Helping Achieve CIO and IT Success

At ITM Software, we strive to bring a more thoughtful approach to the business of enterprise software. Although building great software products for the IT community is a significant part of what we do, our overarching goal is to do whatever is necessary to ensure the success of the CIO and IT organization. We understand that in many cases there are multiple components to the success equation, of which effective tools is only one. In light of this approach, ITM Software has invested in several areas beyond its integrated suite of software products. The CIO Success Guide is the product of years of developing and applying best practices to the discipline of IT business management.

The CIO Success Guide is a collection management briefs covering IT management methodologies and enterprise software deployment strategies. These best practices leverage the collective insights of the ITM Software team and its extended relationships within the IT community. The CIO Success Guide is available to any ITM Software customer; its goal is the sharing of IT knowledge and insights that can fuel successful CIOs and IT teams.

General IT Business Management Briefs

• IT Business Management Overview - Overview of IT business management and strategies for balancing IT projects against IT service requests and maintenance.
• IT Inventory Management - Discussion of the value of establishing an IT inventory to manage assets, applications, clients, business processes, staff, services, and vendors, including the likely sources of this data.
• Integrating the ITM Software Application - Discussion of how an IT organization can best utilize ITM Software products, including the appropriate sources of data and the recommended order for implementing the Seven Pillars.
• Business Objectives and IT - Discussion of the importance of aligning IT to organizational objectives and effective strategies for ensuring alignment.
• IT Service Definition - Discussion of what defines an IT service and service management strategies.
• IT Staff Optimization - Discussion of human capital issues related to managing IT and strategies for optimizing IT staff utilization.

• IT Finance Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) - Detailed discussion and examples of a 4-step IT Business Management TCO model.

• The Six Elements of a Successful IT Project - Discussion of the critical success factors necessary for a successful IT project, and a basic project management overview.
• IT Project Portfolio Assessment - Discussion of the methodology used in successful evaluation of an IT project portfolio.
• IT Project Prioritization - Discussion of strategies for working with clients to prioritize project requests and establishing shared ownership between IT and the business.
• Integrating Project Portfolio Management with Existing IT Processes - Discussion of change management strategies for addressing the cultural changes necessary for successful deployment of Project Portfolio Management methodologies.
• IT Project Cost Estimating - Discussion of how to estimate project costs and the appropriate metrics to be tracked in project spending.
• IT Project Learning - Discussion of the post-IT-project review process and how a Project Portfolio Management model can support learning from one project to another.

• IT Vendor Consolidation - Discussion of the value of vendor consolidation and strategies for successfully addressing the consolidation opportunity.
• IT Outsourcing Strategies - Discussion of what factors an IT organization should consider when determining opportunities for outsourcing.

• An Introduction to Sarbanes-Oxley for IT Managers - Overview of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, its implications for IT, and a model for approaching IT SOX compliance.
• The Application of IT Governance Frameworks for Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance - Overview of the predominant IT governance frameworks with a focus on CobiT and its relationship to Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance.
• Translating Sarbanes-Oxley from the Audit World to IT - Discussion of the audit-based principles behind the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and how they relate to common IT management practices.