Minimal IT - Minimal IT cost model

Minimal IT cost model

This model uses Javascript. To run the model yourself, you must enable Javascript. In Internet Explorer, you might see a yellow bar at the top of the screen. Click on the yellow bar, and then select "Allow Blocked Content..." Then select "Yes" on the security warning box. If you cannot enable Javascript, enter the figures in the model. At the bottom of the page, enter your email address and send the figures to us using the "Submit" button at the end. We will email an analysis back to you within 72 hours.

The Minimal IT cost model shows you where to look for IT cost savings. Please read about the cost model for information about the model, including conditions for its use.

After you have used the model, we would very much like to include your figures in a survey. Please see the form at the bottom of the page for more details.

If you want to get a feel for the model, click to put some sample values into the model.

IT budget

Break down your annual IT budget into four categories:

Hardware and software

Hardware and software spend.

Operations and support staff

Staff costs for operating and supporting your IT.
Include operations staff, help desk, and staff who fix problems.
Include time spent by technical staff on supporting the live IT.
Include time spent on technology upgrades and refreshes.
Include operation and support management costs.

Project costs

Total costs of running business change projects.
Include all staff time and other project costs.
Include the costs of modifying existing systems to meet new business requirements.
Include project management costs.
Do not include hardware and software costs.

Other costs

Other costs.

Currency

The currency for your IT budget.

Budget splits

Estimate how your IT budget splits down.

Business scale

Percentage of your total infrastructure and support costs (hardware and software, and operations and support staff) that increases directly in proportion to the size of the business, and does not depend to any significant extent on the nature of the IT systems that are used. This is typically PC costs, the cost of branch-based infrastructure, and network costs.
The opposite is costs that increase with the size of the business but also depend significantly on the nature of the IT systems that are used. This is typically the cost of data centre systems.

New systems

Percentage of project spend on totally new systems.
The opposite is spend on modification of existing systems.

Analysis

Percentage of project spend on analysis phase.
The opposite is spend on design, development, testing and implementation.

Cost reduction assumptions

Give assumptions about factors that influence cost reduction.

Abandoned in analysis

Percentage of projects that are abandoned during or at the end of analysis.

Abandoned in development

Out of the projects that start development, the percentage that are abandoned before implementation.

Functionality not used

Of all the functionality of your live systems, the percentage that is not used.

Average duplication

Total functionality divided by unique functionality.
For example, if you produce for the same person two different reports with the same figures, that is a duplication of 2.
Estimate an average figure across all of your IT.
Enter a figure between 1 and 5.
Use decimals where appropriate.

Average complexity

Size of implementation divided by size of simplest equivalent implementation.
For example, if your system has 1000 lines of functional code, but is surrounded by an additional 500 lines of wrapper to deal with a non-standard technology, that is a complexity of 1500 / 1000 = 1.5
Estimate an average figure across all of your IT.
Enter a figure between 1 and 5.
Use decimals where appropriate.

Method improvement

Percentage improvement that you could achieve in the efficiency of your project processes, for example by adopting agile methods.

Commodity saving

Percentage cost reduction you could achieve in your total hardware and software budget, for example by adopting commodity hardware and free software.

Results

	Current	Notes	Revised	Saving	% Saving
Services - hardware and software
Business scale		c
IT scale		c,f

Services - people
Business scale
IT scale		f

Project costs
Analysis		a,d,m
New development		d,m
Modification		d,f,m


Other

Total

Notes

a	Reduced for projects abandoned during analysis
c	Reduced for use of commodity hardware and free software
d	Reduced for projects abandoned during development and never implemented
f	Reduced for unused, duplicated and complicated functionality
m	Reduced for method improvements

Survey (optional)

We would like to include your figures in our survey, to understand how businesses in different sectors and different countries can reduce their IT costs.

If you would like to take part in our survey:

Enter into the model your best estimates for your business.
Fill in as many of the fields below as you can.
Click on Submit survey.

We will not publish your name, email address or business name. Our survey will only show average figures, broken down by country and business type.

If you give us your email address, we will email you with the results of the survey. We will not use the email address you give us for marketing purposes.

If you have any further questions or comments, or would like us to contact you to discuss the survey further, please let us know in the comments section. Remember to give us your email address if you want us to contact you.

Thanks for your help.

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