Many of us have had the privilege of watching the amazing changes in communications and information technology over the past several years; so many new networks and services have come to connect with us. Managing these changes is a challenge for every organization using technology today. A well-informed organization has the opportunity to maintain and improve mission effectiveness with updated technology – a practice known as Technology Refreshment.
Forward-looking organizations must look beyond day-to-day management and take advantage as new opportunities present themselves. Those organizations will want to answer important questions like these:
- Are we meeting the needs of our colleagues and our community?
- Are there unmet needs we should be addressing?
- Is there something new out there that will benefit us and our operations?
- What are the costs of adopting a particular technology or service platform?
- When will our current assets be impacted by age or obsolescence?
- Do we have services that have diminishing utility, or are no longer used?
Vision has answered these questions for many of our customers, both in government and in industry. Our customer engagement formats include:
- the long-term Managed Services contract, where we can gather vital operational data from help desk tickets, statistics, and repair records;
- the outsourced IT department, with similar advantages;
- the outsourced Program Management function; and
- the short-term project.
Here at Vision Technologies, we apply our knowledge of new technologies and industry trends for the benefit of our customers. We also bring industry best practices, which by themselves can reduce costs and improve effectiveness.
Challenge: Keeping up with Advances in Technology
One way we keep up to date is by participating in industry groups, such as BICSI, the global professional association supporting the information and communications technology community; and ACT-IAC, a community of Government and Industry leaders who collaborate to produce better solutions and strategies for more effective and innovative Government. We also support our employees in maintaining current industry and manufacturer certifications for all of our practice areas.
ACT-IAC, for example, recently published a White Paper addressing the concepts behind Zero Trust Cybersecurity in response to a request from the Federal CIO Council Services, Strategy, and Infrastructure Committee.
Success Story: Warranty Management
In the case of one enterprise customer, Vision evaluated the existing manual process for renewing expiring hardware warranties. In the past, this process had resulted in missed renewals or late renewal requests. Vision developed and implemented an automated system to remind managers 90, 60, and 30 days out. This all but eliminated missed and late renewals for the customer, saving more than $450,000 in license costs alone.
Contact Vision for more information about our managed services and how we can help keep your organization stay current in communications and information technology.