Aligning IT cost optimization with business strategy

In the never-ending quest for competitive advantage, a company will strive for greater customer intimacy, operational excellence and product leadership — the first to achieve higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, the second to get products out faster or improve margins, and the third to make a market its own. IT finance plays a key role in directing IT’s understanding of these strategic disciplines to align technology decisions with core business objectives.

Under budget constraints and a continuous flow of business demands — as well as IT’s own strategic programs and change requests — IT must determine which investments and cost reduction measures best serve the business. The increased complexity of globally and organizationally distributed operations and associated IT makes it difficult to match up IT plans and business needs. Add to that the task of determining affordability of IT initiatives and the IT investment board quickly finds itself peering into the murky waters of insufficient data, makeshift analyses and corporate politics — not a good basis for making decisions with confidence.

The chapters of this white paper include:

• The truth is in the data
• A sustainable cost-optimization methodology
• Context is king
• Alfabet - Insight for IT financial management