Ok. Here it is. A very simple, easy, cheap and yet effective way to demonstrate value that IT provides to the business. Are you listening… Are you ready for it …?

Create a very basic Continual Service Improvement log. That is is. No IT wizardry, tools, licenses or development. No big project, consultants, contractors or rollout. No, nuffin!

Here are some helpful hints (also for nuffin)

• Use a spreadsheet for ease of reporting and compiling.
• Update at regular intervals (monthly is reasonable).
• Capture the improvement activities, projects, mini projects and things your IT department does to make IT work better
• Record the additional cost (or lack of) in making improvements – many times there is no (or very little) extra cost – Now isn’t that showing real value!! .
• Keep it Simple and Smart. Have the minimum number of data columns.
• Make sure it is easy and quick to fill in.
• Promote continual improvements often and regularly to management, the business, end-users and customers.

I guarantee that if you follow these simple steps that within six months you will be armed with many, many examples of how IT provides value continually. Use this to demonstrate and shout about how IT is about more than just fixing things that break or keeping the lights on.