Enterprises Experience Contrasting Views of IT and Telecommunications in Latest AOTMP...

Enterprises Experience Contrasting Views of IT and Telecommunications in Latest AOTMP Research

INDIANAPOLIS--(Business Wire)--AOTMP announced today the release and availability of its latest
research report, CFOs' and CIOs' Perspectives: A Top-Down View of IT
and Telecom Management. When it comes to managing enterprise
technology and telecommunications, Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and
Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are often thought to be worlds
apart. AOTMP conducted a recent survey in to learn about the views of
leaders in finance and IT, and heard from more than 275 respondents in
an online survey.

The research found alignment in many areas from the CFOs' and
CIOs' perspectives. For example, 69% of CFOs and 67% of CIOs rank
optimization of technology management as the top priority for their IT
group. Another important trend was uncovered as 63% of enterprises
indicated they continue to place emphasis on aligning IT and business
goals. Reduction in spending on IT and telecommunications ranked third
in management priorities for enterprises.

Survey results also support the idea that these two groups do
experience some degree of contrasting views. While IT ultimately holds
responsibility for managing telecom expenses, Telecom Expense
Management (TEM) initiatives are most commonly driven by finance.
Finance must often take the lead in advocating the establishment of
formalized TEM programs. When it comes to managing telecom expenses,
69% of CFOs rank strategy development as the top priority while 21% of
CIOs rank it as a priority.

"The findings from our latest survey indicate that finance
continues to be more strategic in developing a plan for managing this
significant business expense, while IT focuses on the tactical work,"
stated Joe Basili, Vice President of Research for AOTMP and author of
the report. "For the benefit of the enterprise, IT departments need to
put focus on strategic development as their peers in finance do," adds
Basili.

The research also indicates enterprises often do not have
effective information available to IT and telecom to understand and
identify the greatest opportunities to reduce expenses. TEM programs
that make key data readily accessible for decision making can help
drive savings from unexpected areas. One person may see an opportunity
to negotiate better rates; another might seek to pool users together
to address variations in monthly consumption; another person might see
an opportunity to install a GSM gateway to change calls from
fixed-to-mobile to mobile-to-mobile network calls.

"One of the most common and critical oversights we have seen in
our work with thousands of enterprise telecom and IT environments is a
lack of leveraging information about the environment," said AOTMP's
President and CEO Tim Lybrook. "The data behind enterprise telecom and
IT is the most powerful and useful tool for making decisions in
technology management, growth, and budgeting."

The unabridged report is currently available to the public at no
cost through the underwriting of Veramark Technologies, Inc.
(www.veramark.com) and Vocio (www.vocio.com). Readers may download a
complimentary copy of the report at
http://www.aotmp.com/research/REP0108.html.

About AOTMP

AOTMP, headquartered in Indianapolis, IN, is the unmatched
authority on standards and best practices for telecom management.
AOTMP focuses on providing information, resources, and benchmarking
standards for professionals in the telecom industry through a number
of certification programs and a comprehensive skills assessment
offering. For more information, please visit www.aotmp.com.

AOTMP
Christy Colbert, 317-624-2000

Copyright Business Wire 2008