It's an old problem, but still too prevalent - the IT department is still far removed from business, with little understanding of the strategic needs of the business.
This is according to Michael Bartlett, Dimension Data's GM of operations management. He says: “This is evident in how few companies have a CIO as part of the strategic management team. Most CIOs and, therefore, IT are seen as a support function.”
Thus, he says, CIOs are not always exposed to the direct challenges of the company. Most IT departments deliver to internal business units. With increasing need for IT to deliver a lot quicker, IT faces the risk of business procuring IT services from cloud providers.
“This will place an additional load on IT to support these services. It is vital for IT to understand the changing needs of business and customers and how to meet these.”
Barlett, who will speak at the Dimension Data Accelerate 2011 executive forum on 26 May at The Forum in Bryanston, says customer expectations are changing fast, and the businesses that don't meet these needs better face losing customers.
He says: “IT is still very focused on the traditional approach of managing the availability and performance of the IT infrastructure. This does not provide any indication on how the customer is experiencing the service.
To improve this, he says, IT should embrace customer experience management to complement the existing infrastructure management. “This will aid in understanding the service experience from the customer point of view.
“Having infrastructure available does not mean the business service is available. If we look at the internal business units, they want IT to deliver on their demands a lot quicker.”
With the advent of cloud services, IT can meet the needs of business much quicker, but most IT divisions are struggling to understand how to leverage these benefits, says Barlett. One of the big concerns for IT is not having everything under their direct control.
“IT will need to put process and technology in place to understand the experience that their customer is having by using their services.”
For example, he points out if customers have a 'slow response' on using an online service, they will rapidly move to another service provider. “The risk is that businesses are not aware of how much potential business they have lost due to not understanding the customer experience.”
IT plays a vital enabler for business and must not just be seen as a cost centre, Barlett says, and adds that things need to change.
He notes that the IT department needs to be more proactive in meeting the needs of business and understanding the real needs of customers.
“To achieve this, they need to be much more involved with the customer-facing aspects of the business and to understand how they impact the customer experience through the services that they provide.
“Embracing customer experience management will assist IT in understanding how to improve services delivered to business and customers,” he says.
For more information about the Dimension Data Accelerate 2011 executive forum, click here.
Share