IT organizations have learned how to influence IT performance through metrics. Most IT leaders now have a hard-won understanding of the old adage that “what gets measured gets done” and its corollary “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Still, IT often reports on operational level activities via quantitative metrics. IT leaders know that metrics drive performance, but many IT leaders are neither rebalancing their metrics portfolio nor crafting a balanced portfolio of IT metrics to drive business-aligned behaviors accordingly. IT should monitor performance against specific critical success factors (CSF) of business goals, not operational IT goals.

• There are two primary groups of metrics IT leaders can choose from in this situation: satisfaction (qualitative) and activity (quantitative.) The correct balance of these two groups is essential to creating and demonstrating business value. Focusing on a mix of satisfaction (employee, customer and business) and activity (IT efficiency and effectiveness) metrics drives more business-aligned reporting.
• Satisfaction metrics are qualitative. They are subjective, and show how users and customers perceive or “feel about” their IT and cloud computing experience. Focusing on these metrics tends to build awareness and rapport with your business partners, increasing the perceived value of IT by your business peers.
• Activity metrics are quantitative, objectively counting measures of productivity and effectiveness. Common examples of activity metrics include uptime and availability. While several of these metrics are critical to managing the IT function, they should only be provided to customers if they pertain directly to a business CSF.

You must create a balanced portfolio of cloud service metrics covering satisfaction (subjective and qualitative) and activity (objective and quantitative) that together reflect your unique situational requirements and defined business goals. You should choose metrics that show IT and end-user productivity as well as progress towards established, published and important business CSFs.

• If you are not promoting customer satisfaction and business perception of IT value as key business metrics, check for the need to prepare for the influx of personal device usage in the workplace — including managing growing workforce expectations around mobility and the ability to use any device or application anytime, anywhere. Satisfaction with IT’s ability to support significant volumes and types of personally owned consumer technology and services require a metrics portfolio rebalance. Make sure you’re prepared.
• If you are unfamiliar with diagnostic customer satisfaction metrics, consider learning about those best practices used in service marketing science such as SERVQUAL, which can help you understand customer expectations for service. SERVQUAL measures desired service level as well as perceived service levels. The difference between desired and perception is satisfaction. SERVQUAL is diagnostic: within a satisfaction score, it can indicate which of five core service experience dimensions require improvement, improving utility over homemade customer satisfaction approaches.
• If there are issues with tying IT activities to business CSFs, as there often are, consider using a process like GQM. Metrics that flow from business goals that have defined CSFs make the best key performance indicators (KPI) for IT metrics. The GQM method can help IT leaders establish links from business goals to IT metrics quickly and accurately.

Regardless of the exact mix of activity and engagement metrics, what gets measured and actively managed is what gets done. This means you must consider very carefully and precisely what you want IT and your cloud computing initiatives to do for your business. Ensure your cloud metrics balance satisfaction and activity and that they all monitor business CSFs. Finally, make sure your direction is SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-related.