Clarity Consulting's IT Strategy Knowledge Center

Welcome to the IT Strategy Knowledge Center!

The role of IT organizations is changing. To become a strategic player and contributor to company goals, IT organizations must focus on being an originator of value-adding ideas rather than merely an implementer of others' ideas. This shift in roles impacts how IT aligns with business priorities, how it is organized and managed, the processes it uses, and how its results are measured.

Clarity Consulting helps IT organizations adapt and respond to the demands of the 21st century, and take their place at the executive table. Listed below are a few of our articles and papers on various IT-related topics, as well as links to some helpful resources.

Presentation -- "Designing Metrics for Service Level Agreements," This presentation contains the slides that accompanied the webcast performed for International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) in October 2007.

Latest Article -- "Creating Better Service Level Metrics," Read how to select and implement service level metrics that actually work while avoiding the pitfalls that compromise both service levels agreements and the sourcing relationships they manage.

Web Seminars! View our webinars on "Increasing the Value and Success of Your Outsourcing Efforts" and "Using IT Portfolio Management to Improve IT ROI" hosted by Better Management.

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ARTICLES

"Creating Better Service Level Metrics," Ian S. Hayes. Solid service level metrics are the foundation for Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that actually work. Unfortunately, poorly chosen and implemented metrics often do more harm than good when managing a sourcing relationship. This white paper explores while metrics fail and how organizations can implement a successful service level metrics program.

"Moving Beyond Ad-Hoc Outsourcing," Ian S. Hayes. Companies are seeking to take their outsourcing arrangements to the next level by investing in SLAs, sourcing management tools and PMOs.

"Quantifying Business Productivity Improvements When Analyzing IT ROI," Ian S. Hayes, SmartAdvice column published in InformationWeek.com through The Advisory Council (TAC).

"Evaluating and Managing Outsourcing Vendor Performance," Ian S. Hayes, SmartAdvice column published in InformationWeek.com through The Advisory Council (TAC).

"Tying IT Expenditures to Business Value Delivered," Ian S. Hayes. Effective approaches for measuring the business value delivered from IT investments.

"Using IT to Generate Improvements in Business Performance," Ian S. Hayes. Ways that an IT organization can proactively generate business performance improvements.

"Determining TCO, ROI and Other Key Financial Metrics," Ian S. Hayes. Key financial metrics companies should use to evaluate IT investments.

"Five Pragmatic Rules for Creating Believable ROIs," Ian S. Hayes, Cutter IT Journal, August, 2004. Recommended rules to create solid, believable ROIs for IT investments.

"A Five Step Approach to Protecting and Optimizing Software Investments," Ian S. Hayes, sponsored by SourceIQ. Read how Source Code Portfolio Manager, a new product from SourceIQ, is helping companies gain greater insight into their portfolios of source code assets, strengthen their compliance and monitoring efforts, improve quality and stability, expose risks and accelerate knowledge transfer.

"Managing the Project Portfolio," Ian S. Hayes, Cutter IT Journal, April, 2003. Understand why active project portfolio management is a critical tool in achieving corporate objectives.

"Ready or Not, Global Sourcing is in Your IT Future," Ian S. Hayes, Cutter IT Journal, November, 2002. A look at how/why global sourcing is impacting, or will impact, your IT organization.

"IT: In or Out," Ian S. Hayes, The Manufacturer, Vol. 2, No. 10, October 2002. This article considers some of the drivers and benefits prompting manufacturing organizations to outsource IT in part or in whole.

"Knowing Where You Stand," Ian S. Hayes, Cutter Consortium, Business-IT Strategies E-Mail Advisor. When it comes to contributing to the company's goals, is your IT organization viewed as a strategic player or just one more overhead item? This article explores the warning signs, and gives advice for heightening the value of your IT organization.

"Thriving in a Brave New World," Ian S. Hayes. By sticking to an outdated notion of its core business, the Pickett company missed a chance to transform its business. How can IT organizations avoid repeating this same mistake?

"Under the Table Work -- the Hidden Productivity Drain," Almost every IT organization suffers from the "under the table work" phenomenon -- unsanctioned or unofficial work that gets done through informal channels. Not only does this work have negative affects on productivity, it can come back to haunt IT organizations when they enter into outsourcing arrangements.

RESEARCH REPORTS

The following reports are available for purchase from the Cutter Consortium (www.cutter.com):

"Using Tools to Manage Sourcing," Ian S. Hayes, Cutter Consortium Executive Report, Sourcing Advisory Service, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2003. "A significant movement is afoot to implement integrated systems to help manage all facets of a sourcing relationship, from contract management to collaboration between sourcing teams and end users to real-time monitoring of a vendor's service delivery performance. A new generation of automated tools is enabling both clients and vendors to improve the usefulness, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their outsourcing relationships. This Executive Report covers the tools that IT organizations can use to manage their sourcing relationships, focusing on areas where automation is available and desirable." Read the full summary.

"Getting the Most Out of Your IT Application and Project Investments," Ian S. Hayes, Cutter Consortium Executive Report, Business-IT Strategies Advisory Service, Vol. 5, No. 12, 2002. "Today, how can companies get more from less and boost the overall return on investment for their IT portfolios? IT managers are seeking to increase business value by actively managing their applications and project portfolios. Borrowing techniques from professional securities investors, IT organizations can proactively manage and balance their portfolios. This Executive Report examines how IT organizations can manage application and project portfolios, and presents practical guidelines and steps for companies to take toward achieving the highest payback on IT investments, balancing risk and reducing costs." Read the full summary.

"Alignment Through Learning," Ian S. Hayes, Cutter Consortium Executive Report, Business-IT Strategies Advisory Service, Vol. 4, No. 7, 2001. "Like an overplayed recording, everyone exhorts IT professionals to become better aligned with the business areas they support. Far too little time is spent explaining why alignment is important and how to go about becoming better aligned. This Executive Report aims to fill these voids and give IT professionals practical advice for seeking and attaining alignment with the business of their company." Read the full summary.

"Developing and Implementing a Core Competence-Based Strategy," Ian S. Hayes, Cutter Consortium Executive Report, Business-IT Strategies Advisory Service, Vol. 3, No. 11, 2000. "For IT, the need to focus on core competencies has never been greater. Technology has become incredibly complex and is simply too broad, and requires too many specialties, for IT to master every single category. IT's constituent base has also exploded and their demands are no longer possible to fulfill. Users, suppliers and customers stretch around the globe and want instant access to information. The demand for new applications, functionality and technology is incessant, and amid the din IT is supposed to continue to support everyday operations without a hiccup. Attempting to address every need, conquer every new technology and keep operations running at the same time is spreading IT organizations too thin. To survive in this atmosphere, IT has to identify and play to its strengths. It must coldly assess what it does best and concentrate on these core competencies. To thrive in this atmosphere, IT must outperform its competitors in each of these competencies." Read the full summary.

"Ensuring IT is e-Business Ready," Ian S. Hayes, Cutter Consortium Executive Report, Business-IT Strategies Advisory Service, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2000. "This Executive Report covers the important topic of business/IT alignment in the e-business realm. It examines the Internet's unsurpassed ability to exchange information, and its de-constructive affect on business as we know it. It explores how these same forces affect IT organizations, and the paths by which IT can re-construct itself. The report also describes an approach to align IT to the corporate e-business vision through an assessment of IT's current state and desired future state, and focuses on the people, process, portfolio and platform components that are affected by the transformation." Read the full summary.

Presentations

"Designing Metrics for Service Level Agreements," This presentation contains the slides that accompanied the webcast performed for International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) in October 2007.

Five Principles for Creating Believable ROIs, To justify a new project or purchase new functionality, project managers must perform due diligence and create a compelling business case complete with ROI and other financial analyses. Ian Hayes presents five straightforward principles to keep in mind when creating a believable ROI analysis.

Lessons Learned from Being an Expert Witness summarizes observations and lessons learned by Ian Hayes from his experiences as an expert witness on software project failure cases, and advises project managers on the three P's of software project litigation -- Prevention, Protection and Prosecution.