The key to writing good technical documentation is in the format of the document. No matter how good the information is, if it is not well formatted it can be difficult to use. Documentation should be easy to read, easy for the reader to understand and well organized. Writing good technical documentation is time consuming, but well worth the effort.

Steps to Good Documentation

There are some essential steps to take in order to produce quality documentation.

What Is The Purpose?

Determine what the purpose of the documentation is such as work instructions, vendor instructions, knowledge base or other type. This will help you define the content, the format and in some cases the media you will use.

Who Are You Writing For?

Knowing who will be reading the documentation will help you determine the depth and word usage. You want to write the documentation at the level of the person reading it.

Collect Information

Even if you are an expert in the area gather all of the information you can find on the subject. You may need to interview or get the assistance of others to help you gather the needed information. Manuals, user guides and online resources are very useful.

Write an Outline

Start with an outline of the document indentifying the different sections of the document. This will help guide you as you fill in the blank spaces with more detail.

Write The First Draft

Working from the outline begin to fill in each section with details. Don’t worry about formatting or editing at this point. Here you want to get down all of the information that will be in the document.

Revise and Format

Now it is time to polish the document and format it. A good rule of thumb is you will end up removing more than you add if you wrote the first draft correctly. Wait until you have a final draft before you format the document.

The Four Essential Parts

Depending on the subject most technical documentation should be broken down into four areas.

• Title
• Section
• Steps
• Appendix

The Title

The title is what the documentation is about. For example

Network Support – Troubleshooting Connectivity Issues

The Section

The document should be divided into sections. Each section contains detailed step-by-step instructions.

Section 1 – Ping The Remote Station

Section 2 – Examine Event Logs

The Steps

Each section will contain detailed step-by-step instructions on how to perform the action for that section.

1.1  Use the ping –t command to ping the remote station

1.2  Watch the ping statistics. If you detect lost packets go to Appendix 3

The Appendix

The appendix is used to place more information or detailed instructions on how to deal with specific issues. For instance in the above example if lost packets were detected when you ping the remote station you would refer to Appendix 3. Appendix 3 would detail what to steps to take when lost packets are detected.

By using this approach you keep your steps clean and easy to follow. You do not want to clutter them with detailed instructions on how to handle each problem or issue that may arise. Use the Appendix for that.

Key Points

Always Use Numbered Steps

When writing documentation you should always used numbered steps. They are easier to follow and allow you to better support the documentation when used by someone else.

For instance you create installation instructions for a vendor. They call in and ask about a step in the process they are having a problem with. Without numbered steps you may get a question like “where it says to connect the light blue console cable, included with the router…”.

With numbered steps you would get the question “At step 3.4 it says connect the light blue console cable, included with the router…”. Now you do not have to hunt through the document looking for what the caller is referring to. You know they are at step 3.4 which is easy to find.

K.I.S.S.

Yes, keep it simple stupid. A very important philosophy when it comes to writing good technical documentation. Do not go into long detailed explanations or steps. Documentation should be short, clear and easy to follow. This makes it easy for the user and helps eliminate possible errors due to details that are not needed.

Use a Template

Part of a good documentation system is consistency. By using a template for each type of documentation you write your readers will find it easier to use. Software such as Microsoft Word allows you to save a document as a template. Once you have a good template use it for each new document you write. It will save you time and will produce consistent looking documentation.

Organize With a Reference System

Now where is the documentation on trouble-shooting connectivity issues? Maybe it is under N for network, or C for connectivity. Avoid this problem by using a letter and number reference system for your documentation.

As you create documentation keep a log sheet. Assign each set of documentation with a letter number system. For instance NS-21 Network Support – Troubleshooting Connectivity Issues. NS for network support and this is document number 21 in the network support reference library.

You can generalize such as PR – process instructions, WI – work instructions, AP – administrative processes, GP – general processes and so on. Log each set of documentation including the reference number (NS-21), the title of the documentation (Network Support – Troubleshooting Connectivity Issues), the location of the soft copy of the document, the author of the document and the last revision date.

When you print out your documentation you can put it in a binder and label it.  By having a reference system you can line them all up NS-1, NS-2, NS-3 and so forth. Put a copy of the log sheet on the location the documentation is stored for easy reference.

Take Away, Literally

There are many reasons to document something. One of the most important reasons is to retain the knowledge of key personnel. If someone leaves the company they take all of their knowledge of your systems with them. Having documented processes and procedures helps you retain some of that knowledge.

I would suggest that you identify key personnel and task them to document their processes and procedures now. Even if they have poor writing skills you can always give the information to someone else to revise. The goal is to document their knowledge so you may retain it.

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The Gartner survey of users and prospective users of SaaS solutions indicates that while the SaaS model is more widely accepted now 58 percent of companies plan to maintain their current levels of SaaS over the next two years. Only 32 percent said they will expand while 5 percent say they will decrease levels or discontinue.

“Our research findings did not exactly provide a ringing endorsement of SaaS, in fact I would go as far as to say that satisfaction levels among SaaS users are little more than lukewarm,” said Ben Pring, research vice president at Gartner. “Although macroeconomic factors would seem to favor SaaS providers, almost two thirds of respondents said that they planned only to maintain their current levels of SaaS in the next two years.”

When asked why they decided not to use SaaS 42 percent cited the high cost of service, 38 percent said it was the difficultly with integration and 33 percent said the solution did not meet their technical requirements.

Twiggy Lo, the Gartner principle research analyst said “The underwhelming customer satisfaction” cited by the survey point to issues that still need to be addressed and resolved before SaaS customers are more satisfied.

Points cited that SaaS vendors need to improve on include:

• Truly delivering lower total cost of ownership. Not just the up-front costs, but the costs to maintain and support the deployment.
• Easier deployments that do not require expensive consultants to support and maintain. These cost eat away at the savings incurred.
• Better integration that recognizes how customers run now and will run in the future. The needs of the business are and will continue to change. SaaS solutions must be able to grown and expand with the business.
• Reaffirm that SaaS solutions are lighter, simpler, more intuitive, and more agile.

Other concerns such as security and privacy issues, ease if integration and not being able to meet the technical requirements keep many potential customers sitting on the sideline. With security issues at the top of most IT department agendas this is not surprising.

While the Gartner findings indicate customers and not totally satisfied with their SaaS solutions I think it opens the door for some SaaS vendors to make the improvements needed and corner their niche of the market. SaaS is still a relatively new model that obviously still has growing pains.

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A recent survey commissioned by Microsoft and done by Harris Interactive reveals that American IT departments plan to spend only 29 percent of their budget on innovation in 2009. This compares to 41 percent in Japan and the U.K.

In the report 55 percent say the economy has changed the role of IT and 51 percent say that budget constraints are the biggest barrier to their innovation. Clearly the recession is hitting many IT departments hard.

Driving Business Efficiency

Most of those surveyed reported that they are focused on driving business efficiency rather than on simply reducing IT costs. About two-thirds plan to increase their planned investments in at least one infrastructure technology.

IT is looking to invest in areas such as virtualization (42 percent), security (36%), systems management (24%) and cloud computing (16%). All of these investments will help IT better streamline operations and delivery more business value. But is this enough?

Security is Still Number One

Security still seems to be the number one issue in managing infrastructure. Protection of customer and company data heads the list of security priorities with 73 percent saying they plan to make security investments in the next one to three years. Considering the risk to the business, this is a wise investment in any economic climate.

Considering a recent report from Symantec showed that 88 percent of the 1,000 enterprise security experts they surveyed reported cyber attacks with nearly all of them experiencing some form of loss it is clear why security is still at the top of the list.

Symantec also reports that in 2008 they created more than 1.6 million new malicious code signatures. That is a 165 percent increase over 2007. Yes it is a dangerous world out there so investments in security have become a strategic necessity.

When Does the Squeeze Hurt Too Much?

Given the ever increasing demands on IT from the business now and in the future, is it wise to cut so deeply that companies risk loosing their competitive edge?  Granted there are some companies that have no choice but to cut. However I think many are doing so as a defensive measure with the uncertainty of the economy.

To remain competitive and meet the growing needs of the business IT must continue to innovate and invest. By making smart and targeted investments in IT companies can maintain their competitive edge, secure their infrastructure against damaging losses and eventually improve their bottom line with increased efficiency and productivity.

To simply sit on the sidelines totally focused on cutting IT costs while your competitors position themselves with new capabilities and technologies companies are putting themselves at risk of further pain once the economy does turn around.

One does not have to make wholesale changes or massive investments to improve. Using targeted investments in IT along with a Kaizen approach of slow, but continuous change IT can help position their company to remain competitive in the present economic environment as well as give the company a firm foundation on which to build growth in the future.

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Verdiem, the leading provider of enterprise PC power management software solutions has released its Power Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager2007. Utilizing Verdiem’s Power Management Pack, IT administrators can seamlessly integrate Verdiem’s Surveyor™ PC Power Management Software with Configuration Manager to both reduce PC energy consumption while gaining insight and control over IT processes related to PC administration and management.

According to Gartner, Inc., in its March 2009 report, “When to Consider Commercial PC Power Management Tools,” by Terrence Cosgrove, PCs and peripherals consume more energy than any other information and communications technology group and by 2012, more than 50% of midsize and large organizations will centrally manage desktop power states, up from less than 10% today.

“Increasingly organizations are turning to PC power management solutions to reduce PC energy costs and meet the requirements of their Green IT initiatives,” said Terrence Cosgrove, Senior Research Analyst, Gartner, Inc. “As adoption of PC power management continues, organizations should consider comprehensive solutions to best meet enterprise requirements for software distribution, desktop and patch management.”

“As energy prices continue to rise and environmental concerns reside as central concerns to the global economy, PC power management is a simple, cost effective and highly quantifiable implementation of Green IT practices,” said Brett Goodwin, Vice President of Marketing, Verdiem. “With the release of the PC Power Management Pack, Verdiem extends the power of Configuration Manager with effective control of PC power states for more reliable patch management and software distribution while enabling significant reductions in PC energy costs.”

“With the System Center suite, customers have a powerful set of integrated management capabilities enabling them to have deep insight into their operations and helping them to drive down costs and improve operational efficiency across their entire IT infrastructure,” said Christian von Burkleo, Director, Operations and Business Development, Management and Services Division, Microsoft. “The integration of Verdiem’s SURVEYOR with System Center Configuration Manager delivers extended PC administration and power management capabilities, providing customers with the opportunity to further extend the System Center benefits within their operations.”

Verdiem’s Power Management Pack provides seamless integration for Microsoft Configuration Manager with Verdiem’s Surveyor, providing the following key benefits:

• Automatically wake machines with pending updates: This includes an option to “force policy refresh” upon wake as well.
• Real-time power control: Manually wakeup/shutdown/restart individual machines or collections from the ConfigMgr console.
• Throttle PC wakeup for large patch updates: Spread out the PC wakeup process to assure maximum energy savings and reliability of network maintenance and updates.
• “Set It and Forget It” integration with Configuration Manager: No additional management burden, since SURVEYOR activity is logged as Configuration Manager status messages.

About Verdiem Surveyor

SURVEYOR is the industry’s most comprehensive PC energy management solution, enabling businesses to reduce PC energy consumption and costs by up to 60 percent. SURVEYOR intelligently places PCs and monitors into lower power states when idle and enables IT departments to centrally control power states of large-scale PC networks with an elegant set of policy and usage-based tools.

About Verdiem

Verdiem is an enterprise software company focused on PC Power Management & Green IT. Verdiem’s flagship SURVEYOR software enables customers to centrally control and reduce the energy used by PCs on their network by up to 60 percent without impacting end users or IT. Over 300 corporations, government agencies, and universities have deployed SURVEYOR to have a positive impact on the environment—reducing PC energy waste and carbon footprint. Based in Seattle, Washington, Verdiem is a leader in Green IT solutions and backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer

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To meet the growing need for information technology (IT) skills that span the full spectrum of data center technologies, Cisco introduced two new IT career certifications.  Cisco also announced an expansion of the Unified Computing System Family with the new C-Series of Rack-Mount Servers designed to help accelerate the adoption of unified computing and data center virtualization solutions.

Key Facts/Highlights:

Cisco announces new channel programs for its expanding data center partner channel

• To motivate channel partners to invest in building a unified data center practice, Cisco has expanded its existing Value Incentive Program (VIP) offering for all of Cisco’s data center technologies, including unified computing, storage networking, and WAN optimization, as well as for its existing offering for data center switching. VIP is Cisco’s flagship profitability program that rewards partners for investing in architecture practices around collaboration, data center virtualization and borderless networks.
• Cisco also announced the new Data Center Channel Solutions Program, designed to help enable and accelerate the sale of tested, validated reference IT solution designs that incorporate products from industry-leading data center vendors, including EMC, Microsoft, NetApp, Red Hat, and VMware.
• Cisco today announced it is opening the Unified Computing opportunity to a broader range of its channel partner community. Cisco is announcing an Authorized Partner Program (APP) to support the new Unified Computing C-Series Rack-Mount Servers.  All Cisco DCNI Specialized Partners will be able to sell the new rack-mount servers after completing online training  and exam from Cisco.
• The Cisco Advanced Data Center Network Infrastructure Specialization (DCNI) is the fastest-ramping specialization in Cisco’s history.   Despite the economic downturn, partners have rapidly invested in the specialization since its launch a year ago because of its strategic significance to their business.

Transforming the Data Center with Unified Fabric

Expansion of the Unified Computing System Family to include the C-Series Rack-Mount Servers

“Cisco’s comprehensive Unified Computing System architecture allows us to easily offer new form factors that respond quickly to our customers’ needs. With the UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers, we are opening the Unified Computing opportunity to a broader range of our channel partner community while providing our customers a migration path to the unified computing approach of the future.” said Prem Jain, senior vice president, Server and Access Virtualization

• Cisco announced a product line extension to the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) with the addition of a new form factor, the C-Series Rack-Mount Servers.
• The Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers extend the standards-based innovation, reduced total cost and increased business agility of the Unified Computing System to customers who require rack-mount servers; together with the UCS blade servers, Cisco’s Unified Computing System addresses the broad spectrum compute requirements for next-generation data centers.

The UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers will offer several innovations including:

• Access to unified fabric through a low-latency lossless 10-gigabits-per-second Ethernet foundation that enables a “wire-once” deployment model.
• Cisco patented memory extension technology that yields more than 2.5 times the addressable memory of currently available two-socket rack-mount platforms; this provides the ability to support significantly more virtual machines per server and to deliver the scalability to run large memory applications.
• Cisco virtualized adapter that provides adapter consolidation and virtualization optimization capabilities by enabling each virtualized adapter to define up to 128 Ethernet or Fibre Channel connections.
• Based on Intel Xeon 5500 series processors, Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers will adapt processor performance to application demands and intelligently scale energy use based on utilization.
• The Cisco C-Series Rack-Mount Servers are scheduled to be available in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2009.

Cisco Announces New IT Career Certifications in Data Center Management:

A study conducted by Forrester Consulting found that 65 percent of IT managers surveyed indicated that within the next five years, technical certification would be somewhat or absolutely critical in determining whether an individual should be assigned responsibilities in a network operations control, a central data center role.

• Cisco today announced two new IT individual certifications targeted at customers and channel partners with job roles such as data center architect, data center builder, and data center technical operations professional.
• The new individual certifications, Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Design Specialist and the Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Support Specialist, build on foundational skills including storage networking, data center networking infrastructure, data center application services and virtualization.  These certifications validate design and support expertise across multiple data center technologies that make up the unified computing architecture.
• Cisco is committed to the development of skilled IT professionals as part of its Learning@Cisco program.  Information about courseware and exams is scheduled to be available from Learning@Cisco in the third quarter of calendar year 2009 at www.ciscolearningnetwork.com.

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Gartner acknowledged that many countries are experiencing ever-increasing levels of unemployment, rising home mortgage payment delinquencies and business bankruptcies while also seeing reductions in consumer confidence, business earnings and overall economic performance. However, in recent months, analysts have observed that many organizations are reporting that their staff are working at near- or full-capacity levels.

This demand level will almost certainly increase when businesses start detecting a resurgence in demand from customers, a more stabilized economic climate and a far-healthier lending environment from which to access credit.

“As these improvements translate into new IT project demands to help businesses identify new revenue and profit opportunities, companies will need a way to manage the already high project load with a new wave of projects,” said Ken McGee, vice president and Gartner fellow.

“However, waiting until that new demand arrives will be far too late to appropriately meet it, and we are recommending that companies start preparing for business growth now with a view to having these plans completed by July 1, 2009.”

Gartner believes that the July 1 “deadline” will well serve those organizations believing that modest business growth could occur during 2010. Such a belief would require placement of new IT project and other related expenses in the 2010 budget, whose preparation period is between August and the end of 2009.

“We’re not trying to predict when the end of the recession will take place, nor are we trying to speculate when credit market stability will occur, or when we will see consistent investment appreciation return to the world’s equity markets,” said Mark Raskino, vice president and Gartner fellow. “What we are saying is that due to the lag in time between the point at which the economy begins to grow again, and when it’s officially declared to be growing again, companies simply can’t wait for an ‘official’ declaration before they begin planning for better times.”

While Gartner’s recommendations call for the resolution of key preliminary cost optimization and governance-related issues before the era of business growth returns, Gartner said that it is not necessarily advocating that organizations automatically revert to the same management techniques they were using in the years leading up to the recession.

Gartner said that it plans to present an array of new cost-optimization-related actions that its clients should take during future technology selection, vendor selection, procurement, contract negotiation, asset management, and other post-recession efforts as they enter the next chapter of supporting business growth.

“Since no one knows when business growth will resume, organizations may need to file away their completed return-to-business plans for up to a year or more. The plan in waiting should be reviewed on a monthly basis and revised according to changes in the business climate,” Mr. McGee said. “Having a completed plan will enable the near-immediate allocation of funding and staffing for IT projects, thus avoiding the need to take weeks to devise a plan after senior executives mandate the need to support business growth initiatives.”

Additional information is available in the Gartner report “It’s Time to Prepare for a Return to Business Growth.” The report is available on Gartner’s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=963012&subref=simplesearch.

Mr. McGee’s Comments

Mr. Raskino’s Comments

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The data points to a shift from implementing “green” technologies primarily for cost reduction purposes, to a more balanced awareness of also improving the organization’s environmental standing.

Ninety-seven percent of respondents state they are at least discussing a green IT strategy, while 45 percent have already implemented green IT initiatives. IT decision makers are increasingly justifying green IT solutions by more than cost and IT efficiency benefits.

Respondents cited key drivers as reducing electricity consumption (90 percent), reducing cooling costs (87 percent), and corporate pressure to be “green” (86 percent). Furthermore, 83 percent of respondents are now responsible or cross-charged for the electricity consumed in the data center—bringing visibility and accountability to bear on the ultimate consumer of these resources.

“Over the past 12 months, IT has emerged as a new driving force in implementing green initiatives – not only for energy savings benefits, but also as a result of widespread desire to implement environmentally responsible practices,” said Jose Iglesias, vice president of Global Solutions at Symantec Corporation.

“The pendulum has swung both ways and IT is now taking a balanced approach that is more integral to an organization’s ‘green’ strategy, proven by the fact that the vast majority of respondents are now responsible for the energy costs of their data center.”

Budgets, Spending on ‘Green’ Solutions Increase

IT executives report a significant increase in green IT budgets. Seventy-three percent expect an increase in green IT budgets over the next 12 months, while 19 percent expect increases of more than 10 percent. The typical respondent reported spending $21 to 27 million on data center electricity.

At the same time, IT is willing to pay a premium for energy efficient products. Two-thirds of respondents said they would pay at least 10 percent more, while 41 percent are willing to pay at least 20 percent more. Additionally, 89 percent of respondents said IT product efficiency is either important or very important.

IT Central to Enterprise Green Efforts

As organizations continue to adopt programs and practices to drive environmental responsibility throughout the enterprise, IT is increasingly important to the broader enterprise “green” efforts. Perhaps the strongest indicator, 83 percent of IT departments report they are now responsible or cross-charged for electricity, providing a strong motivator for IT to reduce energy costs.

Furthermore, 89 percent think IT should play a very or extremely significant role in ‘green’ efforts and 82 percent have a corporate green advocate, with more than one-fifth focusing exclusively on IT initiatives.

Core Green IT Initiatives

IT professionals are regularly deploying several key initiatives for green IT purposes. Replacing old equipment was the most popular strategy, with 95 percent reporting new energy efficient equipment as part of their strategy, followed by monitoring power consumption (94 percent), server virtualization (94 percent), and server consolidation (93 percent). Additionally, more than half (57 percent) of respondents see software-as-a-service offerings as “green” solutions.

About Symantec’s Green IT Report

Symantec’s Green IT Report is the result of research conducted in March 2009 by Applied Research, which surveyed enterprise IT executives, including vice presidents, directors, and C-level IT executives. The report was designed to gauge respondents’ interest in and plans for deploying strategies and solutions to help reduce e-waste associated with computer hardware, software, facilities, and planning, and ultimately reduce the organization’s footprint. The study included 1,052 respondents in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, the U.K., Brazil, Mexico, Australia, India, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, New Zealand, and China.

Symantec helps IT decision makers to reduce energy consumption and increase space utilization by providing solutions that increase desktop, server, and storage efficiencies. Symantec software enables IT organizations to undertake server and storage consolidation and utilization initiatives while providing a software infrastructure that enables IT managers to select the server and hardware of their choice.

By increasing storage utilization and by helping customers with storage-tiering to reduce the need for power-hungry premium storage hardware, this software helps organizations reduce power consumption and floor space.

Additionally, data deduplication technology can reduce the disk-based requirements for backup, while other software helps to manage server consolidation and storage resources. Power management software provided by Symantec enables IT professionals to better control desktops’ energy usage by enabling power-down settings. Finally, Symantec offers services to help companies optimize and streamline their data center through data center design consulting services.

Relevant Links

To read additional key findings or obtain information on recent Symantec research or Symantec’s green IT initiative and green solutions, visit the following resources:

• Symantec 2009 Green IT Report
• Symantec 2009 Green IT Report online press kit
• Symantec’s green IT initiative and solutions
• Symantec’s Green Data Center Guide whitepaper
• Symantec’s second annual State of the Data Center report
• Podcasts on the State of the Data Center
• Symantec’s 2007 Green Data Center report

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Gartner analysts said that lesson learned from previous downturns indicate that 40 percent of companies will use the current economic slump as an opportunity to generate post-recovery growth via effective use of CRM strategies.

“Just because times are tough and budgets are being cut, companies should not think that means no CRM investment,” said Scott Nelson, managing vice president at Gartner. “Companies need to think in terms of spending smarter, not spending less. There are zero, or low-cost strategies that can be implemented now that can make all the difference, generate competitive differentiation and not draw the attention of the CFO.”

Mr. Nelson said in reality there is no such thing as true “zero cost strategy” — as money has often already been spent on CRM systems and there are ongoing care and maintenance expenses — CRM success can be secured without spending more money on technology. Many organizations have large investments in call centers, Web sites, marketing systems and sales force automation. With these pieces in place, companies can wrap effective strategies around these tools and generate real success from a customer standpoint.

“CRM is a journey, not just a one-time and done strategy,” said Mr. Nelson. “If the right strategies are employed now, then companies will get a ‘sling shot’ effect going into the eventual recovery, putting them well ahead of the rivals who chose to wait and who equate CRM success with spending more money on technology.”

Gartner has identified five strategies that companies can undertake now that cost very little or nothing, but which will generate positive results from a CRM strategy point of view.

Customer Communities

Gartner predicts that CRM of the future will be about creating online communities of customers via emerging social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and similar Web sites. The economic downturn provides a great opportunity to begin experimenting in this area, and Gartner advises companies to set up accounts on the various Web sites and learn what they do and don’t do, and how users interact.

Analytics

Once bought and installed, analytic tools can be put to good use during economic downturns. Many companies have more information than they know what to do with, and now they have the opportunity to put this to good use studying attrition models, looking at the next most likely to buy models, and figuring out channel usage patterns. While doing so, companies should bear in mind that customer behavior may change when the economy improves.

Segmentation

Many segmentation schemes are based on psycho-demographics, profitability or account attributes. However, a down economy provides companies with the opportunity to review their segmentation strategy and see if it really is the very best one that they could have.

Process Redesign

Process is often an overlooked part of CRM and in many cases all that CRM technologies have done is taken out old, broken processes and made them run more efficiently. Now is an excellent time to study customer processes with a view to redesigning them and creating a win/win situation for both the company — which gets greater efficiency — and the customer — who gets a “partner” that interacts with them in a meaningful way.

Organizational Redesign

Organizational change is one of the most difficult areas of CRM strategy, but many companies need to make the move from product-centric to customer-centric. In a down economy, with fewer distractions, many companies will find that this is the perfect time to start to address some of the organizational issues that get in the way of serving the customer.

“At the end of the day, CRM is all about change. Changing from product to customers, changing age-old processes, changing enterprise mindsets, and changing how companies relate to customers,” said Mr. Nelson. “All of this can be done without new systems, and the challenging economic environment may give companies just the chance they have been waiting for.”

Mr. Nelson will discuss the key issues facing the CRM industry during the Gartner Customer Relationship Management Summit, September 14-16, at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona. This Summit delivers leading-edge insights on how technology enables the marketing, sales and customer service functions, adding value to the customer experience and delivering higher levels of customer satisfaction while increasing sales and saving money.

Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/us/crm. Members of the media can register by sending an e-mail to Christy Pettey at christy.pettey@gartner.com. Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Zero-Cost CRM Strategies.” The report is on Gartner’s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=943912&subref=simplesearch.

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One area that IT can reduce energy costs is with PCs. The US Environmental Protection Agency reports that  a PC left on overnight is wasting between $25 and $75 of electricity a year. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of PCs and you can see the wasted dollars add up.

Verdiem Surveyor Power Management Solution

Verfiem’s Surveyor is one option to cut cost and your carbon footprint. One client, Washington Mutual has over 39,000 PCs under management with a projected annual cost savings of $3,000,000 and a reduced PC energy bill of nearly 60%.

Features Include

• Out-of-the-box energy consumption and savings reports including detailed insight into user activity/inactivity, power state transitions and policy settings across all devices.
• Maximize energy savings with comprehensive power policy settings without impacting end-user productivity.
• Gracefully manage business applications by allowing administrators to save data in open applications, backing up applications or gracefully shutting them down.
• Seamless remote desktop access allows users to wake their machine for unfettered access regardless of enforced power policies.
• Minimize administration with centralized management of power policies and device configuration.
• Reliable wakeup of devices enables efficient patch management and easy off-hours maintenance.
• Integrated support for Microsoft SCCM 2007 (Configuration Manager) improves efficiency of patch management and software updates through synchronous wakeup of PCs.
• Secure and reliable connectivity with SSL encryption and certificate-based authentication.
• Support for Intel® vPro™ technology ensures enhanced Wake-on-WAN manageability, security and increased savings potential.

Watch a demo of the Verdiem Surveyor power management solution.

For more information visit the Verdiem web site.

NightWatchman

NightWatchman from 1E is another PC power management solution. NightWatchman uses extremely reliable and proven technology to enable centralized, scheduled power down of PCs. It allows organizations to enforce corporate energy saving schemes.

Features and Benefits Include

• Reduces bottom-line energy costs, saves energy and reduces CO2 emissions
• Automatically powers down PCs according to a centrally controlled policy
• Protects unsaved user data prior to shutdown
• Provides fast, detailed reporting on current and potential future savings
• Schedules daily, immediate or one-off shutdowns
• Centrally controllable using any systems management tool
• Minimizes the window of opportunity for virus infiltration
• Easily installable lightweight desktop client

For more information visit the 1E web site.

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“Microsoft is committed to ensuring that IT professionals and developers continue to have the platform and technologies to drive maximum value and business results. Getting the most out of IT investments is even more important in today’s economy,” said Bill Veghte, senior vice president of the Windows Business at Microsoft, who delivered a keynote speech at the event.

During his speech, Veghte also talked about incredible partner support for Windows 7 and gave updated guidance on availability: “With early RC testing and extensive partner feedback we’ve received, Windows 7 is tracking well for holiday availability.”

As part of today’s news, Microsoft Corp. announced that the company is anticipating that the next version of its client operating system, Windows 7, will be available to customers in time for the holiday shopping season. In addition, Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate (RC) is available today with the final product releasing to market in the same timeframe as Windows 7.

Greater Efficiencies and Cost Savings With Windows

Veghte cited the combined benefits of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 as an ideal example of delivering business efficiencies and cost savings through technology. Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 include security, reliability and productivity enhancements, which, when used together, help deliver significant cost savings and productivity gains with features such as DirectAccess and BranchCache. As recently announced, Windows 7 RC is available for public download at http://www.windows.com/windows7.

Windows Server 2008 R2 RC includes several new capabilities, such as File Classification Infrastructure (FCI), a built-in solution for file classification and management. In addition, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V now gives customers the ability to scale up to 64 logical processors, delivers improved Web experiences with Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5, and offers increased hardware utilization and server availability with built-in Live Migration for virtualization technologies. Windows Server 2008 R2 RC is available for immediate download at http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2008R2.

Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, acknowledged these benefits in a report titled “Windows 7 Integrates with Windows Server 2008 R2,” which states, “Organizations that upgrade both clients and servers simultaneously could benefit from new features such as DirectAccess, which helps remote users connect to their organization’s internal network, and BranchCache, which reduces network traffic between the main and branch offices.” Cherry also reported that both products can help organizations reduce operational costs and support requirements.

“We are improving the efficiency of our branch offices and saving bandwidth by using BranchCache in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7,” said Lukas Kucera, IT services manager of Lukoil CEEB, one of the largest integrated oil and gas companies in the world. “Some of our smaller facilities, such as the office in Slovakia and the storage terminal in Belgium, have just five to 10 users, so it’s not efficient to deploy a file server on-site, but it consumes bandwidth to have them continually accessing files from the main servers. BranchCache is the perfect solution.”

Additional Technology Enhancements, Best Practices Deliver More Business Value

Several other announcements were made during Veghte’s keynote speech that illustrate how Microsoft’s products and technologies help customers and partners reduce costs and drive efficiencies. The company provided guidance on how businesses can achieve enterprise-level scale, performance and capability without enterprise-level costs through Windows Server 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5.

A recent Microsoft study — conducted using publicly available testing applications based upon industry best practices — shows customers can save up to 81 percent in total system costs by running applications on .NET 3.5 and Windows Server 2008 rather than on IBM WebSphere 7 on Power6/AIX. According to the study, customers who run their IBM WebSphere 7 applications on Windows Server and Intel Xeon 5400 processor-based HP BladeSystem servers can save up to 66 percent in total system costs when compared to running the same applications on IBM WebSphere 7 on a Power6/AIX platform. The full report can be reviewed at http://www.websphereloveswindows.com.

TechEd attendees will also get the first opportunity to participate in the invitation-only Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview program, which will be available in July 2009. The Microsoft Office 2010 wave of products boosts productivity by giving users a familiar experience across the PC, phone and browser. For IT professionals, Office 2010 will offer more choice and flexibility in how they buy and manage their IT assets, helping them reduce costs. For developers, it will provide a platform for building innovative, connected Office-related applications with greater ease. More information is available at http://www.office2010themovie.com.

Finally, Microsoft announced that a Community Technology Preview of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (formerly SQL Server code-named “Kilimanjaro”) will be available in the second half of 2009. SQL Server 2008 R2 will empower end users to make better decisions through self-service business intelligence, and help IT drive greater efficiency and reduce costs through new capabilities such as multi-server management and Master Data Services. In 2010, Microsoft will also introduce complex event processing for real-time insight into streaming information. This builds on the outstanding value of SQL Server 2008, which already provides some customers with as much as a 160 percent return on their investment.*

All of these announcements and more will be discussed by Ed Anderson, communications director, Server and Tools Business; Gavriella Schuster, senior director, Windows Product Marketing Group; and Mike Schutz, director of product management in the Windows Server Division, during a live webcast and Q&A session at 12:30 p.m. PDT today, May 11, 2009.

For details on how to participate in the webcast as well as links to videos, blogs, product downloads, and other information about this year’s event, or to watch Iain McDonald, general manager of Windows Server, discuss today’s announcements, readers can visit the Microsoft TechEd Global virtual pressroom at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/teched.

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