IT cannot deliver a successful digital transformation if strategies are out of sync with the rest of the organization. In most cases, different departments view the business as a single puzzle piece that is aligned with their own processes and needs. They are unable to see the whole puzzle, which creates a high probability that strategies across the organization are out of sync with one another. Establishing a clear overall view of business outcomes is critical to ensure your business transformation results in an O2C solution that aligns with an overall “north star.”

Having alignment on a set of business outcomes is the first step. IT leaders must also translate the impact their systems have on business value and the objectives the business is trying to achieve. System metrics are operational-based measurements, such as the health of the system, uptime, and performance. For example, rather than simply stating that job queue times are increasing and the business needs to investigate, describe the business impact: Slower time processing data increases the close cycle or indicates the business is struggling to scale to meet its data volumes.

Translating metrics into outcomes is just the beginning. IT leaders must map the business outcomes to the appropriate operational metrics and then build strategies for tracking and improving those metrics. For example, if the company has an objective to shorten its close cycle, looking at what operational metrics go into that is the first step (e.g. runtimes, integration, and system sync times). An IT leader would target improving those metrics to show their team’s impact on the business goal.

Business-aligned IT teams experience less friction when prioritizing projects. The impact of these projects is communicated in terms of their contribution to the overall outcomes the business has agreed upon – rather than isolated system metrics, upgrades, or replacements.