IT Projects Serve the Needs of Corporate Strategy
Brad Boston, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Cisco Systems, believes that the key to whether an IT project succeeds lies in aligning technological innovation with the needs of business operations such as sales, finance, and human resources.
Scott Griffin, CIO of Boeing, takes a more aggressive approach by proposing that IT should serve customer needs. "Since business operations are centered around the customer, IT strategies should aim to solve customer problems."
Today, an increasing number of technical projects are accomplished through collaboration across various departments within a company. Senior executives can adopt the following strategies to better align IT with business units:
Involve business units from the start. Engage business unit managers and employees from the project proposal stage and include them in defining project objectives and success criteria.
Find champions within the business units. Winning over excellent and passionate champions within the business units, along with a team committed to executing the project, is essential for success. If these conditions aren't met, top-performing companies often halt projects.
Establish joint accountability. Let both IT and business units share equal responsibility for the project.
Effectively communicate business benefits. Standard marketing strategies also apply to IT—focus on benefits rather than features. "In IT, we don't need too many new ideas. What we need is to make sure those new ideas get implemented," says Boston.
Prioritize IT Governance
A governance model can help companies design, develop, implement, and control technology initiatives in much the same way it helps ensure the success of investment, marketing, and manufacturing plans.
IT governance can assist...
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