IT is often portrayed as having a disproportionately poor reputation, given its business impact. Can thinking about IT as a brand ­ and applying some basic marketing principles ­ improve the perception of IT and enhance the CIO’s standing? Or should serious technologists avoid glib window dressing and focus on delivery?

Our panelists give their views:

I think looking at IT from a brand perspective can be a gateway for some interesting discussion. It’s getting in to areas where perhaps some technologists are not comfortable, such as the marketing of IT. But it’s useful to know how your service is perceived and to measure customer satisifaction.

IT can be thought of in four distinct ways: A service management capability; a project delivery team; a business partner; and a strategic partner. From a chief executive’s perspective, it’s highly unlikely that the IT department will be thought of as a good strategic partner if the systems keep falling down, and projects are not delivered.

So it might be useful to think of having a branding scale for IT ­ where are you now and where do you want to be?

Dr Sharm Manwani, Henley Business College

It’s true to say that it is a challenge for IT to cast off its “techie” image. National media stories about IT project problems and security breaches don’t help build confidence and bad news stories will always make more immediate headlines.
However, to counter the bad news, significant progress has been made by CIOs to improve perceptions of IT.

Communication skills and the ability to explain and implement the commercial application of IT are now core competences for all business-facing staff. CIOs are taking every opportunity, by entering awards programmes for example, to represent their department’s successes and become public representatives of both their organisations and their professions.

IT directors increasingly understand that they are outwards-facing brand ambassadors. Their role is about the long-term sustainability of IT within their business and that involves making sure that IT as a profession is an attractive and exciting one for young people to consider.

Ollie Ross, head of research, The Corporate IT Forum

What the medical industry has known for some time now ­ and the IT industry has yet to wake up to ­ is that a good doctor with a bad bedside manner is a bad doctor; and a competent doctor with a great bedside manner is a great doctor. If you replace “bedside manner” with “the perception of IT as brand” the same holds true.

For many years now in IT, we have been delivering an up-market function, but with a low-market front office. This needs addressing. IT’s standing within the business is tarnished if it delivers a great service, but has given no thought to how it is received.

For technology-focused CIOs, thinking about brand management has taken a back seat to the task of getting through the day.

But brand is important:­ brand equals perception, equals value.

Ade McCormack, founder of Auridian

By effectively communicating the business benefits of IT, the CIO can help the business understand the real potential and capability of the IT department, helping raise its profile and building brand recognition and credibility on the way. Successful CIOs understand that to lead effectively they must not only be competent managers, but consumate campaigners and communicators. The most effective brand for an IT department to be seen as by senior management is an agency for business change, as opposed to one that is perceived solely as delivering top-quality and highly efficient IT and business services.

Nick Kirkland, chief executive of CIO Connect

Brand value represents the essence of an organisation or product and provides desirable positive associations ­ quality, strength, commitment and so on. It used to be the marketeer’s top card.

At Minster Law we have recognised the need to employ the same thinking around brand values, to establish a reputation for quality, predictable delivery, and to lift the profile of the business systems team to wider internal and external audiences.

There is no doubt that IT functions collect negative, if mostly harmless, reputations. But it makes it difficult for a CIO to create a widely understood, consistent reputation for a key function and to establish core values that tie into the main business.

Significantly, our branding has helped the people within our business systems function create a platform for interpreting and extending the company’s core values.

For me, the real win is that the teams now consider their actions very carefully when delivering change, providing support and introducing new ways of working in order not to compromise the brand. They know it has value and they are willing to grow and protect it. A strong brand and a team that understands its worth is priceless.

Neil Boddy, chief information officer, Minster Law

When trying to improve their image, many IT departments are blinkered. CIOs must internalise three counterintuitive principles to make real progress.

First ­ recognise that the IT department is highly competent on budget delivery and performance measurement, so attend to other issues.

Second ­ the company brand is yours too, IT is not a separate business. The primary role of a corporate IT department is to understand and align technology to the needs of its business. Increasingly most other things will be delivered by someone else.

Third ­ your business colleagues need you to be more proactive not reactive. That means proposing business process improvements, offering data exploitation ideas and opening up debate.

Mark Raskino, research vice president and Gartner fellow