78% of CIOs believe their digital strategy is moderately effective or worse, which is indicative of the misalignment between business and IT. So how can association leaders align their operations and goals?
Strategic association leaders
No doubt your association has a long-term business strategy in place. But without the technology to support and scale with business operations and goals, this misalignment between business and IT will inhibit operations and growth. Both business and IT leaders should:
- Take an active role in the selection process
- Be involved in new membership initiatives
- Have a change management strategy in place
Indeed, with the rapid pace of technological advancement, there’s much shorter shelf life for many point solutions. Technology that meets a business need today might inhibit it tomorrow as your association grows and evolves with its membership. To avoid this, both business and IT leaders need to adopt a strategic mindset to decrease the time-to-value of their technology, which will empower them to be more agile with their decisions now and in the future.
Making the pivot from a reactive to strategic mindset
To ensure technology meets both long-term goals and existing requirements, association leaders should be involved in the selection process for any tools that impact and support core operations. More generally, however, the selection team should evaluate technology providers as strategic partners, not just reactive problem-solvers. In other words, rather than investing in a variety of band-aid point solutions, organizations need technology that is not only scalable with organizational growth, but adaptable to technological innovation as well. Treating providers as partners with a relationship mindset rather than just one-time vendors is a key to accelerating the time-to-value of solutions and ensuring success in the long-term.
As technology alters the fabric of our lives, associations are uniquely positioned to help their members stay ahead of the digital curve – here’s how.