Drive for further cost savings, new industry regulations led to increased demand for business value management

A drive for cost savings, coupled with a tightening regulatory environment, has made business value management a hot boardroom topic.

For the IT organisation, this means maximising the business value of existing and future IT investments through the optimisation of current resources, controlling - and in many cases reducing - IT spend and ensuring that projects are agile enough to react quickly to change.

That`s according to Wade Gomes, managing director at Compuware SA, who notes that to ensure compliance, mitigate risk and guarantee complete business value management, it is critical that the performance of IT projects is defined and measured against business metrics.

"Technology plays a critical role in the enterprise, and IT executives are increasingly called upon to build an IT organisation or department that fosters innovation and creates long-term business value. To realise these goals, IT directors must ensure continued alignment between business and IT, and implement successful IT projects that deliver real business benefit," he adds.

Gomes says there are three pillars critical to identifying, realising and managing the full value of an organisation`s IT investment: business value delivery, risk management and performance measurement.

In terms of business value delivery, Gomes says organisations should adopt strategies to deliver, amend and maintain the business value of an IT project through resource optimisation, cost management, process excellence and enhanced agility.

"Meanwhile, risk management in the enterprise has become a significant concern for directors," he continues, noting that the deployment of applications can have a major impact on a company`s bottom line, its reputation, competitive position, market share and other critical business-success factors.

Trek to the summit

00Days

:

00Hrs

:

00Min

:

00Sec

Businesses need professional assistance to obtain insight into the causes of major IT risks. These include such factors as business change, resource constraints, IT service availability, process failure, security and integration. Identification and mitigation of risk in every stage of the application lifecycle is necessary to avoid disaster - and to provide evidence of due diligence in the event of project failure.

"Understanding and addressing potential risks before they become a reality is critical. This applies not only for application development teams, but for company leaders who can be held responsible for such disasters," Gomes says.

In order to deliver business value, it is essential for IT directors to effectively measure performance and service delivery against the organisation`s business metrics.

"Technology should enhance the organisation`s ability to meet and exceed service commitments. IT value must be delivered in a business context by enhancing performance and increasing the visibility of service levels, thereby improving accountability to the business. Additionally, companies must be in a position to identify, prioritise and address performance risks before they impact the business value of IT services," he explains.

Gomes says Compuware`s business value management proposition enhances the ability of an organisation to increase the value of existing or future IT investments, around a specific IT project through the delivery of business value.

"Compuware applies decades of blue chip experience to help companies identify, realise and manage IT potential, closing the gap between business and IT. We partner with clients to identify new, and optimise existing technologies while mitigating risk in order to add real business value," he concludes.