Years ago, I
heard someone say that business and technology had to align. It took me a
little while for these words to sink in, but here's my understanding of business
and technology alignment. Today, all businesses are technology businesses.
There is no Marketing, Finance, Accounting, Procurement, Sales, Engineering
without Technology.
Business Conundrum
While this is
true, most technology people still think their value and focus should be on
maintaining servers up and running. That steady green light in a dark cold room
of servers is still the benchmark of operational efficiency. Running in
parallel, business people for the most part struggle with the nuance of IT perhaps
because they are typically too busy to use technology to maximize their
investments. Here is where the big potential for alignment between IT and the
business lies today. IT should spend time educating business people how to use
IT to generate sustainable competitive advantages.
Think of Apple,
they launched the iPhone and right after that Samsung launched the Galaxy – some
would even argue a better hardware. Mimicking and improving products is easy
these days, mimicking iTunes and all the technology that ties Apple's products
together, not so easy.
Creativity and Innovation
IT needs to
dedicate time to educate marketing how to create new campaigns and strategies
by using technology. Integrating a piece of communication with an online survey
or a landing page. Essentially, IT must be the change agents that drive
innovation in businesses today, especially because technology is changing so rapidly.
IT must educate
the business how to modernize and generate timely financial reporting as well
as complying to regulations less painfully. I have heard of cases where the CFO
actually went out and bought licenses of accounting software because he
couldn't wait for IT.
What about
enhancing customers’ satisfaction? Is there room for improvement here? By
providing the business with more complete and accurate customer information,
the business can more promptly act to solve customer issues. Nothing pleases me
more than when my credit card company calls to verify suspicious transactions.
I often think to myself after, now that’s IT at work.
The bottom line
is, IT really needs to make time to work directly with their business
counterparts to modernize processes, create innovative business models,
different ways to slice and dice products, and generate sustainable competitive
advantages.
When IT is not
leading from the front, the CFO is always going to look at the numbers at the
end of the month and say, "IT is expensive, we put money in and nothing
ever comes out." I heard recently about another client, where the VP of
Operations came into a meeting saying: “my IT is not innovative.” Naturally,
they’re not they don’t have the time to be innovative.
Cloud Computing
Running out the
door now and moving to the "cloud" is not the answer as long as you
see cloud computing as an external part of your IT, you’re doing it wrong. The
cloud is real and the benefits are tangible and vast, but it needs to be embraced
and integrated as another component of your Hybrid IT strategy. Please note not
Hybrid Cloud Strategy because not everything is moving to the Cloud.
In the end,
we're back to the start. There is no business without technology anymore.
I am.
Donovan White - Vice President, C&W Business, Jamaica
