Category: Data Science

Key Stakeholders: Chief Information Officers, Chief Financial Officers, IT Finance Directors and Managers, IT Procurement Directors and Managers, Accounting Directors and Managers, Telecom Expense Directors and Managers, IT Operations, IT Strategy, FinOps Directors and Managers

Why It Matters: SaaS expenses add up fast, especially when employees use more than one app for the same purpose. In the time of COVID-19, it’s critical to pare down costs and save jobs.

Top Takeaway: In cash-strapped environments, Software as a Service is an area of spend that is ripe for review based on employee flux, new application needs, and a round of quarantine-induced Shadow IT.

Managing IT in the Time of Corona calls for inquiry into a number of areas. So far, we’ve talked about the six overall stages of COVID IT management, ways to adjust telecom and network resources for the rest of 2020 (and beyond), and controlling wireless expenses as 40% of staff or more work from home. The next category to assess? Software as a Service, or SaaS. Digging into this facet of the technology environment will uncover which apps employees use so the enterprise can make some crucial decisions: what stays, what goes, what needs new contract terms. This action is essential as the world heads toward a recession of unknown length and impact. IT, financing and procurement must do their part now to help the business batten down the hatches. Analyzing the current state of SaaS, and then streamlining it, will address this need.

No One Wants to Lose

Before you start, understand that employees will want to cling to their apps – and SaaS vendors will want to keep your organization as a customer. The IT team and its colleagues will have to walk a fine line between keeping staff happy and protecting the business’s bottom line. The reason why boils down to one reality – that people are perhaps even more attached to their apps than to their mobile devices. That’s because apps serve specific purposes and solve particular problems.

At the same time, the last thing SaaS vendors want, or need, right now is to lose clients. COVID-19 already has given rise to the highest jobless rate in over 80 years. Companies throughout the United States are motivated to retain as many customers as possible and that goes for the SaaS world as well. In fact, this segment of technology well could be the most relationship-dependent. Again, apps are personal and SaaS profitability is dependent on medium-to-long term relationships. SaaS companies need time to prove the indispensability of their software and earn the long-term contracts and relationships that lead to profit. This means that SaaS companies have incentives to work with enterprises seeking to organize and reduce costs.

Don’t Fear ‘DISRUPT’ion
Before deciding which apps make sense to keep, and which need to hit the highway, “DISRUPT” your environment with the following assessment:

Discover new apps. Find out what’s residing in the enterprise and whether it is IT-approved.
Inventory all licenses. Understand what the organization is paying for each month, and evaluate whether the licenses match up with employee numbers and roles.
Spend and usage visibility. Does the IT team have this level of insight? If not, who does?
Recycle licenses. Where can IT re-allocate use of a license instead of paying for an additional one?
Unite SaaS categories. Simply put, consolidate vendors. Many apps serve a similar purpose. Choose the best one for the organization and eliminate the rest.
Prune unused services. On a similar note, get rid of any SaaS employees do not use. Why pay something for nothing?
Training and enablement. Educate employees so they know how to make the most of the SaaS for which the company is paying. This will ensure the organization and its people use the app to its full advantage.

The “DISRUPT” phase of a SaaS assessment may take several months to complete. But it’s just the first step in a series of actions IT needs to take to better prepare the organization for predicted economic headwinds.

Follow These Steps
The steps below provide a mix of recommendations for reducing what the organization spends on SaaS, and for (re)negotiating with vendors. After you benchmark your spend, take the rest of these steps in the order that makes the most sense for your business leading up to the final negotiation process.

Step 1: Benchmark March and April’s Spend
Next comes the much-discussed benchmarking phase we’ve been driving home for the past couple months. As we note in previous blogs on COVID IT, benchmarking March and April 2020 usage and spend is a must. Glossing over, or skipping this step, would prove fatal to effective IT expense management in the face of a looming recession. You do not want to optimize on pre-COVID-19 assumptions. The sooner IT can pinpoint how COVID has affected the organization, the sooner it can react – all based on data.

Pro tip: Take advantage of free offers. For instance, G2 Track is providing a 90 day free trial of its software expense platform. 

Step 2: Prepare for Tough Negotiations
Identify the software vendors with which the organization spends the most money. If your organization is tight for cash, take the following steps. (Note: Amalgam Insights considers these to be extreme measures appropriate only in a pandemic recession or when the survival of the business is at stake.) For each of those providers, choose a “credible threat.” In other words, be ready to move to an app that does the same job as the current one, and be prepared to use that readiness in negotiations. Also, back up all data residing in the current software. Do all this in case it becomes necessary to walk away from negotiations because the vendor won’t work with you. And then make your demand or request, which may include postponed payments or a payment holiday. As a non-software example, consider how Starbucks sought a rent “vacation” for 12 months.

Step 3: Escalate Negotiations in Your Largest SaaS Vendors to the Executive Level
Here, teaming with your CFO on outreach to SaaS vendors’ top leaders should prove really helpful. The CFO office should send a letter to all vendors stating that there is a formal effort to reduce costs and providing guidance both on the current company situation and need for financial relief. Start with the sales and accounts teams so as not to damage good relationships, but be prepared to escalate the conversation. Once the vendor sees that executives are actively reviewing spend for all major accounts, negotiations often get easier. Citing circumstances including COVID-19, the probable recession and high unemployment may help, but credible backing and financial documentation from the CFO cements the seriousness of the requests at hand.

Throughout all the activity, maintain consistency in requests among vendors. The idea is not to play favorites or be a bully. To avoid that, standardize the wording on all negotiation documents and emphasize how much the organization values partnership with its SaaS vendors.

Step 4: Delay, Discount, Deny
Once SaaS providers finally have your business – which usually comes after a prolonged period of time – they know their best interest lies in keeping you as a customer. And in these tough times, these vendors often are willing to make concessions in the interest of long-term relationships. To get the outcome you want for the organization, start with a win-win approach. Offer various carrots such as lengthening the contract, serving as a customer reference, introducing their account team to other people in your business who could use the product, and so on. Ideally your organization and the SaaS vendor will be able to create a tighter relationship that provides quid pro quo benefits.

However, if the vendor will not play ball, it may be time to prove how far you’re willing to go. First off, you may have to show the vendor your books and prove why the organization is asking for new terms. If that doesn’t do the trick, figure out how to push back. Potential tactics include:
• Delaying payments and audits
• Discounting reduced payments
• Disputing excess capacity and unknown charges

Make sure the organization’s usage aligns correctly to the terms of the deal with the SaaS vendor.

Step 5: Rein in Employees
COVID-19 and its subsequent economic effects have made one thing blatantly clear: the SaaS party is over. In these critical times, the business must pare down what it pays for and enforce that change. No longer may employees choose their own separate SaaS vendors. And no longer may they may use 10 apps that does the work of one. Money and jobs are at stake.

So, to rein in employees, categorize apps by whether they are a priority, a luxury or a vanity.

Priority Apps: These apps are mission-critical, show well-articulated value and are widely adopted across the organization.
Luxury Apps: These apps tend to facilitate work, but they have inconsistent value and employees struggle to adopt them.
Vanity Apps: These apps do not contribute to work outcomes, and defining their value proves difficult. Staff only use them in niche instances.

Once all apps are categorized, it becomes easy to whittle down the number and type. Staff will want to push back but if the organization is footing the bill, its best interest is the priority.

Step 6: Think Differently
The key question to ask is, what can IT, finance and procurement do to minimize the organization’s risk and manage cash well? Before stepping into the (figurative) negotiation room, find the answer by analyzing the areas outlined below:
• Reconsider spend and license minimums (the organization may actually have a chance to save money by using an app in a different way, for instance)
• Enact scheduled audits and peak/valley exceptions• Shift from per-user to use case or revenue share (this would eliminate per-user scaling, which adds up quickly)
• Look for leeway (find out if the SaaS vendor has any flexibility on its payment terms, or whether it offers financing. Multiple large technology companies desperate to keep users in the time of Corona are putting up billions of dollars in financing.)
• Include COVID-19-specific clauses (act-of-god type of verbiage can provide a way out if no other path comes of negotiations.)

Conclusion
Together, some or all of these tools and strategies should result in positive change as the organization trims its SaaS expenses. With any luck, negotiations will go smoothly and all parties will exit feeling better about the long-term outlook. We’ve presented the worst-case scenario options in hopes they will lie fallow, but being prepared is better than being surprised.

***If you are seeking outside guidance and a deeper dive on your IT environment, Amalgam Insights is here to help. Click here to schedule a consultation.

***Join us at TEM Expo on July 14 to learn more about how to prepare for COVID IT and take immediate action to cut costs.

***And if you’d like to learn more about this topic now, please watch our webinar.

Key Stakeholders: Chief Information Officers, Chief Financial Officers, IT Finance Directors and Managers, IT Procurement Directors and Managers, Accounting Directors and Managers, Telecom Expense Directors and Managers, IT Operations, IT Strategy

Why It Matters: Whipping the wireless environment into shape will showcase the IT department’s leadership as a steward of the business, and contribute to the organization’s larger goal of saving or reinstating jobs.

Top Takeaway: Optimizing mobile assets and services will ensure the organization is paying only for what it should, while making sure employees have the resources they need to do their jobs well.

Even before the coronavirus struck, IT professionals faced a mobility management dilemma: how to determine whether smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices would serve as primary or secondary work tools.

The quandary arose as the iPhone, the world’s flagship smartphone (BlackBerry notwithstanding), hovered on the brink of the teenage years – the iPhone turns 13 in 2020. Since its introduction in 2007, the iPhone led the way in shifting the enterprise from a landlocked entity to a fluid one not restricted by physical boundaries. Work from outside the office grew more common, which paved the way for employees to bring their own devices into the business. These devices further complicated IT’s security, expense, optimization and other mobility management duties. These mobile device “tween” years, if you will, have not been easy.

Then came COVID-19.

March and April of this year looked like no other time in modern history. From an IT perspective alone, organizations around the world rushed to support remote work as the need for people to work from home became obvious. IT threw many of these efforts together in a frenetic, cobbled-together fashion. Cloud, SaaS and, of course, mobility, came to the rescue, but at a price. Now, in the wake of the COVID-19 work-from-home (WFH) frenzy, IT experts are finding that employees have adopted mobile computing resources that might not meet standards, and that have inflated the organization’s expenses. Managing the awkward tween phase of mobility just got harder. And considering that most enterprises say they will allow or require remote work for the foreseeable future, IT has a long-term challenge on its hands.

This blog, the third in Amalgam Insights’ series on managing COVID IT, gives IT, accounting, procurement and other professionals involved in expense management, specific steps that will transform disarray into order. (For more fun with the tween theme twist, watch our webinar on this topic.)  

Step 1: Benchmark March and April’s IT Usage, Activity

Amalgam Insights’ chief recommendation for getting the IT department back on track is to benchmark the past quarter of IT usage and activity now that the crush to move staff to remote work has subsided. (With any luck, organizations have advanced past the “survivor” phase of IT.) We discuss in detail here the what and why of benchmarking March and April spend now. If you haven’t undergone this exercise already, time is of the essence. Not benchmarking at all means the IT department will optimize on pre-COVID-19 assumptions. The business will overpay for months or years to come by assuming that the challenges of March and April 2020 represent a “normal” IT environment.

Benchmarking is vital. According to Amalgam Insights’ IT Rule of 30, any unmanaged IT spend averages 30% in waste. This past March and April, largely unbeknownst to IT, employees bought the tools they needed to better work from home (think consumer-grade apps, services and devices). Cleaning up the IT environment, including all those shadow purchases, allows leaders to reclaim costs – and more.

For example, assessing the new normal for mobility (and, of course, other parts of IT including networking, cloud, SaaS and more) also will highlight where to cut future expenses and which contracts to renegotiate. The key lies in knowing what you are cutting before proceeding. The last thing you want is to inadvertently chop something that actually is necessary.

Here’s a pro tip for getting management of wireless assets and services back in line: Take advantage of the free audits some mobility expense management providers are offering. (MobiChord, Upland Software, Tangoe, and vMox are a few we know of.) This level of expert guidance likely will result in significant savings. Furthermore, it should give the IT department leverage for contract renegotiations.

Perhaps most importantly, though, benchmarking March and April’s spend can help the IT department save or reinstate jobs across the organization. That is the overarching goal Amalgam Insights aims to drive home. IT is ideally positioned to support the business in efforts to keep or bring back jobs. Every $100,000-$200,000 in eliminated IT waste translates into another role, and that’s critical as unemployment claims in the United States have climbed.

Step 2: Identify Anomalies, Overages, Inconsistent Usage and Access

A high-functioning mobility estate is key to fostering a productive, smooth remote work environment. Achieving this means, in part, making sure employees have the right devices (type, brand, model and operating system) and services (authorized accesses to corporate files and apps, international roaming and unlimited data if required, etc.), and that they are using them. Understand that IT may end up adding or subtracting assets and services, depending on what comes up in the discovery process. The idea is to serve as a steward to the business and ensure it provides and pays for the mobility it should, and only that.

Step 3: Uncover the Zombies, Lazy Slobs and Misfits

An important step in fixing wireless inefficiencies starts with finding the obvious slackers: the zombie devices, the ones with bloat and the mismatches.

Zombies: These smartphones, tablets and laptops could be hiding in someone’s drawer or somewhere else at headquarters where no one is working right now. If the device has a cellular or hotspot connection and a data plan, the enterprise is still footing the bill. Why pay for something no one is using?

Slobs: The service plans on these devices have a glut of features, such as too much data or personal hotspot capabilities. The organization doesn’t need to give every employee the same extras. Trim down who gets what by role and responsibilities.

Misfits: These devices and their services have limitations that impede employee productivity. A limited data plan, paired with an equally constrained phone, can make a staff member’s video conferencing choppy or even inaccessible. The device may work best for email and other lighter apps. In other words, look for mismatches among devices, services, plans and their users to keep cleaning up and optimizing the wireless environment.

Step 4: Check With Your Expense Management Counterparts

We’ve all gotten past the literal survival stage of COVID IT. Employees throughout the enterprise have settled into routines. That makes now the time to rein in wireless costs by following all the aforementioned steps, and by going even further. Next, do some investigation. Check in with the people who handle various expense management and procurement tasks for the business to see where IT costs might be popping up. These are other areas where shadow COVID IT could be making an appearance.

Assess whether corporate should continue to fund these expenses and stay alert for opportunities to support staff with more of the wireless equipment or services they need to do their jobs well. For instance, does someone need a better webcam for more professional video conferencing? Not all expenses are bad or unnecessary. Digging deeper with expense management counterparts will help define what is and is not IT’s and the enterprise’s to cover – and what is.

Step 5: Ok, Sometimes You Legally Have To

To that last point, get clear on which wireless devices and services the organization legally must pay for. The IT department does not want to put the enterprise on the wrong side of expense-reimbursement lawsuits. The state of California, as one example, decided in 2014 that companies have to pay for any reasonable costs. Know the rules governing your enterprise before you push back on employee requests.

Step 6: Prep for Contract Negotiations

The next important aspect of improving the wireless environment lies in renegotiating contracts, as that makes sense. But in the time of COVID IT, bargaining with vendors calls for much more than just agreeing to discounts. To do this, start by examining usage categories. Look for large increases where IT may be able to cut costs. These opportunities may not show up in the obvious places, such as eliminating unlimited data.

Figure out how (or whether) switching up products, services and plans also might reduce expenses. Employees might not be thrilled about adapting to a new brand, but going with Google Pixel over Samsung, as one example, could prove worthwhile if usability, data transfer, and security concerns can be worked out. Work through the options with the account rep. Above all, do not miss this chance to renegotiate and make a significant contribution to the enterprise’s bottom line.

Step 7: Look at Wired vs. Wireless Tradeoffs

Employees don’t care about the networks that connect them to the enterprise as long as everything works. IT, on the other hand, cares, especially when cost matters. For instance, determine whether landline access coupled with Wi-Fi might offer better pricing than cellular services without sacrificing service quality. In addition, look for – and get rid of – duplicate services, whatever they are.  

Step 8: Sometimes You Have to Lose the Battle to Win the War

Again, tradeoffs can create prime opportunities for financial savings. In that vein, consider that the SaaS or cloud bill may have to grow even as the mobility bill shrinks. Rather than trying to squeeze costs in every IT category, think about where tradeoffs might turn into gains. In this current environment, it is more realistic to drop the entire IT bill by 10%from last year rather than by trying to trim each category by 5-10%.

Conclusion

Applying these eight steps to the enterprise’s mobile environment will position IT to work more efficeintly over the rest of 2020 and beyond. Tightening wireless expenses efficiently with an eye toward mantaining work productivity will contribute to the larger, imperative goal of saving or bringing back jobs in the time of Corona. IT can be, and is, far more than a commodity within the business – it’s arguably one of the key departments that can steer positive change.

***

If you are seeking outside guidance and a deeper dive on your IT environment, Amalgam Insights is here to help. Click here to schedule a consultation.

Join us at TEM Expo on July 14 to learn more about how to prepare for COVID IT and take immediate action to cut costs.

And if you’d like to learn more about this topic now, please watch our webinar.

Author: Hyoun Park

Key Stakeholders: Chief Information Officers, Chief Financial Officers, IT Finance Directors and Managers, IT Procurement Directors and Managers, Accounting Directors and Managers, Telecom Expense Directors and Managers, IT Operations, IT Strategy, FinOps Directors and Managers

Why It Matters: Consumer IT, cybersecurity issues, and massive unexpected IT costs can create a perfect storm that could overwhelm IT – unless experts take the time now to understand what they’re up against and learn how to transform chaos into calm.

Top Takeaway: By preparing for the six stages of COVID IT, companies will be prepared for the challenges of supporting a newly transformed IT where over 40% of employees work from home and 30% of unmanaged spend is wasted.

---

COVID-19 has irrevocably changed the way IT does business. Many employees stand to remain in work-from-home models for a long time to come as organizations seek to mitigate disease transmission. In some ways, that shift bodes well for the environment and for company overhead. In others, it has caused chaos and stress. For example, this shift has left the IT department, in particular, scrambling: Cybersecurity has grown more difficult to ensure, with workers relying on personal laptops, tablets and smartphones, all over home networks; use of apps and oversight of company data has become harder to track as employees turn to consumer-grade file sharing and video conferencing to do their jobs, further exposing the enterprise to potential breaches; and, finally, hidden and unexpected expenses are hitting the IT department in the aftermath of the sudden move to WFH (Work From Home).

Each of these factors is creating a perfect storm that could overwhelm IT – unless experts take the time now to understand what they’re up against and learn how to transform chaos into calm. Achieving that starts with knowing the six stages of COVID IT and then navigating them with a confident action plan.

Before exploring the six stages of COVID IT, Amalgam Insights wants to emphasize that the IT bills incurred during the COVID-fueled work-from-home activity reflect the new normal. They also highlight areas IT must evaluate for excess spending. This will increase in relevance as organizations prepare for a likely economic downturn and for future global events that will call for non-traditional approaches to work.

As such, assessing where your enterprise falls in the following six stages not only will show where you are now, but where you need to go. Keep in mind, IT cannot tackle all of these stages at once, nor is that desirable.

This process is one we’ve built with sequencing in mind – IT cannot reach Stage 4 without analyzing and addressing Stage 1, for example. Sticking to the steps in order supports IT in its quest to serve as a steward to the business, helping it to shed its outdated role as a commodity within the organization, and, instead, bring value. The following figure describes our recommended timeline as a general rule of thumb. Note that we are coming up on the 3 month period for Stage 3 and 4.

Stage 1: Survivor: Shadow IT Edition

Estimated time required: 2-4 weeks

Most organizations exited this stage in mid- to late April. They had spent much of March and even early April outfitting employees to work remotely, mostly by deploying cloud resources cobbled together in a matter of days. Everyone, including IT, fumbled just trying to survive. That’s okay. Few entities had plans in place that invited perfect governance and compliance in case of something like a pandemic. Because of that, the top priority was to keep employees connected and able to perform their tasks from home, regardless of the equipment or network enabling those capabilities.

At the same time, employees themselves were adjusting to strange new circumstances. Suddenly their spouses/partners, kids, other family members and neighbors were all at home. In addition to still having to attend to work, this meant dealing with distractions in the form of constant interruptions, child care, the need to serve as school teacher and more. On top of that, employees found themselves in the midst of continuous personal and professional change. Could they keep using Zoom or not? Were they supposed to wear masks outside the house or not? Could they even go outside? All this stress compounded whatever other life experiences they may have been undergoing, from divorce or illness to the fear of losing their livelihoods. The last thing on almost everyone’s mind – and this applied to IT staff as well – was worrying about protecting and securing corporate assets, or worrying about IT expenses.

Again, the hope is that by now, organizations have left this stage behind. There may be some areas to clean up, though, and this blog provides the guidance for analyzing where that may be the case.

Stage 2: Secure Your Business

Estimated time required for initial triage: 2-4 weeks

Chances are, most enterprises remain in this phase. Recall that employees across the board still are confronting the myriad stresses caused by uncertainty around COVID-19. That puts them in a more vulnerable position to inadvertently expose the organization to bad actors. For instance, a hacker may call pretending to be someone from IT and request a password. A worker more focused on day-to-day survival than on corporate security may share that information, thinking nothing of it. This form of social engineering makes way for a serious breach. In fact, hackers have managed to turn COVID-19 fraud into a profitable endeavor by targeting unsuspecting consumers.  As of June 4, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission had fielded more than 64,000 complaints totaling more than $46 million in losses. The numbers only represent the consumer side; the possibility for losses in the corporate world go much, much higher due not only to social engineering, but also to phishing, ransomware and malware. Amalgam Insights recommends educating and testing employees, as well as implementing the tightest enterprise-grade cybersecurity measures feasible that can be supported on consumer-grade networks with an eye towards a zero-trust approach in our consumerized IT world.

Stage 3: Audit Your Environment

Estimated time required: 1-3 months

Next comes cleanup, or the need to audit all the technologies and services ordered and used since the beginning of COVID-19 (as well as everything else IT already was managing). This will indicate what is probable in terms of ongoing and future demand, and show where IT can trim or eliminate costs. To do this, pinpoint all the equipment, devices, applications and services procured and consumed. Then look where overages or absence of use occurred. Amalgam Insights recommends taking a focused approach across landline inventory, cloud services, and infrastructure that includes invoices, inventory, service orders, and virtual inventory.

Once the IT department has a clear bead on all of the above, experts then can compare activity to contracts. The results may reveal that it’s time to renegotiate terms with vendors. Once you have done that, be sure to keep the accounting and sourcing departments in the loop. Show the company how IT has positively impacted cash flow and governance – or, in other words, continued to add value to the organization.

This management is especially important because of the IT Rule of 30, Amalgam Insights’ rule that any unmanaged IT spend averages 30% in waste. Practically all shadow COVID IT spend in March and April was unmanaged. Clean your environment and reclaim your cash.

Stage 4: Train and Celebrate

Estimated time required: 1-3 months

With better and streamlined assets and services in place, and the corresponding financials that mirror that governance, use the next four to 12 weeks to train and celebrate employees. This may seem impractical amid COVID-19. Yet the people aspect of IT is vital.

First, gather the information gleaned from audits to identify current versus past usage. This applies to applications, devices and services. Record cost structure and the change in IT demands; this data will underscore decisions made by IT. Then, schedule time with company stakeholders. Amalgam Insights recommends those people include executives from finance and human resources, and the managers over the various lines of business. From there, IT should present on four main areas:

• Making everyone aware of the new normal and what that looks like: Discuss how remote work is contributing to greater productivity and allowing employees the flexibility to juggle heightened work and home responsibilities.
• Identifying best users and practices: Call out rock star employees who are not only embracing policies, but who may be going above and beyond to help the organization steer clear of security threats and unnecessary IT spending.
• Showing how IT is helping the organization maneuver financial and operational concerns: IT is now a supply chain for delivering digital services. Accordingly, share the outcomes of an IT-conducted SWOT analysis, as well as savings attained, renegotiated terms, removal of obsolete or underused technologies, and any other audit-related improvements.
• Describing the new and different use cases brought about by coronavirus-fueled IT deployments: Here, IT experts can talk about new processes that have saved time, money and protected the business, for example.

This meeting marks just the first of what should become regular touchpoints with leaders company-wide. After that, start working with HR and managers to train all employees about new and updated IT policies, processes and procedures. Get the HR unit to integrate the information into any and all onboarding and employee education and performance materials. This will prove crucial to awareness, adoption and adherence. It also will pave the way for executives to recognize and reward standout staff (and, conversely, continue to guide employees having trouble complying).

Notably, Amalgam Insights recommends that IT showcase as much as possible what it is doing to support and bolster the organization as everyone grapples with change. A global recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is poised to hit and last for an unknown amount of time. This makes IT’s business contributions more important than ever. Talk about what matters. Quantify what the department is doing by illustrating how IT boosts the enterprise’s bottom line. Now is the time for purposeful, meaningful, quantifiable and visible business contribution.

Stage 5: Standardize and Improve

Estimated time required: 3-6 months

As the organization settles into its new normal, IT will have the luxury of concentrating on strategic initiatives that supply even more value. Standardizing and improving the environment should take between 90 and 180 days. And the efforts will pay off.

To that point, look for redundancy. Amalgam Insights continues to see examples of enterprises that have purchased multiple versions of at least one application. On top of that, recently remote employees probably have received more than one device because IT didn’t know what that person already had – or not. Take advantage of the “standardize and improve” stage to consolidate services, devices and apps.

On a similar note, it’s also time to standardize the services rolled out to staff. The technologies that sustained in-office work will not be the same ones enabling remote employees. Remove unnecessary vendors and consolidate redundant services (and document all of this as the IT department continues to showcase its value). This includes re-negotiating contracts as needed. Investigate current payment terms, business continuity, disputes, and so on, because what may have been acceptable pre-COVID probably does not favor the organization now.

In other words, IT must do due diligence to prevent the carrier or vendor from doing something that would hurt the organization. For example, if the provider or vendor bills on an automated basis, consider pushing out payment terms or minimum payments. This gives the enterprise wiggle room in case of an emergency. Another opportunity is to jettison now-outdated minimum requirements. Seek out ways to secure annual renewals that don’t just provide discounts, but that also guarantee the company will have upgrade to technologies that maintain and support remote work for months or years to come.

Lastly, make sure all onboarding and training materials now contain updated policies for remote work. With at least 40% of staff now on the job from home, any leniency extended to previously remote employees no longer applies. IT must ensure rigorous security and spending standards.

Stage 6: Transform the Business

Estimated time required: 3-6 months

This final stage of COVID IT may appear to be a luxury at first. We assure you it is not. A significant percentage of CFOs say the pandemic has not stopped them from projects to automate, digitize and improve customer experiences, supply chains and, remote work. To the latter point, Amalgam Insights predicts 15% or more of all United States-based employees will retain permanent work-from-home status post-COVID, which more than doubles our previous work-from-home population. Therefore, IT must align its investments with the C-suite’s vision. This strategy bolsters the organization overall. But it also enhances IT’s role within the company. Amalgam Insights recommends using these opportunities to become, and do, far more than acting as an auditor or bill processor if you haven’t done so already. Offer expert advice, planning and assistance that facilitates crucial outcomes and, at the same time, highlights IT’s importance to the business.

Conclusion

IT may find it necessary to repeat one or more of the six stages of COVID IT stages as circumstances evolve or new ones come to light in an environment where the networking, IT and cloud environments fluctuate constantly.

If you are seeking outside guidance and a deeper dive on your environment, Amalgam Insights is here to help. Click here to schedule a consultation.

Join us at TEM Expo on July 14 to learn more about how to prepare for COVID IT and take immediate action to cut costs.

And if you’d like to learn more about this topic now, please watch our webinar on this topic.

Author: Tom Petrocelli

Executive Summary

Key Stakeholders: Chief Information Officers, Chief Technical Officers, Vice Presidents of IT, VPs of Platform Engineering, DevOps Evangelists, Platform Engineers, Release Managers, Automation Architects, Software Developers, Software Testers, Security Engineers, Software Engineering Directors and Managers, IT directors, DevOps professionals

Why It Matters: The IT industry has been undergoing a radical rethinking of how we architect application platforms. Much of the attention has been drawn to the back-end platforms built on containers and the Kubernetes ecosystem. Less has been said of the front-end environment, even though it too is undergoing a redesign.

Top Takeaway: Jamstack dovetails nicely into IT emerging architectures. It points to a future cloud-native web architecture based on Jamstack design patterns in the frontend,  backed by microservices implemented as transient serverless functions and more permanent Kubernetes-based services.

---

No one would say that the Spring 2020 conference season was in any way usual. With COVID-19 spreading throughout the world, the vast majority of conferences became “online”, “digital”, or “virtual.” At the tail end of the season was Microsoft Build Online 2020 (May 19, 2020) and Jamstack Conf 2020 (May 27, 2020) a week later. At both conferences, there was discussion of a web application architecture called Jamstack. Indeed, it was the focus of the later conference.

The IT industry has been undergoing a radical rethinking of how we architect application platforms. Much of the attention has been drawn to the back-end platforms built on containers and the Kubernetes ecosystem. Less has been said of the front-end environment, even though it too is undergoing a redesign. This is where Jamstack comes in.

Unlike containers and Kubernetes, Jamstack is not a technology. Instead, it is a design pattern that is implemented in technology. The philosophy behind Jamstack is to isolate the web developer from the back-end systems that support their applications, creating more efficient developers. An additional goal is to increase the scalability of web apps. In this regard, the market drivers are similar to those of the Kubernetes and Serverless communities – creating applications that are easier to build and maintain while increasing scalability.

The “JAM” in Jamstack is an acronym for Javascript, APIs, and Markup. This suggests not only a basket of technologies to be used in web applications. It points to a philosophy of simplification of the web app design that makes for more efficient development and operations. With Jamstack, it is expected that web applications are single-page apps, sometimes called Static Site apps, comprised mostly of JavaScript that then uses APIs to access back-end services (typically microservices) while using markup languages such as HTML and CSS to render the UI.

This is a model that most React framework developers will recognize; Load one page that contains the code and UI. After that, the application is expected to access additional data through RESTFul API calls in response to user actions and render them in HTML and CSS. This contrasts with the way many dynamic web sites are designed. That model calls for back-end systems generate HTML that are then sent to the browser as a new page. There are also applications built using the older AJAX design pattern or technology such as ASP.NET or  Java Server Pages, where pages are generated in the back-end and sent to the browser which then uses JavaScript to access more data as needed. Both of these architectures require web developers to be “full-stack developers”,  which means that the developer has to understand the entire platform from database to web front-end to create a web application. This makes development slower and less efficient while requiring client browsers to constantly download large pages, sometimes over large distances.

The evolution and growth of Jamstack was on display not only at the Jamstack Conference, as one would expect, but also at Microsoft Build. Part of the Azure developer presentation talked about the Jamstack architecture and how it is implemented as a service called Azure Static Web Apps. Even more interesting was the relationship with serverless. Microsoft presented a web applications architecture that was comprised of the Azure Static Web Apps service for the front-end and use of Azure Serverless Functions to implement scalable microservices as the back-end.

There are other ways the Jamstack community is looking to achieve its goals, especially reliability. Of particular interest is driving more functionality into the edge nodes. Most web applications use a content delivery network, or CDN, which caches static portions of a web site geographically closer to users. Without a CDN, all web requests would have to drag big assets such as graphics from their point of origin to the user’s browser. The amount of latency would make the web experience intolerable to many users. The Jamstack community is now looking to place some common processing in the front end CDN edge nodes, to handle common situations instead of processing them at a distant service.

While Jamstack has a lot of advantages, some of the vendor messaging can be a little confusing. For example, the idea that a web developer doesn’t have to be a full-stack developer is true. Someone, however, has to provide that back-end platform for the web developer to access. So, on an organizational level, a full stack is required for Jamstack to be meaningful. If an organization is only building apps using cloud services, this may be the case. But the majority of organizations don’t fit this description. Ultimately, creating a distinction between a web developer and platform developer is an artificial distinction. Code is code.

Ultimately, Jamstack dovetails nicely into IT emerging architectures. It points to a future cloud-native web architecture based on Jamstack design patterns in the frontend,  backed by microservices implemented as transient serverless functions and more permanent Kubernetes-based services. This is the melding of three emerging architectures into one whole design that provides for easier development, maintenance, reliability, and scalability.

As is the case with all new technology, container cluster deployments began small. There were some companies, Google for example, that were deploying sizable clusters, but these were not the norm. Instead, there were some test beds and small, greenfield applications. As the technology proved itself and matured, more organizations adopted containers and the market favorite container orchestrator, Kubernetes.

The emergence of Kubernetes was, in fact, a leading indicator that containers were starting to see more widespread adoption in real applications. The more containers deployed, the greater the need for software to automate their lifecycle. Even so, it was unusual to find organizations standing up many Kubernetes clusters, especially geographically dispersed clusters.

That is beginning to change. Organizations that have adopted containers and Kubernetes are starting to struggle with managing multiple clusters spread throughout an enterprise. Just as managing large amounts of containers in a cluster was the impetus for orchestrators such as Kubernetes, new software is needed to manage large scale multi-cluster environments. At the same time, Kubernetes clusters have been getting more complex internally. From humble beginnings of a handful of containers with a microservice or two, clusters now include containers for networking including service mesh sidecars and data planes, logging, app performance monitoring, database connectivity, and storage. All that is in addition to the growing number of microservices being deployed.

In a nutshell, there are now a greater number of larger and more complex Kubernetes containers clusters being deployed. It is no longer enough to manage the lifecycle of the containers. It is now necessary to manage the lifecycle of the cluster itself. This is the purpose of a Kubernetes control plane.

Kubernetes control planes comprise of a series of functions that manage the health and well-being of the cluster. Common features are:

• Cluster lifecycle management including provisioning of clusters, often from templates for common types of clusters.
• Versioning including updates to Kubernetes itself.
• Security and Auditing
• Visibility, Monitoring, and Logging

Kubernetes control planes are policy-driven and automated. This allows operators to focus on governance while the control plane software does the rest. Not only does this reduce errors but allows for faster responses to changes or problems that may arise. This automation is necessary since managing many large multi-site clusters by hand would require large amounts of manpower and, hence, cost.

Software vendors have stepped with products to meet this emerging need. In the past year, products that implement a Kubernetes control plane have been announced or deployed by Rancher, Platform9, IBM’s Red Hat division (Advanced Cluster Management), and VMware (Tanzu Mission Control) and more.  All of these Kubernetes control planes are designed for multi-cloud, hybrid clusters and are packaged either as part of to a Kubernetes distribution or an aftermarket addition to a company’s Kubernetes product.

Kubernetes control planes are a sign of the normalization of container clusters. The growth both in complexity and scale of container clusters necessitates a management layer that helps DevOps teams to more quickly standup and manage clusters. This is the only way that platform operations can match the speed of Agile development and automated CI/CD toolchains. It is yet another piece of the emerging platform that will be where our modern cloud-native applications will live.

To learn more about this topic, Amalgam Insights recommends the following reports:

Market Landscape – Packaging Code for Microservices

Analyst Insight Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes: Different Paths to Microservices

Red Hat Acquires CoreOS Changing the Container Landscape

as well as Tom Petrocelli’s blogs at https://www.amalgaminsights.com/tag/kubernetes/

Summary: Companies with 10 to 99 employees were significantly more likely to get their PPP loans accepted than their smaller 1-9 employee counterparts. Based on the US distribution of companies, it looks like $7 billion or more in small business loans ended up going to large 500+ employee enterprises. And the PPP program will likely be underfunded even in a second round, as it will take over $1 trillion to fully meet demand and banks are overwhelmed with the number of loans they need to process.

The United States has recently completed its first round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. This program was theoretically designed to provide small and medium-sized businesses up to 500 employees with up to 2.5 months of payroll support. Additional stipulations within the program also allowed companies with over 500 employees to apply if they had franchise groups of under 500 employees, leading to headlines where large companies such as Ruth Chris’ Steak House and Potbelly were able to get these small business loans while other companies did not.

But was there a significant effect from large businesses entering the PPP program or was this a relatively minor problem? To figure this out, Amalgam Insights took a look at the current breakout of SMB companies in the United States to figure out what an optimal PPP program should have looked like vs. what actually happened.

As a starting point, we looked at the 2012 Census data for firms and employees and found the following breakdown. This analysis basically ignores the sole proprietorships with no employees because, quite frankly, I think those companies are going to be completely ignored and passed by in this loan process. Banks are already overwhelmed by trying to support companies with employees and I don’t see that changing any time soon. 

Category	Firms	Employees	% of SMBs	% of SMB Employees
Firms with 1 to 4 employees	3,705,275	6,139,463	61%	10%
Firms with 5 to 9 employees	1,060,250	6,974,591	18%	12%
Firms with 10 to 19 employees	644,842	8,656,182	11%	14%
Firms with 20 to 99 employees	532,391	20,922,960	9%	35%
Firms with 100 to 499 employees	88,586	17,173,728	1%	29%
Total	6,031,344	59,866,924	100%	100%

Nearly half of America’s workforce works for small businesses. We used the average payroll per employee as a starting point to calculate compensation, as smaller firms tend to spend less on payroll than larger firms. We then added a multiplier to acknowledge consultants and the overhead associated with payroll and multiplied by 2.5 months to estimate the payroll per employee that was requested. And then we compared this to the average loan sizes that the PPP provided at various loan tranches ranging from <$150,000 to > $2 million. When we put it together, our initial expectations looked like this for the $342 billion that ended up being disbursed:

Category	Expected Number of Loans	Expected Amount of loans
Firms with 1 to 9 employees	1,543,926	$ 70,997 million
Firms with 10 to 19 employees	208,915	$ 45,344 million
Firms with 20 to 99 employees	172,483	$ 119,309 million
Firms with 100 to 499 employees	28,700	$ 106,628 million

Compare that with the metrics that the Small Business Administration provided:

Size	Approved	Loan	Average Loan
<$150K	1229893	$  58,322 million	$ 47,420
>$150K-$350K	224061	$  50,926 million	$ 227,288
>$350K-$2M	181435	$ 137,816 million	$ 759,591
>$2M-$5M	21566	$ 64,315 million	$ 2,982,263
>$5M	4412	$ 30,898 million	$ 7,003,169

This isn’t a perfect matchup. The first few sets of loans match up well enough for the back-of-the-napkin estimate we’re looking for, but we need to match up the 100-499 employee group with the PPP loans a bit better to figure out what we’re looking for.
Based on business distributions, we’d guess that about 15% of the 100-499 companies are above 300 employees, so we’ll break that category up into 100-299 and 300-499 estimates, which looks like this. I wish I had better breakdowns from the government, but beggars can’t be choosers and I’m trying to figure out what’s happening now.

Category	Firms	Employees
Firms with 100 to 299 Employees	75,298	12,549,539
Firms with 300 to 499 Employees	13,288	4,624,189

When we compare the actual loans to what we would have expected from this basic model, we see the following:

Category	Number of Loans	Amount of Loans	% of expected loans	Delta of expected amount vs. actual amount
Firms with 1 to 9 employees	1,229,893	$ 70,997 million	82%	$12,676 million
Firms with 10 to 19 employees	224,061	$ 45,344 million	112%	-5,583 million
Firms with 20 to 99 employees	181,435	$119,309 million	116%	-18,508 million
Firms with 100 to 299 employees	21,566	$ 77,606 million	83%	13,291 million
Firms with 300 to 499 employees	4,412	$28,710 million	108%	-2,187 million

A few things are happening here. 

First, small firms with less than 10 employees are definitely not able to get their fair share in many states. Because they both have hundreds of thousands of additional applications and they are relatively small amounts, they go to the back of the line compared not only to the big businesses, but even their colleagues in the 20-100 employee space that ended up getting more than expected. Noted exceptions are the Plains (Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska), Mountain West (North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana), and Northern New England (Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire) states that processed loans per capita well above the rates of the rest of the country. For more details, check out the data for yourself. 

(Side note: Amalgam Insights estimates this PPP loan program is providing about $18,000 per employee in total, or $7,300 per employee-month. Just a metric to keep in mind as you compare this to other current bailout efforts in place.)

Second, it looks like the sweet spot for PPP loans is to be in that 20-99 employee space where you have enough resources to act quickly and can pull out the $500,000 to $1 million that lets you be taken seriously by your bank. Another aside is that this is what seems to have happened in the Western States of Arizona, Nevada, and California, where the average loan provided was above average, even considering cost of living, but each of these states processed less than 60% of loans per capita compared to the rest of the country.

Third, “small businesses” with over 100 employees are underrepresented based on our initial model. This is likely because many small business definitions have a receipts limit, some of which are as low as $7.5 million per year, which would likely support less than 50 employees. As a result, many industries cannot grow to over 100 employees while retaining a small business status. But at the same time, it looks like companies between 100-299 employees are at 83% of expected loans while larger companies got much more than expected.

Here’s where the large companies come in. Companies with franchising models, including hotels, restaurants, and retail stores, were able to also join the PPP program. This allowed a variety of enterprises with current credit lines and cash on hand to participate. But how much did these companies get? Based on this initial view, let’s just assume that companies with 300+ employees are like their 100-299 peers and only 83% of companies traditionally in this space would have gotten loans. It could be less, but again, we’re just trying to get a quick and dirty look of what happened. 

300 – 499 Employee Companies	Loans	Amount
Actual	4412	$ 30,897,983,582
At 100-299 levels	3398	$ 23,793,534,981
Delta	1,014	$ 7,104,448,601

Yes, this says that there were possibly over 1,000 loans going to non-small businesses, resulting in over $7 billion in payroll loans. That’s almost 150,000 additional loans at the 1 – 9 employee level. And, this is assuming that these largest of small businesses qualify to be small at the same percentage as their smaller counterparts, which is doubtful. This number could be even higher.

So, if you are at a small company under 10 employees, your chances for getting a PPP loan are definitely lower than your larger peers. Amalgam Insights estimates that 26% of firms under 10 employees got PPP loans compared to 34% of companies between 10 and 99 employees. You are also competing with large enterprises that are also taking out a couple of percent of the loan amounts and which Amalgam Insights expects will continue to be aggressive in subsequent rounds of PPP loan funding. Although these enterprises are frustrating, it does not seem like they are taking a substantial percentage of the total funds being made available. 

If you’re in this predicament of trying to get a low-amount PPP loan under $100,000 and aren’t in a state that processes loans quickly, you may want to consider going to an online-based PPP program that can process loans in bulk, as traditional banks are limited both in their velocity of loan processing and their reality where they make money off the fees of these loans and will make 10-20 times more from processing a larger “small business” and getting their 2%. 

If your company has between 10 – 99 employees, be aware that there is still a lot of competition. 2/3rds of companies at this size still have not received PPP loans and it is not because they are all doing well in a global pandemic recession quarantine. It will likely take over $1.1 trillion to fully fund all small businesses seeking PPP loans. The rumored $250 billion extension will provide additional funds, but likely not enough for demand. 

And for companies with 100 or more employees, especially those in low-margin industries, programs like PPP show the value of having a flexible corporate structure that allows for small business access to capital. Companies at this size may wish to consider whether it is in their best interests to be under a single corporate umbrella or to run as a group of sub-corporations and franchises to maximize access to capital and business resources. Or consider how much you need this particular loan compared to other financing options. Note that Shake Shack has given back its PPP loan given its current financial position. Being a good neighbor can have strong brand repercussions for companies looking at their long-term business prospects.

Solutions Mentioned: BMC, CloudCheckr, CloudHealth by VMware, MobiChord, Tangoe, Upland Cimpl, vCom, vMOX (Note: solutions will be added to this blog as a resource to the IT community as Amalgam Insights is notified)

Edited April 29 to add G2 Track, Tangoe, vCom; Edited June 4 to add Upland Cimpl

Throughout the last month, practically every company has been going through an uncomfortable transformation where telecom, network, mobility, cloud, software, and other IT assets and services were purchased, changed, redistributed, disconnected, upgraded, downgraded, and altered. It was a time of awkward challenge as the only goal was to be able to work from home.

Now, we face a new challenge. Now that employees are starting to figure out how to work from home, those of us working in the back offices of IT, operations, finance, accounting, and procurement have to clean up the mess. This isn’t just an academic exercise or a destressing exercise like quarantine cleaning. In medium and large enterprises, there is now a lot of waste, duplication, and misplacement of resources that can provide near-immediate savings and the opportunity to rightsize upcoming contract renewals. There are potentially millions of dollars at stake from the estimated 10-15% bloat that has occurred in conferencing, Software-as-a-Service, Infrastructure-as-a-Service, and enterprise mobility spend areas due to a combination of overprovisioning, over featured accounts, and usage overages.

Although there are a wide variety of spend management solutions in the IT world, a few vendors are providing free offerings to help out the business world, especially with mobility and cloud spend. If you are trying to gain control of a newly unruly IT environment, but don’t have access to corporate spending processes at this time, take a look at the following enterprise-grade solutions with free trials or audits.

IT Spend Solutions

Tangoe, an IT expense market leader with network, enterprise mobility, and cloud IaaS expense offerings, is providing a free audit, optimization and benchmark on a regional or carrier basis for enterprises seeking to cut costs. Savings found through these audits will be available for companies at no cost. To sign up for this service, corporate IT and finance departments should email CovidResponse@Tangoe.com.

Upland Cimpl, a technology expense management solution in Upland’s work management portfolio and a sponsor of TEM Expo, is offering a free telecom audit for wireline and wireless services to identify potential savings for their telecom and IT budget. The free audit offer is designed to show how the current climate has affected telecom costs while showcasing quick potential telecom budget wins. This audit offer pertains to both wireline and wireless services.

vCom, a technology expense management provider with mid-market expertise, is currently offering all new customers a four month grace period with no software or managed services costs with the goal of improving the Return on Investment and immediate cash flow for new customers. This program is extended to 12 months for Healthcare and Nonprofit organizations.

Free Enterprise Mobility Spend Solutions

MobiChord, a technology expense management built on the ServiceNow platform and a sponsor of TEM Expo, is offering a free, 90-day service to help companies manage their mobility assets.  

vMOX, which holds two patents for mobile usage optimization, is providing a free mobile expense management solution for corporate accounts using Verizon or AT&T.

Free Cloud IaaS Management

BMC provides a 30 day trial of BMC Helix Cloud Cost to manage multi-cloud expense challenges. This trial is one of 18 applications where BMC provides free trials for IT management.

CloudCheckr is providing a 14-day free trial of its new CloudCheckr CMx platform, which was just launched on April 15 and improves on CloudCheckr’s ability to manage complex multi-cloud environments. – 

CloudHealth by VMware, a leading cloud management platform that Amalgam Insights has covered in previous research, provides a free trial for companies contacting their sales team.

Free Cloud SaaS Management

G2 Track provides a 90-day free trial of its SaaS subscription management for companies seeking to reduce costs.

Good luck to all of you who are doing your best to be responsible technology stewards for your organizations. If you’d like to learn more about reducing enterprise IT costs, Amalgam Insights is both conducting a 10 webinar series on Technology Expense Management challenges starting on April 21 and holding our inaugural TEM Expo on June 11, which will be a free event for all qualified end-users.

To claim your seat at TEM Expo 2020, simply RSVP on the button below.

 

In the first three blogs of this series on conferencing, Amalgam Insights discussed top conferencing vendors and their Coronavirus-specific free offerings to support remote work, top functional considerations for purchasing conferencing solutions, and evaluating conferencing solutions. In this final blog, Amalgam Insights provides recommendations for using conferencing solutions effectively.

This four-part blog series on Conferencing Solutions includes the following topics:
Part I: Introduction to Conferencing Solutions
Part II: Defining and Purchasing Conferencing Solutions
Part III: Evaluating Conferencing Solutions
Part IV: Recommendations for Effective Conferencing

Key Stakeholders: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Information Officer, Network Services Directors and Managers, Telecom Directors and Managers, IT Directors and Managers

Why It Matters: In the Time of Corona, Amalgam Insights estimates that the United States workforce working from home has increased from 5% at the end of 2019 to over 30% as of the end of March 2020. In light of this fundamental shift, companies must choose, deploy, and administer conferencing solutions effectively to support remote workers and maintain collaboration-based productivity.

Top Takeaway: Conferencing is a core capability to support teamwork, collaboration, and face-to-face interaction in remote work settings. By understanding the features, pricing, and best practices associated with supporting conferencing solutions at scale, companies can evaluate and implement conferencing solutions at scale to support business continuity and remote teams in the Time of Corona.

Recommendations for Conferencing in the Time of Corona

In considering conferencing solutions in a remote work era, Amalgam Insights provides the following recommendations.

First, figure out what solutions you have in hand. It is not uncommon to see unmanaged enterprises using five, ten, or even twenty different conferencing solutions across text, voice, and video. Because these conferencing solutions are relatively inexpensive and can easily hide in a P-card, expense report, or project, employees have chosen their own conferencing tools. However, to make a good corporate choice and to take full advantage of corporate buying power, IT should start by simply polling employees on whether they are using the corporate conferencing tool or another tool that fits their workflows better.

Second, focus on ease of use. Before committing to a single vendor, look at the ease of use and users’ propensity to adopt the technology for themselves. Any product that consistently requires 5-10 minutes for a user to enter the platform should be a non-starter. Ideally, employees will find a platform that they already prefer, so that enterprise IT can focus on best practices in administering and securing conversations rather than spending countless hours teaching users how to simply hold a conference.

Third, don’t take conferencing functionality for granted. Even if the idea of a conference call is well understood, employees still need a resource to learn basics, such as muting the call when not speaking, using video as a remote employee to be taken more seriously, administering all calls that you initiate to lock down messaging and muting, and optimizing conferencing usage based on corporate best practices for running meetings.

Fourth, internal users and employees need to be equipped to take full advantage of their conferencing solutions. This means that they need hardware that is up to date in taking advantage of captioning, virtual backgrounds, and other modern conferencing capabilities. This may mean investing in microphones or cameras for employees that regularly need to support larger meetings. But the cost of hardware is typically miniscule compared to the value gained from having more comprehensible and engaging meetings, especially at a time when businesses are going to struggle with human contact, eye contact, and missing real-life cues that show the true intent of speakers and presenters.

Fifth, focus on optimizing plans and discounts based on the vendor, number of users, and functionality needed. Conferencing plans, discounts, and “zombie” accounts often provide an optimization opportunity of between 10-50% of the total spend, depending on the company’s ability to consolidate accounts, negotiate contracts, right-size plans, and eliminate unused services. At a time when cash flow is an imperative for most businesses, do your part to maximize cash on hand.

Conclusion

Choosing the best conferencing platform for your organization need not be a difficult endeavor. Following the recommendations we’ve provided should speed up your time to deployment. Almost every organization can benefit from having a conferencing solution in place. Finding new ways to bring employees together during unprecedented times is crucial.

Note that conferencing is not the only helpful communications tool to consider to support a remote work environment. Future installments in this series will cover messaging platforms, key vendors, and top considerations for selecting the right platform both for now and in a post-Corona future.

In the first two blogs of this series on conferencing, Amalgam Insights discussed top conferencing vendors and their Coronavirus-specific free offerings to support remote work as well as top functional considerations for purchasing conferencing solutions. In this third of four blogs on conferencing solutions, Amalgam Insights describes important features to consider in evaluating competing technologies. This blog is a continuation of our work on remote work in the Time of Corona.

This four-part blog series on Conferencing Solutions includes the following topics:
Part I: Introduction to Conferencing Solutions
Part II: Defining and Purchasing Conferencing Solutions
Part III: Evaluating Conferencing Solutions
Part IV: Recommendations for Effective Conferencing

Key Stakeholders: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Information Officer, Network Services Directors and Managers, Telecom Directors and Managers, IT Directors and Managers

Why It Matters: In the Time of Corona, Amalgam Insights estimates that the United States workforce working from home has increased from 5% at the end of 2019 to over 30% as of the end of March 2020. In light of this fundamental shift, companies must choose, deploy, and administer conferencing solutions effectively to support remote workers and maintain collaboration-based productivity.

Top Takeaway: Conferencing is a core capability to support teamwork, collaboration, and face-to-face interaction in remote work settings. By understanding the features, pricing, and best practices associated with supporting conferencing solutions at scale, companies can evaluate and implement conferencing solutions at scale to support business continuity and remote teams in the Time of Corona.

Cloud-Based Conferencing is the Norm

Today, vendors focused on supporting end-user productivity provision conferencing platforms in the cloud and all hardware resides in the conferencing provider’s data centers. In other words, the customer only needs to have phones, laptops, desktop computers and/or tablets with internet access. In most cases, a single brand of equipment is not necessary. Cloud-based conferencing is ideal for distributed workforces. Over the past decade, the trend towards conferencing solutions supported by commodity end-user hardware has become the norm. Vendors that traditionally have sold “walled garden” technology understand this trend and have shifted from dedicated room-based systems to conferencing solutions.

What Features Should I Look For?

First, be careful as vendors may charge more for certain value-added features or reduce access to features at specific tiers of usage or product. Above all, look for a conferencing tool that will help the enterprise and its users to collaborate more efficiently based on the typical size of internal or customer-facing groups, need for personalization, frequency of meetings, ease of use, and available IT support. Framing the search from that perspective will help narrow the hunt more quickly, especially because most products have similar basic functions and similarly named capabilities. With conferencing, the key trait is not typically based on the number of features and functionalities available, but how quickly and easily the solution can be used and how reliable the conferencing solution is in a variety of bandwidth settings. This is especially important in home settings where network performance is often variable, employees rarely purchase business-class symmetrical upload and download speeds, and bandwidth can be affected by everything from a child’s constant use of YouTube to a bevy of next-door neighbors catching up on the latest Netflix hit.

After companies have settled on the core capabilities that are most important to their employees, the noise sets in. By “noise,” we mean all the extras that few people will actually use, but that vendors like to highlight because they sound cool and flashy, whether this may include analytics, natural language processing and captioning, advanced search, geospatial support, employee engagement, or productivity capabilities. It may be necessary to ask vendor reps to describe and demonstrate their platforms in plain language and to step away from hyperbole or standards. This is a time when enterprises need basic and straightforward information that leads to rapid purchases while racing against financial losses, trying to keep staff employed, and keeping operations intact. With these salient business pressures in mind, we have compiled a list of conferencing features that will meet the needs of most organizations suddenly supporting a disparate workforce.

Necessary Conferencing Features for Remote Work

Reservationless scheduling. The ability for coworkers to meet any time and on the fly is critical. Extra points for platforms that simply distribute a link to join and do not require an applications download or any other obstacles.

Centralized Muting and Access Control. Background noise from participants who do not mute their lines causes immense disruption. The conference organizer must be able to mute everyone’s lines and to selectively choose which participants are able to speak, rather than allowing employees to unwitting wreak havoc or, even worse, for strangers to come in and “hack” the conference with unwanted content and comments.

Change presenters. Not all conference calls are or should be a one-way source of information. Allowing different people to present from wherever they are located increases conversation value.

Security protocols. Much of what the organization talks about needs to remain within its confines. Choose a platform that contains stringent and proven safeguards and allows administrators to kick off users that have either inadvertently joined the wrong conference or are purposefully trying to enter a conference for malicious reasons. And make sure that all outputs from a conference, including slides, transcripts, and other shared documents and content are all secured, stored in compliant areas, and encrypted as necessary.

Announcement Administration. Almost nothing interrupts a meeting’s productivity and flow more than the announcement that someone new has joined the meeting, particularly after it has started. A platform that facilitates silent entry while notifying the organizer goes a long way toward reducing everyone’s frustration.

Recording and playback. These capabilities are vital for audio and video calls, and are an overall plus if they also apply to chat. Organizations may need transcripts for regulatory or internal reasons, or to share with colleagues who could not join the conference. Strong solutions in this area will provide the capability to automate transcripts and provide captioning for the hearing impaired.

Screen sharing. Visualization is a core capability to support remote collaboration and contributions. As Amalgam Insights writes in our training practice, the brain has multiple learning processes. While the “cognitive” portion of the brain logically processes information in a structured and academic fashion, the “behavioral” portion of the brain reacts to visual and other stimuli within the first half second of presentation and makes decisions on whether the content is relevant or not. To support that behavioral portion of the brain, screen sharing is an important visual aid that paves the way for more impactful discussions. (Pro Tip: This same behavioral part of the brain is an important reason to show your face in video conferencing, when possible, because people both process and consider your facial expressions and body language in considering your perspective.)

Additional Conferencing Features to Consider

Digital whiteboard. This feature enables brainstorming sessions. Remote teams need the ability to flesh out ideas as if they were all gathered in a room together. This includes the ability to share content, write documents, and collaborate on creating content.

Polling. This can be useful for taking a temperature check on a specific matter if the conference call has a large number of people and organizers do not want to interrupt or delay proceedings. Embedded polling tends to be most important for training purposes, such as continuing education courses that require some amount of in-presentation polling or questioning. However, there are stand-alone polling products that enterprises can just as easily use that may be more relevant from an employee engagement or brainstorming perspective.

Breakout rooms. These can be useful in situations where multiple teams need to meet at once, then gather individually and then come back together. An organization will want to weigh whether it would use breakout rooms often enough to justify the cost, if it is an extra expense. Breakout rooms are helpful to facilitate the in-office collaboration and separate conversations that can be hard to otherwise support.

In general, aim to keep the platform as simple as possible from a usability perspective. This will ensure that people use the licenses for which the business is paying, and they will make the most of the platform. There is little or no point in paying for features that do not enhance outcomes because they are either too cumbersome to use or too difficult to find. Conferencing is a market where ease-of-use, breadth of adoption, and well-managed administration are key capabilities.

In our next blog in this series, Part IV: Recommendations for Effective Conferencing, Amalgam Insights will discuss best practices and guidance for utilizing conferencing solutions to help employees be more productive.

In the first blog on this series on conferencing, Amalgam Insights discussed top conferencing vendors and their Coronavirus-specific free offerings to support remote work. In this second of four blogs focused on conferencing solutions, Amalgam Insights describes top considerations for enterprises as they formalize their conferencing investments in the Time of Corona.

This four-part blog series on Conferencing Solutions includes the following topics:
Part I: Introduction to Conferencing Solutions
Part II: Defining and Purchasing Conferencing Solutions
Part III: Evaluating Conferencing Solutions
Part IV: Recommendations for Effective Conferencing

Key Stakeholders: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Information Officer, Network Services Directors and Managers, Telecom Directors and Managers, IT Directors and Managers

Why It Matters: In the Time of Corona, Amalgam Insights estimates that the United States workforce working from home has increased from 5% at the end of 2019 to over 30% as of the end of March 2020. In light of this fundamental shift, companies must choose, deploy, and administer conferencing solutions effectively to support remote workers and maintain collaboration-based productivity.

Top Takeaway: Conferencing is a core capability to support teamwork, collaboration, and face-to-face interaction in remote work settings. By understanding the features, pricing, and best practices associated with supporting conferencing solutions at scale, companies can evaluate and implement conferencing solutions at scale to support business continuity and remote teams in the Time of Corona.

Defining the Enterprise-Grade Conferencing Platform

A complete enterprise-grade conferencing platform enables aural, visual and text-based collaboration among groups and individuals through phone lines, the internet and/or camera-enabled devices. That way, employees can meet virtually from wherever they work, including mobile devices, computers, and media-enabled monitors or rooms. Employees can stay connected through their choice of smartphone, tablet, modern laptop or desktop, custom home office or work office, and a high-quality broadband connection.

Note that almost all modern solutions targeting businesses feature audio, video and chat and/or instant messaging. Any conferencing solutions considered that lack all three modes of communication should either be high-end specialist solutions or have some additional vertical or functional specialization above and beyond what is typically provided by conferencing solutions, such as sales enablement, sourcing and contract management, or governed and compliant functionality for government and other high-security use cases. In the age of COVID-19 and future disasters, audio, video and text all are essential to fostering a cohesive team environment.

A final note here: When sifting through the dozens of available solutions, it may be helpful to consider what conferencing is not – and that is fairly straightforward. To that point, enterprise-grade conferencing is not:

• Messaging-only
• File sharing (although conferencing may include this capability)
• Client/community management (à la Salesforce Community Cloud)
• Social media (although conferencing may support channels that resemble social media feeds such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter)
• Learning management systems (e.g., Skillsoft, CrossKnowledge, Area9)
• Virtual events (which have additional event management, contact management, presentation, and audience participation capabilities)
• Webinars (which focus mainly on mass one-way communications with limited two-way interaction through Question and Answer panels or promoting individual users to presenters)

How Do I Buy Conferencing?

In many cases, enterprises purchase conferencing platforms on a standalone basis – separately, not as part of other applications. It is quite common for employees decide to purchase conferencing solutions either for personal use or as a minor line item expense hidden in a project or discretionary spend, resulting in a panoply of solutions within any one organization. Employees launch the platform from a web link or mobile application when needed. Over the past 20+ years that conferencing has been part of the corporate tool kit, a constant challenge has been the inability to start meetings on time or to support the types of meetings that employees would like to have. As a result, employees place a premium on conferencing solutions that work rather than simply using the conferencing solutions mandated within a corporate environment.

By that same token, of course, conferencing can be embedded within other products. Those larger solutions fall outside the scope of this research but, for now, it is sufficient to understand that conferencing acts as one facet of a multi-pronged approach to remote communications.

Licensing Concerns

Enterprises purchase rights to a certain number of conferencing seats, usually for a specific contract length. For this reason alone, it is imperative to select a platform that staff will actually adopt before investing in a product at scale. If the conferencing product is confusing or overloaded with features, people will resort to other methods to meet. The organization then will pay for something it’s not using – and that is a luxury enterprises can ill afford amid COVID-19.

Most cloud-based conferencing vendors will enable clients to add and remove licenses as staffing fluctuates. Depending on the provider, there may be a fee for this convenience. If the conferencing solution is premise-based, the client (or its technology partner) will have to install or uninstall programs manually, device by device. This may not be feasible, depending on the employee’s geographic location. Companies choosing solutions that are difficult to remove or solutions that make it difficult to track usage and define which employee is responsible for an account find themselves at risk of managing “zombie” accounts that maintain their monthly cost, but are assigned to employees that have left the company or projects that are no longer being held.

What Differentiates Conferencing Platforms from a Purchasing Perspective?

Voice plan charges. Who knew minutes still cost money? Well, they do, especially for toll-free numbers. Analyze each vendor’s fine print when it comes to the audio side of the conferencing platform for toll and toll-free minutes and to see which countries are supported with phone numbers. (Pro Tip: In the IP age of communications, computer-based calls can often be both cheaper and higher quality than using a phone.)

Number of users/time supported. Free platforms usually accommodate the fewest seats and minutes per conference. This may pose no challenge for a very small business, but medium and larger organizations require more extensive capabilities. (Pro Tip: Sometimes less is more. Freemium limits may provide an opportunity to reduce meeting attendees to the most relevant stakeholders and to limit meeting times.)

Devices/brand names supported. Despite the popularity of open-source technology, not all platforms and features may work on specific mobile devices or operating systems, whether it be Android, iOS, AppleOS, Windows, Linux, or other options. Doublecheck interoperability and minimum computing requirements for key features during the procurement phase.

Pricing. Depending on the premium nature of the vendor’s brand, as well as number of users, features, level of support, and other considerations, platform pricing varies, even within the provider’s product portfolio. Check whether there are annual discounts, bulk user discounts, minimum annual revenue commitments, pricing changes for transferring licenses across users, and other standard technology pricing concerns when buying in bulk. (Pro Tip: Amalgam Insights provides consulting services for companies seeking to conduct due pricing diligence.)

In our next blog, Part III: Evaluating Conferencing Solutions, we will cover functional considerations in comparing conferencing solutions in the Time of Corona.