Still confused after all these years  |  June 25, 2007  

So it turns out that the business folks still go cross-eyed every time the techies try to explain a new corporate technology. Office technology has been around for years, people fall over themselves to buy new iPods and – according to the ads we see – we're carrying notebooks to summer beaches and docks.

But despite the fact we use gadgets and gizmos every day, the two solitudes of business and tech still can't just get along in the office.

“Business and information technology managers around the world share a common challenge: IT managers' tech talk baffles business managers and fails to communicate IT imperatives,” ran a release on the Global Solution study by Info-Tech Research Group and KnowledgeStorm.

Michael O'Neil, research fellow at Info-Tech Research Group, is quoted in the release.
“Lack of alignment between the IT and business management sides of the enterprise means there's a Tower of Babel scenario happening in most businesses when IT program requirements are discussed.”

His advice? “Either the IT managers need to develop strong communications skills to
put forward the needs and benefits of IT investment, or they need to find suppliers who excel at articulating value to executives. Businesses that don't recognize this disconnect – and take steps to address it – risk falling behind their competitors.”

Well sure, but it's been decades since computers first entered the workplace and a decade since they became part of the daily experience of most business people. So if the two sides of the corporate fence still can't pull together on business initiatives, why think they ever will?

Personally, I think these two solitudes will remain just that, at least to a large extent. Technology is only going to get more complex – and so harder to explain – and the pace of business change and growth is only getting faster, so business people have less time to spend learning about tech.

But – and here's the fun point – as all of that happens, it is also becoming even more critical that businesses deploy and exploit technology effectively, because that drives differentiation and efficiency.

So where does all that leave us? Well, despite the challenges, business people need to understand technology as well as they can. Read Backbone, because as self serving as that comment is our entire raison d'être is to explain tech to business folks. Second, IT people need to walk a mile in those shiny shoes the business folks wear. Maybe that means all new IT hires should spend two weeks job shadowing a few of the suits, maybe that means sending them to a business course. But smart companies will be proactive about getting the two camps to play nicely with each other, at the same time acknowledging that tech people are tech people because they don't want to wear ties and stare at Excel, and vice versa for the suits.

And yes, that's easier said than done. If all this was easy, it would have been done already.
The full report is available at www.infotech.com or www.knowledgestorm.ca