The Other Issues

Lack of Metrics

Not one of the companies we studied had organization-wide metrics. About half of the companies had some sort of help desk metrics, and the 75 percent that had mainframe systems had some form of metrics for them.

There is a lack of metrics to measure effectiveness in the client/server environment. That old saying holds true here, if you can't measure it, there's no way you can manage it effectively. It is also important to establish internal metrics for each area of the operation, as well as quarterly or semi-annual ratings to compare the results based on cost and performance efficiencies. When these companies get their infrastructure in order it's imperative that they establish metrics. For more information on establishing metrics see our book entitled Building the New Enterprise.