Is business for IT or IT for business? Monogo E-commerce News, 63
What is IT really?
When talking to clients, I often come across the term internal IT, or hear that Monogo is IT. Typically in large companies, IT takes care of the IT infrastructure. In a nutshell, computers, printers, networks etc. So can we say that a company that provides solutions to the business, using systems, applications and process change is also IT?
On the one hand, yes, but on the other hand, this strongly broadens the already capacious concept of IT. What's more, more and more of the companies we work with are hiring specialists who have an IT background, of course, but perform other functions in these organisations. Such as systems architecture, integration between different applications and supplier coordination.
And what are these suppliers? Looking at the cross-section of applications that can be found in companies and lie close to e-commerce, I think it is safe to list:
- ERP systems,
- CRM systems,
- e-commerce platforms, e.g. Magento (Adobe Commerce),
- PIM,
- CMS,
- marketing/experience cloud, such as Adobe Experience Cloud or Zoho Marketing+,
- CDP,
- BI,
- etc. etc.
In the ranks of the suppliers who help implement or provide application support for these systems, we find developers, analysts, project managers, all kinds of consultants, testers, etc. etc. Do they all fall under the term IT? Not necessarily anymore.
The nature of the digital world
Everything that develops and becomes popular over the years acquires complexity. One could say that it increases in volume. This applies to every field. This is also the case with digital. Many years ago, one person was able to talk about a project and create an app. Now there are dozens of people working on implementation projects.
Each of these people has a specific role in the team and the project. Some of them have so much in common with IT that they use a computer. Which, incidentally, has been set up for them by IT. Whichever profession we take into account, we can define it well, not just in general terms but in detail.
Analysts. In our ranks we have business analysts, systems analysts, architects. Programmers. We have programmers who implement interfaces, business processes working on backend systems. It is the same with testers, because we have manual testers, automation testers, application security testers, and we are adding more specialisations in 2024.
Is each of these groups working on projects IT? Not any more. They are separate specialisations that, working together, bring value and deliver projects.
The digital world is the flywheel of business. Especially thanks to online sales, thanks to e-commerce, companies are able to grow from local to international. This is a force that has huge potential. To harness it, you need to understand that business and technology are best integrated.
Business works with technology. And IT.
Seeing the technology of the digital world as a cost creation centre is not the best strategy. Digital technology departments are a support to the business. We give new processes and solutions for purposes that are defined by the business.
Afterall the initiator of change is no longer just the business. Sometimes it is the department that was previously called IT. It is people who increasingly understand the business and can think multidimensionally. It is people who can propose new solutions, or solutions to business problems that have become typical of the organisation.
We are able to automate manual activities. We help to go out into other countries with our offerings. And we give a better understanding of processes and needs. In other words, we help you understand what you really need. We want to and we do this because we know how important it is to support the business. Good digital solutions speed up work and make a company's day-to-day operations easier.
Above all, with this perception of internal departments and suppliers like Monogo, we can collaborate effectively. And working together effectively and faster gives you a competitive advantage.