Industry 4.0 makes IT a production factor

The fourth industrial revolution is in full swing. Here IT is an important factor of production and changes the role of IT departments in the manufacturing sector. IT outsourcing can help in achieving the "smart factory".

The demands on IT as part of Industry 4.0, many medium-sized companies in many countries in front of an almost impossible task: IT departments are often neither in size nor in terms of skills and budget set to such profound changes, at the same time there is a lack of qualified junior staff. An alternative to the costly and lengthy construction of such internal expertise make IT service.

Outsourcing of IT is not a new recipe. Classic IT Outsourcing (ITO) has been operating for many years. Currently, many companies are in a phase of re-sourcing: Existing, comprehensive ITO contracts are renegotiated, sometimes terminated. The trend observed in the sourcing advisory asks outsource individual services, perhaps even with different IT service providers.

How to optimize your IT budget

"The profit lies in purchasing". A well-known slogan, which is among diehard merchants and freshmen in business administration equally known. Far too often this rather simple approach is also transferred to the budgets of IT departments.

Across all industries know CIOs and CTOs, the demand for cost discipline or even budget cuts. In the age of global competition and tight margins an understandable demand, but which is difficult to comply with. Even the highest quality and reliability of the infrastructure required by the operational units at the same time.

A simple change in strategy CTOs and CIOs could, but significantly reduce the cost of network infrastructure and thus improve returns for their businesses. However, these opportunities often remain untapped, while cost-conscious managers are some good alternatives open. For example, if the end-of-life of a Cisco router, announced no further features are implemented from that date and it remains a year in which the system is still available for purchase.

In the next step, it is no longer possible to transfer the system to a new maintenance contract. Here at last leaves of OEM customers with the product finally out in the cold. Due to the short life cycles of these business practices created for the customer in very high costs.