Keeping staff and customers happy

The objectives of the IT department and its arguments for more budget are increasingly focussed on the wider business agenda, suggests the second of our Value reports.

Crucially, the language professionals use has changed from just a few years ago. Bits and bytes are giving way to nuts and bolts.

It's more than just being a little more marketing savvy.

IT decision-makers understand that their achievements are underestimated when judged by a narrowly-defined, short-termist definition of ROI (return on investment.)

The arguments for measurable benefits go beyond finance. This report looks at what might seem at first glance fluffy objectives - customer and staff satisfaction.

But the loyalty of the workforce and the ability to attract and keep customers is an essential part of competitiveness in today's markets.

It is also eminently measurable.

In this report, IT departments can confidently talk about technology as a retention and recruitment tool.

It may take some arguing for many companies. Customer relationship management (CRM), for example, has struggled over recent years.

Cynics can point to plenty of failed projects to dismiss the whole idea. Where CRM has worked, as in the Yorkshire Water study, it has been able to change attitudes towards once unpopular businesses.

Experts and IT professionals argue in today's report that the key to creating a value proposition is to focus on achievable strategic objectives and ensure that the business as a whole understands what it wants to achieve.

The same goes for ebusiness, where again the argument is that online services have recovered from the dot-com era but work only when there are provable business aims.

For staff, the argument is more complicated. Morale is hard to evaluate other than through the blunt instrument of retention rates.

But work-life balance is not going away as an issue. It tends to be seen as a public policy issue that many fear will endanger competitiveness.

Remote working, however, is also a technical issue that is being dealt with successfully in a growing number of businesses and public sector organisations.

The value of IT is about bridging that gap between technology and business.

See also:

The Value Report

Computing is helping to lead the debate about the value of IT  24 Jun 2003

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