Gartner, Align Thyself

Project-based budgeting was derived in part from Gartner'sown consulting and research advice, applying what Stancocalls “Gartner at Gartner.“ For example, Gartner has longstressed the necessity of an ROI analysis after launching aproject – something the IS department now does religiously asan integrated part of the project-based budgetingprocess. The planning templates used in these analyses askthe types of questions espoused by Gartner's “IT valuescorecards,“ which are used to align IT and business.Thoughapplying Gartner's consulting advice to itself may seemobvious in retrospect, some of the initiatives met withresistance. For example, the advisory councils “took alittle time to get traction,“ says Mike Zboray, chieftechnical officer and a former analyst. Stanco's proposal toestablish these councils goes beyond the types of projectsand proposals usually expected of IS.

To ease cultural issues, Stanco and his team strove toearn the confidence of the business units by continuing totake care of the basics, such as running the database centerand help desk, managing the desktops and telecommunications– what Paolillo calls “right-to-life“issues.

Still, Stanco felt a key challenge in his efforts to becomea partner with the business side of the house wasarticulating a vision that would help drive the IT alignmentmission from the CEO and CIO all the way down to departmentmanagers.

With that in mind, Stanco enlisted Hunter Muller, who runsprofessional management company Hunter Management Group inWestport, Conn., to help spell out the principles behind thecriteria Gartner now uses to prioritize projects. Thoseprincipals are as follows: The IT department should delivera competitive advantage to increase shareholder value; itshould form a partnership with the business side to focus oncreating value, increasing efficiencies and reducing costs;and it should focus on organizational development of people,process and technology.

The project-based budgeting methodology has made an amazingdifference, says Paolillo. “What it's done is helped closethe gaps, not just between corporate services and businessunits but between the business units themselves.“ Bybringing those groups together, Stanco and Paolillo hope tohave made Gartner's misalignment woes a thing of the past.