The purpose of decentralization is usually in response to the lack of responsiveness and local human interaction of the centralized services model.
The goal of IT policy should be to have satisfied customers.
A standard metric is "number of transactions," phone support hang-up time, and number of support calls. Each of these has an associated cost, which defines the cost of the process. None of these directly measure the goal of IT.
Feedback should come from users, not the bosses.
The consultancy "Accenture" is the former Arthur Anderson, of Enron fame.
"Shared services" = a euphemism for centralization.
"early adopter"= guinea pig