Data Driven Diary

Metrics Blog

The focus here is on costs and benefits, trends and drivers, best practices and worst cases in enterprise IT: our consultants report on their day-to-day business and show how IT organisations today can set themselves up to be high-performance and future-proof. Their tools: comparative data from our data lake and experience from over 4,000 strategic projects.

Methods & Tools

KPIs: How to optimise DevOps Performance

There are often shortcomings in the way organisations implement DevOps. Because KPIs are not applied or are used incorrectly, DevOps cannot be managed in a meaningful way. But it pays to improve - financially, in terms of speed and team spirit.

Methods & Tools

How to measure IT user satisfaction

Conventional, in-depth surveys of IT user satisfaction often return average values and take a long time to conduct. They need to be supplemented with short, quick analyses.

Methods & Tools

IT benchmarks: better integration of IT and business

IT benchmarks based on prices or costs are powerful tools in digital ecosystems. This is because performance comparisons help to increase the efficiency and profitability of an organisation. But benchmarks also offer many other starting points for optimising your own IT.

Methods & Tools

Efficient billing of application costs

Billing for applications and their operational costs has always been a concern for IT organisations and their customers. In most cases, the models used are either too simple or too complex, which can lead to dissatisfaction. We show how an efficient compromise can be achieved.

Market & Sourcing

Co-creation in IT sourcing has many advantages

Time-critical innovations and constant regulatory pressure demand IT projects to be set up and implemented faster and faster. The challenge: complex and lengthy tendering processes. Co-creation in IT sourcing is supposed to make things better - can it deliver?

Costs & Benefits

How to reduce IT operating costs

In times of crisis, seemingly simple solutions to cut IT costs are very popular. But they also come at a high price, for example in IT operations. Three critical pitfalls must be avoided to help CIOs and IT managers prioritise spending more effectively and sustainably.

Market & Sourcing

Managing transition and transformation in IT sourcing

Most IT organisations misjudge their own involvement in the transition and transformation (T&T) in IT sourcing. The customer's resources play a decisive role in the success or failure of the partnership. How do you get the client and provider to negotiate the services provided on an equal footing and manage a smooth transition?

Market & Sourcing

IT Consultants 2024 - Record daily rates

External IT consultants are becoming increasingly expensive. Daily rates in IT infrastructure will continue to rise in 2024 across all skill levels. However, the growth will slow somewhat after a strong rise in recent years. There are also ways to limit the increase.

Costs & Benefits

How to optimise DevOps performance with a benchmark

DevOps is an attempt to combine the art of development with service efficiency. With a structured DevOps assessment, the collaboration of DevOps teams and their output can be evaluated internally and against the market to demonstrate performance and room for improvement.

Excellence & Organization

IT budgets 2024: modest growth expected

IT budgets in 2024 continue to be characterised by economic uncertainty. Their predicted growth rate is lower than the expected cost increases for IT services. IT security budgets continue to grow at double-digit rates.

Excellence & Organization

Orchestrate IT Service Providers with SIAM

SIAM is a method for efficiently managing, integrating and coordinating multiple IT service providers within an organisation. Why is SIAM useful in multi-sourcing environments and what are the specific benefits of implementing it?

Market & Sourcing

XLAs: Experience Level Agreements in IT sourcing

SLAs are standard in IT sourcing because people like to evaluate service providers based on hard facts. Now XLAs - Experience Level Agreements - are starting to take off. What exactly are they and what do they offer?

Methods & Tools

IT benchmarking - systematic analyses

IT organisations use benchmark comparisons to assess their costs and prices, as well as for other purposes. How do the two approaches differ and what other valuable insights can be gained with an IT benchmark?

Market & Sourcing

Imbalances in IT Sourcing

Managing supply and demand is an increasing challenge for buyers and IT managers, as the fragile structure can quickly become unbalanced. We show the most important reasons for IT sourcing imbalances.

Excellence & Organization

Effectiveness, Agility and Efficiency

The animal world offers fascinating examples of how animals use their environment efficiently, effectively and agilely to ensure their survival and continued existence. IT benchmarks analyse precisely these characteristics and compare them with the best.

Market & Sourcing

IT sourcing - faster and more efficient

Automation is a major driver of IT. In IT sourcing advisory, by contrast, things are still mostly done manually. Yet all stages in the sourcing lifecycle offer potential for useful automation solutions.

Market & Sourcing

ISG EMEA Sourcing Lead joins Metrics

ISG's former EMEA Sourcing Lead Dr Thomas Barnekow joins Metrics Group on 1 June 2023. He is a global thought leader in IT Sourcing and the architect of ISG's standard contract framework RFX One.

Costs & Benefits

Agile development pays off

Software is the infrastructure of the 21st century, developers are one of the most important tech professions. In a benchmarking study with Kearney, we found: Agile methods can help increase the efficiency of processes and developers.

Costs & Benefits

IT Security - the journey is the reward

IT security is not just a chore, but a real competitive advantage. Yet many still think of firewalls. But how can you check what's up to date and whether your own investments in IT security are appropriate?

Market & Sourcing

IT salaries - significant regional differences

You don't have to look to India first: IT salaries also differ significantly in European countries. We compared two regions in the south of Germany as well as cities and countryside in Bavaria.

Market & Sourcing

Managed Capacity – flexible IT sourcing

Managed Capacity is a flexible procurement method in IT sourcing: It comes close to the on-demand idea, is very flexible and also suitable for commissioning agile teams.

Market & Sourcing

Government: Value for money of IT

Our contribution as Crown Commercial Service Supplier to the “Government Business” magazine: Best value and best price of IT services in the public sector on page 18/19.

Methods & Tools

What ChatGPT thinks about benchmarking

Our interview with ChatGPT of OpenAI about benchmarking. Here are the answers of the AI about functions and benefits of a benchmark project.

Market & Sourcing

IT budgets 2023 grow at a slower pace

In 2023, IT budgets suffer somewhat from uncertainty, and because of inflationary pressures, IT costs also come back into focus. Otherwise, IT remains on track in all strategic topics.

Market & Sourcing

Metrics expands sourcing advisory

Sourcing expert Markus von Grünigen has taken up the position of Principal Consultant at Metrics Switzerland AG on 1 January 2023. He will support our clients in all phases of the sourcing lifecycle.

Market & Sourcing

2023 day rates for IT consultants to rise

The demand for IT consultants is high, the supply is limited. As a result, prices for consultants in infrastructure and application development are rising rapidly. The retreat of the pandemic is not easing the market either.

Costs & Benefits

Optimise IT costs in a sensible way

The economic situation reinforces the reflex to optimise IT costs quickly. A systematic approach would make more sense and be more sustainable: IT cost reduction must lower expenditure in the right places.

Costs & Benefits

Layer model of IT operating costs

Costs of IT operations are usually too large, inflexible and misallocated. Often it is a matter of selecting areas with low risks for operations or security - not jeopardising the business benefit.

Market & Sourcing

Market and trends in IT sourcing

As part of the IT Sourcing Study 2022, the research company Lünendonk spoke with Dr Jakob Rehaeuser from Metrics about the current trends in IT sourcing - from future-oriented sourcing strategies to cloud.

Market & Sourcing

From ISG to Metrics Switzerland

We welcome Peter Bertschin, who will take over the management of Metrics Switzerland AG as of 1 August 2022! He comes from the Swiss country organisation of the consulting firm ISG.

Market & Sourcing

Tier Pricing for Managed Services

One of the key success factors in outsourcing is an adequate pricing model. Especially in Managed Services, Tier Pricing is being used more and more frequently. What are the advantages?

Methods & Tools

We are certified sustainable

Metrics is among the top six percent of IT service providers assessed by EcoVadis in terms of sustainability. Thanks to all employees who made this possible!

Costs & Benefits

How to open the Blackbox IT Security?

Spending on IT security is rising steeply, and it's difficult for companies to determine their position: Am I investing enough in security?

20 Years – 20 Projects

Charity nominator: Jens Winkler

Metrics - founded in 2001 as Maturity - turned 20 years old. Turbulent times between the dotcom bubble and Corona, during which many clients have continuously supported us. Therefore, it is time for us to give something back.

20 Years – 20 Projects

Charity nominator: Thomas Greulich

Metrics - founded in 2001 as Maturity - turned 20 years old. Turbulent times between the dotcom bubble and Corona, during which many clients have continuously supported us. Therefore, it is time for us to give something back.

20 Years – 20 Projects

Charity nominator: Jörg Tresbach

Metrics - founded in 2001 as Maturity - turned 20 years old. Turbulent times between the dotcom bubble and Corona, during which many clients have continuously supported us. Therefore, it is time for us to give something back.