IT departments have shifted their focus from investing in new IT
systems to spending money to get more of their existing IT systems,
according to services company Computer Sciences Corporation
(CSC).
More companies are updating their existing systems by using
virtualisation
software and
fewer, more powerful applications, said Tom Rogerson, CTO of
financial services EMEA at CSC.
"Most companies are looking to rationalise IT and strip it back
to the essentials to achieve the same business effect with less,"
he said.
The trend has been driven by a tougher economic climate. Most
companies have less capital available or are unwilling to take on
the risk of IT projects to replace existing systems.
Economic considerations are also driving companies to switch to
a
service-oriented architecture (SOA) to extend the life of
legacy systems.
Rogerson said SOA is giving most value where companies keep
projects simple and focus on supporting the business rather than on
achieving a perfect architecture first time.
Outsourcing remains a popular strategy for updating legacy
systems, but Rogerson said there is a definite trend towards
separating contracts for things such as application maintenance
from contracts for updating core infrastructure.
He said organisations want to see that each contract is cost
efficient in its own right and can be adjusted independently of
each other as conditions change.
Financial services companies are increasing chosing to design
tnew financial products alongside the IT systems needed to run
them, a principle borrowed from manufacturing.
"Just as manufacturers reduce the time to market by designing
products in tandem with production lines, financial services firms
are developing services in parallel with IT systems they need," he
said.
The increased demand for IT transformation projects means IT
services companies are having to co-ordinate a much wider spread of
technologies and strategies.
Rogerson said CSC had responded to the challenge by beginning
its own programme of internal change aimed at breaking down
operational silos.
"Spotting the opportunities and joining the dots is a big part
of my job as CTO to enable greater collaboration between different
parts of the business," he said.