Wondering why your new PC or Mac is beginning to lose steam? The reasons might be several including a highly fragmented hard drive, numerous programs running simultaneously in the background or a detrimental malware. Frank Johnson whisks a few easy-to-do tips to speed up your PC or Mac.

Clean up your start up items: It is painful to wait for minutes after hitting the power button of your machine before actually getting to start your work. From a few seconds to over 2 minutes, the waiting time can be really frustrating. The reason why your PC or Mac boots up so painstakingly is because there are a host of programs that are getting activated at the same time. Most of these programs will launch themselves automatically on start up. Thankfully, this delay can be tackled.

In the previous article we got an insight into Linux and the pros and cons of using it. In this article Frank Johnson makes a thorough comparison between Windows and Linux along with delving into the advantages and disadvantages of Linux in details.

When it comes to choosing between Windows and Linux, most of us would prefer to go with the known demon – Windows – than spend time in exploring Linux, which is fairly new and has still not been adopted in most parts of the world as good old Windows. However, before making any judgements, we must take a look at the features that this relatively new OS may have over Windows that has undoubtedly ruled the computer world over decades and see if we do have a better choice worth considering.

Linux operating system became a popular alternative to the operating systems from Microsoft Corporation that are generally installed on new personal computers. Linux is probably the best known example of ‘open-source’ software and its source code is freely available on the Internet. Frank Johnson delves further into the details of this system, its advantages and drawbacks.

An energy efficient IT policy can optimize an organization’s performance by helping it cut down on its electrical consumption, diminish its need for facilities and lessen its capital expenditure on server, storage and other such IT devices.Frank Johnson further delves into the concept of ‘going green’ to see how organizations are making the best of it.

In the previous article we learnt about the severe IT power crisis and the need for server virtualization. Let us now look at what goes into making an energy efficient IT infrastructure.

The goal may be to reduce cost, save the environment or keep the data center running, but excessive energy consumption has become a critical issue for most of the organizations using IT systems. Frank Johnson discusses the need for energy efficiency and the server virtualization technique to reduce power cost and increase resource utilization.

The IT Power Crises:The consumption of power is a critical issue in the domain of IT organizations. Computing equipment has become increasingly dense and energy costs are on the rise. Many datacenters even lack adequate electrical power or space that IT services require. Industry analysts estimate that annual costs of powering a server may soon exceed its acquisition cost.

The new outcome-based technology outsourcing service model known as Managed Services indeed supports Information technology’s newly acquired role as a business growth enabler. But how are companies coping up with this new paradigm shift of IT outsourcing? Frank Johnson finds out.

Managed services may be hailed as the best model for businesses with a long term growth plan to adopt IT outsourcing. As the holy grail of technology outsourcing, the Managed Services model is equally beneficial for the vendors as much as it is for the outsourcing organization.

In the previous article, we learnt some of the salient features of the Managed Services. Let us revise the key traits of this model before moving on to evaluate its benefits and risks:

•     The fully outsourced managed Services model endows the vendor with complete responsibility of deliverables.
•     Vendors acquire complete decision making authority in carrying out their responsibilities to meet the quality and timeline of the deliverables.
•     The budget for a project is calculated on a per-personnel basis and is fixed for a certain time span. Sometimes, it is also fixed for the entire project, making it a ‘fixed priced’ managed service.
•     In fixed price managed services, the vendors get a free-hand in making important decisions pertaining to the deliverables. He may allocate shared resources for a task too.
•     Managed Services are adopted when the scope of a project is clearly charted out.
•     The success of the model depends upon the vendor’s understanding of the client’s exact requirement.
•     The client acts as a reviewer and is also responsible for budget tracking and contract management.
•     The vendor selects the resources and manages the expectations of the stakeholders.
•     There is a comprehensive Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for each desired deliverable as per the contract. Breaching the contract in any way may amount to a penalty.
•     Deliveries can be onshore, offshore or both.

Business organizations typically adopt the Managed Services model as a continuation of their existing Staff Augmentation commitment and not from day one of a project roll-out. Let us now take a look at the benefits and potential risks involved in adopting the Managed Services model:

Benefits of Managed Services:

•     Since the vendor takes up the responsibility of delivery and management of stakeholder expectations, the client can divert its attention to other important strategic initiatives.   
•     Vendors enjoy the freedom and the ‘interference-free’ work environment. This enhances their project-management capability.
•     Vendors are also able to formulate long term strategies that can benefit the client – directly or indirectly.
•     Vendors further gain the power to apply their knowledge of best practices into the project. This boosts the performance of the personnel and helps to leverage the best productivity from the available resources.  
•     The Service Level Agreement (SLA) gives the client a complete peace of mind about managing stakeholder expectations.
•     The SLA driven approach also makes process improvements possible, thereby delivering significant and quantifiable benefits to the client.
•     Knowledge acquisition and retention becomes streamlined and sustainable.

Risks involved in Managed Services

•     Vendors may sometimes be reluctant to take up additional responsibilities of management.
•     A vendor’s non-understanding of the client’s requirements may affect the deliverables. A communication gap may further deteriorate the matter, causing grave loss of time, money and resources.
•     Blames games are common in a multi-vendor scenario. While one vendor takes care of infrastructure, the other manages applications. A lack of mutual understanding between them, a communication gap or reluctance in taking up responsibilities may have negative consequences on the project and may cause a huge loss to the client organization.
•     Process improvements may sometimes amount to cutting down on the number of personnel involved in the project. Such a scenario may not be found favorable to a vendor who may suffer due to a mismatch and a consequent loss in his billing.
•     Re-allocation of an existing contract due to non conformance to the SLA or any other performance or delivery issue may pose a new challenge in front of the client. While the existing vendor will seldom be cooperative, the re-allocation may cost the client organization a fresh investment.

These were some of the benefits and risks of Managed Services. It must be remembered that while choosing to adopt the Managed Services model, organizations or businesses must define the scope of their desired deliverables as clearly as they map the IT work scope. This is the key to a successful outsource-based management and it helps organizations to measure their desired results, both in terms of delivery as well as performance metrics. In both scenarios clarity and risk identification are equally important.

Avoiding Risks
The five most important steps of a well planned outcome based Managed Services model are:

•     Planning
•     Transition
•     Stabilization
•     Improvement
•     Optimization

Of the above-mentioned stages, transition is indeed the most complex and this is precisely why it constitutes the maximum risks. Top level management at an organization may hesitate in sharing (or outsourcing!) their managerial role to a vendor who is the third-party in a Managed Services model. However, with careful planning, risk identification and mitigation, both the client and the vendor can arrive at the desired results.

Careful planning:As mentioned earlier, the first step towards a successful project is careful and meticulous planning. A project plan typically defines the scope of work, the desired outcomes, all important delivery deadlines and the cost – each aspect customized to the client’s requirements to provide maximum value and sustainability. Once communication is forged between a client and a vendor, the potential risks can be easily identified and mitigated by both the teams.

Open lines of communication:Open and constant communication between client organizations and vendors keeps the picture clear, keeps both the parties on their toes and ensures optimized productivity leading to a successful implementation and completion of the project. The vendor can adapt to the client’s culture and communication style and further assist in resolving unforeseen hindrances in order to arrive at the shared goals in an quick and efficient manner.

Breaking down of the transition process:Another way to mitigate risks in a Managed Services model is by dividing the transition process into small sub phases and establish a portfolio based approach. This will help both clients and vendors to pay attention on the most intricate details of the task at hand, contain the risks at a natal stage and prevent it from spilling over the next stage of the process.

The main aim of Managed Services is to free the IT subject matter experts and the top management in any organization from their traditional maintenance, support and project management functions. A well implemented Managed Services model allows them to concentrate on other strategic areas of business, play a vital role in initiating innovative growth initiatives and lead the organization to an all-round development.

This article by Frank Johnson is in continuation to his series on ‘Managed Services’.  Frank is a regular editorial contributor on technology products and services that help small to mid size businesses.  To know more about Project Management applications and strategies, you may interact with him here

Managed Services may be defined as running a set of services for a client on agreed outcome, measured as Service Level Agreements and Key Performance Indicators for a fixed price. Frank Johnson elucidates the concept further and explains the different types of IT based managed services.

A vendor offering managed services may deliver and manage network-based services, applications and equipment to enterprises or other service providers. Managed service providers may be hosting companies or access providers.

Business organizations need to be very alert and vigilant to maintain the confidentiality of their data and work details. The impact of security breach can be far greater than a business can expect. Loss of sensitive information may not only affect competitiveness or cash flow but can eventually damage business reputation. Frank Johnson delves deeper into the different aspects of Business Security.

Business organizations increasingly rely on IT Support for their operations and this makes them vulnerable to threats from hackers, viruses and in some cases even from their own staff. There can be intentional or erroneous actions that lead to loss of data or corruption of files. Having the correct information at the right time is crucial to decision making and this in turn makes the difference between the success and failure of a business.