Are you aware that there are four readily available and often overlooked processes that IT organizations can follow that can potentially reduce an IT spend by up to 50% or greater.
These processes are available in a discussion document that I have put together for review.
Each of the processes individually will provide at least a 5% cost savings, but any of these in conjunction with each other gain synergies.
The processes are as follows:
Process One: Underutilized government program that can add up to 30% savings on IT projects.
Process Two: Rarely accessed procurement service that can reduce hardware and software spend by up to 20%.
Process Three: A community effect that reduce the cost of projects at least 10% and potentially allow for the savings to self fund the entire project.
Process Four: Access to cost cutting measures on labor that can save up to 70% on labor costs.
If you would like to understand how these processes can be accessed and how you can reduce your overall IT project spend, please contact Chris Hamilton at Avanade in Calgary at 403-476-1473 or via email at chris.hamilton@avanade.com.
Showing posts with label Calgary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Calgary. Show all posts
Friday, May 15, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
How to save up to 35% on your IT projects
IT projects for corporations are typically expensive undertakings often costing multi-millions of dollars.
There is a way to potentially reduce the overall costs of your IT projects done in Canada by up to 35% through the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program run by the Canadian Revenue Agency.
The basics of the program are as follow:
Who qualifies?
“Generally, a Canadian-controlled private corporation (CCPC) can earn an investment tax credit (ITC) of 35% up to the first $2 million of qualified expenditures for SR&ED carried out in Canada, and 20% on any excess amount. Other Canadian corporations, proprietorships, partnerships, and trusts can earn an ITC of 20% of qualified expenditures for SR&ED carried out in Canada”. CRA
What kind of Project qualifies?
Work that qualifies for SR&ED tax credits includes (from the CRA SRED website):
experimental development to achieve technological advancement to create new materials, devices, products, or processes, or improve existing ones;
applied research to advance scientific knowledge with a specific practical application in view;
basic research to advance scientific knowledge without a specific practical application in view; and
support work in engineering, design, operations research, mathematical analysis, computer programming, data collection, testing, or psychological research, but only if the work is commensurate with, and directly supports, the eligible experimental development, or applied or basic research.
IT Project Example:
The following example compares both a private company and a public company with a $5M IT project that has $3M in qualified expenditures for SRED Credits.
Private Company
IT Project is $5M
Qualified Expenditures: $3M
SRED Credits: $900K (35% of the first $2M and 20% of the next $1M)
Potential Project Cost with SRED credits: $4.1M
Savings: $900K
Percent Savings: 18%
Public Company:
IT Project is $5M
Qualified Expenditures: $3M
SRED Credits: $$600K (20% of $3M)
Potential Project Cost with SRED credits: $4.4M
Savings: $600K
Percent Savings: 12%
As can be seen, SRED credits have a tremendous impact on the overall costs of IT projects. Basically, in this day and age, if you are not exploring ways to reduce your overall project costs, you are doing your company a disservice.
Rules change all the time and you should consult the Canadian Revenue Agency’s website to see what they are:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/txcrdt/sred-rsde/bts-eng.html
Avanade in Calgary can assist you in any of your IT projects and help you offset the costs by assisting you with navigating the SRED program.
If you would like to find out more on how to potentially reduce your IT projects, please feel free to contact Chris Hamilton at chris.hamilton@avanade.com or at 403-476-1473.
There is a way to potentially reduce the overall costs of your IT projects done in Canada by up to 35% through the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program run by the Canadian Revenue Agency.
The basics of the program are as follow:
Who qualifies?
“Generally, a Canadian-controlled private corporation (CCPC) can earn an investment tax credit (ITC) of 35% up to the first $2 million of qualified expenditures for SR&ED carried out in Canada, and 20% on any excess amount. Other Canadian corporations, proprietorships, partnerships, and trusts can earn an ITC of 20% of qualified expenditures for SR&ED carried out in Canada”. CRA
What kind of Project qualifies?
Work that qualifies for SR&ED tax credits includes (from the CRA SRED website):
experimental development to achieve technological advancement to create new materials, devices, products, or processes, or improve existing ones;
applied research to advance scientific knowledge with a specific practical application in view;
basic research to advance scientific knowledge without a specific practical application in view; and
support work in engineering, design, operations research, mathematical analysis, computer programming, data collection, testing, or psychological research, but only if the work is commensurate with, and directly supports, the eligible experimental development, or applied or basic research.
IT Project Example:
The following example compares both a private company and a public company with a $5M IT project that has $3M in qualified expenditures for SRED Credits.
Private Company
IT Project is $5M
Qualified Expenditures: $3M
SRED Credits: $900K (35% of the first $2M and 20% of the next $1M)
Potential Project Cost with SRED credits: $4.1M
Savings: $900K
Percent Savings: 18%
Public Company:
IT Project is $5M
Qualified Expenditures: $3M
SRED Credits: $$600K (20% of $3M)
Potential Project Cost with SRED credits: $4.4M
Savings: $600K
Percent Savings: 12%
As can be seen, SRED credits have a tremendous impact on the overall costs of IT projects. Basically, in this day and age, if you are not exploring ways to reduce your overall project costs, you are doing your company a disservice.
Rules change all the time and you should consult the Canadian Revenue Agency’s website to see what they are:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/txcrdt/sred-rsde/bts-eng.html
Avanade in Calgary can assist you in any of your IT projects and help you offset the costs by assisting you with navigating the SRED program.
If you would like to find out more on how to potentially reduce your IT projects, please feel free to contact Chris Hamilton at chris.hamilton@avanade.com or at 403-476-1473.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Avanade's Next Generation Data Center - Data Center Optimization
In this tight economic climate, customers look to fund projects that offer a fast return on investment and provide opportunities to lower costs. In a 2008 survey, CIO Insight ranked IT cost cutting as a major priority for CIOs.[1] According to Gartner, Inc., server consolidation and virtualization projects provide an attractive option to reduce costs and improve flexibility and they predict that virtualization will be the most important technology in IT infrastructures and operations up to 2010.
Initiatives to create “green” data centers are gaining importance as companies seek to reduce costs while cutting energy demand and carbon emissions.[2] With strong price-for-performance advantages, Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ and Microsoft® System Center technologies helped Microsoft attain a 23 percent share of the virtualization market in 2008.
[3]
Key competitive virtualization vendors include VMware, HP, and IBM. Competitive offerings lack the full range of capabilities found in the Avanade solution or depend on hardware that adds cost and complexity. Independent analysis confirms that, on the whole, Microsoft virtualization can cost as little as one-third the price of VMware.[4] Drawing upon our unique and long-standing partnership with Microsoft, Avanade provides holistic solutions that help customers take advantage of compatibility throughout their Microsoft infrastructure. Our solutions provide a breadth of virtualization and management capability at the most cost-effective price for the enterprise.
Avanade is in a uniquely advantageous competitive position as a leading global IT consultancy dedicated to the Microsoft platform. Our innovative tools, methodologies, and accelerators extend the capabilities of Microsoft data center solutions and speed time to deployment and implementation.
With the Avanade Virtualization Business Case Estimator™, Avanade consultants can accurately estimate deployment time and resource requirements for server virtualization projects, and project customer cost savings. Our Avanade Connected Architecture® Dynamic Systems Framework provides a platform for Avanade consultants to design, build, and deploy next generation data centers in a highly repeatable and predictable fashion, accelerating time to delivery and enhancing implementation quality.
In addition to privileged insights into Microsoft road maps and new technology, Avanade has a depth of internal resources with more than 9,000 professionals in 22 countries worldwide, including development centers in India and the Philippines. Using the right mix of local and remote resources, Avanade helps customers realize results with our next generation data center solution.
Initiatives to create “green” data centers are gaining importance as companies seek to reduce costs while cutting energy demand and carbon emissions.[2] With strong price-for-performance advantages, Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ and Microsoft® System Center technologies helped Microsoft attain a 23 percent share of the virtualization market in 2008.
[3]
Key competitive virtualization vendors include VMware, HP, and IBM. Competitive offerings lack the full range of capabilities found in the Avanade solution or depend on hardware that adds cost and complexity. Independent analysis confirms that, on the whole, Microsoft virtualization can cost as little as one-third the price of VMware.[4] Drawing upon our unique and long-standing partnership with Microsoft, Avanade provides holistic solutions that help customers take advantage of compatibility throughout their Microsoft infrastructure. Our solutions provide a breadth of virtualization and management capability at the most cost-effective price for the enterprise.
Avanade is in a uniquely advantageous competitive position as a leading global IT consultancy dedicated to the Microsoft platform. Our innovative tools, methodologies, and accelerators extend the capabilities of Microsoft data center solutions and speed time to deployment and implementation.
With the Avanade Virtualization Business Case Estimator™, Avanade consultants can accurately estimate deployment time and resource requirements for server virtualization projects, and project customer cost savings. Our Avanade Connected Architecture® Dynamic Systems Framework provides a platform for Avanade consultants to design, build, and deploy next generation data centers in a highly repeatable and predictable fashion, accelerating time to delivery and enhancing implementation quality.
In addition to privileged insights into Microsoft road maps and new technology, Avanade has a depth of internal resources with more than 9,000 professionals in 22 countries worldwide, including development centers in India and the Philippines. Using the right mix of local and remote resources, Avanade helps customers realize results with our next generation data center solution.
For information on how Avanade can enable Microsoft technologies for data centers or other services that Avanade Inc. can provide your organization in Western Canada, please contact Chris Hamilton at 403-476-1473 or via email at chris.hamilton@avanade.com.
For a white paper on Virtualization entitled "Server Virtualization: A Step Toward Cost Efficiency and Business Agility", please click on http://avanadecalgary.com/Avanade_Calgary/Whitepapers.html and fill out the form.
[1] Source: CIO Insights, http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Research/CIOs-Rank-Their-Top-Priorities-for-2008/.
[2] Source: Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2008, http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=530109.
[3] Source: IDC, http://www.virtualization.info/2008/10/microsoft-already-took-23-of.html.
[4] Clabby Analytics: Six Reasons Why Microsoft’s Hyper-V Will Overtake VMware to Become the Major Player in the x86 Server Virtualization Marketplace, May 2008, http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/itanalyst/docs/05-2008ClabbySixReasonsWhyMSwillovertakeVMW.PDF.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Canadian firms lead in adopting cloud computing
This is an interesting article that references Avanade and Cloud Computing.
Canadian firms lead in adopting cloud computing
Nestor E. Arellano
IT World Canada
February 24, 2009
http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/News/fd83008e-b4c6-4393-a4d5-7eaae30654e9.html
More than 67 per cent of Canadian organizations reported they are currently using a combination of cloud computing and internally owned IT systems, compared to only one-third of companies worldwide, according to a survey commissioned by Avanade.
Canadian IT decision makers are more informed about cloud computing than their global counterparts and local organizations lead the world in adopting the technology, according to a recent survey of large enterprise firms.
While a majority of the respondents believed that cloud computing holds the potential to improve productivity and profits during the economic recession, security issues remain a major hurdle to adoption, and almost 84 per cent of those polled indicated they had no plans of switching from their current internal IT systems.
The survey, conducted by Kelton Research for Avanade, a Seattle-based IT consultancy company specializing in Microsoft enterprise platforms, queried 502 C-level executives and IT and business decision-makers from mostly large enterprise organizations in 17 countries including the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Singapore. The study covered a wide variety of industries such as government, aerospace, defense, telecommunications, energy, healthcare, finance, media, manufacturing and non-profit organizations.
More than 67 per cent of Canadian organizations reported they are currently using a combination of cloud computing and internally owned IT systems, compared to only one-third of companies worldwide, the survey found.
"Canada appears lead cloud computing adoption mainly because local IT leadership is more proactive in exploring the technology," notes Kaytek Przybylski, capability director for Avanade Canada.
He said the survey indicates that 71 per cent of respondents in Canada were familiar with cloud computing compared to only 61 per cent of their global counterparts.
Cloud computing refers to the use of Internet-based computer technology to access and deliver a variety of services to users. Cloud computing uses data centres and servers built on virtualization technologies to deliver applications and resources to users, typically under what is called a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Under this model, customers generally do not own the infrastructure; they merely access or pay rent for its use and thereby avoid capital expenditure.
Nearly two in three IT executives worldwide (65 per cent) and four of five in Canada (80 per cent) believe cloud computing reduces upfront costs.
Cloud computing adoption in Canada, however is still at its early stages, according to the Avanade executive. "The technology is considered to be relatively new and even here many companies are still considering cloud computing."
Other key findings of the survey were:
• Executives, by a five-to-one ratio, report they trust existing internal systems over cloud-based systems due to fear of security threats and loss of control over data and systems.
• More than 50 per cent of respondents use technologies to cut costs.
• Four out of five respondents admit their existing internal systems are too expensive.
• 71 per cent of C-level executives and IT decision-makers agree that cloud computing is a "real" technology option.
• While nearly half of the respondents consider themselves to be early adopters of technology, 61 per cent worldwide are not using cloud computing.
• More than 80 per cent of those using internally owned IT systems do not plan on integrating any form of cloud computing in the next 12 months.
• Respondents recognizes that cloud computing allows companies to focus on core business (65 per cent), react more quickly to market conditions (62 per cent), gain access to the latest technology (51 per cent) and improve flexibility (70 per cent).
Security issues are typical concerns when it comes to adopting new technology, according to Craig Balding, a security practitioner with a Fortune 500 company, blogger and co-author of Maximum Security: A Hacker's Guide to Protecting Your Internet Site and Network.
But Balding said by combining cloud computing with thin clients that hold only small amounts of data in cache there is actually less physical exposure to data leakage.
The survey findings bolster earlier views aired by technology industry experts during ITWorld Canada's recently concluded Cloud Computing Conference.
Lack of clarity about the technology among technology professionals is one of the key obstacles to adoption of cloud computing in the enterprise, according Reuven Cohen, founder of Enomoly, an IT consulting firm based in Toronto.
He said many organizations are torn between IT departments who want to maintain control of IT resources and business units who prefer more flexibility to rapidly deploy applications.
The technology sector has been heading toward cloud-based computing for a long time, but companies also must be cautious when buying into a trend, according to Jackie Fen, vice-president for research firm Garnet Inc.
"You really need to know why you're adopting these technologies. You just can't leap in every time a new thing gets hyped, " she said.
Przybylski said the survey indicates that cloud computing technology vendors must tackle the international concerns about security and control of data in order to boost adoption of the technology.
He noted that nearly one-third of the companies using cloud-based systems have increased their use of cloud computing, even during the economic downturn, after seeing its benefits.
For information on how Avanade can enable Microsoft technologies for Cloud Computing or other services that Avanade Inc. can provide your organization in Western Canada, please contact Chris Hamilton at 403-476-1473 or via email at chris.hamilton@avanade.com.
Avanade Inc.’s Calgary website can be viewed at http://www.avanadecalgary.com/.
Canadian firms lead in adopting cloud computing
Nestor E. Arellano
IT World Canada
February 24, 2009
http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/News/fd83008e-b4c6-4393-a4d5-7eaae30654e9.html
More than 67 per cent of Canadian organizations reported they are currently using a combination of cloud computing and internally owned IT systems, compared to only one-third of companies worldwide, according to a survey commissioned by Avanade.
Canadian IT decision makers are more informed about cloud computing than their global counterparts and local organizations lead the world in adopting the technology, according to a recent survey of large enterprise firms.
While a majority of the respondents believed that cloud computing holds the potential to improve productivity and profits during the economic recession, security issues remain a major hurdle to adoption, and almost 84 per cent of those polled indicated they had no plans of switching from their current internal IT systems.
The survey, conducted by Kelton Research for Avanade, a Seattle-based IT consultancy company specializing in Microsoft enterprise platforms, queried 502 C-level executives and IT and business decision-makers from mostly large enterprise organizations in 17 countries including the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Singapore. The study covered a wide variety of industries such as government, aerospace, defense, telecommunications, energy, healthcare, finance, media, manufacturing and non-profit organizations.
More than 67 per cent of Canadian organizations reported they are currently using a combination of cloud computing and internally owned IT systems, compared to only one-third of companies worldwide, the survey found.
"Canada appears lead cloud computing adoption mainly because local IT leadership is more proactive in exploring the technology," notes Kaytek Przybylski, capability director for Avanade Canada.
He said the survey indicates that 71 per cent of respondents in Canada were familiar with cloud computing compared to only 61 per cent of their global counterparts.
Cloud computing refers to the use of Internet-based computer technology to access and deliver a variety of services to users. Cloud computing uses data centres and servers built on virtualization technologies to deliver applications and resources to users, typically under what is called a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Under this model, customers generally do not own the infrastructure; they merely access or pay rent for its use and thereby avoid capital expenditure.
Nearly two in three IT executives worldwide (65 per cent) and four of five in Canada (80 per cent) believe cloud computing reduces upfront costs.
Cloud computing adoption in Canada, however is still at its early stages, according to the Avanade executive. "The technology is considered to be relatively new and even here many companies are still considering cloud computing."
Other key findings of the survey were:
• Executives, by a five-to-one ratio, report they trust existing internal systems over cloud-based systems due to fear of security threats and loss of control over data and systems.
• More than 50 per cent of respondents use technologies to cut costs.
• Four out of five respondents admit their existing internal systems are too expensive.
• 71 per cent of C-level executives and IT decision-makers agree that cloud computing is a "real" technology option.
• While nearly half of the respondents consider themselves to be early adopters of technology, 61 per cent worldwide are not using cloud computing.
• More than 80 per cent of those using internally owned IT systems do not plan on integrating any form of cloud computing in the next 12 months.
• Respondents recognizes that cloud computing allows companies to focus on core business (65 per cent), react more quickly to market conditions (62 per cent), gain access to the latest technology (51 per cent) and improve flexibility (70 per cent).
Security issues are typical concerns when it comes to adopting new technology, according to Craig Balding, a security practitioner with a Fortune 500 company, blogger and co-author of Maximum Security: A Hacker's Guide to Protecting Your Internet Site and Network.
But Balding said by combining cloud computing with thin clients that hold only small amounts of data in cache there is actually less physical exposure to data leakage.
The survey findings bolster earlier views aired by technology industry experts during ITWorld Canada's recently concluded Cloud Computing Conference.
Lack of clarity about the technology among technology professionals is one of the key obstacles to adoption of cloud computing in the enterprise, according Reuven Cohen, founder of Enomoly, an IT consulting firm based in Toronto.
He said many organizations are torn between IT departments who want to maintain control of IT resources and business units who prefer more flexibility to rapidly deploy applications.
The technology sector has been heading toward cloud-based computing for a long time, but companies also must be cautious when buying into a trend, according to Jackie Fen, vice-president for research firm Garnet Inc.
"You really need to know why you're adopting these technologies. You just can't leap in every time a new thing gets hyped, " she said.
Przybylski said the survey indicates that cloud computing technology vendors must tackle the international concerns about security and control of data in order to boost adoption of the technology.
He noted that nearly one-third of the companies using cloud-based systems have increased their use of cloud computing, even during the economic downturn, after seeing its benefits.
For information on how Avanade can enable Microsoft technologies for Cloud Computing or other services that Avanade Inc. can provide your organization in Western Canada, please contact Chris Hamilton at 403-476-1473 or via email at chris.hamilton@avanade.com.
Avanade Inc.’s Calgary website can be viewed at http://www.avanadecalgary.com/.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Creating a Definitive Software Library and Saving $330+/desktop
Does your company have a definitive software library? Do you know how much you are spending on software? Do you know how much you are potentially overspending on software?
Avanade Inc. has created IP or Avanade Connected Architecture (ACA) to assist companies with creating definitive software library called ACA Accelerate.
ACA Accelerate helps Avanade rapidly discover and rationalize an end-user computing landscape.
- ACA Accelerate can reduce per-seat TCO by up to 33%.
- ACA Accelerate is fast and is a prescriptive approach. Value is seen in a matter of days.
- ACA Accelerate gives you a consistent approach to collecting hardware and software inventory.
- After collection they can manually analyze the data in spreadsheets to compare Current State with Future State and drive cost savings.
Avanade Inc. has created IP or Avanade Connected Architecture (ACA) to assist companies with creating definitive software library called ACA Accelerate.
ACA Accelerate helps Avanade rapidly discover and rationalize an end-user computing landscape.
- ACA Accelerate can reduce per-seat TCO by up to 33%.
- ACA Accelerate is fast and is a prescriptive approach. Value is seen in a matter of days.
- ACA Accelerate gives you a consistent approach to collecting hardware and software inventory.
- After collection they can manually analyze the data in spreadsheets to compare Current State with Future State and drive cost savings.
Based on market information, the typical desktop costs an organization $5000/year to maintain. On average, 20% of that cost is software. By running ACA Accelerate, a company can potentially reduce their software costs by up to 33% or by $330.
On a firm that has 1000 desktops, this is a savings of $330,000 per year for redundant, unused and multiple software version of the same software. Running ACA Accelerate has a ROI that allows for a payback with in days or weeks.
WHen this service is utilized with a desktop transformation process, for example moving from Windows XP to Vista, an organization can typically cover a portion or potentially all of the costs of the migration. In addition, if a compnay were to look at Application Virtualization and Desktop Virtualization, these savings could be further enhanced.
ACA Accelerate can be demonstrated to your company.
For information on ACA Accelerate or other services that Avanade Inc. can provide your organization in Western Canada, please contact Chris Hamilton at 403-476-1473 or via email at chris.hamilton@avanade.com.
Avanade Inc.’s Calgary website can be viewed at www.avanadecalgary.com.
Intoduction to Avanade Inc. in Calgary
Avanade Canada, Inc., a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture, is a global IT consultancy dedicated to using the Microsoft® platform to help enterprises achieve profitable growth. Through proven solutions that extend Microsoft technologies, Avanade helps enterprises increase revenue, reduce costs and reinvest in innovation to gain competitive advantage. Our consultants deliver value according to each customer’s requirements, timeline and budget by combining insight, innovation and the talent of our global workforce. Avanade’s unique connections with Accenture and Microsoft enhance our ability to deliver effective mission-critical solutions for organizations worldwide.
Our local consultants can assist your organization on any Microsoft related products, such as SharePoint, Dynamics, Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server and many others.
To determine how Avanade can assist your organization, please call Chris Hamilton at 403-476-1473 or contact via email at chris.hamilton@avanade.com.
Avanade Inc.’s Calgary website can be viewed at www.avanadecalgary.com.
Our local consultants can assist your organization on any Microsoft related products, such as SharePoint, Dynamics, Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server and many others.
To determine how Avanade can assist your organization, please call Chris Hamilton at 403-476-1473 or contact via email at chris.hamilton@avanade.com.
Avanade Inc.’s Calgary website can be viewed at www.avanadecalgary.com.
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