Senior execs seek better view of costs.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Technology - Brief article

Understanding and controlling Information technology (IT) costs have been a perennial management challenge. So, it's hardly surprising that a recent survey found that 90 percent of senior executives said they felt that knowing IT costs in more detail would be helpful, providing the benefits of improved decision-making for IT cost management and better alignment of IT spend to corporate goals.

In addition to more granularity, business leaders also want mechanisms to promote better communication and understanding among finance and IT managers. Almost two-thirds of the C-suite respondents named the ability to deliver executive and management cost-monitoring dashboards for IT and business managers as the key feature in an ideal solution for better measuring IT application costs

The results come from a survey, "Measuring and Optimizing the Cost of IT: A Progress Report," of more than 230 U.S. senior corporate executives and IT managers. It was commissioned by Managed Objects, a company in McLean, Va., that provides business service management software.

...