Visualize holding a primary-colored ball with shapes punched through the sides and same-shaped pieces meant to push through them. Do you recall as a child, repeatedly trying to push pieces through one of these mismatched puzzles? The challenge created frustration until you learned that shapes must match and the pieces must be properly aligned in order to work. 

One of our earliest practical realizations is that you can’t force a square piece into a round hole of the same size, no matter how hard you try.

Why alignment matters
Alignment is extremely challenging for business and IT, and it’s on numerous “top issues” lists for 2010.  Why?  IT strategies are increasingly essential to business performance.  It’s not easy; business & IT units typically work autonomously toward self-set goals & measure performance by independent metrics.  Yet failure to align leads to frustrating projects, underperforming solutions, and even project abandonment.

As a dealer, reseller, or solution provider, you can help by ensuring your customers’ business and IT goals are aligned.  Whether you’re installing scanners and fax machines, configuring MFPs to capture mail into a document management system, or automating routine processes, failure isn’t usually due to defective hardware, software, or ignorance.  It happens because IT & business aren’t in sync.

Most common reasons solutions fail
Nearly every IT project failure comes back to poor or insufficient communication, but there are several alignment challenges to watch out for:

1. Inadequate face time.  Although written communications are critical, schedule adequate face time between IT and business teams during each planning and review cycle and as problems surface.

2. Lack of proper discovery. Inadequate discovery of project needs up front leads to poor decisions down the road regarding technology and processes.

3. Bad project specifications.  Those who write specifications sometimes mistakenly presume knowledge and omit steps.  When specs reach IT, instructions may be misinterpreted, resulting in poor technical decisions for which IT isn’t responsible, since their job is to follow specifications.

4. Inadequate or flawed testing.  Testing often gets short shrift due to a lack of financial resources.  Thorough testing is far more cost-effective than IT redesigning a solution and losing credibility due to insufficient testing.

5. Lack of managerial flexibility regarding timelines.  Never force IT to make a project to go live because of a deadline if the project’s not ready.  It leads to mistakes, poor performance, & bad morale.

6. Lack of change management. 

New solutions shouldn’t be forced on staff. Regular communication between teams helps everyone feel included and eases adoption.

Business Manager’s Checklist

• Establish a clear, unified vision.  Get input from diverse staff from all business areas as well as IT.  Unearth common needs.  Make sure your technology strategy, infrastructure, vendor, and IT staff can address them. 
• Plan solutions enterprise-wide, but implement departmentally.  Consider how technology & information can be shared and leveraged.  Your decisions will serve your enterprise better in the long term.
• Understand that unless your funding and human resources are endless, IT has limits.  Create two lists:  what must be rolled out, and what can be added later.  Revisit the list regularly with IT.
• Explain your vision in clear, written terms that everyone understands.
• Establish articulate goals that are financially feasible, realistic, and support  the enterprise vision. 
• Create a project plan with actionable goals, realistic timelines, milestones, benchmarks & collaborate with IT, department managers, vendors.
• Give IT staff time to examine departmental business processes.  This provides vital information that leads to strong, relevant solutions.
• Don’t expect realistic project timelines from IT unless you provide clear project specifications and indicate the resources you’ll commit.  Adding resources mid-project creates a costly learning curve.  Evaluate needs; make clear commitments.
• Close communication gaps.  Hold periodic project reviews with IT and staff to avert or address problems as they emerge.
• Establish metrics to ensure IT project performance is measured in ways that support stated business objectives. Don’t gauge success by the amount or level of IT services; measure by the solution’s ability to achieve stated goals
• Involve an internal business analyst in the project who understands the business and knows how to use existing equipment and systems.  This person can help bridge gaps between IT and business.
• Don’t drag your feet on providing resources for IT to implement your project.  If a project takes too long to implement, the need is likely to have changed, rendering the solution irrelevant.
• Plan adequate resources for testing.  Buying additional hardware or software to test a major IT solution is a minimal investment compared to errors from insufficient testing.
• Evaluate, optimize, and make improvements on a regular basis.  (That goes for IT, too.) 

IT Manager’s Checklist

• Remember that the purpose of technology in business is to fulfill business objectives.  Restate management’s goals, objectives, and expectations.  Be  sure you’ve understood.
• Take time to understand business objectives and how business is conducted, step by step.  Your solutions will be more effective.
• Listen closely for shared departmental needs.  Consider how technology integrations could streamline infrastructure costs and increase ROI.  Help management to stretch their dollars for maximum effect. 
• Whether you’re installing scanners or automating complex processes, make sure business people test the solution, not just IT.
• Talk to end users.  Understand their challenges. Discover where improvements can be made. 

Tip for Resellers & Dealers
Listen closely to prospects’ needs.  If they steer a project in a direction beyond your technical knowledge,  get IT involved. If you see a way for customers to re-use equipment to save money,  voice it.  Don’t push a solution in a straight line.  Demonstrating the business relevancy of IT solutions is your best chance for up-selling.

Stay In Line
Today, companies must be ready to respond to changing marketplace conditions.  Unlike a child’s static puzzle ball,  business objectives are constantly evolving to address a need, thus making any investment well worthwhile. 

Laurel Sanders is the director of public relations and communications for Optical Image Technology.  For information about the company’s award-winning suite of DocFinity software, visit www.docfinity.com.