How much business value is added by your IT division?

You are the consumer of IT services in your organization. How do you ensure you get the maximum business value from them? Of course, it is second nature to think of IT adding lot of value. But, how do you see it? It is likely that you get a set of huge reports from the CIO showing metrics and other related things, most of them almost always green. Have you taken time to sit down with them and ask them to explain why there are important metrics and how they relate to you?

There are the three broad dimensions in terms of adding business value:

• Speed of delivery
• Quality of delivery
• Customer experience (# options, # value added services, Ease of operating a channel, Omni-channel, service offerings etc.)

If your IT is to become a value-added partner to business, it should:

• Assure the business that security is not compromised, the applicable regulatory changes are adhered to and ensure there is a plan B always in terms of disaster recovery. This is the bottom-most layer and a sine qua non today.
• Promote innovation and be a true partner to business.

 It is the latter that we are discussing in this article. Here are some pointers to get around this:

Pointer #1: If you don’t question and understand your IT’s output,

your customer will do so in no time consequently leading to more costs. Do not accept metrics or any report from IT without a sitting. Good metrics, however good they are, do not tell much about business. High uptime of an ATM is good. Imagine the loss of ATM for a minute on an important occasion like boxing day. If your IT team is able to resolve all the issues within the agreed time (SLA – Service Level Agreement), very good. By themselves, all these metrics may not mean much. Do not be afraid to dig deeper and learn further. At the end, you as well as the IT must be convinced there is merit behind the metrics. Usually, the clue is to have a few meaningful metrics that can be directly or indirectly correlated to your or business KPIs.

Pointer #2: Whenever you have a meeting with IT, are you getting inundated with technical mumbo-jumbo too often? Perhaps, there is a problem. It is not uncommon today for everyone to exhibit how “digitally aligned” they are. This is ok to start with. If someone, from IT, including a thorough-bred architect cannot explain in plain English whatever proposals they are acting on and their corresponding business benefits, chances are that they require more meetings to unravel the mystery.

Pointer #3: Before you can question the IT, have you spent time with them articulating your business goals and priorities? Have you taken them into confidence? Do they know your KPPs? Do they know the direction you are planning to take? Do they understand where you are trying to invest? Share with them transparently. Make them understand what you are doing. If you change your priorities, let them know.

Pointer #4: Leave the management of the IT to the CIOs and do not get into too much nitty-gritties. Giving them the required freedom is essential. At the same time, do not allow yourself to be outmanoeuvred by the CIO that the IT reports are bound to be voluminous as the IT is outsourced to many vendors. The last thing, you want to be afraid of is the fact that there are n vendors supporting your IT portfolio. Whether your IT is insourced or outsourced doesn’t eliminate the need for your IT to present a single view to you. Demand from them.

Pointer #5: We should use IT and technology to see how they can add value to the business process. IT can be a great enabler to open new channels. They can help you to cut costs. If you happen to call them only when you have a break-down or an irate customer, perhaps you are not making use of IT to the full extent. Remember, in today’s world, more strategies are designed keeping IT in mind. The more they participate and the more freedom they have, the better they can come up with alternatives. But agree with them upfront on the “definition of success” for each important business initiative.