Technology Investment Decisions

Technology Investment Decisions

ACLEA January 2011

Begin with the Big Picture

Technologys Role in Your Organizations Vision and Strategic Direction

Product Lines

Operations

Whats the impact of Big Tech Trends?

New formats & delivery modes

New communication channels

New business operations

Narrow Your Attention

Define your goals for a specific investment in technology

The Low Cost Webcast Provider for [xxx State Law or The Leader in Interactive Online Education

Define the measures of success

1,000 registrations in the first 12 months

$150,000 in income

Narrow Your Attention-cont.

What impact do you expect on your position in the marketplace/ your brand?

Who is responsible for achieving success?

Seminar director (for registrations/sales)

Technology lead (for enabling the tech)

Marketing director (impact on brand)

Understand Your Current Tech Platforms

What tech platforms do you use now?

Are any going to change soon?

Does the new technology need to interface with existing systems and software?

Investigate Tech Options

Given our goals for x, what technology would you recommend?

Do we have several options?

If so, what's the advantage/disadvantage of each?

Who's the dominate provider/ or what's the dominant programming language?

Issomething new on the horizon? If so, when is a transition to the new likely to occur?

Investigate Tech Optionscont.

What staff (or outside contract worker) skills are needed for this implementation? Are these skills readily available in the market place?

How will this technology need tointegrate or interface with our existing tech systems?

What are the problems and issues in the area of integration?

What will it take (staff and software upgrades) to maintain your proposed approach?

IT Strategic Planning

On your markGet setGo!

On your mark
(Know your starting point and direction)

Technology vision

Align guiding principles

ID platform changes

Buy-in

Get set
(Put yourself in the position to succeed)

Create plan

Create budget

Set measurements

Communicate

Go!
(Take steps toward your goals)

Execute your plan

Measure benefits

Communicate

Results of IT strategic planning

1. Project Portfolio Management2. An Assessment Framework3. Questions

A brief history of Project Portfolio Management

ITPROJECTS

ITASSETS

BusinessCase

Innovations, Demand, Ideas

Resourcing

Delivery

Learning

Assets

Run

Optimize

Re-invest

Retire

Projects

Executive &Governance

BusinessIntelligence

The Executive PPM Bicycle

Should be done as a manual practice before considering tools

Can be done by using spreadsheets

PMI has BoK on PPM

Practices for PPM

?

An Assessment Framework

The Discussions.

Archive!

What does the business case say?Product Features

The product has features that fulfill business case requirements. List the high level features to be individually assessed.

Check references!Ability to deliver

Organization has existing (positive) relationship with vendor, product or technology or has client references to provide assessment of candidates ability to deliver.

Be comprehensive!Cost

When a solution is costed it includes two attributes; the initial cost of software, consulting and required infrastructure, and the ongoing costs of maintaining the software and infrastructure. Solutions can vary greatly within these two cost attributes. Ongoing costs should also include all HR related costs of running the solution from an operational perspective.

Is it self healing?Sustainability (TCO)

This is a care and feeding question. Does the solution require a great deal of care or is it self healing. The sustainability also includes the solutions ability to stay current to the organizations business and strategic needs. It is also important to consider internal acceptance of the solution(s).

Where are we now and where do we want to go?Alignment

Alignment includes many attributes, does the solution align with our current infrastructure, our current internal skills and knowledge, our current roadmap and our current strategy.

RFI
vs.
RFP

Its about openness!

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Second level

Third level

Fourth level

Fifth level

Again, it's the Discussions

?

Thank-you

Lynn Chard, ICLEYvette Harms, ICLEPeter Rawsthorne, CLEBC

Attribution

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingdesmond/3083279699/http://www.flickr.com/photos/wygd/2590332858/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/xixidu/514678085http://www.flickr.com/photos/coyenator/2722929942http://www.flickr.com/photos/glamhag/1806217422/http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasoneppink/52555640http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyjcase/4466640257 http://www.flickr.com/photos/44468093@N04/4148153082/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdell/113811480 http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytudut/5189224326

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24/01/11