News & Insights

What business learning can we acknowledge while competing in the annual international Snow Sculpting completion, Shapes in White in Ischgl . This year’s theme was the Circus and the UK entry was the Ring Master. But what lessons did we learn that we could use in everyday business. Communication – always come top in any […]

Before you go off for a break, or take a holiday you want to ensure your systems are in the best shape. So here is a checklist that will help you to focus on the key areas: Check all disk space and have a good tidy up e.g. clean out any accumulated files, archive old […]

Imperators is a collective of experienced IT leadership and business change specialists. It has seen many organisations become embroiled in tricky situations with failing projects and stumbling change initiatives. Rather than simply providing extra manpower or effort, Imperators offers a step change in project direction and leadership through its unique synthesis of industry best practices […]

To ensure a smooth running IT system or services follow these simple steps: Review- assess and document your current estate so you have a snapshot of your IT infrastructure and services Design- capture your requirements and architect your infrastructure providing a road map for the future Build- plan, document and commission the services to ensure […]

Maintaining the hardware on your estate can be an expensive task with a number of options of how to approach it. Here are some things to think about hardware management: Warranty management – replace equipment at the end of the manufacturer’s warranty period and maintain a number of spare machines to switch to in the […]

Change management is there to mitigate and highlight risk. It may not be the author that approves or implements the change therefore these are the 7 points that should appear on a Change Request regardless of the form used: Reason/Justification for change – This is the justification that the risk and subsequent costs are worthwhile. […]

As pressure mounts to improve environmental awareness, reduce carbon footprint and comply with government regulations your IT systems and services are far from exempt. Thinking about the environment does not mean additional expense; in most cases it can save you money at the same time. A few quick wins are: Virtualisation – Consolidate multiple server […]

Have you been in those meetings with the vendors where they start to quote the TCO (total cost of ownership) and ROI (return on investment) figures that practically show the systems paying for themselves in saving within 8 months? Most of these figures are based on a view of operational costs and acquisition costs but […]

Be careful of designing by committee. This is one of those tips that is not only IT related but is evident in many ways systems and services are constructed and then provided. While it is important to solicit opinion and views from many different sources it is also true that you must keep focused on […]

If you have outsourced your services how do you know they are delivering on the values you require or have requested? It is important to ensure you have measures and monitors in place to regularly review what is happening across your estate to ensure you are getting the value you require. Make sure these are […]

Unplanned outages are painful and costly, as such should not be tolerated lightly. Yet do you know the root cause of each of your outages and what has been done to mitigate it happening in the future? Make sure you receive a service outage analysis next time and make sure it contains: When it started […]

“To Err is Human” is as true with IT systems as with any other systems. At each point that people have to interact with the system, so increases the number of errors that are introduced. Where possible, any repetitive task that users perform such as copying data between systems on a regular basis, should be […]

A good outsourcing relationship is where all parties are happy, the users are serviced and the systems run as required. But do you find yourself reaching for the contract? It requires flexibility on between yourself and your supplier to maintain the essence of the agreement and not get bogged down in minor issues. If you […]

IT never stands still and what was a good idea today will probably be the worst tomorrow. As such you will need to continually assess the systems and services that you have put in place. For example, are they still delivering what they were designed to do? Have the requirements changed and are they still […]

Do you have an IT security policy? If so when was it last reviewed and does it cover you’re current working practices? An IT security policy is a living document(s) and needs to reflect the systems and services that your company uses. A security policy is important as it defines what you are securing, why […]

No set of IT tips would be complete without mentioning passwords, more specifically choosing a good password: Choose a Strong Password… Choose at least 8 characters including a combination of numbers and letters and uppercase letters. Contain symbols, such as ` ! ” ? $ ? % ^ & * ( ) _ – + […]

Each year the BCS, (The Chartered Institute for IT champions the global IT profession and the interests of individuals engaged in the IT profession) compile the annual IT Strategy book – ‘Digital Leaders’. The book covers a wide range of subject areas, including IT Strategy, Green IT, Learning & Development, Communications, Security, Applications Development, Service […]

It is easy to install a system or service and not understand how it is performing or when it needs some attention. Take to look at all the components that make up your system or service and ensure that the correct measures are being recorded. This will give you valuable information to help diagnose issues, […]

Virtualisation is an industry buzzword that is used alongside cloud computing but what do you need to think about when you are implementing it? (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJncFirhjPg for simple overview of cloud computing explained). Are you looking for infrastructure service consolidation, to reduce your hardware footprint and costs? Do you want to improve your Disaster recovery and […]

Understanding how your systems will grow is important, as it will help you predict when you will need to increase the resources available to it. This is where knowing how you can scale your system or service becomes imperative. Can you simply add more servers to it to improve through put or size or do […]

In your IT estate: How many computers do you have? What about printers? How many copies of Windows? What service pack level are they? What do they connect to? If you are planning to take the business forward then you must know where you are starting from and there resources you already have available. Therefore […]

Cancel contracts for equipment you no longer use. This may sounds simple but when looking at the costs for many IT departments there are many services which when analysed are only paid for because they always have done. A well-implemented configuration management database should help you identify what is in use and also what contracts […]

Working with your IT department is vitally important; they have the specialised expertise to keep your organisation up and running. Therefore it is vital that you take the time to understand key individuals specialisms or expertise. This can be key when you want to implement new technology to improve business systems, as their knowledge can […]

IT systems architecture is not a prescriptive or fixed in stone document outlining every detail of the build of a system but the encapsulation of the overall objective in generalised terms. It is akin to a business plan in that the goals, objectives and outlines of the business are described but the day-to-day mechanics of […]

“Bring on the flooding, bring on the earthquake, bring on the raging fires and let them burn my office to the ground… you can’t destroy my business because my data is in the cloud” – Classroom chant 2011. Ok so it isn’t, I just made that up, but don’t all chants consist of what is […]

As IT has permeated further into every industry, the demands and expectations of service have also increased. Monday morning systems failures are no longer acceptable and neither is Sunday afternoons or 2am on a Thursday, so it is imperative as an IT team to maintain up time. The criticality of the system or service will […]

It’s 9am, Wednesday morning. The system is down, the Marketing Manager is calling you saying they have an urgent piece of work to complete now and the Sales Director is shouting that his proposal needs to be sent by 9.15am to reach the deadline! Would you prefer your response to be: “We’ll get right on […]

On premise, off premise, internally supported or outsourced is the normal conversation regarding any IT system or service and the answer is usually different for each company. To work out what is right for your company you need to consider whether you are happy with the capital investment, how sensitive the data is, what backup […]

‘Think big, act small’ is a resounding statement about running a business. This analogy can be applied to IT systems as services. Make sure when you are planning your systems and services, regardless how small it may seem, that you consider how you will maintain appropriate levels of availability, how it will scale, how it […]

Keeping your head when incidents occur can often be the difference between a speedy and successful recovery and a protracted outage period. To make sure you fall into the former category it is important to think about what you need to do in advance and document it, as it may not only be you who […]

Backwards compatibility is important when it comes to looking at new systems and services. It can be costly to replace existing applications or convert working and historic data. If you are looking to make a wholesale change to some of the fundamental services that your company works with make sure you include the soft costs […]

How many times have you heard the phrase something like “the system/code is the documentation, if you don’t know how to read it then you should not work on it?”. So you have no document for your system. There is no substitute for documentation that is kept and maintained separate from the system itself. This […]

Next time you are looking to implement a new IT system, consider some of these questions to ask the vendor: What is the business case to implement this new system? How will the business benefit from this new system? What are the system requirements both what do you want to achieve and how you want […]

Just like an insurance policy backups by their nature are dead money until you need them. To make sure you are making the most appropriate use of the space, time and money available during your backup window ensure you don’t backup: Temporary files Memory dumps Page files Hibernate files Installation files – these should be […]

Out of hours support can be a painful necessity of modern working, as systems need function around the clock. But there are a number of things you can do to minimise inconvenience: Ensure appropriate levels of resilience are in place for key systems so automatic recovery is possible or a degraded service is offered. Make […]

Patch management ensures that all the known security or stability issues are resolved. To patch or not to patch should not be a debate you have to have; yet there are so many systems out there that run without all the patches. There is the possibility that by applying security patches they will break functionality […]

Do you have a policy for new starters and a leaver’s policy for your employees? Each additional user that exists but is not used provides a drain on resources, increased complexity and potential security risk. All of which can be avoided if a good user lifecycle policy is in place. This can be implemented manually where the IT […]

You can guarantee that when the system is down, at the exact same time a user or employee they has an urgent piece of work to complete or a proposal that need to be sent NOW! Would you prefer your response to be: a) We’ll get right on it. or b) We are already looking […]

The Significant Seven Imperatives for All IT Projects Lead through change Successful projects and IT change do not simply ‘just happen’ by themselves. Employ effective project leadership that will coach and augment existing resources and will build and engender complete support from all stakeholders. Alignment and traceability Ensure that all project deliverables and success criteria […]

Load balancing and failover clustering are both methods used to increase the availability of services to make sure that your systems stay up and running. When considering whether a load balanced system or failover cluster is required remember that: With a load balanced system you will need to ensure that the data is identical across […]

The IT Imperative – IT projects can often appear to be managed successfully to completion and yet no one is really happy. Work has been done, resources deployed and budgets met, but without the firm connections of accomplishment to specific benefits for the business, the value will not be recognised, and in many cases, probably has […]

When it comes to an IT budget, money is always scarce and while your aspirations for the system will be to follow (or lead) best practice to ensure it is available, reliable and manageable you may have to succumb to cost constraints. Remember when preparing you proposal or presentation requesting funding that you need to […]

The IT Imperative – Many people talk about benefits, when they are really referring to improvements or advantages, but these are not things that have clear and tangible business value. Advantages may have benefits attached, but to be converted into actual benefits, they need to be linked to the value that is derived. Two primary axes […]

After a business has been running for a number of years the likelihood is that it will have amalgamated a number of old pieces of kit. So are these still fit for purpose? These tend to no longer be supported by the manufacturer, lack new features that could be used to improve services, may not have […]

The IT Imperative – For IT projects it is no longer sufficient to measure success based on ‘in time, in budget’ (as if they were all achieving this in any event). There has to be a direct and credible connection between investment and results. This requires an approach that combines a number of elements within frameworks […]

A succession plan is vital for seamless business continuity.  Whether it’s a new CTO or a new IT system, planning for the event will ensure success and a smooth transition. This is of increasing importance when utilising cloud or hosted services, which are located off the premises, or if you have outsourced the management of your systems and services to another provider. Ensure you […]

The IT Imperative – To avoid being overcome by the fear of driving through change or the typical stresses facing IT projects in all organisations, a clear path needs to be set out. This is not always easy for most organisations to accomplish when everyone is caught up in the day-to-day operational requirements. Many are […]

Today, companies are expected to ensure the information they work with is kept secure and in line with an ever increasing number of regulations. Here is why integrating your IT management across all systems is a good thing. This usually translates to password protection of the knowledge and information of the workers who need access […]

The IT Imperative – Making effective use of IT always brings complex challenges and changes to organisations, but now there are not only growing numbers of options available from technology, but also increasing commercial demands and constraints on the business. Ensuring that IT explicitly meets business needs has never been more important. There are many items […]

What’s happening beyond IT? Moving into 2015 businesses need to forget about having an IT strategy – to not just survive in the modern world but thrive and stride ahead of the competition, businesses need to have a business technology strategy. It is important to keep up to date on industry developments in the IT sector but it […]

The IT Imperative – It is often said that the only constant is change, and projects involving the business use of IT feel this most keenly. Not only is there the incessant undercurrent of shifts and advances in the technology itself, but there are also internal and external pressures causing business and process change across the […]

People keep asking “what is cloud computing” and with all the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) along with every marketing department having a field day converting their services to include some element of cloud, the resulting confusion is hardly surprising. So what is it? It is a metaphor for consuming IT services as a utility, […]

The IT Imperative – IT projects are always challenging, but increasing complexity means that companies face greater difficulty in ensuring that IT delivers the promised business benefits. Companies and individuals also struggle to demonstrate the direct linkages between IT investment and results. This is not only highly desirable for the organisation, it is also important for […]

Virtualisation is a technology that is usable by virtually every size business and most workloads, yet many businesses currently are not virtualising their IT workloads. Whether you are a big corporate, medium enterprise or a small business, virtualisation often makes sense from a TCO (total cost of ownership) and ROI (return on investment) perspective. Here’s five […]

Understand the benefits and drawbacks of standardisation as standardising your IT services can make you more responsive and consistent in your offerings but by commoditising you can stifle creativity and flexibility. Therefore it is important to understand what and why you are standardising to help achieve the potential cost economies, consistency and ease of planning […]

Those user errors! No IT support department is free of user errors and rather than responding with RTFM (read the flipping manual) have you considered if the issue is due to lack of clarity in the use of the system, lack of training or locally available IT advocates?

Professional Certification can lead to better visibility, opportunities and jobs when combined with years of practical hands-on experience. In today’s increasingly complex and highly specialized economy, credentials are everything. Sure, you know you’ve got the skills to do the job, but how do you convince potential customers and employers? For many career-minded professionals, certification is […]

Recording accidents and near miss whether major or minor has long been a practice employed in industry as a way to mitigate and learn from circumstances that occur in the work place. A well runs IT system should be no different. In a previous tip we discussed service outage analysis, which covers the major incidents […]

The systems you implement today will be with you for roughly five years. It is important that you select vendors who can demonstrate clarity of focus in their roadmap of your businesses future. Don’t just concentrate on who can do what now but look at who is demonstrating thoughtful leadership. This can help shape your […]

Availability is no longer a good enough measure of performance, service or satisfaction. Have you looked at your key performance indicators? How do you collect them and how you can present them to your clients? Do not focus solely on the performance counters that can be collected automatically from systems. Talking to people within your […]

Keep it simple! “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ” Leonardo da Vinci IT is no different to any other part of a business. The more complicated a solution is… the more costly it is to implement, the greater the chance of failure, the increased amount of time it is likely to be unavailable, the more […]

Is email a blessing or a burden? If you are not careful you can get inundated with email that you don’t need. One option is to unsubscribe from distribution lists that you don’t directly need to be involved in. However, please note this will only work if it was a genuine email from a genuine […]

Sometimes a password is not enough to secure your information, this becomes more paramount with the increasing number of systems and services being made available over the Internet. Your authentication mechanism is the gatekeeper to your data and if this is poor no matter how well encrypted the storage and transmission of it is there […]

Are you using roles? IT systems can quickly become difficult to manage if correct identification and classification of roles, responsibilities and access requirements are not defined up front. Keep in mind that this will be an ever changing and evolving environment where users may change roles or amalgamate roles. A simple method that has been […]

ITIL is fantastic and it is probably that you already interact with companies using some of its methodology or you are doing so within your organisation. But how’s it going? One thing we find with ITIL is that in the midst of trying to align processes to the ITIL framework, potentially to achieve ISO 20000, […]

Benefits of designing an IT strategy that aligns to your business. Now be honest Do have a business plan? And do you reference it? Do you have an IT strategy? And how often is it updated? How often do you read either of these? It is more common than you would expect that organisations either […]

The business case is clear: Well managed IT will help your organisation save money. Here’s how. Keeping your systems up to date and secured then checking them, is appropriate to every size business. Well-managed systems often make sense from a TCO (total cost of ownership) and ROI (return on investment) perspective. Here’s a break down […]

With budget cuts, increased taxation, devalued currency and the ever-forward march of companies wishing to survive, the drive to do more with less is greater than ever. Here are projects that are guaranteed to improve your efficiency, increase your productivity and reduce your costs. How many are in your business plan? 1. Enterprise Project Management […]

One of the biggest challenges businesses are currently facing is the pressure to continually maximise IT operational efficiencies. However, the real question is how to achieve this whilst maintaining a fully customer centric offering. The usual approach is centred on driving down operating costs, making staff cuts and mass process changes that ultimately result in […]

How many times does an IT project start with the great/full intention of including the user base in the decision making or asking the community for their requirements, but then fails at the first hurdle because the end user was forgotten about? By never asking them? Can you describe your organisations Working styles, user experience and […]

Consider that the first 2 or 3 companies within an industry sector benefit by being the leader and reaping the rewards of setting new standards. Everyone else ends up playing catch up, as it becomes the norm. Examples might include the move from developed photos to kiosk machines which are now available everywhere; or private […]

The one thing you can guarantee is everything changes in the business world and that also includes your computing requirements. When this change is translated to how you home and manage your servers and data, the chances are that it will lead to relocation to a new facility, or extension of your existing one. So […]

The upgrade to a new desktop operating system is a complex activity to undertake. It is also a high-profile activity, touching every user’s computer in your environment. A desktop refresh will either make or break the reputation of IT within your organisation. To mitigate risk and prepare your organisation for the Windows 8 upgrade, Imperators […]

IT Strategy and business alignment. The modern business with its underlying IT systems has now grown into a complex symbiotic relationship, in many cases this bond is not well understood. Creating an IT strategy that complements this bond while at the same time does not restrict growth, is responsive to change in direction of the […]

Form follows function is a design principle that has been set out since the early 20th Century when Louis Sullivan coined the phrase. This rule has held true throughout the development of many IT system where the functionality of the systems took precedence over how they looked or the user experience that was had in […]

When the Emperor had a problem or needed something resolved often the only way to ensure a successful outcome was to go and resolve it themselves. At the later stages of the roman empire for an Emperor to leave Rome and direct his legions on the ground was a high risk strategy so the Imperator […]

Innovation is the key aim for any business, how to work smarter, and faster, with greater quality and lower costs. But how much of this is going to waste due to organisational structure?   Before you stop reading because your corporate policy forbids a blame culture, take a look at your own organisation, business unit […]

Is your IT strategy aligned to your business, or perhaps you don’t yet have an IT strategy in place? It is more common than you would expect that organisations either don’t have an IT strategy or what they have does not reflect the goals set out in their business plan. Of those IT strategies that […]