Do you need to deliver timely information to executives — both within and outside IT? Because of their ease of use and flexibility, executive dashboards provide a desirable medium for delivering timely information. This paper presents an evolutionary approach to executive dashboard implementation.
best practices WHITE PAPER
Executive Dashboards: Putting a Face on Business Service ManagementTable of Contents Executive Summary......................................................................................................................1
The Right Information to the Right Manager..............................................................................2
Begin with Dashboards for IT Managers.....................................................................................2> Collect and consolidate the data..................................................................................................3> Transform the data into actionable information...........................................................................4> Relate it to business services.....................................................................................................4> Present the right information to the right manager.....................................................................4
Extend IT-related Dashboards to Business Managers................................................................6> Add business process information...............................................................................................6> Create the right metrics...............................................................................................................7> Integrate it-related dashboards into business intelligence..........................................................8
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................8Executive Summary
IT and business are becoming increasingly interdependent. Today, many, if not most, business processes involve business services delivered by IT. As a result, close alignment of IT with the business is essential to the success of most organizations. That requires IT managers to run IT as a business, and make decisions based primarily on business impact.
The benefits of close alignment of IT and the business are significant, and include:>Greater business agility. IT can adapt the IT infrastructure quickly to meet changes in the .business environment.
>Higher quality IT business service delivery. IT focuses on delivering the business services .the organization needs - at the required service levels.
>Lower costs. IT can prioritize its activities according to business impact to optimize efficiency.
The alignment of IT with the business requires close collaboration and communication - not only among groups within IT, but also between IT and line of business managers. Key to this collaboration and communication is IT's ability to deliver timely information to managers and executives - both within and outside IT - regarding the alignment between IT resources and the managers' particular areas of responsibility. This information must be presented in a form that is easy to understand and that provides meaningful metrics to the receiving managers. That means delivering information that is appropriate to the manager's functional organization, role in that organization, and management level. Managing IT from this business perspective is an approach known as Business Service Management (BSM).
Because of their ease of use, universality, and flexibility, executive dashboards provide a desirable medium for delivering timely information. This paper:>Examines the differences in managers' needs for IT-related information
>Describes how dashboards can be used to present meaningful information to IT managers with respect to the alignment of IT with the business of the organization
>Discusses how IT can evolve IT-related dashboards to extend their use to business managers
PAG E > The Right Information to the Right Manager For an organization to manage IT from a business perspective, it is essential to bridge the gap between IT managers and Delivering the right information to the right manager presents business managers. This requires an information delivery a challenge, considering the widely diverse information needs and presentation solution that can deliver information to both of the various managers in an organization. Managers in dif-f IT and business managers in an effective format that uses ferent functional organizations need information specifically metrics they can understand. Th... [download for more]
