Findings - The Best Best Practices

4. Employ IT department-dedicated business-type positions: 3.69

5. Win and showcase IT awards: 3.66

(Ratings based on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 was least effective and 5 was completely effective.)

Top 10 Most Utilized Practices

1. Regularly use project management methodologies: 96%

2. Conduct regular strategic planning meetings to achieve alignment: 93%

3. Conduct internal customer satisfaction surveys: 86%

4. Create and use performance metrics: 81%

5. Regularly use portfolio management or other project prioritization methodology: 80%

6. Perform financial audits: 79%

7. Use leadership development programs: 79%

8. Make the CIO a member of the corporate board or executive committee: 76%

9. Employ internal relationship managers/account executives to work with the business: 75%

10. Conduct post-implementation audits: 74%

(Percentages refer to number of respondents using this practice.)

5 ROI winners & losers

The most effective practices that were relatively easy to implement

1. Employ an IT-dedicated financial officer

2. Make the CIO a member of the corporate board or executive committee

3. Issue IT P&L statements

4. Regularly use portfolio management or other project prioritization methodology

5. Win and showcase IT awards


The least effective practices that were most difficult to implement
1. Price IT services based on value (versus cost)

2. Implement quality improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma or Capability Maturity Model

3. Create risk-and-reward-sharing arrangements with vendors

4. Forecast demand for IT services based on metrics

5. Benchmark operations against best-practice IT shops

5 Worth the Extra Effort

Relatively difficult but highly effective practices

1. Formally manage risk

2. Conduct IT staff talent gap analysis

3. Use a chargeback model

4. Create and use performance metrics

5. Establish a project management office


How to Read the Charts
We broke down the IT business into seven functions, then asked respondents about specific practices.

The first column, "% Practicing," indicates which of the specific practices our respondents employ.

In the second column, "Effectiveness," we asked how effective the specific practice was in achieving their goals. Respondents were given a sliding scale of 1 to 5, with 1 indicating not at all effective and 5 indicating completely effective. We then took the average of those ratings for each practice, and rounded to two decimal points.

The third column, "Difficulty," shows how difficult the specific practice was to implement. Again, respondents were given a sliding scale of 1 to 5, with 1 indicating not at all difficult and 5 indicating very difficult. We then took the average of those ratings for each practice, and rounded to two decimal points.


Use the Profiler
Want to find what to do to best suit you? Use our online IT as a Business Profiler. Choose your specific goal for running IT like a business, and based on survey data, we’ll compute a profile of practices optimized for achieving that benefit. Go to www.cio.com/ritlab.


Methodology: CIO conducted the study, "How to Run IT Like a Business," online from
Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, 2003. We identified a select group of CIOs recognized by CIO editors and industry leaders for effectively managing IT, and invited them to take the survey,

which itself was crafted with input from respected IT leaders and topic experts. Results are based on the responses of 103 IT executives, 82% of whom held the title of CIO. Four percent were CTOs, 5% were vice presidents of IT, and the remaining 9% were directors of IT for their

organizations. Survey respondents represented a broad range of industries including manufacturing (20%), finance (12%), insurance (12%), federal, state and local government (10%), and wholesale, retail and distribution (10%). Twenty-six percent of executives included in our study came from very large organizations with greater than 10,000 employees, while 51% were with companies that have 1,000 to 10,000 employees. Less than one-quarter (23%) came from companies with fewer than 1,000 employees.