A report on a half day workshop on IT Value Management organised by CIO Academy Asia and sponsored by NetApp in Singapore in March 2017.

1. POST EVENT SUMMARY REPORT

2. Driving and Communicating IT value by CIOs
A report on a half-day workshop on IT Value Management organised by CIO Academy Asia and sponsored by NetApp
in Singapore in March 2017
Increasingly, IT Leaders are under pressure to function within tighter budgets because of the overall economic
environment that the world finds itself in: there are internal forces (cost pressures, declining margins, and smaller
headcounts) as well as external forces (new regulations and technological developments) that drive the daily
operations and the strategic direction of the IT departments. In such a challenging situation like this, IT Leaders have
a tough time to navigate carefully in order to deliver the value required by their businesses. However, their very
survival and success depends on their ability to communicate to their boards and stakeholders the value they
contribute to their respective organisations.
To understand the nuances and the imperatives of IT value management, CIO Academy Asia (CIOAA) conducted a
half-day workshop on 30 March in Singapore. Data management and cloud solutions provider, NetApp, was the main
partner for the workshop. Over 30 IT leaders participated in this workshop where they discussed and learnt about
how they can highlight the value of IT to their stakeholders and deliver IT value to the business.
IT Doesn’t Matter—Delivering IT Value Successfully
• Talk business, not technology – IT Leaders need to learn three skills : create value, find value and communicate
value (to your boards and stakeholders).
• IT per se does not matter: you don’t just have to implement a project because that is par for the course; what
matters is how you add value on top of that.
• Value changes over time – “Show value (of your IT) or someone else will eat your lunch”.
• Pay attention to strategy management in infrastructure projects
• Top priorities for IT Leaders range from saving with operational efficiencies to driving revenue growth and setting
strategy and governance, running IT as a business, rationalising applications and managing by portfolio.

3. • Todays technology is shaping industries, and top priorities for innovation should be agility and nimbleness. IT
Leaders should portray IT as a value centre, not a cost centre!
• IT Leaders should not focus on cost or timelines, it should be conveyed as value to the board quickly, securely and
in a manner that the business can consume
• The new IT model, that has become the new touchstone in the market is characterised as software-defined, with
elements such as cost, control, choice, agility, insight and risk that IT Leaders have to deal with.
• Align IT with business, and have a service catalogue, which offers both performance and protection.
• Devising a service cost model is important as it allows customers to pay for what they use.
• Caution IT Leaders against the challenge of transformation – Don’t underestimate it as it involves buy-in from
various quarters, including the challenge of getting executive sponsorship.
• Customers today want services (even from infrastructure providers) and want to be consumers.
• The half-day workshop, packed with powerful presentations from industry veterans, ended with the concluding
note that IT has to be seen as a business partner for IT Leaders to effectively communicate its value to the
stakeholders.
CIO Academy Asia would like to thank our speakers, panelists and participants for making the second IT Value
Management workshop in Singapore a successful one. We would also like to acknowledge NetApp for supporting this
event.
*Photos of the event are available at the CIO Academy Asia Facebook Page: facebook.com/cioacademyasia. Do show
us your support by hitting the “Like” button on our Facebook page!
Ng Tiong Gee, former
CIO of RWS Singapore
Dason Bodilly, NetAppAndrew Campbell-Laing, NetApp
From left to right: Glen Francis, Lim Soon Tein, Alice Abigail Tan, Andrew Campbell-Laing, Dason Bodilly & Ng Tiong Gee