Learning Their World - 4 Steps to Strategic Interaction With IT
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Abstract

How can you develop a clear plan to better interactions with the IT department? Jinfo's director of research, Robin Neidorf, explains.

Item

The most effective information teams don't just work towards alignment with the IT department. They live it.

This insight emerged clearly during Jinfo's Research Focus, "Strategic Alignment of IS and IT" which ran from January-March 2016, as we interviewed and investigated examples of successful partnerships between information services and IT departments.

The most effective information teams prioritise:

• Strategic planning, based on ongoing research, on technology trends and how they create opportunity and risk in the business

• Team training and continuous improvement on IT's priorities, goals and requirements

• Exploratory and collaborative projects, organised in partnership with the IT department

• Embedding attention to technology in every project

• Creating and working towards measurable goals in integration of technology expertise into their work.

When information teams operate this way, they achieve closer collaboration with IT due to their own work practices and culture. Alignment runs from the top of the hierarchy down to the bottom and informs all facets of the value of information to the business.

Jointly, information technology and information services are better positioned to advise senior leadership on opportunities and risks.

To achieve this level of operations:

1. Conduct an inventory of current attitudes, knowledge and interests around technology in your team
   
   
2. Compare your inventory with Jinfo's documentation around technology orientation within the information services team
   
   
3. Prioritise which gaps between current and needed capabilities and practices for your team to focus on
   
   
4. Create a one-year plan to address up to three of those gaps.

Get started now. Most of the articles and reports in "Strategic Alignment of IS and IT" support these tasks, but these are a few of the best to get you started: 

• What is the Broader Agenda for IT?
  Article by Steve Bynghall on Friday, 1st April 2016

• What Does the Digital Workplace Mean for Working With IT? Views From Thought Leaders
  Article by Steve Bynghall on Tuesday, 8th March 2016

• Case Study - Cargill Works in Tandem with IT & Strategy Teams
  Article by Sophie Alexander on Wednesday, 16th March 2016

• Case Study - LORD Corporation Forges Close IS/IT Relationships
  Article by Sophie Alexander on Thursday, 10th March 2016

• When Do Information Services Projects Belong on the IT Side?
  Article by Tim Barlow on Wednesday, 24th February 2016

The main lessons learned from this three-month Research Focus, plus a thematic index to all content published, are listed in the report Insights and Actions from the Research Focus "Strategic Alignment of IS and IT", visit the Research Focus page to get your copy.

« Blog