1. Generate positive CSR

Power-down PC policies can deliver significant energy and cost savings to facilitate a more environmentally responsible approach to business. For example, Lloyds Banking Group has saved £2.2m in electricity costs and over 9,000 tons in carbon emissions by using a PC power management solution.

2. Drive down software costs

Identifying unused software and removing this across the IT estate reduces software sprawl and ensures you only pay for what you need. Maintaining constant visibility of the software landscape keeps costs down in the long term.

3. Improve security

Windows is releasing operating-system updates with increasing regularly but, with the average migration taking place over more than six months, businesses could be at serious risk for a sustained period. Automation via zero-touch methods that minimise desk-side visits can help migrate as many as 30,000 PCs in just 30 days.

4. Remove unnecessary IT

If the use of network bandwidth is optimised, fewer distribution points are required as content is either sped up or slowed down depending on the levels of bandwidth available. The result is a far less complicated infrastructure

>See also: Flexible working is the path forward

5. Boost employee productivity

Automatic upgrades, patches and software updates remove the need for manual intervention on a user’s PC. Scheduling these at times when employees are away from their desks – or even empower users to schedule themselves for convenient times – will minimise disruption to their working day.

6. Eliminate servers

Innovative tools now eliminate the need for 95% of servers from SCCM architectures by eliminating the need for site-specific distribution points. This approach to software distribution boosts efficiency further through the intelligent use of bandwidth throttling to ensure network capacity is utilised but business traffic is never compromised.

7. Enhance the user experience

Self-service enterprise app stores can dramatically speed up the software request, approval and distribution process. It means users are only a click away from what they need, while the IT team can eliminate desk-side visits and manage a robust approval process remotely.

8. Software compliance

Organisations are typically audited an average of four times a year, with costs per audit sitting at around £60,000. Reclaiming and redeploying software licences, removing all unnecessary software, and optimising IT configuration for compliance allows organisations to stay one step ahead of software vendors.

9. Integrate, rationalise and consolidate

IT systems will need to “plug-in” to “play” in enterprises going forward. Avoid creating data and application siloes by deploying technologies that can seamlessly integrate with existing and other IT systems. The fewer the number of moving parts, the lesser the chance of failure.

Sourced from Ambareesh Kulkarni, 1E