By replacing a patchwork of tactics with a comprehensive access strategy, CIOs can transform their organization into an on-demand enterprise that offers secure, easy and instant access to information, improving business agility and driving growth.
The Tactical Approach to Access
Under intense pressure to reduce costs and contribute to business growth, companies have been driving several initiatives in recent years. They are centralizing management, consolidating infrastructure, and outsourcing non-core functions. These initiatives help, but they only address the challenges of information supply.
Ubiquitous access to information and applications over any device, regardless of where the application resides, allows everyone in the extended enterprise to focus on growing the business instead of merely running it.
However, the inability of information supply to keep up with information demand prevents organizations from acting on growth strategies.
Information demand has become more challenging to satisfy. End users are constantly seeking new ways to access centralized corporate information that resides in many data centers and on multiple platforms, including PCs, workstations, PDAs and mobile phones.
Productivity depends on being able to access corporate information wherever end users are and from whatever device or network they are using. The role of the CIO is to reconcile and support the requirements for information supply at the back-end of the enterprise and information demand at the front end.
The tempting option for many companies is to adopt a tactical approach to giving users access to the information on an ad-hoc basis. Organisations react to changes in functional requirements by re-architecting access methods to make applications available with “if…, then…” access tactics: “If the end user is working from home and accessing an ERP application, then use this access tactic”.
This example refers to a single application. As applications and access tactics proliferate, IT finds itself reacting to every change in information supply and demand with a new access tactic. This makes systems management complex, and IT finds itself running the business, not growing it. According to the Yankee Group, 80 percent of IT budgets go to maintaining current IT systems, leaving IT few resources to invest in new initiatives.
Access Strategy to Support the On-Demand Enterprise
To meet future enterprise challenges, companies must move away from the disparate access methods of the past and develop a holistic enterprise-wide information access strategy. Critical success factors of a successful access strategy must:
Guarantee a consistent access experience. End users need to access information, no matter where they are, what devices or networks they are using or where the applications reside.
Be scalable and fault tolerant. An access strategy grows as the demand and supply of information grows and must be able to account for infrastructure downtime.
Be verifiable and secure. As important as it is to make information accessible, it is equally important to restrict information access to authorized users.
Support legacy and future applications. An access strategy is consistent across legacy applications and future applications.
Be manageable. An access strategy enables managing and monitoring of every aspect of access. Management should include who is accessing what information, where, when, why, and for how long. It should provide details about individual users and user groups.
By implementing an access strategy, CIOs can transform their organization into an on-demand enterprise that offers secure, easy and instant access to information, improving business agility and driving growth.
Building an Access Infrastructure
An access infrastructure is the best way to execute on an enterprise access strategy.
The primary functions of an access infrastructure are to deliver, display, protect, organize and manage access to information. Access infrastructure components include: presentation and conferencing, information aggregation, personalization, security and identity management, device and network services, SLAs, monitoring, and measurement
Access infrastructure gives workers secure, easy and instant access to enterprise applications, information, processes and people, no matter where they are located, from anywhere, at anytime, using any device, over any connection.
It enables IT staffs to manage heterogeneity by enabling the centralized management of applications, simplifying their deployment, monitoring and measurement.
And access infrastructure ensures that only the right people have access to the right resources to protect the security of enterprise information assets.
As a result, branch offices can now contribute to revenue faster. Organisations can realize the synergies of a mergers or acquisition faster. Staff productivity increases as information becomes available wherever end users are regardless of access device. It also helps the IT department, reducing application deployment and overall systems management costs.
Implementing Access Infrastructure
Leading mobile operator in Thailand, Advanced Info Service (AIS), is an example of a company that has taken the first steps to adopting a holistic access strategy.
AIS implemented access infrastructure solutions from Citrix Systems, to provide staff at its 400 Telewiz branches countrywide with real-time access to critical applications, and enhance its ability to offer new customer services at the branches as they became available.
In the process, AIS has managed to reduce the costs of running its business. The company drastically reduced application deployment and upgrade time from seven days to just 30 minutes; extended the lifespan of up to 1,000 PCs; and in 2003 and 2004 the company achieved savings of up to US$1.3 million by using Citrix.
The AIS example demonstrates that when deployed effectively, access infrastructure can become an IT utility where any application can be served up to any device on the network regardless of what the device is or where it is.
Access infrastructure is the most effective method of addressing the complexity of both information supply and information demand. It delivers a solution that will support the on-demand enterprise, and simplify decision-making for the end user and allow the information user to focus on tasks that support business growth, rather than search for the best way to access the information they need.
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