The C-Suite Cheat-Sheet has been created off the back of requests for help with reasons to justify SAM/ ITAM within a business case.

I’ve taken the most pertinent top 3 CxO roles and devised compelling reasons why Senior Management should prioritise your business case over anyone else’s.  It may not seem like it now, but this is your own personal version of Shark Tank (US) or Dragon’s Den (UK).

It is down to you to create a compelling story as to why the business needs to invest in a practice that it believes IT should already be doing.  Perhaps this is the first place to start that story:  SAM/ ITAM is not merely an IT issue – this discipline goes as far as the IT goes in your organisation, and beyond – don’t forget to make this point crystal clear!

Better business cases will seek to pitch SAM/ ITAM in a strategic light; the audience is not just thinking about the here and now, they have plans and programs that will easily be running many years into the future.  Don’t be focussing on the band aids that SAM/ ITAM can offer, rather think of the long-term IT and organisation health benefits SAM/ ITAM can bestow.

C-Suite Cheat-Sheet:  The C-level Roles

I have sought to create default reasons that would compel the CEO, CFO and CIO to part with elements of their budget.  A point worth noting here is that if you can appeal to more than one person on the board, then you have the potential to secure greater fiscal buy-in at a Senior Level from more than one budget.

A final observation worth noting (without wishing to copy the entire whitepaper in this blog!) is that C-Suite members are human and so have egos and ambitions along with the rest of us.  They have taken these positions of authority not merely because no one else stepped forward, but rather because they believed they were the best people for the vacancies at that time.  They want to leave their own impressions on the organisation they are working for.

So ask them this:

Do they want to be remembered for keeping the lights on, or making the lights shine?

(Good SAM/ ITAM will give that to them)