August 21

If you're paying attention to the trade press, IT shops are under increasing pressure to partner with the business and to provide meaningful contributions to the business's bottom line. Gartner cites its studies of CIOs' biggest concerns, and CIO Magazine reports the same stories.

So it was with some surprise that a conversation with a CIO raised the opposite question: What if IT knows how to contribute but the business doesn't respond to IT's offers?

Some thought lead me to five reasons why this might be the case.

1 - The Business Doesn't Understand You Made an Offer

If IT has not been a partner and the business has not seen this kind of behavior before, they may not really understand. And even if peer senior managers within the business heard the words, the message may not have penetrated.

Recommendation: Find out whether they know of and remember the offer, understand it, and understand what it can do for them. Ask in informal conversation, or for more in-depth understanding, try surveying both the business partners and their subordinates. (Incidentally, I recommend using an independent third party to do the survey.)

2 - You Offered No Persuasive Impact

Maybe they understand the offer, but the impact isn't obvious. Did you effectively communicate it? Perhaps your proposal can cut down on business processing time (but doesn't say how much) or help the sales force close deals more quickly (but doesn't offer potential revenue impact).

Recommendation: If there's a real cost savings to be had in running the business, or a revenue gain to be had in growing the business, calculate it using your reasonable assumptions. If you're proposing a transformation with long-term or indirect benefits, calculate the value of some likely scenarios.

Then make your case. Stack up a big pile of money for savings or revenue gains and a small pile for investment. (Use Monopoly money if you wish.) Start your pitch. This is really about culture change, and making the impact visual is a good start.

And make sure it's credible. A prerequisite: The IT Leader and all who assembled the case will have to know the business intimately.

3 - Your Offer Isn't Aligned with Business Needs

Essentially, you didn't think about what's in it for them. Yes, you know how to build a better mousetrap, but they want to go fishing.

Recommendation: Whether done by one-on-one conversation between CIO and a CxO on the business side or by business analysts meeting with business staff, the key issue is to listen more closely to the business, to learn about it in more depth, and to learn what's REALLY important to them.

4 - You Have No Credibility

Unpleasant as it may be, your organization may not have a track record of good service, responsiveness to the business community's needs, timeliness, or management of budget.

Recommendation: An internal customer satisfaction survey is in order. You can certainly use a web-based service that provides unattributed results, but you may find a survey by an independent third party more useful in providing insight beyond data. This MUST be done with the greatest confidentiality so respondents can speak freely, and it's critical that IT take the results seriously, with urgency, but not personally. IT will have to embark on a long-term program to improve its credibility.

5 - You Have No Organizational Mechanism for Bonding

Whether or not you have a governance process in place that allows senior management to agree on a tight IT-Business relationship, you have to have a means by which the working-level organizations can "implement the treaty".

Recommendation: Some IT organizations have "business relationship management" groups, liaison groups, and "account managers" that bond with business organizations. It's important to implement some such formal organizational position or structure. (While business analysts may report into this structure, they typically don't likely think at a high enough level.)

Measure business community satisfaction with your performance both before and after implementing such a change, see what benefit comes with it, and use the survey as a diagnostic tool to improve upon it.

. . .

Remember, the goal is to gain credibility with the business community and gain their willingness to have you participate in the growth of the company. There may be political reasons why this may be difficult, but take control when there's any obstacle you can overcome.