It's midyear, and management has decided that a new publication is a great way to highlight the work of a group of people within the organization to external audiences. "We'll keep costs down by doing the design and layout ourselves. We just need to buy the software licenses."

Money is moved around within the budget to cover the software costs. But more licenses are needed than expected. And then upgrades are purchased the next year, tripling the originally projected costs.

Sound familiar?

It's happened to me and no doubt to you too. Michael Gendron, author of Business Intelligence Applied: Implementing an Effective Information and Communications Technology Infrastructure, is also familiar with this trend.

"All too often individuals or departments ask for money to support a project without first considering the company's information and communication technology (ICT) goals and how much the company is willing to budget for ICT in the first place," he says in his new book.

"Gone are the days when we can build technology in the belief that it will get used; rather, we must understand why we are building infrastructure and what business imperatives it supports," he says.

Business intelligence staff, CIOs, CTOs, and technology managers can benefit from Gendron's expertise and advice on

• The importance of technology infrastructure to every enterprise
• How ICT infrastructure can support your business strategy
• Achieving maximum value from your ICT investments
• The organizational tools you can use to document process change and ICT infrastructure
• Understanding the business imperatives for building ICT infrastructure.

So if your company is struggling with this scenario, Gendron’s book might just be the answer you need. Read a free chapter now to start learning how to implement your own effective ICT infrastructure.