How IT and Business Can Avoid Failing Each Other

There is a lot of finger-pointing and arguing going on between IT and business. IT is accused of "failing" to meet business needs. Business is accused of "failing" to understand the challenges of IT. This is all unfortunate and unnecessary; with the right solutions, the two can work together to meet their co-operative goals.

We recently came across a series of articles on Information Week: 3 Ways that IT Still Fails Itself, 5 Ways Business Still Fails the IT Organization, and 6 Ways IT Still Fails the Business. Each of these articles talks about some of the risks that come from not aligning business and IT goals. These issues include:

• IT underestimates mobile's impact (very few allocating resources to the management / use / security of mobile devices)
• IT budgeting is unrealistic
• IT is too slow (not aligned with business needs)
• IT isn't building data-powered decision tools
• IT hasn't built a bridge to marketing
• IT doesn't focus on the end customer
• IT is not automated
• IT doesn't ask business for help
• IT fails to report what it does in either metrics or case studies
• Business treats IT as irrelevant to customers
• Business doesn't try to get marketing to work with IT
• Business has no plan or neglects to share plan with IT
• Business treats security as ITs problem
• Business fails to hire and retain great IT people

IT and business do not have mutually exclusive goals. As we understand through the premise of ITSM and ITIL, business success is dependent on the availability, dependability, security and performance of IT services. Better management of IT systems (people, process and IT) focuses on managing the relationship with the customer, which aligns a business objective with the management of IT. With a co-operative goal, supported by the right solutions, business and IT need not "fail" each other any longer.

If you were to revisit the list above, you'll see that focusing both IT and business on the needs of the customer will erase many of the issues of the two areas "competing" with each other. Instead, with a co-operative focus on the customer and the needs of the business as a whole, the whole organization can move more quickly to meet the needs of the customer.

Part of the ability to meet the needs of the customer is implementing a successful ITSM solution. Learn more about how Absolute Service can help your company set up ITIL best practices for consistent IT services to all users and refocus your business on the ultimate goal: servicing customers.