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ITguide™ Features
ITguide provides a comprehensive, yet simple, easy-to-learn, intuitive,
browser-based user interface for navigating, exploring, and maintaining
information pertaining to IT products, vendors, and category trees (i.e.,
product category taxonomy).
ITguide makes it easy (and fun) to establish, communicate, discover, govern,
and present:
- IT Standards
- presented by scope
- by platform
- by business unit
- by geographic region
- by time period
- etc.
- presented by lifecycle status
- under evaluation
- pilot
- current standard
- rejected
- being retired
- sunset
- special case
- etc.
- Technology Architecture
- 3-layer/4-model forest of category trees used to define an enterprise's
technology architecture
- Data (top)
- Apps (middle)
- Base (bottom)
- Technology Portfolio
- classifies existing and future technology investments based on
technology architecture
- captures and shares information about products and vendors with:
- IT constituency (i.e., IT staff and end user community)
- business management
ITguide is very low-cost and totally self-service. Everything, except
the graphics used for navigation, is fully customizable. Quick, easy and
secure access to information about products, vendors and categories is
provided via a simple and intuitive web browser-based user interface.
ITguide:
- provides global instant online access to official information about
IT products and vendors
- includes two sets of user-customizable data fields (i.e., templates)
for describing:
- divides products into lists broken down into product categories
- products can be visually highlighted by assigning legend icons to
products which are visible when viewing product lists
ITguide enables people to easily and quickly access data about IT products
and vendors:
- by category tree
- by alphabetical list
- by search of:
- category descriptions
- user-specified data fields (both product and vendor)
RDBMS products work great for organizing data as tables. However, querying
hierarchical data structures (like category trees) using an RDBMS can
be quite complex and cumbersome. ITguide simplifies the process of managing
relational data amidst a forest of hierarchical category trees.
ITguide is used in conjunction with a four-step consolidation process
for decreasing IT technology portfolio costs:
- Categorization
- Standardization
- Communication
- Presentation
Categorization step:
- organize products into categories so that multiple different products
with overlapping, redundant functionality automatically cluster together
Standardization step:
- where there are choices, decisions must be made regarding which products
should be used
- for each product selected as a standard there needs to be documented
an explanation describing:
- why the product was chosen to be a standard
- where the standard applies
- who is the owner
- when, in terms of time periods, does the standard apply
Communication step:
- provide simple, easy access to people responsible for selecting or
using IT products
Presentation step:
- present technology architecture and technology portfolio to management
and business partners
- explain decision-making choices regarding new and past technology
investments
ITguide can be used by independent consultants and service providers
as part of overall service offerings that can assist particularly SMB
customers (Small- to Medium-sized Business) in better managing their technology
portfolio and achieving cost reductions.
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