For more information on NPM, visit: http://www.solarwinds.com/network-performance-monitor.aspx Watch this webcast: http://www.solarwinds.com/resources/webcasts/justifying-and-managing-the-roi-of-a-network-management-software-implementation.html Josh Stephens, Head Geek, will be joined by Mike Williams, Senior Network Engineer, as he discusses the journey he took while selecting and implementing a network management solution. He'll present how he created an implementation team; developed an ROI analysis for the executive staff; and justified the project expense. Mike will also discuss how his team managed through loss of staff and how he reports cost-benefits savings to the CFO. To top it off, he will discuss why his company chose Orion Network Performance Monitor (NPM) as a critical element in his network management strategy.

1. Justifying and Managing the ROI of a Network Management Software Implementation Josh Stephens, Head Geek Mike Williams, Senior Network Engineer

5. If not, use the GoToWebinar Q&A panel to contact the moderator

6. How do you ask questions?

8. Process– How did we go about solving?

11. 100% growth in infrastructure

12. Clustering, DB/Exchange, Virtualization

13. Lack of network analysis

14. Proactive, not reactive, issue resolution

15. Non-integrated network monitoring tools (PRTG, ActiveExperts, Ethereal/WireShark)

18. Total time (15 hrs/wk)

21. Licensing (per element/node/IP address/enterprise)

23. IT: “Let me generate a report for you”

24. Manager: “Can we improve our CRM performance”

25. CFO: “What is the cost of our T1’s?”

27. Saved $50K in 2008

28. Saved $80K in 2009

29. Achieved business uptime of 99.99% annually

31. Move SolarWinds DB on SQL 2008Results

33. Select a balanced test team (Engineer, Help-desk, Developer)

34. Establish a well-defined timeline

35. Define selection criteria (checklist of must-haves)

36. Do not prejudge solutions

38. Deploy and then test

40. Manual tasks are bad (calculate your time spend per day)

41. Deliver tangible results (reports, charts and graphs)