IT departments are facing an ‘adapt or die’ moment

Paul Taylor is Innovation Coach at Bromford Lab

1 February 2016

Expectations from colleagues and customers are rising month on month – often at the same time as flat-lining budgets:

• People overwhelmingly prefer the tech they use at home to that they use at work.
• Customers compare our online services with those of the very best digital innovators.

Indeed, transacting with a housing association now needs to be as simple and intuitive as ordering a takeaway from Just Eat.

Our expectations of digital services have soared to stratospheric levels in the past five years, yet the way we develop and deliver those services is largely unchanged. Too many organisations are failing to grasp how profoundly the rules of business in the digital era have changed.

It’s time to think and act differently. Time to renegotiate the relationships between IT, the organisation and the customer.

Our challenge is to become more networked, more social and more agile. Reshaping our teams and cultures for the digital age. This is why IT has to reinvent itself – and become a driver for innovation within the business.

However the discipline of innovation (and it is a discipline) takes commitment, resources and the right skills sets.

What can IT teams do to become drivers of innovation rather than viewed as back office support? I think there are at least four things.

1. Embrace the network

There are still relatively few IT teams embracing social and digital networks as a way of working. That means having open debates, showing transparency in public discourse, answering questions online and sharing progress. Modern digital leadership requires a metamorphosis – listening, sharing and engaging using digital technologies. IT taking a lead in this means they will be on the front foot in better identifying business requirements and areas ripe for innovation.

2. Define the problem

In an era of heightened expectations but less resource IT departments will have to push back on the business more. This doesn’t mean turning down work but being far more upfront about the costs and consequences of a project. People will naturally rush to tech for solutions and will need help in scoping the problem. Teams almost always overestimate the complexity of their problem and it can usually be fixed without resorting to tech. IT teams can take the lead in asking the question, ‘What’s the problem we are trying to fix? and how does that fit with our strategic priorities?’.

3. Be Small and Agile

In an age of ever faster digital transformation if a project can’t be completed in six months it’s probably not worth doing. The era of total business solutions is over. Our teams now need to be agile. Problems need breaking down into the smallest possible chunk of delivery. We must build upon minimum viable product principles. IT teams need to help organisations test more and pilot less. Nothing should be entering project stage without a raft of pre-testing to prove something is of value.

4. Fail Fast

At Bromford Lab we use the word ‘test’ more and more nowadays because we’re constructing ‘safe environments to fail’. Light, fast and ‘dirty’ tests come with relatively low risk so we can afford to do lots of them — indeed we can even fail lots of them without worrying too much.

The greatest value an IT team can offer is not cost reduction but agility in responding to changing demands and new opportunities. The world has changed for social housing. The influence of the IT department within the organisation will become lesser or greater depending on how it changes with it.

 

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Paul Taylor, Innovation Coach, Bromford Lab will be talking about IT teams and Innovation at IT in Housing 2016 on 11 February.