Applying portfolio management theory to IT planning and projects has long been a favorite topic of mine. I noticed a few more good articles on the topic today.
First, Ron Friedman on the excellent Strategic Legal Technology Blog points to and discusses a very good article by Josh Fish of HubbardOne called “Using Strategic Technology to Win and Keep Business,” which appears in the November 2003 issue of the highly-recommended Peer-to-Peer Newsletter.
In the article, Fish discusses an online delivery mechanism for health care law developed by Reed Smith, the differences between “strategic” and “operational” technologies, and the role of portfolio management in IT planning. It’s a very good article, although I think that it underplays the element of diversification of IT portfolios and the fact that “risk-avoidance” techniques are, in the long run, riskier than a diversified strategy. In this context, I suggest taking a look at my articles, “Thinking Strategically about Technology” and “A Prudent Approach to Legal Technology Spending
in a Slowing Economy
.”
Second, CFO Magazine has a great article on IT portfolio management in general. The money quote:
“Technology portfolio management, experts say, may be the perfect tool for this task, since it is designed to steer scarce resources to the projects that will produce the greatest overall value. Rubin claims first-time adopters of IT portfolio management can reduce their existing IT costs by 25 to 30 percent in the first year.”
For a context in which to think about IT portfolio management, see my “Seven Easy Ways for Law Firms to Throw Away Money on Technology.”