Moving IT Closer to the Business

Every Business Problem is a Technology Problem
In today’s business landscape, successful companies recognize that every business problem is also a technology problem. Organizations are integrating IT into business functions and thereby moving technology development and delivery resources closer to the customer. Because business functions like Sales, Support, and Marketing interact daily with customers, they know the customer’s desired experience better than anyone. By embedding technology resources in these business functions, companies improve customer experience because IT teams gain a deeper understanding of customer needs, can respond faster to changes due to fewer hand-offs, and collaborate more effectively with business units to deliver value-driven solutions.

We worked with the CIO at a large logistics company that valued customer centricity—or so they thought. During a town hall, the CIO invited a customer to meet the development team. A senior developer, who had been with the company for years, said, "I've been at this job longer than you've been alive, and this is the first time I've met a real customer." This story highlighted a gap between claiming customer focus and practicing it, emphasizing the importance of connecting the people who build the digital experience with the customers they serve.
While mindset, behavioral, and process shifts are an integral part of increasing customer-centricity, structural changes—like moving IT resources into the business—should not be overlooked when seeking to make quick progress toward customer-focused outcomes.  By integrating IT with business functions, businesses can deliver more value, increase customer satisfaction, and ensure long-term company success.    

Take Action
Leaders can appoint someone to oversee specific employee or customer experiences within the business. This could be an experienced product owner, a tech-savvy operations leader, or even a new hire. Over time, more technology resources can be moved into the business to support this roadmap and improve outcomes.
Here is a 5-step process to success:

1. Assign Experience Owners: These individuals live in the business and report to leaders like the VP of Sales, CMO, or VP of Customer Service. Experience Owners own the investment and capability roadmaps for specific customer or employee experiences. They manage the teams to deliver outcomes that align with business goals.
2. Form Cross-Functional Experience Teams: Self-sufficient and autonomous teams, including business analysts, solution architects, and agile and DevOps teams, report to Experience Owners. They deliver outcomes efficiently without needing to leave the team, except for occasional specialist support.
3. Adopt Agile Practices: Agile development keeps teams focused on delivering customer value through iterative processes and continuous feedback. This fosters closer collaboration and ensures the team stays aligned with business goals, enabling faster adaptation to changes.
4. Establish a Center of Excellence: A Center of Excellence provides cross-functional teams with guidelines, standards, and oversight. It offers guardrails to maintain autonomy while sharing best practices and ensuring collaboration across the organization.
5. Create Shared Goals and Metrics: Align both IT and business teams around common goals and metrics to ensure they evolve together, delivering value-driven solutions that meet customer needs.
   
   In real life:
   We worked with a leading financial services company where business leaders wanted faster time-to-market, more reliable tech teams, and reduced governance. By identifying Experience Owners and developing a maturity model to guide progress, they successfully moved tech resources into the business. As a result, they saw better collaboration, faster velocity, an increase in employee skills and certifications, and an improved customer experience.