A Holistic Approach

IT has long been perceived as a cost center, likely because it has behaved that way. Today, there is increasing pressure on CIOs, IT Directors, and IT organizations to align with business and demonstrate business value - to become the "business technology" department. But how?

Our Technology Value Acceleration Loop™ describes the foundation of our approach - the basis for our guidance to our clients on how they can take long-term steps to building business value into the IT organization. The loop is a five element cycle.

• Business Technology Governance - The governance bodies (steering committees and decision makers) and governance process must include the appropriate stakeholders and must be organized to make and delegate decisions on IT funding, strategy, principles, initiatives, and technology. The right mix of business and IT executives assures IT's alignment with the business.
• Technology Strategy & Planning - Strategy is the 3-5 year set of work themes, objectives, and metrics needed to guide choices in projects. It must be aligned with the business strategy. Execution planning is the nomination, scoring, and selection of initiatives. Choices can be made and funded as work unfolds, consistent with strategy, allowing IT to be responsive to current business needs. For best results, allow a governance body to make these choices.
• Strategic Initiatives - These are key programs, some of which will directly support business (e.g, a CRM application) and some of which will be internal (e.g., incident management improvement).
• Measurement - Deployed applications and improved services and technologies should have the effect of "moving the needle" on the metrics, some of which measure business performance and some internal IT department performance. Taking these measurements periodically allows IT to manage its operations and to assure that projects are having beneficial effect.
• Business Value Reporting - Communicating IT's successes to the business community is critical to changing the perception that IT is a cost center, not a business partner. "Annual reports", mid-year reports, and monthly newsletters are all useful, particularly if the measurements are tied to business, are illustrated with case studies, and are compared to benchmarks.

Ultimately, the governance, strategy, and planning processes react to the effects of prior decisions and the manner in which they have been executed, adjusts as needed, and repeats, all in a cycle of continuous value improvement.

Our strategic consulting services can help you put all of this in place, scaled to your company's needs, in an incremental manner. Our CIO-In-Reserve™ services institute and apply these practices commensurate with the scope of services requested.