Of course, this approach doesn't replace ROI analysis. Indeed, only those projects that have been studied in terms of dollars and cents can rise to the level of a portfolio investment, Bertch says.
The investment-portfolio approach is championed by several consulting firms, most notably Meta Group and Giga Information Group. Perhaps the most important component of the strategy is that it forces you to recheck your math before entering each successive project phase. Many IT shops create an ROI analysis at the very start of a project, when the least is known about what results they can expect, according to Giga analyst Alistair Stewart, who is working with Life Time.
"When the universe of knowledge is most imperfect, you're dedicating money to the project," he says. "It's a crude process." Once the business case is made and the funding is in hand, enterprises typically set the ROI worksheet aside and never revisit it. Giga's services in this area range from $40,000 to $100,000 per year and include an analyst who shows the company how to evaluate IT assets and track the rise and fall of that value.
IT executives who shake their heads at such fees might do well to count all those IT projects that remain on life support long after the plug should have been pulled.
Further Updates
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
