Be an IT Champion!

"Trouble usually starts with a chain of miscalculations that end up clipping IT’s wings. An IT project veers off course, undermining confidence."

--Bain

What does it say about you if your customer looks like a loser? Earlier this week, I called attention to an A.T. Kearney study that shows how business management is losing confidence in IT. Today, on Bain's website, I noticed an article that helps explain why IT's internal customers may be losing faith, titled: "IT-powered growth." The authors are David Shpilberg, Steve Berez and Thomas Gumsheimer.

Bain surveyed 362 senior business and IT executives around the world and found that 60% believe that IT inhibits growth. This lack of faith, not surprisingly, dampens IT spending. Companies that see IT contributing to growth spend more. Companies that don't, spend less.

IT providers often have to sell through this crisis in confidence. Bain talks about how project sponsorship must rest with business center managers, not IT -- if projects are going to have impact, if they're going to be successful, and ultimately if they are going to help IT regain lost stature.

Yes, but the question is: How do you get that buy-in? My experience is that successful IT providers do that by enabling internal IT project champions. They equip the IT organization with mission-level messages that help sell the big picture, rather than just tactical efficiencies. Not only does that raise the profile of the IT provider with key decision makers, it creates stronger bonds with IT, which will also increase share-of-wallet after the sale.