Presentation that outlines the steps for IT to become a real business partner. Follow the process outlined to deliver outstanding results that create value for your business.

1. Become a Business
Partner
Stephen Hightower

2. Business Partnership
• Develop an effective service delivery model with measurements
• Be proactive and stop firefighting
• Develop a strategy that aligns with business needs
• Reduce operational cost, invest savings and financial transparency
• Forecasts are accurate
• Cycle time reduction programs drive quality and customer satisfaction
• Integrated change control in place across the organization
• Roadmaps and discipline guide the organization

3. Building Blocks for Success

4. You get what you measure and don’t
wait for the perfect metric

5. Metrics
• Reporting Machine Metrics
• Being reactive because you don’t have sensors and early
warning indicators in place
• Reporting on Service with Cycle Time, Quality Levels and Unit
costs
• Developing a maturity model for your organization to
benchmark
• Teaching your team the value of managing with Metrics
• Instilling a “Can do” and Customer Centric language in the
organization

6. Everybody likes saving money and a
transparent financial model

7. Save Money and Build
Credibility
• Always asking for more money
• Identifying projects that don’t have a financial impact to the
business
• Financial reviews that identify opportunities to reduce cost
• Building unit cost models linked to volume
• Budget transparency
• Develop an ROI model for IT spend and investments
• Market and communicate your success

8. Is your CFO your biggest supporter?

9. Great Project Management = CFO Support
• Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt
• Implementing projects without sound change management
• Developing a methodology with a “CFO approved” ROI model
• Use a Risk management approach that implements a risk
mitigation plan for all projects
• Develop stakeholder committees for prioritization
• Project reviews with stakeholders
• Developing a framework for project management and training
your resources to be professional project managers

10. Effective Strategy serves as a roadmap
for effective action, but culture eats
strategy for breakfast

11. Be Strategic and generate value
• Always asking for more money
• Identifying projects that don’t have a financial impact to the business
• Complete your “as-is” and “to be” state with a gap analysis that creates your
roadmap for the future
• Building Roadmaps for technology linked to the business model
• Understanding the culture of the business and how it impacts your organization
• Develop an ROI model for IT spend and investments
• Market and communicate your success

12. Having a seat at the table
• Benchmarking
• Fiduciary responsibility
• Manage your projects for success
• Vision for the future that is recognized

13. Business Partner
• Reporting only IT impacts – Link to Business results
• Hiring only IT skilled resources – Hire business resources
• Self fund projects based on savings in existing budget
• Applying Lean principles to Service Delivery and Projects
• Managing the organization by the numbers
• Growing your skills in project management and developing
dashboards on Key Process Indicators

14. Summary
• Understand the foundational actions needed to transform your
relationship with the business
• Leverage the value of metrics and translate the results into meaningful
business impacts and continuously benchmark your performance
• Find ways to continuously save the organization money and making your
budget transparent
• Focus on Quality of Service, Cycle Time Reductions and Unit Costs
• Leverage maturity models and dashboards to focus on the critical
improvements needed to keep the “trains running on time”
• Be strategic and provide leadership for the organization through the
effective use of metrics, sound financial principles and a true gap analysis
from your customers