How should the techies in your company position themselves in relation to your business strategy?

In the previous articles in this series, we established two key requirements for aligning your business and technology strategies for achieving real value. Business executives must have faith in the value of IT and be able to rely on the technology to support these expectations, and critical roles in the IT leadership structure must be filled by the correct people capable of working side by side with their fellow executives for the advantage of the business.

The third question to ask then becomes; “How does the IT function position itself in relation to other parts of the business and its leaders?” Or in other words, is the technology department in your business seen as the people who “keep the lights burning” in IT terms, or are they positioned as critical staff members who provide a core business function like those who practice finance generally are?

It is important to gauge this position from the perspectives of both your business leadership as well as the general employee. For a business which is not heavily reliant on IT and tends to use technology solely for printing and electronic communication for instance, the IT department may be positioned as a mere service provider, and it may be sufficient for the overall business strategy that it remain that way and focus merely on delivering these basic functions at the highest possible level of reliability.

On the other hand, a small enterprise heavily dependent on technology and on technological innovation for their competitive edge, must ensure that IT is recognised throughout as a core function due the same considerations as other invaluable niche divisions.

Adjusting how your business views IT is the job of IT itself. A well worded mission statement clearly establishes the most important priorities to this department in achieving its goals, which not only paves the way for developing more detailed strategies for reaching these targets, but also makes it clear to the business what the primary purpose of IT actually is within the scope of the business as a whole.

Even the best-worded mission statement, however, will continue to see IT being pulled in all directions by conflicting requirements not aligned with its core purpose if this document is not effectively marketed to all employees of the organisation. When this happens, the feedback reaching executives from staff on the ground will remain poor, further exacerbating any lingering credibility issues the management may have with the technology department.

It is imperative that employees across the board truly believe that IT focusses on supporting and improving business outcomes above all else. This faith can only be achieved by first ensuring that the entire organisation is made aware of precisely how the technology department goes about executing on this focus, and then successfully delivers on this established mandate time and time again.