How IT can harness business trust

© Olivier Le Moal – za.fotolia.com

This is according to business resilience consultant Helen Berry, who spoke on behalf of Quintica at the recent SMEXA event held in Sandton, Joburg. Berry highlighted that organisational change needs to take place in order for business to trust IT.

SMEXA is an annual industry event in South Africa; the only service management conference recognised by the itSMF, the international industry body for service management.

"IT is too focused on keeping the lights on and needs to change its focus to the customer and take responsibility for service delivery. Business sees IT as a black hole in that when a call is logged there is no further engagement from IT. There must be an evolution in the way IT thinks, a shift from a technological mindset to a business mindset, after all, IT are service providers and should therefore be service based," said Berry.

Understand the value chain

"The first priority of a service provider should be to understand the value chain and getting the channel right. Know who your customers are and how they consume information. Consumers today receive their news in real time and so they expect their communication with service providers to be the same."

Social media platforms are the best place to engage in a two-way conversation with customers. Brands need to listen to, engage with, and respond quickly to their customers to form a trusting bond. Berry believes that if IT communicates with its customers on their social media platforms, the information will be more easily trusted than information delivered via any other channel.

Berry advised that IT collaborate more with business in order not to get lost in translation: "There is a disconnect between business and IT, constant communication is the only way that the two will ever close the gap.

"It's also critical that IT get informed about who their customers are. IT is personal and each customer will have unique needs, it is IT's job to look further than the technology to see why they are executing certain tasks. By looking at the human element, IT will better engage with customers and take leaps towards becoming a trusted business partner."

The final tip that Berry gave was that IT must learn to love metrics: "IT needs to engage with business at every step during the process of change; management needs to see the bigger picture and it is IT's job to show it to them. Nobody likes to have something happen to them, but people will be willing to change with you, if you engage with them."