Has the ideal of IT/business alignment become the holy grail of IT leaders? The promise of IT/business alignment is to focus investment and activities, increase the value of IT, and integrate IT more closely with business initiatives. IT leaders...

Solution Set

In order to avoid constant firefighting, the CIO must have a strategic plan in place. By developing and building an applications roadmap, IT can plan out a strategy and proactively implement the actions that will allow IT to reach its core...

Note

In order to avoid constant firefighting, the CIO must have a strategic plan in place. By developing and building an applications roadmap, IT can plan out a strategy and proactively implement the actions that will allow IT to reach its core...

Tool

Use this Applications Roadmap Tool to automatically build a roadmap that will allow the organization to leverage apps management resources more efficiently.

Solution Set

In order to avoid constant firefighting, an Infrastructure Manager must have a strategic plan in place. By developing and building an infrastructure roadmap, the IM can plan out that strategy and proactively put the actions in place that will...

Tool

The first step in the development of an infrastructure roadmap is to perform infrastructure assessments and determine the urgency level within each key infrastructure area. This tool will help get that process started and will help guide...

Note

In order to avoid constant firefighting, an Infrastructure Manager (IM) must have a strategic plan in place. By developing and building an infrastructure roadmap, the IM can plan out that strategy and proactively put the actions in place that...

Tool

The purpose of this tool is to help IT leaders determine what they need to do to move their IT department from a state of firefighting to one of stability and planned operations.

Tool

A customer-oriented IT department reduces department costs, improves the quality of deliverables, and boosts the efficiency of the IT workforce. There are six core competencies that are essential to service orientation in IT. Facilitate these...

Note

A customer-oriented IT department reduces department costs, improves the quality of deliverables, and boosts the efficiency of the IT workforce. This storyboard helps you assess the level of customer service orientation in your IT department,...

Solution Set

It is crucial that the IT department demonstrate a customer-oriented mindset because such a culture brings numerous benefits to IT and the business. This solution set will help you assess the level of customer service orientation and provide...

Solution Set

A key objective for IT management should be to establish effective decision rights for IT versus the business. Misplaced rights can create problems for IT that at the least create unnecessary work, and at worst can result in failure to deliver...

Note

In many organizations, the allocation of IT decision rights is inappropriate, either removing from IT its rightful control of the IT technical environment, or forcing IT to make decisions that have a major impact on business units.

Template/Policy

Ongoing IT input provided through committees can provide continuous feedback to stakeholders who might not otherwise solicit IT's advice in decision-making.

Tool

This tool assists in identifying decision right gaps by performing a comparison between your organization's unique decision right allocation and the ideal situation.

Video

The responsibility for IT decisions is often misplaced with those most impacted being uninvolved in decisions that they should be making.

Video

Municipalities, with their myriad of departments and services, must manage competing goals and objectives for IT. IT is a scarce commodity and allocating resources without a unifying business goal is particularly challenging. An IT Steering...

Tool

One of the first steps in preparing for global data center integration is to gather a list of all inventories. A comprehensive inventory of applications and infrastructure at all global data centers is essential to determining what needs to be...

Solution Set

Many organizations contemplate forming an IT steering committee to better align IT investments with business strategy, but most don't know where to start.

It's easy to get overwhelmed with priorities when you're starting an IT leadership position. With a personal strategic plan, you can stay focused and position yourself for long-term success. Master the essentials of planning for your first one...

It's easy to make mistakes when you're new to IT leadership - many potential pitfalls are difficult to spot. Ensure a smooth transition into leadership by learning from the early blunders of real IT leaders.

Actual business demand for IT services should strongly influence the level and allocation of IT expenses. However, the link between the size and distribution of the IT budget with actual demand for specific IT services is weak in most...

Canceling a failing project should be a decision based on the facts of the business case, not the emotions associated with the decision. The longer the decision is delayed, the more costly the cancellation becomes in terms of money and...

Tool

For many organizations, projects in IT environments are a critical part of daily operations. Constrained by budget, time frames, and personnel, IT leaders must carefully select the best projects to align with organizational goals and objectives....

Premium Resource

When organizational or market factors fluctuate, project priorities may shift due to changing realities. Organizations that have multiple projects competing for limited resources face some key challenges.

Achieving and sustaining IT/Business alignment can be elusive. When considering a change to how IT resources and services are organized, IT leaders must consider how the company has structured authority, control and communications. A structural...

When deciding which initiatives to pursue, an IT leader is often caught between a rock and a hard place, forced to act as a mediator between competing interests. Prioritization is no easy task and requires the involvement of many organizational...

IT departments are often delegated the task of prioritizing a long list of project proposals. Make the process fair and consistent by using a reliable quantitative method.

Job Description

The Help Desk Manager's role is to oversee the entire Help Desk staff and ensure that end users are receiving the appropriate assistance. This includes the responsibility of managing all procedures related to the identification, prioritization,...