Editor's Note

When I first began my career in journalism, a mentor told me that the danger of specializing on a "beat" is that everything looks urgent all the time. In other words, when you focus too narrowly on one thing, you may lose your wider vision and perspective.

If there was ever a time to try a new approach that takes a broader view, it's probably now. In my experience, it's essential to walk in another's shoes and see what's needed from his or her perspective. CIOs need to do this with their business peers, evaluating situations as a businessperson would — not as an IT specialist. Just this week, for instance, I was speaking to the chief of the European division of a U.S.-based company about his dispersed workforce.

Like everyone, economic pressures are making his employees and customers nervous; he wants to reassure them and keep them on track selling products and services. This executive isn't in IT, but IT solutions would address his concerns. Better forecasting tools, collaborative networking and virtualized servers can help him maintain his financial goals and still have budget left for innovation. Is his CIO ready with tools that are easy for the executive to use as well as his global teams? Is the payback clear?

To tackle these issues at your business, we invite you to review two white papers on Smart Enterprise Exchange this month. The first, "Metrics That Matter," by Peter Waterhouse, Senior Principal of Enterprise IT Management at CA, offers ways to demonstrate and report IT's contribution to the business. I have the European division leader in mind when Waterhouse notes that presenting business executives "with reports detailing server uptime or problem-resolution time delivers absolutely nothing." A more relevant metric, Waterhouse suggests, might be to track the percentage of ideas submitted to a discussion board and to offer incentives accordingly. Or, instead of simply reporting IT help desk figures, CIOs can let business leaders know the percentage of customer problems resolved within agreed service levels and link them to customer satisfaction — a far more insightful and useful metric, he says.

The second paper, "Masters of IT Economics," provides best-practice examples of three CIOs who are keeping costs in check while continuing to innovate in the current economy — a tough task, as you well know. The three IT executives are: Ahmed Abdelmoteleb at GE Money Australia; Kamal Bherwani, CIO of New York City's Health & Human Services (HHS) agency; and AXA Group's Senior VP of Technology Architecture & Development, Antonio DiCaro.

I hope that the perspectives of our subject-matter experts — on the Exchange site and at our live and online events — will continue to help sharpen your business focus. Let me know some ways that IT is proving its value at your enterprise.

Paula Klein
Editor
Smart Enterprise Exchange
editor@smartenterpriseexchange.com