BREAKTHROUGH IT

Unlock the secret to creating maximum business value from technology

Filled with case studies from leading C-level executives to illustrate concepts discussed, Breakthrough IT is a revolutionary approach to reshaping the corporate information technology function. This innovative, step-by-step guide provides concrete methods every business can implement to yield maximum value and competitive advantage from their IT organization.

Patrick Gray (Harrison, NY) is the founder and President of the Prevoyance Group, an IT strategy consultancy that combines project management and process improvement to ensure large IT departments deliver maximum organizational value.

Patrick Gray is the founder and President of the Prevoyance Group Inc., a company that focuses on providing IT strategy consulting, with past clients including Gillette, Pitney Bowes, OfficeMax, and several other Fortune 500 and 1000 companies. His recent work has focused on international projects, and he has led implementations for foreign subsidiaries of several U.S. companies. He has published several articles and has been quoted numerous times in major publications such as the New York Times, InfoWorld, Project Manager Today, CIO India, American Way, and Business 2.0.

"Patrick Gray has done a very commendable job of delineating the evolution of information technology's (IT's) role: basic history, and the roadmap for supercharging the value of IT to the enterprise. It has robust content and the chapter material is well-conceived and logically sequenced. Breakthrough IT is a valuable read that should be kept handy." (New Jersey CPA, May/June 2008)
"examines what it means to be living in an era of corporate information technology and the step-by-step methodology required to create a value-based IT organization." (Bookviews.com, February 2008)
"IT today is being squeezed by a "Triple Threat" Gray does a nice job of describing." (Techrevu.com; 11/2/07)

Preface
1. Hell Freezes Over: IT Becomes a Key Component of Your Organizational Strategy.
Why do you Need Breakthrough IT?
The Triple Threat.
Hell Freezes Over: IT Enables Strategy.
2. Up Periscope! Ending The Focus On Continuing Operations.
A Brief History of IT.
Shifting the Focus: Moving IT from Service Provider to Strategic Asset.
Calling Sherlock Holmes: Finding Continuing Operations.
Changing the Source: What to Do with Continuing Operations.
3. ET Phone Home: Stop Talking IT and Start Talking Strategy.
Free at Last.
Separating Process from Technology.
Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Partnering with the CEO.
Talking the Talk.
C-Suite Conversations: Greg Buoncontri, CIO of Pitney Bowes.
4. Clear the Benches: Take Your IT Shop From Dysfunction to Dynamo.
Hiring (and Firing) the Right People.
Continually Improving the Skills of your People.
Meaningfully Evaluating Your People.
5. Milking the Cow: Turn Your IT Project Portfolio into a Cash Cow.
Developing a Project Investment Mix.
The PASRBRTKO: Project Analyzing, Selecting, Risk-assessing, Budgeting, Returns Tracking and Killing Office.
What the PMO is NOT.
6. Show Me the Money: Controlling a Project by the Numbers.
The Right Stuff: Determining What to Measure.
Managing to the Metrics.
Beyond the Numbers: The "Gut Check".
Delivering the Goods.
7. Pushing Water Uphill: Driving Organizational Change from the C-Suite.
What is "Change Management".
The Role of the CIO in Change Management.
The Role of the CEO in Change Management.
Change Management at the Line Level.
Influencing Change 101.
The End of Business as Usual.
C-Suite Conversations: Bridget Reiss and Kathy Allen, CIO and CFO of Millipore Corporation.
8. Cashing In The Chips: When To Cancel A Project.
My Little Runaway.
The Project Killers.
Setting Failure Criteria.
When the Going Gets Tough -- Warning signs.
Broaching the Topic of Cancellation.
Cancelling Well.
Closing Time.
9. Be Superman (Or Wonder Woman): Coming In Late To A Struggling Shop.
Arriving on the Scene.
Tackling the Project Portfolio.
Turning the Wheel: Making the Leap to Breakthrough IT.
C-Suite Conversations: Phil Stunt, Vice President, IT International, CA.
10. Capitalizing on Success.
Building Momentum.
Beyond Breakthrough IT.
The Future of the CIO Role.
In Closing.
Index.
Chapter Ten Executive Summary.