The article discusses a value-driven approach to reducing IT costs, focusing on seven areas that have the most significant potential for generating savings. The first area is streamlining the project portfolio, which can be achieved by not starting a project and reducing the impact of project cancellations on costs. The second area is improving the efficiency of the IT infrastructure, which can be achieved by consolidating servers and storage, and by implementing virtualization technologies. The third area is reducing the number of applications, which can be achieved by consolidating applications and eliminating redundant ones. The fourth area is optimizing the use of software licenses, which can be achieved by negotiating better deals with software vendors and by implementing software licensing management tools. The fifth area is reducing the number of IT staff, which can be achieved by outsourcing non-core IT functions and by implementing automation tools. The sixth area is improving the quality of IT services, which can be achieved by implementing service level agreements and by implementing quality management tools. The seventh area is reducing the cost of IT operations, which can be achieved by implementing automation tools and by implementing energy-efficient technologies. The article estimates that on average, 30% of a business's project budget can be cut without negative impact in the short to medium term.
