By Dick Stark

On Monday,  I visited with our DOJ/Lockheed customer where we are on-site working architectural and operational issues related to BMC’s service assurance products.  The customer lamented that he just spent a fair amount of money upgrading Remedy (not something we were involved in) to the latest version and he has achieved no significant gain in functionality over the older version.

What hit me was that the Federal Government is taking a hard look now at cost savings AND squeezing value out of existing investments.  With budget cuts a reality for FY12, agencies are scrambling to “do more with less.” Will they make it?  Not according to a recent study by MeriTalk, a government think tank.  That study concluded:

• First, agencies lack the necessary budget analysis and insight. Only 47 percent say their agency conducts analysis on operational costs to identify opportunities for increased efficiencies. Thirty-one percent say that insufficient controls and insight into program performance hinder efficiency efforts.
• Second, agencies lack disciplined management practices. Just 31 percent say their agency has a formal plan to identify spending inefficiencies. Twenty-seven percent say that management is not making oversight a priority.
• Third, agencies are leaving too many stones unturned. Only 18 percent say they analyze their enterprise IT for savings. Nineteen percent review asset management, 27 percent consider program overlap/duplication, and 27 percent mine acquisition/sourcing for greater efficiency and cost reduction.

Chart below from MeriTalk Whitepaper, Taxing Times

• Finally, and most troubling, Feds report that they lack incentives to cut costs. Some 40 percent cite use-it-or-lose-it budget mentality as a critical obstacle to realizing real savings.

How does this apply to RightStar? Beyond BSM, there is BMC’s IT Business Management or ITBM. In addition to project portfolio management and vendor management, there is now the new Service Costing module. This means that with ITBM Service Costing software and professional services from RightStar, we can help agencies get a firm grasp on what it costs to run their IT departments from a comprehensive software, hardware, and labor cost perspective. This kind of transparency may be frightening to agency department heads that fear potential budget cuts and realignments, but it’s an important first step to improving efficiency and getting a better grasp on exactly how agencies are spending taxpayer dollars.