“Time is money.” Everyone has heard the phrase, and in the business world, it has never been more true than it is today. We literally exchange money for time in increased staff and overtime hours. Time management has become a cost savings strategy; there are many courses and webinars on “working smarter, not harder,” and productivity consultants make a good living pointing out the “time wasters” in our daily business routines.

Yet studies show that many IT managers and CIOs continue to source critical information, advice and metrics using time consuming methods and inaccurate, out-of-context resources. Searching generic white papers and “surfing the web” to uncover sources of possibly relevant information without context is wasting as much as 25% of a manager’s time. What IT management really needs is in-context data and information, and direct answers to direct questions. Acquiring this kind of information, however, has traditionally meant high cost (money) or slow delivery (time).

Enter Expertise-as-a-Service (EaaS). EaaS leverages a “knowledge cloud”: a network of practicing IT professionals who provide information, advice, performance management and measurement, and professional and organizational development expertise. EaaS uses the best of the “-as-a-Service” framework, providing scalable, on-demand services with high quality, low cost, and rapid delivery. Enterprise-licensed EaaS gives IT management the ability to collect and disseminate information rapidly to all team members, thus fostering better collaboration. The rapid delivery of EaaS short-circuits the long drawn out process of searching for information, as it allows direct, in-context questions to be asked of practicing IT professionals, and direct, in-context answers are delivered, typically within a three-to-five day time span. In short, EaaS enables IT teams to be more productive.