Maximising
Technology ROI
with ITFM

Many IT organisations face difficulties when trying to convey the value of ITFM to a wider corporate audience since ITFM tools are viewed as redundant systems that compete with existing Financial ERP systems and CPM tools. Failing to effectively communicate how ITFM enhances the broader business functions can lower its perceived value and create resistance.

On this journey we identify the most common arguments that drive resistance to ITFM and why IT leaders struggle to properly communicate the value of ITFM and related tools. By leveraging the 3 steps discussed below, IT leadership will be able to effectively communicate the business case for establishing a new ITFM practice, procure the tools necessary to support this new function and convey a compelling need for ITFM that will urge your organisation to take action.

Technology leaders need to understand their current roadblocks and properly align priorities to remedy shortcomings and enhance future capabilities. Understanding how company initiatives align with the desired future state is key when building a business case that articulates the benefits of ITFM.

The business case should utilise accurate data to present the current situation in order to benchmark and measure the proposed benefit. The value proposal should be accompanied by quantifiable metrics and business outcomes that your IT organisation clearly understands and will commit to delivering.

Since ITFM touches all aspects of your technology organisation it is important to identify three to five top priorities that are essential to the future success and competitiveness of your business. Once you have shortlisted your top priorities, use these initiatives as the primary foundation and focus of your business case.

Engaging with stakeholders is an integral step in identifying the IT leaders, IT Tower Owners, systems and application owners who will help evangelise the benefits of ITFM, establish benchmarks, set targets and provide the inputs necessary for your ITFM initiative. Identify and partner with a Technology Executive to champion your business case and remove any potential roadblocks as they arise. Collectively, your stakeholders must be aligned with your business case and agree with the proposed benefits since they will directly impact the funding and resources allocated towards their priorities. Partnering with stakeholders will provide the following benefits:

Stakeholder engagement will help promote organisation-wide backing of your business case.

Partnering with IT Finance is an important step in establishing a strong financial argument for your business case. Identifying opportunities to avoid and reduce costs using a consistent, data-driven methodology backed by Finance will help bolster the strength of your business case and clearly define the proposed benefits of ITFM. Business cases should outline how ITFM will impact each strategic initiative to improve the financial outlook, competitiveness and agility of your technology organisation. The following table shows some scenarios where the value of ITFM should be communicated:

Infrastructure cost optimisation is one the more prevalent business case objectives for realising the financial benefits of ITFM. This encompasses eliminating or consolidating shadow IT, decommissioning unused resources, reallocating capacity, and benchmarking infrastructure costs internally and against industry peers.

Application spending and the associated labour & infrastructure resources typically account for over 50% of IT spend. This expense can be optimised by:

Since the business is the primary consumer of IT resources it is important to educate your organisation on how changes in consumption impact IT spend. Leveraging showback/chargeback and IT billing helps shape demand through accountability and will empower the business to find areas for cost reduction and optimisation. Aligning your budgeting process with actual consumption and accurate unit costing will reduce unforeseen IT spend and budget variances which will help shrink run costs (operate) and free up resources for transformation (innovate).

Shifting resources from on-premises to Public Cloud IaaS & PaaS products present opportunities for increased innovation, financial agility, and cost optimization. ITFM should provide foundation for any cost benefit analysis used to calculate the expected cost reductions related to migrating resources to a Third-Party Cloud Provider. This analysis can be enhanced by:

The intangible benefits of ITFM include a faster budgeting cycle, better conversations between IT and Service Owners, improved spend transparency, better alignment between resources and strategy, and an enhanced understanding of how resources are combined to create value internally and for your customers. Overall, your organisation will be positioned to be more competitive, financially agile and aware of your business risks.

How you communicate your business case and the related content to your organisation will ultimately determine its effectiveness. Your message should be transparent, tied to business priorities, data-driven, create a sense of urgency and call Senior Leaders to action.

Be sure to use your company’s official template to present the information in a format that will be well received by the audience. Using a standardised template will also reduce the chance of having your business case rejected due to missing inputs or miscommunication when articulating your objectives. Be sure to provide links to the more detailed documents that explain your assumptions, the data sources and methodology.

Be sure to convey that you have compared different scenarios or products in order to develop your business case for what you believe to be the best choice. Divide your alternative options into different categories such as:

Team
People outside of the ITFM function will be active participants in the process whether you decide to implement a new tool and form an internal team to manage your new capability or outsource your ITFM function to a managed service provider. The ITFM function will require dedicated internal personnel who will rely on other internal resources from IT operations, vendor management, project management and IT Finance for insight and data inputs. In addition to data owner, tower owner and service owner data inputs it will be necessary to identify partners in other IT functions and Finance to work closely with the ITFM personnel to ensure that business objectives are successfully executed.

Internal Functions
The ITFM function relies on other processes within Finance, IT operations and the business to deliver value. Creating synergy between these processes are essential to maximise the proposed benefits of ITFM.

IT Infrastructure
Tools and technology will be a major enabler for your organisation to run a success ITFM practice. The disparate data sources that exist within your systems will be critical inputs for ITFM reporting & analysis and will need to be aligned with the ITFM data architecture.

As you craft your business case it is important to consider and include the impact these resources will have on strategic initiatives and the success of your ITFM function. Be sure to thoroughly explain the additional costs related to utilising these resources to avoid push back due lack of consideration.

ITFM business cases should include the non-financial resources that will be required to drive the success of the ITFM function and support related business priorities.

Document dependencies related to other systems such as ServiceNow, Oracle Financials, SAP, asset management tools or PMO systems. You should also consider any impacts to or from existing or future processes tied to the success of your ITFM capability. Risks and dependencies should be mapped out to gain a clear understanding of how your business case could impact the future state of current operations and initiatives.

Use the list below to make sure your ITFM Business Case follows best practices.