Over the years many organisations have found that by introducing a co-ordinated set of Information, Systems and Technology policies and standards they can cut the capital cost of purchasing new IT significantly and more importantly, the cost of sustaining this IT by a very significant margin. In many of the companies with which we have worked this has been as been typically of the order of 20 to 35%. A good example is the cost of supporting different versions of systems, especially operating systems such as Windows. Support costs tend to increase exponentially with the number of different versions of systems because of the complexity of tracking and managing the different features and information requirements. If a company standardises on just one version of the set of systems they use, the cost of supporting and integrating the information from different versions of these systems will be reduced, sometimes dramatically.

The introduction of IT management disciplines such as project management usually result in further benefits such as a more integrated and productive use of information and knowledge and a more effective use of limited funding and other resources. I believe any organisation with a significant investment in IT and that has yet to implement such policies, standards and disciplines has a huge opportunity ahead of them!

As a result, subject to the commitment of their senior management, the key benefits we expect Arts Organisations to get from participating in this programme will be:

• A greater Return on Investment in IT.

• Lower Total Cost of Ownership of IT assets. ("Total Cost of Ownership" refers to all the costs related to Information, Systems and Technology, i.e. the purchase cost and the cost of supporting, maintaining and training, etc.)

• Greater productivity from staff using this IT, particularly from:

  • Greater IT literacy and a fairer distribution of responsibilities and accountabilities

  • The evolution of an effective "IT Culture" based on shared (common) values.

• Greater protection of key (confidential) information and improved business continuity.

Better quality systems and information and improved availability of relevant information. As a result, improved decision-making and better exploitation of information and knowledge for new opportunities for the organisation.

Finally, we hope to offer the benefits of belonging to a community of Arts Organisations committed to the professional and productive use of IT and all the learning, networking and support opportunities that this brings.