As the imperative for business and IT to effectively merge under the same banner becomes ever more pressing, so does the need for business and IT to speak the same language.

While some chief information officers (CIOs) believe the business has to work harder to understand IT, the vast majority recognise that most of the work has to come from the technology side.

CIOs ideally want business communications skills to pervade the IT organisation, but existing cultures sometimes mean the development of broader skills is not feasible in the short-term.

As a consequence, 73 per cent of CIO Connect’s members use relationship managers ­- skilled communicators who can understand what the business needs and explain how IT can help users.

But CIOs remain clear this is not the answer longer term. Many recognise that relationship managers are an unnecessary layer between business and development, and more-enlightened organisations should be moving to a tighter interaction in order to keep pace with user needs.

Such sentiments were also highlighted by a CIO Connect poll at the end of 2007 on the need for a communications chief to manage the entirety of the IT function’s external communications.

The approach was rejected by 61 per cent of respondents, and there is a strong belief that communicating IT to the business is the responsibility of every IT professional. CIO Connect members were almost unanimous on the need for IT departments to have business communications skills.

CIOs should also devote time to integration. While communications expertise can be used to enhance messages, creating a separate role for communications places another layer between IT and the business.

One key challenge is putting in place the right measurements to ensure the systems and services CIOs manage are delivering what the business wants.

A majority of organisations clearly think they have some way to go, with
53 per cent of CIOs believing there is a discrepancy between how technology leaders and their organisations measure success.

There is a huge difference, however, between CIO responses and their senior team members, many of whom are aspiring IT leaders.

The vast majority (85 per cent) of senior team respondents believe there is a discrepancy between how CIOs and their organisations measure success.

This is a clear indication that the next generation of IT leaders believe they will have to approach performance measurement in a different way.

Other CIO Connect polls have also suggested that current metrics are often ineffective or inappropriate.

Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of members do not believe they have the best key performance indicators (KPIs) in place.

And when it comes to IT metrics, CIO Connect members feel value-management frameworks should be used to educate stakeholders, rather than for cost-justification.

An increasing number of CIOs also think the marketing of IT needs to become slicker and more creative.

As an example, working with an external marketing consultancy to produce video and picture story boards that explain the business impact of technology deployments has already proven successful in at least one organisation undergoing major transformation.

Nick Kirkland is chief executive of technology leadership network CIO Connect.

Read his blog at: http://cioconnect.computing.co.uk