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Special Brief Summary: The Caterpillar’s Edge
Many large and small companies and their leaders are stuck in their approach to planning and execution. They are guided by old habits formed in an era when competition was more static. Change your thinking and you can change your future.
April, 2017
Application Development Outsourcing Dropping
While application development remains one of the more popular IT functions to outsource, our research indicates growth in this form of outsourcing has shown little change over the past five years, until dropping this year.
April, 2017
Businesses Adopting Mobile Devices at a Rapid Clip, but Investment Down
The development curve of smartphones and tablets has slowed, and applications for these devices—rather than the devices themselves—are where the innovation is. Moreover, data from our annual survey of technology trends shows a high adoption rate, but other metrics, particularly around ROI and cost of ownership, are mixed.
March, 2017
Mobile Devices/Wearables Adoption Trends and Customer Experience
Mobile devices and wearables have moved beyond general uses into vertical-specific applications in many industries. This report provides an overview of key concepts and vendors in this space. We then examine adoption and investment trends, providing data on how many organizations have the technology in place, how many are in the process of implementing it, and how many are expanding implementations. We also look at the return on investment experience, total cost of ownership experience, and which mobile applications are the most popular. (23 pp., 11 fig.) [Research Byte]
March, 2017
Enterprise Transformation Through Product and Services Innovation
Mattel has embarked on an ambitious transformation journey, with a focus on rebuilding Mattel's culture to re-focus on brand building, creativity, and innovation, while putting a premium on speed-to-market and accountability.
March, 2017
Moving from Cost Optimization to Value Realization through MGS
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, known as Freddie Mac, is a mortgage securitization firm. Avasant Director, Jim Lee, and Avasant Associate Director, Anthony Cilla, discussed in this case study the drivers, challenges, benefits, and results of Avasant's engagement with Freddie Mac.
March, 2017
Mobile App Investment Continues to be Strong
Mobile devices promise a more agile and responsive workforce that has access to a wide variety of enterprise applications regardless of where they are. But data from our annual survey of technology trends suggests that the dream of the fully mobile enterprise is not yet here. Nevertheless, investment in mobile applications continues to rise at a healthy rate.
March, 2017
Mobile Apps Adoption and Customer Experience 2017
While the dream of a truly mobile enterprise is not yet here, investment in mobile applications is strong and growing. This report provides metrics for mobile application adoption and investment and reports on customer satisfaction and customer experience with return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TOC). It also examines which applications enterprises are adapting to the mobile experience as well as the platforms on which they are choosing to develop those applications. Finally, we assess which sectors are adopting mobile applications, and whether those organizations are developing mobile applications in-house, outsourcing the task, or relying on commercial software vendors. (19 pp. 9 figs.) [Research Byte]
March, 2017
Network Support Staffing Level Shows Modest Decline
The importance of computer networks cannot be overstated in this digital age. Yet remarkably, the network support staff as a percentage of the total IT staff appears to be on a slow decline after remaining relatively stable for a few years. This Research Byte reviews the five-year trend in network support staff as a percentage of IT staff.
March, 2017
Network Support Staffing Ratios 2017
The importance of computer networks cannot be overstated in this digital age. Yet remarkably, the network support staff as a percentage of the total IT staff appears to be shrinking. This study will help IT managers determine whether their organizations are keeping pace with improvements in network management. We provide four benchmarks: network support staff as a percentage of the IT staff, network support staff as a percentage of the Network and Communications Group, network devices per network support staff member, and users per network support staff member. (20 pp., 9 fig.) [Research Byte]
March, 2017
App Maintenance Outsourcing Feels the SaaS Pinch
As the applications portfolio of an enterprise grows, the need to maintain those systems increases and can easily become an all-consuming burden. In response, many IT organizations see outsourcing as a way focus their efforts on deploying new systems instead of maintaining old ones. The move to SaaS is also contributing to this trend.
March, 2017
Application Maintenance Outsourcing Trends and Customer Experience 2017
As the applications portfolio of an enterprise grows, the need to maintain those systems increases and can easily become an all-consuming burden on the IT organization. In response, many organizations see outsourcing as an attractive option. In this report, we analyze the percentage of organizations outsourcing application maintenance (frequency), the average amount of work outsourced (level), and the change in the amount of work being outsourced (trend). (18 pp., 8 fig.) [Research Byte]
March, 2017
IT Help Desk Outsourcing Resumes Its Decline
The decision to turn over an organization’s IT help desk function to a service provider has a long history. Even so, our research shows that help desk outsourcing is not as common as one might think and continues to drop.
March, 2017
IT Help Desk Outsourcing Trends and Customer Experience 2017
IT help desk outsourcing helped establish the contemporary IT outsourcing industry. Nevertheless, the number of organizations that outsource the IT help desk dropped this year and has been on a steady decline since the end of the recession. This study examines adoption trends and customer experience with help desk outsourcing. We report on the percentage of organizations outsourcing help desk (frequency), the average amount of work outsourced (level), and the change in the amount of work being outsourced (trend). We also present success rates for the customer’s cost and service experience. Finally, we show how these trends differ by organization size and sector. (17 pp., 8 fig.) [Research Byte]
March, 2017
Software-Defined Networking Success High but Investment Still Slow
Early adopters of software-defined networking are finding great return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to the 11 other technologies in our full Technology Trends 2017 study. But despite the early success, it appears the majority of IT organizations are slow to hop on the software-defined networking (SDN) bandwagon.
March, 2017