Digital technologies are driving today’s business strategies. Digital tools manage day-to-day operations, offer seamless customer service, minimize organizational waste, and optimize communication channels. According to a Gartner report, more than 70% of large businesses are accelerating their digital business initiatives. So, how should you integrate IT into business functions? In this article at TechTarget, Mary K. Pratt explains how integrating IT into businesses enables organizations to achieve their goals, drives innovation in products and processes, and engages customers and employees.
Why Integrating IT Into Business Functions Is Challenging
Bringing business teams and IT professionals into better alignment are challenging for several organizations. Why? Aligning IT efforts and business functions is a lengthy process and is made up of many smaller sub-processes. Each of these sub-processes lacks a definitive starting and ending. However, by establishing a strong communication process, building internal business relationships, and ensuring transparency, leaders can bridge the gap.
Is IT-Business Alignment Beneficial?
“IT-business alignment ensures that the IT organization and business units are working together and moving in the same direction at the required speed,” says Pratt quoting Rebecca Gasser, CIO of Omnicom Health Group. Aligning technology with business functions improves productivity, boosts customer experience, improves collaboration, enhances profitability, increases employee engagement, and enables effective resource planning. IT-business alignment also improves return on investment (ROI) by fine-tuning investments. Furthermore, it provides a competitive advantage in the marketplace and reduces IT expenses.
Steps to Better IT Alignment With Business Functions
- Most companies are siloed. This leads to a significant communication gap between CIOs and marketing teams. To overcome this challenge, leaders must create a shared accountability and value realization between IT and the business. These factors help teams function better and increase their efficiency.
- Alongside excellent communication skills, business leaders must develop good listening skills. This will help them understand what the current state of business transformation is and what would work in the future.
- Boosting customer experience should always be the priority while integrating IT efforts with business functions. Therefore, CIOs must ensure tech teams focus on the customer approach and identify revenue streams that IT itself can directly impact.
To read the original article, click on https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/What-is-IT-business-alignment-and-why-is-it-important.
