IT Strategy: align your IT vision for business value (Practical IT Manager GOLD Series Book 4)

IT Strategy align your IT vision for business value

“helping IT managers of the world achieve more™ success”

Mike Sisco’s Practical IT Manager GOLD Series

Copyright © MDE Enterprises, Inc. www.itmanagerinstitute.com

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Practical IT Manager GOLD Series

IT Strategy align your IT vision for business value

2nd edition


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Mike Sisco, ITBMC

Introduction Hello and welcome to the Practical IT Manager GOLD Series. I'm Mike Sisco, President of MDE Enterprises, Inc. and a career IT manager and CIO of more than 20 years. Since 2000, I have devoted my life to, "helping IT managers of the world achieve more success". My practical processes and tools are used by thousands of IT managers in every part of the world. The challenge of managing technology resources has never been more demanding than it is now. Change occurs more rapidly and technology resources are in more demand than ever before.

People and companies respond to strong leadership. Effective leadership skills give a technology manager an edge in creating and maintaining a stable business environment. This leads to more success and an IT organization that's valued and appreciated by the business managers of your company. The material contained in the entire Practical IT Manager GOLD Series of books has been developed from my experience in managing technical organizations of all sizes for more than 20 years. The examples are ‘real life’ experiences of things I know to work, or hard lessons learned from things that did not work. I developed every process and tool you will learn about to help me manage IT organizations during my career. They worked for me and will for you as well. Two tools I use to enhance the material or to clarify a point are: Sidebar: a comment or clarification to help make a point Personal Note: a personal experience or “war story” to reinforce a point. You will find a bit of humor to make the reading more enjoyable and to emphasize certain points. Because of my very “dry sense of humor”, you may have to look for the humor, , , sorry about that. I also hope you like the images I pop in at times to make the reading more interesting.


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The Practical IT Manager GOLD Series includes the following titles: IT Management-101: fundamentals to achieve more™ IT Assessment: the key to IT success

IT Strategy: align your IT vision for business value IT Organization: right-size your organization for success

IT Project Management: a practical approach IT Staff Motivation and Development: build a world class team IT Asset Management: tracking technology assets

IT Budgeting: operational and capital budgeting made easy IT Due Diligence: merger & acquisition discovery process IT Assimilation: consolidating redundant technologies What to Look For in a CIO: get more value from your IT investment , , , plus more titles to come

To view the Table of Contents for each publication or to discover other IT manager products and services we offer , go to www.itmanagerinstitute.com for more information. Interested in our IT Manager Institute and IT Business Manager Certification (ITBMC) program? It is one of the most successful IT manager training programs in the industry and available in both classroom and self study formats. Go to www.itmanagerinstitute.com for details. Managing IT organizations at a high level is serious business, but having fun along the way is also important. I hope you find the material helpful in your quest and welcome your feedback. You may contact me at [email protected] . Best regards and success,

Mike Sisco, ITBMC MDE Enterprises, Inc. www.itmanagerinstitute.com Additional resources from Mike Sisco ITLever Blog www.itlever.com Free tips and tools, , , updated frequently IT Manager Institute www.itmanagerinstitute.com Both classroom and self study versions are available 20 Minute IT Manager www.20minuteitmanager.com Complete library of over 160 e-Learning sessions


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IT Strategy Table of Contents

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………. 6 I. What is a Strategic IT Plan? ……………………………………………………. 7 II. Go With What is Appropriate …………………………………………………… 12 III. Are Proper Foundations in Place? ……………………………………………… 15 A. Lay the Foundation First ………………………………………………….. 16 B. Identify Where You Want to Be …………………………………………. 16 C. Identify Where You Are ………………………………………………….. 20 D. Work Backward or Work Forward? ……………………………………… 23 IV. Strategy Development Steps – an Overview …………………………………. 24 V. Define Key Milestones (Major Projects) ……………………………………….. 30 VI. Identify Prerequisites ……………………………………………………………. 33 VII. Quantify Needs for Each Strategic Project ……………………………………. 37 A. Staff …………………………………………………………………………. 38 B. Budget ……………………………………………………………………… 40 C. Other Resources …………………………………………………………… 41 VIII. Identify the Critical Path ………………………………………………………… 42 IX. Define Project Timeframes ……………………………………………………… 46 X. Draw the Strategic Plan Overview ……………………………………………... 51 XI. Present the Plan ………………………………………………………………….. 57 A. Objectives ………………………………………………………………….. 59 B. Return on Investment …………………………………………………….. 61

C. Validation …………………………………………………………………… 63 D. Awareness …………………………………………………………………. 63 XII. Make it a Company Strategy ……………………………………………………. 64 XIII. Now the Hard Part – Implementation ………………………………………….. 68 XIV. The Value of Your Work …………………………………………………………. 70 XV. Sample IT Strategy ………………………………………………………………. 73 XVI. Summary …………………………………………………………………………. 81 Appendix A “Where Do You Want To Be” Questionnaire ………………………. 82 Appendix B IT Strategy Projects – Budget Summary …………………………... 83 Appendix C IT Strategy – Project Dependencies ………………………………… 84


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I. What is a Strategic IT Plan?

The term “strategic” implies long term versus “tactical” which relates to short term. So far, so good. The answer as to what denotes a strategic plan for a company really has a lot to do with the company. If you are IBM, your strategy is going to be much different than a $100 million dollar software company. The relevant importance to both companies is huge, just very different levels of strategy. In another example, the strategic importance of plans for a company that is in the midst of a turnaround will be much different than that of a more mature and stable company positioning itself for growth. So, we get back to the initial point:

“A strategic plan is a long term plan that is relevant to the current company needs and situation. The objective of developing a strategic IT plan is to define a vision of where you’re headed and the approximate timing and cost to make it happen.”

Long term might be a year, or it might be three. It all depends, you see. Within this publication, I don’t focus so much on how far into the future you need to develop a strategic plan for as much as focusing on identifying the pertinent objectives that should be accomplished for your company. Depending upon the maturity of the company and the strategic project initiatives required to achieve its goals, your timelines will vary.

In my publication, IT Management-101: fundamentals to achieve more, I refer to a hierarchy of project priorities that you should pay attention to as you plan the execution of IT projects. I won’t go into the same level of detail here, but we should spend just a moment to explain in case you haven’t read the other publication. Experience has taught me that to successfully implement “strategic projects”, you must have a solid technology foundation in place. Otherwise, as you implement major projects, you will constantly face basic infrastructure and organization issues that slow you down.

In many cases it adds complexity and cost to your strategic project when you haven’t “paid your dues” by building a solid foundation in order to be properly positioned to work on strategic projects.


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Guard against building 2-legged stools before charging after strategic projects. It is essential to have a solid foundation underneath you, , , otherwise everything will come crashing down sooner or later.

2-legged stool

In IT Management-101, the chapter First Things First addresses this at length. As you look at the IT Project Priority Hierarchy below, our focus in this publication is the top of the pyramid, , , essentially the top two layers, strategic projects and business application strategy.

Here is the thing, , , real value is in the top two layers, , , the Strategic Projects layer and the Business Applications Strategy layer. Projects in these layers are where your company can really cut costs and improve employee productivity. Because of this, senior management wants the IT organization to focus on projects in these two levels. This is where the gold is to be found.


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Wait just a minute, , , most companies will require some time to get to real strategic projects, especially if they do not have solid IT support foundations in place.

What happens is that a new CIO or IT manager will conduct an IT assessment when he joins the company or takes over an IT organization. Initially, he will place priority on things required to stabilize the technical support environment, solidify systems and networks, implement support processes that help the team deliver IT support, etc. These “stabilizing” and basic support issues tend to be in the bottom three layers of the pyramid. Once a manager has the IT staff focused on the short term and immediate issues, he will begin work to develop a more long term strategic plan, , , which is what we will do in this book.

Strategic projects tend to make a tangible difference in one of the following:

- Cash flow - Profitability - Productivity - Gaining market share - Significant difference in the way we conduct business - Significant client service enhancement - Other significant business value benefit

They tend to be bigger projects that provide more value. They take longer and cost more and they tend to be projects that are in the top two layers of the pyramid. Strategic projects have many flavors – just like ice cream. They might include supporting acquisitions of other companies followed by assimilating the technology components of the acquired companies. It might be the automation of an existing process that is highly manual in order to drive costs down by improving employee productivity. It could be replacing a legacy business application system with a more robust software application to meet the needs of your company. There might be an introduction of an entirely new technology and process such as scanning and image retrieval tied to an initiative to eliminate paper and related costs associated with paper in the company.


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Whatever the projects are that are identified as “strategic projects”, their implementation should provide a true return on investment and deliver tangible business value to the company. We will discuss more on how to insure this is the case later. How do you go about determining the list of projects that belong in a strategic IT plan? Very good question! As you conduct an assessment of the business to determine what your IT organization works on, you will identify two distinct groups of issues

A. Business issues and needs of your company’s business units. B. IT issues and needs as you determine your IT organization’s capability and

capacity to support the business. All of these issues will need to be organized into projects and prioritized. Many will be assigned to be worked on immediately to stabilize your environment or deal with urgent situations, , , we call these tactical or immediate projects. Larger projects are the projects that tend to be in the top two layers of the pyramid and will be organized into a strategic IT plan, , , we will discuss exactly how to go about developing one in this book. After your assessment, you should list the projects in order of where they fall into the hierarchy pyramid layers and go after “first things first”. Once you begin implementing your tactical plan for the immediate, short term issues you need to address, you should start developing your strategic plan. As you begin implementing your 30 to 90-day tactical plans to address immediate issues, you learn quite a bit about the company, your situation, and your staff. This insight is extremely valuable as you develop a strategic plan. In this book, I will take you step by step through a process to identify, organize, and develop a strategic IT plan. After you develop your vision, you need to present it to senior management and gain their approval before working on things, , , otherwise there is a very good chance your focus will be out of sync with your company’s need.


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In order to insure you stay in sync with your company’s needs, we will discuss what you need to do in developing an IT strategy document and preparing to present it to your senior management team. Another extremely important part of getting an IT strategy approved by your senior management team is for it to be cost justified and provide tangible benefits for your company. To do this, your strategy must provide business value. What is business value? Business value helps the company in one or more of the following:

� Increase revenue � Decrease cost � Improve productivity � Differentiate the company � Improve client satisfaction

You will learn much more about this as you read through this book. The thing I want to emphasize right now is that everything you do in an IT support organization should provide business value in some form or fashion. If it does not, you need to seriously consider whether it is worth spending time and money on. When you break these items down, you will find that every one of them has a financial component in helping your company be a viable company, , , every single item. The reason you need to focus so much on defining the business value that will be achieved upon implementing your IT strategy is because senior management understands financial information, , , they do not understand technology. Discuss your IT strategy in business value terms and your senior management team will not only listen, , , they will understand what you are saying. It won’t happen if you discuss your strategy in technology terms. Hence, the title of this book and something we will reinforce throughout, , ,

IT Strategy: align your IT vision for business value


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II. Go With What is Appropriate Let’s take two company examples that we will use throughout this publication. Both are small healthcare billing companies and at first glance they look almost identical.

� Both generate $100 million in revenue a year. � Both have approximately 600 clients they provide billing services for. � They are in the same niche of healthcare so they are essentially competitors.

Because they are both relatively small companies and in the same industry segment, you would think that they have similar challenges; so similar that possibly their strategic IT plans would be pretty much the same. Let’s look closer. Company-A has grown by selling new business and has made a significant investment over the years in automating their billing process. Insurance bills are transmitted electronically to insurance companies who pay the healthcare claims Company-A generates. Company-A sends digital files instead of paper claims. As a result of the billing automation investment, the company’s billing and collections department costs the company 3% of revenue, or about $3 million dollars a year. Company-B has an entirely different set of circumstances. This company has grown through acquisition and has made very little progress in automating their billing process. The company also has three separate billing and collections organizations in remote cities using different technologies. The result of this example is that the billing and collections department is costing the company over 6% of revenue because most of the work is done manually with clerical workers processing paper.


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Company-B processes the same dollar amount of bills to insurance carriers for the same type of insurance claims as Company-A, but spends over twice as much in Billing Department expenses to do the job, , , all because Company-A processes paper while Company-B processes electronically. In addition, an insurance carrier can reconcile and pay an electronic bill faster, so Company-A receives payment for its electronic claims an average of 25 days from the time the bill is processed versus Company-B’s 60-day average for its payment derived from paper claims. Not only is the cost lower for Company-A to do the work, , , they get paid much faster. At first glance, you might think there is enough similarity between the two companies to have a similar IT strategy. As you look closer like you would in conducting an IT assessment, you quickly realize that each company has a unique set of circumstances and that they really need completely different IT strategies. Every company situation is different. There is no perfect blueprint available to establish a strategic plan that works for every company. Opportunity, state of the business, and what you have to work with dictate the strategic plan. Let me repeat, , ,


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Of the two companies, which company has the greatest opportunity? Well, they both have opportunity. Company-A has the best opportunity to attack strategic projects that will fine tune the business such as introducing scanning and imaging or workflow processes. Company-B has opportunity everywhere you turn. Just the little bit that I described says this company has a significant opportunity to lower costs through automation. You can reduce the number of people in the Billing Department in at least two ways:

A. Consolidate the three technology platforms and billing processes to one

B. Automate the billing process Additional opportunity comes out of the technology platform consolidation opportunities from prior acquisitions for Company-B. Supporting multiple technologies and multiple billing locations is more expensive and more difficult for the IT department to manage. An aggressive IT manager can probably achieve more visible success faster in Company-B because there is so much needed. The point is that the strategic projects identified for these two very “similar” companies will be completely different because of their “dissimilar” situations. Make sense? Going with what’s appropriate for the company means identifying the projects that make sense for the level of maturity and sophistication that exists in the company and projects that achieve tangible value for the company. It really doesn’t matter that Company-A is further along in the automation of its billing process. What really matters is that you develop an appropriate set of strategic initiatives to help move your company forward based upon your situation. While we’re on this subject, developing a strategic plan that makes sense for your company means it’s a plan that senior management agrees with and will support. One of the worst things an IT manager can do is to start working on projects without gaining an endorsement from senior management. This is often called having an “IT agenda” and is how an “IT-Business Disconnect” occurs. Follow the steps I provide in conducting an IT assessment and what I share in this book about developing and communicating an IT strategy and there is, , ,


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III. Are Proper Foundations in Place? Step back a bit and size up the ability of your company to tackle strategic projects. Before you begin building your strategic plan, you had better fully understand your company’s ability in two areas:

A. IT support capability and capacity B. Non-IT departments ability to absorb change

If you have inherited an IT organization that needs considerable help just to get to a level of providing basic support, then don’t waste your time developing a strategy that goes after significant strategic projects just yet. You’re kidding yourself if you think you will be able to pull them off when your organization can barely crawl. You will need to firm up the IT support components in the bottom three layers of the IT Project Priority Pyramid we discussed first. It’s paddling upstream if you don’t and ultimately you will fail. This is not to say that you shouldn’t start thinking about a long term strategy in your mind. You should, , , just take the time to address basic support needs of your company first. It’s not the glamorous work that everyone wants to work on or that provides the significant benefits to the company, but it is essential for your success. Remember, to run you must walk first and before you walk, you must learn to crawl.


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A. Lay the Foundation First Refer to the IT Project Priority Hierarchy again. Lay solid foundations first.

- Establish your change management processes. - Fill skill gaps in the IT organization. - Create project management disciplines. - Implement client service processes. - Focus on your infrastructure so you have stability and scalability for growth. - Address significant functionality issues in your business applications required

to maintain current business processes.

Then, and only then, are you really well positioned to go for the fun projects laden with opportunity called strategic projects.

What’s a good analogy? In football, you have to block and tackle well before you can introduce intricate pass plays. Players don’t necessarily like the exercise and practice required to get into shape and to develop good fundamentals, but coaches know that all of this is required to be successful. An ability to execute the fundamentals well is the key to success in any organization whether it is a sports team or an IT support organization.

B. Identify Where You Want to Be For days and weeks, possibly months you have been “chomping at the bit” (sorry for the Tennessee slang). You’ve been thinking constantly about what needs to get done and finally, you’re seeing the basic support issues materialize so you’re about ready to develop a true strategy. Now what? You might approach it similar to another part of managing an IT organization that you are probably familiar with. There is a simple approach in designing a programming change request. You always define the output or outcome you want first. Likewise, defining where you want to be should be the first step in developing your strategic plan. How do you go about it?


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To determine where you need your technology resources to be in the future requires you to look at many different components. First, you have to know something about the industry you’re in. Every industry has “success drivers”. We will continue to use the examples of the two healthcare billing companies as we go through this publication to help you visualize key points. In healthcare billing, there is a golden rule that “cash is king”. What this means is that the most important thing you can focus on in IT in this industry niche is to do the things that help the company achieve two objectives:

1. Generate a bill, or invoice, for medical services accurately and submit it as quickly as possible to the insurance payor.

2. Collect as much of what was billed as fast as you can.

In the gasoline convenience store industry, managing accounts payable with your vendors and understanding gasoline sales dynamics is the success driver. To succeed in this industry you must maximize your vendor discounts and manage your gasoline sales effectively. Every industry has key success drivers for optimal profitability. That’s what drives your CEO because he is charged with the viability and financial performance of the company to the ultimate owners, the stockholders.

In most cases, industry success drivers have something to do with technology!

The point is that you need to know what the company’s success drivers are and how technology factors in. Including projects that tap into these success drivers will be important for your IT strategy. Early assessments should have indicated where the “golden eggs” are for strategic initiatives that bring real value to your company. If you’re new to the industry, you must seek out help from others in the company or outside it to learn what the key success drivers are for companies in this industry. Another note is what we have said all along, all companies are different. A key success driver for Company-A healthcare billing company might be a technology innovation that helps differentiate the company from its competition or something that continues to improve productivity in the company. Company-B’s success driver is to start automating some of the billing business. To do this effectively, the company probably needs to consolidate the three technologies and billing centers into one to improve productivity and reduce cost.


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Second, your assessment sessions with senior managers of the company have identified key objectives they are planning. These key objectives might be issues that IT needs to support to position the company for management’s future plans. It never hurts to continue to validate what you’ve heard from the senior managers of the company. Rephrase or summarize your discussions with senior management to validate what you are hearing as well as to insure you can articulate it properly. As you develop in your mind’s eye where you need to be out into the future, you are essentially trying to put a “stake in the ground” concerning several issues:

- Company capabilities that are dependant on technology - Automation opportunities that improve profitability or cash flow - Functional technology gap fillers important for positioning of the company - Opportunities that differentiate the company - IT services required to support the future company - IT organization required to support the new business

A short questionnaire that can help you establish “where you want to be” follows with remarks on each question. A blank form is included in Appendix A.

“Where Do You Want To Be” Questionnaire

1. What is needed in technology to support the company’s growth plans? - If plans are to acquire new companies, you will need IT due diligence

knowledge as well as project management skills for assimilation. You will also need to have infrastructure capability to add large “chunks” of people at a time to your networks.

- If you are adding new software product lines, you may need additional application experts, programming, and support resources.

- If the company is growing rapidly, you will need to anticipate the cost and upgrade issues associated with increased user levels of software licenses.

2. What are needed capabilities to help the company achieve its financial objectives?

- You want to understand the IT expense as a per cent of revenue expected. Rather than being driven by senior management, it’s better for the CIO to understand the dynamics of this number and to drive an expectation with senior management as to what to expect.

- Quantify key internal department needs that help them achieve supportive financial objectives for the company.

- Quantify key initiatives that allow IT and other company departments to support company growth.

- Identify strategies that decrease cost, improve productivity, etc. that will help improve the company’s financial performance.


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3. Identify automation projects that improve the company’s profitability or cash flow. - Quantify all projects that replace manual processes with automated process. - Discussion on ROI (Return on Investment) will come later.

4. What are the projects that can differentiate the company from competitors, or that

create a significant story for investors? - Talk to senior management, step “out of the box”, and concentrate on

concepts that would make you want to buy stock in the company. Things that are innovative, progressive, cost effective, valued by clients, etc. are areas that you’re looking for.

5. Quantify key gaps in IT services or application functionality needed?

- For the company - For internal departments - For external clients - For new sales

6. Are there assimilation opportunities to eliminate redundancy?

- Elimination of redundant technologies - Elimination of duplicate departments - Elimination of duplicate processes

7. Are there key cost leverages in IT?

- Large distributed wide area networks often have cost savings opportunities. - Reviewing long distance phone bills for distributed office environments

usually has cost savings opportunities. - Eliminating organizations that do not compliment a company’s core

competency can have large benefits. - Standardizing equipment purchases might have cost savings.

8. Are there major employee productivity gains through innovation of technology?

- IT quality improvements - Department productivity improvements through automation

9. Can certain improvements eliminate waste, bad debt, or lost sales? - Identify all items that achieve greater profitability

After you finish answering these questions, you should have a good idea about key initiatives that help the company or are needed to position for the future. A good manager always looks out into the future six months to a year or more to anticipate what’s coming around the corner. A seasoned CIO is rarely surprised because he makes it a priority to stay “tuned in” to what’s happening in the company. Last, you must evaluate where you are today, , , read on.


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C. Identify Where You Are Let’s think about the two sample companies again. If you were able to hover above them at 30,000 feet, you could barely see they really have very different situations.

Company-A and Company-B have similar revenues, about the same number of clients, and conduct business in identical industry segments. That’s where the similarities end. Closer observation as we mentioned earlier points out that Company-B has lower profitability, has a billing department that manages the same amount of billing activity with about twice as many people, takes longer to collect it’s accounts receivable, and an IT organization that supports multiple technologies running in different cities. Are you seeing the obvious already? It’s very apparent upon closer inspection that Company-B is starting at a very different place than Company-A. It’s now obvious that the 12-18 month vision for Company-A should be different from Company-B’s strategy. However, consider this. If both companies were at exactly the same starting points (one technology platform and both were highly automated), , , their IT strategies might still be quite different. Yes, that’s right. If two companies are exactly the same but have different managers leading them, the strategic plans will be different. Take a football team and replace only the coach and you will see very different game plans develop. Sure, two different coaches may have similar strategies because of the player skills on the team. Both coaches will take advantage of where their strengths are, but the strategies in using these assets will invariably be somewhat different. Here is another example that I point out in my IT Manager Institute class. Let’s say we have 20 IT managers in the room and all of us have exactly the same information that came out of an IT assessment. Then we list 50 projects from these IT assessment issues that need to be done, , , so everyone has exactly the same projects to work with. Then, we ask the 20 managers to prioritize the list of 50 projects. How many different sets of priorities do you think we will receive, , , even though everyone is working from exactly the same information? That’s right, , , we will have 20 different sets of priorities, , , 20 different strategies. There may be similarities in many, but there will be 20 different approaches to the same situation if we have 20 managers.


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Let’s analyze the two healthcare billing companies a bit further. It might be easier to put them side by side so you can see the differences. Assume the following exists:

Item Company-A Company-B Revenue $100 million $100 million # of clients 600 600 EBITDA* (Operating income) $12 million (12%) $7 million (7%) # of technologies 1 3 # of billing centers 1 3 % of billing that is automated 70% 5% Billing Department expenses $3 million $6 million Average days collection time 25 days 60 days

* EBITDA – earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization When you place the situation details side by side, the objectives for each company begin materializing on the page, don’t they? It may be more difficult to see for Company-A, but the needs for Company-B should look like they are in bold print. Let me help a bit more. Company-A strategy should include increasing the billing automation from 70% to 90% and to start focusing on other areas of automation that can eliminate labor costs. These areas might be in automating the payment process from the insurance carriers or automating other company functions that can leverage (lower) expenses. If the company is about to hit a growth stage, Company-A might want to implement a project that provides online image retrieval to eliminate the cost required to handle and store paper. The point is that Company-A is well positioned to address issues that are not deemed “basic requirements” for creating a productive and profitable work environment. Company-A is in a position to truly refine its business operation. This company is already running! Company-B has a much bigger challenge. This company is barely crawling. Strategy for Company-B has to attack basic issues that are necessary to have a productive and profitable business environment. Electronic billing is key so getting after billing automation is high on the list, but before you do much of this the company needs to begin assimilating the three technologies onto a single platform. IT has plenty of challenge here, , , and opportunity!!


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Yes, Company-B has opportunity written all over it. Company-B can get 4-5% improvement in earnings much easier than Company-A can get an additional 4%. There is quite a bit of “low hanging cost savings fruit” at Company-B.

As you look at “where we are”, you must also revisit your organization’s skills and capabilities, your client needs, and how well you are positioned to handle normal support. Be honest with yourself on this one. You won’t be doing anyone a favor by exaggerating your organization’s capabilities; it just sets you up for failure. If you still have key gaps in the organization, in your infrastructure, or in the company’s business applications, you may want to include in your strategic plan the project components that fill the gaps that are critical to accomplishing your strategic plan. If all of those issues are behind you, great, but they probably won’t be.

In our healthcare company case examples, let me identify the 12-18 month strategic project initiatives I would probably define for each: Company-A

- Improve electronic billing to 90% - Develop electronic payment processes from insurance carriers - Integrate scanning/imaging technology to eliminate onsite paper storage - Position the IT organization for acquisition due diligence and assimilations - Implement an automated report distribution system to reduce paper

Company-B

- Assimilate the 3 technologies to a single platform - Support the consolidation of three billing departments into one - Develop electronic billing for 50% of the business - Implement an automated report distribution system to reduce paper

The point we want to show is that Company-B has basic issues that must be addressed. They are definitely strategic issues but very different than Company-A’s list. Company-B is in catch-up mode. Pressure to move quickly will be higher on the IT staff of Company-B because the immediate need is greater, , , but the upside is that the company will see more progress being made quickly by the IT staff in Company-B because many of their IT initiatives will be quicker to complete and will provide immediate benefit that can be easily seen.


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D. Work Backward or Work Forward? You shouldn’t get hung up on how you proceed in developing a strategic plan. As long as you define clearly where you want to be and you have a good understanding of where you’re starting from, you’ll be all right. We have already accomplished a big part of developing a strategic plan for our sample billing companies – identifying the key initiatives that you need to complete. There hasn’t been any discussion about “running this by senior management” or “what about cost justification” yet. Don’t worry, we will get to both of these points. In all of my publications, I emphasize two points over and over: 1. Insure your plans and objectives are consistent with company needs. 2. Major projects must be cost justified and provide business value. The logical approach here is to list all of the key projects for each strategy initiative. Break them down into as many sub-projects as appropriate. For example, the strategy initiative to add electronic payment processing might be six big programming projects with your six largest insurance carriers summarized into one “Payment Automation Initiative”. This initiative may only achieve a 30% hit rate of all the payments coming into the company, but it’s a major benefit to your company. Your plan should show there are 6 projects in this initiative category of the strategic plan.

When you have a complete list, you will need to organize them into a priority list. I use a simple method to prioritize my list of projects (remember, you may have 50 or more projects) by weighting them High, Medium, or Low. There will be some projects that are required before you work on certain projects in your list. Identify all projects that have a prerequisite project. Prerequisites can exist due to resource constraints or you may require an infrastructure component to be put into place before you can implement a new business application. At this stage, you just want to start visualizing the major steps required to achieve your strategic objectives. Before we get into this too much, the next chapter will give you a short overview of the steps to develop an IT strategy. Then, I’ll come back and we will discuss the details of organizing your projects into a meaningful IT strategy to present to senior management.


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IV. Strategy Development Steps – an Overview

Business value is key so I’ll define it for you again. This list should literally roll off your tongue if I were to ask you to define “business value”. Business value for a company does one or more of the following:

A. Increase revenue B. Decrease cost C. Improve productivity D. Differentiate the company E. Improve client satisfaction

Everything you do in your IT organization should do something to provide business value. If it does not, you are probably working on the wrong things. In this chapter, I want to provide a high level overview of the steps that will take you from walking into the front door of a company to delivering and gaining approval of a strategic IT plan. There are ten steps:

Step 1 - Conduct an IT assessment Step 2 - Quantify the business issues Step 3 - Categorize the issues Step 4 - Group issues into projects Step 5 - Develop high level assumptions for each project Step 6 - Prioritize the projects Step 7 - Summarize projects into high level initiatives Step 8 - Draw a picture and develop your presentation materials Step 9 - Prepare for the presentation Step 10 - Deliver the presentation


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Step 1 - Conduct an IT assessment Details about how to do this are in the book, IT Assessment: the key to IT success. When completed, you will have two sets of issues and needs:

A. Business needs and issues B. IT needs and issues

This information tells you what the demand or need is and what the supply is, , , I.e., your IT resource capability and capacity. Step 2 - Quantify the business issues You may have 150 business needs and issues, , , all legitimate things that IT support needs to focus on at some point in time. You need to list them. Once you know what is needed and what you can do, most managers will use some type of logic to prioritize the work. Step 3 - Categorize the issues Put each issue into a category because it will help you prioritize them. The categories I use are the following:

R Risk O Opportunity

POP Client Service “pop” I All other issues

Sidebar: A Client Service POP is something you hear from several department managers that is a nagging issue or something you identify that will create positive feelings with clients when you address it. Personal Note: In my last company, the recurring theme among all department managers was, , , “When are we getting e-mail?”. It was 1999 and this $100 million dollar company still did not have an email server, , , key managers used AOL accounts but most of the employees did not have e-mail. I identified this as a Client Service POP and made it a high priority which helped my IT team gain many supporters when we delivered e-mail across the enterprise among other things that helped our business. Of the 150 issues you identify, you might have 6 that are Risk, 10 are Opportunities and 4 are Client Service POPs. All 150 items are issues. Risk, Opportunity, and POP issues tend to be higher priority. The 130 issues remaining are simply issues that need to be addressed at some point, , , many of these could also be high priority.


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Step 4 - Group issues into projects Group similar issues into logical work related projects. For example, put several Data Center issues into a group called “Data Center Cleanup Project”. When you look at doing work, several issues in a similar work area can be taken care of in a single project. Grouping issues into work groups will help you when you get to the point of assigning people to work on them. Ultimately, key staff availability will dictate the priority of certain projects. Dealing with 150 issues is too much detail. Grouping and aggregating the issues into projects makes it all much easier to work with. For example, 150 issues might easily boil down into 50 projects or less. Step 5 - Develop high level assumptions for each project In developing an IT strategy, you are working at 30,000 feet, , , you are not working at a detail project planning level at this point. You don’t begin work at “sea level” until the strategy is presented and approved by senior management. However, to gain senior management approval you will have to provide a reasonable amount of information they can digest and evaluate before making a decision. Things like cost estimate, amount of effort, rough timeframe, and benefits to be derived will be needed in your presentation. This information will also help you prioritize the projects. The information you will need to develop your strategy will be:

� Cost estimate � Key resources required � Time estimate � Outside resource needs � Project prerequisites � Key benefits


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Step 6 - Prioritize the projects Using the information you have and your experience, assign a priority to each project. I like to use a High, Medium, and Low weighting system to help me prioritize projects. This step is a very subjective process. I can’t give you a procedure to follow that will always lead to the perfect set of project priorities. There is no such thing. What I can do is provide the logic I use. In conducting an IT assessment, one of the guidelines to identify business issues that your IT support organization needs to address is to look for anything that has an IT support implication in the following areas:

� Stability � Supportability � Scalability � Cost

The details of this are in the book, IT Assessment: the key to IT success. The approach I use is to look at the issues in each project and assign a weighting for the project in total based upon the issues the project will address. You might have a project that includes seven issues, , , look at these issues and determine if the project should be a High, Medium, or Low project for your IT organization to work on. One of the highest priorities for me will be any project that addresses an issue that is a Risk and has a Stability implication. The only reason the project containing such an issue would not be at the top of my priority list is if the cost is just too high for our company to address it right now. We may just have to take the risk for a while. Assign a weight to each project and rank them. Ultimately, you won’t be able to work on everything at the same time so you have to find a way to prioritize your “50” projects, or whatever number you end up with. The “priority formula” I use when assigning a High, Medium, or Low weight to projects is the following:

� High risk with stability implications at the very top (One exception, , , the cost is too much)

� High risk, low cost � Client Service “POPs” with low cost and low effort � Big opportunity with low cost and low effort � Other risk issues � Other opportunity and Client Service “POP” issues � All other issues that need to be addressed


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Step 7 - Summarize projects into high level initiatives Fifty projects is still too much detail to discuss in a strategy meeting with your senior managers. You will probably have an hour or so and there is much to talk about. Avoid your tendency to provide too much detail and pull your presentation up to 30,000 feet. Summarize your project list into six to eight project initiatives and discuss at the initiative level. For example, group four or five projects that are Infrastructure related into an initiative called Infrastructure Upgrade and discuss them at this higher level. Your senior managers do not need nor want to know all the detail. Step 8 - Draw a picture and develop your presentation materials Develop a high level visual of your strategic plan along with background material to use in your presentation to senior management. I’ll give you a sample later in this book.

Step 9 - Prepare for the presentation Don’t even think about delivering your strategy recommendations if you are not prepared, , , it will be a disaster. Review your materials to insure they are accurate and will provide the key points to support your strategy recommendations. Also, anticipate questions and discussion points so you can be clear and precise when answering them. Step 10 - Deliver the presentation Your objective is simple:

� Ensure senior management realizes your recommendations are driven by business need.

� Create awareness and understanding of what is in the plan and quantify the business value results to be achieved.

� Gain agreement and commitment to the plan.


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I’m a big believer in using visual images to help discuss an issue. Below is a visual representation of the steps we just went through to develop a strategic IT plan.

It all starts with an IT assessment to determine what the issues are and what your IT organization can do. The process steps culminate with a high level IT strategy document you will use to present your strategy recommendations. In the assessment you learn quite a lot of detail. Getting to a strategy is about translating and summarizing the detail into a meaningful presentation that makes sense to your senior management team without losing the substance of the work at hand. From this point forward, we will assume you have done the assessment work and you have defined the projects needed to address the business issues you have identified.


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V. Define Key Milestones (Major Projects)

In Chapter III, we identified the major project initiatives for our two sample companies. We will work with each list and develop an IT strategy for each company. In addition, an actual strategic plan that I presented to senior management of a similar company is included in Chapter XV to provide additional insight in developing and presenting an IT strategy. Let’s start with Company-A. Company-A is a more mature business with opportunity to refine its operation. The key initiatives identified earlier are:

- Improve electronic billing from 70% to 90% - Develop electronic payment processes from insurance carriers - Integrate scanning/imaging technology to eliminate onsite paper storage - Position the IT organization for acquisition due diligence and assimilations - Implement an automated report distribution system to reduce paper

Once you determine what the key project initiatives are, you need to break them down into the major projects that it will take to do the job. Developing the major project list for Company-A initiatives creates the following:

1. Improve electronic billing to 90% (20% more) A. Clearinghouse X interface (Achieves 12%) B. Payor Y interface (Achieves 6%) C. Payor Z interface (Achieves 4%)

Note: A clearinghouse is an organization made up of member insurance companies. If there are 50 Insurance Payor members in a clearinghouse, you create electronic payments from up to 50 insurance companies with one programming interface.

2. Electronic payment initiative

A. Clearinghouse A payment interface (Achieves 18%) B. Clearinghouse B payment interface (Achieves 11%)

3. Scanning and imaging initiative

4. Position IT for acquisition & assimilations

5. Automated report distribution initiative

A. P&L distribution B. Revenue reports distribution

Company-A has eight to ten key projects required to complete these five initiatives. We will discuss how to arrive at these when we look at Company-B.


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Major projects for Company-B strategy initiatives Company-B is a less mature operation and has several basic issues that need to be addressed. Remember, this company is crawling, , , not running like Company-A. Because of the lack of automation, multiple technology platforms and the three billing department operations, this company’s strategic projects list is very different Company-B strategic initiatives identified are:

- Assimilate the 3 technologies to a single platform - Support the consolidation of three billing departments into one - Develop electronic billing for 50% of the business - Implement an automated report distribution system to reduce paper

As a manager, don’t let the size of the list concern you one way or another. A small list like Company-B has may be significantly more challenging than an organization that has a dozen or more key projects to complete. Often, young managers view having many projects on their list as a sign of larger responsibility. The real issue is to generate results that have positive impact for the company. A single project may offer more value and require more effort than a dozen or more projects. The next step with Company-B is to break each major initiative into the projects required to achieve the initiative. Assimilating 3 technologies to a single technology platform is obviously not one project; it’s two projects. Most likely, you will not do these projects at the same time. Each of the technologies to be assimilated will have unique issues, such as:

- Database differences - Different support approaches (company owned support

organizations or outside vendors) - Hardware and network platforms - Different business applications capabilities, potentially

critical for keeping a large client The second initiative is to support the consolidation of the billing departments into one. This goes hand in hand with the consolidation of the technology platforms into one platform, , , the technology needs to be in place first. Once the billing department begins merging their three organizations into one, there will be IT support requirements such as office relocations, moving people, etc. The IT organization must work closely with the billing department managers to know what to expect and to support this activity effectively. This may be several projects staged at different intervals. For our purpose, we assume it is two “relocation projects”.


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The third initiative is to develop electronic billing to achieve 50% automation. This will likely be more than one project and may take a year or more to complete all of them. Insurance companies (Payors) have different electronic billing requirements so several interface programs will need to be written. The company might be able to use a billing clearinghouse to facilitate electronic billing for dozens of insurance payors, , , I.e., one interface program delivers electronic bills to many Insurance Payors through the clearinghouse. If so, Company-B will want to develop these interfaces first to leverage their efforts and go faster. In our example, we assume there are 5 programming projects required to achieve 50% billing automation. And finally, implementing a company automated report distribution project will be a project just like the one identified for Company-A. It will consist of two components. We will implement a tool to automate the distribution of month-end Profit and Loss Statements (P&L’s) to department heads and a separate project to distribute billing revenue reports to the billing managers. This initiative will eliminate printing, handling, and distribution of targeted paper reports and will benefit the company quite a bit by improving productivity and reducing cost. Managers will receive their reports automatically with an e-mail attachment. Let’s summarize the projects for Company-B:

1. Technology assimilation initiative A. Technology #1 conversion B. Technology #2 conversion

2. Support billing department consolidation

A. Merge billing operation #1 B. Merge billing operation #2

3. Billing automation initiative (Total objective – 50% automation) A. Clearinghouse #1 (70 Payors achieving 22% of billing) B. Clearinghouse #2 (35 Payors achieving 12% of billing) C. Major Payor A (Achieves 6% of billing) D. Major Payor B (Achieves 6% of billing) E. Major Payor C (Achieves 4% of billing)



As you look at the list you can see that there are four major initiatives consisting of 11 key projects. As you work to define your specific strategy steps, you may discover there are more projects to include.


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VI. Identify Prerequisites

In order to determine the appropriate priority for each key project, there are many variables to consider, , , things like:

- Risk and opportunity - Employee availability to work on the project - Cost - Other projects that must be completed first

Often there are things that must be completed before you can start a project, , , they are called prerequisites. You need to identify any prerequisites for each key project in your list as they can force the structure and timing of when you do things within your strategy. Projects will often compete for the same resources. These resources might be dollars, IT staff, client/department knowledge expert involvement, etc. A project can also be dependent upon other projects being completed before you can focus on it. Needless to say, there are many issues that can potentially become a prerequisite for a project. It’s also safe to say that as you quantify prerequisites for your major projects, you might identify more project work, costs, and staff requirements. Let’s look at Company-A prerequisites The prerequisites I identify for each of the major project initiatives in Company-A are: Increase Electronic Billing to 90% initiative

- Negotiate contracts with Clearinghouse X and targeted Payors Electronic Payment initiative

- Negotiate a contract with the two Clearinghouses Scanning and imaging initiative

- Purchase scanning equipment and software - Upgrade the network infrastructure to support additional volumes

Position the IT organization for acquisitions and assimilations

- Hire additional staff to work on technology conversions - Train new staff

Automated report distribution initiative

- Purchase software license and any equipment required - Train 2 IT technical resources on use and setup of the software


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Let’s identify Company-B prerequisites. The Technology assimilation initiative for Company-B has several prerequisites. Have you already started listing them? Here is a short list of prerequisites you should look for when you prepare to convert technology to a different platform. A good starting list is:

- Upgrade key application servers to handle additional data volumes - Upgrade software licenses as needed to support additional users - Upgrade network to support additional users - Identify technical and department resources to work on assimilation projects

From this list, two new projects just materialized:

- Upgrading the key application servers - Upgrading the network for the additional data and user connections

Both of these prerequisites are actually projects and require time, money, and resources to complete. The specifics of these things contribute to how much effort the technology assimilation initiative will take and how much it will cost. We just added two more projects to the key projects list for Company-B.

The point is that identifying key project prerequisites gives you additional information that will help, , , or possibly even force the timing of when you do certain things. The Billing automation initiative has a prerequisite as well. For example, before you do work with a claims clearinghouse, you must have a firm contract. Getting this done may take some time so plan on the lead time to get it accomplished. Remember, this is just a quick example so you can see how to develop a strategy, , , I make some assumptions and it is not necessarily comprehensive, , , just an example. Let me explain a bit more. When we get to Chapter X – Draw the Strategic Plan Overview, we will not show the Billing automation initiative prerequisite about getting a contract signed with the Clearinghouse, , , it isn’t necessary for our strategy presentation. However, it is very important to know that the lead time to complete a contract might have a bearing on when you can start the project. The bottom line is that you need to know if there are any prerequisites for any of the key projects you plan to put into your IT strategy.


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Let me give you another example of something that can force the timing of a project. This isn’t a prerequisite but it will help you see that there are many factors that dictate when you can do things, , , and all of these issues lead to the definition of your strategy and the timing of events.

Let’s assume you are Company-B and have three billing technologies due to company acquisitions and two of these “duplicate” systems need to be eliminated so users can be on the same technology platform. The timing of when you eliminate one technology versus the other can be influenced by the software license. Also assume that to discontinue either software license you must give the external vendors a 90-day notice, , , otherwise the software automatically renews on its annual anniversary date.

If you must give a vendor their 90-day notice in the next 30 days due to the anniversary date of the license, you may not have enough time to complete the conversion in the timeframe you would have before the license goes away. On the other hand, if you have 180 days before you need to give the vendor their 90-day termination notice, you have plenty of time to complete a software conversion project. Granted, there are more variables, , , you might be able to get a short term software license extension or negotiate something with the vendor that gives you more time. Stability of each software application, cost to support the software, and functionality also plays a part when you evaluate which software conversion project to do first. The point is that even the software license anniversary date can influence the timing of when you start the conversion project. What you should be gaining an appreciation for is prerequisites and other variables can have a major impact and influence on when you do things. This is why you must spend time to understand the dynamics of the projects within each strategy initiative. Hopefully, this helps you better understand the process that will lead you to the creation of your strategic plan.


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Let’s summarize the prerequisites I’ve identified for Company-B project initiatives: Assimilate the 3 technologies to a single platform

- Upgrade key application servers to handle additional volumes - Upgrade software licenses as needed to support additional users - Upgrade network to support additional users - Identify technical and department resources to work on assimilation projects

Support the consolidation of three billing departments into one

- Identify billing department consolidation plans - Convert billing technology applications - Identify and take care of user relocation preparation tasks - Order and install new equipment as needed

Develop electronic billing for 50% of the business

- Establish contracts with clearinghouses and identified Insurance Payors - Identify programming, business analyst to work on the projects - Identify billing department knowledge expert resource to work on the projects

Implement an automated report distribution system to reduce paper

- Purchase software license - Purchase and installation of a new server for the company’s network - Train 2 IT technical resources

We now know the strategic initiatives, the major projects required to achieve each initiative, and the key prerequisites for each major project. We are well on our way toward mapping out an IT strategy for each of our sample companies.


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VII. Quantify Needs for Each Strategic Project

The next step is to estimate requirements for each project in terms of: - Staff - Budget - Other resources

Ultimately, you will have the opportunity to present your strategy to your senior management team. When you do, a major question that will come up is, , ,

There are two choices you have in how to approach this issue. The personality of your senior management team and your particular comfort level in dealing with cost justifying your recommendations will determine which method you will probably use. To most executives, it’s preferable to look at the entire strategy and to gain a feeling for the entire cost as it relates to the overall benefits of your strategic plan. Some executives prefer to look at each individual project and to cost justify each project on it’s own merits. I call this “cherry picking”. This approach can work, but I will tell you that it is much more difficult and in most cases does not work very well. I highly recommend you try to keep the discussion of cost at a level for the entire strategy, , , not at a more detail level of discussing the cost of each project. Here is why. When you deliver an IT strategy, you have not yet developed detail project plans unless your senior management team requires you to work at this level in order to review your recommendations, , , and most will not. Delivering an IT strategy is more of making recommendations about what you think your IT organization should work on based upon your assessment of the business and technology resources of the company. It is much more of communicating your vision and roughly what it will cost and the effort required. An IT strategy recommendation is a high level discussion, , , 30,000 feet. Once the strategy is approved, , , then you move into detail project planning mode.


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This does not mean you can simply guess the cost of the entire strategy. In order to have reasonable knowledge about your IT strategy cost, you will have to estimate each of the key projects in your strategy to some extent. An estimate takes a few minutes, , , not hours to identify every single cost item and gain the specifics. That would be a waste of time at this point unless your senior managers require precise project cost estimates when you present your strategy. When senior management finally sees your strategic plan, it really should be no surprise. It should be a confirmation of what they have been hearing from you in bits and pieces but now presented in a manner that pulls it all together. Let’s look at one of our sample companies and estimate the staff, budget, and other resources required for each project. I’ll do this for Company-A, , , no need to show you the same thing for both companies.

A. Staff As you look at staffing requirements, you need to assume a project manager is assigned to each project to insure the project is completed on time and within budget. The project manager function can often be handled by one of the project team members. In many of the project initiatives for Company-A, you will see that I assume the project management (PM) function is handled by a business analyst. Also, a project manager might be able to handle more than one project depending upon his skill and the size and scope of the projects. If a project manager is leading multiple projects, it is worth estimating a percentage of his cost for each of his projects. Remember, you want to develop a staffing estimate in just a few minutes to reach a reasonable cost estimate for staffing the projects. We may not yet know who will actually work on the projects or specific dates but we can estimate the cost and length of time the resources will work on the projects to arrive at an estimated staffing cost. Do not spend hours of time to do this, , , a reasonable estimate is what is needed. You may have to fight your tendency to be precise and accurate. Until the strategy is approved, you do not want to spend lots of time to be precise. After your strategy is approved, then you will assign people responsibility to develop detail project plans for each of your key projects.


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Let’s take a look at staff required to implement the key project initiatives for Company-A. Company-A staff requirements

1. Improve electronic billing to 90% - 1 business analyst (PM, design, and quality assurance (QA)) - 1 senior programmer - 1 Billing Department billing specialist

2. Electronic payment initiative

- 1 business analyst (PM, design, and QA) - 1 senior programmer - 1 Billing Department payment specialist

3. Scanning and imaging initiative

- 1 project manager - 2 programmers - 1 business analyst - Department leaders to define requirements and for QA - 1 senior network infrastructure specialist

4. Position IT for acquisition & assimilations

- CIO or designated senior IT manager to take responsibility - 1 senior programmer - 1 business analyst - 1 business applications trainer - 1 senior network infrastructure specialist Note: These resources may not be needed until an acquisition occurs and you are actually going to assimilate the acquired company’s technology.


- 1 senior programmer - 1 business analyst (PM, design, and QA) - 1 senior network infrastructure specialist

If you can, identify specific people by name who will be needed for each project. The reason is that people availability can influence, even dictate the timing of when you work on certain projects. A key challenge you have in creating an IT strategy is to develop the timeline for your strategy initiative projects and organize them in a way that it all works, , , staffing availability is usually a constraint that you have to play around with.


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B. Budget Staffing is usually the largest cost of a project so that’s why we focused on it first. When looking at the rest of a project budget, senior management typically wants to know the following for the total IT strategy:

- Capital cost (one-time purchases of equipment, software, etc.) - Project costs - Ongoing incremental operational costs after the project - Timing of major cash expenditures - Completion timeframe - Savings and timing of the savings - Payback timeframe (Return on Investment timeframe) - Risks

In order to be fully prepared, develop a summary spreadsheet that shows each project’s estimated costs and a total for the entire plan. Senior management may ask about possibilities of eliminating certain parts of your strategic plan. Developing this spreadsheet can help you gain a better understanding of each component of your strategy and appreciation of the dependencies and interconnection of the projects. A sample Budget Summary for Company-A projects is shown below. A blank form is included in the Appendix.

Company-A IT Strategy Projects – Budget Summary

Project Project Cost Ongoing Ops Cost Capital Cost ROI

Billing automation $120,000 $0 $0 8 months average

Clearinghouse X $40,000 $0 $0 8 months Payor Y $40,000 $0 $0 8 months Payor Z $40,000 $0 $0 8 months

Payment automation $90,000 $0 $0 6 months average

Clearinghouse A $60,000 $0 $0 6 months Clearinghouse B $30,000 $0 $0 6 months Scanning & imaging $180,000 $2,000/month $200,000 15 months Report distribution $30,000 $500/month $80,000 12 months Position for acquisition $0 $0 $0 na

TOTAL $420,000 $2,500/month $280,000 .


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C. Other Resources I mentioned earlier that many things influence the timing of when you work on a project. As you get closer to the part of putting the project timelines together to structure your strategy, you need to think through all kinds of variables. Anticipate any significant requirements of each project, especially if there is a tangible cost associated with it, , , things like:

- Outside contractors - Part-time or temporary staff resources - Administrative help (internal and external) - Legal assistance - Senior management involvement - Department knowledge expert resources - Facility needs - Systems needs - Software license upgrades - Human Resources - Vendor resources - Supplies - Travel - Training - Contract terms, especially termination notice requirements


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VIII. Identify the Critical Path

What’s the shortest distance between two points? In the technology world, it may not be a straight line. Senior management wants the strategy accomplished as quickly as possible, as inexpensively as you can, and with no risk once they have signed up for it. We have just identified three needs of senior management that conflict with each other. Going faster usually introduces higher risk and cost. Going slower usually has higher cost and longer payback time. Cutting cost potentially adds risk. You want to achieve a balance. Seasoned senior managers would usually prefer a little more cost if it mitigates significant risk or allows a project offering significant business value to move faster. There are no hard and fast rules here. Much depends upon the personality of your senior management team, especially the CEO and CFO. Considerations of the business needs, competitive pressures, and other outside forces also have to be taken into consideration. As you start developing the critical path, you’re looking for the optimal way to organize all of your projects that you’ve identified into an overall plan that allows your strategy to be completed with some assurance. In other words, you want to recommend a plan you are fairly certain you can deliver, , , and deliver it on time and within budget.

“Wait just a minute!”, you say. We haven’t done any real detail project planning work yet, , , how can we be confident we can deliver the strategy on time and within budget? That’s a great point.


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When you recommend your strategy, the timing you talk about is not in precise months. It is more of an estimated time to complete key project initiative, , , like 6 to 9 months. It’s an estimate, not an exact timeframe, , , remember, , , we are still at 30,000 feet. Same thing with budget. Maybe your total strategy is a $1.2 to $1.5 million dollar strategy. You will get more precise when you do the detail project planning work. Most senior managers are comfortable with rough estimates when they first hear an IT strategy recommendation, , , you are still in concept mode and trying to validate that what you propose is an appropriate set of projects to work on to support the business. Once everyone agrees you are on the right track and that your strategy is appropriate for the business your team can develop the detail plans. Senior management will tell you if they need more precise information in order to approve the recommendations you make. In my experience, most will probably agree with your recommendation. Prerequisites, key resource dependencies, availability of cash, and other challenges have to be taken into consideration as you determine an appropriate path. An approach that can help you determine the critical path of several projects is to develop a visual Project Dependencies matrix of all the projects in your strategy. Beside each project name, identify other projects or prerequisite issues. List the dollar requirements and the resource requirements as well. Here is an example using Company-A projects:

Company-A IT Strategy – Project Dependencies

Project Prerequisites Other Project Dependencies

Key Resources Required Cost

Billing automation $120,000 Clearinghouse X Contract Bob Smith Payor Y Contract C’house X Bob Smith Payor Z Contract C’house X Bob Smith Payment automation $90,000 Clearinghouse A Contract Nancy Jones Clearinghouse B Contract C’house A Nancy Jones

Scanning & imaging

Software Server

Scanners Juke box drives

Network upgrade

Bill Anderson Jane Bell $380,000

Report distribution Bill Anderson $110,000 Position for acquisition TBD


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Being able to see a high level of each project’s issues can help you develop a first cut of the timeline you think the projects can take. After listing the project variables in the matrix, you can go back through the project list and place each one into a timing phase and organize the projects into logical groups. I’m sure this is probably “clear as mud”. Let’s step through an example by looking at three parts of the strategic initiative projects we identified for Company-B, and in the next chapter we will develop a timeline. Company-B critical path

1. Technology assimilations initiative A. Technology 1 B. Technology 2 C. Technology 3 (assumes the company acquires another company) Note: I added a 3rd Technology assimilation project to show you how you might include a project that doesn’t exist yet. Putting this in the IT strategy helps senior management visualize future activity and know you are considering it.

2. Billing automation initiative

A. Clearinghouse #1 B. Clearinghouse #2 C. Major Payor A D. Major Payor B E. Major Payor C



A few assumptions have to be made in order to develop a critical path. We will assume that separate technical resources are available to work on each of the three groups of projects, but the same team has to work on all projects within a group. In other words, the Technology assimilations initiative is not dependant upon either of the other two initiatives, but both of the assimilation projects have to be worked on sequentially because the same team will implement each project within this group. This is also why I showed the 3rd Technology assimilation project. The IT organization is not positioned to assimilate a new company acquisition until the current two projects are completed unless we staff another team. Including a 3rd project “if we acquire another company” shows senior management when IT is positioned to support another merger.


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Another assumption we will make is that the company has the money and can afford the to spend the money whenever IT needs it. In the real world, you might have to stage certain high dollar projects and start them when the dollars are available. We also assumed that none of the project initiative groups on Company-B’s list is a prerequisite for any of the other initiatives. So, for our Company-B example, we assume that we can begin all three initiative project groups at the same time because separate teams will work on them and none of the project groups are prerequisite to the others. The critical path of our strategic plan for Company-B will be the path for each individual initiative group of projects. This turns out to be a pretty simple strategic plan as you might expect but should help you follow the process in creating a timeline. We will map these projects onto a timeline estimate in the next chapter. Hopefully, you can see that if a project is a prerequisite for another project or if there are personnel dependencies to start a project, you adjust the project’s timeline to work within the constraints you have. You will probably have to play with the timelines to get all your projects to work out so start with a rough draft and fine tune it as you go. What I usually do is create a simple spreadsheet and list the projects in the first row and include 24 monthly columns or whatever number you think you need for the work you will be doing. Then, start blocking out the cells for each of your projects based upon their estimated length of time to complete and their start dates based upon prerequisites and other considerations. Here is a quick example. We will do this specifically for our two sample companies in the next chapter.

IT Strategy – Project Timelines Project 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Proj-A Proj-B Proj-C Proj-D


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IX. Define Project Timeframes

Keep it simple. Go through your list of projects and define a logical timeframe that you should be able to work on each project. My approach has always been to break time down into 3-month or 6-month phases, depending upon how far out you’re planning for. Let’s look a bit closer. For a 24-month period of time, you can break the time into eight 3-month segments. Another note is that when you develop a strategic plan, let the projects dictate the timeframe rather than creating a timeframe.

What I mean by this is the time required to complete the projects becomes the strategy timeframe, , , don’t take 24 months and try to force fit everything into an artificial timeframe. Force fitting projects into a desired timeframe only sets you up for failure.

As we look at the phases for a 24-month timeframe window shown above, we know in the back of our minds that when we complete filling in the projects we need to do for our strategy, the overall timeframe may extend out several months or shrink.

Company-B estimated project timeframes As we look at the projects Company-B is going to pursue, we decided earlier that there are no real dependencies other than projects in the same initiative group have to be performed one at a time. We also stated that work in all three initiative groups can take place at the same time since there are no real conflicts to prevent it. One simple approach is to take each major project and estimate the length of time it will take to complete the project. Place the first project of an initiative group into a starting “slot” or phase of your timeline. Build in some buffer to insure it’s completed on time and then add the second project to begin immediately behind it.


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Always build a bit of time and budget buffer into your plan. There is a “golden rule” in managing an IT organization:

Things can go wrong and there will be surprises to come up along the way. To create a track record of always meeting your plan, you have to build in time and budget buffer for contingencies that are ultimately needed. Because we are at 30,000 feet as we prepare an IT strategy, you may want to include even more buffer. Even so, do enough work to develop reasonable time and budget estimates. To estimate a 3-month project to take 8 months is just as bad as estimating you can do it in 1 month. In the Company-B example, we will make some assumptions and estimate the time required for each project type within a strategic initiative group as follows. Here is what I would estimate Company-B projects to take:

- Assimilate a technology -- 4 months (Some will go faster and some may take longer depending upon how much has to be done.)

- Develop a billing interface program with a 3rd party -- 3 months - Automated report distribution project -- 2 months

At this point, we are just trying to identify general estimates of time so we know how long to schedule a project on a timeline. If you have more specific insights, you should take it into consideration when plotting the time.


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Plotting the timelines for Company-B projects in a perfect world would look something like the following: Wow, we’re going to achieve all of this in 15 months!! Not so fast. Yes, in a perfect world where a project that should take 3 months actually does take 3 months, you would complete your strategic plan in 15 months. The problem is we don’t live in a perfect world. Things happen and when you encounter a surprise in IT, it always seems to require more time, more money, , , or both. Also, there is no automation already developed for Company-B, so you are going to go slower in your first project due to learning curves. Because we know there is no “perfect world”, you better have some room for problems and surprises that are bound to occur. Experience will show that reaching an objective on or before the expected date is usually not a problem. Arriving consistently late is definitely going to be a problem.


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So, my recommendation for our working example is to build room for the unexpected problems that will occur. Based upon what we have defined for Company-B, my project timelines would be adjusted by adding buffer as shown below:

As you can see, I extended the timeframe for the projects in every group. In the Technology Assimilations Group, I allocated extra time for the first project because this will be the first assimilation project for our staff and there is a learning curve that we need to think about. I also extended the two later projects by a third in case we have unexpected challenges. Part of this is just from my experience in assimilating technologies. At this point when you really don’t know what the specific programming issues will be for each of the technology assimilations, it’s better to add buffer to be safe than to set everyone’s expectations on an aggressive assimilation program you might not be able to meet. With the Report Distribution Initiative, I make an assumption that after we complete the first project, the second one will go pretty quickly. Again, I built in some learning curve time in the first project. With this simple timeline graphic, you can see how all the projects and the major initiatives line up. This will make it much easier for senior managers to understand and visualize when you present your strategy.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

3 months 6 months 9 months 12 months 15 months 18 months 21 months 24 months

Technology 1 Technology 2 Technology 3

CH #1 CH #2 Payor A Payor B Payor C

RA #1 RA #2

Preliminary Timeline for Company-B with buffer built in

Technology Assimilations Initiative

Billing Automation Initiative

Automated Report Distribution Initiative


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A big part of estimating project timeframes and budgets is based upon your experience. It’s as much an art as it is a science. If you have considerable experience with a particular type of project and the team that will do the work, you can be more aggressive in your estimations. What I mean by “more aggressive” is that you can be more precise and probably don’t need to buffer your estimates as much. If you don’t have a lot of experience, you better allow plenty of room. That’s not to say you should go overboard when adding buffer to your estimates. You need to be reasonable as I mentioned before. The other thing I should say to this is that if you estimate a project to be six months and discover you can do it in four months, , , then you should manage the project in a way to complete it in four months.

If you don’t have the experience in a particular project, seek out information from other senior IT managers or outside your company with CIO’s who have successfully accomplished similar projects, , , take advantage of their experience and knowledge. Another way is to spend additional time in working with your team to analyze a project in order to come up with a reasonable work estimate. We will put Company-A’s timeline together in the next chapter.


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X. Draw the Strategic Plan Overview

It’s time to put your plan on paper. My preference and recommendation is to create a picture. Everyone says, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” It’s especially true when you present an IT strategy to a senior management team. Many of your senior management team members are probably not very technically oriented. Some of the concepts you talk about may not be easily understood by many of them, and the better your presentation is understood the more likely it will be endorsed.

As you build your strategic picture, always remember to “net it out”, , , keep it short and to the point, , , executives want bullet points, not paragraphs. While the main presentation is kept at a high level and to the point, nothing says you can’t or shouldn’t have detailed backup available to use if needed.


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A lot depends upon your audience. Some CEO’s and CFO’s want more detail than others, but most aren’t very technical. On the other hand, your senior manager may be the CIO of your company and want considerably more detail, , , and he might have a strong technical background. The approach you take and the amount of detail you include depends upon the personality of your particular senior management team. Invest some time to get to know what they like to see and try to accommodate their needs. Let’s assume your IT strategy presentation will be to the CEO and CFO. Before you start putting your strategy on paper, step back a second and put yourself in your CEO’s shoes. Most CEO’s have a consistent set of needs that goes like this:

- “Give me the answer.” - “Don’t provide too much detail”. - “What are the major benefits?” - “How much does it cost?” - “What are the risks?” - “If we don’t do this, what are the implications?”

Lean toward a short and concise presentation and have sufficient detail to back up your points, and you should do well. A big mistake can be made if you assume your senior managers need lots of detail. If you aren’t sure, I would probably err on being too brief than to provide too much detail.

Personal note: Early in my management career I made a presentation to my CEO and the President of our company where I recommended a network upgrade to support our growing business. It was unfortunate that I fed the CEO lots of technical information. He quickly showed signs of being in a bit of pain. Being astute and quick to respond I concluded I wasn’t giving him enough detail, , , so I laid on more detail.

After a few minutes my CEO stops me, leans over to the President of our company and says, “Get with Mike and just tell me what we need to do.” My poor CEO was in real pain because I was giving him pain with all the technology detail. This was a very valuable lesson early in my career. Most CEO’s just want the answer, , , they will ask you questions if they need more information from you.


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The main thing about delivering an effective strategy presentation is to ‘be prepared’. Drawing a picture for your audience will smooth the way as it will help everyone visualize your points more easily and understand how components fit together. So, let’s draw the pictures for our two example companies. We have almost completed it for Company-B. We only need to polish it up a bit.

As you look at the final presentation graphic for Company-B, notice that I tweaked the timing of the projects a bit more. I overlap the start of some projects as we “gear up” while the preceding project is winding down. Another piece to notice is that we show 6-month segments in the image rather than the 3-month segments we showed earlier. It helps you better understand the dynamics of your projects to look at the lower level of detail, but when you present to your CEO you want to keep it at a high level unless you know he wants the detail. The simpler you can make it the better.


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One final part I recommend is to label your projects A1, A2, A3, etc. as you see in the timeline image. You can also color code the labels to help differentiate the projects for each initiative group. When you develop a more complex presentation, it helps when you’re discussing the projects to be able to focus the discussion to a specific part of the plan. There are dozens of ways to approach a presentation and be effective. This is just one method I have used successfully for many years. You may also want to include a Summary Benefits and Cost Estimates section with your timeline. I don’t always do this but it can definitely be helpful. Including the number of months it takes to pay for the project and the key benefits provides senior managers additional information to assess whether your strategy is worth going after. Below is a sample of what this would look like for three of Company-A’s initiatives.

IT Strategy Summary Benefits and Cost Estimates

Initiative Estimated Cost Major Benefits ROI

A. Technology assimilations $460,000

- Standard operations - IT savings - $70k/mo - Positions consolidation of Billing Dept.

18 months

B. Billing automation $170,000

- Reduce Billing Dept. cost by $2.2 million annually - Improve cash flow by 30 days

14 months

C. Automated report distribution $110,000

- Saves $1500/month in FEDEX & postage expenses - Streamlines operations for growth - Positions company for new client sales via software feature enhancement

20 months

Total cost $740,000


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Below is a sample strategic plan timeline for Company-A. In this one I assume the continuation of the Billing automation initiative will begin after we complete the two Electronic payment initiative projects. The most likely reason to do this would be one of the following:

- The Electronic payment initiative projects deliver more cost savings - The same programming resource is needed for both sets of projects

Summary Benefits and Cost Estimates - Company-A Example Initiative Estimated Cost Major Benefits


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Once you complete a high level picture of your strategic plan, assemble all of your materials and prepare for the presentation. The next chapter titled Present the Plan will go into objectives of the presentation. For now, you need to finalize your preparation for the meeting. Three things you should do to prepare for your strategy meeting are:

1. Revisit your strategic picture and verify you have all the key issues covered. Recall your assessment interviews with senior management and department managers and ask yourself, “Have I included all of major issues and needs that take care of today’s challenges and position the company for the future?” If not, you can still add components you think will come up in the meeting.

2. Prepare enough detail on each individual project that can back up your

numbers (cost, benefits, and timing assumptions). You don’t have to be exact at this point, but you do need to have reasonable estimates and justification.

Think about the questions for each major project initiative you would ask if you were the CEO or CFO and had to pay for the project. Questions like:

- “Are the benefits worth the cost?” - “What is the business value for this project?” - “Should we implement this project at this time?” - “Are there additional issues we should have IT focus on?” - “Is there downside or risk by not doing this project or initiative?”

The handout information you should consider using includes:

- Strategic Plan Overview (your 30,000-foot picture) - Project summaries that include more detail cost and savings

estimates. (Note: you will see samples of both of these items in the next chapter.)

3. Develop an opening presentation and key discussion points to help you

deliver a concise and professional presentation. You may only have an hour.

Keep your presentation “net” and to the point. Having a presentation guide handy will help you be at ease and better prepared. It also helps you pull the group back into focus as needed when the meeting tends to move into problem solving discussions rather than focusing on the strategy. The purpose of your meeting is not to solve each challenge in the meeting. Instead, it is to present to management your recommendations of where you think the IT organization should be focused to support the company. I promise, you will not solve your company challenges in this meeting!


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XI. Present the Plan

Here comes the fun part. You may not think so but assuming you have done your homework and you have developed a logical, benefit oriented vision for IT support, , , your presentation should go fine. The first rule as you go into this meeting is this: If your senior managers do not agree with your recommendations, it’s ok. Don’t take it personal. Your job is to assess your company situation and make a recommendation to senior management as to how you think IT should be focused to support the company. Senior management has the right and obligation to challenge you, question your recommendations, , , even to disagree with you. After all, they have to decide if this is the best place to spend their IT investment. At the end of the day, everyone is on the same team and we all want the company to succeed, , , so one more time, , ,

If you have kept close contact with these managers and have made it your business to understand their needs and issues, you should have no problem in presenting your perspective in solving them. I’ve always found it easier to manage other manager expectations when I’m leading the conversations versus when they are asking me to provide input on their problem. For this reason, I urge you to be proactive and schedule this IT strategy meeting as soon as you can, but not before you’re ready. If you go into a strategy meeting that you scheduled with a good handle on what the major challenges are and you have a strategic initiative to address each of them, , , with business value benefits identified, , , with estimated costs, , , and with an approximate timing of execution - - - - believe me, you are in the driver’s seat. Most of your counterparts are not this proactive. Most IT managers deliver strategic plans only when requested of them. No way are you in charge when senior management asks you to develop a strategic plan.


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There are essentially 4 things you want to achieve in an IT strategy meeting: 1. Establish the objectives of your strategic plan. 2. Define a high level return on investment and key benefits of the plan. 3. Validate with the management team that the plan is appropriate. 4. Create awareness concerning size, complexity, cost, resource commitments,

or other pertinent issues required to execute the plan. Oh yeah, , , one more key goal for this meeting is very important: 5. Get a commitment to support and fund your strategy. Now, you might not get this last one if a senior manager has concerns or disagrees with part of your strategy. Remember, your job is to “put a stake in the ground”, , , senior management has the right to move the stake. Let’s review one more time: The purpose of a strategic plan meeting is not to try and solve the company’s challenges in a meeting. It is your opportunity to validate with senior management that you have identified the appropriate challenges of the company and have developed a reasonable strategy to address them. If you let the discussions wander off into “solving scenarios”, you lose the purpose of the meeting and you won’t achieve any of your objectives. As you begin your presentation, let the participants know that you have more detail available for them if they want it “after the meeting”. Do not let them push you down into the detail in this first session; you won’t get the ‘big picture’ discussed. Also, rehearse the flow of the meeting and prepare a simple opening statement to get you started smoothly. Be sure to include the key benefits for doing this plan.

IItt wwiillll bbee tthhee bbeenneeffiittss tthhaatt sseellll yyoouurr rreeccoommmmeennddaattiioonn..

I would also suggest you develop an agenda to hand out that identifies each major point you plan to discuss and follow it just as you would any presentation.


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A. Objectives The primary objectives of a strategy meeting are more than providing management with the project initiatives you plan to execute and the benefits in doing them. Much more. A list of objectives that are not project specific include:

- Create awareness of the major initiatives. - Gain validation from the senior management team that your

plan is appropriate or input that tells you how it should be adjusted.

- Create awareness of the dependencies of certain initiatives on resources or completion of other initiative projects.

- Create awareness of the size and complexity of the plan. - Gain agreement on the plan.

You do not want to leave the meeting without getting one of two things:

1. Commitment to support and fund the strategy 2. Direction on what you need to change or what is needed for them to approve

your strategy, , , and a follow-up meeting date You may not get full approval, , , if you do not, be sure you get specific direction on what is needed to get there and a commitment that you will receive an endorsement when you fulfill their need. In your opening statement, tell your management team the objectives of the meeting. You can use a few bullets below to position the five objectives we mentioned:

“Our meeting is to discuss my IT strategy recommendation. It was developed upon completing a business assessment of our company’s business units to identify their business needs and issues and the IT support organization to determine our capability and capacity to support these needs. As we go through the plan, there are several objectives I want to achieve.”

- Identify major IT support initiatives and their benefits - Validate the initiatives with you that they are appropriate - Identify key dependencies - Create awareness of the size and complexity of this strategy - Gain agreement to go forward which means two things:

a) You support it. b) You will fund it.

Are there any questions up to this point?”


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OK, , , the opening statement is over, , , time to lay out your strategic plan. Hand out the materials. You should have two sets of materials identified earlier, but you haven’t seen an actual document for either yet, , , hang on, you will soon :

1. Strategy diagram or the timeline “picture” you created 2. Strategic Initiatives Summary with key bullet points for each initiative

Now, , , you have two options in passing out materials at the beginning of your meeting. I’ve done both and it is hard to know which method will work best, so let me explain. The first option is to pass out both documents and briefly explain what each document is. Then, focus on the strategy diagram, , , they will follow a visual much better. The second option is to pass out only the strategy diagram document and hold the Strategic Initiatives Summary document with bullet points until the end of the meeting. There are pros and cons in both approaches. When you pass out both documents early, some managers like to read ahead and can miss key points you make. On the other hand, the bullet point list is good to follow along with and a great place to take notes. When you pass out just the strategy diagram, you keep everyone focused on this document fairly easily, but they aren’t able to read the bullet points or take notes in the handout sections as you discuss them. My recommendation is to pass out both documents. Another point in this regard. You probably have an hour for the meeting. You have to control the meeting and keep everyone focused. Otherwise, you won’t get through your agenda. Plan your meeting and anticipate how much time you have, , , don’t try to cram too much material and discussion into one hour. Remember my point about buffer? Instead, think about delivering your presentation in 20-30 minutes, , , the rest of your hour will be absorbed fully with questions and discussion, , , guaranteed. One more thing about controlling the meeting. Some managers take discussions out to “tangent land” and waste valuable time. Don’t let this happen. Be professional and courteous but suggest, “Please hold your questions and discussion until after the presentation so everyone can view the overall strategy first. Many questions will be answered in the presentation and I have time allocated for questions and discussion.”


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Discussing the major initiatives and their project objectives should include a brief description of the project and the primary benefits that will be achieved. CEO’s buy IT initiatives that provide tangible business value benefits for the company:

- Increase revenue - Decrease cost - Improve productivity - Differentiate the company - Improve client satisfaction

Be sure your presentation and the Strategy Initiatives Summary document are loaded with these benefits and be very specific as to what they are.

B. Return on Investment For a strategic planning meeting, you don’t normally have to provide detailed Return on Investment numbers, but it helps that you can provide the big picture of how and when a project pays for itself. Keeping the discussion at 30,000 feet might be difficult for your CFO. The best way to support the conversation at a high level is to assure the management team that supporting detail is available after the meeting. For this meeting, you want to provide four elements of each strategic initiative:

1. Objective 2. Business value benefits 3. Estimated cost and payback 4. Estimated timeframe to complete

When you prepare for a strategy meeting, you won’t have an exact Return on Investment (ROI) for any of your projects because you haven’t done any detail project planning yet, , , still at 30,000 feet. However, you do need to provide your management team a cost estimate and an estimated length of time it takes to pay for each project initiative based upon the benefits you expect. The benefits might be something different than a financial ROI. Either way, your senior management team wants to know the justification for spending time and money on anything you recommend..


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Most management teams have a guideline they will follow as to the length of time a project is considered a “Go” or “No go”, another length of time might be approved with solid justification, and a project with longer payback period might be considered too great a risk. Much has to do with the project, obviously.

In some cases, there may not be a dollar payback needed. An improvement in client service or a capability that differentiates the company from competition may be all the justification the company needs. Meeting regulatory requirements to stay in business is also a “no brainer”.

The simplest way to calculate the payback period is to plot the costs and savings onto a spreadsheet by month. When the cost savings or increase in earnings due to added revenue overtake the costs, add up the number of months it takes and you have it. Pretty simple and takes just a few minutes. This calculation takes a little more effort when you begin achieving savings before the entire initiative is completed. In a couple of our examples, we have multiple projects making up a single initiative. You expect to begin achieving savings as soon as the first component project is completed.

Your management team doesn’t really care that it’s 21 versus 23 months. They need to know if it’s 14 months versus 24 months. When comparing costs for investing into several projects, two months difference has very little bearing whereas 10 to 18 months difference potentially has major implications. The total project cost and the type of benefits you will receive also have big impacts in their evaluation of the worthiness of a project initiative. Once again, there are no firm rules. Depending upon your company’s situation and the challenges you face, a strategic initiative with no payback can take priority over an initiative with less than a year to pay for itself. Understanding the dynamics of your business and the company’s needs has as much to do with your success in getting a strategic plan approved as having great cost justification. There is no substitute for a CIO or senior level IT Manager who understands the true needs of the company. It is a valuable asset to any company.


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C. Validation The most important objective in your strategy meeting is the opportunity to validate with each of the senior managers that your plan is appropriately targeted. If it isn’t, get input from them so you can modify the plan as needed for approval and to move forward. Tell the team in the beginning of your meeting that what you want to leave with is an endorsement of the plan or input from them that allows you to modify it appropriately. Your senior management team always has the right to send you back to start over, but if you’ve done your homework and paid attention to the conversations among them, it’s really difficult to be off the mark very far. D. Awareness Another aspect of your strategy meeting is to help the senior management team become aware of several issues that are important aspects of any strategic plan. First , they need to realize the size of the entire plan and the commitment that’s required not only from IT, but other parts of the company to achieve these results. You might be surprised at how often failure results because the management team doesn’t appreciate the effort and the level of commitment required. IT never accomplishes a strategic IT plan alone. It would be so much easier if that were possible, but it never will be. Second, it’s important for senior managers to realize that certain projects have to be accomplished before others are started. The relationship and interdependencies of projects can be seen in your strategy overview diagram. Third, providing the ability to see the entire strategic plan and the timing of when you expect to work on specific projects helps you down the road a few months when a manager wants to know when his favorite project is going to be completed. Some people have short memories, , , you might call it “selective memory”. It’s another reason you want to put your strategy on paper; makes it much easier to reinforce later. Fourth, there may be key investments in equipment or resources that allow you to execute the plan as indicated in your overview. Be sure to identify these issues and the timing of them if they create significant dependencies in completing major initiatives. Now is the time to insure your management team fully appreciates these dependencies.


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XII. Make it a Company Strategy

In your IT strategy meeting with the senior managers there are a few more things you want to accomplish and worth highlighting. First some background. You may not be aware of it but there is a natural conflict between business organizations and an IT organization. There are many reasons for it but essentially the business managers who are your IT clients do not view IT as part of the core competency of the company. And guess what, , , in most companies they would be correct. Technology is not the core competency of the banking industry, , , banking services are. Technology is not the core competency of manufacturing, , , producing widgets is. Technology is not the core competency of a hospital, , , it is patient medical services.

Is technology a critical part of all of these companies? Yes, you bet it is, , , in fact, technology plays a major role in most companies in their ability to achieve success and fulfill their mission. However, the only type of company where technology is actually a core competency of the company is in a technology company, , , and technology companies are a small number of the companies in the world.

Your clients, department managers at least, also tend to view IT support services as FREE services, , , sort of like they tend to view lighting, heat, and air conditioning as free. They know deep down these things are not free but they never see a bill so, , , they take them for granted.

When an IT organization doesn’t focus on a business client’s priority it creates conflict. If IT fails to implement a project successfully or to fix a problem immediately, it creates conflict. When IT introduces change that impacts a client’s business, conflict can occur.


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There probably is a conflict of some level going on between the business units and the IT organization of your company right now, , , it may not be serious but it is going to present you with some challenges in implementing your IT strategy. Here is an example. Let’s say you manage the IT organization in a healthcare billing company like our Company-B example, and the company is completely paper, , , no automation. You present your IT strategy and it includes a project initiative called Billing automation. The CEO and CFO are excited because they know as well as you that automating billing and sending electronic claims versus sending paper claims will save the company millions by reducing employee expense, , , it’s a super opportunity. This is great but here is the challenge. To build your first interface with an Insurance Payor or maybe a Clearinghouse, you need specific types of resources for the project. You need a programmer and a business analyst. No problem, they are in the IT staff and you control these resources. You also need a knowledge expert from the Billing Department, , , you need Michelle Jones who is the best and most knowledgeable person in the department. The reason you need the best is because this first project has to go well, , , it has to be right. To insure the project goes smoothly, you need the best in the company from both the technical side as well as the business operation side. There is too much at stake. “What’s the problem?”, you ask. Senior management has approved the IT strategy and this billing automation project is a key part of the strategy, , , “What’s the problem?” The problem is that you aren’t going to get Michelle assigned full time to this project for 3 or 4 months easily. When you ask the Billing Department manager to assign Michelle to the project, , , there will be resistance almost every time if IT asks for the resource. It’s not personal, , , it is just because you are from IT. Michelle is a valuable resource and is needed in the Billing Department. Her manager depends upon Michelle to run an orderly operation, , , she is vital to the business.


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Well, reducing company expenses by several million dollars next year is also vital. What do you do?

First, become comfortable using your senior managers to help you do your job. In the strategy meeting, one of the things you point out are the dependencies your key projects have to achieve success. A dependency the Billing automation initiative has is being able to get Michelle Jones assigned to the first interface programming project.

In the strategy meeting, you make a point to explain this fact and then you look at the CFO who the Billing Department manager reports to and ask, “Bob, can you get Michelle assigned to this project full time for 4 months? We can start in March.” The CFO’s answer will be “Yes, no problem.” If it isn’t, the CEO will gently or maybe not so gently nudge him to do it, , , your CEO will not lose this huge cost saving opportunity. Then the CEO may ask you, “What can we do to start the project sooner?” Let me repeat, , , if you go to the Billing Department manager and ask for Michelle, the answer will be, “No!” If the Billing manager’s boss asks for Michelle for a very special 4-month assignment, , , the answer will be “Yes, no problem.” In fact, the Billing manager will probably be excited for Michelle because of the importance in the project she just learned about from her boss and the visibility the project will have for Michelle, , , a great opportunity for everyone!! Do you see how the dynamics flipped upside down to the positive? You get Michelle as a resource and everyone is happy. You would have gotten her anyway but with a fight. The outcome this way is so much better for everyone. So, my point is that if you need key resources and especially non-IT department resources for your major initiatives, use the time you have in the IT strategy meeting to get them, , , and above all, use your senior managers to get them for you.

Presenting your strategy is not just explaining what it is, , , you also need to identify critical resources you need to execute the strategy and get help from your senior managers to get what you need.


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There is another reason you need to be aware of this natural conflict between business operation units and the IT organization. Your clients think, “IT is always forcing change on us.” When they hear about the IT strategy the company has just approved, their initial thought is, “Here we go again, , , the IT organization is always making it difficult for us to do our jobs.” They may not tell you this, but I assure you it is what many of the department managers will think. You need to offset this resistance. The best way to present an IT strategy to the business operation managers is to call it a “company strategy” and have the message delivered by the CFO or CEO, , , or a senior level operations executive. In reality, it actually is a company strategy, , , IT is simply the facilitator. Think of it this way. Your strategy is based upon business needs and issues and was developed with the intent of doing things that deliver business value for the company. It is actually a business strategy, , , not a technology strategy. Sure, there are technology components in it but it was developed and justified by business need. If your CEO or CFO presents this strategy to other managers of the company, they can articulate the business opportunity and reasons why your company needs to make these things happen. The real winners are going to be the business managers in the end, , , it is about the business, it is not about IT. Bottom line, , , there will be much more acceptance and less resistance if the strategy is presented to the rest of the company as a company strategy. Avoid the potential conflict and use your senior management team to deliver the message, , , it will be much more receptive with managers in your company.


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XIII. Now the Hard Part - Implementation

You’ve just had the best meeting you could ever hope for. The senior management team asked great questions and you were fully prepared to answer them. The entire IT strategic plan that you’ve put together has been endorsed in full. Now what? All I can say is that I hope you are prepared to deliver what you’ve asked your management team to endorse. What’s the old saying? Oh yes,

“Don’t wish for something unless you really want it; you might get your wish”.

Have you ever seen a manager’s eyes and facial expression change when he suddenly realizes that he now has to go execute what he just told his manager he could do? Developing and creating the plan is the easy part. Implementation is what sets managers apart. As you develop your strategy, pay close attention to major issues that are required to deliver the plan. The good news is hopefully you explained in the strategy meeting that everything is your “best estimate” and there has been no detail project planning work as yet. Now, you get to go develop your real project plans with much more accuracy. Before you do, remember the old adage one more time, , ,

Your detail project plans also need to have some buffer in them.


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If you haven’t already done so, you should begin developing the detail project plans for the projects that need to get kicked off soon. In fact, you should have gone into the meeting with one question already answered in your mind; it’s likely going to be asked. “How soon can you start, and what do you need to go faster?” Project management is discussed at length in the publication titled IT Project Management: a practical approach. I’m not going to discuss project management in this book, , , it’s an entire topic of its own. The point I would like to make is that project success happens consistently when you manage client expectations. The strategy meeting has a huge element of managing client expectations. This is another reason you need to be very conservative until you have all the facts you need and can be more predictable in forecasting cost and timeframes. Project success begins before you really do any task work. Now that you have the overall strategy approved, you need to assign someone responsibility for each project and they need to start obtaining specific requirements to define the projects. More projects fail because of a failure in this front-end definition part than in any other part of the project so be certain your team pays special attention to clearly defining the requirements and deliverables of each project. It’s a huge part of setting appropriate and achievable expectations for your projects.

The GREAT NEWS? Well, the great news is that when you implement these projects successfully, , , you do what you say you will do, , , it creates, , , tremendous credibility!!!


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XIV. The Value of Your Work

The value of developing a strategic plan is huge, , , REALLY BIG!!. Before we discuss the importance, let me add a personal comment. My writing in every publication of the Practical IT Manager GOLD Series is based on actual experiences of what has worked or in some cases not worked for me. I don’t believe much in theory. Don’t get me wrong, theoretical models are fine; but I believe most of us relate better to practical and simple approaches that work. I’ve always said, “I doubt I’ve ever created anything original in my life, but when I see something that works well, I can incorporate it into my approach with the best of them.” Personal Note: I had an opportunity to join a small turnaround company at one point in my career. It was an excellent opportunity that fit my management experience very well. The CEO wanted to hire me and by chance there was a quarterly board meeting scheduled during the time of my interviews. The CEO asked me to meet with the Board of Directors and to make a brief statement concerning my background. My approach was simple and to the point. I expressed a knowledge of the challenges facing the company and how I felt the IT organization could help the company succeed. At the time, there were major IT concerns. Rather than tell them I was going to solve all the company problems, I told them more of what I wasn’t going to do. For example, I told them if they were looking for a strong technical manager, I wasn’t what they needed. I also told them that if they were looking for a business manager to run IT in a way that supported the business and provided tangible business value, , , then I was someone they should consider. I added that when I delivered an IT strategy, my record showed it would be completed. No theory, just basic management focus of technology resources dealing with complex issues in simple ways. The results are what’s important, not that you tell a good story. I was told months later the Board of Directors appreciated my honesty and especially the “no-nonsense” approach to IT that they believed had many problems. It was a refreshing change from the technical management style they had before me. My experience in IT strategy had a lot to do with how I approached this discussion.


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The value of developing a strategic IT plan is huge, , , like I said. First of all, most of your counterparts aren’t developing a strategy unless they are asked to. By then, the IT manager is already in react mode as opposed to being in a position to lead and be proactive. Senior managers of your company want leadership, and they will rally around the person who demonstrates it.

Let me rephrase this, , , Senior managers NEED leadership in their IT organization. Developing a strategic plan does a lot for you and your company:

- Validates what IT should be working on - Helps the senior management team understand the role of IT and the

importance IT has in achieving company success - Helps department managers understand the importance of IT - Helps you manage department managers and senior manager expectations - Helps create a vision for the IT organization and establish a sense of

leadership and importance of their IT support role - Puts the IT organization in proactive mode versus reactive way of operating

Personal note: Back to my earlier point about “incorporate things you observe that work for others into how you do things”. I’m very serious about this statement. Possibly the best advice I ever received in my career was from my first manager at IBM, , , his name is Bryan Hathcock. Bryan told me in my first week at IBM, “Mike, I’m going to pair you up with our best Systems Engineers and our best Marketing Reps. Observe them and learn how they do things. When you observe something that works well, , , incorporate it into how you do things. When you observe things that don’t work so well, , , discard these things.” I took Bryan’s advice and still observe others to this day and try to incorporate the good things I observe into how I do things, , , and it is decades later. His advice and my following it is a big part of my development over the years. You never stop learning, , , because when you do, it is all over.


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The biggest benefit There is another big benefit when you develop an IT strategy. In fact, it may be the biggest benefit of all. You conduct an IT assessment to understand the needs and issues of your business client (senior managers and department managers) and also to understand your IT support capability and capacity. The whole purpose of an IT assessment is to determine what you need to work on. Having this knowledge is great but not worth very much if you don’t do something with it. The next step is to develop an IT strategy that articulates what you believe your IT organization should focus on to support your company. When you present your IT strategy to senior management and gain agreement that it is an appropriate strategy for the company and commitment from them to fund and support your strategy, , , there is no way for the IT organization to be out of sync with the business. Absolutely no way. The main reason is because senior management becomes a part of the strategy, , , they have reviewed it, understood it, evaluated it, , , and endorsed it. When this happens, a senior manager can’t say things like:

- “We don’t know what IT is working on.” - “We spend a lot of money in IT but don’t always understand why.” - “The IT organization doesn’t communicate with us.”

This big problematic issue called the “IT-Business disconnect” goes away. Many studies suggest over 50% of all companies in the world have this problem. You won’t have it in your company if you present your IT strategy and get approval from your senior management team.


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XV. Sample IT Strategy In earlier chapters we used two sample companies to illustrate parts of developing an IT strategy. Both company examples were fairly simple to help us discuss the processes in a book. Most real life situations will not be as simple, Do you remember when I recommended you define the projects for your strategy and let the timeline fall where it may, , , the projects actually dictate the timeline of your strategy versus you force fitting projects into an artificial timeline like 24 months. It’s still true, but most strategies are going to be approximately 18 to 24 months. Strategies less than a year into the future are pretty much tactical, , , not strategic. When you try to develop a strategy beyond 2 or 3 years, it gets difficult because technology is changing so much and faster than ever before. In this chapter I want to show you an actual strategy I delivered to the executives of my last company. I chose the two company healthcare billing company examples we used in this book for a reason. The plan you are about to see is for a similar type company so you should be able to relate much of what we discussed earlier with this model. Let me set the stage and give you some background about my last company as it existed when I became their new CIO.

- $100 million in revenue - Our business provided physician healthcare services - 70 physician offices scattered around the US - Major clients for IT were the Billing Department and

remote Physician Offices - Billing department costs were $6 million, or 6% of revenue - Billing department had no automation; it was paper intensive in an industry

that offered significant potential for electronic billing - Accounts Receivable collection days were averaging over 80 days (slightly

above average for paper billing) - Billing Department was collecting over 90% of charges (very good) - The company planned to acquire several companies with a major acquisition

anticipated within 12 months that would double the size of the company - Physician Offices and the Billing Department needed additional reporting and

improved access to information - The company had facility space challenges at Corporate and wanted to hold

Corporate support costs down as much as possible - The company was achieving a 10% EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes,

depreciation, and amortization).


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At the time I built the strategic IT plan you are about to see, I had been with the company for about three months. All issues considered immediate tactical projects (the lower levels of the Project Priority Hierarchy Pyramid) were already completed or being worked on at the time we held our first IT strategy meeting. Never present a strategic plan unless you are positioned to deliver it. If the infrastructure and support processes in the bottom two levels of the pyramid are not stable, your presentation should be focused on these critical business issues, , , not talking about strategic projects. Don’t forget, , , you have to walk before you can run. As I began to pull my thoughts together to develop an 18-24 month IT strategy, I started by listing the major goals an IT strategy needed to achieve to support the company:

- Reduce the cost of billing and collections - Position IT and the company for acquisitions - Assist in increasing EBITDA from 10% to 13-15% - Reduce the use of paper by automating key processes - Position the company for significant growth without having to increase the

size of Corporate support departments at the same rate

The support processes and infrastructure were already in place to allow IT to focus on the strategic projects you will see in the IT strategy. This does not mean there were no issues or that projects did not exist in each of these areas to improve support of our business, , , we still had plenty of challenges, but we were positioned to move forward.


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The IT organization was positioned to work on strategic projects, , , I had filled many skill and capacity gaps that existed. We had to stabilize the technology and implement basic support processes with new staff before we could focus on a strategic IT plan. I repeat this because one of the things that gets an IT manager into trouble is when he over commits to chase after strategic projects before getting his house in order. The plan you are about to see has 16 key initiatives shown on two pages.

Let me stop you right here. You may recall that I said you should try to summarize your projects into 6 to 8 major initiatives to discuss in an IT strategy meeting. That’s correct. The strategy you will see has 16 major initiatives, , , but 95% of the meeting was spent on the first page, , , and there are only 6 initiatives on this page.

The first page is the real substance of this strategy. It includes 6 major initiatives required to take the company from a paper operation to a paperless environment. These 6 initiatives include the majority of the benefits in the plan, especially the financial improvement opportunity. The second page shows projects that needed to be completed to meet additional business goals I defined when I developed the strategy. The plan I will show you has no cost justification tied to each project although the numbers and benefits were available had I needed them. The objective of my strategy meeting was to establish a clear awareness of what I thought we should target and the opportunity that existed for our company. My goal was to validate with my CEO, CFO, and COO that this would be an appropriate strategy for our company. The purpose for showing you this plan is to provide a real example and to provide more tips that can help you present your plans more effectively. These include:

1. Number each group of projects and give each sub-project a related reference ID such as 1A, 1B, 1C, etc.

2. Color code each project to show current status. In this presentation, I used: • dark green - completed • light green - in process, , , being worked on now • yellow - planned and defined but not started • light red - to be defined • dark red - not yet started and may not be required

The second page includes other significant projects that positioned the company for major growth and key projects to be considered in next year’s budget. Take a look at the strategy I delivered to my last company on the next five pages.


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1

6

4A

4

5

Business Automation Strategy

1A

2B

2A 2

3

1D

1C

1B

Billing Cleanup

Automation PHASE-II

(Production mode)

Employer Outcomes

Module

Scanning & Image

Retrieval

OPTIO Report Management

& Distribution

Electronic Encounter &

Fee Ticket

Automation PHASE-I

(Model in place)

East Projects

West Projects

TWCC073

Other Claims Automation Processes

Payor

Payor

Other Clearinghouse

Workflow

Reports Distribution

Fax Server

Forms Elimination

Billing

Clinic Files

A/P

H/R & Payroll

1G 1E 1F

2C

4B

4D

4C

PAPERLESS

6 Steps to a “Paperless” Environment


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12

Business Automation Strategy Other Significant Projects

13

11

10

9

8

7

AS/400 O/S Upgrade

Data Purge

Month-end Overhau l

Clinic AS/400 Availability

Project

“Sold Company”

Separation

Software Distribu tion

Automation

Network Growth Assessment Plan

Refined AS/400 Business

Process

MT System

“Old” A/R

16

15

AS/400 Growth Assessment Plan

10.1 IP

Renumber Project

14


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IT Strategy Summary Key points in this strategy: 1. Multiple major initiatives can take place at the same time. 2. Many major initiatives actually have several sub-projects. 3. There are considerable dependencies of projects. 4. Many projects cannot or should not begin until other projects are completed.

An example is the 1A, 1B, and 1C projects in Initiative 1 must be completed before beginning the 1D Clearinghouse (C/H) Pilot project.

5. Projects are at all levels of activity, from identified as needed to completed. 6. Page 1 looks simple but it’s not at all and requires a significant amount of work. 7. Multiple disciplines within IT and various company departments are involved and

impacted. A strong level of resource commitment will be needed to execute the plan.


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IT Strategy Summary Page 1

Initiative 1 - Billing Cleanup and Automation

- The key strategy to automate billing; it is an 18 to 24-month plan. - Billing resource needs are reduced and lead time to receive payments is

reduced – two major benefits for the company. - Once the pilot (1D) is completed, multiple Clearinghouse or Payor interface

projects can be developed simultaneously (1E, 1F, & 1G). - Three “cleanup” projects are necessary first (1A, 1B, & 1C). - Michelle Jones is a critical resource need for the 4-month pilot project (1D).

Initiative 2 - OPTIO Report Management and Distribution

- Positions the company for automated report distribution in 3 key areas: A. Internal – Normal month-end reports to managers of the company. B. Billing Department – Automates claims generation to Payors. C. Clients – Automated report distribution to thousands of clients when

the Employer Outcomes Module (5) is completed. Initiative 3 - Electronic Encounter

- Automates more of the “front-end” data capture to facilitate billing sooner. - Requires considerable training and a phased implementation. - Requires knowledge experts commitment from Billing and Operations

Initiative 4 - Scanning & Image Retrieval

- There are 4 areas of opportunity A. Human Resources and Payroll (targeted for pilot due to small size) B. Accounts Payable C. Billing D. Remote office patient records files

- Eliminating paper saves considerable storage space in many locations. - Pilot easier operations (HR and AP) before touching patient records. - Automates ability for key resources to provide faster client service response. - Payback from reclaiming space, improve client service, and hiring avoidance.

Initiative 5 - Employer Outcomes Module

- Creates ability to capture billing data earlier leading to faster billing services. - Positions the company to provide outcome information for clients

Initiative 6 - Workflow - Creates an automated process of working business processes in many areas - Creates an ability to measure employee productivity much better. - Positions the company to hire “work at home” employees by being able to que

workloads and to track completions of work processes.


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IT Strategy Summary Page 2

Initiative 7 - AS/400 O/S Upgrade

- A tactical project that was necessary for growth.

Initiative 8 - Data Purge - Will improve systems response times and avoid need to buy disk space in the

short term.. - Key project to position the company for a large acquisition..

Initiative 9 - Month-end Revisions - Similar to Data Purge (8), a streamlined month-end process to position the

company for growth and to leverage Automated Report Distribution (2). Initiative 10 - Clinic AS/400 Availability Revisions

- Significant telecom cost savings opportunity in creating a “store and forward” process to eliminate most of the company’s Wide Area Network expense.

- Additional benefit in reducing local office downtime.

Initiative 11 - “Sold Company” Separation - Final projects to transition the operation and support of Company X.

Initiative 12 - 10.1 Renumber Project

- Standardization of the company’s network addressing scheme to facilitate new locations added through acquisition.

Initiative 13 - Network Growth Assessment

- Preparation to insure the company’s network and infrastructure are fully prepared for significant acquisition growth.

Initiative 14 - Software Distribution Automation

- Automating software distribution allows IT to support growth without adding people, , , to a point.

Initiative 15 - AS/400 Growth Assessment Plan

- Evaluation of current and future server needs to insure stable operation with scalability built into our architecture.

Initiative 16 - IT Budget Preparation

- Capital budget planning across the enterprise - Many strategic projects have capital and operations budget implications.


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XVI. Summary The IT strategy you just looked at was approved and we completed many of the projects before I left the company to start MDE Enterprises, Inc. in late 2000. Developing an IT strategy is required even if your company does not have a formal company strategy, , , it’s not an excuse for you to not develop one. The only way to ensure your IT organization focuses on the appropriate things for your company is to develop an IT strategy, present it to senior management, and get their approval and commitment. Otherwise, there is a high probability you will be out of sync with your business client, , , and that spells disaster. Your strategy does not need to be eloquent or pretty, , , keep it simple and straightforward. Draw a picture and it will be easier for senior managers to follow your presentation and to understand. I developed mine with PowerPoint. The Strategy Summary document with bullet points that you create as a handout does several things for you:

• You can use it for making key points in the meeting, , , it will keep you focused and ensure you cover all key points.

• It’s a great tool for the senior managers to reference back to when they have questions or discuss components of your plan.

• It demonstrates a manager who is organized. You cannot afford to manage an organization without putting an IT strategy in place. Not having one puts you in total react mode and causes concern among the senior managers about IT spending that you may not be aware of. Develop your plan, be sure it delivers plenty of business value, get it approved, , , and you are off to the races on solid footing,


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Appendix A “Where Do You Want To Be” Questionnaire

1. What is needed in technology to support the company’s growth plans? 2. What are needed capabilities to help the company achieve it’s financial objectives? 3. Identify automation projects that improve the company’s profitability or cash flow. 4. What are the projects that can differentiate the company from competitors, or that creates a significant story for investors? 5. Quantify key gaps in IT services or application functionality needed? 6. Are there assimilation opportunities to eliminate redundancy? 7. Are there key cost leverages in IT? 8. Are there major employee productivity gains through innovation of technology? 8. Can certain improvements eliminate waste, bad debt, or lost sales?


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Appendix B IT Strategy Projects – Budget Summary

Company-A

IT Strategy Projects – Budget Summary Project Project Cost Ongoing Ops Cost Capital Cost ROI

Project Initiative A Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 Project 4 Project Initiative B Project 5 Project 6 Project 7 Project Initiative C Project 8 Project 9 Project Initiative D Project Initiative E

TOTAL


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Appendix C IT Strategy – Project Dependencies

Company-A IT Strategy – Project Dependencies

Project Prerequisites Other Project Dependencies

Key Resources Required Cost

Project Initiative A Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 Project 4 Project Initiative B Project 5 Project 6 Project 7 Project Initiative C Project 8 Project Initiative D Project 9


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Notes

The Practical IT Manager GOLD Series of books and tools will help you manage your IT organization better. The processes and tools discussed in these publications are used by thousands of IT managers around the world to achieve more success. The series includes the following titles and more: - IT Management-101: fundamentals to achieve more™ - IT Assessment: the key to IT success - IT Strategy: align your IT vision for business value - IT Project Management: a practical approach - IT Asset Management: tracking technology assets - IT Organization: right-size your organization for success - IT Staff Motivation and Development: build a world class team - IT Budgeting: operational and capital budgeting made easy - IT Due Diligence: merger & acquisition discovery process - IT Assimilation: consolidating redundant technologies - What To Look For in a CIO: get more value from your IT investment

MDE Enterprises, Inc. “helping IT managers of the world achieve more success”

www.itmanagerinstitute.com

“Every aspiring IT manager will, without question, benefit from your work.” Bryn Thomas - Philadelphia, PA “I am so thrilled to find a resource that addresses my needs as an IT executive. I’ve been looking for something like this for years.” Charise Simpson - San Diego, CA “Your publications get to the heart of IT management and provide practical examples not found in other books.” Dan Tankersley - Paducah, KY “The value of the materials is excellent and can be used by any manager in any field, even outside of IT.” Kenneth Wakati - Dar es Salaam, Tanzania “Mike’s experiences offer valuable insights on how to build an effective IT organization that can truly make a difference.” Judy Campbell - Austin, TX

Documents

IT Strategy: align your IT vision for business value (Practical IT Manager GOLD Series Book 4)