Selling IT to the CEO: Keep It Simple

Computerworld - SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- How many bullet points in a PowerPoint presentation does it take to kill an audience?

That was a question one CIO asked of the IT leaders at Infrastructure Management World here, who have the somewhat delicate job of selling the CEO on increasing annual spending for IT infrastructure.

Riazi: Infrastructure is a tough sell for IT managers

Riazi got laughs for her talk lampooning the common practice of "killing" a top-level management audience with a PowerPoint slide presentation that goes on too long or falls short on compelling art, pictures or humor. But she was serious as she explained that IT managers will lose funding if they can't figure out how to effectively communicate the business value of infrastructure spending.

"Every time we talk to top executives, we talk about where is the growth, where is the profit, where is our competition going to be. ... But there is zero discussion of infrastructure," Riazi said. "We lose them if we start talking about MPLS networks."

Fred Modruson, CIO at Accenture Ltd., agreed about the need to avoid technical talk when meeting with business-side executives. "You have to show benefits and costs" behind new infrastructure, he told audience members.

"It's a matter of knowing your audience and of putting things in context," Modruson said in an interview. "If you want to provide MPLS, don't start right off talking about, say, hardware and refresh rates. Instead, start by talking about how telecom costs will go down with MPLS, perhaps. Position IT as a benefit."

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