Business and Tech Alignment

One of our key services is Alignment, this is critical in any successful business or project. None the less it is often the one overlooked the most. Usually unknowingly. There will be people reading this who will think that alignment is not an issue for them (Mainly leaders) Other’s will read it and it will be instant recognition of their current situation or previous experiences. The reason for such different viewpoints, is exactly that, a lack of alignment but more to the point is a lack of visibility to that.

If we look at a larger scale business at the start of any fiscal year, its all systems go! Senior leaders have their targets and goals for the year ahead; there will be excitement and cohesion between each function, top level. This is where the business needs to go and this is the part our function plays in that.

This then spreads out and down the chain into more actionable items and deliverables, great! Except now, there are far more individuals with their own take on what each goal and action means and a lot of the time these people don’t have much need to talk to each other, and/or are unaware of the reliance one team may have on another team to achieve their deliverable; now we have a clash, which teams deprioritises theirs. Friction can start, it’s us and them. It seems small but it is stuff like this that creates friction between teams, it slows results and it costs your business money! It happens everywhere, not just across functions but between smaller teams within one function, or between individuals in smaller teams and businesses.

There will be two teams working on the same problem at a slightly different angle, each team will have a Leader/Manager, Project manager and a product/tech lead and other members of the team required to complete. They will be talking to providers and 3rd parties and trying to gain pricing Leverage to get the project off the ground, and they get a 5% discount for all their efforts, the other team secure 7%. BAU is causing havoc and the projects are being delayed, people are stretched and morale drops and in turn so does productivity.

Each team has chosen a different provider, for a very similar service and money and time has been spent on this. It goes live or partially live and it becomes clear that this is one in the same thing and the business wants consistency and rightly so. The two teams combine their efforts, they free up a project manager and 50% of the Lead’s and other team member times for other priority projects. They receive a 20% discount and free professional services hours with the collectively chosen supplier. They gain expertise, team collaboration, success of this project and the others that they had, had to put on the back burner. Everyone is happier, the savings were greater and adoption is now future proof, more people know the system, and its consistent for staff and customers.

In this scenario, money was lost before the lack of alignment was realised. Experience shows me and if you look back I am sure it will for you too. That this is happening all the time, across many teams and businesses and like I said its often hidden, not purposely. Most people have good intent, they want to do the right thing, meet their goals and make the business and project a success.

All was not lost; it was able to be rescued and bring teams together. Had the right questions, communication and collaboration between functions been happening, that alignment could have existed throughout, saving everyone peace, money and time.

IT and Dev teams can often be hit with issues where their expertise and time is required to achieve other teams’ deliverables. It happens all the time actually, if I am honest. It really demotivates and can derail current flow and morale within the team. They have their own priorities and deliverables to achieve to ensure the business can continue run and securely. Teams go off and buy software and licenses, that IT already have access to at lower costs. ALL this can be avoided though.

As a senior leader and specifically CIO/CTO’s . The first questions to ask before assigning your deliverables for your teams. Will my team be needed for any other functions or teams’ initiatives? Will I need any other teams?  Are any teams doing the same thing, where can we collaborate? And keep circling back.

At Collab-IT, we are here to help you achieve that clarity. We look at it all objectively, spot and highlight areas of opportunity, growth and any risks to take into consideration. We facilitate, support and create sustainable plans and frameworks to help ensure your business the success and alignment it deserves.

I will leave this one with you.

If you and your partner had the same music taste and they had a family Spotify subscription with a multitude of prepopulated playlists, albeit maybe some were questionable. But it had everything you needed.

Would you then sign up to a Solo account?

Adding extra monthly outgoings and spend hours curating your own playlists with the same songs.

Communication is key and teamwork really does make the dream work.

Feel free to take a look at our other services

-Natalie-