infoTECH Feature

August 12, 2008

PPM Drives More Effective IT Governance

While Project and Portfolio Management (PPM (News - Alert)) is not enough to meet all of the requirements of IT governance, it’s one of the most critical ingredients for a successful IT Governance strategy that produces and manages risk.
 
The aim of PPM is to measure available resources, such as time and money, against all of the proposed projects and apply a consistent methodology to align them with the goals of the business.
 
“Companies can get lost trying to implement overly complex IT governance strategies, and unfortunately, in the process, end up creating large bureaucracies and complex metrics that contribute little value to the organization,” said Keith Carlson, president and CEO of on-demand SaaS (News - Alert) vendor Innotas. “We’re finding that many companies have made rapid progress in their IT governance initiatives by starting with a PPM implementation focused on a simple and pragmatic approach. These companies have been able to make measurable impact on the business while implementing reasonable controls, adding layers of further sophistication only when and where they were really needed.”
 
IT governance is all about ensuring that IT produces the maximum possible value for the business. That means aligning IT with business, optimizing resources, and mitigating risk. PPM drives more effective IT governance because it enables organizations to prioritize the IT portfolio of projects and applications according to business objectives and expected benefits.
 
It also enables them to: respond to changing conditions and new opportunities by being able to rapidly reallocate resources with a full understanding of the impact; know exactly what projects people are working on, enabling them to make clear business decisions on what the priorities are and how well resources are utilized; and ensure that projects are delivered on time, on budget, and on quality.
 
“When we implemented our IT Governance process, we were actively working on 20 projects, and we identified 60 additional projects that our three business units wanted us to accomplish. So we needed to establish an effective prioritization process,” said Jerry Hodge, senior director of information services, Hamilton Beach Brands. “With the Innotas on-demand PPM solution as a core of our IT Governance process, we have complete visibility into all of our active and potential projects, and we can easily prioritize them and focus on the projects that add the most value to the business.”
 
If you’re thinking about leveraging PPM to help drive your IT governance strategy, first evaluate four key areas:
 
Alignment – assess whether you’re focusing on projects that provide the best value for the organization; Value – prioritizing the IT portfolio is an on-going process – standardized approval and review processes can provide baselines so you can adjust to shifting priorities; Resource Optimization – keeping the right resources focused on the projects that have the biggest impact is paramount; PPM provides visibility into how time is actually spent vs. ROI; Risk Mitigation – risks and unknowns associated with each project may be very different and should be factored in the prioritization process for better planning.
 
Many companies have successfully implemented IT governance strategies without overwhelming the people involved or bringing IT to a standstill. It is possible to both ensure that IT produces the best value for the business and that IT meets internal and regulatory compliance requirements. By making Project Portfolio Management a key element of your IT governance strategy you will provide the right level of visibility and processes for managing the IT portfolio, its resources, and risks.
 
Innotas provides the only on-demand PPM solution specifically designed to meet the needs of IT and IT Services organizations. With Innotas, managers and team members improve collaboration and can more effectively and efficiently manage IT initiatives, projects, and resources. For CIOs and executives, Innotas delivers deep visibility, automation, and analysis of the project portfolio, and resource planning and utilization. Their customers, including Crayola, Forbes, Hamilton Beach, Jo-Ann Stores, WorldVision and many others, span a wide range of industries including financial services, healthcare, retail, technology, telecommunications and energy. For more information please visit www.innotas.com.

Eve Sullivan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Eve's articles, please visit her columnist page.
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