The “Realize” curriculum will help you understand the supply and demand management tactics that help ensure IT-enabled investments are generating value and protecting the long term needs of the enterprise.

IT spending continues to be viewed as an expense to be managed, not an investment to be optimized. The inability to quantify the value IT delivers to the business is the single most important factor that separates the CIO from a seat in the boardroom. There are financial and non-financial measures of success as defined by your company’s balanced scorecard, and unfortunately, too much emphasis is placed on measuring the financial returns from IT-enabled investments. There is not enough emphasis placed on the “leading indicators” of financial performance, the operational performance measures. By expanding the definition of value, it is possible to implement a closed loop investment management that allocates funds to the right initiatives, keeps initiatives focused and on track, and holds senior executives accountable for demonstrating value.

In addition to delivering value, CIOs are also expected to manage their cost structure efficiently and implement the mechanisms necessary to ensure that the long term needs of the enterprise – infrastructure agility, business continuity, and business compliance – are protected.