Gary Iyer is a Portfolio Manager and CIO consultant working for fortune 500 companies. Prior to that he accrued extensive experience in the IT/Investment field, holding the positions of Portfolio Manager and CIO Consultant for various companies. Gary Iyer firmly believes in the advantages of an Technology investment council, particularly for companies with significant technology spending.
An Technology investment council is a committee within the business organization that makes decisions on what investments should be made and, just as importantly, what Technology investments to forego. The decisions of an Technology investment council are based on a framework which is in turn aligned with the tactical and strategic objectives of the business.
An Technology investment council is not a group of managers. It is not there to oversee IT projects or manage IT operations. Its function is to approve or disapprove IT investments with the goal of insuring maximum return on investment from IT initiatives while avoiding wasted time, effort, and money by minimizing or eliminating failed or ineffective IT projects.
To be able to accomplish their mandate, IT investment councils first ensure that the benefits of proposed projects map to stated goals of the business, whether in the short, mid, or long term. Connected with this is the need for high quality proposals with well-defined requirements, realistic time frames, and adequate contingency plans to deal with risks. The best way an IT investment council can serve the business is to reject projects that do not meet the two previous criteria before they even begin - to turn down projects that will not serve a business or that will have a high likelihood of failure.
