Newsletters Welcome, Guest Log In | Register

Business of Tech

Alignment, staffing and culture are often more critical than software and apps

About this Blogger RSS

Subscribe

Sign up now and get the best business technology insights direct to your inbox.

  • Daily Edge
  • CTO Edge Update
  • Business Tools & Templates
  • Aligning IT & Business Goals
  • Maximizing IT Investments

0

Putting a Business Spin on IT Metrics

Posted by Ann All Oct 30, 2006 11:32:59 AM

In an interesting acknowledgment that undue emphasis on the bottom line may not always be a good thing -- especially when it comes to fostering better alignment between the business and IT -- some hotshot CIOs like HP's Randy Mott and Global Crossing's Dan Wagner are supplementing traditional IT metrics like ROI and TCO with more creative measurements.

 

As outlined in a recent InformationWeek article, Wagner emphasizes a more symbiotic relationship between IT and business by tracking how many times IT pros accompany sales staff on calls. Among Mott's metrics: on-time delivery of IT projects, time IT staffers devote to innovation activities vs. simply sustaining technology, and annual benefit per project.

 

While we don't dispute the importance of metrics, we agree with some observers that IT has a tendency to be a little too in love with them, in extreme cases spending more time on reporting progress than enabling it. Many IT departments also tend to focus too narrowly on areas like throughput and fail to put them in terms business users can understand.

 

Another common, yet problematic, metric is IT as a percentage of revenue. According to a Gartner analyst, this measure is essentially meaningless and often used as an excuse to justify treating IT as a cost that needs to be controlled rather than an area that can add real business value.

 

CIOs would do well to remember that putting a more business-oriented spin on IT metrics may be the only way to make them truly useful.

Add a comment Leave a comment on this blog post.

There are no comments on this post

Guidebook: Leveraging Value from SAP with IBM Cognos

Read this Nucleus research report to learn why this BI software, combined with SAP, has less costly deployments, a faster time to benefit, and greater productivity improvements for end users.

IBM Smart Business — Rewriting the Rules of IT for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Read this white paper to learn about a new three-in-one solution that makes it easier than ever to find, run and manage your business applications.

Social Media Policies Toolkit

Define the rules at your company for the proper use of social media platforms such as Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Ensure your users are spending their time productively and company resources are being used for the business.

Learn more >

Six Sigma Framework for IT

This collection of tutorials, calculators, and templates will show you how to apply six sigma thinking to IT service management.

Learn more >