Support costs are a very significant portion of the cost of ownership in information technology. A well defined set of standards can provide the needed level of flexibility while, at the same time, providing for reduced support costs and economies of scale. A significant portion of the five year cost of ownership of a desktop computer is related to support costs. These costs can be minimized by setting standards for desktop configurations, software, network connections and backup procedures. Training costs can be reduced substantially by standardizing on certain applications that will have widespread utilization.
Standards are essential in ensuring that systems can communicate.
Standards such as network protocols and interfaces between applications allow systems on a variety of hardware and even operating systems platforms to share information and even data. An organization must adopt a set of standards that provides some level of flexibility while at the same time ensuring compatibility across the organization. Standards may indicate a particular vendor or even a particular product from that vendor. In other cases the standard may be more generic. Relational Database Platforms Electronic Mail Services Imaging Applications Video Conferencing Application Development Tools Data Definitions Data Common Values Network protocols define how computers communicate over the network.