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Technology Building Better IT Budgets A recent white paper published by North- western University's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illi- nois, and Sapient, based in Cam- bridge, Massachussetts, aims to discover just where the money goes when it comes to corporate spend- ing on IT. The paper, "Missing Millions: Unlocking Strategic IT Value," finds that most companies miss opportunities for savings in their IT budgets. In a survey of 179 Fortune 1000 companies, 44 percent did not have applications and infrastructure well documented, says Mark Jeffery, associate professor of technology at the Kellogg School of Management. "There is a tremendous opportunity NEWSBYTES n NEW NEWS CENTER AT BLOCH The University of Missouri-Kansas City's Bloch School of Business and Public Administration in Mis- souri recently opened its State Street News Center. The State Street News Center, funded by a $50,000 gift from the investment firm State Street Corporation and $8,000 from the Bloch School Student Associa- tion, includes a data wall with two 40-inch LCD-screen televisions and provides visitors with real-time market data, a news network, and information on upcoming campus events and activities. The location of the center, the Bloch School's student lounge, was carefully cho- sen, says Dean O. Homer Erekson, to "enable students and all Bloch School constituents to gain instant access to news and information in a central location." 50 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2006 to unlock business value from the IT application portfolio." In conjunction with the paper, the Kellogg School and Sapient pre- sented the Application Investment Management (AIM) framework as a tool to help businesses measure the value of their existing IT portfolios and identify new areas for value cre- n INDIA@WHARTON The Wharton School at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in Phila- delphia recently launched India Knowledge@Wharton, a new addi- tion to its group of online research journals. Focused on India-related business analysis and research, India Knowledge@Wharton will be published in English and will focus on topics such as out- sourcing, family businesses, and research and development in India, one of the world's fastest growing econo- mies. India Knowledge@Wharton joins China Knowledge@Wharton, published in Mandarin; Universia Knowledge@Wharton, published in Spanish and Portuguese; and Knowledge@Wharton, the original English language version. ation. Kellogg and Sapient tested the AIM framework through interviews with leaders from the energy, tele- communications, and financial ser- vice industries, including BP, British Telecom, and Harrah's Entertain- ment. According to the paper, the AIM framework helps organizations take actions such as the following to maximize their IT budgets: n Identify areas of over- or under- investment. n Reallocate nonessential opera- tional spending to new development. n Evaluate enterprise technology for regulatory compliance. n Reduce the risk of outsourcing and offshoring decisions. While technology bestows many benefits, it can also encourage com- panies to keep what seems to be working, rather than adapt their systems to suit current condi- tions, says Sheldon Monteiro, Sapient vice president. "As companies build IT capabilities, their infrastructures can become over- whelming," Mon- teiro says. "Without a clear understand- ing of their opera- tional technology spending, decision makers often favor a 'do no harm' policy, maintaining and extending applications regardless of the value they produce." To read the "Missing Millions" DATABIT In a survey of 363 corporate e-mail users, California-based technology market research firm Radicati Group found that nearly 25 percent of all corporate e-mail is personal in nature. E-mail users are equally indiscriminate with their offwork Internet time—more than 62 percent of workers send business e-mail from personal accounts. white paper in full, visit www. kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/ jeffery/htm/publication/Missing Millions.pdf.