To Plan, You Need to Talk

Discussion

20 November

Hybrid IT

Almost everyone agrees these days on the potential to drive customer experience (and profits) with new hybrid IT technologies. But only 15% of the frontline IT workers surveyed globally by BPI say they have a clear and detailed roadmap to transformation. Why? Because the business and IT teams don't play well together. 44% of the IT pros cited a range of communication issues. If I were a CIO or CEO (and I'm not), I would put that in the "unacceptable" category. More important, I would set up cross-functional teams and mandate the business and IT team leaders meet regularly to discuss specific needs and strategies to address them. And I'd rate them on business metrics that hopefully show steady progress. Does your company have such teams? Do they work?

Currently 6 replies

Blessing Gammel

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Name: Blessing Gammel
Company: BPI Network
Job Title: Sr. Marketing Coordinator
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Blessing Gammel 8 years ago

Great ideas - getting teams together (from top level execs to the bottom rung) opens the conversation up to areas for improvement that may have gone ignored if that broad spectrum of actors were not communicating regularly.

Tom Murphy

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Name: Tom Murphy
Company: BPI Network
Job Title: Editorial Director
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Tom Murphy 8 years ago

Surprisingly, only 18% of companies have ongoing crossfunctional teams, according to the BPI survey. How can IT workers deliver applications needed to advance the business if the two teams don't meet regularly to discuss what the needs are?

Sally Quigley

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Name: Sally Quigley
Company: BPI Network
Job Title: Program Manager
Website: http://www.bpinetwork.org

Sally Quigley 8 years ago

This is absolutely incredible. In an age where we are embracing open ideation and collaboration amongst business teams, and are breaking down barriers to organizational silos-- figuratively and even in most cases literally by creating open space work environments-- it is hard to imagine that businesses do not see the importance of doing the same with their IT teams. Without bringing IT into the conversation, how can we expect them to transform along with the organization?

Tom Murphy

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Name: Tom Murphy
Company: BPI Network
Job Title: Editorial Director
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Tom Murphy 8 years ago

That's exactly correct, Sally. But this lousy communication didn't just start overnight. It's not like the IT team and the business side had an argument and will soon make up. They have, over the years, developed as two different cultures. Some IT workers in the survey said they lack a "common language" with the business people, that the business teams don't understand how the IT systems work, or that they only speak to the business teams out of necessity. Two percent described the relationship as confrontational. This feud has only worsened in recent years as the business teams suddenly saw the fruits that may grow on the transformation tree. Now they want to tasted the fruit, and they want it quickly. Let's face it, it's time for the grown-ups to get involved. If CIOs and CEOs don't insist that the teams work together, transformation won't happen.

Mathias Tölken

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Name: Mathias Tölken
Company: Xuviate
Job Title: Co-Founder & Director
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Mathias Tölken 8 years ago

I fully agree with Tom's comment and as per a comment I posted on another thread, I think it is an imperative first step that we develop and agree on the common language you refer to above. Some of it exists in IT Portfolio Management practices, but it often dives into technical bits and bobs too fast. On the other side there is business speak, but that does not have the vocabulary and financial models to have a meaningful communication yet. That said, one needs to start somewhere and cross-functional teams who want to speak with each other are already better than ones that don't...

Tom Murphy

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Name: Tom Murphy
Company: BPI Network
Job Title: Editorial Director
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Tom Murphy 8 years ago

"I fully agree with Tom's comment and as per a comment I posted on another thread, I think it is an imperative first step that we develop and agree on the common language you refer to above. Some of it exists in IT Portfolio Management practices, but it often dives into technical bits and bobs too fast. On the other side there is business speak, but that does not have the vocabulary and financial models to have a meaningful communication yet. That said, one needs to start somewhere and cross-functional teams who want to speak with each other are already better than ones that don't..."

- text quoted from Mathias Tölken

Thanks, Mathias. I want to note for other readers that you specialize in the SMB market, where transformation can be even more challenged by limited budgets and smaller staffs. I mention that to reinforce your opinion that a dialogue between business and IT is an "imperative" even for smaller companies.

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