Rescue Stranded Assets

3. Rescue stranded assets.
Challenge: As layoffs and downsizing increase throughout the business, IT may end up with unused data centers, desktops and other equipment. You need to consolidate these assets and applications, but you're not going to have the money to do it in-house.

Solution: Work with your service provider to consolidate the infrastructure, rebalancing your hardware, software and maintenance schedule to match reductions in staff.

4. Demonstrate that IT is a valuable asset, not a cost center.
Challenge: Under economic pressure, IT departments must aggressively and innovatively demonstrate that IT investments can save money and improve efficiency throughout the organization.

Solution: Work with your business partners to identify ways that IT can help address other departments' budget cuts. Consider, for instance, leveraging self-service technology to help employees and customers get information, all while reducing strain on call centers. This won't help the IT budget, but it may reduce other departments' costs while improving customer satisfaction at the same time.

5. Go for the green.
Challenge: The pressure to cut spending hasn't alleviated pressure on IT to conserve power, design more-efficient procedures and otherwise minimize its environmental impact.

Solution: Consider green initiatives that demonstrate short-term operational savings. For example, efforts such as teleconferencing, Web conferencing and work-at-home technology are all ways to reduce travel expenses and conserve transportation energy while also showing how IT can add value to the company.