Recently while reading a book by the Dalai Lama, I came across a passage that said the essence of his teachings is to help others if possible, and if that is not possible, at least do no harm. While Tibetan Buddhism and technology have little in common, this passage can also be considered the essence of good technology planning.
The goal of a business is to increase profitability. A profitable company creates jobs, purchases more equipment from vendors and adds overall value to the community. Any tool used by the business - whether it is in technology, manufacturing or office service - should enhance a company's revenue stream or at the least do no harm.
Technology is a valuable tool for enhancing the bottom line, but it also can affect the profit margin negatively. Good technology planning has to include a thorough financial and risk analysis to determine the true value of a technology, for often there is more than meets the eye.
A good example of this is Internet-based VPNs. Many companies are using VPNs as alternatives to costly dedicated circuits as in many cases, they can reduce network costs by 20% to 30%. At first glance, this would appear to meet the goal of enhancing a company's profitability. However, this is a case in which technology planners need to consider the risk.
Internet-based VPNs do reduce cost; however they often carry a lower service level from the vendor. Most Internet-based VPNs utilize DSL and most DSL providers have a minimum mean time to repair (MTTR) of 24 to 48 hours. Often this is only Monday through Friday which means an outage on Thursday afternoon might not be resolved until Tuesday - a five day disruption to the revenue stream that can more than eliminate any network cost savings. If the downtime happens during a company’s busy season, the result could be financially devastating. Granted the risk can be reduced by providing additional dial or ISDN backup, but then the overall cost of the solution might reduce the potential savings to a level that is not financially justifiable.
Internet-based VPNs can be the network of choice for locations that generate little or no revenue; however the risk to the revenue stream needs to be considered before migrating any revenue-generating location away from dedicated connectivity.
VPNs are not the only technology that needs to be analyzed in this manner. Any network, systems or application technology that has the potential to affect a company's revenue stream needs to be evaluated thoroughly to ensure it enhances profitability or at least does no harm.
