IT and the Digitalization challege- How to work together to grow your digital business?
IT is an essential support function in all modern organizations. It provides provides technical equipment, Helpdesk services, ensures appropriate firewalls and cyber security, procuring and implementing software, maintenance of servers etc. IT is essential to get the machine churning. Yet, it is a support function. It is not how the business makes money.
Today, as businesses take on the digital transformation, leaders turn to their IT heads, for guidance and support. This is, of course, very exciting for IT and they begin with what they know best, IT infrastructure and systems. At its best, this results in automation of clunky processes and upgrades that improve operational efficiency- a good start but hardly scratching the surface on true digital transformation.
The challenge is that IT is not set up to lead major enterprise wide transformations. It has limited scope, is not embedded deeply into the core of the business and is not involved in strategic decision making about the future. Furthermore, IT is perceived as a cost burden. Simply giving IT a mandate for digitalization, without addressing these organizational limitations, is unlikely to have the desired transformative impact.
Digital transformation is more than ERP systems, software upgrades and internal IT infrastructure. It requires that we rethink everything about our business in light of the new digital technologies to enhance the current physical experience for our employees and our customers. This means reimagining the way we interact with customers, how we deliver our products and services and ultimately our value proposition.
The transformation needs to be led by the business with the IT department as a key partner and enabler. Bringing IT close to the business ensures that the IT operations and infrastructure development is aligned with business ambitions and they can work towards common goals.
For such a set up to succeed the business will have to become more tech savvy. The leaders need to recognize that every company today needs to be a software heavy, high tech, company. We can no longer have separate software development departments, but developers, data engineers and IT experts need to be part of every team. Leaders don’t need to become experts in digital technology but they do need to be up to speed on the technology trends and how they may impact their business. They need a curious growth mindset, in which they challenge themselves and the teams to be creative, test and experiment new technologies to achieve better results and develop entirely new business models.
All this is easier said than done, but breaking internal silos and setting up IT for success is right place to start.
What do you see as the biggest challenges to transform in your business?