Contents

Cover

Series Info

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Foreword: Uncovering an Essential Skill of IT Management

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Value of IT

The 80/20 Law of IT Spending

The User Interface Is Not the Project

Just Like Buying a Car

Don't Forget Maintenance Costs

The Math of Availability

My Favorite Analogy

The Hard Facts of Uptime

Chapter 2: Why IT Projects Fail

Technology Is Not the Problem

Communication Is Critical

IT Projects Are Really Business Process Change Projects

When You Change a Process, Don't Forget the People

Paradigm Shifts Are Real

Chapter 3: The Washington Principle

The Skills of a Leader

Why We Need IT Governance

A Process for Generating Commitment

They Cannot Read Your Mind

Multiple Levels of Governance

Delivering Expected Value

The Basics of Good Governance

Chapter 4: Balancing Risk and Exposure

The CIA Model of Risk Assessment

An Easy Method for Modeling Risk

The Risk Profile Matrix

Bring Options and Recommendations to the Table

Managing IT Security Risks

What about the Black Swan?

Chapter 5: Time Is the Enemy

Riding to Nowhere?

It's All about Time

If Necessary, Rebaseline the Project

The 5 Whys

Chapter 6: Software Is Not Manufactured

The Art of Programming

Consider Agile or Lean Methodologies

Chapter 7: Technology Disruptors

Keep Your Eyes on the Horizon

Think Like a VC

When Technology Disruption Hits Close to Home

Specific Trends to Watch

Beyond the Keyboard and Screen

Encourage Exploration, Experimentation, and Fast Failure

Chapter 8: The Office of Know

Correcting a Classic Case of Misalignment

Are CIOs Wired Differently?

Sometimes There's a Good Reason for Being Risk Averse

Technology Is Not the Only Solution

The View from the Crow's Nest

Faster, Nimbler, and More Proactive

Walking the Assembly Line

Gone Hunting

Moving from No to Yes

Chapter 9: Enterprise Resource Planning

ERP Basics

ERP versus Best of Breed

Single Instance versus Multiple Systems

Keeping ERP Systems Up to Date

Chapter 10: Outsourcing IT

Three Strategies

Your Vendor Is Not Your Partner

The Value of Being Selective

Outsourcing to the Cloud

Scale Counts

Offshoring

Outcome-Based Outsourcing

Chapter 11: Rebaselining the IT Budget

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul Is Not a Good Business Strategy

The Annual Budget Trap

A Different Approach

Moore's Law and the Cost of IT

And the Moral of the Story Is . . .

Some IT Projects Are Very Expensive

Chapter 12: The CFO's Perspective

Cash, Risk, and Benefits

Chapter 13: Optimizing the CEO–CIO Relationship

Making a Strategic Contribution

The CIO Evolution

Chapter 14: Conclusions

Don't Burn Your Money

Recommended Reading

About the Author

Index

Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons is the oldest independent publishing company in the United States. With offices in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, Wiley is globally committed to developing and marketing print and electronic products and services for our customers' professional and personal knowledge and understanding.

The Wiley CIO series provides information, tools, and insights to IT executives and managers. The products in this series cover a wide range of topics that supply strategic and implementation guidance on the latest technology trends, leadership, and emerging best practices.

Titles in the Wiley CIO series include:

The Agile Architecture Revolution: How Cloud Computing, REST-Based SOA, and Mobile Computing Are Changing Enterprise IT by Jason Bloomberg

Big Data, Big Analytics: Emerging Business Intelligence and Analytic Trends for Today's Businesses by Michael Minelli, Michele Chambers, and Ambiga Dhiraj

The Chief Information Officer's Body of Knowledge: People, Process, and Technology by Dean Lane

CIO Best Practices: Enabling Strategic Value with Information Technology (Second Edition) by Joe Stenzel, Randy Betancourt, Gary Cokins, Alyssa Farrell, Bill Flemming, Michael H. Hugos, Jonathan Hujsak, and Karl Schubert

The CIO Playbook: Strategies and Best Practices for IT Leaders to Deliver Value by Nicholas R. Colisto

Enterprise Performance Management Done Right: An Operating System for Your Organization by Ron Dimon

IT Leadership Manual: Roadmap to Becoming a Trusted Business Partner by Alan R. Guibord

Managing Electronic Records: Methods, Best Practices, and Technologies by Robert F. Smallwood

On Top of the Cloud: How CIOs Leverage New Technologies to Drive Change and Build Value Across the Enterprise by Hunter Muller

Straight to the Top: CIO Leadership in a Mobile, Social, and Cloud-Based World (Second Edition) by Gregory S. Smith

Strategic IT: Best Practices for Managers and Executives by Arthur M. Langer and Lyle Yorks

Transforming IT Culture: How to Use Social Intelligence, Human Factors, and Collaboration to Create an IT Department That Outperforms by Frank Wander

Unleashing the Power of IT: Bringing People, Business, and Technology Together by Dan Roberts

The U.S. Technology Skills Gap: What Every Technology Executive Must Know to Save America's Future by Gary J. Beach

Cover image: © iStockphoto.com/alengo
Cover design: Wiley

Copyright © 2013 by Gregory J. Fell. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Fell, Gregory J., 1964-
 Decoding the IT value problem, + website : an executive guide for achieving optimal ROI on critical IT investments / Gregory J. Fell.
  pages cm. — (Wiley CIO)
 ISBN 978-1-118-43805-3 (hardback); ISBN 978-1-118-75409-2 (ebk);
ISBN 978-1-118-75433-7 (ebk)
 1. Information technology. 2. Information technology—Cost effectiveness.
 3. Capital investments—Evaluation. I. Title.
 HD30.2.F4567 2013
004.068'1—dc23

2013017991

For my Computer Club brothers, who toiled on weekends
solving big-endian/little-endian problems and kernel
panics. We have changed the world forever.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to my colleagues at Terex for their guidance and wisdom at the lunch table, forgoing politics and sports for discussions on IT budgets and governance models.

Thank you to all the participants in the book for sharing their insights and experience so generously: Kelly Bissell, Susan Certoma, Ross Kudwitt, Beverly Lieberman, Filippo Passerini, Mark Polansky, Vallabh Sambamurthy and Leo Sadovy.

Special thanks to Mike Barlow, whose guidance in writing my first book has been immeasurable.

A major thank you to Cathy and Bethany for their love and support.

FOREWORD: UNCOVERING AN ESSENTIAL SKILL OF IT MANAGEMENT

I have spent the past three decades providing high-level thought leadership services to the information technology (IT) industry. I have written three books about IT leadership: The Transformational CIO, On Top of the Cloud, and Leading the Epic Revolution. I also write a weekly blog and newsletter on current IT leadership topics.

As a consequence of my work, I read a lot about the role of IT in the modern business enterprise. Here is something I have noticed: Most of the books and articles about IT management tend to focus primarily on either technology (hard skills) or leadership (soft skills).

After reading a draft of Greg's manuscript, however, I realized that what's missing from many of those books is a detailed discussion of a third critical skill: business acumen.

Without business acumen, it is hard to run an IT department for any reasonable period of time. Despite its importance, the subject of business acumen rarely surfaces in conversations about IT leadership.

Greg's book remedies that situation. It is specifically written to provide sound business advice to C-level executives who are responsible for making decisions about IT investments.

If you are a CEO, CFO, or COO, this book will help you ask better and more relevant questions when the CIO proposes new IT projects. It will help you understand the IT value proposition more thoroughly and develop a deeper understanding of how IT drives growth and revenue in today's economy.

If you are a CIO, this book will serve as a practical guide for delivering consistently higher returns on IT investments and avoiding the unseen dangers that can undermine IT projects.

Greg's book covers essential topics that are often overlooked or given short shrift in discussions between the CIO and other C-level executives. Those topics include balancing risk and exposure, why IT projects often fail to deliver expected value, how companies should prepare for technology disruptors, why time is the enemy, and why a collaborative effort among senior executives is necessary for optimizing returns on critical IT investments.

Over the course of my career, I have spoken with thousands of leaders and executives who make decisions about IT spending. I can honestly say that almost all of them would benefit from reading this concise and well-written book.

Hunter Muller
CEO and President
HMG Strategy LLC

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!