Poor IT infrastructure in Australia
"Businesses are not trying to manage the IT environment using business tools," Managing Director, Full Spectrum, Steve Dixon said.
A recent survey released by United States magazine Network World and research firm STAT Resources indicated organisations in the US are placing much more emphasis on IT infrastructures, according to Dixon.
The survey confirmed the majority of US organisations were looking at existing IT infrastructure and planned to put IT dollars into products and services during 2001 to safeguard their networks.
However, Full Spectrum believes firms in Australia are falling by the wayside when it comes to managing IT infrastructure.
"I'm not convinced that local organisations are ensuring their systems are not going to fall over the next time they have heavy traffic or that they are safe from attacks."
Lacking focus
According to Dixon, Australian businesses need to invest in business management tools however, he believes there isn't a budget line item being identified for management products within companies.
Australian businesses aren't focusing on the proper management of IT infrastructure because of the failed implementation of EMS in the past, Dixon said.
Enterprise Management Services (EMS) is a single platform to enable the management of a business' IT network infrastructure using a variety of products and services. The platform is being promoted as one which can measure the effectiveness of business and strategies, protect systems from crashing and safeguard against server attacks.
Failed launchDixon says the failed implementation of EMS 12 months ago was because organisations weren't ready to take advantage of large management systems.
"I think a lot of it was due to expectations not being met and budgets being blown," Dixon said.
"A number of years ago it was a very fragmented hardware industry, network management had to manage all parts of the network."
"Now there are applications that enable them to be launched from a single platform."
From experience in the marketplace, Full Spectrum claims IT support staff are managing systems instead of the business management being proactively involved in the process.
"Business managers are relying on IT staff to keep things going. More often IT are so busy just fighting fires to be proactive in management systems."
According to Dixon, the management marketplace has evolved into something that is more realistic. Products can be implemented in a reasonable time frame, they are cost effective and deliver real business benefits.
He warns if a business fails to manage IT, it will fail to manage the business.