Burlington Resources

Business Challenge

With over 200 high-end users of crucial technical and business software in a variety of locations, the customer’s Technology Enhancement Manager and IT department faced a formidable task appropriating resources to meet user needs while keeping costs in check. Further, it became increasingly important for business managers to accurately prioritize IT resource spending to match defined user groups with a view to advance larger business goals.

The Managers had four software application categories that they wanted to monitor. The “core” software applications were used by everybody in all locations; and the “extended core,” were more function-specific, and used in fewer locations. For these, managers wanted to know how many applications were needed each year, and what flexibility could be built into vendor agreements to best support usage patterns. The “specialty,” applications were used by a small group for a short period each year, and if properly managed, could be leased on a monthly basis to get the highest value at the lowest cost. Lastly, the “data” applications provided critical data throughout the company. Without specific user information for each of these groups, accurate planning was very difficult. New purchases and upgrades were simply based on estimated headcounts of concurrent users at each location, and there was no way of knowing how frequently each application was utilized.