News roundup: February 2023

ITAM News & Analysis

News roundup: February 2023

What happened in and around the ITAM sector in February 2023?

Millions wasted as only 45% of IT investments achieve ROI

According to a new report by Userlane and PwC, most organisations are struggling with digitisation and struggling to get a real ROI on their IT investments. This is the headline finding from the CIOs guide to measuring Digital Adoption report, which was based on a survey of 255 UK CIOs.

The report found that the average large organisation completes five major software purchases and implementations every year, at an average cost of over £2.2m.

However, in a figure that should concern CIOs and CFOs everywhere, fewer than half of software purchases (45%) met or exceeded their expected ROI. The report deduces that with more than half of projects failing to deliver the intended ROI, the average firm is losing over £6m annually.

Another finding from the report which is unlikely to come as a surprise to many of us, is that CIOs estimate that employees use an average of just 40% of the available features in the software they use. This means that 60% of the software features organisations are paying for are wasted.

From our perspective this is a good argument for purchasing 2nd-hand software. If your users don’t need all the features in the latest release, just buy the old version at a significant discount. On the flipside, just because people aren’t using the features now doesn’t mean that’s the best situation. There are likely loads of features in M365 that we don’t use, but if we did, we’d all be better off! We’d save money by removing other duplicate software but also – and perhaps more importantly – we’d be more productive and get more done more quickly.

While users not using every software feature isn’t strictly ITAM’s responsibility, ITAM can help CIOs by reducing software waste elsewhere in order to offset the cost of unused software features. ITAM can also help by making a plan for how to better use more of the available software features.

Organizations Prioritize Modernization of Java Apps

Yet more Java news. Hot off the heels of Java’s switch to employee count licensing in January, a survey published in February found that modernising existing Java applications is a higher priority than other projects for 87% of respondents, with more than 80% of these applications expected to be re-engineered over the next five years.

The survey conducted by the market research firm Vanson Bourne on behalf of Diffblue polled 450 IT professionals working in organizations in the U.S. and UK that had more than 500 employees.

In a figure that will make Larry Ellison very happy indeed, the survey found 96% of respondents considered Java applications extremely or very important to their organizations, with only 4% saying they planned to migrate away from Java as part of a modernization effort. Given the survey was conducted in the autumn of 2022, I wonder what these IT professionals would say now in light of the Java cost hike that was announced last month? My guess is that many more than 4% will be looking to migrate away from Java.

They could benefit from reading our ITAM Managers’ Guide to removing Oracle Java and completing the Java Cost Calculator. Just sayin...

SHI VP steps down

SHI’s UK VP of International Accounts (EMEA) Donavan Hutchinson announced he was leaving the reseller this month. Donavan first joined SHI as UK MD in January 2021 and was promoted to VP of International Accounts (EMEA) just last month.

In his announcement on LinkedIn, Donavan stated “This week marks another milestone in my career as I decided to leave SHI and said farewell to my amazing colleagues to allow me to take time out to focus on my own personal goals following the completion of the tasks set to me when I first joined the business. The last few years have been absolutely incredible having worked with a great team on the transformation of the UK business. From setting up new office locations and configuration center, adding additional capabilities, entering into new markets, becoming one of the most technically certified Cisco partners in EMEA, setting up and expanding DEI efforts across the globe with the creation of EMBRACE, growing headcount , revenues and GM ahead of market competition and working alongside so many amazing and talented individuals who I have come to know and support across the globe.”

We wish Donavan well in his next role, wherever that may be.

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