COVID-19 has changed the way we live and work practically overnight. Historically, social and industrial ‘sea change’ would take years, if not decades to fully permeate through society. This change, on the other hand, has been like flipping a switch.

One of the aspects of life that has been most impacted is how we communicate and collaborate, both socially and in business. It is fair to say that the role of IT has been critical in facilitating this change, enabling the transition of operating practices to a modified working environment in many organisations.

However, this has not come without a cost.

So, despite the importance of these targeted IT strategies, the practical facts are that optimising cost to implement and maintain these changes is still a major concern for CIOs.

Let’s talk about 3 steps that you can take at this moment that matters:

Step 1

Understand the nature of remote working and its impact on network and security costs

Remote working is highly dependent on reliable remote connectivity to the organisation’s systems, which has been driving investment in that technology by a ‘factor’, as compared with past years. The previously tightly-controlled expansion in remote working enablement has been pushed into the ‘fast lane’.

Dealing with a literal ‘soup’ of distributed networks while managing the security requirements of an organisation costs money. Pointed investment strategies are now forming in most organisations, with options for redirecting investment as growth in IT spend is not viable otherwise. Moreover, doing so using bespoke or isolated analytic methods is not reliable enough nor is it sustainable, so an IT-specific modelling tool is essential.

Step 2

Determine what levers to pull and where

The reality in most organisations is that multiple plans for continued business viability are being formed – from best case to worse case. Being able to confidently map the various levels of ‘lights on’ business IT support, and hence spend, right down to individual cost point decisions is crucial. Fortunately, there are modelling systems that can help you develop a plan of cost reduction options, with associated impact analysis.

Step 3

Budget for uncertainty while building a platform for recovery

If past industry and economic downturn events have taught us anything, it’s that we always end up coming out of them eventually. Being ready with different scenarios for IT budgets, geared to organisation recovery timing and scale, was a highly-valued capability in the past when major economic uncertainty prevailed. And so is the case today. Intuition and “gut feel” are not the only tools we should be relying on – modelling IT-specific capabilities should be considered a basic tool for any CIO.

Forecasts are the right IT financial management response to this current economic disruption.

COVID 19 needs a mature forecasting process.

Continuous forecasting codifies alignment to your IT strategy and removes the arbitrary cut-off between one financial year and the next.

Even with uncertainty, now is the time to think about the future.

All organisations are experiencing similar short and long term macro-economic conditions created by COVID 19.

All companies are moving through the phases of reaction …. from resilience, recovery, and the new reality.

It is clear there will be different priorities and pathways for every organisation depending on your sector, company, region, and maturity of your operating model.

That being said, the transformation you are experiencing now, should be informed by your best estimate on what recovery looks like for you.

Regardless of when recovery arrives, having a future of your organisation’s new reality will inform these 3 steps of what I’ve discussed today.

Remember, at any time, if you need help, schedule a call with us today and get connected to an ITFM expert for more advice and support on your situation.