IT: From cost center to business unit and BPM guru

February 24, 2009 Published by  SearchCIO-Midmarket.com IT News and Trends SaaS service desk application turns IT into BPM guru with strong ROI Christina Torode, Senior News Writer With two years down and one to go in his quest to create a service-enabled culture, Unitus Community Credit Union CIO Brian Irvine has turned the company's IT business processes into a commodity coveted by other business units. How? By shaking things up in the IT department and proving out the ROI of a SaaS service desk application, after another Software as a Service (SaaS) project stalled due to too much customization. The heart of Irvine's strategy was to turn the service desk and IT into a business unit akin to sales or human resources (HR), where technology services could be delivered as easily as payroll direct-depositing a check in an employee's bank account. But to get there, Irvine had to replace an outdated service desk ticketing system and make organizational changes in the IT department, shifting people around and changing the mentality of the staff to a service-oriented one. At the same time, IT started to revamp its change management and business improvement request process for its core Jack Henry Episys banking transactional system. MORE ON THE SAAS SERVICE DESK Options for outsourcing security grow, offer IT budget savings Outsourcing security -- to the cloud or via managed security services -- gains traction as vendors push recession cost savings and response to security threats for midsized firms. MORE ON IT BUDGETS Tips for managing your CPM IT service-level agreement If managed effectively, an IT service-level agreement for your CPM initiative will let IT demonstrate strategic corporate value to partners and internal and external customers. MORE CPM RESOURCES Infrastructure Strategies SearchCIO-Midmarket.com's IT Infrastructure Strategies columns provide information and advice on the latest IT trends as they relate to the midmarket. READ THE LATEST INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGIES   ADVERTISEMENT   Get the most out of SearchCIO-Midmarket.com SearchCIO-Midmarket.com's Tips - Insight from the brightest minds in the market. Data center outsourcing: 10 best practices Single sign-on: Sensible security on scale Simplifying risk assessment frameworks Database security: Limiting access is key   ABOUT THIS E-NEWSLETTER This e-newsletter is published by SearchCIO-Midmarket.com, a targeted Web site from TechTarget, The IT Media ROI Experts and events company. Copyright 2009 TechTarget. All rights reserved. If you no longer wish to receive IT News and Trends from SearchCIO-Midmarket.com go to unsubscribe: http://searchCIO-Midmarket.techtarget.com/u?track=NL-973&em=sekhargreen%40gmail.com&uid=4946246&eid=690168& Please note, unsubscribe requests may take up to 24 hours to process; you may receive additional mailings during that time. A confirmation e-mail will be sent when your request has been successfully processed. Contact Us: SearchCIO-Midmarket.com Member Services 117 Kendrick Street, Suite 800 Needham, MA 02494