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ERP Support Staffing Varies by Size of Installation, Vendor
While initial license fees and consulting services required to implement an ERP system are one-time investments, the cost of support personnel recurs year after year. There is evidence that the number of staff required to support these enterprise systems is declining, but support remains a major area of concern for IT organizations. This Research Byte shows the number of ERP users per ERP support staff member for the composite sample across all vendors and installation sizes.
August, 2015
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ERP Support Staffing Ratios 2015
In this study, we analyze ERP support requirements by means of a simple ratio: the number of ERP users per ERP support staff member. The higher the ratio, the more productive the support personnel appear to be, all other things being equal. We assess this ratio by size of installation and sector. We also report median ratios for Oracle E-Business, SAP ERP, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards systems vs. all others. Finally, we provide recommendations on optimizing staffing levels after assessing the influence of age of installation, number of instances, number of versions, extent of modifications, and scope of functionality. (14 pp., 5 fig.) [Research Byte]
August, 2015
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Disaster Recovery Drives Use of Cloud Infrastructure
Disaster recovery is the single most important reason why organizations are adopting infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). Among organizations that are using or planning to use IaaS, about 60% plan to use the services for disaster recovery.
August, 2015
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Database Administration Staffing Takes a Hit
In recent years, DBAs have made up a somewhat steady portion of the IT staff, despite the growing amounts of data that organizations are collecting and maintaining. Better database tools, automation, more reliable systems, and perhaps growth in the number of other data management specialists may explain the reason behind the restrained growth in DBA staffing.
August, 2015
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Database Administration Staffing Ratios 2015
In recent years, database administrators (DBAs) have made up a somewhat steady portion of the IT staff despite the growing amounts of data that organizations are maintaining. This study helps IT managers determine whether they are keeping pace with industry standards by providing four benchmarks: DBAs as a percentage of the IT staff, DBAs as a percentage of the Data Center Group, users per DBA, and business applications per DBA. We present benchmarks for small, midsize, and large organizations. We also examine the influence of sector on these benchmarks as well as the multiyear trend in DBA staffing. (12pp., 8 fig.) [Research Byte]
August, 2015
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Disaster Recovery as a Service May Be in Your Future
The ability to recover from scheduled or unscheduled downtime is becoming more affordable due to an increasing number of disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) providers. Over the past 18 months, the number and scope of DRaaS options has grown, and more managed service providers are building out cloud-based disaster recovery service operations with varying costs and capabilities. This report covers the key components of a DRaaS solution, the advantages and disadvantages of cloud-based disaster recovery, and key vendors in this growing market. (11 pp., 4 fig.) [Research Byte]
August, 2015
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Disaster Recovery Tops List of Outsourcing Cost Savings
The recently released Computer Economics IT Outsourcing Statistics 2015/2016 study finds that outsourcing of disaster recovery has the highest potential for successfully lowering costs when compared with 10 other commonly outsourced functions. In this Research Byte we review the cost effectiveness of disaster recovery outsourcing against these ten other IT functions.
August, 2015
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IT Outsourcing Statistics 2015/2016
This major study profiles outsourcing activity for 11 IT functions: application development, application hosting, application maintenance, data center operations, database administration, desktop support, disaster recovery services, help desk services, IT security, network operations, and web/e-commerce systems. For each IT function, we measure the frequency and level of outsourcing. We also look at the current plans of IT organizations to increase or decrease the amount of work they outsource. Finally, we examine the customer experience to assess whether organizations are successfully lowering costs or improving service through outsourcing. (111 pp., 97 fig.) Full Report Description [Research Byte]
August, 2015
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IT Finance Ranks Rise with the Times
An adequate IT management structure is essential for the long-term survival of a business. In particular, the role of IT finance, including vendor management and procurement, has become more important. As shown in this Research Byte, IT finance is one category that has been rising in the post-recession era.
July, 2015
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IT Management and Administration Staffing Ratios 2015
This study examines the question of how many managers a well-run IT organization requires and presents staffing metrics for IT managers as well as two administrative support functions: IT finance/vendor management and clerical support. To benchmark IT management, we use two metrics: IT managers as a percentage of the IT staff and users per IT manager. We provide metrics for small, midsize, and large organizations. To provide further perspective, we consider the five-year trend in IT managers as an average percentage of the IT staff. We also report metrics for IT finance and clerical staff. (17 pp,. 9 fig.) [Research Byte]
July, 2015
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IT QA Staffing Remains Constant
In this Research Byte we review the trend in IT quality assurance (QA) staffing. This function has changed little in size over the past five years or, for that matter, over the past two decades. However, establishing QA is a small, but vitally important requirement in every process-oriented environment.
July, 2015
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IT Quality Assurance and Testing Staffing Ratios 2015
This study provides benchmarks for assessing staffing levels for the quality assurance and testing function in an IT organization. In our overview, we present the trend in quality assurance and testing staffing. We then provide three benchmarks by organization size and by sector: quality assurance staff as a percentage of the IT staff, quality assurance staff as a percentage of the Application Group, and applications per quality assurance staff member. We conclude with recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the quality assurance function within the IT organization. (18 pp., 8 fig.) [Research Byte]
July, 2015
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Beyond Deployment Options: SaaS as a Business Model
With the increasing popularity of software as a service (SaaS), enterprise software vendors today cannot afford to be without a cloud strategy. As a result, traditional vendors have introduced various forms of hosted, hybrid, and SaaS deployment options. The SaaS-only vendors, however, have a business and customer support model that is built around SaaS. This Research Byte discusses the differences in the business models and what SaaS customers should know when making a choice between a traditional vendor with a SaaS offering and a SaaS-only vendor.
July, 2015
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Financial Services Lead IT Spending Growth in 2015
IT operational budgets in 2015 are up 5.5% at the median in the financial services sector, a rise that gives this sector the distinction of having the fastest growth rate of any industry surveyed in our annual Computer Economics IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks study. This Research Byte analyzes IT spending growth by sector for 2015.
July, 2015
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Vendor Discount Report (July 2015)
Market intelligence on current discounting practices for business equipment can be difficult obtain. As a result, buyers do not know whether a better deal can be negotiated. This updated report, based on our knowledge of recent deals, provides buyers with guidance concerning current discount structures on a variety of equipment. Categories include IT equipment (desktops, laptops, network equipment, printers, servers, and storage), office equipment (copiers, mail equipment), forklifts, medical equipment, test equipment, and miscellaneous equipment. Major vendors include IBM, HP, Dell, HP, Apple, and others. Includes a downloadable PDF workbook of more than 300 deals used in the report to calculate average discounts and soft cost statistics (14pp., 12 figs.).
July, 2015
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