Customer Reviews

Real Business of IT: How CIOs Create and Communicate Value

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What is the business value of IT? This is a perennial question that dominates executive discussions. Many have sought to answer this question with fancy algorithms, consulting practices, benchmark data and other tools. However, the question is basic to IT so it should have a basic answer - right? Absolutley and fortunately Hunter and Westerman provide much of the answer in this book.

The Real Business of IT is a clear and focused look at the issue of IT value and the approaches to capture, communicate and increase that value. This book is unique in several respects. It is a book written for CIOs largely based on the experience of CIOs.

The book features extended practices from leading companies like McKesson, Intel, Freescale, Deltak and many others. Building on those sources, Hunter and Westerman explain a simple virtuous cycle for driving IT value. They illustrate this cycle with about a dozen concepts that CIOs can use tomorrow to change the way they talk about value.

Hunter and Westerman make good use of these resources creating a book that is filled accessible information. One of the ways they do this is through using analogies from outside of IT. This not only makes the ideas easy to understand but also it gives the CIOs stories that they can use to inform and educate their business peers about IT.

This book helps CIOs avoid common value traps that limit the view of IT's value in the enterprise. It then goes on to build the tools and techniques to demonstrate the value for money in IT, how IT helps run, grow and transform the enterprise, manage IT's unit costs, and other key concepts.

The book is tuned and intended for CIOs and IT executives, rather than business executives. This is not to say business executives should not read this book, its just that it is not written for them. By focusing on CIOs, the authors avoid much of the complexity found in other books. This should be taken as a strength since that focus enables the authors to clearly provide practices and tools that CIOs can use.

The business value of IT sits in the conversations within your enterprise not in compliance with some industry standard. Therefore, I would suggest that CIOs use this book with their teams to build that conversation, in their terms and their situation.

This book is highly recommended for CIOs and IT executives all of whom will face the need to answer questions about the value of IT. In this book, CIOs will learn directly from the authors as well as the insights of leading CIOs and their examples. This is a powerful combination that makes the investment in The Real Business of IT a good value.

Strengths

Anchoring IT value solidly in terms of business performance. This is critical to establishing a clear and unequival way of measuring the value of IT.
Actionable and practical advise that comes directly from CIO experience.

Contains positive and negative examples on the business value of IT

Clearly illustrated tables and tools that CIOs can put into action quickly

References actual performance data and metrics

Uses non-IT analogies and stories that facilitate both understanding IT value issues and CIOs to use these analogies to make their own case in the enterprise.

Challenges

While the book is strong in terms of tools and advice, many of these specfics are generic. This means that CIOs will have to tailor these tools to their own situation. This is not a big weakness, as CIOs should not simply implement solutions blindly.

Business executives often express value in terms of financial measures and terms. While the book advises CIOs to focus on business performance, it could have done with some expanded financial content.

The latter chapters that discuss BPR and organizations change cover them in a traditional way. This reinforces the importance of creating value beyond more than just IT.

How do we fix IT's problems? Well, Hunter and Westerman gave us the answer: pick up more work! Yes, and it actually does make sense. Be responsible for MORE things and your success rate will increase.

This book is about how to really deliver value from IT. It is based on changing IT's mindset. You've probably read much on this topic before, but this book sums it all up and more. And it does have suggestions that can be readily applied.

Every manager in IT should read this book!

This is a book that every IT manager or CIO must read. It discuss and explain the challenges of the relationship IT/Business, give concrete set of priciples and examples with useful recommendations on how to master the challenge and create and communicate value for and to business.It is written in a very clear, easy to read and understand language.

Hunter and Westerman do a great job defining what true value is to an IT shop. I wish CIO's would make their employees read this book as it provides an easy to understand perspective of how IT should understand value. Additionally he makes great parallels on why IT should change its perception of value relative to the rest of the organization. This book has helped my consulting firm make it easier for executives to understand value delivery. I recommend it for anyone wanting to have a seat at the executive decision making table.

Gartner nailed this one. This book focuses on what is really important when running an IT organization. No wasted time talking about team building, SOA, or any other buzzwords of the day. It is all about driving business value, and doing the salesmenship required in the world of IT.

This book explains the real world of IT.
It shows the reasons for the generalized discontent with IT that afflicts most companies. More, it shows how to turn around the IT department and create a productive relationship with all other areas. It shows how to turn IT into a valuable asset, a prime mover, a fundamental tool for the evolution and growth of the company.
A very important reading for all IT executives, and also for the Non IT executives.
In a short sentence: it shows the true meaning of a good IT Governance.

This book has been a valuable to in helping to change the frame of mind from "Up-time" metrics to Business Value metrics. I would recommend this book for anyone at any level of IT.

Approach suggested by Authors is basic commonsense, but definitely relevant, useful and practical, which many people miss out. However this could have been articulated in just a few dozen pages, perhaps as a main article in a magazine rather than a 200 page long book. Result is verbose text, with plenty of repetition and many needless references to what contemporary CIOs, CxOs told the authors or in magazine interviews. What would have helped is giving a set of structured/concrete Checklists/Benchmarks either directly or in the case studies to supplement the suggested value creation 'framework'.

Are you in IT? Do you want to make your department advance? Do you want to advance yourself? Do you want your company to advance? So, what are you waiting for? Read this book. Now. Yes, now. Don't wait!

You'll thank me later.

(I can go on and on, but suffice to say I ordered *hundreds* of this book as a present for Tango/04 Monitoring Symposium attendants... mostly CIOs, CTOs and CISOs... and they loved it!).

I just picked this up and cannot put it down. After 10 years in IT I see why CXXs don't get it. We have been speaking German to Spaniards. I highly recommend this book it is full of good ideas on how to more effectively communicate what IT does and why. It is an easy read and not too long.