1. Think TCO, not ROI
To the CFO, return on investment is how much money you’re going to give back to the company. Let’s face it. Most IT projects — no matter how compelling — don’t bring “return” to the organization like an additional sales person, a new marketing campaign, or a new product launch. Preach total cost of ownership (TCO); repeat it until you are blue in the face. Whether business application development, web application development, IT infrastructure investment; you can demonstrate “fiscal stewardship” through cost reduction or increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
2. Cloud Computing
CFOs like what they hear about cloud computing as a cost saver. Don’t fight them on it.
3. Green IT
Are you surprised when the CFO is not willing to pay a premium to keep the environment cleaner? The reality is that no green projects exist unless they have a better TCO. So whether to upgrade your IT infrastructure, better IT infrastructure cooling, or saving space for your IT infrastructure you can build a strong business case of the decreased TCO and community relations intangibles of being an “environmentally conscious” firm.
4, 5 and 6. Virtualize, Virtualize and VIRTUALIZE
“This subject takes up three spots because there are three key virtualization targets -- servers, desktop and storage. But again, the key here is how to justify and how now NOT to justify.” Again build your TCO case for virtualization, but be realistic in your cost savings estimates. Many times virtualization projects are viewed as unsuccessful because they did not meet the upfront cost estimates. Be sure to include high traffic times such as end-of-month close periods.
7. Adopt IT-Centric Business Continuity
Over the years responsibility for business continuity have been put on IT management. This needs to change. Organizations need to understand that there are three phases to a business continuity plan; event response, disaster recovery and business continuity. With the financial impact on the organization of disaster recovery and business continuity, business management must be involved and responsible for these areas. It should not be IT management’s responsibility to determine which business units are most important.
8. Align with the Big Picture
Along with TCO, build your requests showing how the request aligns with the business objectives and goals of the organization.
9. Proactive Cost Reduction
Boy does that sound like another way to say TCO to you? Take a proactive stance on reducing cost. The article showed how to reduce cost of document retention.
10. Reduce Data Center Costs
The organization’s data center is usually the center of the IT infrastructure, both in physical space and cost. Just as in application software development, modular building of a data center can cut cost of the IT infrastructure through avoiding construction cost, reduced cooling cost and reduced capital expenditures.
“While the relationship between CFO and CIO can sometimes have more debits than credits, it is definitely worth the investment in time and effort to highlight IT projects in terms the CFO will understand.”
In part 1 of this post
By the title of this post you might think that it is about an 80’s television show by the same name. I really enjoyed
Saturday morning 8:30 am: The phone rings, I answer, “Hello”. Eric, my son who spent the night at a friends house says, “I’m getting ready to leave, I’ll be home before 9:00. “Ok”, I reply, “see you then.”
What do those 3 words have in common? They are certainly 3 words that you usually don’t use in a single conversation, let alone a single sentence. But in this day and age, maybe we should. Let me ask the question this way:
I got an interesting call last week from an individual that had a Websphere production problem. What made the call interesting was that it was from one of our competitors wanting us to help figure out what the problem was. So I guess we are officially the IT Consultants to the IT Consultants. I guess we are easier to deal with than IBM.
Organizations that build strong value-driven cultures frequently achieve high performance. The values that are developed must touch every department in the organization or the overall operation will fall short of its targeted goals.
In weak economic conditions, your company’s decision makers need the ability to understand how the company is performing against its targets. They simply do not have the time to sift through stacks of reports to find out what’s right – or wrong. By linking applications, processes and information technology support together any organization will be able to measure exactly how they are performing against their targets.
I read today that unemployment has risen to 7.6%. Yes, its official – we are in a recession. However, that does not mean there isn’t opportunity because there is. If everyone believed everything the press is saying our economy does not have a chance and the United States is going to cease to exist.
I have been a part of the Cincinnati Information Technology community for twenty one years now. In that time I have seen many changes, but if there is one constant it is the need to establish and nurture relationships. While this can be a valuable asset it also can be a detriment for information technology departments that are seeking the best IT business solutions for their company.
One of the telltale signs of over taxing the US infrastructure is the economic turn down that has not only affected the US but many parts of the world as well. Our healthcare system is crying for change, or airline industry is running on a 30 year old infrastructure and many corporations are still trying to operate business with technology that is outdated and maxed out. Yet, organizations seem to want these systems to produce more even though they personally do not invest in their upkeep.