The 21st century ushered in the era of technology and data. In fact, data surpassed oil in value a mere five years ago and created the bold new world in which organizations must embrace big data to remain relevant. Like it or not, every company has become a technology company in one way or another.
IT business leaders within the organization must remain tech-forward, investing in tools, partners, and resources that drive strategic initiatives. IT has moved beyond reactive management to proactive business enablement, and this shift has changed the role of the traditional IT Partner forever. Once a gatekeeper to new technology, the new IT Service Partner must wear many hats: strategist, counselor, educator, advocate, and service broker.
The Role of the IT Service Partner Has Evolved
For companies to excel operationally, tech transformation is imperative. Your IT Partner must understand the scope of transformation holistically. They can help internal IT leaders:
-
Reimagine technology’s role within the company with a heavy focus on creating a consistent user and customer experience throughout.
-
Reinvent technology delivery by applying next-gen capabilities like PaaS, end-to-end automation, and cloud services, among others.
-
Future-proof the company's tech infrastructure by implementing an agile architecture based on modular platforms and regular upgrades.
To deliver on these fronts, the IT Partner needs new skills to perform their more comprehensive role. Here are four personas they must embrace in order to bring the most value to their customers:
Role 1: Strategic Business Enabler
IT Service Partners must understand your business goals in order to recommend the right technology that will deliver the most value. Companies where the IT function is directly involved in shaping business strategy progress faster towards their objectives.
Your Partner must interact with the business in a variety of ways to gain a full picture of how it works. They should understand which initiatives are revenue-generating and directly aligned with core business operations to fully appreciate the business implications of the technology solutions that are at play.
Role 2: Change Agent
Embracing digital transformation is about infusing technology into all processes and strategic discussions. Research shows that companies where IT leaders partner with business leaders for digital initiatives, achieve more progress and impact in terms of implementation.
Your IT Service Partner is instrumental in explaining the reasons behind tech transformation – the stakeholders must understand the importance of the three-pronged approach to full transformation. They should clarify both the IT and business benefits of the implementation and develop a comprehensive plan highlighting any dependencies and risks. This plan should outline how the transformation will impact the entire business, not just IT, which requires a great deal of research and planning.
Role 3: Technology Translator
Your IT Service Partner can help educate your staff on how to use new tools and advocate for keeping the business safe and secure. They should clarify the business implications of tech decisions, beyond benefits and cost, to upper management, explaining the pros and cons of all options.
In some organizations, this role is essential to the successful adoption of new technology.
Role 4: On-Demand Specialist
All leaders understand that their output is only as good as the team they work with. Most companies face a major IT skills gap, particularly where big data and security are concerned. There is aggressive competition for these skilled workers making your IT Service Partner even more valuable than ever before by helping augment your in-house talent.
Companies can make remarkable gains by outsourcing to a trusted IT Service Partner that can meet these evolving demands.
IT has moved beyond reactive management to proactive business enablement, and this shift has changed the role of the traditional IT Partner forever. Once a gatekeeper to new technology, today's IT Service Partner serves as strategist, counselor, educator, advocate, and service broker.
Finding Your New IT Service Partner
No matter the size of your business, your technology environment is likely a complex configuration of hardware, software, and even legacy systems. Your IT Service Partner's input is vital to the technological transformation that the business must embrace sooner than later.
With humility, quality, and expertise as the foundation for all we do, we unleash the bounds of technology for our customers because Services is Our Craft. We'll work with you to provide IT field services personnel, do installation and deployment work, consult on your needs, fully manage your network and devices; and almost everything in between. Learn more about Compugen Systems' service offerings here.