Another topic that Joe and I did not get to explore at the New York Smart Enterprise Exchange because we had so much to cover in so little time was the issue of budgeting, especially in an environment where they've already showed proficiency at saving money through consolidation and alternate delivery models. In a preview conversation I asked Joe about this, and this is how our conversation went:

Brian: Can you envision how the next budgeting process may go and how you might have more leverage over the discussions?

Joe: Back in the day, the argument I used to get a seat at the table for spending decisions went something like this:  How much revenue needs to be produced to be able to support IT spending? So let’s say that translates into several hundred million dollars for each business. I had asked my business counterparts that if they had a business representing several hundred million in revenue – wouldn’t they have the exec for that business at their staff meetings, readouts to the senior staff, strategy sessions, budget meetings? Our TCO effort is the next stage in making value and savings opportunities transparent for our businesses – so that we can make better spending. This includes tying revenue to not only the flagship products, but all the products and the backoffice systems that support them. We had also, for example, conducted scans in our FIRMS area, where we created heat maps by customer, product distribution type, etc., to show opportunities for consolidation, or gaps that should be considered for new development. By providing this level of transparency, they need someone to explain it to them and to make recommendations. This provides numerous opportunities to influence spending.

Part 3: New  York City Live Exchange Feb. 1, 2010

Trevor Bunker, VP, IT Transformation Group at  CA Inc., told attendees that performance and security management are the biggest concerns enterprises have about moving to cloud computing models. And with good reason: Protecting data is more complex when it's outside your organization and audits are needed, he said. Asking 'where is my data?' is a legitimate concern, Bunker said. More standards and interoperability capabilities are needed to allay concerns.

CA views the cloud as here to stay; "we're beyond the hype," he said. Hybrid models will be common. Bunker also said that large enterprises are participating in new service models as much as small businesses. CA will offer businesses ways to screen providers and compile regulatory and security information associated with cloud implementation.

Inside the Short Hills Live Exchange, November 2009

A few months ago in Boston when I heard Bruce Rogow, former Gartner Research Fellow (who speaks regularly with CIOs as Principal of Vivaldi Advisory Service and Odyssey Partners program), discuss the need for “alternative delivery vehicles” such as SaaS, mobile apps, “extreme virtualization” and cloud computing to meet demand-side expectations, I thought it was leading-edge thinking: necessary, but not yet mainstream.

But when I heard Rogow again discuss this topic with attendees at our recent live exchange in Short Hills, N.J., I realized that services are already an IT reality — and CIOs in the room understood the imperative perfectly.

It wasn’t a few months’ time that had made the difference, nor was it the sophistication of the CIOs at either event. The shift demonstrates the speed at which IT change is taking place — speed that turns a good idea into implementation seemingly overnight. By the time a concept is discussed at a meeting somewhere, leading-edge practitioners are already demonstrating their results. The flip side of that is, if you’re not constantly taking action, your competitors are.

Another powerful example of IT’s growing importance to the business was this: According to Rogow, “IT is now 20 percent to 70 percent of a firm’s brand.” This means that your Web sites, customer and employee self-service options, problem resolution, invoices, statements and shipping documents — all driven by technology services and processes — are what define and differentiate your business right now. IT is the brand; think about it.

I could tell Rogow’s comments resonated with attendees, based on comments, like those from Mike Petrisko, VP and CIO at Hill International. Petrisko, featured in our Smart Practices article this month, says he was “hired to move the firm forward.” In his view, there are no excuses for not meeting business demand; a CIO’s job is “to make it happen.”

Several CIOs said they are struggling with global organizations that aren’t cohesive and nimble. But Mark Schlesinger, CIO at Broadridge Financial Solutions Ltd. — whose business processes an average 3 million trades per day for its financial clients — told his peers that if IT can differentiate the company, it will take it to the next level. But if IT services are routine, resource-draining or not core, they should be outsourced. “Put your resources into innovation and revenue generation,” he advised.

For example, he said, CIOs need to let business executives know what virtualization can offer — in their own terms. The message should be about “better service levels, more resilience for failover, and capex savings. The CEO wants to see bottom-line results, not new technology. VoIP is still just a phone at the end of the day,” he said.

Driving the point home once more, Trevor Bunker, VP, IT Transformation at CA Inc., quoted a really good Accenture study that reports: The average organization spends about 12 percent of its time fixing preventable problems; high performers in contrast spend only 5 percent of their time fixing, and low performers spend 16 percent.

If IT is the brand, where do you want to be on this continuum?