IT executives are measuring IT value more frequently than a traditional budgeting cycle requires. Measuring value is a requirement for most new IT initiatives but the size of the investment still seems to be an important factor in determining whether a discussion of cost, benefit and return occurs with senior business executives.
Financial metrics prevail with most value assessments focused on return and cost of ownership.
However, customer satisfaction, internal as well as external, and soft benefits are being considered in roughly half of the organizations that we surveyed. Patti Taulbee, CIO at Abbott Resource Group, a human resources services company in Irvine, California suggests that IT executives take a customer service appro ach to proving their worth. And any service organization has to measure the results of that service. IT is still viewed as a cost center and not a value center for the most part, although our findings indicate that CIOs are gaining in their efforts to make IT a part of strategy discussions. In approximately one-third of the companies surveyed the CIO meets with other business executives to discuss or demonstrate value of IT at least quarterly, and in some instances weekly.