From Cost to Value: Changing the IT Conversation, Part 1
If you’re like me, you’ve heard it dozens of times by now: “Every organization is now a digital organization.”
As business-IT insiders, we know this has been true for a while—how the tools we administer play a critical (not supporting!) role in delivering business value. Collectively, though, we haven’t done a great job in getting the message out.
Like our colleagues in sales or marketing, BRMs are expected to demonstrate the value of our work. Unlike them, however, we’re often unable to show it. Without the ability to translate our work and progress into language our business partners understand, we run the risk of being left out of strategic conversations. And that’s bad for business, because BRMs have much to offer when it comes to strategy.
As BRMs at the juncture of IT and the C-suite, it’s time to change the conversation—to transform IT from a cost center to a value center. Beyond the desire to improve IT’s professional standing, we have a responsibility to ensure our work supports real organizational growth.
From a Culture of Output to a Culture of Creativity
Beyond the desire to improve IT’s professional standing, we have a responsibility to ensure our work supports real organizational growth.
More often than not, we find ourselves in the middle of cost-driveout conversations, not value-planning ones. In our culture of output, we’re not proactively building value, we’re reactively responding as a (costly) service provider.
Let’s compare this to a culture of creativity, in which IT works as an efficient business partner. In this culture, IT understands the needs of the organization, uses our unique knowledge to offer solutions and help shape strategy, and shares ownership of business results. And to get there, we have to express IT value in ways that matter to the rest of the business.
I know what you’re thinking: that’s easier said than done. It’s true! Corporate culture shifts more slowly than we would like.
That said, you need to start a conversation to change the conversation: you need to think like a marketer.
IT, Think Like a Marketer
What is value? The dictionary might define it as “usefulness or importance,” but to whom? When we talk about value, we need to focus on the other side—the people who will notice it.
Take a leaf out of the marketer’s playbook: just 5–10 years ago, marketing was seen as an expense, not an investment. These days, it is seen as an important partner to the business. What changed?
It’s the messaging. Corporate marketing now explicitly supports the business’ strategic, accountable, and transparent goals. Of course, IT isn’t marketing, but we can both benefit from using the same tools.
Do Your Corporate Homework
Are you well-versed in your organization’s corporate strategy? How does IT strategy converge with larger business goals? If there isn’t a well-defined strategy in place, annual reports and other public documents may point you in the direction of current areas of value.
Employ a “Line of Sight” Construct
A line of sight construct orients you towards the following questions: 1) Why are we doing what we’re doing? and 2) How does this tie back to deliverables that support corporate goals? These questions help focus IT value-planning on business growth.
Engage Early and Often
If possible, take part in corporate planning to learn how IT can roadmap with the larger business collaboratively. Ask questions, bring ideas, and join together to innovate.
The key to it all? In executive meetings, in casual conversations, and in your own work: stop thinking in terms of cost and start thinking in terms of value. Soon, your organization will be all ears, and IT will be better positioned to turn IT ideas into reality.
Jeannine McConnell is a supporting member of the Project Management Institute, with certifications in Program Management, Project Management, as well as the IIBA with a certification in Professional Business Analysis. Jeannine also holds a Six Sigma Green Belt with a focus on transactional activity, and is ITIL certified. More recently, Jeannine become a contributing thought leader to Business Relationship Management Institute and holds a BRMP® certification. She is also a contributor on some of Microsoft Press’ best-selling publications on software engineering. She currently holds the role of Executive Strategist at ServiceNow, where she supports enterprises who want to change how their employees work.
