随着 IT 成本的上升，技术领导者正在转向自动化和更好的预算规划，以谨慎分配预算。
一目了然
- 首席信息官需要学会评估新的想法和计划并制定战略。
- 随着 IT 领导者希望简化运营，削减成本的措施变得至关重要。
- 利用自动化的明智投资是成功的关键。
首席信息官有责任确保其公司支出与业务优先级相对应，而首席信息官面临的最大挑战是在不消除或抑制增长和数字化转型计划的情况下优化 IT 预算。
任何新的想法或计划（例如人工智能投资项目）都应根据公司战略、路线图和目标以及关键结果进行评估和优先排序。
拥有精明的首席信息官的公司可以实施具有前瞻性的数字化计划，并具有优化 IT 预算的可喜附带好处——诀窍是准确计算每个可用行动方案的成本。
Vega Cloud 首席执行官 Kris Bliesner 在接受电子邮件采访时解释说，成本可见性——能够将 IT 成本与特定的应用程序、计划、业务组联系起来——至关重要。
“这使首席信息官能够跟踪他们在整个企业中所做的投资，并确保每个领域的支出趋势都朝着正确的方向发展，”她说。
推动更广泛的最高管理层保持一致和信任的另一个重要部分是能够显示跨业务组和应用程序的 IT 支出的单位经济效益。
“这方面的一个例子是能够按存储类别显示所有云、应用程序和业务部门的每 GB 存储成本，”Bliesner 说。
一、评估隐性成本
瞻博网络首席信息官 Sharon Mandell 表示，IT 领导者需要评估的另一个领域是使用多个供应商的隐性成本。
“通常，与多个供应商合作时可能会产生不可预见的成本，这些成本可能会加起来，”她通过电子邮件指出。
她补充说，首席信息官可以通过实施更严格、更符合战略的软件审批流程来优化 IT 支出，这些流程旨在避免重复支出并确保合同规模合理化以满足业务需求。
“首席信息官的挑战和责任是有意识地投入每一分钱和投资，让组织专注于最重要的优先事项，而不是追求每一个令人兴奋的新想法，”她说。
Mandell 说，IT 领导者应该鼓励创新和构思文化，但他们也必须平衡保持战略重点，并在自己的团队和组织的其他领域传达这些目标。
例如，在考虑一个新想法时，IT 领导者应该与他们的业务合作伙伴合作，将该概念置于更大的业务环境中，并询问它是否会产生重大影响或推动显着的效率。
Bliesner 指出，建立和授权财务运营 （FinOps） 团队也很重要。
“在财务和工程职能之间架起桥梁是一项艰巨的工作，你需要一个团队和一个平台来有效地实现这一目标，”她说。“当你这样做时，你将能够确保并表明你的云成本正在得到有效管理。
二、斩断浪费的 SaaS 应用程序
Auvik Networks 首席财务官 Bob Feller 表示，首席信息官可以控制不断上升的 IT 成本的关键领域之一是寻找冗余和浪费，尤其是在 SaaS 应用程序中。
他说：“为了应对全球 COVID 大流行，在快速过渡到远程工作的过程中，大多数组织都匆忙采用了新的 SaaS 工具，但此后没有多少组织对这些工具进行全面盘点和审查。
现在，当削减成本成为游戏的名称时，IT 团队必须确定任何通过影子 IT 采用的新应用程序，或者作为对大流行的下意识反应而购买但此后未充分利用的任何新应用程序。
他说，他们还必须在环境中寻找冗余，例如员工使用（并支付）多种类型的视频会议或大文件共享工具。
“这些需要持续整合和实施，以减少浪费，”Feller 说。
此外，首席信息官和 IT 领导者应仔细考虑其供应商，并确定是否有机会整合服务。
他指出：“这不仅有助于降低成本，还可以提高效率，因为通常最好使用几个首选供应商来提供多种服务，而不是从多个不同的供应商那里购买单点产品。
三、人工智能战略投资
Mandell指出，人工智能和自动化正在改变预算管理和支出决策的方式。
“自动化可以简化流程并减少人工工作，有助于节省成本，”她说。
如果有效集成，人工智能驱动的解决方案可以增强决策能力并确定优化机会。
“在新兴技术的帮助下，首席信息官和其他预算决策者将对支出有更深入的了解，有助于确保战略性地分配资源并简化 IT 环境，”Mandell 解释道。
Feller 表示，在采用任何声称使用生成式 AI 的新技术和解决方案之前，IT 领导者必须仔细考虑如何将其与现有挑战或目标保持一致。
“你的效率低下在哪里？你的核心业务目标是什么？“他问道。
如果一个华而不实的新生成式人工智能解决方案不能达到特定和有意义的目的，最好把它放回货架上。
“不要让技术摇摆不定，”他警告说。“首先找到真正的业务问题，然后寻求适当的解决方案。”
英文原文：
CIOs Battle Growing IT Costs with Tools, Leadership
Tech leaders are turning to automation and better budget planning to carefully allocate budgets as the cost of IT rises.
At a Glance
- CIOs need to learn to evaluate and strategize new ideas and initiatives.
- Cost-cutting measures become crucial as IT leaders look to streamline operations.
- Wise investments that leverage automation are keys to success.
Chief information officers have a responsibility to ensure their company spend corresponds with business priorities, and a top challenge for CIOs is optimizing IT budgets without eliminating or curbing growth and digital transformation initiatives.
Any new idea or initiative, (like AI investment projects, for example), should be evaluated and prioritized based on company strategy, roadmaps and objectives and key results.
Companies with savvy CIOs can implement forward-looking digital initiatives with the welcome side benefit of optimizing IT budgets — the trick is to accurately account for the costs of each available course of action.
Kris Bliesner, CEO of Vega Cloud, explains in an email interview that cost visibility — being able to tie IT costs back to specific applications, initiatives, business groups — is critical.
“This allows CIOs to track the investments they are making across the enterprise and ensure that the trending of that spend in each area is headed in the right direction,” she says.
Another important part of driving alignment and trust across the broader C-suite is the ability to show unit economics for IT spend across business groups and applications.
“An example of this would be the ability to show the per gigabyte cost of storage across all clouds, applications and business units broken out by storage category,” Bliesner says.
1. Evaluate Hidden Costs
Sharon Mandell, CIO at Juniper Networks, says another area for IT leaders to evaluate is the hidden costs of using multiple vendors.
“Often, there can be unforeseen costs when working with multiple vendors, which can add up,” she notes via email.
She adds CIOs can optimize IT spend by implementing more rigorous, strategy-aligned software approval processes aimed at avoiding duplicative spend and ensuring contracts are rightsized for the business needs.
“The challenge and responsibility of CIOs is to be intentional with every dollar and investment by keeping the organization focused on the most important priorities instead of pursuing every exciting new idea,” she says.
Mandell says IT leaders should encourage a culture of innovation and ideation, but they must also balance maintaining a strategic focus — and communicate these goals across their own team and other areas of the organization.
For instance, when looking at a new idea, IT leaders should collaborate with their business partners to put the concept into the greater business context and ask if it will result in a material impact or drive dramatic efficiencies.
Bliesner notes it’s also important to build and empower the financial operations (FinOps) team.
“Bridging the finance and engineering functions is hard work and you need both a team and a platform to effectively accomplish this,” she says. “When you do, you will be able to ensure and show that your cloud costs are being effectively managed.”
2. Axing Wasteful SaaS Apps
Bob Feller, chief financial officer at Auvik Networks, says one of the key areas where CIOs can control rising IT costs is to look for redundancy and waste, particularly among SaaS applications.
“Most organizations hastily adopted new SaaS tools during the quick transition to remote work in response to the global COVID pandemic, but not many have taken full inventory and reviewed these tools since,” he says.
Now, when cutting costs is the name of the game, IT teams must identify any new applications that were adopted through shadow IT or were bought as a knee-jerk reaction to the pandemic but have not been fully utilized since.
He says they also must look for redundancy in their environment, such as employees using (and paying for) more than one type of video conferencing or large file sharing tool.
“These need to be consolidated and implemented consistently to reduce waste,” Feller says.
Additionally, CIOs and IT leaders should carefully consider their vendors and determine if there are opportunities to consolidate services.
“This can not only help reduce costs but also improve efficiencies, as it’s often better to use a few preferred vendors for multiple services rather than buy point products from multiple different vendors,” he notes.
3. Strategic Investment in AI
Mandell notes AI and automation are changing how budgets are managed and spending decisions are made.
“Automation can streamline processes and reduce manual effort, contributing to cost savings,” she says.
When integrated effectively, AI-powered solutions can enhance decision-making and identify opportunities for optimization.
“With the help of emerging technologies, CIOs and other budget decision makers will have greater visibility into spend, helping ensure resources are allocated strategically and IT environments are streamlined,” Mandell explains.
Feller says before adopting any new technologies and solutions that claim to use generative AI, IT leaders must carefully consider how this aligns to existing challenges or goals.
“Where are your inefficiencies? What are your core business goals?” he asks.
If a flashy new generative AI solution doesn’t serve a specific and meaningful purpose, it’s best to put it back on the shelf.
“Don’t let technology wag the dog,” he cautions. “Find the real business problem first, then pursue the proper solution.”
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