CIOs today are under relentless pressure. You’re expected to drive productivity, lead transformation, and deliver innovation, all while costs rise and scrutiny intensifies.
And yet, most IT forecasts still rely on disconnected tools and outdated processes. ERP exports, static spreadsheets, and project trackers all speak different financial languages. It’s no wonder, you’re left with forecasts that fall apart under pressure, delay decisions, and miss opportunities.
Leading CIOs are changing that. They're moving toward structured, data-driven ITFM practices that enable fast, confident planning. Here’s how.
Anthony DeAngelo, CIO at Southern New Hampshire University, nailed the issue:
“We don’t have the transparency we used to… the cost to deliver IT has increased significantly, but the value is harder to articulate.”
That lack of clarity often stems from fractured data environments. When cost information lives across multiple platforms, ERP systems…cloud portals…manual spreadsheets…isolated BI tools… there’s no reliable way to connect the dots.
And when your forecast is based on partial views and lagging inputs, it misses the mark and risks your credibility.
Forecasting shouldn’t feel like guesswork, but too often it does, because the inputs are too fragmented to build a stable baseline. Without a shared data structure, small inaccuracies compound. A 2% miss on cloud cost projections here, a delayed project update there, and suddenly IT is off course before the quarter even starts. The bigger the organization, the faster those gaps widen.
The consequences are familiar:
On the surface, it can look like individual systems or teams are falling short…but the real issue is a lack of alignment.
That misalignment can cause serious tension between teams. Business units can’t reconcile what they see in their tools with what IT is forecasting. Finance questions assumptions. IT spends more time defending figures than delivering outcomes. Everyone is working hard, but not in sync.
Dashboards may give you surface-level awareness, but they won’t help you anticipate or course-correct. What CIOs actually need is a way to connect cost data to how IT is consumed and in a format that goes beyond reporting, to support decision-making.
It also needs to be accessible, and not just to IT; but to finance, business partners, and service owners. Shared understanding starts with shared visibility. When everyone is working from the same financial foundation, conversations shift from reactive budget reviews to collaborative planning.
With Serviceware, CIOs can model costs at the service level, align forecasts to demand, and simulate different investment scenarios. That structure creates a foundation for accountability and agility; both internally and across the business.
“You’ve got to build a system that allows you to quickly shift, quickly adapt, quickly move.”
Robert Carter, EVP & CIO at FedEX
The CIOs who are staying ahead of market pressure are doing a few key things differently:
This shift doesn’t happen overnight. It takes leadership to challenge legacy thinking, especially when teams are used to their own systems. But the CIOs who are making progress are focusing on creating clarity and consistency one layer at a time.
These are the solid foundations that make IT leadership unshakeable under questioning; because the data is there, the story holds, and the plan is built to flex.
Discover how to drive strategic IT Financial Management in a challenging economy.
Inaccurate forecasts disrupt budget meetings, and damage trust.
When IT can’t explain its numbers, finance steps in. When plans fall apart, projects stall. When data is scattered, confidence disappears. It becomes harder to advocate for new initiatives or defend existing spend, and harder still to position IT as a strategic partner to the business.
Manual workarounds waste time. Poor assumptions waste capital. And if the forecasts don’t match reality, the strategy doesn't either.
Fixing this doesn’t require overhauling your architecture…but it does demand intentionality.
Start by creating a unified structure for your financial data. Bring together costs from cloud platforms, ERP, and project systems.
Shift from static budget lines to service-based models that reflect how the business consumes technology. Run simulations, build forecasts that can flex, and enable ownership at every level.
Equally important is the ability to track financial impact at the pace of change. You can’t wait until the end of the quarter to find out your cloud costs exploded or your project timelines slipped. Forecasts need to evolve with the business, and the tooling behind them needs to support that.
With Serviceware, you can move from scattered data to structured control, and turn forecasting into a tool for leadership, rather than a tick-box for compliance.
If your financial data isn’t connected, your forecasts won’t be trusted. And without trust, IT loses its seat at the strategy table.
Serviceware enables CIOs to regain control of planning, build accurate forecasts, and respond to change with speed and confidence; because you're now built to handle the heat.
Fix the fragmentation. Forecast with confidence. Ready to learn more about how to handle strategic IT management in a challenging economy? This whitepaper is for you.