Many successful football teams rely on a combination of a pound-and-ground running game complemented by timely passes. This approach consistently produces wins, but it requires strategic commitment and tactical patience. Coaches who yield to temptation and abandon the run too early in favor of long bombs and trick plays often find themselves on the losing end of the scoreboard.
There’s a lesson here for CIOs managing networking in the era of digital transformation. Driving cost savings from traditional services contracts represents the “running game” of network operations. While effective, it can take time and is not terribly glamorous, especially when the allure of digital transformation beckons. But traditional services and digital-enabling technology such as cloud-based delivery, X-as-a-service and software-defined everything are not an either/or proposition. Basic cost efficiency and contractual discipline remain essential to network operations, and savings can affect the bottom line or fund critical transformation initiatives.
The most effective network strategies combine the blocking and tackling basics of operational improvement and tactical cost-cutting, along with implementation of transformational change. This ISG white paper explores how using savings from contract renegotiations and network improvement programs to invest in new and innovative technologies allows CIOs to build a powerful business case for disruptive change.
