Accelerate your value creation through IT optimization

Create more working capital for reinvestment by streamlining spending

• Purchase cloud from a utilization perspective rather than contractual
• Establishing cloud governance to allocate costs out and ensure cloud products are tied to active projects, customers, etc.
• Creating roadmap strategy for end-state
• Optimize cost with detailed analysis of spot usage, billing constructs, architectural decisions, tiering storage, etc. as a managed service
• Institute best practices for cloud spend

Accelerate into Digital Transformation with Advocate

After a long period of uncertainty, many organizations are looking to invest and optimize their digital future. If 2020 was a year of transformation, 2021 is the year to refinement. IT leaders need to solve remote/hybrid work challenges, alleviate financial pressures, and drive value. How can Advocate help you drive savings, outcomes, and influence?

Addressing Remote/Hybrid Work Dilemmas

Shifting Fixed Cost to Variable Cost

Discussing Challenges with Your Peers

Partnering with the Best-in-Class

• Apptio’s Enterprise Partner of the Year in 2019 and 2020
• TBM Council’s #1 Technology-Business-Management-as-a-Service Market Leader in the US Enterprise Market
• AVANT – Most Revenue in UCaaS in Trusted Advisor Category
• Sakon Partner of the Year 2020

Beacon of Light in a Sea of IT Service Providers

Pinpoint the Right IT Service Provider with Advocate Insider Marketplace Shakeups and disruptors in the tech industry are so common today it’s difficult to know what solutions and IT service providers will best help you address business challenges today — and take your enterprise into the future. Navigating the pace of change among carriers, vendors and technology is a daunting task for even the savviest IT organizations. Imagine having the universe of technology solutions right at your fingertips. Being able to explore thousands of data centers, map every fiber line, compare entire industries side by side and quickly assess every possible solution. No longer worrying about the pace of change — instead, remaining focused on business growth and delivering the very best user experience. Gain Ultimate Visibility with Advocate Insider Marketplace This is what Advocate Insider Marketplace is all about. Our ecosystem of partnerships and hundreds of supplier agreements with the industry’s leading IT vendors deliver the universe of technology solutions right to you. We partner with a master agency and have 500-plus agreements already in place with suppliers to fast-track provider selection and solution escalation — while leveraging buying power and competitive pricing. After we determine the right type of solution for your enterprise, we vet the various providers through the use of our Pathfinder tool that can deliver the systems, software and solutions you need and recommend the top three providers in your state. Throughout the vetting process, we anticipate, research and answer the questions that haven’t even been asked yet — so you don’t have to. Rather than simply leading with tier-one providers, we often lead with disruptors that are changing the landscape of IT partnerships today. Best of all, we manage every relationship as your trusted partner committed to your success. Here are several examples of how Advocate Insider Marketplace made a seismic difference in our clients’ businesses by being a beacon of light in a sea of IT service providers. Reducing Voice and Network Costs A leading private equity fund real estate management firm enlisted Advocate Insider Marketplace to find a network solutions provider that could seamlessly support the company’s core voice and data communication requirements for both multifamily and commercial properties. The company wanted to reduce its costs, integrate voice and data services for 20 commercial business offices and migrate from analog voice service to VoIP. We vetted and recommended a local vendor with diverse voice service offerings and managed network support — as well as the potential to provide the highest cost savings. The vendor implemented a SIP Trunking solution that consolidated voice traffic across the company’s data network, replaced traditional phone services with cost-effective DIDs and eliminated toll charges for calls between the headquarters and remote offices. The vendor also implemented PBX at multifamily properties. Additionally, the vendor provided a customized billing structure to ensure that cost centers were invoiced based on their individual property connections and VoIP services. Through this partnership with Advocate Insider Marketplace, the company realized improved cost efficiencies, rapid service design and implementation and customized solutions that met its specific requirements. A full return on investment (ROI) was achieved in less than one month, and the company reduced its network spend by 43 percent while achieving a 65 percent annual reduction on voice expenditures. Delivering 100 Percent Uptime A healthcare provider turned to Advocate Insider Marketplace to find a vendor to move their core critical IT systems to a nearby top tier data center facility to ensure 100 percent uptime and availability — which are critical to providing patient care. The healthcare provider also wanted to improve their existing backup solution, which was labor intensive with high operational costs and lacked disaster recovery to protect patient data. We vetted and selected a local vendor that had a secure colocation environment in an enterprise-class data center. The facility delivered robust carrier connectivity to easily inter-connect all of the provider’s diverse sites. The vendor also provided a customized cloud solution using an on-site appliance for data protection — as well as full replication to a remote site for back-up storage. In the end, the healthcare provider had a reliable data center infrastructure for its core systems. It realized significant improvement in recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) in disaster scenarios with a fully managed backup solution. And the healthcare provider’s staff that were previously dedicated to data center maintenance, data backups and tape handling were reallocated to other priority tasks.  Click here to download the case study. Untangling a Global Network In turn, a technology services company enlisted Advocate Insider Marketplace to find the right vendor to upgrade its highly regulated global network that had grown increasingly costly and hard to manage. The company also needed app and network visibility as well as cloud and unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) plans. Following extensive vetting by Advocate Insider Marketplace, we found the right vendor that could deliver an SP-agnostic, flexible WAN, Cloud-app SLA and UCaaS migration and virtual customer premises equipment (vCPE). Following implementation, the results were striking. The company reduced its WAN costs by 50 to 70 percent, achieved 10 to 20 times faster remote site recovery and availability, improved troubleshooting by up to 90 percent and gained huge productivity benefits. Click here to download the case study. The Four Pillars of Advocate Insider Marketplace Four pillars guide Advocate Insider Marketplace — visibility, expediency, value and trust.

• Visibility — Gain access to hundreds of service providers and performance metrics for today’s most prominent systems, software and solution.
• Expediency — In an industry where time is value, we can skip to the chase and find partners to implement critical solutions immediately.
• Value — We engage providers daily, we know what’s working — and what isn’t. We leverage this inside knowledge and insight to enhance value and exceed expectations.
• Trust — We’re in this together. That’s why you have direct access to the managers, engineers and visionary leaders of our partnering provides to ensure your exact standards are met.

Improving Workplace Processes Seamlessly, Automatically

How using automation in the workplace makes you smarter — and more efficient. Automation simplifies our lives. It helps minimize or eliminate simple, repetitive and mundane tasks, so we can make the most of our time and be more productive, whether we’re shopping online, following directions in our car, using a home thermostat, et al. So, it’s no surprise that the business world continues to create and implement new automated technologies. After all, more productivity can drive higher profitability. There’s nothing novel about automation in the workplace. We’re just making it better — and smarter. Today’s automation systems and process are more sophisticated. They can capture and process more data, they are more intelligent, and in many cases, this lays the groundwork for artificial intelligence (AI). We’re also well aware of AI claims, promises and even doomsday scenarios. We can thank the science fiction writers for that! Even though there’s no consensus definition, generally, it refers to computer software that can act and react like humans. In many ways, it’s as simple as automated machine learning or robotic process automation. Each requires systems to process massive amounts of data quickly, to reduce the toll on humans. We’re seeing it across every vertical in every industry. For example, process automation, machine learning and AI have changed how healthcare business leaders and practitioners operate. Through automation, tedious orders, insurance forms and other paperwork once handled by humans can be processed accurately in a fraction of the time. That doesn’t eliminate humans from the process. They can simply focus on the exceptions. Key decision-makers can access information quickly, which allows them to transform patient care, equipment and prescription ordering, staffing, billing and much more. So, what’s the problem? There are multiple automated systems in every application, including in the healthcare example above. In fact, most companies have systems in place for (1) collecting data (2) processing data (3) deep learning and (4) automated remediation. It’s a cycle where information drives decisioning for the next phase. Unfortunately, if there’s no uniformity or automation backbone in place, each hand-off between human and machine compromises speed — as well as the integrity of the core data. Imagine a ticketing process for returns for a large online shopping entity. A chatbot is used to initiate the return. Then, either a human agent or middleware software generates a ticket, so it can be routed to the appropriate human representative for resolution. The moment manual processes are introduced, you’re introducing the risk for errors, repetitive tasks and delays. Your IT organization must have a wealth of resources to close that loop. You may have excellent coding/script talent. How closely is that talent aligned with your overall business strategies and processes? After all, new opportunities, and challenges, await. You may not be able create and implement new coding and scripts in time to take advantage of them. As your business evolves and adapts, coding may not be applicable and require even more back-office support. This loop of inefficiency can be avoided by tying every part of your IT group to the overall business strategy. A third-party consultant can help bridge the gap between solving business needs with automation and ensuring new technologies are scalable and operational. This trusted advisor can be your resource to close the loop between automation, human interaction and business opportunity. By putting your advisor at the forefront of automation within your company, you can put the power of machines and humans in the middle of a new, transformative business strategy. We’re past the era where machines are expecting to replace humans. Instead, we should be seeking opportunities where humans can complement machines, so we can be faster, more powerful and adaptable. Embrace our place in the automated world Since humans are driving automation and AI, we’re ultimately responsible for where they take us. As such, designing automated systems built on intelligence should reflect the values of our society. After all, if we want to emulate the way we think, we must build systems to exemplify who we are. Automation, machine learning and AI should be embraced. There’s no need to fear losing our control, or our jobs. After all, with the right partner who can help you align new technologies with new and evolving business strategies, you’re assured that machines won’t replace us. After all, we’re too smart for that.

Optimization is the First Step with TBM

Take a more strategic, more insightful run at optimization

Actions to Outcomes – The Route to TBM Value Realization

As IT leaders consider adopting a TBM framework—or need to get more from their existing TBM Office—the focus needs to shift from today’s cost-centric goals to value realization. As we covered in our previous blog, value realization is achieved by either improving top-line revenue or bottom-line profitability for the whole company. But to get to true value realization, companies often need to reinvest run reduction savings derived from a TBM framework into initiatives that move the needle for the company overall. It can seem counterintuitive for companies to think about increasing spending levels after they uncover savings through TBM, given the cost-centric focus today. But that’s the route to value realization—reinvesting in projects and solutions that will drive change for their business. Significant and measurable changes like increasing revenue, decreasing costs, improving gross margin, reducing customer turnover, increasing productivity and expanding into new markets, channels and geographies. To help companies achieve value realization, Advocate has adopted a process we call “Actions to Outcomes”—translating projects and activities into progressively more business outcomes by connecting to the company’s business strategy. But how do IT leaders identify what matters more to their organization? How do they convince decision-makers to reinvest cost savings? That’s where Advocate comes in. We recently completed an Actions to Outcomes exercise with Gannett Fleming in Philadelphia. We began working with Gannett Fleming in early 2018 on a successful network transformation to increase bandwidth without adding costs. At that point, the company had started thinking about implementing a TBM framework, and after attending our 2018 Insiders Summit, the company’s Vice President & Chief Technology officer, Kevin Switala, was motivated to move forward. As we always do with our TBM methodology, we asked probing questions beyond the company’s stated goal of improving security protocols to protect and fortify corporate data. Questions like “why invest more dollars to be more secure?” It came to light that Gannett Fleming wanted to be able to meet advanced certification requirements and needed to strengthen its network security to do so. The next probing question went a step further—“why does being certified matter?” And then the answer emerged that could tie Actions to Outcomes—they needed advanced certifications to expand into a new market and grow revenue. Imagine going to your Board of Directors requesting a bigger budget simply to improve network security versus requesting funds to invest in an initiative that could generate millions—even hundreds of millions—of new revenue for the business. It’s a powerful shift from requesting funds for projects that “keep the lights on” to becoming a partner who understands the company’s strategy and helps the business grow. We worked with Switala and his team to build a case for requesting a sizable increased investment overall, including in enhanced security. We helped them shift the impetus from a pure security play to an outcome that would enable market expansion and generate new revenue.  This strategy ultimately convinced Gannett Fleming’s Board of Directors to increase Switala’s overall budget by more than 30 percent, including an important funding component for the security initiative. “We are certain that the strategy you brought to us that leveraged core TBM principals to communicate IT investment value to our Board of Directors—as well as the feedback you gave to me on my draft presentation—significantly strengthened my pitch,” Switala said. “Presenting our investment portfolio the way we did made the Board of Director’s decision to significantly increase their annual investment in the portfolio above 2018 spending an easy one.” The Actions to Outcomes process is a seemingly simple concept but with some astonishing results. Keep asking “why” to get to the answers that align with the business strategy. Is that all there is to it? Definitely not. There is an art and decades of experience behind our approach to TBM. It takes skill to move IT leaders forward in their thinking. Our team is extremely adept at suggesting an approach our clients haven’t thought of and we know precisely how to ask the “why” questions that will lead to business outcomes. All while changing the perception of IT’s role in a company and how technology investment in viewed. Are you ready to do what matters more for your company and achieve value realization? If so, give us a call to see how we can help.

How UCaaS Disrupters are a Stabilizing Force for IT

Data will always drive smarter decisions. Only now, the way we share that information is progressing at nearly incalculable speeds — with new technologies for delivering it changing monthly, or even weekly. Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) employs cloud-based software services to streamline and integrate enterprise-based communications, including voicemail, chat, telephony, email, as well as web, audio, and video conferencing. Most enterprises already use the cloud for storage, governance, workflow and other business applications. In fact, a recent industry survey indicates that 83 percent of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud by 2020.¹ It’s well known that UCaaS is here to stay. Now, we’re learning just how prevalent and all-encompassing it is. Every call that comes into your contact center includes critical information — including customer details, feedback, requests and other content — that you can use to make faster, more informed decisions. Unfortunately, legacy private branch exchange (PBX) systems can’t adequately capture that information. As a result, it can remain hidden in silos, isolated from the people who need it most. UCaaS transforms how people communicate internally and externally by funneling data from phone calls directly to people and applications automatically. UCaaS adoption is inevitable. It’s not a matter of if enterprises will switch to the cloud for voice data applications — it’s a matter of when is best to begin. After all, it’s the best, most cost-effective method to leverage data collaboratively, so you can work smarter, more productively and more efficiently — and gain a competitive advantage on those who have yet to adopt similar strategies.

Early adoption offers long-lasting benefits

Making smarter, more disruptive decisions

A golden opportunity

Is Your Company’s IT the Drug Store or the Doctor?

What value are you realizing for the company? It’s a question many IT executives struggle to answer – even those with an established Technology Business Management (TBM) Office. That’s because value realization goes far beyond IT cost reduction and higher productivity. Value realization is evidenced by a noticeable improvement in one of two things: top-line revenue or bottom-line profitability for the whole company. By that definition, many IT organizations are not achieving true value realization. Realizing value is difficult because business units often don’t measure the impact of technology on their own operations. Instead, IT is merely the place they go — like a drug store — to get a Band-Aid or some other quick remedy to the symptoms of their “issue.” To achieve value realization, IT needs to be viewed as a doctor that can help diagnose the needs of the enterprise, create growth opportunities, and improve the overall health of the company. But how can you shift the perception and role of IT from drug store to doctor? This gets to the heart of value realization. The challenge is to improve the operations of the component parts of the enterprise (the business units) and each of them must leverage technology to do it. And that includes IT improving on the business of running itself – ensuring that every IT investment achieves a meaningful business outcome. Everyone is using technology to drive their business unit’s improvement. Value realization is ONLY relevant in terms of the impact technology is having on enterprise productivity or market expansion. But technology implementation is just the first step. The real impact occurs when there is full adoption of new processes and capabilities by the business unit. That adoption, sometimes referred to as “digital transformation,” is just the normal incremental improvement in enterprise operations. Clearly, now is a prime opportunity for IT to connect those dots and shift the conversation now. To make the shift, IT must change and play a pivotal role in achieving value realization for the enterprise. As Forbes contributor Peter Bendor-Samuel recently noted: changing IT is a fundamental realignment of how IT is organized, how it conceives itself and its role in the organization.¹ IT doesn’t need to understand the business unit better than the business unit leadership. All IT needs to do is to shift its role from drug store to doctor by ensuring that every business unit request for technology has a direct and measurable business outcome that can be tied to market impacts on enterprise value. That means speaking directly to the business outcomes and clarifying for everyone how that technology will advance those outcomes. IT must help the company achieve mutual understanding and consensus. IT executives need to lead the way in shifting conversations from IT costs and projects to business outcomes. Too often, CIOs are mired in “keeping the lights on” and the inherent distractions that come with running the business from day to day. This makes IT myopic and overly focused on cost. However, they often lack the tools and insight to have visibility into the total cost of ownership. This results in them being unable to manage the cost, and therefore, unable to drive savings for investment in achieving value. TBM is about harnessing the data to create visibility and accountability to business outcomes. Most companies understand that keeping data siloed in spreadsheets is inefficient and ineffective in today’s business world – but without TBM it is the best they can do. Technology Business Management, on the other hand, brings standard taxonomies for cost tracking and the ability to allocate those costs across all elements of technology. At the introductory-level, TBM techniques help describe IT budgets and quantify IT costs. At more mature levels, TBM enables companies to leverage insights to total cost of ownership (TCO) to prioritize their strategic technology investments, align to the needs of the business and proactively enhance business growth. According to the TBM Council, instead of simply answering how much should you be spending on IT, TBM enables people throughout your organization with the information to understand the impact of technology investments – making the costs actionable.² While some organizations are leading the way with TBM, many companies are just now considering implementing TBM software tools and processes. Others already have TBM processes in place, but haven’t yet reached the level of maturity where they can take action to positively impact business outcomes. TBM initiatives today are primarily focused on legacy refresh, IT quality, IT productivity, and IT cost reduction. To achieve business outcomes, IT organizations need to focus on the way in which their technology investments impact top-line revenue and bottom-line profitability. TBM will need to generate actionable data that reduces business costs, improves profitability, increases revenue, makes new lines of business possible and enables existing market and new market expansion. Is your company’s IT ready for the role of doctor — rather than drug store? If not, give us a call to see how we can help.

Merger “Excitement” (?) --- You Bet!

Nothing is more exciting than a merger, perhaps because the closest companion of this emotion is dread. The recently announced BB&T/SunTrust “merger of equals” is sure to “excite” both employees of these two companies, and their many corporate and residential customers. Our own IT industry is rife with mergers. I routinely receive earnest, concerned questions from my clients’ CIOs about service levels every time one of their key network (or data center, software, mobile, etc.) suppliers takes the plunge. Again. Mergers are de facto a portal to change, which may be affected with precision from much forethought and planning or become a crucible that virtually incinerates customer satisfaction. In my experience, mergers should be treated as a springboard to greatness within the IT discipline, not as a thing of dread. With all the emerging technology changes and tools now available to a global CIO, a merger should be embraced as the catalyst to launch visions previously thought too risky or expensive to grasp, be it a shift to network transformation utilizing SD-WAN, to establishment of a Technology Business Management program, to a universal security platform, to an aggressive ‘good old fashioned’ optimization of services, software, vendors, data centers --- you name the cost, it can be made more cost effective and efficient with a concerted effort and a clear vision. Too often I am called in post-merger to identify such opportunities. Granted, pre-merger communication must follow its own defined rules of engagement and communication, but it never ceases to amaze me of how much could be accomplished in a pre-merger “clean room” environment, or anticipated and planned independently by the merging parties, and yet has not. At a minimum, visionary IT executive (led the global CIO) should treat a merger as a too rare opportunity to propel IT from cost center to driver of revenue. Just accepting this recognition is an important first step. The timeless adage “you cannot manage what you cannot measure” applies. Too many merging companies come up woefully short in understanding: 1) what they have; 2) where they need to go; and 3) how to get there. Do not underestimate the first point, because it is the foundation from which all good decisions are made. I have briefed CIOs on assessments of their company’s inventory of services and had them reply, “I had no idea we were spending that much on ‘X’ and with that many disparate providers.” Years ago, I ran a clean room project for a merger of two very large global computer manufacturers. The acquiring company had ~70% visibility into its $160M/year global network at a line-item level, whereas the acquiring company had roughly the same amount of spend all tracked at a high level on a single spreadsheet. It was fascinating to see how the two cultures interacted over that gaping chasm. Another challenge I have seen is a total internal reliance, rather than a willingness to entertain (or even embrace) new ideas. A merger usually brings two differing IT philosophies together, irrespective of Wall Street’s confidence in “synergies”, so previously “outside” opinions suddenly have a seat at the table. A good vendor account team whose mantra is customer stewardship can be a wealth of knowledge, albeit flavored (admittedly!) by their own product set. And this is not limited to providers of “tactile” products like network, data centers or mobility. Current system partners be they TEM, TBM, CRM or other catchy acronyms can also advise. To ensure that you are not drowned with “big data” and that any internal or external bias is removed, an agnostic third party can help you sort through it all and offer a candid, frank opinion on a strategy roadmap. So, a merger should indeed be an exciting opportunity for IT professionals, as the half-life of such an event wanes far too quickly. IT professionals should therefore be galvanized into action early and keep an open mind to at least evolutionary, if not revolutionary, change. It would be optimal if all you had to do is worry about what to call the new company (i.e. for BB&T/SunTrust, how about “BB King of Banking”?).

The Benefits of a One-Day Network Transformation Workshop

Develop a strategy to modernize your network infrastructure.

Benefits

• Gain valuable insights into your current state compared to industry benchmarks on performance and cost
• Discover the best network transformation options to reduce complexity and cost, improve performance and meet your business objectives
• Align your business with the latest technologies and digital models
• Identify and define high-level next steps to execute your chosen network transformation strategy

This Workshop showed us how we can achieve a 25% cost reduction with an upgraded network architecture.

VP of IT InfrastructureLarge Healthcare/Pharmaceutical Company

With this Workshop, we now have a vision for our future IT architecture.

CIOFinancial Services Company

Click here to request a Network Transformation workshop.

Insider Summit: Notes from “The Evolving Role of the CIO” Panel Discussion

Panel Moderator: Scott Crowder – SVP and CIO of BMC SoftwarePanelists: Todd Lant – CIO of Blackbaud, Michael Mullis – CIO of Ingevity and Rohan Pal – CIO & CDO of Brinks, Inc.“Gone are the days of being in the engine room…” After years of casual courting, IT and the business are finally forging effective ways of working together to pursue shared objectives. The CIO’s responsibilities once focused almost entirely on selecting and managing technology solutions. But, the last few years have seen the role of IT shift to largely supporting enterprise strategy through technology, including the creation of new digital business models. CIOs must now be immersed in both technology and business, all while ensuring the organization has the right platforms in place that pave the way to the future. Partnering with the business for best-of-breed technology has posed a real challenge for capital intensive companies. Think about it. Environments weren’t architected for cloud – they were designed for on-premises and carried specific cost structures associated with that approach. Corporate side economics are real and accounting rules are different in the cloud world, which is forcing CIOs to change the way they build their IT strategy. Continuing to invest in legacy platforms no longer flies. It can be very difficult to explain the capital expenditure or operating expenditure while vying for IT budgets and approvals. Back in the day, it was relatively easy to procure capital expenses which benefited from favorable accounting treatments. But, the future is increasingly operating expense. How do you come up with money in that scenario? CIOs must learn the benefits of accounting for technology investments as an operational expense versus a capital expense and be able to articulate the potential financial implications to the CFO when he or she asks, “Stop doing things to us and start doing things for us.” According to IDG’s 2018 State of the CIO survey, almost half (49%) of business respondents now consider IT a strategic advisor for proactively identifying new opportunities and for making technology recommendations. The business will always ask for more, so why not include them in decisions by giving them (educated, evaluated, encouraged…) options? Here’s a tip to simplify the choices people must make by creating two easy options. Use the magic words, “…two kinds of people.” Ask them to decide for themselves based on having to choose between two (rather than many) options. Let’s practice. “There are two types of people in this world. Those who resist change in favor of nostalgia, and those who move with the times and create a better future.” You should be able to see how the options are stacked in favor of the decision you’d like them to pick. CIOs are devising a series of tactics to proactively foster closer relationships with the business. They are creating new business engagement roles that share “…a seat at the table” for operational activities - becoming the voice and ears from IT to the executives and sharing insights to trends and relevant capabilities coming their way. Technology and our supporting roles will continue to change at the speed of light, so take a hard look at what your core competencies are and “subscribe” what’s not a core business competency. As one panelist put it, “If you’re spending too much time thinking about “-as-a-service”, you’re probably not very strategic.” If interested in learning more about or attending the exclusive 2019 Insider Summit, click here.

Insider Summit: Notes from “Closing the Digital Talent Gap” Panel Discussion

Panel Moderator: Anil Cheriyan - Managing Partner of Phase IV Ventures Panelists: John Trainor - CIO of Aaron’s, Kevin Switala - CTO of Gannett Fleming, and John Crowley – CIO of Fidelity National Financial

"It's all about EQ not IQ"

• Meet with the team members one-on-one
• Make key strategic hires – including consultants to fill the gap
• Exercise your EQ not IQ and be a cheerleader to motivate and protect staff from criticism
• Create a mindset for them to be open to change

Digital is the Business Strategy at the 2018 Insider Summit

The 2018 Advocate Insider Summit was the best yet! The exclusive, invitation-only event was held October 10-12 in Charleston, SC at The Dewberry Hotel where more than 30 IT leaders from companies like Arby’s, Belk, Brinks, Inc., Lincoln Financial Group, NCR, Party City and many more participated in engaging peer-to-peer conversations about the major issues impacting their organizations and new breakout sessions about Digital Transformation and IT Security. In addition, this intimate environment is an outstanding networking opportunity for all in attendance. While the storm did threaten the event, we successfully proved that HOPE is a STRATEGY, at least when you’re dealing with Mother Nature. The storm moved out quickly allowing our attendees and their spouses to take advantage of an amazing Charleston harbor tour aboard The Carolina Girl and dinner catered by Home Team BBQ. Keep checking back over the next few weeks to read several new blog articles about each of this year’s panel discussions and breakouts to help you acquire the knowledge and insights you can’t get anywhere else. Advocate thanks the attendees and sponsors, Apptio and GTT Communications, who made this informative event possible. Stay tuned for news about the 2019 Insider Summit!

Happy 17th Anniversary Advocate!

It was 1998. You can tell by the funny throwback photo above. The internet was still dial-up. And Scott Fogle and Tim Wise had just met at a new communications start-up in Atlanta. Both noticed that many enterprises had no clear strategy for structuring their growing internet-connected systems. And they were determined to do something about it. So, on July 31, 2001, they started Advocate. The firm would soon emerge as a leader in Telecom Expense Management (TEM) … and then network optimization … and ultimately become the premier Technology Business Management (TBM) services provider. After assessing over $50 billion in IT spend, Advocate knows how to find the savings and identify the investments that will make the most impact. It’s why we’ve helped clients save over $200 million in the last two years alone. Over 600 clients, 11 consecutive Inc. 5000 awards, and $20 Billion in cumulative savings later, Advocate is helping IT leaders around the world uncover more funds to invest, enable more business outcomes and create more influence overall. Just show us your data – and we’ll show you exactly where you can free up the working capital to do what matters more. HAPPY 17th ANNIVERSARY ADVOCATE!

The Importance of IT Financial Management

At Advocate, we have an amazing team of analysts whose intellect, energy and creativity lead us every day to create value for our clients. Through the course of their service to our client community, they encounter experiences and achieve insights to the underlying challenges and solutions that most, if not all, enterprises are facing in the ever changing world of technology.These changes are nowhere more evident than in the evolving world of IT Financial Management. CIOs, CFOs and even CEOs are looking for new metrics to help guide their company’s technology investment while ensuring they continue to exceed their customer’s expectations.Recently, one of our rising stars, Katie Massey, put pen to paper to share her insights in the world of IT Financial Management. We are proud to share her unique insights with you.

VP Strategy, Chad Doiron

Technology Business Management (TBM) is the process of overseeing and balancing investment priorities related capital and operating expense within a corporation’s IT department. The goal is to strike a balance between investment in future business capabilities, while ensuring adequate funding remains in place for existing solutions. At the same time, TBM can help to establish new baselines for the appropriate levels of investment that take into account changing needs within the company. It can prevent a company from overspending and propagating shadow IT, while simultaneously ensuring that the IT infrastructure is provided at the most effective price. It also establishes a cadence for a transparent work flow between business units, IT operations and the organization’s executive management team, not solely the CIO.

Net Neutrality and The Effect on ISPs

To understand the effect of net neutrality on Internet Service Providers (ISPs), we must first understand the meaning of net neutrality. Net neutrality is the concept of an “open internet” meaning that consumers have equal access to all Internet content and applications without restrictions and/or obstructions to traffic. It prevents Internet service providers from disturbing the flow of traffic based on select variables and forces ISPs to treat all traffic the same.  On December 14, 2017 the FCC voted to repeal legacy net neutrality provisions designated under Title II of the Telecommunications Act.  The repeal of the net neutrality provisions allows ISPs the authority to govern the traffic flow of internet content and applications.  The repeal will now have a major impact on Internet Service Providers in the areas of revenue, governance and legality. As it relates to revenue, there is much speculation as to how ISPs can and possibly will increase their revenue due to the repeal of net neutrality provisions.  Since the concept of “open internet” no longer exists, ISPs could charge those companies that are prone to pass more traffic over the internet more money to compensate for the additional traffic.  For example, companies such as Google, Bing or streaming services such as Hulu or Netflix may be charged additional fees as they are known to traverse the internet more than other companies.  This will provide an additional revenue stream for ISPs, if they attempt to go this route. In addition, ISPs will have the ability to hamper certain services from companies that are in direct competition with their own products or services.  For example, in the event Verizon or AT&T has their own “Wallet” or payment service, the repeal of net neutrality will now allow ISPs to prevent the company from operating on their network and/or charge the company a premium fee for utilizing traffic for that service, thus increasing revenue for the ISP. As it relates to governance, ISPs will now have the power to control and manage the amount of traffic traversing the internet.  In the example mentioned above, ISPs now have the authority to govern internet traffic which means ISPs can throttle internet traffic.  For instance, streaming companies such as Netflix, Hulu, or iHeart traditionally have higher amounts of internet traffic based on the nature of their business.  ISPs now have the ability to throttle that traffic and charge the company a premium rate to increase the speed of that internet traffic. A major concern among consumers is that the premium rates will be passed through to the consumer which will increase the current rate of the services.  Another governance related challenge facing ISPs will be the equality of traffic passed on to companies.  For example, a smaller streaming company that does not have the same economic capacity as a Hulu or Netflix may not be able to pay the premium fee an ISP poses on a Hulu or Netflix, which could make it difficult for smaller or newer companies to compete from a traffic perspective.  It is important to note that the FCC has documented provisions in the new ruling that is meant to protect against throttling and manipulating internet traffic. One of the more significant impacts ISPs are faced with as it relates to the repeal of net neutrality provisions is that of legality.  There have been numerous lawsuits filed against the FCC and various ISPs to bring back net neutrality or at least prevent ISPs from having too much control over the internet.  Many ISPs have had to augment their legal departments with resources who have expertise in this area. In conclusion, the repeal of net neutrality has an impact that has yet to be seen among the ISPs, content providers and consumers. ISPs will have more authority as it relates to governance, the potential to increase revenue and the need to address legal issues that may arise. We’ll keep you posted on the impact.

STILL GOT SONET?

Several years ago, we had a client with a SONET ring costing them over $1 Million per year. We asked them what services were using the ring, and they didn’t know. We asked the vendor account team if they could tell us what services were in use on the ring, and THEY didn’t know. We searched through invoices for services using the SONET ring, and found just a handful of voice T1 channels plus the charges for the ring itself. We did find some MPLS and Internet circuits at the locations with nodes on the ring, but those services were using standalone access loops completely independent of the ring. After a great deal of discussion with the technical teams of both the client and the vendor, we concluded that this ring was in fact only being used for a handful of minor voice circuits, and the decision was made to move the circuits and decommission the ring. The question that kept coming up was “HOW DID THIS HAPPEN???” The case described above is an extreme example, but since then, we have had similar scenarios play out with other clients with SONET rings, and a few themes keep recurring. So, how do customers keep winding up with expensive yet highly underutilized SONET rings in their telecom service portfolio? Origins – Most SONET rings we encounter have been in place for a LONG time. Once upon a time, a standalone DS3 access loop could cost several thousand dollars, an OC3 could easily run $10K or more, and Ethernet was virtually non-existent as a WAN protocol. Network managers could easily justify the cost of a ring, especially since SONET was at the time the only real option for survivability. Designed primarily for high volume TDM voice services, many SONET configurations were built to provide connectivity at (and between) Corporate Headquarters and Call Centers. They could even provide a Data Center with “ample” connectivity at a DS3 or even OC3 level. Erosion – As competing vendors built out infrastructure to capture their share of the growing data market, vendor diversity options emerged at large business locations. Adding vendor diversity outside of the SONET ring became part of the survivability equation. Ever-increasing bandwidth requirements also gave rise to the deployment of Ethernet facilities so that Customers could use these efficient and flexible high-bandwidth connections in lieu of traditional TDM. While Ethernet can technically be provided on a SONET ring, it can be cumbersome and often wastes bandwidth, so the low cost of Ethernet often made it more cost-effective to bypass the ring, even using the same vendor. Finally, the convergence of voice and data made possible with SIP Trunking and Hosted VoIP started moving its “bread and butter application” (legacy TDM voice services) away from the SONET ring. Survival – Because of the high up-front implementation costs, most SONET contracts started with a Term of 5 years or more, and these days, anything older than 5 years is likely to pre-date most employees in what is a highly transient IT workforce. Many IT groups tell us they “inherited” their SONET ring (which in some cases have now been in place for 15-20 years) and don’t have the history. With voice and data network groups often diverging, nobody really knew who “owned” the SONET ring, so even as services were being removed from the ring, nobody felt qualified to pull the plug. If you were lucky, your SONET contract would simply auto-renew at the same rates at the end of the original Term, but we’ve seen some SONET contracts quietly expire, with rates rocketing up to list prices at anywhere from 2-5 times the contracted rates. Under the Radar – By now, someone should be saying “If SONET rings are so expensive but nobody is using them, why wouldn’t somebody say something?” As mentioned earlier, SONET deployments typically connect Corporate Headquarters, Call Centers, and Data Centers. Many companies operate different business units or locations as standalone profit/loss centers, and often these centralized, shared charges get allocated out to a variety of different cost centers. Once it’s divvied up into bite-sized pieces and the individual cost center sees their small share, it’s easy to shrug it off as “corporate overhead” even if they don’t know what it’s for. Solution – If you still have SONET rings in place, there’s a VERY good chance that there’s a better way, even without sacrificing security and/or survivability. Advocate can help you figure out what’s up with your current SONET ring(s) and what to do next.

Phone Wars

The December 2017 release of the latest installment in the Star Wars movie franchise led me to some interesting observations about parallels between the Star Wars episodes and the evolution of the telecommunications industry. Before we jump in, please allow me to offer my apologies to AT&T.  I don’t REALLY think you’re all Sith, but the compelling history/plot similarities and the uncanny way in which the AT&T logo resembles the Death Star are just too good to pass up. Spoiler Alert:  If you haven’t seen all of the Star Wars movies but still plan to, stop here and read no further until you’ve seen what you intend to see.  The movies present information in a very calculated way, and I’m less subtle in my chronological comparison.  For the uninformed, the proper viewing order matches theatrical release – Episodes 4, 5, and 6, then Episodes 1, 2, and 3 if you absolutely must, then Episodes 7, 3.5, 8 and eventually 9.

Positive or Negative on Net Neutrality?

If the words “Net Neutrality” mean anything to you and you’ve been paying attention, you know that the FCC just voted to lift the Net Neutrality ruling established in 2015.  For outsiders, this may look like partisan politics as usual, with the FCC’s 3 Republicans voting to repeal the ruling and 2 Democrats voting to leave the ruling in place.  A closer look, however, may show some different nuances to where people land, depending on where they fit into the big picture. Fundamentally, Net Neutrality is rooted in the idea that some people want all content (voice and data) transported via the Internet to be treated equally, regardless of what the content is, who the provider is, or who the end user is.  Those who oppose Net Neutrality believe that some of the content transported via the Internet should be prioritized, and that it is acceptable for end users and/or content providers to pay a premium for that prioritization.  Advocates of Net Neutrality will also point out that allowing prioritization also enables potentially unethical business practices in the form of DE-prioritization, but I’m going to leave that piece of it alone and let the FTC make sure everyone “plays nice”. There are plenty of exceptions (and lots of nuance), but in a broad sense, how you feel about Net Neutrality is likely to depend on who you are and what’s important to you.  Here’s a breakdown as I see it: Transport Providers – We’ll start here, as these are the most directly affected by Net Neutrality rules.  As a rule, most transport providers are opposed to Net Neutrality because if forces them to commoditize their product into “big, dumb pipes”.  Without the ability to prioritize traffic (and charge for it), the only way transport providers can make more money is to make BIGGER dumb pipes, so Net Neutrality can tend to stifle innovation in transport. Content Providers – Content providers tend to favor Net Neutrality rules, since EVERYONE thinks their own content is very important and nobody wants to think their content is being put in a “slow lane”.  There’s an opinion (not unreasonably held) that even a slight delay, experienced consistently, will send impatient end users flocking to other content providers.  Small and/or startup content providers in particular are concerned that a) perceived slowness will hurt their chances of getting a foothold in the market, and b) they won’t be able to compete with the deep pockets that enable more established providers to pay for a “fast lane” experience for their users. End Users – End users probably split along the lines of personal vs business use.  Personal users favor Net Neutrality because they like the commodity pricing of residential Internet access and don’t want to pay business rates to get higher prioritization, but they still don’t want their streaming movies and high-bandwidth real-time gaming content to take a backseat to business content.  Low-end business users who can’t afford to pay to prioritize their important content probably fall into this camp as well.  High-end business users, on the other hand, are more likely to embrace the idea of a content “fast lane” because they hate the idea that their latency-sensitive and critical business content are no more important than videos of cats, and are willing to pay to have it prioritized.   If you have any questions about how Net Neutrality will affect you, your company or your customers, please let me know.  Advocate is here to help you to stay on top of this.  

TFM: Changing the conversation

How the CIO can move from cost to value Woven into the TBM maturity journey is the critical transition from talking about IT costs to talking about IT value. Forward-thinking CIOs recognize that as long as their conversations with the CFO and other business leaders remain centered on costs, the CIO will remain in an administrative position—and the IT organization will be limited to a reactive approach. To advance TBM maturity and get buy-in for the proactive investments needed to anticipate and drive business growth, CIOs need to shift the conversation with business leaders from cost to value. But how? Redefining the ‘R’ in ROI Most CIOs know that ROI is the universal language of value in the business world. Unfortunately, most IT organizations define ROI in terms of IT-specific costs and IT-defined business cases. But defining the “return” in terms of bits and bytes—more bandwidth, faster server response, improved network resiliency, etc.— doesn’t create a compelling value proposition for non-technical business leaders. To grab attention and demonstrate the value of technology spending, CIOs need to define the “return” in terms of business outcomes: new customers acquired, faster customer response times, shorter time to revenue, etc. Demonstrate that technology IS the business value Critically, this redefinition of ROI is not about simply linking technology to business outcomes—it’s about showing that technology spending and business outcomes are completely interwoven. Increased network bandwidth directly drives customer service levels. Server response time directly drives both customer satisfaction and sales conversions. Streamlined revenue management technology puts dollars in the bank days (or weeks) sooner. Conclusion:Realizing the potential in proactive, predictive TFM As IT leaders balance increased technology demands with budget pressures, IT organizations in every sector are successfully leveraging TBM solutions to justify IT budgets and optimize IT costs. However, as more businesses recognize that technology is the critical driver—and inhibitor—of business growth, there is tremendous potential to look beyond the “run” and leverage predictive TBM insights to drive proactive technology investments for business growth. With the right expertise and support, IT organizations can advance their TBM maturity, going beyond cost attribution to reveal how technology spending drives measurable business outcomes today—and leveraging bold new TBM analytic capabilities to define the technology investments that will unlock growth tomorrow.

TFM emerges as a solution to the IT cost battle

As CIOs look to connect IT and overall technology costs with business services, best-in-class TBM tools provide the critical spend visibility across the enterprise. More and more CIOs are leveraging TBM products as a powerful bargaining tool in the constant budget battle, effectively aligning IT costs with the business services they enable and support (because business leaders want to cut costs—but not lose value). However, Gartner estimates that one in three TBM implementations fail to deliver the expected benefits.¹ Most of these failures result from one of these three mistakes: Three ways TBM strategies fall short 1. Not knowing how to turn TBM data into actionable strategies Today’s TBM processes and tools are increasingly easy to deploy. But for many organizations, the strategy stops there. Figuring out what to do with the data—what questions to ask, what metrics to analyze, and how to develop executable improvement plans—requires deeper knowledge gained from experience. In other words, while automated TBM platforms can quickly show a CIO where the money is going, there is no one-size-fits-all, out-of-the-box solution to the problem of how to optimize that spending. Without experienced guidance, these organizations are left with an expensive new pile of data—and little else. 2. Implementing TBM as a point solution Plenty of IT organizations successfully make use of their TBM data— once. With IT budget pressure intensifying, deploying a TBM tool is often a reactive response to a specific call for cost-cutting or efficiency gains. IT leverages the tool to analyze the status quo, implements changes, realizes cost savings and declares IT spending officially “optimized.” Then, they continue on for months (or years) with this new, “optimized” status quo. But technology demands evolve literally every day in the digital enterprise, and small new inefficiencies can grow into significant waste in a matter of weeks. This point-solution approach to TBM represents what Gartner identifies as “low TBM maturity.”² In fact, Gartner went so far as to title an entire report, “IT Cost Optimization Should Be an Ongoing Discipline.” 3. Limiting TBM to cost optimization: Focusing on the “run,” but not the “grow” TFM tools offer a powerful way to optimize the “run” functions of an IT organization—the workflows, processes and costs that support basic operational needs of the business. But limiting TBM to optimizing the “run” also represents Gartner’s so-called “low TBM maturity”, where cost unpredictability means lower budget goals, more waste and less investment in innovation.”³ This approach still represents a reactive position, where IT is left defending the need for budget to support existing capabilities.

1 Gartner Report: Key Concepts in IT Financial Management: Transparency, Budgeting, Funding and Allocation, March 2016
2 Gartner Report: IT Cost Optimization Should Be an Ongoing Discipline, February 2016
3 Gartner Report: Key Concepts in IT Financial Management: Transparency, Budgeting, Funding and Allocation, March 2016

Five Stages of the TBM Maturity Journey

Today’s sophisticated TBM tools can help CIOs achieve the “quick wins” of cost attribution and optimization. However, there remains a tremendous opportunity to look beyond the “run” and move beyond a reactive stance, leveraging TBM insights to anticipate the technology needs that will unlock growth. But, as Gartner succinctly states, “IT cost optimization is not a project; it’s a discipline.”¹ And like any discipline, success is about diligent processes. Moving from low to high TBM maturity—and from reactive to proactive growth support—is a journey through five key stages: 1. Awareness The first step is building awareness of how technology is being invested today—and what value that technology is bringing to the business. Most businesses lack this awareness because most IT organizations don’t fully understand it themselves. IT operational data and financial data remain in separate silos, making it extremely challenging to attribute detailed financial data to specific technology assets. Fortunately, today’s best-in-class TBM tools seamlessly integrate with other operational solutions, connecting rich IT asset management data with advanced cost allocation and categorization capabilities. This enables IT organizations to better align IT costs with IT services and, ultimately, with business services. This extensive cost attribution enables a smarter approach to IT cost optimization, moving an organization into the next phase of TBM maturity. 2. Credibility With business leaders keenly aware of the total technology investments in overarching business growth strategy, the IT organization begins gaining credibility as a group that can be relied upon to deliver specific, strategic outcomes to the business. These outcomes no longer revolve around cost-cutting. The CIO can directly respond to business unit needs in near-real-time, no longer battling the CFO over costs, but instead enjoying the credibility that technology investments are the key drivers of business outcomes. Though an IT organization has achieved a significant level of TBM maturity at this stage, it’s important to note that the CIO remains in a reactive position: The business units dictate both the growth strategy and the corresponding technology needs; the IT organization reactively delivers. 3. Relevance With increased credibility and growing involvement of IT in the strategic business planning, business leaders begin recognizing the connection between IT services and business outcomes, and begin looking to IT to provide advanced metrics and analytics to help inform business strategies and decisions. The CIO is now able to demonstrate how existing technology spending delivers specific, measurable business outcomes—and can begin offering predictive insights into how potential technology investments will impact the business. 4. Control With increasingly visible and integrated data, IT organizations leverage this comprehensive visibility and awareness to intelligently manage and optimize the “run.” Equipped with a detailed understanding of how IT spending ladders up to business services, the IT organization can identify where it can streamline operations and contain costs—without impacting service levels or removing business value. For example, with all the information at hand, it’s easy to recognize the redundancies and inefficiencies that result from decentralized technology spending among disparate business units. Ultimately, this stage is all about increasing the IT organization’s level of involvement in technology spending decisions—monitoring, management and executive decision-making. 5. Influence In the final stage of TBM maturity, the CIO becomes a key contributor in developing business growth strategies. The IT organization is leveraging its TBM data to extract predictive insights. IT is not only anticipating the technology needs of business units—IT is identifying the technology investments that will unlock growth opportunities. Moreover, the entire growth planning process has been altered and enhanced: Instead of mapping technology investments to high-level business goals, the high-value technology investments assist in defining the growth goals. The CIO has finally moved into a proactive, offensive position—and earned a seat at the executive table as a strategic growth partner.

1 Gartner Report: IT Cost Optimization Should Be an Ongoing Discipline, February 2016

Delivering the Value of Your Technology: Insights to Action

Welcome to our four-part series based on Technology Business Management. CIOs increasingly turn to Technology Business Management (TBM) techniques to help describe IT budgets and quantify IT costs. But, to truly unlock the growth potential associated with digital transformation, IT organizations need to advance their TBM maturity beyond this reactive approach. The massive digital transformation of business is now firmly underway in just about every industry. This transformation is not limited to the United States—it’s a global shift. The growing impacts of this transformation range from enhancing both customer and employee experiences, to expanding market share and driving revenue. In fact, McKinsey estimates that by 2025, digitization could add as much as $2.2 trillion to the annual GDP in the U.S alone.¹ Those businesses that lead the charge stand to gain incredible advantages, reshaping and redefining their marketplaces for years or decades to come. As businesses rush to capture this tremendous opportunity, CIOs and their IT teams face growing pressure from two angles: Business units increasingly recognize technological capability is a key factor in realizing their growth strategies—and they want IT to anticipate these technology needs to enable growth. However, IT teams are an increasingly popular target for cost-control initiatives and the typical IT organization is scrambling just to meet the basic operational needs of the business. As a result, 85 percent of IT decision-makers say they’re still years away from reaching the potential of their digital transformation.² CIOs increasingly turn to Technology Business Management (TBM) techniques to help describe IT budgets and quantify IT costs. But, to truly unlock the growth potential associated with digital transformation, IT organizations need to advance their TBM maturity beyond this reactive approach. Leveraging TBM insights can drive strategic technology investments that anticipate the needs of the business and proactively enhance business growth. Technology is the main driver and limiter of business growth All business leaders today recognize the transformational potential of digital technologies to unlock new opportunities and enable new ways of working and create new paths to growth. Two-thirds of Global 2000 companies now have digital transformation at the core of their corporate growth strategy. It is estimated that global spending on digital transformation will reach $2 trillion by 2020.³ Despite this wholesale prioritization of digitization, technology is a key barrier to growth for most companies. Ask the individual business units in an organization about the most important enablers to their plans and they’ll readily list technology capabilities—or name needed technological advances that would fast-track their growth initiatives, allowing them to speed operations, improve customer experiences, drive sales and revenue, etc. Who must step up to deliver this functionality to the business? The IT organization. IT struggling to keep up with rapidly expanding business demands IT leaders may know they’re under-delivering. But most IT organizations lack the resources to achieve a timely, responsive approach to meeting business unit needs. While IT leaders and staff may not spend as much time managing on-premise technology assets such as servers, storage arrays and the large data centers that contain them, much of this workload has been replaced with the challenge of managing the complexities of off-premise. At the same time, IT resources are under constant scrutiny, as business leaders look to IT budgets as quick-win cost-cutting opportunities. The result: Most IT organizations spend the majority of their resources (anywhere from 60-90 percent) on basic operations— just keeping the business up and running. IT budgets under fire — even as technology spending increases Ironically, as technology moves to the forefront of business growth strategy, IT is struggling to maintain its share of the budget. IT leaders continue to indicate that lack of funding is a top barrier to their organizations’ digital transformation.6 The problem? Business leaders see traditional IT costs—managing servers and other on-premise technology assets—sharply declining as cloud-based options move these assets outside the walls of the organization. At the same time, they see technology spending increasing dramatically overall, as every aspect of the business undergoes a digital shift. As businesses look to optimize these growing technology costs, IT becomes an easy target, as leaders typically think, “We’re moving everything to the cloud anyway—IT doesn’t need as much money.” The reality is that the IT workload has only grown. There is still plenty of on-premise technology to manage, but IT must now support a rapidly growing web of cloud-based assets. The cost of “keeping the lights on” continues to grow, even as traditional IT costs—and IT budgets—decline. You can’t invest in the “grow” if you’re constantly funding more “run” As CIOs fight for the resources needed to support and enable digital transformation, they are engaged in a never-ending defense to the CFO for every penny spent. The result, as Gartner describes, is that “IT is often funded such that it must provide lowest- common-denominator service and cannot scale to meet the business need for information-technology-enabled service”.⁴ However, as businesses shift to an aggressive growth strategy largely dependent on expanding and supporting new technological capabilities, the CFO’s bare-minimum-cost approach to IT budgeting is misaligned with the increasing demand for the CIO to deliver business value.

1 McKinsey: Digital America Full Report December 2015
2 Riverbed Future of Networking Global Survey 2017
3 IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Digital Transformation 2016 Predictions, 2015
4 Gartner Report: Run IT as a Business Using Six Pillars of IT Financial Transparency to Drive Value, May 2017

Advocate Turns Insights into Action by Sponsoring TBM Conference 2017

Advocate kicked off November with a bang by sponsoring the 5^th annual Technology Business Management (TBM) Conference 2017 held in Las Vegas November 6-9.  The event is one of the premier events in this space with over 1,300 participants attending including many of the early TBM adopters including Exxon Mobil, McDonald’s, Maritz and BMC Software…yes, Advocate clients! The TBM Conference is the only global event dedicated to providing IT and Finance leaders with the discipline, standards, and strategies to manage the business of IT.  This year’s Technology Business Management (TBM) Conference explored how IT and Finance leaders create a culture to fuel innovation across the enterprise and unleash the potential of thousands who are ready, willing and able to embrace IT to help build the products and experiences their customers crave. CIOs must carry the torch to innovate on behalf of their customers. TBM sets the stage for technology leaders to bring their expertise to drive organization-wide innovation. The event proved to be a great opportunity for Advocate, our partners, and clients to network with each other and discuss the tools and techniques for “turning insights into action” and discovering the value large enterprises are enjoying after having successfully deployed Technology Business Management. We were lucky to land an outstanding booth location with heavy traffic flow, allowing Advocate to really get its name out.  We are already looking forward to attending the TBM Conference 2018 and helping IT organizations gain a clear, technology-driven growth strategy to deliver the value of their technology.

Advocate’s 2017 Insider Summit Empowers Leadership in the Digital Age

The 2017 Advocate Insider Summit took place November 1-3, 2017 in Charleston, SC.  This exclusive, invitation-only event was held at The Dewberry Hotel where more than 30 IT leaders from companies like Arby’s, Belk, Gartner, Lincoln Financial Group, NCR, Newell Brands, and many more participated in engaging panels about some of the most thought-provoking issues including in the changing role of the CIO, digital transformation, Technology Business Management, Cloud strategy, and many others that herald what the future may hold. From innovative subjects such as “CIO Survival in the Thriving Tech Industry” and “Digital Transformation – If you’re not first, your last!” to “Transforming the CIO Role from Technology Provider and Cost Center to Business Partner and Value Driver” and “Infrastructure Performance:  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, attendees of the Insider Summit discussed and shared their concerns, successes, and challenges of managing IT departments throughout the event. In fact, CIO Chris Lindner at Manhattan Associates says, “The Summit is invaluable from a networking and peer collaboration perspective.  The ability to interact, share ideas, answers questions and collaborate with my peers from across the country is the one big investment I make in myself every year.”  To add, Tim Porzio VP of I&O for Sodexo shared, “I found the time spent very worthwhile.  I met several new professionals, learned from the panelists and I enjoyed the boat ride and dinner.  The best part of the panel discussions was when the CIO’s engaged to share information.” The Insider Summit was not without great food, wine and entertainment.  After all, how often do this many C-level decision-makers get together for a day out on the water or a night out on the town?  Fun was had by all as they dined at Vincent Chicco's and 5Church, drank cocktails at the Carolina Ale House while watching the final games of the 2017 World Series and relaxed aboard a harbor tour of Charleston on a catamaran called the Palmetto Breeze. Advocate thanks the attendees and sponsors, Equinix and NTT Communications, who made this informative event possible. Stay tuned for news about the 2018 Insider Summit.

Advocate’s Co-Founder Talks Importance of Network Transformation

If you’re interested in Network Transformation, watch Advocate’s co-founder and President Tim Wise explain how critical it is for today’s enterprises to transform their legacy network to a future state next gen network, which is scalable and cloud-enabled.

Advocate Ranks for 11th Consecutive Year on Inc. Magazine’s Annual List

Advocate is pleased to be ranked NO. 3167 on the 36th annual Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest-growing private companies with three-year sales growth of 103%. This is the 11th consecutive ranking for Advocate and puts it in the .1% percentile of companies who have made the Inc. 5000 list 11 times in a row. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment— its independent small and midsized businesses. Companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Domino’s Pizza, Pandora, Timberland, LinkedIn, Yelp, Zillow, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees of the Inc. 5000. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000. Tim Wise, Co-President and Founder of Advocate, commented "We are delighted to be recognized by Inc. for 11 consecutive years of record growth and increasing our growth rate. We are seeing more demand from our clients as digital transformation requires expertise to help accelerate and transform.” Scott Fogle, Co-President and Founder, added, “Our clients continue to rely on our team of experts for innovative ways to save money, improve performance and deliver crucial insight to help them make the best possible IT decisions to support their digital transformation.” In addition to the prestigious Inc. 5000 ranking, Advocate recently celebrated its 16^th anniversary on July 31, 2017 with a kick-ball tournament and cookout.  Insiders, friends and families enjoyed a summer night of grilled food, drinks, table games and a friendly game of kick-ball.  It was great to get everyone together, have fun and give thanks for providing excellent services to our clients over the past 16 years, while looking forward to Advocate’s future.

Make IT an Indispensable Business Partner

As an IT Executive, you should live for your customers.  You need to care, actively listen, and deliver results as your very existence depends on it.  This goes beyond running IT as a business - anticipate and think like your customer… and be fanatical about it.  So how do you make IT an indispensable business partner?  Here’s how:

1. Be a partner.  Figure out a way to have a seat at the table.  Hold at least a quarterly update on IT performance with each of your business leads and make this meeting about them.  Show them all the trouble tickets and other requests that IT has handled the past quarter.  Develop a “What’s Next” dialog; including, how can you be more effective in meeting their needs?  Do they wish to see a different level of detail?  What defines IT success to their departments?  What’s the best way to build realistic KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure work going forward?  Continually assess, communicate, and improve based upon your KPIs.
2. Be completely transparent, hide nothing!  Speak up, have a voice reflective of your expertise, don’t be wishy washy.  If you stink, admit it and detail a path to betterment.  If your business partners’ stink and you can definitively prove it, let them know you’re a team and, together, develop a path to improvement.  Vocalize your goals and put them in writing; make sure to include all stakeholders at all levels.  Have no hidden agendas.  Be clear and have your customers’ backs.
3. Generate ideas.  Look for ways to improve your customers’ process, technology, and people.  Speak in understandable language – not in IT jargon and acronyms.  Show business partners you have their best interests in mind and you want them to succeed – for their success is your success. Don’t be afraid to think out-of-the-box.
4. Socialize.  Stop by partners’ offices, ask them to lunch, dinner, or just a drink after work.  Don’t make this just about business – get to know them and allow them to know you.  Be genuinely interested in their lives and goals to build further trust.  Converse and have some fun!
5. Build a “Customer First” team.  Make sure your IT culture is focused on your customer concerns and satisfaction at all levels.  Welcome and pursue frequent customer feedback.  Communicate your intent and make improvements as necessary.  Reward your team’s efforts and make a fanfare.  Even a simple pat on the back and a smile will go a long way.
6. Do not hesitate to take action.  This could be an email, a phone call or even replacing people who aren’t focused on the team’s success.  Make the hard decisions and take action.

Equinix Global VP of Technology—Talks ROI of Cloud Optimization

Since you’re interested in Cloud Optimization, watch Equinix's Global VP of Technology Ryan Mallory explain how he and Advocate are providing ROI to Cloud Optimization customers.

BMC’s CIO--how he reduced his annual TEM costs by 20%

If you’re interested in Telecom Expense Management or TEM, watch BMC Software’s CIO Scott Crowder explain how he leveraged his TEM solution and reduced annual telecom costs by 20% in this brief video.

Managed Services and Strategic Outcomes

IT departments utilize managed services to reinvent themselves, regain control over their technology infrastructure, and refocus their efforts on achieving strategic goals.

1. Audit your application estate. What do you have and why you do have it? How many duplicates are there? On how many separate cloud deployments? At what cost?
2. Start small, especially if you’re moving to cloud for the first time. If you have time, carve off some applications that free up team resources. Internal users dislike disruption, even if the change is for the better. Grow over time.
3. Define what you want. Focus on business outcome. Set up a measurable objective for the process. Then jointly invest in the outcome.
4. Be realistic about skills that are needed and available to support change. Managing the cloud involves new delivery models. Some automation is built in, but virtual devices still require configuration. If you don’t have the skills, find them. Focus on innovation; leave the plumbing for those who are good at that.
5. Ensure you have tools and systems to manage service quality. Where you once managed infrastructure, now you’re managing partners and the quality that they deliver.

Who’s driving digital transformation? Who should be?

Businesses overwhelmingly expect their industries to be disrupted by digital trends. Innovative IT departments should take the lead in helping them make data-based decisions.

Inside Tales of Offshore Hires

When it comes to IT budgets, salaries are by far the largest expense.  As a CIO, if you haven’t already, you’ll be asked to look at off-sourcing as a cost-saving measure.  One of your first steps is hiring the right staff, but when dealing with an ocean or more between you, interviewing poses some challenges.  And you may find that people can get pretty creative.  So after many years hiring overseas myself, I share with you some of my teams’ experiences with employment “creativity.”  Mind you, we used local recruiters in every scenario.

• We received a resume we like.  On paper, the potential employee had great experience and extensive training, complete with a list of diplomas and certifications.  We’re impressed, until we delved a little deeper.  Our research showed the accreditations were false, just useless, printed diplomas.  We also noticed these same “certified” trainings on many of the resumes we received.
• We’re presented with a great prospect.  We flew one of our own over for the interview.  Our director loved the guy and gave him a start date before returning home.  On the start date, our candidates’ brother showed up to work.
• We’ve learned.  We now check ID verification before and during the interview.  And we hold our initial interviews over Skype.  We asked a few initial questions and all goes well.  As we started questioning technical expertise, we heard a voice off screen coaching our interviewee and giving him the answers.  We’re being Cyrano de Bergerac-ed.
• Yes!  We finally hire a strong worker.  She’s fantastic and the team loves her.  But on a location visit, we notice she vanishes from time to time.  We search and find her working in a remote location in the building.  Is she a superstar hammering out details in a quiet location?  Nope.  She was logged into her second job’s system and completing tickets.
• We’re hiring for a manager level position and this guy looked strong on paper.  He provides us with a copy of his I.D., independently passes our interview, and has great references.  On the job, he proves to be a top performer, his work superior.  We thought.  We found out he had hired his own off-the-book employee, a shadow worker, to complete his projects.  We fired him and kept his shadow (yes, the guy was that good).

Advocate’s Office Expansion

Due to recent growth, Advocate expanded its office space and celebrated by hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 30th.  This is Advocate’s first expansion since its inception in 2001 by Tim Wise and Scott Fogle.  We look forward to having you visit our new space soon! Recently named a 2017 Pacesetter by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and ranked on the Inc. 5000 for ten consecutive years, Advocate is excited about its future and looks forward to its 16^th anniversary this summer. Tim Wise said, “Advocate owes its growth to the combination of our forward-thinking clients and our dedicated employees (‘Insiders’) who work smarter together to achieve consistent cost and performance gains.” Insiders enjoyed the event, office tour and champagne!  Click here to watch a video of the ceremony!

Controlling Cloud Spending: Best Practices for Cloud Spend Optimization

In our final article for the 3-part series “Controlling Cloud Spend: Avoiding the Steep Cost of Unchecked Cloud Growth”, we will explain the four best practices of cloud spend optimization and how to implement a successful cloud spend optimization strategy.  Whether launching a cloud spend optimization initiative on their own or engaging an expert partner, more businesses are adopting a new set of best-in-class tools and strategies to truly make the most of the cloud transformation. These cloud spend optimization best practices fall into four categories: Visibility Before cloud usage and spending can be controlled, it must be understood. And to be understood, it must be visible. Cloud usage optimization platforms offer a purpose-built tool designed to monitor cloud usage. Best-in-class cloud usage optimization platforms enable an even more detailed level of disciplined and comprehensive cloud spend tracking. This includes capturing all cloud instances across all environments, providing the core data necessary to optimize costs, as well as creating a critical accountability mechanism. Businesses can track cloud usage back to specific users, teams, departments or projects, thereby enabling accurate calculation of total cost of ownership (TCO). Optimization Seeing cloud usage and spending is one thing; making sense of reports and creating action plans requires a much greater level of understanding and expertise. This is where many businesses’ internal cloud spend optimization efforts sputter and stall. To be effective, optimization must effectively hone in on the signal amid the noise of cloud usage data, recognizing instances of waste—from lingering temporary workloads to the over-provisioning that plagues almost 40 percent of all virtualized machines.1 Optimization also includes effective forecasting and strategic planning to take advantage of tiered cloud pricing. Critically, it requires an understanding of how the elasticity of various workloads relate to their defined infrastructure requirements. In practice, this means a more balanced approach weighing the benefits of cloud against those of existing private infrastructure. As BMC CIO Crowder explains, “The first question to ask is: Can it be run internally? Because private cloud is still usually the cheapest option.” Predictable, inelastic workloads will almost always be cheaper when run on internal infrastructure; volatile and seasonal workloads, or those targeted for growth, are best suited to yield benefits on cloud infrastructure. Control Preventing the “too much of a good thing” problem requires policy that is both easy and enforceable. Controls must strike a delicate balance, providing a check on the creation of unnecessary or redundant cloud instances, without impeding the innovation, agility and growth of the business. Those tasked with creating CSO policy must have an interdisciplinary understanding of everything from regulatory and compliance requirements, to cloud security best practices, to procurement and contractual considerations, accounts payable and more. Navigating this complexity presents another major barrier to many internal CSO efforts. Real-Time Governance Given a focused, supported effort, most IT professionals will find that executing a point solution for CSO is achievable. But the cloud landscape evolves on a minute-by-minute basis in the modern digital business, and that single point of optimized operations is quickly replaced by new waste and new sub-optimal usage. If the promise of the cloud is instant scalability, then effective oversight and governance must also be instant. As mentioned, this requires a level of vigilance and dedication of resources that most IT teams are unable to achieve. Best practice is to monitor cloud usage in real time, establish a design process that controls and addresses issues daily and conduct optimization workflows on a weekly basis. The Cloud Dream: All the Power, None of the Waste With the help of experts like Advocate, businesses in every sector are leveraging these new best practices to realize the full potential of their cloud computing strategy. Implementing intelligent policy and controls can reign in unchecked cloud expansion and wasted spending, while real-time transparency into cloud utilization can both optimize existing cloud usage and strategically plan for the future. Most importantly, with the resources and expertise necessary to sustain a vigilant, real-time CSO effort, businesses can gain the agility, scalability and computing power to drive innovation and growth—without losing control of costs. Advocate Delivers Proven Cloud Spend Optimization Expertise for AWS, Azure, Google and More With over 15 years of proven experience helping enterprises make significant gains in technology spend optimization, Advocate applies its spend management DNA to solve this challenge. And with most cloud spend occurring with AWS, Advocate has developed a set of AWS-specific solutions to meet our clients’ needs. However, our proven methodology works equally well in evaluating Microsoft, Azure, Google and other cloud deployments. Our comprehensive cloud spend assessment, leveraging the best-in-class cloud usage optimization platforms, delivers an in-depth look at a business’ cloud environment and usage trends, as well as cost and performance improvement opportunities, usage insights and reserved instance planning recommendations. We draw on a long and proven track record in cloud architecture, strategic sourcing and cost optimization to help businesses create a comprehensive cloud spend optimization strategy. Conclusion  To schedule your free Cloud Spend Assessment with Advocate, click here.

1 RightScale 2016 State of the Cloud Report

Controlling Cloud Spending: Why Cloud Costs Quickly Spiral Out of Control

Welcome to part two of the series “Controlling Cloud Spend: Avoiding the Steep Cost of Unchecked Cloud Growth”. This article explains why cloud computing costs can quickly spiral out of control.Cloud Can Offer Too Much of a Good Thing The very feature that makes cloud computing most attractive—its instant, on-demand scalability—can also become its greatest flaw when not managed properly. Scaling up happens easily, and the relative price savings of spinning up a single cloud instance, compared to traditional on-premises infrastructure, are incredible. Because both “cloud” and “easy” are perceived as “cheap,” businesses—and more specifically, their users—tend not to worry about controlling or limiting the expansion of cloud instances. AWS enables anyone with a credit card to spin up a cloud server in seconds—this is “disaggregation of IT”—and in many organizations, this means cloud usage expands largely unchecked. Unchecked Cloud Growth Leads to Huge Spending Waste Unchecked cloud growth leads to another problem: Most organizations do a poor job of turning the lights off when they leave the room, so to speak. Without controls or visibility into their cloud usage, non-critical cloud infrastructure is left running overnight and all weekend long, even though it’s not in use. Cloud instances spun up for temporary workflows or targeted projects are left running for weeks or months beyond their shelf life. Unpredictable Usage Spikes Leave Business Paying the Premium Cloud Price The basic cloud story says you pay only for the computing power you use. But the more complicated truth is that cloud providers have complex, variable pricing structures based on basic supply and demand. Planned usage or reserved instances can yield significant cost savings. But most businesses lack the visibility to accurately understand and predict future needs. Moreover, unchecked expansion of cloud instances leads to unpredictable spikes in usage. These spikes leave the business paying the premium cost for on-demand cloud resources, quickly eliminating any cost-efficiencies of cloud infrastructure. All of this creates an incredible amount of wasted cloud spending. RightScale found that nearly half of all cloud spending in the typical organization is wasted or unnecessary—falling into one of the use cases just described. ParkMyCloud, a provider of cloud management services, used numbers from Gartner to estimate that companies waste nearly $6 billion in inefficient or unused cloud services every year.1Enterprise Mobility Presents Useful Lessons Mobile devices are another technology that has completely transformed the business world in less than a decade. Enterprise mobility followed a very similar maturity path: Employees began using company-provided mobile devices for work, recognizing the convenience and connectivity benefits. This led to businesses taking on the complex and unpredictable costs of mobile devices and mobile computing. They quickly realized the need to control mobile usage to prevent runaway spending. Mobile device management and mobile spend optimization tools and strategies have now become best practice for maximizing the benefits of enterprise mobility without exposing the business to volatile or uncontrolled costs. Most Businesses Ill-Equipped to Control Cloud Spending Rapidly growing cloud costs are not news to most business executives. In fact, optimizing existing cloud usage ranked as the most common top priority among enterprises for 2017.2 But even those with focused cloud spending initiatives struggle to gain and maintain control for two key reasons. The first barrier is visibility. The cloud transformation has dramatically increased the complexity of IT environments. A recent survey found that only 1 in 3 IT administrators feel they have the modern tools necessary to gain visibility and control cloud usage.3 But even with visibility, managing cloud computing resources is fundamentally different than the way IT professionals have managed IT infrastructure and spending for the past 30 years. Whereas pre-cloud IT solutions were simple one-time investments with static maintenance agreements, cloud solutions demand constant oversight and control across hundreds or even thousands of instances—lining up supply with demand in real-time to optimize usage and costs. That level of sustained vigilance is unlike anything IT teams have ever been required to do before—and it’s something most IT teams are neither funded nor equipped to manage today. Some leading organizations, such as the aforementioned BMC, have successfully implemented cloud spend optimization internally. However, most others quickly recognize that the relative novelty of cloud computing means they lack the internal spend analytics expertise to effectively tackle the cloud spend optimization challenge. Instead, they’re engaging partners such as Advocate™—trusted names with proven records of helping businesses control and optimize their technology spending. Join us for the third article of our three-part blog series: “Controlling Cloud Spending: Avoiding the Steep Cost of Unchecked Cloud Growth” - Part 3: Best Practices for Cloud Spend Optimization.

1 http://www.parkmycloud.com/blog/it-spending-cloud-waste/

2 RightScale 2017 State of the Cloud Report

3 https://www.sciencelogic.com/

Controlling Cloud Spending: Capturing the Great Promise of the Cloud and Controlling its Costs

We’re back with another educational series, this time addressing Controlling Cloud Spending. In part 1, we will address how cloud computing is transforming growth and innovation paths, while runaway cloud costs are creating a a tug-of-war in the C-suite. The business world will hit a major milestone within the next year, when more than half of all enterprise IT workloads will live in the cloud. As businesses in every sector race to take advantage of the potential and power of cloud computing, many CFOs and CIOs are beginning to see a significant problem emerge: Unchecked cloud usage that leads to highly unpredictable costs. These costs are on a sharp upward trend that can quickly exceed IT budgets. It’s estimated that the typical business is wasting as much as 45 percent of its cloud spend on unused instances, sub-optimal pricing and ineffective planning.2 However, even as awareness of this problem grows, most businesses lack the tools, resources and expertise to effectively reign in cloud spending and optimize cloud usage. Businesses Race to Capture the Great Promise of the Cloud Most companies are aware of the great cloud transformation occurring in the business world. By 2018, IDC predicts that 60 percent of all IT workloads will live in the cloud. Cisco projects that 83 percent of all data center traffic will be cloud-based by 2019—the majority (56 percent) residing in public clouds. Amazon Web Services (AWS), the public cloud gorilla, will hit 15 billion users in the next year (a 50-percent annual growth) and is expected to reach 50 billion users in the next five to 10 years. While experts agree that businesses have only scratched the surface of what’s possible with cloud computing, there are already powerful bright spots. Cloud-empowered businesses have the agility to quickly create systems and procure infrastructure, enabling them to respond in real time to market demands and opportunities as never before possible. Access to unlimited computing power— on-demand, without high upfront investment—is transforming growth and innovation paths. Yet, even as businesses begin seeing their cloud strategies bear fruit, they are increasingly struggling to understand and control the costs. Cloud Pains Create a Tug-of-War in the C-Suite CFOs and other executives are starting to see the results of unchecked cloud usage and spending: eye-popping monthly bills from AWS and cloud spending that is surging beyond what they previously spent on infrastructure—and well beyond any hoped-for cost savings. “Organizations are surprised by where all the money is going, watching the money flow out the door associated with various cloud solutions,” says Scott Crowder, CIO at BMC, an organization that has earned recognition for its mature cloud strategy. “It always starts out very small—and then it starts to grow exponentially.” This creates a tug-of-war in the modern digital business: Everyone from the C-suite down to the IT administrator feels pressure to shift more business workflows into the cloud. They recognize “cloud-first” as critical to remaining competitive and positioning a business with agility for the future. But without a sure way to control cloud usage and spending, there’s a looming risk that cloud computing will become a runaway expense that kills budgets—and bottom lines. Join us for the second article of our three-part blog series: “Controlling Cloud Spending: Avoiding the Steep Cost of Unchecked Cloud Growth” - Part 2: Why Cloud Costs Quickly Spiral Out of Control.

1 http://www.forbes.com/sites/ gilpress/2016/11/01/top-10-tech-predictions-for-2017-from-idc/#7deb61a52790

2 RightScale 2017 State of the Cloud Report

3 http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/solutions/ collateral/service-provider/global-cloud-index-gci/white-paper-c11-738085.pdf

Advocate’s Take on Cisco’s Intent to Acquire Viptela

Did you know that Cisco is purchasing SD-WAN provider Viptela for $610 million?  This is not surprising to us at Advocate.  We expect to see more consolidation over the next year as the carriers seek greater SD-WAN market share. This acquisition perfectly highlights the strategic need that our clients possess to split the device, access and transport into these three separate architectural components.  Such a modern architecture allows companies to control access (e.g. Internet, Ethernet), while leveraging neutral data centers to enable better traffic routing decisions and achieve higher performance for lower cost. Thus, clients can address future needs in any of the key three components without bearing the burden of entirely re-inventing their network infrastructure.

How to Implement a Successful Network Transformation – Part 3: What to Expect.

In our final article for the 3-part series “How to Implement a Successful Network Transformation”, we will address what to expect when a Network Transformation is carried out, the benefits and how to get started on your journey.What to Expect Network Transformation does more than simply transform your network.  It transforms your IT department, the way you do business and your bottom line. According to the “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide CIO Agenda 2016 Predictions” report, CIOs are focused on legacy IT services and how to maintain them with limited budgets, while increasing digital transformation within the business.  When the IT department has help understanding what they have and what they need, it can then help align the business to industry best practices to power a cloud-enabled network and application connectivity for better productivity and cost savings. No longer will they deal with recurring issues around cost, unreliability and speed – the IT department is now a value-add to the organization that is known for reliability and business acumen.  No longer is it a group in the corner; it’s on the forefront of driving the enterprise and innovation. Other results include:

• Enabling geographic movements of key business processes.
• Providing consistent network performance.
• Better handle on network costs.
• Improving reliability.
• Open access to the application ecosystem.

How to Implement a Successful Network Transformation – Part 2: What Inspires Network Transformation?

<em>Welcome to part 2 of the series “How to Implement a Successful Network Transformation”.  It’s vital that companies recognize the time for Network Transformation is long before they “need” it, so this article will address what often inspires such an undertaking.</em> <strong>What Inspires Network Transformation?</strong> “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide CIO Agenda 2016 Predictions” data shows that two-thirds of CEOs plan to focus on digital transformation strategies for 2016, and that CIOs will be major players in leading every department through this shift.  It also predicts by 2017, “60 percent of digital transformation initiatives will not be able to scale because of a lack of strategic architecture.” A coordinated approach to this change will be vital to success, the report found. The enterprise application environments are changing quickly from a dedicated environment to cloud-enabled solutions.  Gaining control over network performance and cost involves understanding where applications are in the cloud – and then getting closer to them and controlling data flow to the cloud. These triggers often show up in the enterprise’s bottom line, making change urgent.  For one Canadian auto parts retailer, it was clear that an aging data system need an overhaul sooner rather than later.  “The company’s stores had multiple legacy voice and data systems that did not provide the performance and cost structure necessary to meet business goals over the next three to five years,” the company IT leader said. There’s often a compelling event that inspires an enterprise to explore the possibility of Network Transformation.  The big push is often a combination of cost and performance such as being unable to control network latency on MPLS networks resulting in slow performance, out of control costs, lack of skilled workforce, acquisition of another company, etc. The realization that change is necessary may come gradually; a successful company grows its IT network over time, starting with a data center, then a network solution, and then adding to that solution piecemeal.  At some point, technology will bypass the network, overwhelming any spot fixes that have been made. As a result, it’s vital that companies recognize that the time for Network Transformation is long before they “need” it, not when things become untenable.  It’s important to recognize that these challenges don’t exist only within the enterprise; they are influenced by things moving quickly in the world of technology.  Increased data demands and the convergence of new application needs only magnify internal IT challenges as existing carriers with legacy networks aren’t able to keep up with network architecture needs.  On a cloud-enabled network, data can come from anywhere at any time, but legacy networks aren’t designed to optimize that traffic. <strong>How to Prepare for Network Transformation?</strong> The most important thing IT departments can do to prepare for a Network Transformation is to understand the importance of using a deliberate approach.   Figure out your strategy, then develop a plan and execute it.  Working through the shift haphazardly or trying to make a change only when the existing organization resources “have time” to do so will result in chaos. Before an enterprise gets started on the process, it will need to examine internal barriers and challenges that may slow or delay the transformation.  Finding someone who can help with the planning and implementation, identify the right solution for your needs and who can manage the new solution will go a long way toward addressing these issues. Every enterprise will have a different path through Network Transformation depending on size, industry, resources and other factors.  The evaluation and strategy development can be done in two to four months and the implementation of the solution can take six to 18 months, but it’s worth the patient effort. Join us in the upcoming final article of our NT Blog series: “<strong>How to Implement a Successful Network Transformation – Part 3: What to Expect.”</strong>

How to Implement a Successful Network Transformation – Part 1: The Technology Landscape Has Rapidly Changed.

We’re back with another educational series, this time addressing Network Transformation. In part 1, we will address the changing landscape and why such an undertaking has become necessary.The Technology Landscape Has Rapidly Changed. Consider that just five years ago, the majority of an enterprise’s applications were hosted within the four corners of a private data center – one they built or a third-party colocation provider.  They had dedicated servers and applications hosted on those servers, and a network that came into that data center. But in the face of today’s evolving cloud environments, legacy network architectures simply aren’t ready.  As enterprises keep pushing sensitive applications that contain sales, marketing, HR and other business data beyond their four walls, they will be looking for ways to better control the data security and performance.  With even routine business functions being performed on cloud-based applications such as Microsoft® O365 (used by 30 percent of companies with more than 1,000 employees), companies are finding legacy networks are negatively affecting user experience and data performance.  Because the WAN is often neglected as part of the process, the modernization of data applications via cloud-enabled solutions experience slow adoption, higher than expected costs and long implementations. And this pace of change will only accelerate: According to its research, Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020.  In 2016, 5.5 million new things will get connected every day.* Is Your IT Infrastructure Ready? To address these challenges, leading enterprises have embraced a better way: Network Transformation.  Network Transformation provides a roadmap for the enterprise to modernize their information technology infrastructure focused on cost reduction, performance improvement and cloud enablement. Network Transformation enables smarter data delivery via a more efficient, high-speed, lower cost network that is ready to handle your toughest data challenges.  This series will explore some of the triggers that prompt enterprises to consider Network Transformation, how to prepare for it, and the results they can achieve through implementation. *Gartner Press Release, Gartner Says 6.4 Billion Connected “Things” Will Be in Use in 2016, Up 30 Percent From 2015, November 10, 2015, http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3165317

The Broken Promise of Telecom Expense Management - Part 3: Let's Fix This!

Welcome to our final part in the blog series “The Broken Promise of Telecom Expense Management:  As discussed, many find that old platforms do not work as promised, management shakeups at providers create uncertainty and financial challenges hold some TEM companies back.  This chaos demands a re-evaluation of the initially transactional goals of TEM. This 3-part blog series has served to enlighten enterprise leaders to understand the challenges of TEM, prepare their organizations for TEM transformation and describe the steps to unlock TEM potential. You may be asking “so what do I do about it?” We wouldn’t point out a problem without the solution!  Read on to learn how to transform your organizations TEM.Prepare Your Organization for Transformation It’s time to rethink your TEM function. Enterprises should take advantage of managed services beyond telecom to include network, mobile, unified communications, data center, IaaS and other usage-based IT services. Leaders must move beyond mere “expense management” and consider a full suite of services that include procurement and sourcing management, invoice management, order and inventory management, audit and dispute management, carrier and contract management, business intelligence and overall strategic value, also known as Technology Lifecycle Service Management. Only by embracing the concept of Technology Lifecycle Service Management will enterprises be taking the first step in preparing for transformation. If that is the first step, then here’s what they must do next. Evaluate Goals and Objectives Enterprises must re-evaluate their goals and objectives for Technology Lifecycle Service Management and expand them to address cost, performance, utilization and analytics for overall service management. They must move beyond low-bar expectations such as “pay bills on time” or “keep the network up” and instead set goals that advance their technology capabilities. Get Buy-In from the Top In enterprises that don’t have a strong Technology Lifecycle Service Management program in place, TEM reports and results become less relevant to executive leadership and end up getting lost or ignored as they move up the corporate hierarchy. TEM becomes an excessively tactical exercise with little strategic relevance. It is critical to obtain buy-in from executive leadership to ensure that strategic cost savings continue to be real, achievable and re-invested in the most productive ways possible. Identify Ownership This one is simple: TEM is a tech issue, especially if an organization is going to embrace Technology Lifecycle Service Management. As such, it should be owned primarily by IT and overseen by the CIO. Only then can the insights and outcomes of TEM be leveraged to better support the company’s technology infrastructure. Rethink Your Model Map out a fundamentally different model — platform plus people, processes and expertise. You must build a methodology around Technology Lifecycle Service Management and that will require investments. The enterprise must see the big picture in order to develop a transformational Technology Lifecycle Service Management program. Commit Yourself to Transparency Change can be painful, and transparency among IT and finance doesn’t always come easy. TEM can improve that situation by examining what is and what is not working.  Whether you’re working with a partner or on your own, management must share access to people, systems and information as they try to get clarity on the big picture. Unlock the Potential Once you have prepared for change, it’s time to assess your current TEM environment: platform, people, processes and information. You’ll need to:

• Discover your current and potential state of TEM by reviewing bills and analyzing your entire telecom environment for redundancies and deficiencies.
• Assess your architecture, technology, people and processes. This includes sourcing, ordering and provisioning, inventory, invoices, contracts, usage, and dispute and reporting processes, as well as the people who are responsible for these processes.
• Plan a strategy for change, establishing the total cost of any changes that must be made in architecture, processes and policy.
• Solve, Implement and Manage solutions to generate the reports you need to take advantage of the transparency and value Technology Lifecycle Service Management can provide.

The Broken Promise of Telecom Expense Management - Part 2: What is the Challenge?

When enterprises hear about the potential of TEM, they look forward to achieving deep savings from their current telecom environment. The problem is, these solutions are often implemented in a haphazard way that leaves much of their potential beyond the reach of the software itself. The software simply becomes a fancy but inefficient bill-payer, losing any promise of continuous business intelligence to improve technology decisions. A Broken Industry Promise TEM was originally positioned by the industry as a software-only solution with the hope of simply loading in inventory data and taking insights into cost-savings opportunities out. However, many solutions remain stuck in a purely transactional mode — relegated to providing transactional reports, rather than achieving data-driven insights that help enterprises identify efficiencies and achieve significant savings. The reality is TEM is merely a tool for data storage. Internal Complacency Many enterprises didn’t realize that they needed to infuse innovation and creativity into their processes to get the most out of their TEM solution.  Apathy toward exceptional internal service management led to failure on their part to realize millions of dollars in unclaimed savings and efficiencies. Poor Internal Ownership/Visibility There’s often confusion around who owns TEM, with IT and finance both serving as stakeholders. With no single owner, no one owns it outright. Compounded by the different goals inherent in these two teams (service management vs. savings), the real value of TEM falls through the cracks and remains unrealized. Antiquated Software Platform The 15-year old antiquated software platform, from user interfaces to manual back-end processes and a lack of automation, makes it difficult to gain visibility into your actual services and spend. TEM has not adapted to new technologies such as mobile devices, colo and usage-based IT services. For example, legacy billing systems produce invoices with error rates of 12 to 20%, industry research has indicated. Competition on Price, Not Service Mergers, takeovers and VC-backed solution providers are all vying to serve at the top of a “mature, fractured and highly competitive market,” Gartner says. As a result, many are competing on price rather than the level of service they offer. According to Gartner, “mobile TEM engagements have been undercut by as much as 30% in competitive bid situations.” In many cases, enterprises pick a solution based only on cost; as they do so, much of the solution’s potential is lost.* Lack of Continued Investment It’s not enough to purchase a platform and then hope it does the job without periodic audits. Enterprises need people, processes and expertise around their platform — and some organizations are unwilling or unable to make those investments. Without it, their TEM platform ends up being a glorified bill-payer (at best). With these as well as other challenges, it is no wonder that many Enterprises are frustrated with the results.  Join us in the upcoming final article of our TEM Blog series: “The Broken Promise of Telecom Expense Management – Part 3: Let’s Fix This!” *Gartner: Competitive Landscape, Independent Telecom Expense Management Providers, 2016

The Broken Promise of Telecom Expense Management - Part 1: Why does a Challenge Exist?

Old platforms do not work as promised, management shakeups at providers create uncertainty and financial challenges hold some TEM companies back.  This chaos demands a re-evaluation of the initially transactional goals of TEM. This three-part blog series will help enterprise leaders understand the challenges of TEM, prepare their organizations for TEM transformation and describe the steps to unlock TEM potential. Changing enterprise telecom needs and recent disruption within the Telecom Expense Management (TEM) industry have brought TEM back into the spotlight after years on the back burner. TEM is a tedious and time-consuming process that, for many enterprises, has turned into an exercise focused on merely getting the bills paid instead of enabling continuous business intelligence to improve technology decisions. As the approximately $2 billion industry approaches its third decade, it represents a confusing and volatile playing field for enterprises. Old platforms do not work as promised, management shakeups at providers create uncertainty and financial challenges hold some TEM companies back. In addition, according to Gartner, competitive bidding and prominent acquisitions that consolidate software and services have further disrupted the industry. Finally, most TEM sourcing and inventory management solutions are similar, Gartner says, and differentiation is only apparent in the user interface experience and service delivery model.* These factors contribute to one of the biggest challenges that enterprises have when dealing with TEM: a broken promise. They hear about TEM systems that will provide deep insights into sourcing, ordering and provisioning, inventory, invoices, contracts, usage, and dispute and reporting processes, as well as cost savings. But when the software is implemented, they only see a platform that helps them process invoices.  How can Enterprises avoid the field of “lost dreams” with this potentially powerful tool? That will be discussed in “The Broken Promise of Telecom Expense Management – Part 2: What is the Challenge?” *Gartner: Competitive Landscape, Independent Telecom Expense Management Providers, 2016

Insiders’ Pumped Up by Advocate’s 2017 Strategy Kick-Off

Advocate held its 2017 Insider Strategy Kick-Off from 12:30 pm to 5:00 pm at the Hilton Atlanta Northeast in Norcross, Georgia on January 25.  Upon arrival, Insiders were treated to a delicious Fiesta Taco Bar catered lunch and a 2016 photo montage of their activities to watch. Advocate’s co-founders and presidents, Tim Wise and Scott Fogle, got the party started by dancing to hip-hop music in gold lamé jackets and hats with enthusiastic applause from the growing Insider community.  Following their opening remarks, Manhattan Associates’ CIO Chris Lindner gave an inspirational speech about how millennials are changing the IT landscape and how it affects the workplace. Insiders learned about the company’s 2017 strategic initiatives, its new health and wellness program and ways Advocate plans to increase its rewards for its employees throughout the year with quarterly incentive pay, an annual top performer trip, professional training and development opportunities, special events, fun activities and monthly team lunches. Other segments of the kick-off included discussions about the 2017 organizational, sales, exceptional client service delivery and satisfaction plans.  During the event, Insiders were excited to learn that they performed 444 hours of community service in 2016.  What a way to give back! After the kick-off, Insiders were invited to attend happy hour with Advocate’s co-founders at nearby Noble Fin, where they were enjoyed drinks and hors d’oeuvres. The 2017 Insiders Kick-Off was off the chain!  Advocate looks forward to continuing its smart growth, rewarding its high-performing Insiders and working better, smarter and faster together with its clients in 2017.  What a fun way to kick-off 2017!

Check Out the Highlights of Advocate’s Events from Q4 2016

At Advocate, Insiders are more than just IT experts.  We are fun and interesting people who enjoy spending time with each other inside and outside the office: performing community service, playing in the Insider Jam band and attending company parties and outings.  Here are some highlights of Advocate’s Q4 2016 events: October 6, Advocate and ISG team members had fun while networking at Slingshot Entertainment! October 7, Insiders attended the 25th Annual High Tech Prayer Breakfast in Atlanta where technology business people explored faith and networked. October 10, Advocate's Scott Fogle enjoyed NCR’s IT Services Golf Outing today with fellow IT leaders where he networked, played golf and a blast! October 8, Insiders cheered for Insider Mona Fetta and others at the Susan G. Komen’s 3-Day Walk against breast cancer! October 13, Advocate was a proud sponsor of ATP’s 2016 Awards Gala in Atlanta!  Several Insiders were on hand to relish the festivities such as Tim Wise, Chad Doiron and Emily Ashley. October 20, Insiders attended the WIT Forum "Making the most of first impressions”, where they learned about how body language affects your first impression of others. October 21, Students from UGA’s Career Center enjoyed a tour of Advocate today to see what it's like working for a 10x in a row Inc. 5000 winner. October 31, Advocate celebrated Halloween today with a devilishly fun costume contest. November 2-4, Advocate hosted its annual Cloud and Connectivity Insider Summit in Charleston, SC at the Belmond Charleston Place Hotel where more than 30 IT leaders from companies like Equinix, First Data, Newell Rubbermaid, Oldcastle Materials Group, Sage Software and many more participated in engaging panels about some of the most thought-provoking trends in cloud, connectivity and unified communications. November 5, Advocate proudly sponsored the 2016 Technology Ball at which 50 CIOs/CTOs from the Dallas/Ft. Worth technology community came together to network and support initiatives to create future technology leaders through STEM partnerships. November 8, Advocate's Carrisa Jones applauded Rigor for hosting an amazing Immersion Experience for WIT Girls! November 9, As a proud underwriter sponsor of DallasCIO, Advocate’s Scott Fogle and Casey Ward attended DallasCIO’s CIO of the Year Nominee Reception where they networked with fellow CIOs in the DFW area. November 10, Several Insiders attended WIT’s Women of the Year (WOTY) Awards at the Georgia Aquarium. November 11, Advocate performed community service at the Furniture Bank of Atlanta by unboxing/organizing kitchen items, sorting/folding of linens and building furniture. November 12, Insiders loved volunteering for a second time this year at PAWS Atlanta where they helped homeless pets in need of new forever homes.  In fact, Insider Cyndi Owings adopted Greta that day — a dog that joined her household of six cats, one hamster and one husband. November 16, Advocate held its annual Thanksgiving Potluck & Casserole Contest, which was very competitive as usual! December 2, Advocate hosted its annual Holiday Party at Atlanta’s Inman Park Trolley Barn.  Insiders were treated to great music, dancing, delicious food, festive drinks, King of Pops popsicles, a Starlite Photo Booth and a skit contest.  There was even a post-holiday party bus for those who wanted to keep the party going! December 3, It is an annual tradition for Insiders to volunteer at The Christmas Parade.  This year, it was no exception! December 8, Advocate's Carrisa and Victoria Jones prepared girls for careers in STEM at WIT’s Behind the Scenes at State Farm. December 15, Advocate held its Annual End of 2016 Awards Ceremony, which is an enormously festive event that recognizes the contributions, teamwork and achievements of its Insiders.  It also included an ugly sweater contest and an employee bake-off.  Even Co-founder and CEO Scott Fogle got into the holiday spirit by wearing a Poinsettia suit!  Read more about this event in our blog article. December 21, Advocate’s 2016 Rookie of the Year Jennifer Meeks joined Insider Carrisa Jones at the WIT’s Forum WOTY Women in Leadership: Success Stories, Challenges and Triumphs event. There are plenty of fantastic events planned for 2017.  Stay tuned!  

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