How is your relationship with IT?
Do find them supportive and helpful when you have a tech problem in your group? Can you get enough IT resources for new projects?
The fact of the matter is, you and IT probably have a troubled marriage, and sometimes it seems you don’t even speak the same language. What you think is a priority job floats to the bottom of IT’s Work Ticket bin.
But the solution is not to bully for more attention, or try a runaround to outside vendors, or badmouth IT to higherups. Rather, you should do what any good leader does: compete strategically to attain scare resources. In other words, learn to play the game.
Former CIO and CFO Susan Cramm has started a new blog on Harvard Business, Having IT Your Way, that provides business leaders tips and tools to get the most out of their information technology departments.
Getting IT resources for a new project can be particularly difficult, she says. According to Cramm, here’s why. Of every dollar spent on IT, 75 cents goes to maintaining what’s already running. And for the 25 cents available, there is tremendous competition.
To get through, you should act more like a business partner than customer, she says. Specifically:
- “Invite your IT contacts over and make them comfortable. Discuss technology and your business and, together, dream about the possibilities.”
- “Relieve some of the demand overload by picking your battles carefully and contributing leadership and resources to ensure the work gets done well.”
- “Focus on opportunities that benefit the external customer and bottom line.”
- “Once you have zeroed in on an opportunity and have secured resources, hold their feet on the ground by keeping projects focused on measurable outcomes and developing plans that deliver capability every 90 days.”
- “Ensure your people are computer literate and don’t whine about standards.”
This is great, real-world advice, and Susan’s new blog looks like it will be well worth following.
Please pass along your own successful strategies for partnering with IT.
