Apogee Communications Technologies, Inc.
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Incorporated in 1994, providing consulting services in the New York Metro area in communications technologies - security, networking, systems architecture, design, implementation, certification, training, and deployment
Risk management, cost containment, and technology planning drive the bottom line.

Every company can reduce risk, contain costs and improve profitability by the appropriate use of technology.

Most small to midsize companies can reduce costs by at least $5000 per employee per year by paying attention to the following areas: Security, Open Systems, Electronic Communications, People Communications – Putting It All Together.

1. Security

A major security breach can destroy a company, or at least have a highly significant effect. However, it is impossible to eliminate risks entirely, so there has to be a balance. A standards based risk assessment is the first step in a process of identifying assets and coming up with a plan to protect them.

One side effect of the implementation of an effective security policy is improved productivity, since part of the solution must necessarily involve the implementation of a consistent security methodology (single sign on, for example). Other beneficial side effects include

reduced maintenance
lowered administration costs
more flexible access to corporate assets
elimination of unused licenses through access tracking
basic customer relationship management for free
other intangibles

By adopting a standards based strategy and adopting policies that lead to a process of continuous improvement, putting a high quality, cost effective, security policy in place need not be expensive or disruptive, and the contribution to the bottom line is immediate.

2. Open Systems

Avoid vendor lock-in wherever possible and use open, standards based, products. Otherwise you will be held hostage by the vendor, and probably have been. Don't reinvent the wheel. For example, companies like Akamai, Real Networks, Digital Fountain, InterNap, etc., have patented solutions to many distribution problems that it is not cost effective or perhaps even legal to replicate.

Investigate radical solutions! With many applications becoming Web enabled, an office worker's PC is becoming a very expensive web browser. Instead of another expensive upgrade, consider replacing the existing operating system and applications with Open Source solutions and server based applications with the following benefits

Up to $1000 per user by reduction or eliminating licensing fees
Reduced administration costs by use of server based applications (upgrading 200 PCs at $200/pop comes to $40,000 each time)
Recycle older PCs by running less greedy applications and operating systems – get off the upgrade rollercoaster
Savings typically run to $250,000 or more in the first year for a 200 person company and at least that much in subsequent years

Companies like Walmart (home of the $199 PC), Fry's, Sony, IBM, Sun, and even Dell, have Linux strategies. Check out the following articles for insights:

“Linux, Friend or Foe” Economist, 12 April 2003

“Linux Lags On The Desktop” Information Week, April 7, 2003 Contrary to the title, this actually paints quite a rosy picture.

“Desktop Linux Threatening Windows” Consulting Times, 12 Jan 2003

“ Star Office Successes” Some examples of successful Star Office deployments (Feb 2003)

“Open Source Survey” Infoworld/CTO Magazine (August 2002) - an in-depth survey of Linux Desktop usage

3. Electronic Communications

Leverage the Internet! Partnering with the right ISP makes it possible not only to dramatically reduce current costs, but to also provide new services such as desktop videoconferencing, which may reduce other expenses such as travel.

Data (inter-office, person to office, customer) – replace Frame Relay with IPSec VPN
Voice – Voice over IP (VoIP) works if your ISP can provide QoS¹ guarantees.
Video – you don't need HDTV at 60 frames/second for videoconferencing. Cheap video cards and cameras allow you to do desktop video over IP for a few hundred dollars per desk. You can have up to 4 streams of pretty decent video running at the same time on a T1 connexion.

A hypothetical 200 person international company with offices in every continent can easily save $250,000 to $1MM a year on communications costs.

4. People Communications

In a recent (April 03) article "An interview with Frederick Newell, consultant and author of a new book, Why CRM Doesn't Work" in Optimize Magazine, it is proposed to replace CRM (Customer Relationship Management) with CMR (customer management of relationships). It is likely that part of the solution for items 1-3 above will be a Portal. You can use a Portal as a customer driven CMR system and integrate it into your Enterprise Architecture. If you don't have an Enterprise Architecture, you need one, and a Portal is an excellent place to start – it can be the basis for these and other EAI requirements:

Unified User/Application Interface
Centralized Policy Control
Knowledge Management
Single Sign On
Customer Managed Relationships

5. Putting It All Together

Strategic and tactical application of technology, risk management, and architecture can result in significant contributions to the bottom line. For companies that produce software based products, the same architectural concepts can greatly reduce development budgets and time to market without sacrificing quality.

1Quality of Service