ET CIO, India: Cognizant’s Chief Technology Officer for Application Value Management Says a “Zero Maintenance” Strategy can Drive Significant Delivery Improvements and Transforma¬tional Results

“Among the many operational challenges corpora­tions continually face is the question of how much time and money they should allocate to applica­tion maintenance,” writes Srinivasan Thiagarajan. “It is well known that if applications run without failing and deliver the expected business function without manual intervention, the IT organi­zation can attain some semblance of near-zero mainte­nance. But for this to become more than just a theoretical possibility, IT organizations must know how to move toward zero maintenance, a philosophy that helps reduce the cost of application maintenance — one of the most critical services delivered by IT service delivery organizations — by eliminating effort as well as work.” Excerpts.

“Zero maintenance, as an objective, may not be easy to achieve, but as an initiative, it can be a driver for significant delivery improvements and transforma­tional results. It also removes any boundaries put forward by traditional IT management and helps IT organizations think beyond the “effort savings” drive.

IT organizations must establish a strong governance mechanism to balance portfolio maturity with business agility by following vital parameters to move toward zero maintenance:

- Clearly differentiate processes and systems that contribute to Cap-Ex and Op-Ex. Set up a governance structure to continuously monitor, capture and report the maintenance spend on a regular basis.

- Understand those elements that potentially contribute to increased maintenance costs. Devise a zero maintenance strategy by iden­tifying themes and levers that can be applied across application, infrastructure and business process areas.

- The zero maintenance journey can be effective only if perceived holistically. Involve key stakeholders cutting across multiple IT layers, from the initiation stage onward, in order to derive synergistic benefits. Look for improvements in key focus areas such as processes, operating models, services, tools and infrastructure.

- Organizations should embrace change and be ready to invest in automation solutions to improve business throughput and allow SMEs to focus on innovation that will enhance their portfolio management capability.

- Perform checks and balances using a debt management system to ensure that the portfolio is fit for use and fit for purpose.

Any application, apart from being maintenance-free, should also remain relevant to the business and deliver improved time-to-value. It is therefore crucial that IT organizations calibrate the application on business throughput. A top-down approach from business need and bottom-up approach from business KPIs (key performance indicator) should be performed to deliver the desired business outcomes.”

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