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Survey results are in:
Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about which newsletter format you prefer (last year's multiple article format produced monthly or the 2004 format started with one article published weekly).
We received a lot of responses and the input was decidedly in favor of the weekly newsletters with a single article. In fact, the 2004 format was a 3 to 1 favorite with 73% of the votes so we will stay with it.
For those that liked the old format, we will publish a special from time to time with several articles.
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This week's article, , ,
Having problems getting your IT initiatives funded?
I was talking with a company CFO this week about his IT challenges and one of the points he made rang so familiar. It's something I've seen throughout my career.
His comment was, "I'm actually eager to spend money in IT, but it is frustrating when our IT Director asks for approval to hire a new employee or to buy new technology items but doesn't provide any justification for doing it.".
This is something that occurs all too often.
Another comment I've heard from IT Managers and CIO's throughout my career is, "The company won't spend any money." or "I can't get my projects funded."
Interestingly, all of these comments are related and arise from the same issue.
IT Managers that come from heavy technical backgrounds aren't always taught the need to justify new technology expenses. A key initiative may appear to be totally obvious that the company needs to do something, but I can tell you that it is definitely not obvious to most CFO and CEO's.
I can also tell you that I've never found it difficult to get my IT initiatives funded. There are two very simple reasons for that:
1. I know that every initiative needs to be cost justified.
2. My initiatives are always closely tied to the company's needs.
Number 2 is not something I say lightly. I make it my business to develop strategies and budgets that support the business needs and objectives of the company. I also communicate these plans to senior management of the company and gain their endorsement by validating that "these are the things we should be doing".
Senior managers have one goal that's well above any other and that is to achieve the financial commitments made to their Board of Directors and stockholders. This is especially true if the company is a publicly traded stock.
Unexpected spending runs contrary to this primary mission. Most of us have a certain amount of distaste for surprises and senior executives are no different. It's a lot easier to add new staff when your operating budget anticipated the possibility of such a need.
I never recommend hiring a new employee unless I have ample justification. In fact, I've been known to be more reluctant to hire a new employee than some of the senior managers.
The key message here is that when I ask for something that's not budgeted and planned for (and this will be rare in my case), my management team knows that I've thought through the issue and have plenty of justification (cost, benefit, etc.) that warrants the additional expenditure.
Managers who don't anticipate the "Tell me why." comment from their CFO or CEO will have difficulty in getting what they want.
It's not the senior manager's job to know why we need more IT staff or new technology. That's the senior IT Manager or CIO's job and those who can't articulate the justification are the ones that make statements like, "The company isn't willing to spend money in IT."
I've joined companies where the outgoing CIO told me that he/she could not get anything done for lack of money. All I can say is that I never found it to be difficult at all to get those same senior managers to fund reasonable initiatives that helped the business.
The scenario I usually find is that there is plenty of money to spend on the right things. The problem is that the former technology managers were spending too much for things that were not critical to the business or that did not add real value.
If your senior management team isn't willing to fund your requests, stop for a moment, step back and take a hard introspective look at the situation and ask yourself, "Why is this the case?".
Be objective and remove any self imposed desire or emotion from your thoughts. Put yourself into the position of the business owner as if the money were to come right out of your own pocket. Would you still be doing all the things you are spending money on or would you revise your initiatives and do something different?
I've performed due diligence on IT organizations of companies we were about to acquire and I've conducted IT assessments for many companies in a consulting role. It's amazing how many times you hear the comments mentioned earlier about "reluctance to spend on IT", etc.
When I hear these things, I take a very close look to determine if the IT organization is really in sync with the business "owners" (senior management team). In most cases, they are not.
It's not that IT Managers do not want to do the right thing for the company. It has more to do with background and experience. For example, if a young CIO comes from a predominately network and infrastructure background he tends to focus time, energy, and dollars in improving the network and infrastructure.
All the while, the real problems may be with the business applications or Help Desk.
We tend to focus on what we know. Unfortunately, most of the people that are promoted to IT Manager haven't really been exposed to techniques of how to manage a business effectively.
When you become a manager, it's more about the business than about the technology. Technology is the means of making great strides and improvement, but without a real business need the best technology solution can be a waste of money.
The next time you prepare to ask for more money for more staff or new technology, ask yourself these questions so you know the answer when your CFO or CEO ask you:
1. What is the benefit?
2. Is there a cost savings?
3. What will not making this investment do to us?
4. Do we have to make the investment now or can we wait?
5. Is it budgeted? If not, why not?
If you have solid justification that meets the needs of the business, you may find yourself getting what you ask for.
Create a track record of making wise investments in the initiatives you recommend and getting tangible results from them and you will find the scrutiny and analysis of your recommendations become less and less.
It's all about earning trust and respect by producing positive results.
Got a comment or feedback, let me hear from you. Send me an email message to mike@mde.net .
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Our mission at MDE Enterprises is to provide practical tools and resources that help IT Managers throughout the world achieve higher levels of success.
MDE resource links:
Education www.mde.net/schedule
Books and tools www.mde.net/cio
Newsletter archive www.mde.net/ezine
Consulting - contact me at mike@mde.net
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We appreciate your support and the ability it gives us in providing services to assist IT Managers. Best of success.
Mike Sisco
MDE Enterprises
3300 Stillcorn Ridge Road
Columbia, TN 38401
mike@mde.net
931-490-6932
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