Top 3 CIO Resolutions for 2015
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By Cesar Fernandez, director of Product Solutions at PMG
Struggling to bridge the gap between IT and the rest of your organization? If so, you’re not alone. A recent survey conducted by PMG found that 60 percent of IT leaders feel like people don’t fully understand the goals of their department.
Fortunately, as 2014 comes to a close, CIOs have an opportunity to dramatically improve how IT is viewed and valued throughout the enterprise. Consider the following three resolutions to help make 2015 IT’s best year yet.
Understand Business Needs
While less than half of IT leaders feel like others recognize their department’s objectives, a mere 18 percent think that IT aligns well with the goals of their businesses in general. That’s a disturbing statistic because, if the goals for the business and IT are completely different, how can the company grow and succeed? When CIOs understand the needs of the business inside and out and are able to marry those goals with those of their department, the entire company ends up winning.
As an example, we worked with the CIO of a top 10 retailer who began a cross-departmental analysis to identify pain points associated with the company’s onboarding and offboarding procedures. The intelligence he gathered from HR, facilities, security and other departments helped him develop and implement processes that eliminated major delays, strengthened data security and ultimately led to significant cost reduction for the entire organization.
Although technology certainly played a role in the CIO’s success, it’s important to realize that he achieved what was needed for the business because he orchestrated the onboarding and offboarding process between all of the different departments within the organization. Orchestration is key as it means synergy is established between what needs to be accomplished, and the tactics and tools put in place to achieve it.
Focus IT Team on More Strategic Activities
Once you have a plan in place for aligning IT’s objectives with those of the business, it’s time to begin using innovative mechanisms — think business process automation — so IT can ultimately focus on higher value needs.
In general, the most successful automation adoption occurs when it’s orchestrated with CIOs who evangelize the concept and ensure everyone understands its value. Your leadership, for example, can demonstrate how automation eliminates the drudgery of handling mundane and manual tasks so that more stimulating initiatives with higher visibility can be tackled.
Create a Continuous Feedback Loop
Even after orchestrated business process automation is adopted, the work of a CIO is never fully over. As a result of process changes that constantly occur among departments, CIOs should ensure they’re continuously soliciting and receiving feedback to proactively approach any modifications needed. You can even use the automation technology you’ve put in place to help.
For instance, an automated service catalog — with comprehensive workflow orchestration capabilities — can serve as a great tool to incite communication internally. Additionally, with an easy-to-use platform, IT and other departments can administer service and process updates on a frequent basis.
Should All Resolutions Be Forgot, Remember…
The start of a new year provides you the perfect opportunity to pull back the curtains on processes throughout your organization, identify gaps where IT can help improve efficiency and then map out a plan of action.
Integrating IT’s goals with the primary goals of your business is something all CIOs should strive for. Once you have an understanding of what’s vital across the organization, you can move forward with fostering the adoption of new technology in a cohesive and successful way.
For more IT leadership tips, visit the PMG blog.
Cesar Fernandez is the director of product solutions at PMG. A significant number of the Global 2000 rely on the PMG Enterprise Service Catalog to deploy enterprise service catalog and business process automation software that streamlines operations, reduces costs and improves efficiency. Our solutions transcend traditional IT service management boundaries giving business and IT professionals a smarter way to automate business processes ranging from IT financial management to identity management, employee onboarding and cloud provisioning.
Paul Ferrill has been writing for over 15 years about computers and network technology. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering as well as a MS in Electrical Engineering. He is a regular contributor to the computer trade press. He has a specialization in complex data analysis and storage. He has written hundreds of articles and two books for various outlets over the years. His articles have appeared in Enterprise Apps Today and InfoWorld, Network World, PC Magazine, Forbes, and many other publications.