Justifying And Funding Infrastructure Investments

IT-enabled business change investments by definition are linked to business strategic objectives and business benefits. These benefits can and should be quantified using an IT value methodology and documented in a business case. This makes for straightforward decision-making with respect to justifying and funding these proposed investments. IT infrastructure investments can rarely be linked directly to a single strategic business objective — making it much more difficult to quantify the business value. Furthermore, the benefits of many infrastructure investments are intangible and/or position the organization to realize benefits in the future, making them difficult to justify using standard financial tools and business case templates. As a result, many organizations try to fund these investments on faith without rigorous analysis of a business case and, too often, fail to get them funded at all. But it doesn't have to be this way — tools and techniques exist for valuing infrastructure investments.