"Customers see the benefit both in terms of operational savings to IT and dramatically improved service to their customers," says Jim Grant.

Part One—Service Desk Consolidation

Play Part One of the three-part series 15:58 minutes        OR   Listen to the entire Podcast  35:50 minutes

(Right click to download files)

Are you looking for a way to get a handle on what you actually have in service desks and the level of service to your business? Are you looking for operational savings? Would you like to improve your first-call resolution rates or improve service to your customers? How can Service Desk Consolidation help you with that? For answers to these questions and more, listen in as we talk with Glenn O'Donnell and Jim Grant about saving costs with service desk consolidation.

Bios

Jim Grant is the senior vice president of strategy and corporate development at BMC Software. Prior to his current position, Grant was senior vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Service Management business unit at BMC. Grant joined BMC in 2003 from Hewlett-Packard, where he was the vice president and general manager of the OpenView software business.

Glenn O'Donnell, Senior Analyst with Forrester Research, is widely regarded as a top thought leader in IT service management, IT operations, and the broader social implications of technology evolution. Glenn's specialties are in data center automation and operational excellence

Questions

1. I’ve been speaking to many IT executives lately and one topic they consistently bring up is around reducing the cost of IT.  Our first question is for Glenn O'Donnell, with Forrester Research. Where do you see the biggest cost saving opportunities for IT executives? IT executives have a mandate to reduce costs, but there is also a strategic opportunity here to reshape IT at the same time and improve service quality and delivery.  Glenn, what actions are companies taking in 2009 to reduce costs, but also position their organizations for growth in the future?
2. Our next question is for Jim Grant, with BMC. Many companies have realized enormous benefits, in both financial and in the quality of service from consolidating IT service desks. What key factors should be considered when consolidating multiple IT Help Desks into a single, centralized service desk?
3. A lot of companies have successfully consolidated their service desks around BMC Remedy. Jim, what real-world benefits have you seen your customers achieve when they consolidate the service desk?

Resources

BMC Service Desk Consolidation

"We in IT are in the business of change, but we don't like change ourselves. The world is changing and we need to be ready," says Glenn O'Donnell.

Part Three—Vendor Consolidation

Play Part Three of the three-part series 16:48 minutes    OR     Listen to the entire Podcast  35:50 minutes

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Are your vendors simplifying or complicating your life? Are your software license contracts under control? Do you know what your vendor deliverables are and how they are performing? If you need to get a better handle on what's going on with the myriad vendors you are working with, listen in as we talk with Glenn O'Donnell and Jim Grant about saving costs with vendor consolidation.

Bios

(See Part 1 for Bios and Photos)

Questions

1. Jim – With that much of the IT budget being spent on vendors, I would think Vendor Management is an area where customers could see some significant cost reductions from consolidation and managing their vendors and contracts better. What are some of the key features that enable companies to generate these types of savings? So Jim, BMC has helped many companies with vendor consolidation. Can you speak to a few examples that highlight the incredible savings these organizations have been able to attain?  
2. How is BMC Software best positioned to help IT organizations address their cost reduction mandates, but at the same time position them for growth in the long term?

Resources

BMC Vendor and Asset Management

"You need intelligence behind any kind of automation—a traffic light without intelligence behind it is just going to create traffic jams," says Dave Wagner.

Play Podcast   (Right click to download)

(17:22 minutes)

Capacity Management has long been viewed as a discipline for the mainframe to help control hardware costs. In today's environment—with a proliferation of servers and with distributed and virtual environments becoming more and more common—capacity management is even more relevant for all data centers and IT

We all want to optimize our existing IT investments and reduce operational costs, while maintaining performance and service-levels. While capacity management can certainly help organizations achieve these sometimes opposing goals, we can increase the likelihood of success by adopting a proven process.