The Joke's Not On You...

Tips for eliminating miscommunication between business and IT

April Fools' is typically a day filled with practical jokes. As much as we all might appreciate such shenanigans, there’s no room for pranks or miscommunication when it comes to an important technology project—especially a document management/ECM implementation. Even with the best safeguards in place, the potential of a solution can be compromised if business objectives and IT aren't well aligned.

Whether you’re from the business side, the IT department, an end-user, a reseller, or any other position in between, you’ve probably faced a situation where someone didn’t understand your perspective. For instance, in an ECM or BPM project, IT might not understand the cumulative effects of an extra mouse click or the additional keystroke for the end user. At the same time, the business unit might not fathom that adding an extra feature request—even if it's possible—will push the project timeline back three weeks.

Fortunately, it’s not a hopeless cause. The article Aligning Business & IT Manager’s Checklist provides some great tips on how to keep your project moving in the right direction from the start. Here are some excerpts:

• Establish a clear, unified vision.
• Understand limits to resources and budgets.
• Revisit lists of what should be rolled out now and what can wait.
• Take time to understand business objectives and how your business is conducted, step by step.
• Talk to your end users and understand their challenges.
• Hold periodic project meetings to address problems as they emerge.
• Listen closely for shared departmental needs and consider how technology integrations could effectively meet those needs.

Click here to see the complete checklist.

Now that you’ve read through the checklist to avoid miscommunications in your technology projects, are you looking for a few harmless practical jokes to play on your colleagues? Check out this site of office pranks (not that we’re condoning this kind of behavior or anything...).

The bottom line:

With any ECM project, there’s always the potential for misunderstanding between the departments that are involved. Make sure the joke’s not on you or your organization by opening the lines of communication right from the beginning.

Talk with us:

We have extensive experience working with and aligning the goals of all departments within an organization. Let us help you bridge the gap between end user needs and technology. Contact us today to learn more about DocFinity.

Optical Image Technology, Inc. - 100 Oakwood Avenue, Suite 700, State College, PA 16803 Ph: 800-678-3241 www.docfinity.com