With today’s economic conditions, you must have an impactful IT strategy. You need to be able to show your business stakeholders the value of what they are investing in and how this will help them achieve their goals with technology initiatives. Gartner lists seven rules for CIOs to follow through 2027 to be 75% more successful in elevating their strategic contribution to organizations’ missions and increase approval rates for funding requests by 30%.
7 rules for CIOs to create a compelling value story for IT
- Keep in mind that the IT stakeholder always determines the value
IT stakeholders and consumers determine what is of value and not the providers/producers. The focus should be on delivering technology and platforms that help businesses achieve their objectives, benefits, or outcomes. CIOs must identify their key stakeholders and/or consumers, beginning with business leaders as the primary stakeholders. They should find out what stakeholders need and want, and make sure that their product meets the requirements. CIOs should also regularly check to ensure that their product is meeting their needs.
2. Understand that all outcomes are not equally valued
CIOs must work with business leaders to figure out their business priorities. After that, use IT resources to help deliver those outcomes. They must also measure and show the benefits of this to key stakeholders and leadership.
CIOs must remember that organizations value impacts on mission and revenue growth more highly than cost reductions. Budget contributions are more valuable and easily measurable than increasing efficiencies through process improvements.
3. There must be two value narratives for operating and transforming
Stakeholders see the value of IT differently when it comes to running and changing a business. This means that the value of IT should be measured differently for each objective. If one initiative covers both, then it is important to highlight the differences and the interdependencies in any related communication.
Measure the value of change by looking at metrics like return on investment. The value of running a business is indicated by price for performance, i.e., striving for more performance at a better price.
4. Measure the impact of IT on stakeholders’ objectives
Measure how well your business is doing, not how well your IT work is done. Systems and infrastructure are important for IT production, but they don’t represent value to stakeholders. CIOs must document the intended business outcome that they have decided with stakeholders. They must measure the impact of IT on the mission or contribution to these business outcomes.
5. IT costs must be aligned to the business services they enable
When CIOs link IT costs to the business services and capabilities that IT delivers, stakeholders will better understand the value of IT. Cost is not the only thing that matters when it comes to understanding value. It is also important to consider the benefits. CIOs must include both costs and benefits in their project proposals to determine net value.
6. Communicate IT value in a way the stakeholder can understand
When communicating the value of IT, CIOs must use the language that business leaders can understand. Keep the communication clear, relevant, and easy to understand so that it can help stakeholders to make decisions. Avoid getting into too much detail about technology or platform capabilities and focus on translating value messaging into insights that support critical business decision-making.
7. Ensure that people who fund IT understand its contribution to their objectives
People who fund IT must understand how IT affects business outcomes, even if they are not the direct recipients of value. Get investors involved early on in the process of defining the value of IT. This will help make the case for why IT spending is necessary and justified. If CFOs and CIOs have a good relationship, they are more likely to find money to spend on digital projects. They will also be more likely to stay within the budget for these projects.
These seven rules will ensure that IT and digital strategy stay focused on the outcomes business partners care about. To maximize the impact of IT value narratives, it’s important that CIOs use these rules as a starting point for framing and guiding their own messages. To adapt them effectively in an individual organization, CIOs must find which rule suits their organization and customize if necessary. They must think about how they can emphasize the rule in their business value of IT communications and what else can be done to communicate a more clear and more impactful value message.
Source: Gartner
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