Put the words “IT” and “technology” to the side. Focus on the business problem at hand and the investment that is required. Start with defining what is the critical investment is to be successful and how you will measure business outcomes. For example, “We need $15M to ensure that we are buffered from an outage such as CrowdStrike and mitigate risks including short-term revenue loss and longer-term revenue impact due to a poor customer brand experience. “
Adopt an Investment Philosophy: For some of IDC’s Council members, IT is still viewed as a utility. Flip the way you speak about IT to change the paradigm. Frame up IT spend just like an investment banker. Tell the story based upon revenue, cash and operating income. For example, the strategic investment in IT will generate $x in revenue. Do not go boost your business with our doctor database for the pot of gold, rather define the right size of investment for the near-term and longer-term expected returns. Breaking down your investment into bite size chunks allows you to truly prove the value of IT more immediately.
Lay out the Investment Process for Business Acceleration: Identify the steps to deliver value back to the business including how long it will take for the business to start to realize an initial return and expected timeframe for full results. Council members highlighted the benefit of using the term “business acceleration” rather than “change management” to smooth out the typical user adoption challenges and align to language the CEO and Board of Directors understand.