Latest Reports

• Desktop Support Outsourcing Continues Slow Rise

  The question of whether to turn over the desktop support function to a service provider is a critical and surprisingly complicated one. Although there is a moderate cost-and-service advantage to outsourcing desktop support, other factors, including giving up control, can lead to problems. That may be one reason why today only 22% of IT organizations are outsourcing at least some of their desktop support function, making this one of the least popular functions to outsource. This Research Byte provides a summary of our full report.

  October, 2018

• IT Security Policies: A Necessary Foundation

  Nearly every IT organization has IT security policies to some extent, but too often they are not formally established, comprehensive in their scope, or followed consistently. This Research Byte provides a summary of our full report on IT security policies adoption and best practices.

  October, 2018

• Too Few Companies Formally Plan for Disaster Recovery

  The range of disasters, natural and otherwise, that can cripple a company are staggeringly wide. At the extreme, a flood of Biblical proportions takes out scores of Houston-area businesses. Or mission-critical IT systems fail at Delta Airlines, resulting in thousands of canceled flights and $100 million in lost business. But, sadly, not enough companies are taking disaster recovery planning seriously.

  February, 2018

• A Rapid Implementation of ERP Financials at BLD Brands

  The implementation of any complex, enterprise-wide system can be fraught with difficulties. Installations can take more than a year and, in some cases, never work as advertised. So it was encouraging to hear about BLD Brands, a company of 3,700 workers and 134 locations,  implementing a suite of financial modules in less than three months.

  February, 2018

• DBA Outsourcing Rebounds But Demand in Question

  This year, database administration (DBA) outsourcing increased but has not rebounded to recent historic levels. Demand for database administration – whether delivered through internal resources, or outsourced –  has fallen for several years running and that may be capping DBA outsourcing growth, despite good service and cost success.

  January, 2018

• IT Steering Committees Are Vital for IT Governance

  IT decisions have become too important to be left solely to the IT department. IT is one of the few functions within a business that touches virtually all other areas of the business. Because decisions that an IT organization makes can vastly enable or hinder other business functions, and because of budget constraints, there are often tradeoffs among competing business demands placed on the IT organization. Therefore, IT priorities should be set in partnership with business leaders, and the means to do that is the IT steering committee.

  November, 2017

• Moving from Cost Optimization to Value Realization through Managed Governance Services

  While there is a shift toward automation and digital business solutions, the truth of the matter is that many organizations are still dealing with legacy operating systems and contracts. By transforming the way, you look at governance with your suppliers, governance can enable greater value realization and transformation than many realize. This session will address governance services trends, strategies and examples of what is being done by leading organizations.

  October, 2017

• IT Sector Strategic Roadmap Development for Moldova

  Avasant has been engaged with Ministry of ICT in Moldova since January 2017 to identify the best approaches to globally position Moldova as the next innovative IT destination. Avasant created an export-oriented industry roadmap for Moldovan ICT products and services with target markets around the world including the US, Europe and Africa.

  October, 2017

• Cost, Satisfaction Constraining CRM Success

  Adoption of customer relations management (CRM) systems is high, but the outcomes of CRM implementations certainly could be better. CRM systems are designed to be the source of all customer knowledge within the organization. They should facilitate sales, marketing, forecasting, business intelligence, social media, and internal collaboration. They should be a vital tool for maximizing the success of any company. However, despite their import, maturity, and high adoption rate, there is room for growth.

  September, 2017

• Ranks of IT Security Professionals Rise Again

  In the wake of high-profile cyberattacks, the number of IT security staff members as a percentage of the total IT staff has risen for the second year running. In this Research Byte we look at this trend over the past five years.

  August, 2017

• IT Outsourcing Percentage Highest in Five Years

  IT organizations are committing to outsourcing this year at the highest rate since the Great Recession. The new IT Outsourcing Statistics 2017/2018 study from Computer Economics finds that while organizations aren’t broadly increasing the number of functions they choose to outsource, they are increasing the amount of work they send to outside service providers. In this Research Byte, we analyze the trend and summarize 10 key findings from the full report.

  August, 2017

• IaaS Adoption Exploding with Plenty of Room to Grow

  Adoption of public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) has more than doubled over the past two years, but it still has plenty of room to grow even further. As IT organizations get comfortable with cloud-provider security measures and are willing to give up control of the infrastructure, we expect more companies to jump into the IaaS deep end during the next few years.

  July, 2017