Green Shoots from IT Projects

What will drive the recovery? Will the technology industry have a role as a leader or a lagger? Let's get cracking on those IT project proposals. ...

... "If there's good news from the Gartner study, it's that CIOs aren't canceling projects outright. CIOs report shifting more work to in-house resources and delaying capital expenditures more than reducing IT project investments ... " ...

Via Motley Fools: Technology Industry Perspectives

Holistic Project Budget

Occupy the high ground and define a holistic set of project financials --- the benefits (tangible and intangible), the one-time costs, recurring costs, and potential investments in future to further scale the business capability, if appropriate. ...

... "There are few things more distressing to a CFO than being told up front about only part of the costs involved in a proposed project. " ...

Via CIO Australia: Get Your Budget Approved by the CFO

References for Project Proposals

Checking references, reference visits, and other external benchmarks are helpful to demonstrating to your governance team that you have done your homework with regards to outside-in perspectives. ...

... "Use reference visits to similar organisations to reassure your management. Best of all, put them in touch with their peers such as CFOs in those other companies to see how they view virtualization. " ...

Via DaniWeb: Virtualization

PC Energy Footprint

Considering a project proposal for energy efficiency in the data center? Don't forget your personal computers and peripherals as an opportunity to reduce your energy footprint. ...

... "PCs and related peripherals consumed 41% of the information and communication technology's global footprint – telecoms infrastructure, data centers, and printers consumed 37%, 14% and 8%, respectively. " ...

Via Forrester: PC Power Management

Project Intangible Benefits Should Be Identified

It is a good practice to identify non-financial or intangible benefits when developing a business case. The ideal is when you can generate a tangible return on the investment. However, intangible benefits can be aligned with business goals and may even be able to be measured. This can be helpful when the financial return of a project proposal is at or below the hurdle rate. ...

... "Recognizing what to measure and how to measure can be extremely difficult for intangible assets/benefits. There are some common but key benefits accruing through any large IT project in an enterprise that cannot be tangibly measured. " ...

Via CXOtoday: IT Non-financial ROI

Project Business Case: Shock and Awe with Value

Enhance your business case with a compelling story and value statements in the language of your business. While the solution is important, keep the technical details to a minimum. ...

... "Decision makers don't want to hear about bits and bytes. IT managers need to talk to them in terms of achieving business value and reducing risk, said John Cash ... " ...

Via IT Business, Canada: Project Approval Process

Project Approvals: A Tasty Proposition

The CFO's perspective is valuable to properly positioning project proposals in the portfolio. ...

... "The most important thing a CIO could do is take their CFO out to lunch and find out what the CFO looks for when considering a project, he said. " ...

Via bMighty: Have You taken Your CFO Out to Lunch Yet?

Vendor Perspective on RFPs

Vendors have to jump through hoops to respond to requests-for-proposal. See it from their perspective. ...

... "We've treated RFPs like they are some rare opportunity for us to get our proposal in the door at an organization and hopefully win the project based on the merit of the project ... " ...

Via CIO: RFP ROI