Ditch the jargon

In order to start proving the real value of IT one of the first things the CIO or IT manager must do is ditch the jargon. By communicating the achievements of IT in hard business terms, particularly in the support of new projects, the department’s worth becomes clearer to the whole business.

Enable remote collaboration and reduce travel costs

The IT department can demonstrate its value through the introduction of technology that enables remote employee communication and collaboration. Virgin Media, for example, reduced it staff travel costs and expenses by 20% through the introduction of technology that enabled staff to do just that. Show the C-suite the real value of IT through the estimated cost savings such technology could deliver as well as the benefits of empowering a mobile workforce.

Drive business innovation

48% of digital leaders surveyed by the 2015 Harvard Business Report ‘Driving Digital Transformation: New Skills for Leaders, New Role for the CIO’ stated that IT’s most important role in the next three years would be in driving business innovation. Prove the real value of IT to your organisation by demonstrating how the department has enabled this innovation by breaking down internal silos.

Chances are, new IT has empowered frontline staff to be more productive on the move. So measuring the extra hours of productivity per employee will give a good idea of the ROI.

Downtime and availability

These are pure IT metrics but if investment in new systems has led to better availability of work applications, it is definitely worth quantifying. When you consider the average cost of per-minute downtime is $7,900 this very quickly becomes a business critical issue.

De-risking through compliance

It is increasingly critical that IT executives look at the benefits of IT systems ensuring the organisation stays on the right side of regulators. The EU’s proposed General Data Protection Regulation looks set to raise privacy breach fines to either a million euros or 2% of a company’s annual global turnover, not being compliant is now business critical.

Drive customer spend

Closer alignment with the Sales team can enable IT to move into a more strategic business role through the development of improved CRM systems. Working closely with Sales, the IT department at Intel proved their worth to the entire business by building data models that empowered the Sales team to better upsell and cross sell products resulting in an increase in revenue of $264 million in the first year of implementation.

Reduce costs related to employee churn through ironing out IT issues

Flexible working policies and supporting systems are critical factors for job satisfaction. The HR savings are easily quantifiable. Oxford Economics recently calculated that the total cost of losing and replacing an employee is £30,000.

Takeaways:

• Reduced staff travel costs through enabling remote communication
• Prove value through driving business innovation
• Work with Sales to drive forward revenue