SW Upgrades are the Toughest

The CIO’s position has changed im mensely in recent years. CIOs have

largely shed their backseat status, finally partnering with their CEO on the

strategic use of IT. A CIO’s job skills match those of other executives–effective

communication, strategic thinking and planning, plus comprehension of the

changing needs of business, processes and operations. The role of IT has changed

from being a support function to an enabler making new business possible and

reducing cost of operations.

Thus, CIOs play an important role in several areas. One key area is managing

change in the IT infrastructure of the organization. Investment in new hardware

and software is often needed because:

n New

applications need new OS and/or higher hardware configurations



n Increasing
data generation needs higher storage capacity



n Latest OS
can boost productivity.



n Forced
upgrades due to obsolescence of earlier h/w and s/w



n Upgrades to
bring in savings.

For new accounts, some investment is needed. Given this scenario, the CIO has

to render the balancing act of minimizing capital investment and increasing

productivity and savings.

n Many CIOs

are implementing video conferencing to save traveling costs. Some are upgrading

their printers to double side printers, which save paper.



n Again WLAN
tops the list of CIOs. WLAN enables mobility within the office apart from

allowing visiting employees from other geographies to connect to the network and

start working. Here again CIOs face challenges like WLAN security and bandwidth

constraint in 802.11b, and justifications for ROI



n We are in an
era of a PC/laptop for every person and at every desk. Upgrades of desktop

hardware and OS are a continuous challenge.



l Chip
vendors launch a new chip every 12-14 months and users feel an urge to upgrade

to the latest processor. However, most applications, like MS Office, which is

the most popular application software used in desktops, do not need great CPU

processing power. So, users using only MS Office and e-mail applications need

not necessarily be provided with upgrades.



l For
other applications, especially in the client server architecture, e.g. the

client of the billing application, mostly the application vendor specifies the

minimum processing power needed for that application. This should be the guiding

factor whether a PC upgrade or a new PC with higher CPU power is needed or not.

n Software

upgrades are also a challenge. Vendors like MS come up with new OS’

frequently. So the guidelines for CIOs are as follows:

l Upgrade

the OS only if necessary for operation and if the existing hardware permits.



l Ensure

not more than two or maximum three variants of desktop OS’ exist in the

organization to keep it manageable. Too many variants necessitate wide expertise

development, and leads to compatibility issues, and delay in trouble shooting.





l Often

lack of support for older OS versions from vendors’ forces upgrades. In such a

situation the CIO needs to weigh the risks of lack of support on a long-term

perspective and decide on upgrades.



l Many

organizations now are going in for a 3-year warranty contract, which provides

free upgrades. Organizations are ensuring that vendors include upgrades also in

their AMC contracts.



l CIOs

are implementing asset management tools which keep track of software versions,

and RAM size which helps to keep tracks of upgrades.