Probing the relationship between IT and the business

From a CIO who implemented a world-wide technology infrastructure to the co-founder of the applications management company Montera, Charles Emond has over 22 years of diverse experience to share. In this issue of "Executive Coach," Mr. Emond answers questions that probe into the relationship between IT and the business: how to better align the two to meet the organization’s goals, the importance of portfolio management and how to realize results through specific metrics.

What strategies do you recommend to ensure that the work coming from IT is aligned with the goals of the business?

1. Governance. In order for IT organizations to best support overall business goals, they must put in place a strong IT governance framework that includes decision rights and accountability. Decision rights ensure that everyone knows who is responsible for making decisions regarding different projects; and accountability allows for those decisions to have an "owner" so there is no question as to where direction is coming from. You really need both pieces for a solid governance framework.

2. Alignment. Both the IT and corporate governance frameworks need to be aligned in order for IT to properly support the organization’s goals and achieve the set strategies and objectives.

3. Measurement. Once the governance process is in place and alignment amongst the internal clients is established, performance measurement guidelines need to be developed. By comparing performance to previous expectations, the IT department can readily determine their level of service and make changes if necessary. What’s more, being able to show quantifiable data allows IT to further make its value transparent to the business.

1. IT must provide an Organizational Interface Capability (OIC). An OIC is a group within the IT department that is solely responsible for interfacing with the business--almost like an Account Manager. They understand the initiatives of departments or their "customers", communicate the customers’ needs to IT, and vice versa, guide projects through completion and give portfolio status. Developing this type of model drives ownership of initiatives at the business level and achieves full engagement on the part of IT.

2. Have a good tool belt. There are actually two levels of project and portfolio management tools needed here. First, the OIC needs tools that will help them report the health of projects to the CIO–the day-to-day information. However, the CIO needs an entirely different type of tool. Since they are steering the course for the future, CIO’s need reporting and dashboards that will allow them to plan one or even two years ahead of time. They need an overview of current initiatives, insight into initiatives that are approved but not started and a list of initiatives that are still being evaluated. This information gives a complete view into the IT portfolio and allows CIOs to plan for change and set realistic expectations on the part of the business.

3. Today. Tomorrow. Now. Through the management of their portfolio, the business and their OIC representative can direct resources and priorities to forward-looking projects, ongoing support and "reactive" business needs. Doing this ensures there are no surprises. If the business has access to the IT portfolio and can see what’s coming and going, then no one is surprised when a project is cancelled or is going wrong. And again, this brings a further level of transparency.

In determining and planning organizational goals, how does the shift to a more coordinated effort between business and IT improve the decision making process?

In order to accomplish any organizational goal, you need the right mix of resources involved from the beginning who are dedicated to the completing the tasks of the project. As a whole, corporations have limited resources, but most often IT is "front and center" in this battle to get multiple things done within a limited timeframe. When the business executives are a part of the decision-making process, and are aware of the reality of the amount of projects in the portfolio, they are more apt to adhere to a fair resourcing enterprise process that will ensure the prioritization with the corporate goals.

What metrics do you recommend for IT to communicate value to the business--in terms that are relevant to the business?

1. Support-level metrics. Determining the expected level of customer responsiveness, especially when it comes to the support desk, alleviates issues before they arise and allows for the right type of follow-up.

2. Ongoing status metrics. The health of each individual project needs to be evaluated on a regular basis. Ongoing status metrics help determine which projects may call for some type of intervention to get back on course, or they can indicate if a big decision needs to be made. This type of information gives the CIO insight into projects and allows them to guide their team in the initiatives that they are trying to accomplish.

3. Service satisfaction metrics. We use surveys that are part of Changepoint. These surveys are used at very crucial points of the project life cycle to determine whether what the customer was expecting is what IT is actually delivering. And although it may sound clichéd, many times perception is reality, and it’s hard to make adjustments when you don’t know what needs to be changed. These surveys become the pulse of your customer’s satisfaction and can provide forewarning of any "storms" on the horizon. These surveys give CIOs the opportunity to take preventative measures on potential issues instead of having to be reactive or being blind-sided by the businesses dissatisfaction with IT.

Closing Thoughts…

IT should be run like any other business with roles that emulate Finance, Product Management, Sales, Marketing and Support. The OIC team is an integral part of the mix because they manage the communication and relationship between the business and the IT department, ensuring that the goals of the business and the work being done within the IT department are aligned for mutual success.