About
I’m Carl Weinschenk, and I’ll keep this short and sweet. I was a staffer until late 2001 at several publications and sites, including Industrial Photography, Cable Marketing, Cable World, tele.com and InternetWeek.
Why We Write
It is axiomatic that IT and finance folks “speak different languages.” This is a label for something that is a lot deeper and pervasive.
The bottom line is that companies are losing revenue and seeing their competitive position slip because these two groups don’t communicate well. Indeed, they often don’t try.
Let’s take a very real example: Imagine that an IT executive comes back from a show singing the praises of unified communications. To him, the compelling issue is the elegance of the technology. He is aware that UC will help the business, but he cannot explain the advantages. He also can’t see the obstacles, such as equipment that is in place that still has a usable life, the cost of installation and whether the benefits of the new technology really makes it worthwhile.
Will the people who sign the checks seriously consider UC? Perhaps. That will depend on answers to complex questions asked by the CFO, the CEO and their staffs. These questions will involve ROI, CapEx, OpEx and assorted other topics. Beyond the fancy acronyms, these all relate to how UC fits into the organization’s budget and whether there are other ways to spend the money that may be more beneficial.
I chose UC as an example because what it does, and its benefits, are obvious. However, there are myriad other equipment purchases and technical deployments that are far more subtle.
For instance, it’s difficult to precisely determine how deeply a company should dive into disaster recovery and business continuity. How quickly must each system be brought back on line after a crisis? How much money per hour does an e-commerce company lose if it is off the Net? When does this become fatal? How about the internal phone system? Can that be done a bit longer without the business tanking? How often is the cumbersome testing process necessary? How are these – and a dozen other similar decisions – blended into a single overall plan?All of these decisions are vital—and they all have Finance and IT elements.
The IT-Finance Connection covers these and myriad other issues from the perspective of the information that must flow between IT and Finance in order to make the wisest decisions. This information transfer is where the rubber meets the road.
Finally, the very brief status report. As you can see, we are using a WordPress, which is great. As things settle down, we’ll launch podcasts, write features, post material from outside organizations, invite guest bloggers and otherwise broaden the types of editorial products that we offer. Please sign up for our RSS feed and/or newsletter—and please keep in touch.
–Carl Weinschenk, Publisher
