Often when I am having strategy conversations with clients and prospects, this question will arise - "Why do my IT costs keep rising, while I seem to be increasingly constrained by my systems? Isn't technology supposed to cost less and deliver more value over time?"

Unfortunately, too often, there is a significant mis-match between an organization's business objectives and how it invests in technology.  In addition, most IT spending goes toward maintenance and 'patches' to legacy systems. The discretionary budget and 'new project' pipeline is spread thinly over many initiatives, with illusory bottom line benefits captured in future years, not today. 

My approach with a recent client was to work successfully with their company, their IT organizations and related business partners to organize and sort literally hundreds of initiatives into a manageable number of discreet projects with clear business cases and ROI.  A master plan needs to be developed for IT initiatives that is mutually understandable by both business and IT managers.

We then managed interdependencies between projects and sequenced them for maximum business benefit in the shortest possible time frames.  It is sometimes hard to swallow, but I said "Pull the plug" or cancel projects not clearly tied to business and IT objectives, freeing up 30% of this company's budget for re-focus on higher return initiatives.