[nucleardog]

A cost centre is, by definition, somewhere that only produces costs and is never attributed with any revenue or profit.

A smart management team can figure out that investing in IT, Software, etc is going to have a positive ROI overall by increasing efficiency among other things.

Unfortunately my experience (and many others') is that only the balance sheet will be considered and the goal will always be to reduce the costs in cost centres as much as possible.

Even in a company that doesn't fall fully into that trap, often times a lot of effort needs to be expended to keep funding at current levels, never mind the rituals involved in getting increased funding for new projects, hardware, staff, etc.

Generally the more obvious the connection between your work and company revenue, the easier your life will be.

[pdonis]

> A cost centre is, by definition, somewhere that only produces costs and is never attributed with any revenue or profit.

Which means that if investing in IT is an enabler for gaining revenue or profit, it's not a cost center by this definition--it's necessary to gain revenue or profit. As you note, many companies don't appear to be smart enough to see this, but that doesn't make it wrong.

[nucleardog]

What customer has paid the company for IT's services directly?

None?

It's a cost center in the same way the janitorial staff or legal are. The company won't be there without contracts or with overflowing trashcans, but it doesn't mean the company is making money off of janitorial services or drafting contracts.