MaSSSoftech

Kolkata, Sept. 7 It is official now. The West Bengal Information Technology Department, in a post on its Web site on Monday, announced the scrapping of the proposed IT township project, Kolkata Links, at Rajarhat near here.

The West Bengal Government had proposed to offer land to Infosys and Wipro in the township project.

The project had hit a political roadblock due to local disturbances. Both the companies would be informed about the issue, the statement indicated.

The uncertainty over the IT township project had been in the air for some time. A few days ago Business Line, quoting the State IT minister, had reported that the project had hit a roadblock. It started with allegations of illegal land deals. .

“The Government does not want to be involved in any illegal activity. Already, some departments have favoured scrapping the project. Thus, the IT Department cannot proceed with the project, and at this moment we are unable to stick to our assurances of providing land to Wipro and Infosys, and thereby constrained to inform them about the Government’s inability,” the statement said.

Recently, Mr Raj Kishore Modi, one of the directors of Akash Nirman, the nodal agency for land acquisition for the project, was arrested following a controversy over acquisition of land in nearby Vedic Village, a resort.

Mr Modi is also a Director of the resort that suffered extensive damage in an agitation by local people.

The incident evoked sharp reactions from different sections , including some within the West Bengal Government.

Monday’s statement made it clear that the IT Department had no role to play in the land acquisition. “In May 2009, the IT Department got a list of 90 acres of land from the private partner that could be given to IT companies and the West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation (WEBEL) provided the details of the 90 acres of land to Infosys,” the statement said.

No land has been transferred till date to either WEBEL or the joint sector company, Webel Akash IT Links Pvt Ltd, the press release added.

Several technology start-ups are bringing Google-like search capabilities to companies so information-technology professionals can better search through their complex IT systems and growing mounds of data.

While consumers have long been able to use search engines like Google, Yahoo and Ask.com to find everything from obscure Web sites to travel deals on the Internet, there have been few similar tools for companies to search the increasing amounts of traffic generated by server computers and other devices and to look through their "unstructured" data, which includes video and pictures.

Bob Hunt

How does the Chief Information Officer (CIO) make the right decision regarding IT? Do they simply just keep buying every bell and whistle that comes out of the computer world or do they have a way to make intelligent decisions that are for their company? Believe it or not there are rational ways to make solid organizational decisions regarding your IT projects. Let me show you 3 examples of organizations that have maximized IT resources using a parametric model called SEER for IT (Information Technology).

SEER for IT is a new parametric model developed by Galorath Incorporated to capture the Total Cost of Ownership for an IT project. The foundation of this model centers around 12 different types of work breakdown structure (WBS) elements and a group of knowledge bases built on industry standards. Knowledge bases in layman’s terms means a collection of historical data organized into a windows template for ease of use. The user selects and/or enters data into structure and framework to characterize the environment. In most cases the user simply selects a WBS type and then selects the knowledge bases. After that, the user simply has to specify quantities and he gets a Rough Order Magnitude (ROM) estimate of the typical cost, effort, and schedule for this activity based on industry norms. If the user knows more details then the model allows him to tailor the WBS element in more detail. It is a quick way to come up with cost, effort and schedule on IT projects with very little information up front with a lot of industry data incorporated via knowledge bases to support the results.

Now let’s talk about how this tool can assist the CIO out in the real world. This model is being used currently by a major automotive manufacturer. This major company took the right steps to fully utilize this new parametric tool. It completed the initial training by Galorath and has already built and validated the results against internal historical values. It is in the process of piloting a JOINT IT Estimation Process in North America (NA) for projects proposed to be included in the North America 2010 business cycle plan.

This will allow them to integrate IT estimates into a unified project cycle plan for the requesting customer. Over time by this industry will be able to look strategically across the enterprise and make decisions on dedicating resources to IT projects from a global view.

A large Federal agency employed SEER for IT across its enterprise. First they received training and built over 70 estimates over a year. They developed a process where they collected and built catalogs of their major IT activities.

Once all the estimates had been internally reviewed and validated the estimates were merged into a portfolio. This portfolio of estimates was then compared to available budget resulting in a down select to about 30 projects. A further review identified 15 of those projects as being critical to the organization’s business objectives. This organization had been plagued with massive overruns in the past. They had failed to account for the operation and support of already started projects and the tail of activities and overlapping costs and activities. Using the SEER for IT tool as part of a formal estimating process brought about an organizational discipline that focused on a Total Cost of ownership perspective. It was able to maximize economies of scale of purchased hardware and software. Now this organization has the complete picture of its portfolio of projects and also the added benefit of all the collected corporate knowledge regarding IT ongoing activities to make solid decisions for the future.

SEER for IT has been used to assist to make competitive decisions to develop price to win strategies. One major defense contractor employed this model to capture what the industry average would be for developing a major project. From there they placed their competitions rates into the model and then devised a strategy to out bid the competitor for this business. They thought that if you have a good idea of what your competition is going to bid, then you can develop strategies to take away the business from them. Specifically they decided to utilize cheaper sub contractors in key areas to seize the advantage with just a small impact on their profit margin.

In conclusion the CIO can use SEER for IT to evaluate Total Cost of Ownership cost, schedule and effort of new IT projects in a systematic logical fashion while capturing the corporate knowledge of its ongoing activities. It can help allocate scarce resources to the most critical requirements. In addition, it can help the organization to develop price to win strategies to seize new opportunities for new business and also realize economies of scale for hardware and software purchases for its own projects.

SEER for IT simply “works” when it comes to IT decisions. Take a look at what SEER for IT can do for your company.

OAK BROOK, Ill., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The number of businesses turning to a third party to implement and maintain their information technology continues to grow as IT departments seek ways to further cut costs and reduce their on-premise infrastructure.

SWC Technology Partners, a consulting firm with roots going back 30 years, has seen an increase over the past 12 months in the number of organizations seeking managed services for networks, computers and software. Managed services are delivered through a combination of technology, people and processes to remotely monitor, identify and proactively repair any issues that could challenge network or server performance, thus avoiding service disruption. Managed services solutions are embraced by a variety of industries including manufacturers, non-profits, financial services, educational institutions and professional services.

In a November 2008 report, Forrester Research analyst Henry Dewing noted multiple factors lining up to increase the attractiveness of managed services over the next 24 to 30 months, including rapid technology evolution, a coming investment wave in information technology and market constraints on capital.

"As the economy fights to regain its footing, small and midsize businesses are more readily and more decisively turning to managed services," said Bob Knott, President, SWC Technology Partners. "A managed environment is an ideal solution for small and midsized businesses, and it makes economic sense to manage systems remotely instead of investing in equipment, technology and manpower."

Knott cited some of the benefits of a managed environment:

* It fills gaps created by a downsized IT department, usually for a fraction of the cost of a full time staff member.
* It decreases the challenges and risk associated with having a sole IT manager with whom all knowledge resides.
* It provides a flexible level of support that can grow or change with a company's needs.
* It enables the replication of a company's core system for disaster recovery purposes.
* SWC's Managed Services contracts are delivered via a fixed monthly fee, eliminating surprises, and customers aren't locked into a lengthy multi-year commitment.

"We're seeing more companies delay hiring and turn to a managed environment instead," Knott said. "Managed services solutions mean less risk, less stress, improved stability, more predictable costs and affordable access to expertise across a variety of technologies. These factors contribute to customers embracing managed services with much more gusto now than in the past."

SWC gains total visibility into a client's network performance to see how systems interact with one another by installing a network probe that collects data and monitors network health and performance every five minutes around the clock. In the event of a problem, the SWC team can immediately diagnose what happened, assess the severity, notify the customer, and troubleshoot and resolve the issue to get the system up and running with minimal downtime.

Knott noted some recent SWC projects that illustrate the trend toward managed services:

Affy Tapple

A Chicagoland tradition since 1948, Affy Tapple is a supplier of caramel apples and specialty confections. As the company changed ownership and evolved from a simple operation to a major manufacturing firm, it found itself with an increasingly complex IT infrastructure and a heavy reliance on technology.

Because Affy Tapple's reputation for quality depends upon the freshness of its products, orders received in the morning are made to order and often ship the same day. As demand grew, it became increasingly important that Affy Tapple's orders were processed with speed and accuracy. As a result, the company turned to SWC to provide it with IT systems that were highly reliable and able to manage high spikes in demand.

SWC upgraded the servers, backup and network to ensure these systems would appropriately support Affy Tapple's business needs, and provides ongoing monitoring, maintenance and security for its systems.

"We needed to update our IT systems, but did not want the upgrades to interfere with our production. SWC embraced our goals, implementing the changes we needed within an aggressive timeframe. This allowed us to keep our production schedule on track heading into our busy season," said Bill Henry, chief operating officer of Affy Tapple.

Morton College

Morton College came to SWC seeking network administration and technology support. The college's board of trustees was impressed by SWC's unique solution to manage Morton College's IT needs. Through its Managed Services team, SWC proactively collects data on a 24-7 basis and monitors Morton College's network infrastructure, generating alerts when thresholds are breached. SWC then provides best practice recommendations to proactively address issues before they become problems.

SWC provides a dedicated onsite engineer who coordinates the comprehensive support and coverage Morton College requires.

"When a problem does occur, the wealth of information available to the SWC team allows them to quickly triage the issue, identify a solution and begin working toward resolution," said Philip Pena, Morton College's Director of MIS. "Their experience shows us also that maintaining a regular updating and patching schedule ensures the security, longevity and operational efficiency of our systems.

"SWC's intimate knowledge of the Morton College environment and the related technologies to provide the required support eliminates the cost, frustration and high turnover associated with traditional support models," Pena said.

About SWC Technology Partners

SWC Technology Partners (www.swc.com) is a leading provider of innovative IT solutions to small and medium-size businesses. For nearly 30 years, SWC has excelled at providing strategic guidance and delivering solutions tailored to the needs of growing organizations. SWC's areas of expertise include best-in-class Managed Services, Performance Management, Business Applications, Messaging & Collaboration and Network Infrastructure & Security solutions. Headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, SWC is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, a Symantec Gold Certified Partner and a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Partner.