Achieve more with less resources
The current uncertainty in the economy is causing many organizations to look for ways of making their operations more efficient and productive. These initiatives are particularly significant for IT departments, which face increased demand to support these realignments without the resources they’ve had in the past.
Today’s CIOs need to proactively reduce costs while increasing efficiency, goals that are often exclusive.
COVID-192021
State of IT – The Annual Report on IT Budgets and Tech Trends
- * 44% Plan to accelerate digital transformation.
- * 36% Plan to improve IT operations and systems performance.
- * 32% Plan to provide remote staff with standardized and easy-to-use tools.
Reduce Costs
Perform unbiased review of organizational operations:
- * Identify opportunities for cutting costs.
- * Review budgets even when they do not need to be reduced.
- * Classify expenses into licensing fees, personnel, and projects.
Review software licenses:
- * Identify potential savings.
- * Expose rogue software.
- * However, limit ability of IT staff to control access to IT infrastructure.
Review organizational structure of IT:
- * Leaner times call for an organizational realignment.
- * Ensure that structure supports operations long-term.
- * Use framework such as COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies).
Review IT projects:
- * Identify candidates for cancellation or postponement.
- * Only start projects that increase revenue or market share, or support regulatory compliance.
- * Delay or cancel all other projects that have not been launched yet.
Increase efficiency
Find best way to leverage existing systems:
- * Review trouble tickets.
- * Identify most significant workflow bottlenecks.
Change organizational processes:
- * Eliminate use of heavily modified code.
- * Reduce effort needed to maintain systems with heavily modified code.
- * Redirect internal resources towards more efficient uses.
Extend existing systems:
- * Add new modules.
- * Identify ways for new functions to generate revenue.
- * Ensure that these processes are efficient and necessary.
Database IDEs
(IDE: integrated development environment)
- * Single database IDE for many database platforms.
- * Identify ways for new functions to generate revenue.
- * Ensure that these processes are efficient and necessary.
Query analyzer
- * View queries in multiple ways (execution plan, grid, pivot grid, text, text history).
- * Save queries in multiple formats for sharing.
- * Save executed commands in SQL history.
Query builder
- * Generate SQL statements by dragging tables and views into workbooks.
- * Navigate between objects within same database connection.
- * Build queries by dragging objects from data pane to configurable decks for SQL clauses
Visual analytics
- * Pull data from query results into visual representations.
- * Save and share visual representations with colleagues and customers.
- * Connect to available data sources to extract, analyze, and visualize data.
Debuggers
- * For SQL code (functions, packages, procedures).
- * Step through queries and statements, pause, and set breakpoints.
Editors
- * For data.
- * For source code (HTML, Java, JavaScript, SQL, XML).
- * Table editors:
* Graphically edit a query’s result set in an Excel-like grid.
* Display proposed changes in specific colors to review before committing.
ER modeler
(ER: entity relationship)
- * Design and edit database schemas.
- * View graphical representations of constraints, relationship, tables, and views.
- * Translate models into queries and commands that databases can execute.
- * Migrate schemas to other databases.
Version control
- * Observe whether files are current, out of date, conflicted, or unversioned.
- * Provide fine-grained view of file and directory histories.
- * See differences between versions.
- * Add, commit, delete, refresh and update files from repository.
- * Instantly indicate differences between file versions while editing files.
Cutting costs and improving efficiency have always been key requirements for remaining competitive. However, the current economy makes them essential for a business’s survival. Budget reviews and process improvements are part of this strategy, but organizations also benefit from a database IDE. This solution makes database users more efficient by allowing them to perform a variety of tasks from a single interface.
