1. The IT question in a downturn! Natalie Ayres IT for the M Business 08 www.virtualit.biz

2. To spend or not to spend.... Companies should tighten their belts not drop their pants…! Analyst at Forrester IT spend to decrease by >50% in the next 12 mths IDC, Forrester, Gartner Companies consider switch to Cloud and SaaS to derive cost savings IT industry will buck downturn, say Analysts IT procurement too important for IT procurement dept! In-house IT costs too much, but senior staff are in higher demand...

3. Employ >30% of UK workforce Generate 20% of all corporate profits Grow at >8% per annum Medium Business – Unique & Connected Bigger than small business… – Multiple Branches – Industry Needs But smaller than Enterprises… – Resource Constrained – Under-served

4. “M” Business Challenges Raising Finance Your people Growing the bizz Governance & regulation Impacting growth prospects M business “ignored “by Govm’t Cost of compliancy Attracting and retaining Skills Working environment Pervasive use of IT Acquiring new customers Business results ; cashflow & profit Shareholder value Business process automation Business intelligence Pace of technology change

5. Time of turmoil = times of opportunity Strategies for growth.... 5 Investing in your people and process Training; reduces trial and error learning More effective IT A good time to re-assess what you offer and how you go to market What is your competition doing…. New verticals or new channels to market? New products / services; widen customer base Improve competitive position Cross sell / upsell to existing base Growth driver through Cutting costs (CAPEX versus OPEX) Better business intelligence; Automate business process; cut staff costs A choice for every business leader Look for opportunities to pick up bargain basement assets Increase customer base; create future value for shareholders IMPROVE SALES Decrease cost of doing business Diversification Review IT strategy ACQUISITION

6. “....Our whole business is based on knowledge and data, so our underlying platform has to be robust. Before, I had to oversee multiple suppliers - now I hardly have any involvement or have to spend any time on IT. On top of this I gain proactive, value- added advice from specialists in their field. The Virtual IT solution has proved easily and quickly scalable, supporting the rapid growth in our workforce. I’ve been very impressed by the high quality kit and the swap-out service, whereby failing equipment is simply replaced within 24 hours. Having Microsoft exchange sited remotely also forms part of our risk management strategy in terms of regulatory compliance....” The Clear Group Independent Insurance and Wealth Management Services

7. Time of turmoil = times of opportunity Strategies for growth.... 7 Investing in your people and process Training; reduces trial and error learning More effective IT A good time to re-assess what you offer and how you go to market What is your competition doing…. New verticals or new channels to market? New products / services; widen customer base Improve competitive position Cross sell / upsell to existing base Growth driver through Cutting costs (CAPEX versus OPEX) Better business intelligence; Automate business process; cut staff costs A choice for every business leader Look for opportunities to pick up bargain basement assets Increase customer base; create future value for shareholders IMPROVE SALES Decrease cost of doing business Diversification Review IT strategy ACQUISITION

8. IT past......  Centralised spend  Strategy based on infrastructure  ROI over 3-5 year period  CAPEX consideration central to any decision  BI based decisions in hands of IT Manager  Lengthy deployment cycles  Reactive decisions

9. IT today & tomorrow.....  Service to the business  Re-evaluate business model  Re-evaluate budgets  Think OPEX versus CAPEX  IT procurement requires multiple masters!  “on-demand” computing  Trust the experts; partnering to scale and service

10. Priorities for IT spend in a downturn  Hosting & SaaS / Cloud Computing  Business Intelligence  Security  Virtualisation  Storage & storage management www.virtualit.biz

11. summary  re-evaluate  spend to save!  outride the downturn with smart IT