Finding that perfect balance between business and technology can be a challenging process. Aligning them together where they are useful to one another, productive and most of all on the same page has proven to be the key to success for many organizations. It’s simple, in order to maximize return on technology investments, organizations must align IT decisions with strategic business goals.
Now, we have all heard that all old, outdated and inaccurate statement that Information Technology (IT) is a cost center. While at times, this certainly can be the case, I would like to respectfully disagree and here’s why. Irrespective of the business/industry you are in, today, you need technology to be more productive, responsive, available and well informed and as such IT is enabling and helping people do their jobs better. Disagree? If so, imagine how productive would your work day be without technology?
Having been in IT for over a decade I have seen both sides of this negative, adversarial environment where business and IT are competing instead of collaborating towards a common goal, organizational success. To be fair, most IT personnel is of a unique sort (I know, I’m one of them) and at times we transgress our responsibilities and by doing so impose on the business side and their goals and objectives. This is absolutely the wrong way to go about it (unless you are an IT company of course) as IT employees don’t have the full grasp and understanding of business objectives and strategic plans. Conversely, I attended meetings where business executives have enthusiastically stated that, “business* will drive technology as that’s the only way it makes sense.”
NO! That’s the not the solution either. Business and technology need to be partners, not competitors or in subservient positions to one another. They need to work collaboratively early in the process (or project) to benefit from each other’s strengths while at the same time minimizing weakness that both sides certainly have. Us vs. them approach needs to end and we need to realize that we are all in this together and that the difference between success and failure of our company, organization, project or idea is directly correlated to how well we work together.
* replace business with a more applicable term (revenue, ROI, market, education, pedagogy, research agenda…I heard them all).