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On that basis, CBS/Viacom has killed several application-development projects this year alone (Kapsch declined to identify them). In the past, these projects probably would have continued to receive funding, if only to justify previous spending, she says. This is how projects end up taking on a life of their own in many organizations; no one wants to pull the plug. "Three years ago, we just got the money and never tracked the benefits," says Kapsch, who reports to the CIO.
Over time, this new approach is helping CBS/Viacom apply more resources to new, strategic IT projects and reduce the cost of maintaining older systems. Plans are to digitize the audio and video produced by CBS, its affiliates and the Infinity Radio group, a project that Kapsch says would not have been possible had CBS/Viacom not halted funding for underperforming projects.
Smaller IT shops also are beginning to question the value of conventional ROI analysis, especially those provided by vendors. When New York public relations firm Burson-Marsteller became interested in issuing BlackBerry e-mail pagers to mobile workers, Research In Motion, the maker of the devices, estimated a savings of as high as $49,000 per employee, per year, based on saved time and faster responses. "I realized there was no way I could hand that to my CFO because he'll say it's rubbish," says CIO Jeff Marshall. "It was just too ridiculous."
Instead, Marshall worked within the confines of what he was authorized to do on his own. He established a pilot group of a handful of senior account managers. Then he watched closely and collected the managers' anecdotes about using the devices to see what benefits they were receiving from them.
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