Doing more with less

Sometimes it's hard to be in the middle. There are advantages that come with being big, and advantages that come with being small, but when you're medium-sized, you may not be able to enjoy either.

In business, it's no different. A large business has the advantage of economies of scale, while a small business has the flexibility to adapt quickly to changes in market conditions. For medium-sized businesses, it becomes a question of doing more with less, supporting large numbers of staff while keeping costs to a minimum.

This is the sector being targeted by management software vendor Numara. The company has commissioned a report from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) comparing five lifecycle management solutions from the perspective of an IT manager for a medium-sized business, defined as a business with over 100 staff but with lower revenue than the top one thousand most successful companies.

"This particular set of enterprises share common difficulties in having to support the same extensive sets of lifecycle management requirements as their larger competitors, but with diminished staff and operating budgets," the report reads.

"Often IT administrators for mid-sized enterprises are forced to wear many hats – supporting multiple IT disciplines, services and platforms. These broad support requirements rarely allow administrative staff to develop specialised talents, but instead promote more generalised knowledge on a wide range of topics.

Although EMA did not review how well each product performed in various tasks, based on the features listed and the pricing models offered, Numara offered the best value for medium-sized businesses.

"The most comprehensive solutions are typically designed and marketed to large enterprises under the assumption that that is where the revenue lies," the report concludes.

"In truth, however, the large enterprise market is saturated with management resources.

"Numara clearly understands this, having developed a solution focused on mid-market needs.

"By employing automated management solutions that can address the most critical endpoint lifecycle management requirements, mid-sized organisations simplify their IT support operations, reduce costs and empower their business to compete against their larger competitors.

Go here to read the report.