CFO/CIO Perspectives:

A Top-Down View of IT and Telecom Management

An AOTMP Research Report

The following report excerpt is presented courtesy of AOTMP, the authority on standards and best practices for telecom management.

Executive Summary

When it comes to managing technology and telecommunications, Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are thought to be worlds apart. The common belief is that the leaders of these functional areas have different agendas that are not well aligned. In many respects, these functional areas do require different ways of thinking.

CIOs oversee the design, development, and ongoing management of information and communications networks, hardware, software applications, data integrity, and information security. CFOs focus on "the numbers," monitoring corporate finances through budgeting, financial planning, and cash management. Their chief goal is to maximize shareholder value, and economic value-add (EVA) by maximizing returnsand minimizing costs of capital.


Figure 1: Top 2008 enterpise business priorities (respondents selected three choices)

CFOs have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that expenses are managed efficiently. CIOs also have an interest in managing the telecom budget. Savings allow enterprises to shift funds from ongoing programs to new, innovative projects that will drive competitive advantage. As part of this dynamic, enterprises need to think more strategically about their telecom and network investments.

Telecom Expense Management (TEM) initiatives drive value that goes beyond cost savings. TEM programs can provide some of the information that is needed to determine if the communications network is tuned to perform operationally, financially, and technically to meet the needs of the enterprise. Ultimately, it is in everyone's best interest to see that IT and telecom initiatives are aligned to execute the organization's core strategy more effectively.

This report will provide insights how the worlds of finance and IT view:

• the most important business priorities for IT and telecom
• the most important management priorities for IT and telecom
• the most important IT technologies
• the most important telecom technologies
• top challenges to effective management of telecom and IT expenses
• techniques to improve management of the telecom and IT environment
• techniques to improve management of telecom and IT expenses

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