Ever heard the phrase, “teamwork makes the dream work”? It can’t ring truer than in the case of digital transformation. While digitization may seem like more of an IT responsibility at first, there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Successful digital transformation is the result of IT and business working in harmony. You can’t give your customers the best solutions if IT doesn’t incorporate feedback from other areas of the business. Likewise, business teams require proactive input and support from IT to contribute to digital initiatives.
Let’s take a closer look at why partnering with business and IT is crucial for a successful digital transformation journey.
The role of IT and business teams in digital transformation
A partnership between business and IT is essential to implementing digital transformation strategies. When both these units work together to innovate processes throughout the enterprise, you become more competitive.
Here are some key stats on how business-IT partnership serves as the lever for accelerated digitalization.
In instances where IT and non-IT teams work regularly, 89%[1] of executives are confident in overcoming major digital transformation barriers.
Embracing citizen development can make a company 33% [2] more innovative.
23% [3] of CEOs take up a leadership role in digital initiatives, with 28% of CIOs often taking ownership of the processes.
83% of business and IT leaders believe considerably improving apps and IT infrastructure helps them adapt to external change
Improving IT and business alignment directly impacted customer experience (54%) and operational efficiency (58%)
Why business and IT users need to work together
The path to digital transformation is filled with various obstacles. It takes business and IT users who are willing to coexist, work together and build synergies to overcome them. Here are some problems an efficient business-IT partnership can help you solve.
Lack of clarity about customers’ expectations:
Companies can only win at the digital transformation when everyone has a clear understanding of customers’ changing expectations and needs. Many initiatives fail because IT doesn’t have good clarity in that regard, which is where the business can help. Business users can share feedback and stay involved in the development process to help IT develop better solutions and understand what it takes to enable transformation.
Inefficient technology use:
Succeeding at digital transformation also requires replacing legacy systems with new technology. This also involves processes largely managed by business users. The problem is that the business may not be able to identify the ideal technology for the requirements. A partnership between business and IT helps solve this issue. IT can help the business get new technology that not only aligns with their requirements but also integrates well with their existing software stack.
Shortage of expertise:
Most digital transformation initiatives rely on cutting-edge technology that requires a level of expertise. Business users may lack this expertise, leading to mistakes that could undermine your overall transformation efforts. The good news is you can always partner with IT to get business teams up to speed. IT can train the business on how to apply new technologies or how to optimize existing processes efficiently for the best return on investment.
Value of digital transformation partnership
The benefits of a digital transformation partnership are multi-faceted, ranging from a more united workforce to ultimately improving the ROI of the organization. The value you get from it depends on your business strategy, objectives, and maturity level. Often, companies facilitating such partnerships enjoy the following business and operational benefits:
Improved resource management:
Transformation partnerships help consolidate company resources into one neat bundle. With IT and business working together, companies are better able to automate processes, perform integrations, and carry out process innovations. Such partnerships also help create a central data repository for any department. Securing and optimizing data in an integrated system can make your C-suite, sales, finance, and technology more effective.
Increased scalability:
Business-IT collaboration helps companies grow faster. The internal synergies gained from this approach improve speed to market while driving continuous improvements to your products and services. Improved build quality and convenience also keep customers loyal and satisfied. Therefore, an organization with the right partnership between business and IT can sell more products and grow its revenue.
BI incorporation at various touchpoints:
While gathering data might be easy, using it across your process flow certainly isn’t. You need to analyze and implement data across the entire customer journey. The right partnership between IT and business lets an organization establish a system that can incorporate BI (business intelligence) at various touchpoints. Additionally, digital transformation ensures any data collected, analyzed, stored, and shared is protected with encryption and other security implementations.
Democratized development:
Traditionally, all the development was carried out within the confines of the IT department. But with digital transformation partnerships, non-IT users can also play an active role in building software for the modern age. Low-code tools like Kissflow empower business users to become citizen developers—IT can sanction these tools to empower business users to solve specific products with robust applications.
Increased profitability:
Boosting the efficiency of your business processes via digital transformation partnership ultimately leads to greater profitability. The initiative allows you to eliminate bottlenecks and refine processes. According to a Gartner report, 56% of CEOs acknowledge that digital improvements have resulted in improved revenue for their business.
Digital transformation partnership use cases
Partnering business and IT creates new possibilities for unique practices across a variety of industries. Here are some use cases of the approach:
Consumer goods
Jardines’ IT team was often overwhelmed by business-critical tasks and was not able to fulfill their app development requirements. But they found Kissflow’s no-code platform a perfect solution to enable automation in key areas and develop apps that fit their needs.
Healthcare
OrthoSensor needed a BPM solution to streamline its processes. But BPM tools not only proved to be expensive but were too complex for non-IT teams to work with. Kissflow enabled the organization to create and automate processes, allowing them to move away from manual paper-based systems.
How Kissflow can facilitate partnerships between IT and business
An IT-business partnership is a powerful lever necessary for businesses in today’s highly digital and technological world. Those who successfully forge this partnership gain a competitive edge and are well-positioned to thrive in the upcoming years.
A robust low-code, no-code tool like Kissflow not only helps streamline digital transformation initiatives but forms crucial pathways that bring IT and business closer to each other. With Kissflow's digital transformation, companies bridge the gap between IT and business teams, ensuring core functions get the driving seat. See Kissflow in action.
