LONDON, UK, Nov. 23, 2005 -- CIOs still struggle to communicate real IT value in business terms to their business peers says UMT, the leading provider of portfolio management consulting and software.

In its series of thought leadership webinars, UMT (www.umt.com) found that CIOs are often still seen in their technical capacity and not as the link between IT and the business. UMT says this is partly because many organisations still only look to maximise the project's visible financial benefits and don't look at the strategic implications when they make their IT investment decisions. In today's environment, where there is increased pressure on CIOs to demonstrate IT value and show how IT contributes to achieving strategic goals, this issue becomes even more important.

Seventy-five percent of respondents indicated that getting a clear view of the business strategy and the ability to show the alignment of IT initiatives with the strategic direction was the most important IT-Business benefit. Almost 70 percent of European respondents said they expected effective portfolio management to enable them to get better results from the same budget whilst only 50 percent of US respondents indicated this as an expected benefit. Approximately 55 percent of European respondents said they expected it to help them reduce IT investment wastage, currently recognised to average 40 percent.

UMT says that many organisations still only look to maximise individual project's benefits and don't look at the strategic implications of the IT portfolio as a whole when making IT investment decisions. "To fully maximise IT investments and justify their value, organisations must align IT projects to the strategic objectives of the business in addition to using a business case methodology to capture financial benefits. This methodology replaces subjective IT selection with an objective system that determines the value of proposed projects," says Yorai Linenberg, managing director, UMT Europe.

"For CIOs to successfully catapult their role from 'techie' to becoming the link between IT and business strategy, they need to have the tools to make better decisions and to provide the business evidence behind these decisions. A mature portfolio management framework makes certain that organisations maximise business value by measuring the strategic benefit of every project and then analysing it at the portfolio level to make the optimal investment decision," adds Linenberg.

About UMT (www.umt.com)

UMT, the global leader in Project and Application Portfolio Management, has the most advanced and complete software and consulting offerings available today. Founded in 1989, UMT's portfolio management software provides companies with increased transparency, business-IT alignment, budget and resource optimisation, and workflow functionality, allowing Global 1000 enterprises to select optimal portfolios, increase earnings, drive business value, and reduce waste. The company has offices in New York and London.

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