Navigating the 2024 Supply Chain: Info-Tech Research Group Publishes Capacity Management Insights for Year Ahead

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Dec 19, 2023, 11:52 ET

The firm's latest blueprint empowers IT leaders with strategic tools to utilize trends, metrics, and other insights for predictive capacity management, aiming to enhance service availability and tackle emerging challenges for the year ahead.

TORONTO, Dec. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - As 2023 draws to a close, the global business community is reflecting on a year marked by unprecedented supply chain disruptions caused by capacity limits. The impact was significant, leading to production halts and increased costs across various industries. As organizations and their IT teams consider plan for the year ahead, they are taking strategic measures to prevent a recurrence. To address these concerns, Info-Tech Research Group has published its latest research blueprint, Manage Your Capacity to Increase Your Availability.

Info-Tech Research Group's Manage Your Capacity to Increase Your Availability blueprint highlights three steps IT leaders in organizations should consider for a better capacity management plan. (CNW Group/Info-Tech Research Group)

The research published in the new resource highlights the prevalent issue of insufficient mechanisms within organizations to effectively manage capacity and measure availability. This situation is further complicated by supply chain issues affecting multiple components, as well as the absence of a clear process for introducing new components or handling capacity requests. These issues often result in organizations facing an endless loop of challenges, where resolving one obstacle leads to the emergence of another unexpected one. In the resource, Info-Tech offers data-backed insights and practical solutions for IT teams to implement enhanced capacity management and improve availability through proactive measures.

"Capacity management and service availability are inextricably tied together," says Scott Young, principal advisory director at Info-Tech Research Group. "Poor capacity management inevitably leads to compromised service functionality, rendering services unavailable. When a system is unavailable, its capacity becomes a moot point. It's crucial to understand this relationship to ensure both robust capacity management and consistent service availability."

Exceeding capacity limits can immediately impact service availability, presenting an ongoing challenge for many organizations. This issue is further exacerbated when infrastructure capacity planning fails to align with current business initiatives or when effective capacity management processes are absent.

The firm emphasizes the necessity of continuous capacity and availability management, highlighting that neglecting these areas can lead to unavoidable service downtime or degraded service quality. By following Info-Tech's recommended approach outlined in the blueprint, which includes focusing on vigilant and ongoing capacity management, organizations can maintain optimal service levels and prevent potential disruptions.

"To effectively manage capacity and availability, organizations need to establish a strong foundation by identifying and gaining visibility into the components of their services," explains Young. "This foundational step is crucial and should evolve into a proactive practice, where active management and predictive modeling play key roles in ensuring service efficiency and reliability."

As the unknown opportunities and risks organizations will encounter in 2024 approach, Info-Tech provides a strategic roadmap for IT leaders to proactively manage capacity and ensure consistent service availability. The three critical steps within the roadmap are outlined at a high level below:

Observe: IT leaders and their teams should identify current components and services, then add in the various initiatives that will impact those services and components.
Manage: Take steps to set thresholds and manage risk, and use tools to take action as capacity and availability become a challenge.
Model: Teams can use trending, metrics, and other insights to predict capacity requirements and reduce availability challenges.

By implementing the steps outlined in the blueprint, organizations and their IT teams can establish a dynamic capacity management plan that effectively addresses both current and future needs. This proactive approach not only ensures high service availability, but also prevents future disruptions.

Info-Tech's research emphasizes that effective capacity and availability management is crucial for organizational growth. When IT is not constantly overwhelmed by capacity and availability crises, it can shift its focus toward optimization and activities that enhance organizational maturity. Ultimately, this shift will allow IT departments to contribute more strategically to the organization, moving beyond firefighting to drive innovation and improvement in 2024 and beyond.

For exclusive and timely commentary from Scott Young, an infrastructure and operations expert, and access to the complete Manage Your Capacity to Increase Your Availability blueprint, please contact [email protected].

About Info-Tech Research Group
Info-Tech Research Group is one of the world's leading information technology research and advisory firms, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals. The company produces unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. For 25 years, Info-Tech has partnered closely with IT teams to provide them with everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software and over 200 IT and industry analysts through the firm's Media Insiders program. To gain access, contact [email protected].

For information about Info-Tech Research Group or to access the latest research, visit infotech.com and connect via LinkedIn and X.

SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group