Attenda offers selective outsourcing for Internet and enterprise application infrastructure using a shared Operations Platform of process, people and technology to generate cost efficiencies at superior levels of availability, performance and security.
This Operations Platform is called Attenda M.O. – modus operandi or way of working.
- Attenda fundamentally provides the scale and focus that very few organisations have internally. Clients gain access to a world-class Operations Platform whilst only paying for a fraction of the initial and ongoing investment
- For an organisation to make the equivalent investments it is likely to need a scale of around 2,000 servers and a razor sharp focus on IT Operations. In general companies do not, and should not, focus on IT operations to this level or do not have the scale; thus creating the opportunity that Attenda services
- Continuous value improvement is delivered to Clients and Attenda through driving efficiencies and enhancements into the Operations Platform
- By focussing on sharing and/or re-use of operational processes, people and technology, Attenda has been able to break the direct correlation between cost and client growth. This means that every extra client produces a proportionately smaller increase in cost; allowing the company to continue to make investments in quality, efficiency and capability without increasing price. This is the basis of Attenda’s business model and a journey that has really only just started – despite the first version of the platform being released in 2000
- To ensure that the Operations Platform can be applied to multiple clients Attenda has a flexible and adaptable platform; focuses on common components of clients’ IT systems; yet clearly understands the level of uniqueness of each client solution.
Who Needs an Operations Platform?
The outsourcing market and managed services within it have grown considerably in recent years. The reasons are clear. To demonstrate the point let’s take an extreme example. Companies no longer generate their own electricity, the product is now completely standardised and distributed from a common Operations Platform, the National Grid. Similarly, there is an increasing level of standardisation in the IT used by many organisations. Whilst some businesses will argue that their IT needs are too distinct/different, the majority of spend goes on standard IT components and will continue to increase as the bar of standardisation continues to rise.
Conclusion: It will make less and less sense for a business to develop its own IT Operations Platform.
Furthermore the challenge lies not so much in the development of the Operations Platform (internally or externally) but in the cost of its operation:
“Typically, 80% of the cost of a computer system is incurred after it has gone live. That is, 20% is incurred during planning, development and testing and the rest is incurred through updates to the system and its day to day operation.” – Gartner
It is the operation that is the hardest part, typically where most problems occur and where the majority of cost exists.
Conclusion: An efficiently run and shared Operations Platform has a dramatic effect on the cost of operations for many businesses.
It’s not just about cost and efficiency, which is how many outsourcing arrangements have been viewed. There is a growing view that outsourcing offers better control, flexibility and reactivity as well as removing the internal politics that frequently exist. According to a survey from Accenture who interviewed 800 senior executives in Europe and the US:
“86 percent of business executives view outsourcing as a method of controlling business strategy, rather than just a cost-cutting exercise”
Conclusion: Outsourcing can help businesses focus on their core competencies and enable them to react faster to implement new strategies.
This creates an opportunity for a company that can create a standardised Operations Platform to operate the IT systems for these companies, operate it extremely efficiently and help them realise the benefits.
