Setting Strategic KPIs For Your Strategic IT Department

“Strategic” IT Department

In order to be a CIO with a corner office and direct access to the CEO, your IT department needs to be strategic. By "strategic", I don’t mean the mere embodiment of the adjective – it refers to a specific category within IT departments. Because IT departments are evolving at differing rates, there emerges a need to create a taxonomy to distinguish the different roles IT departments play today. Those are labeled with functional, transformation, and strategic. 

Is Your IT Department “Strategic”?

If your team solely responds to a ticketing system that reports company IT problems, you’re functional. If your company is also developing new strategies and/or adopting new technology to lower costs and resolution times, you’re transformational. But, if your department is also looking into how new technology can contribute to the vision and growth of your company, you’re strategic.

Figuring out where you land on this scale is important because IT departments should set their KPIs based on two things: where you are right now, and where you want to be. 

KPIs For A Strategic IT Department

Functional KPIs. 

No matter how “strategic” your IT department becomes, you will always be expected to meet basic "functional" responsibilities. Functional responsibilities are how smoothly you keep workplace technology running and how effectively you respond to problems.

• Operation: Measure how well your department operates. For example, common operation KPIs are ticket response rates, resolution rates, and overall internal satisfaction with IT.
• Crisis management: Popular KPIs here include Mean Time to Recover (MTTR) and system/technology downtime.

Transformational KPIs. 

You'll also need KPIs that address how well your department handles “transformational” responsibilities. This is how well you can improve and expand the roles in your department.

• Security: Technically, security falls under functional responsibilities, but the recent emphasis and investments in security make it an area for growth. This is coming from the top down: Executives, more than ever, are concerned about security and turning to CIOs for help. So make sure you have a KPI that illustrates how you’re working to alleviate these fears.
• Customer experience: Companies are investing in IT departments as a means to improve customer relations. According to CIO.com, 76 percent of IT leaders are meeting with customers frequently or occasionally. 
• Cost and time savings: This can be approached by investing in the right technology. A popular strategy is leveraging cloud-based services. For example, many companies are turning to cloud-based Unified Communications to improve efficiency and reduce the number of hours IT department spends fixing tedious problems. Jive’s Hosted VoIP mid-market TCO analysis illustrates how a simple switch from a legacy phone system to a Hosted VoIP solution can give your IT department more freedom, money, and leverage.

Strategic KPIs. 

Finally, if you want to be a “strategic” IT department, you need “strategic” KPIs.

• Profit: To make the relevance and importance of your IT department clear, find a way to bring in money. Then, measure how much you're bringing in – increased profit will grab the attention of your peers, and earn you a seat at the table.  

Make sure your KPIs are addressing what executives want from their CIO. A solid strategy starts with ensuring your KPIs address basic IT department functions, internal improvements, and a contribution to larger company goals – like profit and a competitive edge. When you hit all three, you just might be invited to the room where it happens.