Tailoring your IT Model to Compete in the Digital Age

To sustain a successful business in today’s competitive and digital-savvy world, both cutting edge ideas and speed are required… Without which, customers will simply start shopping elsewhere, and businesses will find themselves falling behind their competitors.

Where customers are continuing to take control with a mere swipe of a screen or click of a button, the pressure for providers to refine and develop their products and services is increasing. Should a customer not be pleased by their interaction with a brand, they can simply move onto something better.

For native businesses like Amazon Web Services, or Spotify, who possess such a competitive energy, and whose customer focus lies at the very heart of their brand, it’s safe to say they are geared up to deliver a great customer experience. Yet for other smaller and more traditional businesses, whose organisational models are structured around cost efficiencies rather than innovation, they could see themselves falling behind.

Miscommunication in the Workplace

Consider a regular IT team in a larger organisation. In most cases, tech staff will have their own department – the IT department. This separation from the rest of the company makes it easier to monitor, oversee and budget their operations. But what happens should a request be raised from another department, such as customer services?

The interaction between the two factions is often lacking, due to the customer services department having different KPIs to IT. This results in two frustrated departments at loggerheads with one another because, quite simply, they’re lacking a common language and are unable to deliver cutting-edge ideas at the speed their customers require.

So, how is this resolved? By re-shaping team structures in a way that encourages innovation…

A New Structure: How is this Best Achieved?

Given that digital now impacts every transaction and touchpoint within a business, this signifies that a one-dimensional team is not enough to alter or influence customer experiences. Instead, a unified departmental approach is required. Whether you work to achieve this in-house, or you reach out to a professional services provider to attain this better structure.

For larger organisations looking to achieve this in-house, mastering a new structure and having departments work together across an enterprise, from IT to customer service, and marketing to distribution – all of whom have atypical metrics, budgets, priorities and timelines – requires both the resource and go-ahead to work towards one united goal.

This means, rather than putting all your IT eggs in one basket, they can be distributed into other departmental teams to develop and improve digital services on the ground. This is what is known as the divide-and-conquer approach i.e., breaking down the problem into smaller problems until all the remaining problems are trivial.

Benefits of Tailoring your IT Model for the Digital Age

1. Managers working together, countering each other’s abilities while administering the role of developing and improving products, services and experiences
2. Developers established in the teams, working in conjunction with quality assurance to guarantee the development of digital services is not haltered unnecessarily
3. DevOps delivering the cloud infrastructure and platform services as necessitated, and at the speed required (or for SMEs, gaining this functionality from an outsourced IT provider)
4. Customer service teams working closely with IT to guarantee products and services are both straightforward and intuitive to use
5. Data management shared throughout all teams to ensure integration throughout the business
6. Architecture as a guiding function, continually developing and cultivating aptitude, making the business greater, faster, and more efficient
7. Security distributed throughout departments, with the given ability to say “no” should a product put customers, employees or the company itself at risk

The Power to Drive Change and Where to Begin…

A new IT model that encourages departments in larger organisations to work together across an enterprise could potentially change the face of IT teams as we know them, however only the likes of the CIO has the power to drive such change. That said, collaboration across all C-levels (CEO, CFO, COO etc. will additionally be required as company managers adapt their relationship with IT and determine team KPIs. Training will also be required to help staff members plan for the new structure.

For SMEs however, this same collaboration, determining KPIs and training can be provided on an outsourced basis. And this new IT model as such, needn’t require in-house attention, as ultimately, a professional IT services provider can do this for you, helping you to improve the effectiveness of your IT by vacating your “IT team” and “IT model” outside of your business’s four walls, and into the ether of theirs.

Ultimately, the most successful of organisations know how to adapt in a world of changing customers and competitors, whether by rethinking your IT model for the digital age or permitting an outsourced company to do so on your behalf.

Gaining an IT Operating Model That Works…

It’s only by developing into an innovative and speedy business that companies will maximise their IT and digital capacities.

At Rio IT, we understand that by outsourcing to us, you’re putting a lot of trust in a company to look after your business – to keep it running, secure, and growing. And we want you to be confident that you’re putting your faith in a safe pair of hands.

Once you have made this leap, we will work with you to maximise your IT and digital capacities. For more information on how Rio IT’s highly qualified, experienced experts can help in tailoring your IT model to the digital age, please get in touch.