If you talk to a writer worth his or her salt, you’ll hear that the audience is the number one priority and that all communication—in all forms—serves its audience, even before the bosses telling you what to write. The more the communicator understands that audience, the more successful the communication. When it comes to a chief information officer (CIO), understanding how a board of directors, or other business-minded colleague or group, thinks can transform those relationships and bridge the gap between the tech-minded and the money-conscious. And when it comes to explaining the value of a new or upgraded enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, your audience is often going to be the money-conscious board of directors.
CIO’S AND THE BOARD: SHOW THEM THE NUMBERS
It’s an oversimplification, but it’s the numbers, dummy. While in our last post we spoke about the need for some cost-by-unit thinking to go by the wayside, your business colleagues are comfortable with numbers, even if those numbers aren’t necessarily dollars and cents. That being said, numbers are still data and data can show trends and trends, my friend, can be convincing. If you feel that security is one of the advantages of that ERP upgrade that you’d better have evidence that the number of security attacks are on the rise, such as ports being pinged and so on. If the issue is that a new feature can help track a particular resource being wasted, then find the data that shows that resource’s consumption going up inexplicably. While we can’t yet show how an ERP system directly contributes point for point to a given metric, what metrics we do know we should share as IT professionals educating our fellow decision-makers.
A natural extension of this argument is to partner with those departments that are receptive to the very tech recommendation you’re bringing before the suits. Supervisors in those departments can help you gather the very data and reveal the very trends that you’re trying to remedy. While a coup is hardly necessary with your newfound allies, you can be the boots on the ground listening to the very people you hope to serve and empower and you can bring your solutions to the powers that be and do it in a way that makes a difference and produces understanding.
Next time, we’re going to talk about the power of a very non-technical tool in communicating with the board: trust. See you then.