Leveraging the Value of IT in Good Times and Bad

John Thorp's article, Leveraging the Value of IT in Good Times and Bad, published in IndustryWeek.com and discussed in his blog today, describes how between 20%-30% of current and new expenditures can be reduced or curtailed and the potential value of investments increased by two to three times. John's advice is for all business leaders:

• IT can no longer be managed as a black box because IT is now entwined in the business processes that make up an organisation's value chain and investments are not about IT but about change;
• Effective governance is needed to make the right decisions concerning investment in IT-enabled change, manage those investments throughout their full lifecycle so that they continue to create and sustain value, and letting go the ones that won't;
• ISACA's Val IT practices for value governance, portfolio management and investment management can be used selectively to improve the quality of decisions and reduce risk.

Val IT 2.0 is a new framework with supporting publications addressing the governance of IT-enabled business investments (see Getting Started With Value Management).

John Thorp is President of The Thorp Network (http://www.thorpnet.com/), author of The Information Paradox, and Chair of Val IT™ Steering Committee for ISACA.