The dawn of this century brought with it a new kind of challenge that most businesses were completely ill-prepared to deal with – Digital Revolution. Some businesses were visionary enough to proactively equip themselves with the IT infrastructure to meet the challenge, while others reacted to it. Some of the stubborn ones find themselves erased out of memory now. Despite the lessons that the recent history has taught us, even now, not all businesses are ready to leverage the full potential of IT, in particular the efficient usage of IT infrastructure and services. More often than not, any investment in IT Asset Management (ITAM) is seen as a cost-cutting measure, and the CTOs are cornered into justifying the cost savings arising out of such investments into IT assets.

The truth is that ITAM is clearly more than just a benefit to the budget. Yet, many enterprises might struggle due to Management’s inability to convey its importance to the company CFO and CEO. Here are some useful considerations for CTOs who are trying to sell the importance of ITAM to other CXOs.

Language  – A typical mistake made by IT departments when they are selling a project to the senior management is overuse of jargons. Not all senior management members are tech savvy enough to understand the jargons. So, convey all the relevant information common words. Same goes for acronyms.

Objectives  – State all the objectives of an ITAM strategy, be it cost reduction, improvement in efficiency, releasing new product features, reduced support overhead, smarter decision-making, or something else. Explain how each infrastructure investment is critical for a product, or business operation.

Examples – Provide the senior management with specific examples of how certain ITAM measures benefit the organization. If previous examples are not available, then offer them a tangible way of seeing the benefits in the short term. Any new investment is easier to sell if its benefits are tangible in the short run.

 Developing a Perfect Pitch for ITAM

In line with the above considerations a powerful pitch can be developed to justify the ITAM investment. This 4-pronged strategy has been devised accordingly, and can be used for effective communication of the pros of an ITAM strategy.

Connect ITAM strategy to Company Growth – Make a strong case for your ITAM strategy by explaining how it will contribute to the company’s growth and global expansion. CFOs in particular love numbers. Provide them with projections on how your ITAM strategy will contribute to the company’s future.

Understand The Goals of the C-Suite – While many CTOs tend to be visionaries themselves, they do not always see the big picture. Perhaps their immediate goals are aligned with the organization’s immediate objectives. The same goes for CFOs. Therefore, it becomes critical that their priorities and goals are understood clearly before developing a pitch for ITAM strategy.

Find Idea Champions – Every organization is a mix of ‘change’ leaders, and ‘change’ followers. A surefire way to generate maximum steam behind an idea is to enlist the support of Idea Champions or ‘change’ leaders, who are highly skilled in selling new ideas to their superiors. An ITAM project gains more traction if it finds support of idea champions from multiple departments. If these departments directly benefit from an ITAM strategy, then it will be easier to win over their support.

Money, Money, Money! – Finally, everybody understands the language of money. If an ITAM strategy achieves any tangible cost benefits, then it can be an instant hit. Chart out all the cost savings that the project will achieve over its lifetime. Explain how the project will free up the various resources by way of automation, how some of the expenditures will stop on account of ITAM, etc. If hard numbers are not available, estimates that are obtained from vendors, and a trusted third party solution provider such as RAY ALLEN can enable your enterprise significant savings.

Clearly, an ITAM strategy should be able to help the senior management see how it will enable the business to deal with challenges arising in the future, and give it a distinct advantage in terms of costs, operations or customer success. We can all relate to this easily when the information is presented in a way that uses simple language, easy to compare with competitor strategies, and addresses the company’s vision. Contact us today to learn more about the solutions at RAY ALLEN and how they can enable your enterprise with the required IT Agility for success in 2017!