There is no turning back from the fact that technology rules our life. We can no longer carry out our day to day life without computers and smart phones. Yet organisations remain divided as IT and Business. Business of course is the generic term given to anybody who sits outside the IT group – much to the amusement of the “Business”.
If the prime reason for an organisation to exist is its customer, it really can’t achieve much without technology because
- To reach our customers we need to build apps and websites – using technology
- To provide efficient service to our customers, we need applications that can automate some or most of the services we provide – using technology
- To understand our customers we need customer related data captured and stored – using technology.
Technology departments can no longer be just a service provider – not even just a business partner! If they are not being “business enablers”, then there is a serious opportunity loss.
A small starting step is how you structure projects in your organisation.
One of the common causes of program / project failure I come across is lack of collaboration between IT and “Business”. Despite heavy use of Agile methodologies, the stubborn barrier continues its happy existence!
Collaboration is a mindset. To achieve real success in projects there has to be real collaboration – IT has to step up as a business enabler!
Can this really be achieved given the chasm in the language used by IT and rest of the world? Given the last century thinking where we still think of technology departments as a collection of geeks who come from a planet outside the Milky Way? Given that technology departments themselves are unable to leave their comfort zone of bits and bytes and realise the existence of the organisation’s end customer – the real consumer?
Can these barriers really be dropped? Absolutely!
Contact me if you are interested in finding out more – about case studies where I have helped the client bring in true collaboration and deliver real business outcomes.