Metrics Blog

The positioning of the IT organisation is crucial. Only by aligning IT with business objectives and granting it the necessary mandate can a long-term strategic orientation and development be ensured to support the business sustainably.

Many companies would like to improve their IT service desk or help desk with AI: faster, more effective and cheaper. Although significant effects are possible, AI is only one component of the service desk strategy.

Reducing IT costs is always on the management agenda, not just in times of economic crisis. Many IT organisations find that there is no real transparency over costs. We show you ways to structure and demonstrate IT expenditure effectively.

The exit management plan in IT sourcing is crucial for a successful provider transition. Without a structured and disciplined approach, risks, costs and tensions between the customer and IT service providers increase.

Many companies want to review and reduce their IT costs. But efficient services are not everything - it is just as important to develop roles and structures. IT must leave "fire-fighting mode", provide strategic support to the business and train its own effectiveness.

Especially in multi-sourcing environments, exit management is crucial for a smooth transition to a new provider or back in-house. Sovereign IT services and dealing with hyperscalers also require a professional exit strategy - and discipline.

IT and procurement managers must develop a strategic procurement approach that aligns with corporate goals while ensuring resilience. Those who can do this will be more successful in IT.

When C-level leaders talk about IT benchmarking, they often think of one thing: cost. But done right, it’s a strategic tool that helps you make smarter investment decisions, strengthen your IT operating model, and prove long-term value.

Daily rates for IT consultants from service providers will continue to rise in 2025. This applies to both IT infrastructure and applications. The crucial question is: How can these day rates be kept under control?

IT mediation, conciliation or an arbitration report can help to mend a broken relationship between customers and IT providers - or make the separation and transition cleaner. We show areas where the partnership is put to the test in advance.

Across enterprise IT landscapes, bloated application portfolios are a silent cost driver. Overlapping systems, legacy tools, and underused platforms not only inflate spend - they slow transformation. Rationalising your application estate isn’t just a cost-cutting exercise. It’s a strategic reset.

The transition and transformation (T&T) in IT sourcing - the change of an IT provider - won't run smoothly if the T&T project plan does not cover all tasks and scopes estimates are incorrectly. Three aspects of a T&T plan show how customers and providers should proceed effectively.

Outsourcing IT services can unlock efficiency, reduce operational burden, and bring specialist expertise into your organisation. But too often, the real cost of a sourcing agreement only becomes clear after the ink under the sourcing contract has dried.

What if your software costs aren’t too high - they’re just unmanaged? Complexity creeps into IT environments unnoticed, through redundancies or superfluous modules. With Application Portfolio Management (APM), CIOs can reduce waste, gain control, and align IT with business.

In 2025, CIOs are under pressure to deliver greater agility, smarter cost control, and stronger vendor performance - often all at once. But without a clear IT sourcing strategy that aligns business goals with IT execution, many end up with cost blowouts, rigid contracts, and limited flexibility.

Following the akquisition of VMware by Broadcom, customers were confronted with new pricing and licence models. A quick change of supplier was usually not possible due to vendor lock-in. How can companies arm themselves against price increases from key vendors?

Most large organisations have plans in place to compensate for a data centre fire and ensure continuity of IT supply, but what happens if a strategic IT provider is hit by economic turbulence? Here too, IT organisations need to be prepared.

The Transition Mode of Operation (TMO) is a critical operational phase in IT sourcing. Unfortunately, the shift from one IT service provider to another is still too rarely successful in practice. What can be done about this?

Day rates for IT consultants continue to rise. But companies can contain costs in a sensible way: for example, through T&M instead of lump sums, supplier consolidation and systematic skill prioritisation.

Day rates for IT consultants have risen sharply in recent years. But how can companies contain costs in a meaningful way? Best practices are long-term agreements, fixed purchase quantities and on-the-job training.

When evaluating IT suppliers - vendor tiering as part of vendor management - the focus is usually on spend. However, expensive commodity software has only limited strategic value. Tools and capabilities of partners who can take an organisation into the future are more important.

The application portfolio is somewhat of a black box - necessary, opaque and expensive. With the TBM framework, application managers can strengthen their position by demonstrating the potential of digital tools. But what is TBM and what are its benefits?

IT cost-optimisation measures will shape the year 2025, and IT budgets will only grow slightly. This will force IT management to put services to the test. Only budgets for IT security show further double-digit growth.

Hard times for gold and platinum: IT service levels below bronze are becoming more popular. This move can save money, but more importantly it changes the customer relationship. What should IT managers be aware of?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.