Survey Shows Complexity Creates Firefighter Environment for IT Staff

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa, July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- TeamQuest Corporation published study results that indicate the increasing complexity of IT environments is requiring more staff to identify and resolve service delivery problems. Results also show capacity management processes reduce the number of personnel required to firefight performance issues.

A full 41% of respondents said a minimum of six personnel are used to identify and resolve performance issues, up from 35% a year ago. This shift is likely due to increased adoption of virtualization, which presented more challenges than anticipated.

TeamQuest Director of Product Management Scott Adams says managing complexity has become the real challenge for IT.

"Complexity is only increasing as technology gets more sophisticated. And you have to be sure your services are optimized to take advantage of the benefits the technology represents. Otherwise, what's the point?" said Adams. "It's not just about managing capacity. It's also about cost, quality of service and power."

Capacity management processes improve IT efficiency

The survey shows IT departments implementing capacity management processes have experienced gains in efficiency. Benefits include:

• Increased end user satisfaction
• Reduced impact on business due to outage reduction
• Fewer resources used to firefight performance issues

Capacity management allows businesses to get more out of existing IT resources and improve IT cost per service unit. IT is better able to project infrastructure requirements for future demand and uncover bottlenecks with sufficient warning to resolve them before business services are adversely affected.

A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of TeamQuest in April 2010 reported that $1 spent in prevention avoids spending from $10 to $100 in correction. For example, the study noted that 1,000 employees having to rework a problem due to IT failures would cost about $60,000 in overtime while 10 IT persons working on the problem for one hour would cost about $600 to the company.

"The bottom line is capacity management practices increase IT efficiency," said Adams. "The benefits are real, and the ROI is substantial."

Read "Strategies to Improve IT Efficiencies in 2010".

About TeamQuest Corporation

TeamQuest Corporation is the global leader in IT Service Optimization (ITSO), specializing in Capacity Management software. TeamQuest helps IT organizations consistently meet service levels while minimizing costs and mitigating risks. By combining performance data and business metrics, TeamQuest software enables IT organizations to provide accurate, objective information as input to critical business decisions. Companies around the world trust TeamQuest software to help them proactively improve service delivery and support best practices.

For more information, visit www.teamquest.com.

SOURCE TeamQuest Corporation