NEWSLETTERS
 

CIO.com updates, insights and advice on technology, management and your career.

 
 
 
LEADERSHIP
 
CIO Executive Programs
The Leader in Face-to-Face Education for Senior Executives

Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »

 
CIO Executive Council
A Peer-Advisory Service and Professional Association for CIOs

Social Responsibility's Strategic Benefits

December 15, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM US/Eastern (GMT-5)

Join Ed Granger-Happ, CIO of Save the Children, for a discussion of how creating an organization that is socially responsible improves staffing, retention, leadership development and overall corporate health.

Working With and Communicating to Your Board of Directors

January 13, 2009, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM US/Eastern (GMT-5)

CIO panelists who will share tips and experiences working with their boards: Twila Day of SYSCO; Jeff O'Hare, West Corp.; Marc West, formerly with H&R Block.

IT's Role in Growing Mid-Market Companies

January 14, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM ET (GMT-5)

Mid-market Council members will share their companies' stories and challenges in driving or coping with growth. Panelists represent Veterinary Pet Insurance, Medicis Pharmaceutical, and Intrax Cultural Exchange.

More / Register »

Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »



 
 
RESOURCE CENTER
 
 
 
SUBSCRIBE TO CIO
 
Are you involved in setting the direction for your company's IT budget or strategy?

Apply today for a FREE subscription to CIO Magazine!

 
 

How to Fund IT Innovation

Struggling to find the time and money for innovation projects? Take advantage of your IT governance process to get business buy-in for infrastructure investments, training and inventive applications of technology.

 

March 31, 2008CIO — CIOs know that their organizations must keep up with rapidly evolving technologies as well as lead the enterprise in the discovery of strategic uses of IT. But with the daily pressures of business, many find there's just not enough time and money for innovation.

What happens to innovation projects? Clients need more than IT has resources to deliver. So staff diverts time away from training and product research to fulfill clients' demands. There just aren't enough hours in the day to do both.

Meanwhile, IT staff rarely find the time to work with clients to discover innovative, strategic uses of information technology. The last thing staff want is more work, when they don't have time to satisfy current business requirements. Unfortunately, current requirements are rarely all that innovative. They tend to be projects that "keep the business running" or "improve efficiencies." They're not breakthrough opportunities that utilize IT to enable business strategies. Again, short-term needs displace innovation.

Like time, money is tight. IT departments must invest in infrastructure to position themselves for the future. For the few really important, large infrastructure investments, CIOs may acquire funding, but often only after a significant investment of their personal time and "credibility chips" to sell these critical projects. For smaller infrastructure investments, however, IT may turn to clients for funding. But clients would rather pay for projects that deliver near-term business results than spend their money positioning the IT organization for the future.

Furthermore, we all know that when budgets are tight, training is the first thing to go. I call it "eating your seed corn." For lack of up-to-date skills, many IT organizations are forced to depend on external consultants and contractors to bring in needed new skills and technologies, while staff careers languish and the organization drifts slowly toward obsolescence.

Clearly, it's not a lack of interest from IT that impedes innovation projects. Time and money are the two constraints on innovation for most IT organizations. The answer to the problem of executing innovation can be found in the ways that an IT organization defines innovation and then funds it using its resource governance processes.

Three Types of Innovation

Innovation takes three distinct forms, and the funding channels differ for each. Distinguishing these three types of innovation is the first step toward designing resource governance processes that ensure a sustainable—and innovative—IT organization.

On the operations side of the IT organization, the word "innovation" connotes infrastructure enhancements. These range from simple additions to capacity to entirely new technologies and services.

Loading...
 
 
IT Jobs
 
 
 
ABCs
 

Just the basics, please. Sometimes we all need a refresher or we need to make sure our team and our colleagues are all on the same page.

Over 25 tutorials on everything from business intelligence to virtualization.

 
 
FEATURED SPONSORS
 
 
 
SPONSORED LINKS
 

Five Best Practices for Enterprise Collaboration Success

Leveraging Social Computing Technologies for ERP Applications

Best Practices: Safe and Secure Hardware Asset Recovery

Operational Excellence Is Key to Maximizing IT Investments

The Right and Wrong Master Data Management Strategies to Start Small and Grow Big

Paving the Way for Trusted Collaboration

State of the Market: Application Performance Management

Proactively Identify and Resolve Performance Issues

Union Bank of California Improves its Online Banking Services

The Link Between APM and Customer Satisfaction

Providing Around-the-Clock Customer Satisfaction

Make Hidden Trends, Inter-Relationships and Influences Visible.

"Enterprise-Proven" is the Prerequisite for Enterprise SaaS Portal Solutions

File Integrity Monitoring: Prove compliance and secure your IT environments

Affordable technology-no compromise. HP server solutions

SOA Educational Library at the TIBCO SOA Resource Center

CIO Viewpoints: Migrating to Exchange 2007

Thrive during global disruption. Cisco video featuring Juan Enriquez

A new level of interoperability. Make IT Work As One@novell.com

Protect data-HP All-in-One and Disk-Based systems

Businesses Transform with VMware Virtualization

Download the free CIO Starter Kit to access useful resources created by top CIOs

The Business of Managing Content: Xythos Document Management & Microsoft SharePoint

Server Virtualization Benchmark Results

White Paper: Never Enough Compute Power?

Deliver Social Computing Business Value

White Paper: Scaling Down HPC for Smaller Organizations

17 Ways to Reduce Cost in IT

Learning from BPM Leaders

Webcast: Mitigate Operational Risk- Real Answers for Tough Times

First-hand look at this never before seen research

Effectively Managing High-Performing, Business-Critical Web Applications

Managing Service Level Agreements to Achieve Business Goals

APM Solutions: A Window into Complex Web Applications

APM Solutions Offer Insight into Complex Web Applications

The ECM Paradox: Extending Local Flexibility to Strengthen Central Control

Customer Insight Yields Sales, Marketing Gains

Corral, configure and control all your mischievous machinery with a Lantronix device server

Spend less. Get hosted UC. Get cash back. It's easy under a Cypress

Predict the future with HP Insight Power Manager

Log onto Hitachi True Stories, films inspired by the next great achievement

Earn PROFESSIONAL DOCTORATE Part-Time, Online at Syracuse University's iSchool

Make IT Work As One@novell.com

Predict the future with HP Insight Power Manager

HP LaserJet P4014n printer starting at $799 after $100 IS. www.hp.com

CIO Starter Kit includes useful resources created by top CIOs. Free Download>>

How to Start a PMO & Realize the Benefits Fast

Virtualization Benchmark and TCO Analysis-Read Now

Learn to Leverage Maximum Computing Power

Windows Vista: Essential Benefits and Deployment Strategies