No more silos. Business and IT must come together to make companies stronger and more effective than ever before.

Global spending on digital transformations in companies was expected to reach $1.3 trillion last year as the pace of change is faster than ever. While this change can have positive effects on business performance, it has caused a divide within companies.

Back in 2000, when the shift to de-centralised cloud based technology was sweeping the globe, IT departments were perceived to be struggling to keep up. As a result businesses took the change into their own hands, getting the tools they needed directly. This can mean a faster end result in a world where consumer engagement has moved from demographics to real-time one-to-one interactions. But it can also mean a greater potential risk to companies that are sharing more and more sensitive data across cloud-based storage.

Digital transformation is dividing companies, according to a recent Capgemini study. This claims that only 36 percent of organisations agreed that their chief information officer (CIO) that deals with IT has the same priorities as the business leaders. These different points of view have apparently meant a divide since 2012 when these numbers were far higher. 

So how can companies better integrate while keeping up with the rate of change that digitisation demands?

Inclusion

Decision making needs to be kept a team-based effort. By picking a project already underway and assigning a defined point of contact it’s possible to capture feedback about digital transformation efforts across IT and business teams involved in the project.

Problem-solve

Either tackle a problem a department is facing or try something new. Either way that team will be able to see changes so the time to value of digital transformation can be assessed.

Make tech yours

Not all tech bought is actually used or works. Some teams resist for fear of losing relevance and others simply aren’t ready for the shift. The ideal tech won’t force existing processes to bend but rather will mould to the teams and ways of working. Better results with minimal disruption are symptoms of ideal technological growth.

Succeed flexibly

Measuring success needs to be fluid and adaptive. Change is happening so fast that a simple goal and achievement measure may not be relevant by the time the goal is reached. Agile development helps ongoing change when guided by iterative learning and feedback in a helpful cycle. The key is to bring business and technology together so both teams work in harmony to create the best growth possible in any organisation.