Top Tips to help manage and govern a balanced portfolio of IT assets

Use IT to innovate your business…but make sure have the basics in place to start with

1. Consider your IT investments as a portfolio of stocks and shares
Manage your IT assets with the same vigilance as you would your own financial investments – ensure you derive the best value from the good ones and dispense with the least performing ones. Once you’ve determined what’s working and what’s not, invest more in the successful projects and either put remediation steps in place or cut your losses entirely on those that aren’t hitting the mark. This will help you to manage your IT more effectively.

2. Know how much you want to spend on your BAU IT and stick to it
Limiting the budget for ‘keeping the lights on’, usually through headcount, may mean certain BAU projects take longer to deliver. However, the plus side is it enables you to invest budget into game changing technologies. The ‘Run as’ part of your business is important but not as important as growing your business.

3. IT is open for business
That means creating an all-inclusive framework which enables all stakeholders to have their input in to the projects to deliver real value for the business.

4. Build a strong IT base which you can trust to run your BAU
Let’s face it, if you can’t manage the basics, keeping your email server up and running for example, then how well will you be able to build and develop a digital strategy for your business? Freeing up your IT department to work alongside other departments within your business avoids the creation of ‘shadow IT’, brings real value to the business and improves how the IT department is perceived within the business.

5. Make an inventory of your IT project portfolio
Creating a strong governance process to measure your IT portfolio will help you to gain a clear visibility of all the IT assets you have and monitor how they’re performing. Keep monitoring how much value they are yielding, even after the project is completed, as the business changes over time, so may the project’s benefit to the business.