Successful companies fill the position of “technology liaison.”
Creating an environment of truly borderless networks—a world in which each company has electronic connections to the relevant enterprise and communications applications of its business partners—has a broad appeal.
But who within the company is the evangelist of the borderless network? On the surface, you might think it is (or should be) someone within IT, perhaps the CIO, or the VP of infrastructure, or the head of global networks. But companies that are building borderless networks have heavy involvement from the business side, perhaps the CFO, the VP of sales, legal, or HR, or even the CEO.
I continue to see IT leaders and their staffs failing to garner effective involvement from non-IT leaders within the company. Without that, it becomes very difficult to win approval for new IT projects—and more importantly, to propel IT as a strategic asset rather than a cost center.
Successful companies fill the position of “technology liaison.” These folks understand both the business requirements of the company and the technologies that can meet those requirements. They can speak business and technical languages. Often, it’s the head technology liaison who is (or should be) the borderless evangelist.
What’s most key to the technology liaisons’ position is that they uncover problems in the business units that IT can solve. Many times, these problems or flaws in processes aren’t obvious, and they certainly don’t always appear to be an “IT problem.”
But, once IT is able to solve the problems or improve the processes, it becomes clear to the executive team that IT is extremely strategic and can save the company time, money, and resources, while improving employee productivity, business relationships, customer relationships, and the bottom line. IT truly is playing a major role in the transformation from a mildly effective, somewhat progressive organization to one that is truly innovative and industry-leading.
The potential business benefits include:
· Agility—providing employees with access to information and colleagues to help speed decision making and product development;
· Productivity—providing tools and access to information that speeds the amount of time it takes to complete tasks and/or generate more revenue; · Energy Efficiency—reducing energy costs within the company, as well as employee fuel consumption from commuting;
· Competitiveness—staying ahead of competitors in terms of cost structure, margins, innovation;
· Quality of life—understanding work/life balances through adoption of flexible work locations (ie, telecommuting or nearby branch locations) or reduction in travel through the use of video, telepresence, or Web conferencing;
· Risk mitigation—ensuring systems and services are enabled for compliance and e-discovery, for today and the future;
· Automation—integrating systems, applications, information, and communications to highlight potential problems or make quick decisions (ie, electronic health records discovering drug interactions or allergies; inventory systems linking with communications systems to coordinate calls before low-inventory issues arise);
· Customer service—using multiple touch points to interact with customers in a quick, efficient method of choice that results in high levels of satisfaction.
During the next few weeks, I will continue writing about how to transform your organizations, what steps you should take to make that happen, and how borderless networks play a crucial role.
