02 Mar 2009

Managed applications 'could help firms save costs'

Businesses should look at the operational costs and examine whether they could benefit from IT outsourcing such as managed applications or hosted email, an expert asserts.

Robert May, managing director of IT solutions consultancy Ramsac, tells the Director of Finance website that high levels of efficiency and productivity can help businesses thrive during the economic downturn.

He says companies' IT infrastructure can account for a considerable amount of their budgets and states that this is an area which should be scrutinised.

Emphasising the importance of arriving at a balanced solution, he states that identifying crucial facilities and locating the best way of providing these is a good approach.

He asserts: "Smaller companies … can easily rely on an outsourced support resource. Even for a company with over 100 people, having somebody who covers all IT aspects may not be cost effective."

Steve Sams, IBM's vice president for site and facilities, recently emphasised the importance of energy efficiency to data centres that could provide hosted applications.