- 13 October, 2008 04:55 PM EST
- Don't Look - Ignorance Is Bliss
Recently, I deposited a check at my local bank. The teller asked how my day was going. I responded by saying "fine as long as I don't pay attention to the news." There is an element of truth to that, however, I have some equities that have lost a lot of their value. Could I have sold them? Yes. Would that have been the prudent thing to do? Maybe. If, however, I don't plan on touch the money associated with those equities for a long time and I expect them to recover, it really doesn't matter. In fact, by not selling, I avoided an income tax implication. I did, however, think it through.
Organizations are starting to retrench and react to the changing economy. While this is the most severe economic correction I've seen and the response by corporations and their respective IT organizations is milder than I'd expect, it could very well be that people are just not watching the news . . . or more likely they are in denial. The economy is correcting. How long it will take and how severe it will be are a mystery to most, however, one cannot deny that it is correcting.
Organizations must take stock in their IT investments, consciously identifying what could be postponed, collapsed, or eliminated. Conversely, organizations must identify the IT investments that must continue – be they projects or assets. Most organizations today have a project portfolio and/or a project office of sorts. Many, however, fail to monitor completed projects, their benefit, and their associated costs. More often than not, these completed projects, or assets as I like to call them, are applications and corresponding infrastructure. They consume a significant amount of the IT budget. If you do sole searching, you'll realize that many of these assets should not exist. They are redundant. They are underutilized. They are past their prime and should be put out to pasture. Consider taking time out to inventory that which you have and that which you are working on, developing an understanding of potential tradeoffs available. It's better to be prepared for a crisis that never occurs than it is to be unprepared for a crisis that does.
