Sep 14, 2018
In a
recent post, I referenced this post that I wrote 6 years ago. I
thought I would go back and record it, unedited. Let me know if you
agree that it sadly still applies to many companies even today.
Originally published - May 22, 2012 
Let's face it, I.T. is a big expense. As a
former CEO of several organizations, I can tell you looking at the
I.T. expense is a head shaker. Chalked up as a "cost of doing
business" today, I.T. is a significant line item on just about any
company's budget. It is also one of those items that is considered
"non-revenue generating", like rent or accounting fees. And, like
many CEO's, when you question the I.T. expense, you will get a
litany of reasons that you won't understand that all sum up with
the idea that the world will end if you cut a penny of it. As a
former CEO, I can tell you, CEO's do not like
I.T.. We do not like anything we feel hostage to. We do
not like any
"non-revenue generating" expenses. Just look at our face at the
next budget meeting. Don't get me wrong, we don't mind spending
money. When the Marketing Director proposes a new $20K initiative
to bring in more customers, we will smile; but when the I.T.
Director proposes a new $20K Exchange Server, just so we can
continue to have email the same as before, we will frown. As an
I.T. Director or Manager, you already know this; if you are not
okay with this, read on. We speak with a lot of folks in the I.T.
Community about "Cloud"; in particular, Software as a Service or
"SaaS". Their reactions have certainly run the gamut, and by now I
can usually tell, within about 30 seconds, where they are going to
come down on incorporating Cloud into their organization. If the
first words out of their mouth is "security", then I know that they
have either latched onto this red herring for job preservation or
they are uninformed. Neither of which is good for us. For one
thing, much of what is perceived as "Cloud", is not Cloud, as I
outlined in this
post. For the uninformed, we can provide information, but as we
are providing it, I find myself wondering "why don't you already
know this stuff?". A smaller group, are the Job Preservationists,
but the irony is that they are even more uninformed than the
uninformed. 
Most I.T. Managers are smart
people, but maybe a little paranoid. This is not their fault. As I
said above, their function has often been viewed as "a necessary
evil", and they have adapted to that role. The concept of "Value
Creation" has never been a part of their department's agenda, but I
think it's about time it was added. I am sure some I.T.
Managers reading this are thinking "You are full of crap Steve, I
create value everyday". No, you don't. "Without me, our whole
organization would grind to a halt!" Yes, and my car would grind to
a halt if it ran out of gas, but the gas does not create value, it
is an expense required for me to go somewhere so that I can create
value. Let's face it, most of I.T. today is simply gas. You
provide the basic functions, like email, so the sales guy can
create value. This is why you get dissappointed if the CEO
does not congratulate you on that speedy installation of that new
server blade. To the CEO, it's gas, we only notice if we run out;
but you will definately hear from us then. So, is I.T. a thankless
job? Yes, it usually is. Can that be changed? Maybe... if you can
look at role differently, and consider breaking out of your I.T.
bubble. The tools exist today for I.T. to be a value creator. This
is new. So how can you move from where you are in your
organization, to where you want to be: "A Hero"? The first step is
to understand the concept of "Value Creation"... in your CEO's
terms. You have to get past the idea, if you have it, that "Cloud
will put you out of a job" or "diminish your role" as neither of
these are true. In fact, far from it. In order to be able to create
value for your organization you need to free up some bandwidth. The
best place to start is to look at some of what you are doing today
that is not creating value. This is not easy, as you have to view
this from the CEO's perspective. For example, whatever part of your
day you are spending on your Exchange server, updating, adding or
deleting users, backing up mailboxes, etc. may well seem important
to you, but in your CEO's eyes, this is gas. Whatever time you are
spending running around to user computers, applying updates,
removing viruses, swapping hard-drives, etc....Gas. You get the
idea. So we have identified some areas where we are acting as a Gas
Station Attendant (I know they don't exist anymore). Let's throw
our head back and think about what we could do if we had that time
back. With our new found time, we might stop by the Marketing
Director's office and say "What technologies would make your job
more effective?". After their initial shock of having maybe met you
for the first time, and realizing that this might be the first time
an I.T. person asked them a question like that, they will probably
say something like "As a matter of fact, I have some ideas".
Implementing initiatives that make the marketing of your
organization's producst or services is absolutely Value Creating in
the eyes of any CEO. You get the concept, your opportunities to
create value are many, but we skipped over how you get out of the
Gas Attendant role. This is where today's cloud and software as a
service is your best friend. Let's explore one example, one that
can free up a lot of Gas Attending: Microsoft's Office 365. What if
you could snap your fingers and your exchange server dissappeared?
While we're at it, there goes the SharePoint Server as well. Oh,
and also all the licenses for them. Speaking of licenses, poof,
there goes all the Microsoft Office licenses... vanished. And
perfect timing too as you were looking at a nasty budget meeting
wherein you were going to need to relay that Office is overdue for
an expensive upgrade. While we may not be creating value yet, we
are reducing the "Non-Revenue Generating" expense of our
department... that puts a smile on a CEO's face also. 
"But Steve", you say, "Office 365 isn't
free". Nope, it is going to cost your organization somewhere
between $2 and $20 per month per user (depending on needs). "But
won't that eclipse my on-premise costs over time?" Nope, for a
couple of reasons. First, we moved a Capital Expense over to an
Operating Expense, you just made the CFO smile, if you don't know
why, go ask him/her. Second, these cloud guys are smart; they have
priced their subscriptions in such a way that by the time you get
anywhere close to having paid as much as an on-premise option, your
on-premise option needs an expensive update. Make no mistake, even
Microsoft wants you in the cloud, and they have priced it to be a
no-brainer. Take a look at the Forrester Research Study
commissioned by Microsoft comparing the cost of Office 365 with
on-premise solutions... including mostly their own on-premise
stuff. Microsoft offers a free 30 day trial of Office 365
so you can check it out. The trial includes the fully featured
product with 25 users so you can put it to the test. So, put down
that gas nozzle and start creating value for your company!