So what makes a winner? There are three characteristics which make a company clearly differentiated...

This ambition is underpinned by our core operating philosophy to focus on people and customers and act with integrity and accountability. This sets out the nature of the company customers will be doing business with when they choose SaintGroup.

After a disappointing Budget for business and the gathering momentum of spending cuts, Peter Deacon, director of technology and strategy at SaintGroup, provides essential tips for business transformation that can improve operations while controlling IT expenditure.

In an uncertain economic climate, business and IT managers are striving to maintain market share or drive growth. To achieve this, they will need ever more flexible but cost-efficient IT systems that support core operations - and unleash the further potential of their workforce. Making this happen when budgets are being consistently squeezed may seem like the impossible task, but it is feasible with careful planning of resources and rethinking of networks’ capabilities, using sophisticated managed IT services and taking advantage of the consumerisation of IT.

By Pete Deacon, Director of technology and strategy at SaintGroup Managed Services

It is undeniable that there is much hype in the IT market about cloud computing which is often over-sold to CIOs looking to streamline IT processes. However, the emergence of cloud computing-based business systems does provide an opportunity to tailor IT provision to better suit individual organisations’ business computing needs.

Adoption of an effective cloud infrastructure is an initial step towards business transformation and will increase an organisation’s speed to market. In the past, companies would update old and legacy business applications - a customer relationship management (CRM) system, for example - by upgrading all of the equipment on the network individually: a wasteful process in terms of both time and IT resources. Through cloud deployment, this type of software upgrade and new service capability for the business can be streamlined and automated.