| Business plans are highly dependent on IT innovation. Joel Dolisy, SVP and CTO/CIO at SolarWinds says that IT must collaborate and communicate - or fail Improved Internet connections, BYOD, and the growth of cloud computing have undoubtedly enabled employees to work more quickly and efficiently, but it is not just about adopting the latest, most shiny technology: increasing employee efficiency is achieved through teamwork and collaboration. Although, these seem like overused terms they are actually at the heart of continued business success in our economy and this needs to be top of mind for IT professionals.
As businesses prioritise collaboration to help them be more profitable and outgrow their competitors, it's clear that they must ensure they're arming employees with the right training, tools and opportunities to drive and empower collaboration. Success depends on the ability to enable customers, employees and employers to connect with each other and IT has a unique opportunity to bring the business together.
THE TECHNOLOGY CURVE
We're seeing much greater synergy between marketing and IT than ever before. By understanding how the customer journey is evolving, IT professionals can source solutions that align with business goals. By considering the latest initiatives in other departments such as communications, customer service or finance, IT professionals can establish better understanding of business needs. Simply by staying on top of emerging trends and seeking to develop skills and knowledge, IT professionals can develop the expertise and credibility needed to successfully make the case for new technology investment.
EMBRACE THE CLOUD
The IT department plays a pivotal role in the adoption of efficient, cloud-based technologies which can improve internal collaboration. Businesses once tied to tedious, manual processes, can now access information anytime, anywhere, leading to greater cohesion and interaction. For example, enabling employees to access information such as HR and training resources, including webinars and podcasts, through cloud-based applications, helps organisations to improve employee retention, their skills and to strengthen the relationship between departments all thanks to IT innovation.
UNDERSTANDING THE BIGGER PICTURE
Ultimately, businesses can only progress as quickly as the IT department enables them to. Consider your experience during a disruption in email or when the company website went off line: it's easy to see the business impact. By keeping in mind the wider impact of IT, IT professionals are better placed to identify the potential pain points and areas of opportunity throughout the company, in turn helping to minimise the impact of downtime and business disruption.
EMPOWER THE CHANGING WORKFORCE
As millennials take over the workforce, these digital natives inherently possess valuable collaborative skills and insights that can benefit the organisation. A reverse mentoring programme to gain insight directly from the source regarding what best helps them to collaborate with others, can help to unlock new ideas and streamline functionality and processes.
A BUSINESS APPROACH TO IT
The IT professional is more empowered than ever to drive business success. However, new solutions, technologies and investments need to be effectively communicated to the right people in order to positively impact the business. While isolated reports of a computer not working may not have relevance to the overarching enterprise strategy, the IT professional is likely to get wind of mission-critical trends such as increased outages or a poor quality-of-service and these may well have business impact. Communicating such issues and solutions to business leaders prevents escalation and can identify new opportunities for business growth. However, IT spending is always a business decision and IT professionals must focus on the cost-benefits and the real-life impact when proposing investment.
IT is uniquely positioned in the business to nurture collaboration. To benefit, organisations must take a holistic approach with top-down support for more integrated initiatives. Only then can they start to embrace the transformative power of collaboration. NC
| 
