In a world increasingly driven by an eBusiness revolution, it s no longer enough for IT to do its job unseen, executing whatever the business hands it. IT needs a few ardent supporters in the business who can enthusiastically point to ways that IT has proactively moved the business ahead. Without thrilled customers to speak on your behalf, you might as well paint a target on your back. Speak in business language. As anyone outside the IT fraternity can attest, IT has its own language.
Business management does too.
Instead of talking about the need to upgrade servers to NT 5.0, try talking about the need to reduce support costs and increase business flexibility in a reorganization. Get in the habit of recommending technology only after establishing agreement on the importance of a central strategic aim of the business. Develop and maintain a clear IT strategy. Information technology strategy embodies a set of deliberate choices as to the manner in which IT will go about deploying its limited resources to facilitate and support the broader strategies and objectives of the enterprise. Nor is IT strategy something to be written by expert consultants and put in a book on a shelf.