by Mark P. McDonald | March 18, 2013 | 2 Comments
We have been living with cost control strategies for so long that it is easy to lose sight that there are other strategies beyond doing ‘more with less.’ Recently I have been in a number of meetings with executive team’s where despite their best intentions, they are leading their company via cost rather than strategy, [...]
Category: 2013 budgets Management Signs of weak management Tags: 2013 Planning, Economy, IT budgets
by Mark P. McDonald | September 7, 2012 | 20 Comments
In a prior post — When Frugality Fails — the topic was what do you do when just cutting costs is not enough to define success. This topic looks at what a decade of flat IT budget investments really means. IT budgets have been essentially flat according to the results of the Gartner Executive Programs [...]
Category: 2013 Amplifying the Enterprise budgets Re-imagine IT Strategic planning Tags: 2013 Planning, Finance, Future of IT, IT budgets, Strategy and Planning, symposium
by Mark P. McDonald | July 2, 2012 | 4 Comments
While Europe finance ministers deal with national debt crisis, CIO’s and CFO’s are ignoring their organizational geek debt crisis. Measure your organization’s geek debt by the degree to which existing systems, operations, and capabilities limit future potential. We often think and call our existing systems in more noble terms – legacy. But in reality it [...]
Category: budgets Distortion Re-imagine IT Technology Tags: CFO, cost cutting, IT budgets, Technology Leadership
by Mark P. McDonald | September 14, 2011 | 2 Comments
Leading CIOs have been re-imaging IT in the face of changing business priorities, technology innovation and resource realities. This is leading some to adopt a new way of thinking about IT — thinking small. Thinking small touches just about every aspect of IT from its foundational assumptions, to how it operates, to how you judge [...]
Category: 2012 IT Governance Lean Thinking Small IT Strategy Tags: CFO, IT budgets, Small IT, Strategy and Planning, Value of IT
by Mark P. McDonald | June 6, 2011 | 2 Comments
What is IT’s value? How do you measure it? Both are questions that constantly challenge CIOs and their C level peers. IT value can be difficult to measure, particularly when IT costs are direct and financial while IT value is indirect and operational. This has led people to apply indirect value metrics based on issues [...]
Category: Uncategorized Tags: IT budgets, RE-imagine IT, Value of IT
by Mark P. McDonald | March 24, 2010 | Submit a Comment
I hope not, but this idea has recently gotten some attention in the IT media. People are looking for some theme for this year. They are trying to make sense of an economy that seems to be going in every direction at once. Saying that this year is a repeat of last year neither sets [...]
Category: budgets CIO Economy Tags: 2010, 2010 planning, cost cutting, Economic conditions, IT budgets, IT management, Leadership
by Mark P. McDonald | February 16, 2010 | 2 Comments
What do you think about when you think about the drivers of IT cost? IT headcount, managed service contracts, the number of servers, the amount of software maintenance, the number of PCs and the like come to mind. These are all items within the IT budget, but are they the forces that drive these costs? [...]
Category: budgets CFO Economy Strategy Tags: 2010 planning, CFO, cost cutting, Finance, IT budgets
by Mark P. McDonald | January 19, 2010 | 15 Comments
These years 2010 Gartner CIO Survey captured the priorities and plans of more than 1,500 CIOs. The CIOs reported that they see 2010 as a time of transition across three areas: Economically from recession to recovery and growth Strategically from a focus on cost cutting efficiency to raising enterprise and IT productivity Technology transition from [...]
Category: 2010 budgets CIO Economy Leadership Tags: 2010, 2010 planning, CIO Leadership, IT budgets, IT Leadership
by Mark P. McDonald | December 22, 2009 | 1 Comment
I pose the following questions because as the first decade of the second millennia is coming to a close. This will lead to a cascade of analysts and pundits asking what happened at the beginning of the Internet age. Look for cover stories emblazed with 2010 coming to a publication near you. The Wall Street [...]
Category: CFO CIO Economy Leadership Strategy Tags: 2010, Business Management, CIO Leadership, Economic conditions, Economy, IT budgets, IT Leadership, IT management, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | November 12, 2009 | 1 Comment
I was at an event a few weeks ago hosted by a leading IT journalist who made the following opening remarks. “Good times are ahead for IT. A new investment cycle should happen soon as we have postponed infrastructure upgrades for too long.” His tone was upbeat and encouraging. The only thing was that the [...]
Category: 2010 Leadership Strategy Tags: 2010 planning, Economic conditions, Economic Recovery, Economy, IT budgets, IT Leadership, IT strategy
