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Image: The 7 questions you must answer when planning your IT for 2022

Imagine you’re a football coach preparing for the next big game. Before you drafted your game plan, you’d need to know the capabilities and strengths of your offense and defense. You’d want to understand how they perform under pressure. You’d seek an assessment of how each player executes his position, and what their specific weaknesses were.

And if your responsibilities included management of the roster, you’d need to assemble the best combination of players that fit within the salary cap.

As a seasoned coach, you’d understand that you couldn’t possibly expect to get to the postseason without this critical intelligence. And if you drafted your game plan without it, there’d be little chance of victory.

How are you planning to win?

We’d likely all agree that this kind of comprehensive asset assessment is essential for game planning.

But year after year, IT executives draw up their annual plans with a shocking lack of visibility into their organizations’ IT infrastructures, the individual assets that comprise them, their per-unit costs and their many complex interdependencies.

The last year and a half have been the most challenging for business in virtually anyone’s memory. Unprecedented demands were placed on IT infrastructures and the executives who manage them, and the expectations for IT are only increasing as we enter a post-pandemic era.

As the stakes grow ever higher, it’s essential that IT leaders use the best data, tools and resources available to get the comprehensive visibility and responsive control that allow for a strategic IT planning framework.

Every day is game day

Because this competition is personal. You’re being asked to do more with less, and your competitors certainly aren’t standing still. Your reputation and the success of your team and, ultimately, the ability of your organization to effectively compete are all at stake.

That’s why Flexera is committed to providing the tools and resources—along with the unparalleled IT asset data—that enable IT professionals to deliver the most value to their organizations.

At Flexera, we call that technology value optimization (TVO). When you achieve TVO, you multiply the return on your IT investments and free up funds to accelerate strategic initiatives like digital transformation, digital experience, cybersecurity and cloud migration.

But TVO and a strategic IT plan can be achieved only by having the answers to the following seven key questions.

1: Do we know exactly what’s in our IT estate?

IT infrastructures are sprawling, impenetrable networks full of blind spots, wasted spend, unanticipated vulnerabilities and missed opportunities. Comprehensive visibility across the entire estate, from on-premises to SaaS to cloud, has long been regarded by IT leaders as an impossible dream. But the unprecedented view delivered by Flexera One’s IT Visibility application—powered by current, refined, enriched IT asset data—gives you the command and control you never thought possible, and makes planning infinitely more effective.

2: Are our software licensing costs optimized?

Software licensing agreements are confusing and opaque by design, putting customers at a decided disadvantage in negotiating price, tracking usage and withstanding audits. Flexera One’s IT Asset Management application levels the playing field, helping organizations rightsize usage, establish effective license positions and negotiate from a position of informed strength.

3: Can we control our organization’s SaaS costs?

When anyone and everyone with a company credit card can buy a SaaS app, how in the world can IT control costs and defend against threats? With the resources delivered by Flexera One’s SaaS Management capabilities, which enable you to support the agility of SaaS adoption while governing its costs and usage.

4: Are our cloud costs optimized?

Public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud—it takes a wizard to understand the complexity of it all and give business units the capacity they need while keeping costs in check. Flexera One’s Cloud Cost Optimization application makes you that wizard, with the power to optimize usage, institute rule-based chargeback and policies, establish alerts for cost and compliance, and so much more.

5: How can we optimize our migration to the cloud?

Migrating interdependent workloads to the cloud is a dauntingly complex task, and a single misstep can prove costly for an organization. Flexera One’s Cloud Migration and Modernization application removes the guesswork, giving you the cost analysis, workload placement and prioritization that allow you to chart your course to the cloud with confidence and cost efficiency.

6: How can we get more from our investments in ITSM and ITFM?

Want to turbocharge your IT service management and IT financial management solutions? Fuel them with the enriched IT asset data provided by Flexera One’s IT Visibility application and see the difference. But don’t expect miracles from your ITSM and ITFM platforms alone. They cannot by themselves provide the comprehensive visibility and responsive control you need to plan effectively, despite the claims their salespeople may make.

7: What are the costs of doing nothing?

With each passing day, your IT estate increasingly resembles an unharnessed beast. The gap between your allocated software licenses and actual usage widens, exposing you to the risk of costly true-ups. Your cloud costs spiral further out of control. SaaS adoption accelerates without brakes. And every unoptimized dollar spent reduces your ability to help your company grow.

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Technology Value Optimization

Reallocate spend. Reduce the risk of audits and security breaches. And chart the most effective path to the cloud. Get the most from every IT dollar.

Plan to win

How much more effective and precisely targeted would your strategy and budget be if you had comprehensive visibility of your entire IT estate? It’s time to find out.

Our free, comprehensive guide helps you get the answers you need to accelerate the return on your IT investments and achieve technology value optimization. See how better-informed decisions can give you and your organization the greatest chance of sustained success.


IT planning guide
IT planning guide

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