Study Shows Best IT Does More with Less

The best corporate IT departments are successfully completing far more

projects, while spending less money and employing fewer workers,

according to a new study.

This is the information coming out of a new report from The Hackett

Group, a business advisory firm that benchmarked 200 companies over the

last two years. The report finds that ‘world-class’ IT organizations

spend 18 percent less than median companies and run with 36 percent less

staff.

Beth Hayes, an IT practice leader with the Atlanta-based Hackett Group,

says companies with 10,000 end users generally save $18.5 million a year

compared to companies with median-performing IT departments. She

calculates that savings based on numbers that show that great IT shops

spend $1,850 less per end user.

And none of this success is based on the size of the company.

”Size doesn’t matter when you’re talking about a world-class IT

organization,” says Hayes. ”Our data shows that the best practices

almost universally apply regardless of the size of the organization. In

many cases, large companies are spending too much or they’re delivering

too little. It’s not about size at all.”

Hayes says they categorize an IT organization as ‘world class’ based on

several criteria, including productivity, cycle times, cost per end

user, organization and the effectiveness of partnering. An organization

must score in the top 25 percent to be deemed world class.

Hayes says that it comes down to the fact that the best IT organizations

aren’t working harder. They’re simply working better.

”In a time of limited resources and funding, organizations cannot

afford to be fat and happy,” says Hayes. ”World-class performers are

able to achieve an 18 percent savings. And applying those best practices

are not limited to the very large or the very prosperous

organizations… They’re spending less and they’re succeeding more.”

Actually, they seem to be succeeding a lot more.

The Hackett Group reports that the companies they categorize as world

class deliver 91 percent of all projects to spec on time and on budget.

In sharp comparison, median-performing companies are only successfully

delivering projects 68 percent of the time.

The report also finds: