Last week, I presented at the itSMF UK’s annual conference on the subject of value or, more specifically, I hid an awful lot of IT financial management-related content behind the title: “Anybody Questioning Your Value?” Importantly, this is not IT value; I am referring to business value.

It was a surprising session in many ways. Firstly, the number of attendees (I didn’t count them but I would guestimate about 80 … I’m sure my IT service management peers in attendance will now quickly tell me it was a lot, lot less). Secondly, that they all seemed to stay to the end (well bar one worried-looking lady who left in a rush early on … I assumed a Sev1 incident or an upset tummy, or both).

The third surprise was the response to a simple question I posed:

If your CEO or CFO stopped you in the corridor and asked, “I like the look of this Gmail-for-business thingy, how does it compare cost-wise with our internal email service?” Would you know the per-unit cost of delivering your corporate email service?

The surprise? Not one person in the room admitted to knowing what their corporate email service costs. I expected to see a low number of raised hands but not a wave-less sea of hands-in-laps. Unfortunately, being unable to answer such off-the-cuff and more formal questions around costs and value can only expose the absence of I&O’s business savvy and lack of cost-awareness. This is not a place I&O wants to be in right now (or ever).

So what does I&O need to do?

 

My Jerry Springer-like final thought?

I have said (well blogged) it before and I will say it again: I&O needs to have answers before the business asks awkward questions about costs, performance, and value.

If YOU don’t get to grips with costs and value, your successor will.

 

Related blogs:

http://blogs.forrester.com/stephen_mann/11-09-12-it_value_like_beauty_is_in_the_eye_of_the_beholder

http://blogs.forrester.com/stephen_mann/11-10-07-run_it_as_a_business_do_you_really_know_what_this_means

http://blogs.forrester.com/stephen_mann/11-10-17-five_steps_to_improve_your_it_financial_management_maturity

Please check out my latest blog … http://blogs.forrester.com/stephen_mann