The technological information advantage is the difference between winning and losing each battle for business. In today’s tight-money environment, Information Technology (IT) leaders must know which technology enhancements are going to offer the fastest return on investment. However, the company’s IT must be able to be aligned to new business priorities efficiently while minimizing the costs and risks of change.
Innovation in IT is the way to build change-embracing cultures, to improve business processes, to increase productivity, and to make customers happier and more loyal. It is obvious that last year’s technology will not win the battle for this year’s customers and needs, yet we often think we don’t have any other options. Creating an environment in your IT department of “second-guessing is good” and “how can we change or tweak or add on to or take away from?” will help to give your IT people the freedom to create IT solutions that truly work for your company and your clients.
Executives are often afraid that changes that come about as a result of this type of thinking will be expensive or won’t work together, but often these are the very changes that are least expensive and tend to pay for themselves rapidly. Improved security and enhanced performance can be side effects of solving problems.
How much of the company’s budget should be spent on IT? Statistics show that companies that consistently spend 2.8 – 3.5% of their budget on IT reap the most benefits from their IT. Their top projects are those that increase revenue and things that have to been done (like fix problems or increase security or increase bandwidth).
Using IT to cut company costs produces a better return on investment in IT. For example, automating phone-bill analysis by collecting phone bills into a data warehouse and applying analytics can show inefficiencies in phone-plan usage and overcharges.
All executives at a company must work with the IT team to create this type of change-embracing culture. Processes must be improved. Efficiency of the system must increase through a variety of means. The business goals of the company must be clearly communicated to and understood by the IT team in order for that team to create IT that aligns with those business goals. Effective use of IT means that customer care is improved. There have to be quantifiable means of measuring the effectiveness of IT. And IT team members need to be encouraged to be innovative in their thinking through incentives and compensation.
