By linking the balanced scorecard results to a compensation plan, BMO has a powerful motivator that drives behaviour throughout the organization. With it, the company ensures that it can meet critical objectives for next year and beyond, while making progress on activities that are critical for success in subsequent years.

"The balanced scorecard is difficult to do but it is hugely rewarding, from an economic perspective, because it helps ensure that all your employees know where the organization is going and what's important, and how they contribute to what's being achieved," added Darlington.

Change the culture

The final key aspect of BMO's approach to delivering IT value was to change the IT organization into a business group sharply focused on the creation of shareholder value.

Over the past five years, Darlington's leadership team has taken many steps to create an organization focused on the bottom line. One of the early steps was to change the technology group's name to signal that profound changes were afoot to make IT a top tier competitive organization.

"We introduced corporate values to the organization," said Darlington. "We call it 'SPIRIT', an acronym for Service and solutions, Personal excellence, Integrity, Respect and trust, InnovationInnovation, and Teamwork. These values represent the fabric of our Technology and Solutions culture." Alles zu Innovation auf CIO.de