Unquestionably, you can improve your value to your organisation by helping cut unnecessary use of power and raw materials. There are several ways to achieve this. Two significant strategies are:
- Move towards zero travel
- Virtualise your infrastructure
Telecommuting not only cuts waste, it also promotes a better working life for individuals and it also means that office space, and all the associated expenses, can be slashed. Technology that supports telecommuting varies in price and performance. At the high-end you should be investigating technologies like Cisco's TelePresence. More affordable technologies include Cisco's MeetingPlace, Microsoft's Live Communications Server and, for those of you not wishing to make a capital investment, Saas offering like WebEx.
Opportunities for consolidation and server virtualisation can reduce the number of machines in use and reduce the number of data centres you require. However, if you consider the ratio of servers to desktops in your organisation you will see a significant case for implementing desktop virtualisation. Moving to desktop virtualisation will bring power savings and security benefits that far outweigh the savings gained from server virtualisation.
What better strategy than a combination of cost saving with improved corporate, environmental and social responsibility?
According to CIO Magazine, concern over compliance has moved up, from 8th to 6th in the list of top ten concerns for CIO's. Clearly, many companies are bound by regulatory compliance. For some companies, regulatory compliance is now weaved into the fabric of their organisation. Other companies are confusing security with compliance. This is understandable since many governance and compliance regulations were spawned from risk management and therefore directly affect security.
CIO Magazine suggests that this focus on compliance has allowed the CIO to understand exactly what resources and processes an organisation has in place. They then go on to suggest that this leads to increased efficiency and throughput.
I find it remarkable, given this increased awareness and focus on governance, risk and compliance that companies, in increasing numbers, are not yet turning to BPM technology to provide a framework for their GRC processes. If they did, they would have an unprecedented view into the current state of their business and they would be building a platform for continual improvement.
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