Want Digital Transformation Success? Collaborate IT and Business Teams
To achieve complete digital transformation, companies should collaborate with IT and business teams
Digital transformation has become the home name of the business sector. It is being embarked on as a mandatory shift that businesses have to undergo to stay in the race. But the whole process of digital transformation needs many small to big initiatives and a total change in the working system. Everyone from the CEO to middle management needs to know where to imply digital transformation and how to reach the new environment. Besides, the IT team and business teams are the two core teams of an organization. When a company is adopting digitization, then both teams should work together to drive business success.
Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of business, fundamentally changing how a company operates and delivers value to customers. It is a very broad topic, and it covers several different types of initiatives. However, it all boils down to changing the way business interactions between employees and customers take place. But companies going after the digital transformation has intensified over the past year, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown that followed. Businesses that procrastinated the adoption of technology into their working system fell flat during critical times. Fortunately, organizations didn’t delay it anymore and welcomed digital transformation.
According to an IDC prediction in 2019, more than half of all GDP worldwide will be driven by products and services from digitally transformed enterprises by 2023. However, a lot has changed last year. Research released in the final quarter of 2020 found that 89% of CIOs said their digital transformation had accelerated, and 58% predicted it would continue to speed up. These changes are not just technological. They have a big impact on the way a company’s teams functions, especially IT teams and business teams.
The collaboration between IT and business teams
The working pattern and the tools they use may be different, but both IT teams and business teams are running after a single goal, business success. IT departments of an organization consist of multiple teams focused on designing, building, deploying, and running digital services. On the other hand, business teams focus on building better strategies and improving outcomes. But while implementing digital transformation, both the teams have no other choice but to work together.
Misaligned objectives are a major reason for many issues that arise between the teams. Henceforth, collaboration is the key to business success. Good collaboration and coordination are very important between IT and business teams. Non-IT teams prioritize revenue growth and reducing cost, while IT teams prioritize integration within existing systems and overall security. Henceforth, the teams should set a goal and run towards it rather than going in their ways.
While IT teams are well versed in emerging technologies, it is not the same for business teams. However, it is unfair to ask them to be experts in technology because that is out of their focus area. However, IT teams can spend some time sensitizing business teams to the general functionalities of technology. This could help them get an overview of their role and goal.
