Run IT Like a Business
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IT Business Management is about defining the services IT offers its customers, putting a cost on those services and providing transparency such that IT’s customers know what they are getting from IT and what they could get from IT.
The transparency provided by running IT in this manner leads to several changes in the way IT is perceived and treated by its customers. First, IT can show why the total cost of IT (the IT budget) tends to grow even when the unit cost of providing IT services is shrinking. Just like a car that can go 300 miles on a tank of gas, if you increase its efficiency to go 350 miles, you still can’t go 400 miles without paying for more fuel. IT Business Management is how leading IT organizations provide transparency into the linkage between how much an IT service costs and how demand for that service affects the total cost of IT – just like a business whose costs rise when it sells more. Except that in the case of IT, the management team typically doesn’t collect a bonus for selling more IT.
