由于许多因素，IT 预算正受到前所未有的考验。但是，精明的首席信息官与最高管理层紧密结合，已经找到了适应成本上升的方法，而其他人则处于劣势。
通货膨胀可能已从 2022 年的高点回落，但 IT 预算的价格压力继续有增无减。价格上涨给 IT 预算、运营和人员配备带来了严峻挑战，尤其是对于在波兰 （10%）、印度 （8%） 或土耳其 （50%） 等通胀居高不下的国家/地区开展业务的全球组织而言。虽然美国的通胀挑战已从 2022 年 6 月的 9.1% 高点缓和至 2023 年 9 月的 3.7%，但 IT 面临的价格压力持续存在。首席信息官们表示，尽管高科技行业进行了大规模裁员，但技术人才缺口也继续推高劳动力成本，而且在过去两年中，他们的SaaS和云成本出现了两位数的增长。
根据 IDC 2023 年 7 月对 856 名大型企业高级 IT 和业务经理进行的未来企业弹性和支出 （FERS） 调查，除了技术工资上涨外，受影响最大的 IT 项目还包括 SaaS 和 PaaS 成本。IDC 全球高管和数字业务研究副总裁 Tony Olvet 表示，调查中 41% 的 CIO 表示，他们已将重新审视 IT 预算的周期改为至少每月一次。
普华永道云与数字战略合伙人丹妮尔·法努夫（Danielle Phaneuf）表示，至少在未来六个月内，通货膨胀可能是企业面临的主要威胁——普华永道2023年CEO调查中，40%的CEO同意这一说法。但是，尽管面临这些挑战，首席信息官们表示，他们正在直面这些挑战。方法如下。
一、在考虑削减之前审查策略
为了应对不断上升的成本，首席信息官们表示，他们正在审查裁员和降级服务水平协议等选项，以及提高生产力以应对劳动力成本上涨和其他价格压力的方法。但是，具有战略意义的数字化转型应该受到保护，“因为它们会随着时间的推移而为您做好准备，并创造更多的灵活性和适应性，”德勤管理咨询公司董事总经理兼美国杰出与洞察力主管合伙人Andrew Blau说。
Phaneuf说，在审查这些选项时，首席信息官应该在实施任何缓解措施之前评估他们的业务价值、战略和目标。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
“首席信息官应该与首席执行官交谈，这应该是集体决策，”David McKee补充道，他亲眼目睹了与最高管理层缺乏一致性可能对运营造成的破坏。McKee 是 Counterpoint Technologies 的技术创始人和数字孪生思想领袖，在美国和欧洲的九家公司担任兼职首席技术官。今年早些时候，一位客户裁员，却发现另一部分业务需要他们的机构知识来完成一个战略项目。“他们没有进行足够的沟通，这让他们付出了很多代价，”他说。“他们最终以咨询价格将这些人中的大多数人带回了六个月。
二、不断上升的软件成本令人头疼
另一个例子是Ameritas Life Insurance，该公司在美国开展业务，但目前3.7%的总体通胀率掩盖了IT预算的一些更高增长。“我们已经连续两年全面增长了 10% 到 15%，”首席技术官兼首席转型官 Richard Wiedenbeck 说。不过，从好的方面来看，布劳认为，即将到来的续约将在通胀低于一年前的背景下进行，可能会降低今年的增长率。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
具有讽刺意味的是，随着Wiedenbeck的IT预算越来越多地转移到云端，价格上涨受到控制的地方一直是基础设施。随着向软件和平台即服务产品的转变，基础设施现在已经缩减到他总预算的不到 10%。但是，他接到的销售电话中有90%来自供应商，他们说他们可以为他节省基础设施方面的费用。“摩尔定律继续在这个领域发挥作用，”他说，“但墨菲定律适用于软件领域。
Wiedenbeck说，SaaS比本地软件有其优势，但它的价格要高出20%到25%。随着供应商逐步淘汰其软件的本地版本，Ameritas 在某些情况下被迫进行跳跃。“他们只是不提供本地选项;这就是他们得到你的方式，“他说，并指出SaaS的持续价格上涨比本地软件高得多。“他们已经找到了一种方法，可以将 25% 的涨幅重新投入到软件成本中。我签了三年的合同，但后来我面临着价格的大幅上涨。他说，由于软件占IT预算的25%，这种增长在中低利润率企业中是不可持续的。
Wiedenbeck说，三大提供商的PaaS和IaaS服务的成本带来了额外的挑战。“他们都构建了许多这些云所独有的子组件，当每个组件都因通货膨胀而价格上涨时，它们不会使整体合理化，”他说。他们只是在许可层、软件堆栈管理及其基础设施服务等领域传递所有这些增长。
作为回应，Wiedenbeck评估了服务的价值是否证明了成本增加的合理性。如果没有，他会考虑是否可以通过调整服务的风险状况来节省资金，并检查使用模式以节省潜在成本。“你需要做出明智、深思熟虑和有目的的决策，平衡成本、风险和价值，”他说。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
“对于SAP，最大的成本组成部分是数据库和内存，”Wiedenbeck说，所以他仔细研究了每一个。“通过实施更严格的数据归档和数据保留策略，并重新设置服务级别，我们总共节省了大约 300 万美元，”他说。
首席信息官表示，IT组织可以通过降低服务水平来节省大量SaaS合同。McKee说：“我们经常为超出我们需要的等级支付费用。
但是，尽管Wiedenbeck确实在一种情况下改变了服务水平，但他敦促谨慎行事。“过于关注成本是危险的，以至于你开始寻找降低成本的方法，而没有更好地了解风险，”他说。“另一方面，我们不应该如此担心任何风险，以至于我们为服务和服务水平支付了过高的费用。通货膨胀不应该让我们放弃对成本、风险和价值的平衡管理，但我确实认为这是重新审视这些领域并看看我们是否愿意调整这种平衡的好机会。
与软件供应商合作是控制成本的另一个关键。首席信息官们说，这应该是一种互惠互利的关系，所以要做好一些让步的准备。McKee说：“如果可以找到附加值，例如，通过介绍其他客户或将产品整合在一起，则定价通常会更加灵活，从而创造双赢的局面。
在某些情况下，首席信息官表示，他们已经能够通过要求折扣来调整合同，或者要求在当前财政年度支付更少的费用，在随后的合同年度支付更多费用。全球组织的另一个潜在策略是：在合同中尽可能多地利用低成本的新兴市场定价。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
三、人才成本压垮了预算
对于McKee来说，技术人才价格的不断上涨一直是一个重大挑战，特别是因为它是大多数IT预算的最大组成部分。他说：“对最优秀人才的竞争非常激烈，而英国在大流行后的情况变得更糟。“我们可能谈论这个行业至少30%的通胀率，而解决这个问题的唯一方法往往是开始削减通胀。”
在大流行之前，他可以向在生活成本较低的英格兰地区远程工作的人支付较低的工资，同时为在伦敦工作的人才支付更高的工资。大流行改变了这一点，因为当人们搬到偏远地区时，他们带走了工资——现在他们不想回来了。“混合工作是我们可以经营的奢侈品，但它会造成高通胀并加剧工资，”他说。
Wiedenbeck说，他仍然可以为生活成本较低的地区的人提供略低的工资，但工资差异较小。他说，自大流行以来，“远程工作显示出由于地理位置而存在的一些差异，我们开始解决这个问题。
McKee补充道，外包成本也有所上升。“每个开发人员每天可能需要花费 1,000 美元进行外包，”他说。“你可以找三个人来做这件事。”此外，还有与管理远程团队相关的额外复杂性和成本。“当你外包你的软件开发团队时，他们就不再是你的团队了，”他补充道。“他们远在千里之外，你影响他们的能力较小。很多人选择了这个选项，一年后才意识到它比替代方案花费的更多。
因此，外包可以帮助缓冲加薪。Wiedenbeck说：“凯捷拥有五十万名员工，与拥有420名员工的公司相比，能够更好地吸收人才成本差异。在IDC对跨国业务的调查中，首席信息官表示，他们还试图通过利用国家之间的成本差异来控制人才成本。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
McKee看到了另外两种解决这个问题的方法。你可以招募更多的高级人员，一个人可以取代三个人，减少犯的错误，或者缩小团队规模，等待情况发生变化，稍后再重建。“你会失去专业知识和知识，但这是最常见的方法，”他说。
在人才成本或普遍通货膨胀率居高不下的国家/地区开展业务的组织中，一些首席信息官报告说，将薪酬审查的频率提高到每六个月一次。麦基一直在采用这种方法，但只是在非正式的基础上，他说这允许更大的灵活性，并创造“对加薪的期望降低”。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
增加薪资审查的频率不在Wiedenbeck的游戏计划中，但他正在尝试一种新的方法来控制科技公司的薪资。从数据科学家开始，Ameritas现在提供他所谓的“热门工作奖金”。如果目前的有竞争力的薪水是 175,000 美元，他可能会提供 125,000 美元外加 50,000 美元的“薪水踢球者”，每年都会根据该技能组合的市场条件进行审查。“根据数据点，这是他们工资的可变部分，”他说。“每年我们都会回来评估这一点。虽然员工们相信这些工资永远不会下降，但Wiedenbeck的经验却表明情况并非如此。例如，甲骨文的DBA曾经要到175,000美元，但随着越来越多的人进入这个领域，薪水下降到他可以花80,000美元买到一个人的地步。但这是一个长期的策略：他说，这个周期可能需要10年才能完成。
四、大局：制定您的游戏计划
适应成本增加需要灵活性、效率和深思熟虑的攻击计划。德勤的Blau说，计划是适应意外增长的关键，但他警告说，不要陷入计划陷阱，期望普遍的预测一定会成真。“预测可能是陷阱，”他说，因此 IT 领导者需要更广泛地了解他们需要准备什么。“这就是韧性的秘诀。”
McKee补充道：“与你的CEO合作，了解公司通胀的哪些方面。这种沟通至关重要。
此外，坚持您的战略数字化转型计划至关重要，普华永道的 Phaneuf 说。“在高通胀时期，效率至关重要，”她说。“在通胀压力下，技术业务重塑有机会，它可能会帮助你的组织度过难关。这就是为什么首席信息官应该在短期和长期内进行战略投资并优化弹性的原因。此外，考虑利用项目管理办公室来减轻通货膨胀的一些负担。PMO 简化了项目，最终帮助组织满足快速发展的需求。
Wiedenbeck说，在做出适应决定时，要考虑定价、合作伙伴套利和风险。“决定你是否愿意承担风险来适应价格飙升，”他说。“而且你必须与你的供应商合作。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
英文原文：
Many CIOs are better equipped to combat rising IT costs. Are you?
IT budgets are being tested like never before due to many factors. But savvy CIOs, tightly aligned with the C-suite, have found ways to adjust to rising costs while others remain on the back foot.
Inflation may have dropped from its high in 2022, but the price pressures on IT budgets have continued unabated. Rising prices have imposed tough challenges on IT budgets, operations and staffing, especially for global organizations with operations in countries where inflation has been running high, such as Poland (10%), India (8%) or Turkey (50%). While inflation challenges have moderated in the US from a high of 9.1% in June, 2022, to 3.7% in September, 2023, the price pressures facing IT have persisted. The technology talent gap continues to inflate labor costs, too, despite big layoffs in high tech, CIOs say, and they’ve seen double-digit increases in SaaS and cloud costs over the last two years.
According to IDC’s July 2023 Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending (FERS) survey of 856 senior IT and business managers in large enterprises, the IT line items most affected, in addition to rising tech salaries, include SaaS and PaaS costs. Forty-one percent of the CIOs in the survey said they’ve changed their cycle for revisiting IT budgets to at least every month, says Tony Olvet, IDC’s VP of worldwide C-suite and digital business research.
Danielle Phaneuf, partner, Cloud & Digital Strategy at PwC, says that inflation will probably be the leading threat to business for at least the next six months — an assertion 40% of CEOs agreed with in PwC’s 2023 CEO Survey. But despite such challenges, CIOs say they’re meeting them head on. Here’s how.
Review strategy before considering cuts
To deal with rising costs, CIOs say they’re reviewing options such as staff cuts and downgrading service level agreements, as well as ways to increase productivity to combat labor cost increases and other price pressures. But strategically important digital transformations should be protected “because they set you up over time and create more flexibility and adaptability,” says Andrew Blau, MD and US leader, eminence and insights, at Deloitte Consulting. 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
When reviewing those options, says Phaneuf, CIOs should evaluate their business values, strategy, and goals before implementing any mitigation steps.
“The CIO should be talking with the CEO and this should be collective decision making,” adds David McKee, who has seen firsthand the havoc that a lack of alignment with the C-suite can wreak on operations. McKee, tech founder and digital twins thought leader at Counterpoint Technologies, acts as a part-time CTO for nine companies in the US and Europe. One client cut staff earlier this year, only to discover that another part of the business needed their institutional knowledge for a strategic project. “They weren’t communicating enough and it cost them a lot,” he says. “They ended up bringing most of those people back, at consulting rates, for six months.”
Rising software costs create headaches
Another example is Ameritas Life Insurance, which has operations in the US, but the current 3.7% general inflation rate masks some higher increases hitting IT budgets. “We’ve seen 10 to 15% increases across the board for two years in a row,” says CTO and chief transformation officer Richard Wiedenbeck. On the upside, though, Blau thinks upcoming renewals, which will take place against a backdrop of lower inflation than a year ago, could lower the rate of increases this year.
Ironically, as more of Wiedenbeck’s IT budget has moved to the cloud, the one place where price increases have stayed in check has been for infrastructure. With the move to software and platform as a service offerings, infrastructure has now shrunk to less than 10% of his overall budget. But 90% of the sales calls he gets are from vendors who say they can save him money on infrastructure. “Moore’s law continues to play out in that space,” he says, “but Murphy’s law applies in the software space.”
SaaS has its benefits over on-premises software, but it’s been 20 to 25% more expensive, Wiedenbeck says. And as vendors phase out on-premises versions of their software, Ameritas has in some cases been forced to make the jump. “They just don’t offer an on-prem option; that’s how they get you,” he says, noting that ongoing price increases have been much higher with SaaS than for on-prem software. “They’ve found a way to put 25% increases back into the cost of software. I sign three-year deals, but then I’m facing big price hikes.” With software making up 25% of the IT budget, those kinds of increases aren’t sustainable in a low- to medium-margin business, he says.
Costs for PaaS and IaaS services from the big three providers present additional challenges, Wiedenbeck says.
“They’ve all built many subcomponent pieces that are unique to those clouds, and when every piece gets an inflationary price increase, they don’t rationalize the whole,” he says. They just pass on all those increases in areas such as layers of licensing, management of the software stack, and their infrastructure services. 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
In response, Wiedenbeck assesses whether the value of the service justifies the increased cost. If it doesn’t, he considers whether he can save money by adjusting the risk profile for the service. And examines usage patterns for potential savings. “You need to make well informed, thoughtful, and purposeful decisions that balance cost, risk, and value,” he says.
“With SAP, the biggest cost component is database and memory,” Wiedenbeck says, so he took a hard look at each. “By implementing a stricter data archiving and data retention policy. And resetting service levels, we saved a total of about $3 million,” he says.
IT organizations can save substantial amounts on SaaS contracts by lowering service levels, CIOs say. “Too often we pay for the tier above what we need,” says McKee.
But while Wiedenbeck did change service levels in one situation, he urges caution.
“It’s dangerous to get so focused on cost that you start looking for ways to reduce it without better understanding the risks,” he says. “On the flip side, we shouldn’t be so fearful of any risk that we overpay for services and service levels. Inflation shouldn’t make us abandon balance management of cost, risk, and value, [but] I do see it as a great opportunity to revisit those areas and see if we’re willing to adjust that balance.” 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
Partnering with software vendors is another key to keep costs under control. It should be a mutually beneficial relationship, CIOs say, so be prepared for some give and take. “There’s typically more flexibility on pricing if there’s added value that can found, for example, by introducing other clients or integrating products together, creating a win-win situation,” says McKee.
In some cases CIOs say they’ve been able to adjust contracts by asking for discounts. Or by asking to pay less in the current fiscal year and more in subsequent contract years. Another potential strategy for global organizations: leverage lower-cost emerging market pricing as much as possible in your contracts.
Talent costs are crushing budgets
For McKee, the continuously increasing price of tech talent has been a major challenge —especially since it’s the biggest component of most IT budgets. “There’s a lot of competition for the best talent and it’s gotten much worse post-pandemic here in the UK,” he says. “We could be talking at least 30% inflation in this sector. And often the only way to deal with that is to start cutting.”
Prior to the pandemic, he could pay a lower wage to people working remotely in areas of England with a lower cost of living while paying more for talent working in London. The pandemic changed that because when people moved to remote locations. They took their salaries with them — and now they don’t want to come back. “Hybrid work is a luxury we can operate in, but it creates high inflation and exacerbates salaries,” he says. 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
Wiedenbeck says he can still offer slightly lower salaries to people in areas with a lower cost of living. But the pay differentials are smaller. Since the pandemic, he says, “remote work has shown some disparities that existed due to geography. And we’re starting to work through that.”
Outsourcing costs have also risen, McKee adds. “It might cost us $1,000 per day per developer to outsource,” he says. “You can get three people for that.” And then there’s the extra complexity and costs associated with managing remote teams. “When you outsource your software development team, they’re no longer your team,” he adds. “They’re thousands of miles away and you have less ability to influence them. A lot of people choose that option and realize a year later it’s costing them even more than the alternative.”
So outsourcing can help buffer salary increases.
“Capgemini, with a half million people, can absorb cost-of-talent variances better than my organization can with 420 people,” Wiedenbeck says. CIOs in the IDC survey with multinational operations said they also try to keep talent costs under control by leveraging cost differentials between countries.
McKee sees two other ways to address the problem. You can recruit more senior people, where one person can replace three and make fewer mistakes. Or downsize the teams, wait for the situation to change and rebuild later. “You lose expertise and knowledge, but that’s the most common approach,” he says.
Some CIOs in organizations with operations in countries where talent costs or general inflation are running high report increasing the frequency of salary reviews to every six months. McKee has pursued this approach. But only on an informal basis, which he says allows for more flexibility and creates “less expectation for an increase in pay.” 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
Increasing the frequency of salary reviews isn’t in Wiedenbeck’s game plan. But he’s trying a new approach to reign in tech salaries. Starting with data scientists, Ameritas is now offering what he calls a “hot jobs bonus.” If the current competitive salary is, say, $175,000, he might offer $125,000 plus a $50,000 “salary kicker” that gets reviewed each year based on market conditions for that skill set. “It’s a variable part of their salary based on a data point,” he says. “Every year we come back and evaluate that.” While employees believe those salaries will never go down, Wiedenbeck’s experience says otherwise. For example, at one time, Oracle DBAs would command $175,000, but as more people entered the space, salaries dropped to the point where he can get someone for $80,000. But it’s a long-game strategy: That cycle can take 10 years to play out, he says.
The big picture: Get your game plan on
Adapting to cost increases requires flexibility, efficiency, and a well thought out plan of attack. Planning is key to adapting to unexpected increases, says Deloitte’s Blau. But don’t fall into the trap of planning with the expectation that the prevailing predictions will necessarily come true, he warns. “Predictions can be traps,” he says. So IT leaders need to take a broader view of what they need to be prepared for. “That is the secret to resilience.”
McKee adds: “Collaborate with your CEO, and understand where in the company inflation is being felt. That communication is critical.” 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
Also, sticking to your strategic digital transformation plans is paramount, says PwC’s Phaneuf. “During times of high inflation, efficiency is crucial,” she says. “There’s an opportunity for technological business reinvention amid inflationary pressure, and it might help your organization weather the storm. That’s why CIOs should make strategic investments and optimize resilience, both in the short and long term. Also, consider leveraging a project management office to ease some of the burdens of inflation. PMOs streamline projects, which ultimately help organizations meet rapidly evolving needs.”
Distilling it down, Wiedenbeck says that when making a decision to adapt, look at pricing, partner arbitrage, and risk. “Decide if you’re willing to take on risk to adapt to price spikes,” he says. “And you have to partner with your vendors.”
本文由数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）转载而成，来源于CIO.COM；；作者：Robert Mitchell；编辑/翻译：数字化转型网宁檬树。
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