Hi, did you go through one of these business case development processes that just seemed like an endless exercise to you? is it really important to spend couple of weeks collecting data, facts and building financial business case for your infrastructure investments? After all economy just stabilized and budgets are little more relax now. I know how that process can be a hassle when analysis turns into paralysis or your light weight business case is simply not taken serious because you just used the all the default numbers from an online tool.  Well, CFOs key role in infrastructure investment decisions are not going away any time soon AND they will question your numbers, assumptions, model. Data center costs, including facilities, energy, server, storage, and networks are almost 60% of the total IT budget.

Every dollar counts. As IT manager looking to invest in infrastructure technology modernization, put yourself in your CIO or board’s shoe. There are number of competing projects from application side that are dear to your business. Shorter and unpredictable business cycles are disrupting business side and more than ever they need to change processes faster, launch new products and services more quickly. All they want is an infrastructure that supports this flexibility and change. Have you heard of HP’s revolutionary converged infrastructure architecture and services announcement (www.hp.com/us/go/CIServices)? No worries, this is not a rip and replace alternative. 

A converged infrastructure (www.hp.com/go/ci) matches the supply of IT resources with the demand for business applications in an optimal way.  By transitioning away from a product-centric approach to a shared-service management model, customers can accelerate standardization, reduce operational costs and accelerate business results.  Even if you have all the good reasons to invest in converged infrastructure you may still not make the winning business case because a) you don’t have the time, data expertise to create the financial case b) Even if you have the business case you just don’t know how the get started with solid plan and roadmap to get you one step towards a converged infrastructure.

First, add some financial acumen to your techie skills. It is important to understand how your company evaluates proposed IT projects. With few exceptions, all companies have a formal process whereby a budget committee approves (or denies) proposed capital appropriations for significant capital expenditures. This process applies to both IT and non-IT capital expenditures and is tied to the company’s budgeting process. The budget committee typically consists of financial and operational leaders who, in many cases, do not have deep technical backgrounds. If you like to hear more about business case development best practices go to HP ROI Services website and download the whitepaper: http://h20219.www2.hp.com/services/us/en/infrastructure/datacenter-consol-virt-roi.html?jumpid=ex_R61_us/en/large/tsg/go_smbcat20