says Holmquist. Among the benefits
cited:
- much quicker response to sales opportunities and customer service needs;
- increased productivity through real time interaction;
- increased productivity through employee mobility;
- drives increases in collaboration and idea-sharing; and
- provides a more streamlined sales process.
"We've rolled out
Microsoft's Unified Communications for a
number of reasons, primarily to better
enable our mobile workforce," says Mark
Swisher, director of IT for Rockford Fosgate,
which manufactures products for mobile audio
markets. "We see the business case for
unified communication and what it can mean
to our employees in enhancing productivity
and boosting efficiency."
According to Holmquist, a top driver in
the demand is integration with existing
infrastructure. Microsoft's unified
communications technologies, based on
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft
Office Communications Server 2007, generally
work with a company's existing IP phones and
hardware, which means a "rip and replace"
treatment is not required.
VoIP expanding on campuses
A growing number of
colleges and universities have embraced
voice over IP (VoIP), but the technology
continues to see limited use on the average
campus, according to the latest member
survey by the Association for Communications
Technology Professionals in Higher Education
(ACUTA). The association surveyed members
who attended its spring seminar in St.
Louis, which focused on VoIP and the
challenges of staffing for a converged
network environment.
The survey showed that
two out of three ACUTA member schools are
using VoIP. Two years ago, just 43 percent
reported use of a converged network.
Despite that growth, four
out of five ACUTA members surveyed (82
percent) said their VoIP network still
covers 25 percent or less of their campus.
Nine percent said their schools' coverage is
25 to 50 percent, and another nine percent
put their schools' coverage at 50 to 75
percent. That is almost identical to the
2006 ACUTA survey.
Almost two-thirds of the
schools said they plan to expand their VoIP
networks within the next 18 months. Another
14 percent pointed to longer-term plans, and
24 percent have no expansion plans.
Asked about the benefits
of VoIP, the members using it cited overall
efficiency (33 percent), improved management
(24 percent), and more end-user features and
better use of staff (each 19 percent).
Meanwhile, 52 percent cited staffing issues
as their top concern, while 38 percent
pointed to quality of service and emergency
911 issues, and said implementing VoIP has
been more complex than they anticipated.
Among schools not using
VoIP, 36 percent say they plan to implement
it within 18 months, while another 55
percent say it is in their long-term plans.
Asked why they had not migrated yet, three
out of four respondents said they were
satisfied with their current networks, and
more than half also cited budget issues.
"Clearly, the interest in
VoIP on campuses today is as strong or
stronger than it was two years ago, and the
technology continues to progress in terms of
the numbers of schools using it," says Jeri
Semer, executive director of ACUTA.
"The low penetration
rates on campuses, coupled with the solid
plans for growth in VoIP use, suggest that
our members are simply not going to expand
their VoIP network coverage until they are
comfortable that it is beneficial for their
networks and for their schools overall."
What was hot at Interop?
Attendees at Interop Las
Vegas 2008 signaled strong interest in voice
over IP (VoIP), virtualization and WAN
optimization technologies, according to a
study released by Network Instruments and
NetQoS. The on-site survey of 117 network
engineers and IT executives found:
When asked which emerging
technologies present the greatest monitoring
challenges, 38 percent identified
virtualization, while 24 percent were
concerned with unified communications.
More than 50 percent of
respondents indicated their organizations
have deployed some virtualization
technologies. This will increase to 79
percent within 12 months and 82 percent in
two years.
VoIP adoption remains
strong, with 67 percent of organizations
having implemented the technology on their
networks. Most respondents have implemented
Cisco VoIP solutions, followed by Avaya and
Microsoft. Looking to future VoIP rollouts,
seven percent of organizations expect to
implement within 12 months, and an
additional three percent will wait more than
a year.
Forty-two percent have
implemented or plan to implement a WAN
optimization technology within 12 months,
while 44 percent had no plans to implement.
Proper design is important
While CIOs frequently
change the structure of the IT organization
to reduce costs, improve services or
increase responsiveness, the wrong IT
organization structure can degrade business
relationships, reduce effectiveness and
damage culture, says Forrester analyst Marc
Cecere. He has compiled 10 common
organization design errors that hinder the
effectiveness of organizations.
1. Conflicting culture
and structure. When there is a conflict
between the design of the organization and
its informal norms and behaviors, the design
will fail.
2. A management style
that conflicts with IT goals. The choice of
a bottom-up (i.e., frontline employees make
decisions) or top-down (i.e., senior
management makes decisions) decision-making
style must match the organization's goal.
3. Metrics that do not
support the direction of IT. Measurements
that are out of sync with the goals of the
organization will drive the wrong behaviors.
4. Weakened strategic
functions. Architecture, planning, vendor
management and non-operational functions
lack the traditional levers of power: large
budgets, management of key systems and
services, and ownership of customer
relationships.
5. Overly fragmented
groups. When organizations slice functional
groups into small pieces where everyone must
do everything, this leads to a lack of
specialization that reduces efficiency.
6. The implementation of
transition at the wrong pace. Quickly
changing to a new organization without
adequate planning and participation will
result in confusion over responsibilities.
Converting too slowly creates anxiety, as
people wonder who their bosses will be.
7. Fragmented and
informal management of services firms.
Having multiple groups manage consultants
results in inconsistent and inefficient
selection and oversight of vendors.
8. Weakly structured and
managed enterprise projects. Projects run by
a small group that coordinates the
activities of those executing the project
slows implementation and complicates
integration.
9. Functional
segmentation that creates barriers, reducing
coordination. Separating some functions
causes loss of accountability and excessive
handoffs.
10. An excessively broad
span of control. Having too many direct
reports forces IT leaders to spend excessive
amounts of time on narrow issues.
Short Takes
Unified system
Clarkson Construction
will use NEC Unified
Solutions' Elite IPK II communications system to unify
business communications while its team
builds the kcICON-Christopher S. Bond Bridge
in Kansas City. Clarkson is also utilizing
ViewMail, a form of unified messaging, for
the IPK II platform to help ensure business
continuity. "By connecting our two office
locations and construction partners
together, the NEC solution created a unified
system that lets us seamlessly communicate,
thereby saving our employees' time and
allowing us to increase our interoffice
productivity," says
Rodney Tatum,
IT manager, Clarkson Construction.
802.11n to school
Ohio Wesleyan University
has selected and commenced deployment of
Aruba Network's
802.11n adaptive wireless LANs across its
Delaware, Ohio, campus. The wireless network
will consist of redundant centralized
MMC-6000 Multi-Service Mobility Controllers
and more than 400 Aruba AP-124 and AP-125
802.11n access points spread across 50
academic, administrative, athletic and
residential facilities. "Our purchase of
802.11n technology not only places us on the
cutting edge of WLAN technology, but going
with this technology is cost-effective
because we will not have to upgrade our
wireless equipment any time soon," says
Theresa Byrd,
CIO and director of libraries.
Faster WAN
The North West
Company,
a provider of food and everyday products and
services to remote communities across
northern Canada and Alaska, will deploy
Stampede Technologies'
Application Acceleration Series with
Stampede's multiuser client solution to
reduce bandwidth utilization and improve
performance to its 220-plus stores.
"Stampede's solution (two-way acceleration
with multiuser client technology) was
perfect for our environment," says Doug Hamm,
director of information technology at The
North West Company.
Healthier network
Concord Hospital,
a regional medical center with the second
busiest acute care hospital in New
Hampshire, has selected Juniper Networks
to provide a high-performance network
infrastructure with application
acceleration, routing, remote access and
security solutions. The integration of the
application acceleration platform,
firewall/VPN appliances with unified threat
management and SSL VPN enabled the hospital
to increase the performance of
business-critical applications by up to 50
percent. "Like most high-performance
businesses, we need to ensure our health
professionals can work without network
interruption, regardless of their location,"
says Mark Starry,
manager of IT infrastructure and security at
Concord Hospital.