We have heard customers and Oracle leaders talk over the past year about the need to align information technology with modern business processes.

Concurrently, we have heard – and experienced – the user expectation and productivity benefits of making enterprise application user experiences more like consumer technology user experiences.

Enterprises over the last decade through the present have invested heavily in internal-facing business function automation such as customer management and external-facing customer experience management. One of the next waves of business performance improvement is improving the employee (“internal customer”) and business partner experience.

With ever-growing business innovation and global competition, businesses need ways to operate and pivot more quickly and keep internal costs competitive. Concurrently, businesses need to invest in the digital transformation technologies and process improvements that ultimately help win, serve, and retain customers in dynamic markets.

What’s in a Name?

To respond to these change drivers, enterprise technology teams need to implement their own transformation, from a focus on technology to a focus on business. In other words, “information technology” needs to morph into “business technology.” This is more than rebranding, as I will explain in a moment.

To many readers the idea of “business technology” is old news, long ago implemented. For other readers, the shift is still needed and valuable.

One longtime proponent of the BT transformation is George F. Colony, CEO of Forrester Research. Mr. Colony has long advocated that line of business teams (such as Sales) and technology teams need to redefine their relationship.

Technology teams need to focus on and be measured by how well it enables business needs and solves business problems, while maintaining the needed focus on operating reliably and solving technology problems. On the personal skillset level, Colony notes that technologists need to develop a business mindset that focuses on creating valuable business outcomes.

Business Technology Enables Business Transformation

This is a natural evolution of modern businesses. Technology is foundational to most customer expectations and is a key to unlocking new customer value. Furthermore, business has converged with technology to such an extent that it is common for lines of business such as marketing and sales to manage the budget for a good portion of the technology used in daily business. Where that budget is managed instead by a technology department, business unit leaders need and expect the technology team to align with and support business unit goals.

What are those converged goals? At a high level, the goals extend beyond traditional IT measures such as cost and uptime. Some of those goals are specific to internal business units, such as customer sales or service goals. In aggregate, these goals encompass dimensions such as innovation launch speed and ROI, customer acquisition and repeat purchase-based retention, efficiency-based cost reduction, and risk avoidance.

The need for rapid execution on converged business and technology goals grows each year. Sharyn Leaver of Forrester wrote a recent blog post for CIOs, “Your Business Technology Strategy: Go Fast or Go Home.” She notes that the choice for executive teams is to either invest heavily in evolving business technology (BT) to gain and retain customers, or flounder under the weight of legacy IT.

As further validation, consider this recent quote from a business innovator:

Learn More, Do More

That brings us back to the beginning of this post. We have heard customers and Oracle leaders talk over the past year about the ongoing need to align information technology with modern business processes.

Quest will continue bringing to you useful information from thought leaders and practitioners about how to apply technology updates and innovations to meet important business needs.

To help you learn more, we have assembled a collection of the latest and best research-based insights from Forrester Research. Paid Quest members can access this research in our new “Strategize and Act” Content Center on Questdirect.org.

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