Breakthrough IT

Unlock the secret to creating maximum business value from technology

Filled with case studies from leading C-level executives to illustrate concepts discussed, Breakthrough IT is a revolutionary approach to reshaping the corporate information technology function. This innovative, step-by-step guide provides concrete methods every business can implement to yield maximum value and competitive advantage from their IT organization.

Patrick Gray (Harrison, NY) is the founder and President of the Prevoyance Group, an IT strategy consultancy that combines project management and process improvement to ensure large IT departments deliver maximum organizational value. Preface

1. Hell Freezes Over: IT Becomes a Key Component of Your Organizational Strategy.

Why do you Need Breakthrough IT?

The Triple Threat.

Hell Freezes Over: IT Enables Strategy.

2. Up Periscope! Ending The Focus On Continuing Operations.

A Brief History of IT.

Shifting the Focus: Moving IT from Service Provider to Strategic Asset.

Calling Sherlock Holmes: Finding Continuing Operations.

Changing the Source: What to Do with Continuing Operations.

3. ET Phone Home: Stop Talking IT and Start Talking Strategy.

Free at Last.

Separating Process from Technology.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Partnering with the CEO.

Talking the Talk.

C-Suite Conversations: Greg Buoncontri, CIO of Pitney Bowes.

4. Clear the Benches: Take Your IT Shop From Dysfunction to Dynamo.

Hiring (and Firing) the Right People.

Continually Improving the Skills of your People.

Meaningfully Evaluating Your People.

5. Milking the Cow: Turn Your IT Project Portfolio into a Cash Cow.

Developing a Project Investment Mix.

The PASRBRTKO: Project Analyzing, Selecting, Risk-assessing, Budgeting, Returns Tracking and Killing Office.

What the PMO is NOT.

6. Show Me the Money: Controlling a Project by the Numbers.

The Right Stuff: Determining What to Measure.

Managing to the Metrics.

Beyond the Numbers: The "Gut Check".

Delivering the Goods.

7. Pushing Water Uphill: Driving Organizational Change from the C-Suite.

What is "Change Management".

The Role of the CIO in Change Management.

The Role of the CEO in Change Management.

Change Management at the Line Level.

Influencing Change 101.

The End of Business as Usual.

C-Suite Conversations: Bridget Reiss and Kathy Allen, CIO and CFO of Millipore Corporation.

8. Cashing In The Chips: When To Cancel A Project.

My Little Runaway.

The Project Killers.

Setting Failure Criteria.

When the Going Gets Tough -- Warning signs.

Broaching the Topic of Cancellation.

Cancelling Well.

Closing Time.

9. Be Superman (Or Wonder Woman): Coming In Late To A Struggling Shop.

Arriving on the Scene.

Tackling the Project Portfolio.

Turning the Wheel: Making the Leap to Breakthrough IT.

C-Suite Conversations: Phil Stunt, Vice President, IT International, CA.

10. Capitalizing on Success.

Building Momentum.

Beyond Breakthrough IT.

The Future of the CIO Role.

In Closing.

Index.

Chapter Ten Executive Summary.

"Patrick Gray has done a very commendable job of delineating the evolution of information technology's (IT's) role: basic history, and the roadmap for supercharging the value of IT to the enterprise. It has robust content and the chapter material is well-conceived and logically sequenced. Breakthrough IT is a valuable read that should be kept handy." (New Jersey CPA, May/June 2008)

"examines what it means to be living in an era of corporate information technology and the step-by-step methodology required to create a value-based IT organization." (Bookviews.com, February 2008)

"IT today is being squeezed by a "Triple Threat" Gray does a nice job of describing." (Techrevu.com; 11/2/07)

"Argumentationshilfe für eine strategische Neupositionierung der IT-Abteilung und des CIOs. Patrick Gray rät CIOs, sich von ihrer Technikerrolle zu lösen und sich auf Projekte zu konzentrieren, die messbar zum Unternehmenserfolg und zum Wachstum beitragen...Das Buch ist klar aufgebaut und bietet zu jedem Kapitel Checklisten und Zusammenfassungen." (Managementkompass, Broschüre mit dem Titel: Wachstumstreiber Technologie, 2008) Patrick Gray is the founder and President of the Prevoyance Group Inc., a company that focuses on providing IT strategy consulting, with past clients including Gillette, Pitney Bowes, OfficeMax, and several other Fortune 500 and 1000 companies. His recent work has focused on international projects, and he has led implementations for foreign subsidiaries of several U.S. companies. He has published several articles and has been quoted numerous times in major publications such as the New York Times, InfoWorld, Project Manager Today, CIO India, American Way, and Business 2.0.

We live in one of the most interesting times in the history of the corporate Information Technology organization. The function of IT in today's organizations is no longer limited to providing a commodity service at the lowest possible cost and the CIO can no longer be seen simply as a "technologist." IT in the twenty-first century is all about helping your company execute on its strategic objectives, with the CIO playing a more proactive role in focusing IT's efforts on deliver-ing strategy.

A revolutionary book providing a step-by-step methodology for creating a value-based IT organization, Breakthrough IT details the multidisciplined approach companies must take to considering, selecting, and delivering large IT projects that generate maximum return on investment.

Filled with case studies, analysis, and commentary illustrating both successful and failed projects, as well as several enlightening interviews with leading C-suite executives in various stages of implementing Breakthrough IT in their own companies, readers will learn how IT is being used in various organizations and will gain insight from the front line across multiple industries, company sizes, and continents.

Combining several disciplines with the goal of making IT serve business objectives rather than provide and service tools, Breakthrough IT:

• Reveals how IT should deliver and execute business strategy, and not just provide a portfolio of commodity services

• Provides a methodology for transitioning IT from the old way of doing business into a Breakthrough IT organization

• Explores how the CIO can be the primary person responsible for instituting process change, rather than a mere keeper of technology

• Provides guidelines for the CEO and CIO to move their relationship from one of customer and vendor, to one of partners in fueling business growth

• Spells out the critical roles of the CEO and CIO in driving change

• Shows CIOs how to develop process expertise within their organization

With useful action points and an executive sum-mary at the end of each chapter, Breakthrough IT contains concrete steps you can begin taking in your organization to transform its IT function into a true Breakthrough IT shop. Guide your IT organization from an engineering, "utility-based," internal provider to a Breakthrough IT organization, capable of delivering predictable and measurable returns on IT investment. Equip your company to break through with Breakthrough IT.

Praise for Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value Through Technology

"As business changes, so, too, does the role of the CIO and the overall IT organization. In Breakthrough IT, Patrick Gray provides a necessary roadmap for shifting IT from an operational entity that simply manages technology, to a powerhouse that combines strategy and technology to deliver measurable business results and long-term value."
—Mark D. Lutchen, Former global CIO, PricewaterhouseCoopers and author of the bestselling book Managing IT as a Business

"Breakthrough IT drives home how to gain tangible business value from IT resources. By providing remarkably valuable insights and guidance for serious executives, Patrick Gray has created a gem of a book containing a treasury rich with compelling ideas and examples."
—Andrew Boynton, Dean of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and former professor of strategy and program director of the Executive MBA Program at IMD, Europe's leading business school

Today's business climate is one of global unprecedented change, be it in response to the new global playing field, the advent of disruptive technologies, or a changing labor market. How can you ensure your IT spending is actually delivering value to your company?

Pragmatic and insightful, Breakthrough IT is the first book to show corporations how to move onto the next step in the evolution of their corporate IT function and look beyond the technologies that have been the focus of the IT industry.

Too often, technology is an ongoing cost to be constrained, rather than a strategythat can further a company's long and short range objectives. Breakthrough IT shows your company how it can generate unprecedented competitive advantage by revolutionizing IT to create a value engine for your corporation.