How Microsoft Can Help Save You Money

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" Adopt Industry Best Practices to Gain Desktop and Server Cost Savings

Microsoft commissioned IDC to identify proven practices that companies could follow to improve IT operations. IDC conducted research during the first half of 2006 with 141 U.S.-based, for-profit organizations managing from 1,000 up to 20,000 PCs. Surveys focused on IT assets, IT staffing levels, and management practices. Of the more than 50 practices identified and evaluated, IDC selected 10 used consistently by top-performing IT departments.

Optimizing Infrastructure white papers managing the relationship between IT labor costs and one of the Microsoft products below:

Download the white paper for Managing Windows Server.

      Download the white paper for Best Practices for Deploying and Managing the Office System.

      Download the white paper for Best Practices for Systems Management Server.

      Download the white paper for Best Practices for Identity and Access Management with Active Directory .

      Download the white paper for Best Practices for Managing the Windows Desktop.

As a company adopts best practices to improve its Optimization level, IT labor costs generally decrease dramatically. On average, companies at a standardized level of Core Infrastructure Optimization had an IT cost structure (per PC, per year) 56% lower than companies at a basic level. Companies at a rationalized level had an IT cost structure 60% lower than companies at a standardized level and 83% lower at a basic level. Average annual IT labor costs per PC, per year by level were as follows:

Basic: $1,320

Standardized: $580

Rationalized: $230

What is infrastructure Optimization and why do I care? https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb545079.aspx

" Tools for Cutting Costs

Use IT to enable business growth by analyzing infrastructure and platforms with the Optimization Self-Assessment Tool. The tool provides a personalized and private Optimization score, peer comparison, and value. It also generates a comprehensive report to serve as an actionable roadmap for optimizing your IT infrastructure. The tool may be found at: https://www.microsoft.com/optimization/tools/overview.mspx

      The Virtualization ROI tool collects information on current infrastructure costs and opportunities for improvement then projects potential costs and benefits for various optimization strategies using the Microsoft Integrated Virtualization solutions. https://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/tco-roi.mspx

       Tools to quantify cost savings for mobile PCs have been published by Wipro at:  https://download.microsoft.com/download/f/7/e/f7ef20ff-6bcc-4348-897b-94b22911f2dc/WIP_GCR_TCOMobilityWP_v9a.pdf. Windows Vista, along with the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) and best practices, can help reduce mobile TCO by $605 per PC annually. For details refer to: https://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000000752

      Microsoft System Center solutions can help improve your return on infrastructure investment. This ROI tool examines production server and desktop management opportunities, quantifies the potential savings, service level and agility benefits, investment and ROI for implementing Microsoft System Center solutions. The tool may be found at: https://roianalyst.alinean.com/microsoft/system_center/launch.htm

" How to Save with Premier Support

Save on Paper. At Microsoft more and more functions are being moved online such as W-2 enrollment, Expense Reporting and Payroll information saves an enormous amount of money yearly. Talk to your TAM for more information.

Getting the right resource at the right time. Did you know that there are multiple layers of support at Microsoft. Find out more information about 3^rd Tier or PFE Support for faster time to resolution.

Be prepared. Before calling into Premier or having a ROSS engineer come onsite, be prepared. Download tools necessary for troubleshooting with Support Professionals and have traces and logs prepared for upload prior to calling into Premier. Tools that would be needed, for example, are NetMon, MPSReports, Process Monitor and Debug Diagnostics.

Use Microsoft Premier Online (MPO). Premier customers have access to our external website where they can access Partner level information on KB articles in order to ensure more self-help for issues, resulting in saving of hours or incidents on the Premier contract. Check out the new look coming soon to include a Tools section to help with being prepared.

Pick up the phone. Call in Severity A-1, A and B cases instead of submitting online for faster resolution for more critical issues. Escalate to your TAM when a case has stalled or the right resource isn’t engaged.

Don’t forget to leverage your TAM. Need a hotfix? Is your Support Professional on vacation and you need a status for your incident? Need to know “how to” do something? Don’t forget to reach out to your TAM instead of using Problem Resolution Support hours or incidents.

Deploy patches immediately. TAMs send out advanced notification and detailed security information on patching. Zero-day exploits, such as Conficker, recently caused great financial and resource burdens on many companies. Timely patch of MS08-067, released in November, would have prevented these issues.

" Back to the Basics

In times of economic crisis, it is imperative that IT and business units work together to ensure scarce resources are applied to projects with the greatest potential return on investment. Determination of appropriate investment must be a collaborative effort between IT and business executives. The best practices listed below will foster greater collaboration and a greater chance of successful investment.

Get the business side to scope projects--IT shops often carry responsibility for investigating technology projects. Even though proposals come from the business, the cost of scoping projects, conducting research, reviewing architectures, evaluating the requisite technologies, and other information gathering inevitably fall on the IT shop, creating a significant burden that can eat up weeks of work for each potential initiative.

Help The Business Lower Costs By Proposing Specifics -- Today’s business-engaged IT leaders and their teams can be the first to detect possible tactics that will save the enterprise time and money — whether aided by technology or not. To accomplish this, IT management should:

Task personnel to look for quick wins. Senior IT architects and analysts may suggest business units standardize on a single proven process to reduce labor savings or process overhead. Business units could lower paper/printing costs or sales execs reduce travel by using existing Web and teleconferencing capabilities.

Sign up peers to sponsor business changes that lower costs. Business execs should lead any labor- or cost-saving initiatives in the business units. IT should identify quick-win savings opportunities and pave the way with execs to make the recommendations a reality. This achieves near-term cost savings for both IT and the business units and paves the way for closer collaboration on projects and initiatives in the future.

Recommend discretionary initiatives that deliver demonstrable payback. Strive to identify new investments that will deliver near-term savings — like the purchase of desktop video units for sales managers to confer with reps. Providing prices, overall cost estimates and payback periods will greatly improve chances for project approval.

Partnering with business leaders to prepare for economic recovery -- Lean economic times are followed by eventual recovery. Thinking strategically now can provide a window of opportunity to gain ground on competitors when conditions change. IT decision makers should spend time with business unit leaders to understand competitors’ strengths and weaknesses to build plans for future strategic advantage.