Transcript Course Title (#####)

Developing And Investing In
Today’s Technologies
2013 CAHEC Partner’s Conference
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Your Presenter
 Lee Voigt
-
-
Principal; Technology
Consulting Services
National Leader; Cloud
Computing
Strategist; Prior Leader Of
Other Technology Offerings
Firm Technology Specialist
Related To Affordable
Housing, Construction and
Real Estate
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Agenda
Topic
Minutes
The Drivers Of Information Technology
5
The Critical Business & Technology Issues
10
An Overview Of Foundation Technologies
15
Introducing Emerging Technologies
20
Defining An Information Technology Strategy
15
Question And Answer
5
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Objectives
By the end of this session you should:





Understand the drivers behind information technology
decisions and priorities.
Understand the core technology issues affecting
syndicators, investors, developers and property
managers today.
Understand the foundation technologies that
organizations should have in place today.
Gain an introduction to the emerging technologies that
are affecting the marketplace.
Gain an understanding of the traits and functions of a
successful information technology department.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
The Drivers Of Information
Technology
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Information Technology Drivers

All of the drivers for information technology adoption can be
summed up into five categories:
-
Portfolio Growth (Revenue)
Cost Reduction (Profit)
Improved Operational Efficiency (Leverage)
Customer Service (Retention)
Risk Mitigation (Risk)

Information technology spend and prioritization
decisions should ideally be scored across these
drivers.

Information technology that can’t be aligned to these
initiatives should be questioned
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
The Critical Business And
Technology Issues
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Critical Issues:
The Volume Of Data

Investors, developers and property managers operate
in a heavy data environment.

There is a profound benefit in turning this data into
insight and actionable information.

The quality of decisions is only as good as the data
supporting them.
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Critical Issues:
The Need For Integration

This volume of data facilitates the need to reduce
redundancies in or distribute its creation and entry.

Inconsistencies in data across systems is an ongoing
issue.

There is a need to facilitate data flow and information
sharing across business entities and internal
departments.

Centralized, shared data is needed to keep these
different functions in alignment.
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Critical Issues:
Leverage Through Operational Efficiency

Leverage is a key determiner of overall profitability or
range of impact.

The greater the effective portfolio to personnel ratio,
the greater the profitability or range of impact.

Improved leverage reduces the need for linear staff
additions with portfolio additions.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Critical Issues:
Regulatory & Business Environment

The pace of government mandated change has
quickened.

The impact of an organization’s pace of change in
response to the economic climate is more dramatic.

Organizations need nimble, configurable systems and
processes to hasten needed change.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Critical Issues:
Management Of The IT Function

Although information technology is a critical part of the
business, it is not the specialization of the business.

Information technology is no longer a differentiator as
much as it is a necessity.

Organizations need their information technology
functions to allow them to focus on the business with
faith in alignment and technology spending returns.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
An Overview Of Foundation
Technologies
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Infrastructural vs. Application Technologies

There are two primary categories of technologies:
infrastructural and applications.

Infrastructural technologies are the various networking
constructs that form the “highway” for data
transmission and applications delivery.

Application technologies include the programs that
present data to end users for functional use.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Infrastructural Technology:
Virtualization

As processing power has expanded,
the utilizations of computing hardware
have decreased.

Virtualization technologies allow
multiple computer images to run on a
single hardware box.

This consolidation provides better
utilizations of processor power while
reducing information technology
administration and facilities costs.
Vendor Options
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Infrastructural Technology:
Storage

The pace with which data and
electronic content is being created is
staggering and exponential.

Storage has become considerably
cheaper over the recent years.

Beyond the ability to store data, the
ability to secure it and back it up has
become crucial.

Storage area networks (SAN) simplify
large scale, organization data
centralization.
Vendor Options
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Infrastructural Technology:
Remote Connectivity

The expectations that employees have
regarding their ability to work remotely
continue to increase.

The need to securely control the degree
of access and flow of data and content
continues to increase.

The administrative burden placed upon
the information technology department
is greatly reduced through the adoption
of appropriate technologies.
Vendor Options
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Infrastructural Technology:
Security & Encryption

Beyond controlling access and the
security of data in transit, there are
issues regarding the security of
remotely replicated data.

There is a need for the information
technology department to
continuously ensure the security of
technologies in the field.

There is a need for data and content
encryption when in the field.
Vendor Options
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Application Technology:
Transaction Processing
 Transaction processing applications
are at the core of business
technology.
Financial App
Options:
 There are a number of core financial
applications providing like G/L, A/P,
A/R, payroll and other capabilities.
 There are a number of specialty
transaction processing applications
for developers, investors and
property managers that need to
integrate with these financial
applications.
Specialty App
Options:
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Application Technology:
Document Management

Beyond structured data, there are a
number of documents in the typical
organization that provide unstructured
data.

Document management systems
effectively retain these electronic
documents and provide for their
enhanced access, search and routing.

Beyond administering electronic
documents, technologies to acquire or
upload paper based content are
important.
Vendor Options
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Application Technology:
Collaboration & Workflow

Remote organizations need to have the
means to collaborate towards optimal
results around all sorts of data and
processes.

Operational efficiency is gained when
technologies are able to facilitate the
varying steps of processes around
structured and unstructured content.
Vendor Options
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Application Technology:
Corporate Business Intelligence
Vendor Options
The complete business intelligence journey transforms
data into information into action.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Overall Technology:
Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery

There have been an unprecedented number of events
impacting business operations in recent years including
hurricanes, tornados, flooding, blizzards and terrorism
scenarios.

There are lesser events that can impact your business like
network outages.

Plans and technologies need to be in place such that your
organization can resume business operations as quickly
as is necessary and or financially feasible.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Introducing Emerging
Technologies
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Emerging Technology:
Mobility Applications

The continued build-out of networking infrastructure by cellular
technology providers is fueling mobility growth.

People expect the ability to utilize their own preferred device
that can also contain their personal applications and data.

From a policies and distributed administration perspective, this
is a major headache for information technology departments for
which no standard bearer vendor has emerged to date.

The ongoing convergence of tablet and cell phone devices
generates some degree of risk in technology selection
becoming sunk cost.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Emerging Technology:
Self Service Business Intelligence

An extension of traditional corporate
business intelligence that included
reports and dashboards.

Individuals need to be able to traverse
voluminous data to answer their own
questions.

Possess drill down and data export
capabilities as well as the ability to
save searches.
Vendor Options
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Emerging Technology:
Unified Communications

Business and personal communications
comes to us from too many (often
abused) sources today:
-

Vendor Options
Corporate and personal e-mail
Facebook
Twitter
Text Messaging
Voice Mail
System or End User Created Ticketing
Consolidation of this communication
down to a single point of reference
provides effectiveness and rapidness of
response.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Emerging Technology:
Managed Services

Many organizations are
outsourcing some or all of their
information technology roles.

This is due to the need to focus on
core business objectives and on
technology resource scarcity.

Outsourced capabilities can
include:
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Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
CIO Outsourcing
IT Administration Outsourcing
Service and Support Outsourcing
IT Planning and Management
(CIO Advisory)
Application Management
Infrastructure
Management
Security
Management
Service Desk and Support
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Emerging Technology:
Cloud Computing

A seismic shift in computing mindset striving towards
creating a utility model for computing.

As networking technologies become more pervasive, so
will cloud computing.

Cloud computing allows for steady, operational
expenditures rather than large-scale capital expenditures
that must predict three-to-four year needs.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Cloud Computing Components
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Cloud Computing Service Levels
Traditional IT
IaaS
Applications
Applications
Data
Data
Runtime
Runtime
Runtime
Middleware
Middleware
Middleware
O/S
O/S
O/S
Virtualization
Virtualization
Servers
Servers
Storage
Storage
Networking
Networking
Data
Middleware
Managed by vendor
You manage
Runtime
Data
You manage
Applications
You manage
Applications
Virtualization
Servers
O/S
Virtualization
Managed by vendor
SaaS
Managed by vendor
PaaS
Servers
Storage
Storage
Networking
Networking
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
The Classic IT Capacity Issue
IT CAPACITY
“Under-supply“
of capacities
Allocated
IT-capacities
“Waste“ of
capacities
Load
Forecast
Fixed cost of
IT-capacities
Barrier for
innovations
Actual Load
TIME
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Cloud Computing Capacity Model
Allocated IT
capacities
Load
Forecast
IT CAPACITY
No “under-supply“
Reduction of
“over-supply“
Possible
reduction of
IT-capacities
in case of
reduced load
Reduction
of initial
investments
Actual Load
TIME
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Cloud Based Software:
What Costs Are Below The Water Line?
DESKTOP OS
SERVER OS
DATABASE
APPLICATION
License
HARDWARE License
DESKTOP OS LicenseSERVER OS LicenseDATABASE
License
APPLICATION
MaintainLicense
MaintainLicense
Maintain
Back-up License
HARDWARE
DESKTOP
OS License
SERVERMaintain
OS
DATABASE
APPLICATION
License
Patch Maintain
UpgradeBack-up
LicensePatch Maintain
LicensePatch Maintain
LicenseTune Maintain
License
License
Ecommerce
CRM
On-Premise
Style:
Manage It
Yourself
Financials
HARDWARE
Replace PatchMaintain
Replace PatchMaintain
Replace PatchMaintain
Upgrade TuneMaintain
MigrateUpgrade
Back-up
ReplacePatch
ReplacePatch
Replace
HARDWARE
Suite (ex: NetSuite)
Cloud
Style
DESKTOP OS
ReplacePatch
Replace
SERVER OS
UpgradeTune
Replace
DATABASE
Upgrade
Migrate
Upgrade
Migrate
APPLICATION
Subscribe
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Cloud Operational Considerations
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Hardware gets old the minute you buy.
On average, a cloud solution will be 30-40% lower
cost than a non-cloud solution.
Cloud talent has a bigger eco-system = less reliance
on “Bob the IT guy”.
Cloud operators will spend many more $ millions than
you will on R&D, security, infrastructure, compliance
etc.
Cloud applications tend to provide greater starter
mobility capabilities.
Cloud services tend to introduce more significant
contractual considerations than hardware and license
acquisition does today.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
What can you move to the cloud?

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Email / contact management
Sales management / automation
GL, AP, AR, finance and accounting
File management / collaboration
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Defining An Information
Technology Strategy
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Setting IT Department Expectations
 Expectations can be defined along four
categories:
-
Philosophy
Strategic Direction Setting
Policies & Procedures
Technology Selection & Implementation
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Philosophy

The information technology function should be setup to attain
velocity and nimbleness – strive for quick wins in addition to long
term gains.

There should be transparency in the operations and priorities of
the information technology function.

The information technology function should be your partner in
devising innovative solutions.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Strategic Direction Setting

The information technology function should create
strategic roadmaps that are constituent driven – “serve
the customer or someone who is serving the
customer”.

The information technology function is not responsible
for strategic plan formulation – only its translation into
technology initiatives and their subsequent
implementation.

Keep in mind that the information technology
department is its own department with its own strategic
needs as well.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Spend Expectations

The amount of technology spend to expect needs to
be reasonable towards desired results:
-
The overall spend can be set up as a percentage of assets
under management or revenue – generally 1-2% minimum.
-
Overall spend can be set up as a ratio to devices under
management (e.g. laptops, phones, etc.). Expect a ratio of
approximately one staff to 60 devices for support and
administration.
-
Strive to spend a sufficient amount of money on growing and
transforming the business – not just running it. 30-40% of IT
expenditures should go to initiatives beyond “keeping the
lights on” – you may need to play catch up here!
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Policies & Procedures

The information technology department needs to
maintain an ongoing Project Portfolio listing that is
prioritized by an executive steering committee.

The information technology department needs to
implement and practice project management methods
expecting the executive steering committee to make
triple constraint decisions.

The information technology department should
designate appropriate business analyst time and
partner with business units in devising and
implementing technology solutions.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Technology Selection & Implementation

There are always issues separating subject matter
expertise and facilitation versus ownership.

Business operational leaders and steering committees
need to dictate business requirements.

The information technology function should ideally
facilitate the location and selection of technology
solutions to meet these needs.

The business should ultimately select the technology
solutions and possess ownership of these solutions.
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Overall Technology Universe
Advise
Deliver
Maintain
Business Performance Improvement
Strategy and
Advisory

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

Strategy Development
Due Diligence
System Selection
Business Continuity and
Disaster Recovery
 Benchmarking/Best
Practices
 Project and Program
Management
Applications
Infrastructure
Design and Implementation
Design and Implementation
 Financial Applications
 Relationship Management
Business Analytics
 Corporate Performance
Management
 Systems Integration
 Knowledge Management,
Portals and Collaboration
 Network Design and
Implementation (LAN/WAN)
 Carrier Assessment/TEM
 Server Virtualization
 Storage and Recovery
 Desktop/Application Delivery
 Unified Communications and
Mobile Computing
Support and
Administration

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Help Desk
Remote Support
Upgrades
Proof of Concept
Outsourced Functionality
Outsourced Roles
Managed Services
Cloud Solutions
Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Enterprise Risk Management
© 2013 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
Question And Answer
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