Shake IT up

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Getting your finances in order

IT groups are under the gun to show ROI, yet often they are missing a critical post in making this happen - a financial expert on their management team.

"This position has very little to do with technology," says Corey Ferengul, senior vice president at Meta Group. "Instead it deals with doing a financial analysis of IT. 'Do we really understand what we're spending and why?'"

Ferengul says adding a financial guru to the IT organization could change the way technology teams operate. "They need to get a grip on finances and in most cases they've already done cost-cutting."

The financial manager would take charge of metrics for the group. Analysis tools for application and network performance and aggregated information would flow through this person. "He could provide meaningful metrics for people outside of technology roles [like the executive team] and put those metrics into context [to justify investments]."

Some IT groups already have a financial guru in their midst - the CFO. But Nemertes' Johnson says IT groups should be doing their own financial vetting before information hits the CFO's desk. "Strategic investments can be compromised if the CFO gets involved in the IT decision-making," she says. "Their job is to keep costs down. IT needs to be treated like a business within a business. You need your own accounting unit."

Compliance manager

Experts say that IT organizations should add a compliance manager to their ranks because most companies fall under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Sarbanes-Oxley Act or other government mandates.

Andy Avila, IT and security manager at Cooley Goddard, a law firm in San Francisco, has a lawyer on his IT team to handle compliance questions. He also turns to a firm-wide risk management committee. "We draw on their expertise for help with these issues," he says.

Some experts argue that the security officer - another new title in IT groups - should handle compliance.

Wish list

For industry analysts, the list goes on about who should be part of the IT department.

Ferengul says an important area that needs representation is asset control. "IT organizations need to know what they have and where it's at," he says. He considers this role more than just inventory control. "It's the life-cycle management, maintenance contract upkeep and more."

Johnson says she'd like to see a messaging guru who would tackle not only e-mail but also issues surrounding real-time collaboration and presence.

They agree that a storage officer will come about soon - someone to deal with privacy, redundancy and disaster recovery on more than a technical level.

MBAs all around?

As more positions that involve business sense are added to the corporate IT ladder, IT managers are noticing the change.

Ferengul adds, "IT's growing up and there's nothing wrong with that. In the past, it's been a service bureau of technologists following the lead of whomever is directing them. Now it needs to be more mature and run like a business unit with all the analysis and all the managerial skill and all the vision expected of any other business unit."

"Do I think IT folks need business degrees? No. I don't want to see a bunch of MBAs running routers. But they do need to understand beyond the speeds and feeds. They need to know how it's going to affect the business," he says.

Johnson sees the opportunity for IT a bit differently. "It's not about IT getting smarter about business,"he says. "It's about IT educating users about how to get more out of the business. IT has to take on a sales role and convince folks to buy into their ideas."

Gonzales adds a reality check. "I hear a lot about how IT folks need to know the business, but all we have time for is day-to-day tasks. After all, with security, we want to keep the bad guys out and keep everyone patched. That task won't change with a better understanding of business management."

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