I had the privilege to join a panel on sustainability at the WAN Manager Summit in London with Chris Thomas (www.litenetuk.com), Francesca Kempster (www.wavestone.com) and Matt Mallett (gov.uk/ukspaceagency). Though we all came at sustainability from different directions, there was an absolute agreement between us on the issues. For me, sustainability is an opportunity for the IT division to engage the wider business and show the strategic value of the IT team.
In IT we often struggle from being seen as a cost centre for the organisation, a slow follower of the business ambition. IT Strategy is one tool to help this, aligning IT with the business strategy. Often I hear that getting hold of the business strategy is a blocker to achieving the IT strategy. There are techniques to help with that, and one is to focus on the social and sustainability agenda.
Sustainability started as a differentiator for organisations, allowing them to build customer loyalty by showing their environmental credentials. I would suggest we have moved beyond that to sustainability being an expected part of business strategy and the annual report to shareholders and stakeholders. It is the easiest part of the strategy to obtain and therefore a gift to IT for our own strategic planning.
I’ve blogged before on the importance of IT Strategy (“Is IT Aligned to the Business”). IT Strategy enables business conversations by showing alignment to the business strategy. It is a plan of action which builds motivation and excitement in IT. A strategic plan of the imperatives for IT builds commitment with leadership and enables funding.
The sustainability section of the business strategy enables conversations on carbon usage, equipment disposals, printed paper wastage, ethical supply chain and many others. All of these have strong links to the IT Strategy. They also all require measurement of the current situation and the design of KPIs before we can even consider the change programme to achieve the business strategy.
Data is important to every transformation. For the sustainability agenda, I think data is imperative. Without data, we cannot make rational decisions for the strategic plan of action or show the benefits case of these actions. Of course, no project ever runs totally to plan so this data is vital to allow the project to adapt to challenges and changes.
Sustainability can be a first step in building the full IT Strategy. It moves IT from the back office to being considered a strategic stakeholder of the business strategy. Positioning the IT division to be aligned with the business and more quickly adapting to business change because they are involved in the early conversation.
For more on writing your IT Strategy and the sustainability and social business agenda, check out my course on “Developing an IT Strategy” at Udemy.
