It is critical to articulate the execution of the Business and subsequently the IT Strategy in to a service strategy. The objective of ISO 38 500 is to help IT leaders provide a business view of the IT departments ability to create value and support enterprise goals through effective IT processes and build process capability.

Yet most ISO 38 500 practitioners find it difficult to understand, articulate and demonstrate the business value of an end-to-end or partial ISO 38 500 investment and more ?Frame work? compliance in a setting where most Business Executives would claim an increased focus on the needs of the business.

The ISO 38 500 Unlocked (the missing pieces): Deliver Business Value with IT! series is a reply to ?How do we put the IT Strategy in place? and how do we communicate effectively with our stakeholders and provides a number of techniques and tools to understand how to meet stakeholder expectations where ISO 38 500 can be used to demonstrate how to consolidate the service strategy (Design, Build, Run).

A demonstration that would cover both the "IT Business Model" that is how well do we provide IT services as well as the "Business (IT) Value Proposition" that is how well do we support the needs of the business.

The upper part of the clients that I speak to feel that there is a lack of actionable articles and publications that help to bridge the gap between the execution of the business strategy, business objectives and how IT can be used to support the latter to deliver business value. This is also the reason why I decided to put forward an execution centric material that has for objective to if not entirely bridge the gap between IT and the business provide Business and IT Decision makers the necessary common language to move forward in the same direction (pointing fingers is rarely productive).

The execution of the defined business strategy is often a mystery (missing link) both on the Business and the IT side. The truth is that regardless of how well the executive team draws out the strategy in the boardroom the bottom line is that the business initiatives that were supported by clients succeeds, those not supported by clients (that do not get it) fail and disappear.
The CIO and IT department hence needs to support the run of the current business activities as well as new emerging initiatives that will eventually form the business strategy. The cloud (internal or external) would be particularly well placed to develop new services that can then be institutionalised as the success of the initiative is confirmed.

The CIO and IT Department that sit around and wait for the Business Strategy to be formalised to build an IT strategy and vision might not make the 18 months magic mark. The IT Bottom line is that the IT Strategy should support business objectives, with new technology as needed as the IT department delivers effective IT Services and innovative technology solutions to improve competitiveness, demonstrated and articulated.

In order for the CIO and the IT Department to position as premium provider of IT services and focus on value to cost we need to understand the Business (IT) Strategy and how the IT department can deliver effectively to business objectives, that is to deliver business value with IT:

•  What is the Business?s strategy and plans?
•  What is the current business model that IT has to support?
•  Where could IT make a significant impact on the business?
•  Are there any further opportunities to use IT?
•  How can we leverage IT in a ?Time to Market?, ?Cost Effectiveness?, ?Cycle Time? perspective?