Services

ETBS offers a full suite of IT measurement and performance assessment services, from internal agreement/external outsourcing contracts to recommendations of how to implement and execute a continuous improvement program.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is the science and art of developing a valid assessment of your IT environment and providing a reliable comparison against the market.

Price Benchmarks measure/assess the performance of an outsourced IT environment; this may also include an in-house-based Shared Services environment.

However, there are also situations where an outsourced IT organisation wants to perform a “Cost” benchmark in order to determine how much they would have to pay for the current operation to be “backsourced”, e.g. taking the outsourced environment “back” and running it by an In-house IT team.

We see a benchmark as an opportunity to improve the way your IT operation functions and to develop strategic relationships with vendors. Our unique methodology ensures agreement from all parties and focuses on actionable recommendations for improvement.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking Workshop

The application, processes and benefits of benchmarking are often misunderstood by vendors as well as their clients. This can result in ambiguity in the contract and disputes about service levels and pricing.

In the benchmarking workshop we outline the what, why and how of benchmarking and provide real life examples of benchmarking successes and failures. We provide insight from both the outsourcer and end-client perspective and deliver you an understanding of how to craft contracts that foster a successful and ongoing business relationship.

Benchmarking

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is making so much noise in the IT industry that it really can’t be ignored. But at the same time, the real-world benefits, practicalities and implementation need to be separated from hype. And there’s a lot of hype.

Through both client and vendor-side experience, ETBS is well placed to answer your questions about cloud computing. We are technology neutral and can see both the benefits and risks of cloud computing that may impact your organisation.

Benchmarking

Contract Development & Review

Typically, benchmarking clauses are somewhat vague, beginning with the process of selecting the benchmarker, to selecting the peers, to the benchmarking process. Most processes are ill-defined, ambiguous and open for interpretation – meaning there is little or no value in the benchmarking project.

With over twenty years experience in the outsourcing industry we have come across hundreds of outsourcing contracts and are highly qualified in advising organisations in the structure and content of outsourcing contracts – especially when it comes to all aspects of benchmarking, service levels and metrics management.

Benchmarking

Metrics Programme

Understanding the key metrics of your IT operation is essential to measuring performance and justifying budgets of your IT organisation. Some metrics are universal and some are industry specific, and as technology changes so does the metrics.

The metrics programme draws on our extensive experience in performance improvement and identifies what data you should collect to build a powerful set of metrics to measure and report on your performance and develop a framework for continuous improvement.

Benchmarking

Service Levels

Service levels play a major role when determining the cost and/or price of an IT operation. Quite a number of benchmarkers pay only lip-service in regard to considering service levels, not recognising that service level agreements have a major impact on the value delivered by a contract.

Our service level assessment tool enables us to assist you to assess and optimise service levels whilst ensuring industry compliance and quality of service.

Benchmarking

Value Assessment

What is the ‘Value’ IT delivers? Can it be measured?

Cost/price alone are not the only drivers in determining value – there are other drivers such as quality of service, value-add and business metrics to name a few.

Our unmatched and proven methodology captures efficiency (cost/price) and effectiveness (quality, productivity, satisfaction) and combines them in a value statement, thereby holistically assessing the business value being delivered by IT

Assess Efficiency + Assess Effectiveness = Determine Value