If you owned an airline company would you accept that when you asked how many passengers that had been transported, which distances where the most profitable, how many tickets sold and at what price and if  time tables and destination where kept as promised and the amount of gas consumed the reply that the planes had been kept in the air and that any constraints would hamper creativity (innovation).

This is however the case for most businesses where the IT department on the premise that they “keep the lights on” should not be held accountable neither for cost nor delivery and IT Financial management is a bean counting mentality (when I spoke to a friend in a top 3 audit firm in regards of this phenomena he told me that whenever a client told him the to keep records of his business was a bean counting mentality he would by…

In a recent conversation that I had with David Giambruno, CIO Revlon, he mentioned his ability to get the business hooked on new services and products as he actively propose new solutions to the business to leverage competitive advantage and keep the run in perfect shape. But the role as “gatekeeper of technology” to create business value can only be valid as the infrastructure runs smoothly. David has over they years shifted the focus of to use 80 % of the budget for workarounds and fire fighting the keep the lights on and 20 % to propose new solutions to the business to an opposite 80 / 20 where 80 % of the budget is used to enhance the capability of the business.

He also clearly indicated that where the logics spelled out in ITIL are excellent they are are a minimum requirement to build an effective IT Strategy to…

The CIO and the IT Department need to position as premium provider of IT services and focus on value to cost.

In order to avoid the “do we really need a CIO and IT department to bother us with technology when we can use the cloud?” the CIO has to ensure that the business strategy and business objectives are supported by IT (from a Business and IT architecture perspective). Where the IT Strategy support Strategy execution, “Time to Market”, Cost Effectiveness and stakeholder expectations from an Executive, Business Unit, IT Management and IT Risk Management perspective.

To deliver business value with IT we need to Focus on the Business Bottom Line: How fast can we get our products and services to market “Time to Market” & how can the IT department support the business from a Cycle Time and Cost Effectiveness perspective.

The IT Bottom line is that up to…