Tag Archives: Perception

Top communication tips for winning over the business

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Does IT need an image make over? Here’s my latest feature for TechRepublic, which discusses the need for CIOs to develop a well-honed communications strategy.

IT tends to neglect its own PR – and often only steps up communications with the business when things have already gone wrong. That approach has to change, say a growing number of IT leaders.

Communicating the value of technology to rest of the business is tough. Other functions, such as accounts or facilities, exist in almost splendid isolation, but technology has become the underlying architecture of the modern organisation.

CIOs charged with running the IT architecture have to communicate value to an increasingly technically literate audience. They have to deal with high user expectations, pushed upwards as employees in the age of consumerisation often have better access to technology at home than in the workplace.

But help can come in the form of a carefully-honed communications strategy, and leading CIOs are already drawing on external expertise to prove the business benefits of IT. Here, three CIOs share their top tips for using communications to boost business perceptions of IT.

To read the rest of the feature, please click here.

Five ways CIOs can improve how colleagues think of tech

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How can IT leaders overcome entrenched views of technology and create the type of communication that boosts the perception of the IT department within the company? Here’s my analysis for silicon.com:

Technology is still often seen by other business executives as a service, rather than a business essential. At the same time, ever-increasing consumerisation means workers across the organisation now have clear views on how they think internal IT should operate. silicon.com spoke to five IT leaders to get their take on how CIOs can help change perceptions.

Method 1. Become the champion for innovation - Comic Relief CIO Marcus East says perception has long been a challenge for IT functions and departments. It’s a challenge that has increased in recent years, with employees eager to understand why they cannot do things in the office that they can do at home with consumer IT.

“Arguments about the need for corporate security used to be enough to stop non-compliant users in their tracks, but that approach won’t work anymore. IT leaders need to address this issue and become the champions for people’s use of technology in their organisations, rather than trying to resist innovation,” says East.

To read the rest of the article, please click here.