IT Business Partnerships: A Field Guide: Paving the Way for Business and Technology Convergence
''CIOs and their IT organizations are facing a dizzying array of demand from the businesses they support. To succeed, they will need to get better at working closely with their business partners to help shape that demand as well as manage its delivery. In his thoughtful, engaging book, Joe Topinka has defined the role of the IT Business Partner--the lynchpin to any successful IT organization. Topinka has laid out a roadmap for how to find them, grow them, and make them successful.A must-read for any IT leader.'' --Martha Heller, President, Heller Search Associates, and author ofThe CIO Paradox: Battling the Contradictions of IT Leadership''Every industry has been impacted by advances in technology. Whether you are a CIO, a VP of IT, or an executive outside of IT, it is critical to connect the dots between business strategy and IT strategy. Not to do so runs the risk that a more nimble competitor will win. Joe Topinka has offereda great leap forward for IT and non-IT executives aliketo forge a better path toward collaboration and value creation at the intersection between IT and the rest of the business.'' --Peter High, President of Metis Strategy, and author ofWorld Class IT: Why Business Succeeds When IT Triumphs''I know how important it can be for a new CIO coming from a technical background to get an easy-to-understand, step-by-step roadmap on how to create a successful business partnership for the IT and business organizations. As technology-enabled systems now touch every aspect of a company's mission, CIOs are increasingly expected to be major contributors to company strategy.''What I particularly like about Joe Topinka's approach is it fits perfectly into the project team strategy that companies are finding to be the most productive way to work cross-functionally and with outside-the-company business partners. We live in a virtual world where everything that used to be organized inside the company, within functional departments with clear boundaries of responsibility, is being reinvented around flexible workflow and project team models. Joe Topinka uses his mentoring experience to help CIOs incorporate this thesis into their work plans to drive bottom-line results.'' --John Sculley, Former Apple CEO