Cloud

For Tomorrow’s IT to Succeed, Invest in Today’s Services

Today’s tools won’t satisfy tomorrow’s IT needs, but managed services will.

Chris Moran is a CDW state and local government sales manager. He has over 26 years of experience.

State and local governments are often pressured to make full use of allocated funds within specific time lines. For IT decision-makers, this pressure can manifest as capital expenditures (CAPEX) to acquire technology with long-term lifecycles.

Obsolescence is the obvious risk here. Investments in technology can become outdated, forcing state and local agencies to spend more in the next budget cycle.

Avoiding this trap is not as simple as investing in cloud services. Even that comes with risk if you manage them yourself. Not tracking real-time usage, for instance, paired with unfactored security and operational costs can lead to higher-than-expected bills after the fact. As a result, an intended operational expense (OPEX) can end up necessitating additional CAPEX to foot the bill, which may come at the expense of other initiatives. We’ve seen this happen too often.

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But we have also witnessed a sweet spot, where OPEX never accidentally becomes CAPEX, and CAPEX is always limited to purchases that will serve you well into the future.

By focusing on the right services and managed solutions, agencies can optimize their investments and manage technology more effectively. They can subsequently enable more strategic use of capital and operational expenses to better meet the needs of modern government IT environments today and in the future.

First, Let’s Talk About Those IT Investments

Even time-constrained purchasing cycles can run longer than is ideal in the public sector. This becomes especially problematic when siloed departments within agencies invest in technology without completely assessing the total cost of ownership. A procurement in one silo may solve a very specific, immediate problem, but without considering the total cost of ownership. IT investments can often be consolidated and maximized for use cases in other silos, provided someone has visibility into those.

Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland, for example, have started to rely on business process managers (BPMs) to help bypass lengthy request-for-information and request-for-proposal cycles by taking proven applications used within certain agencies and implementing them across other agencies. This approach is an important step toward a central, consultative method to solving problems faster and more affordably.

Conversely, local and county governments often lack BPM intermediaries. County and city CIOs might not consider their respective CFOs in discussions about IT investments and their financial impact.

A consultancy-based approach that involves all relevant stakeholders from the beginning ensures that everyone understands the value and impact of proposed solutions, leading to long-term strategic planning and support, rather than piecemeal procurement of individual products. This is an important consideration to avoid getting blindsided by sudden procurement needs or budgetary constraints.

DIVE DEEPER: State procurement offices should avoid tech fads.

Using Services to Shore Up Successful Investments

Bringing in a consultant, or at least a consultative mindset, is an important step in making better IT purchasing decisions, but it’s not the only step.

For years, CIOs have rightly focused on the shift to OPEX, particularly in cloud adoption, citing more flexibility, long-term scalability, improved citizen experiences and potential cost savings. However, as noted above, shifting to OPEX via the cloud often leads to unplanned CAPEX in the form of overage bills.

This brings us back to the core theme of services. Why not combine the benefits of cloud flexibility with the transparency and predictability of on-premises models by leveraging managed services that help you get the most out of your IT investments?

When new problems inevitably emerge five or 10 years down the road, the tools you have might not stand up to them. The managed services you lease, on the other hand, will.”

Managed services can provide real-time cost visibility and OPEX benefits similar to cloud with the pricing reliability of on-premises solutions.

To summarize, we advocate for three core ideas:

Taking a more thoughtful, consultative approach to OPEX investments
Leveraging managed services to optimize OPEX for long-term scalability and performance
Consequently, having greater visibility into and control over your spending over a longer period

IT is not unlike other forms of state and local infrastructure — bridges, highways, sidewalks — in that citizens rely on it for core services. The main difference is that IT evolves rapidly, making it harder to ensure today’s tools meet tomorrow’s IT needs.

The solution is to stop thinking of procurements in terms of buying or leasing new tools and start thinking in terms of leasing services. Tools fix things; services solve problems. When new problems inevitably emerge five or 10 years down the road, the tools you have might not stand up to them. The managed services you lease, on the other hand, will.

This article is part of StateTech’s CITizen blog series.