Cognos solutions for information technology

IT can be to your company what high-tech firms have been to the economy: a catalyst for change and an engine driving rapid growth. Why? Technology and information have become so important to how companies operate that even small changes can dramatically affect your ability to manage the performance of the business.

This opportunity is reflected in your company's IT assets accumulated over years due to large IT budgets, often second only to payroll in size.

• How many of these assets are still underutilized, for whatever reason?
• What impact on results would an across-the-board 10% increase in return on assets (ROA) have?

IT's daily pressures often derive from thankless, sometimes no-win tasks, such as ensuring core service levels of up-time, data quality, security and compliance. Beyond these basic operations - "keeping the lights on" - IT must also respond to the never-ending and always-changing needs of their business customers.

For IT to meet its opportunity of being the pathfinder to better performance, it needs to understand and manage five key decision areas. The sequence of these decision areas provides a logical and iterative flow of analysis and action for better performance management.

• Business value map: Where and how does IT drive business value for performance?
• IT portfolio management: How are IT assets optimized for greatest ROA and performance?
• Project/SDLC management: Are projects on time, on budget, on target?
• IT vendor management: Are you managing vendor service levels and costs for better performance?
• IT compliance management: Are your managing IT risks and controls for better performance?