Lessons From the Field: Beyond ROI: Page 2 of 16

First and foremost, you must understand the underlying business that your IT department is serving, says Jim Kennedy, information systems and technology manager for United 1st Federal Credit Union, St. Marys, Ga. "If you don't," Kennedy says, "you're automating things blindly."

Kennedy says he keeps a list of business problems he's noticed. In any organization, of course, this list can be endless; the key is bringing up the problem when you can do something about it. For example, when there's a technology development Kennedy thinks will fill a need, he lets management know he's noticed a business problem and then presents the technology solution. In IT, as in comedy, timing is everything.

One technique typically used by IT managers is the old "save a couple of minutes" routine--that is, save line workers a few minutes here and there, and when you scale it to thousands of workers, you save a huge amount of money. But you must understand the business well enough to know when time savings might not translate into dollar savings.

"People try to come up with funny numbers and save 15 minutes of time booting up to justify a project, but ultimately, that isn't what sells those projects," says John Fuhrman, a project manager who has worked in both the airline and banking industries.

Indeed, you must take any type of measurement like this with a grain of salt. Top managers may look askance at the desirability of "saving time" in the morning while employees are already multitaksing--checking voicemail, making coffee or having their morning meetings--all while booting their PCs. We're all for dealing with staff time problems, but you must do so in conjunction with line managers, who have a good idea of how slack time is used. If you pitch throwing precious IT dollars and resources where there's no clear-cut business problem, you're eroding your credibility.