What customer-centric IT really looks like

 

What Customer centric IT really looks like?

Ricardo Mendez

The article I found for this blog post comes from CIO.org. The article was written by Beth Stackpole (Link.). Stackpole says that customer-centric IT looks like a direct line between the business IT team and the end customer. CIOs are attempting to shift the culture of IT from servicing internal people who then service the customer to the IT team themselves servicing the customer. Stackpole writes that for this to be successful, the IT team needs to put themselves into the shoes of the customer. Stackpole goes on to further state that 55 percent of technology leaders are spending more time learning about customer needs as a way to foster the creation of revenue-generating initiatives. According to the article “55 percent of technology leaders are spending more time learning about customer needs as a way to foster the creation of revenue-generating initiatives,” signaling a shift in focus. The change is not just good for customer needs, but it is also beneficial to the business’ bottom line. Companies that prioritize customer needs and experiences tend to perform better. It was found that customer experience leaders enjoyed a 17 percent CAGR compared to 3 percent CAGR for companies slower to embrace customer-centric practices.

Another requirement for this switch to be successful is the need for dual translators to be employed at the company. IT teams need people to interpret business needs and translate those to IT, and they also need to translate IT needs to the business. Communication between all parties is critical and if that does not happen, customer problems, needs, or wants cannot be addressed, and IT accomplishments are not understood as to how they address business needs.