The Practical CIO: A Common Sense Guide for Successful IT Leadership

Chapter 2. Proactively Establish Goals for IT

Executive Summary

Don't wait for someone to tell you what to do or you'll always be trailing the pack. In a challenging economy, it's actually easier to set realistic goals and accomplish them than it is during periods of rapid growth. Since all areas of the business are in a cost-cutting mode, now is the perfect time to simplify your IT landscape by eliminating legacy systems and redundant components. Remember, IT owns the systems, so there's no excuse for not acting swiftly when the opportunity arises to ditch a costly and inefficient legacy system and revamp or replace it with a more cost-effective alternative.

You Call the Shots

As CIO, you know your company's IT systems better than anyone. Or at least you should. Don't put yourself in a position where someone else is telling you what to do with your IT systems. That would be unfortunate. You're the boss of IT; you call the shots.

Obviously, one of your first tasks will be cutting costs. You will have to move aggressively and intelligently. Don't bother looking for low-hanging fruit. By now, most of it will be gone.

My suggestion is to divide your cost-cutting activities into three tracks. That will make the decision-making process more manageable. Remember, this is likely to be the most difficult challenge of your career. Here are the three tracks I use to "divide and conquer" my cost-cutting objectives:

1. Discretionary spending

2. Non-discretionary spending

3. Service contracts

Discretionary Spending ...