IT Portfolio Strategies

Manufacturing Insights' IT Portfolio Strategies service provides best practices for IT portfolio strategies. Through forward-looking research combined with fact-based analysis of IT strategies at manufacturing organizations, this service advises the CIO on the most effective way to control costs, optimize performance, and get the most from IT investments.

Key Questions Answered

Our research addresses the following issues that are critical to your success:

• What are the key components of successful management of the IT value chain?
• What is the status of specific manufacturing industry regulatory requirements and compliance issues?
• How can the incorporation of dynamic IT into infrastructure planning assist in minimizing costs?
• In what ways can creating a dynamic compliance architecture improve overall business process control?
• How are IT organizations using portfolio management methodologies to optimize the use of application technology?
• How do companies apply industry-standard protocols such as Control Objectives for IT (COBIT) to improve governance?

Subjects Covered

Throughout the year, this service will address the following topics:

• Best practices for IT portfolio strategies
• Standardization of application infrastructure
• Governance models for IT portfolio management
• Framework for enabling satisfaction of general and industry-specific regulatory requirements
• Application of the dynamic IT architecture approach

Subscription Benefits

• A full 12 months of documents providing intelligence on market developments and direction along with informed commentary and recommended actions
• Access to the analyst team for further discussions and explanation (one-hour increments)
• Preferential pricing on purchases of other services
• Complimentary tickets (3) to a Manufacturing Insights Executive Conference each year
• Complimentary invitations to regular telebriefings

Research Agenda

Throughout the year, this service will offer insight into the latest trends impacting the market. Potential studies include:

This biweekly update provides an analysis of events and opinions in the manufacturing industry.

This series of studies examines the product road map and organizational structure of the SHOMI vendors (SAP, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM). These studies look at how each SHOMI vendor is building or partnering around hardware, middleware, application, and service platforms. Specific guidance is given on how to get the most out of SHOMI relationships and how to incorporate product plans with an IT strategic plan.

Most companies view early warning compliance as a necessary evil - to be accomplished at minimum cost. Others see it as an opportunity to improve overall product quality. For the latter, this study lays out an early warning architecture - one that can satisfy the regulators while supplying management with new process performance insight.

Supporting operations in China can be challenging because of that country's underdeveloped communications infrastructure, local language requirements, and government certifications. This study outlines best practices for establishing information systems in China, drawing from a series of interviews with companies that have successfully completed the task.

As the key architectural components of establishing RFID integration and sensor networks move into their second and third generations, this study reviews how far they've come. The study concludes with actionable guidance on the best ways to deploy, manage, and optimize a company's architecture.

Each annual industry outlook dives into activity for a specific manufacturing segment (automotive/aerospace, chemicals/base materials, CPG/retail, or high tech/semiconductor) and outlines industry trends, key business initiatives, and IT strategy. Included are forecasts for IT spending within that industry.

This deliverable provides updated forecast information to the annual industry outlook.

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