Presentation delivered at NVISIA Digital Platform Conference 2018 by: ERIN ALLEN Director - IT Strategy & Architecture Sargento

1. Strengthening Business-IT
Relationships
Achieving Business – IT Convergence
Erin Allen

2. How much time do you
spend a month with
your business leaders?
 < 4 hours?
 Between 4 and 8 hours?
 > 8 hours?

3. How many of us in the last year
have collaborated with business
leaders on a new or improved
business model?

4. How many of us know what
the top 3 priorities are for
our business leaders?

5. How many of us have attended a
business conference with our
stakeholders in the last year?

6. Intro
• Over 20 years in delivering business
value with technology
• Software development and solution
architecture kept me close to
technology
• Enterprise architecture and consulting
gave experience communicating with
business leadership
• Worked in Corporate IT and outside via
Digital Marketing, Social Collaboration,
Digital Transformation

8. “Hire good people and treat them like
family.”
- Leonard A. Gentine

9. Source: Business Warehouse 2015 Total Net Revenue
$1,348,803
$0
$200,000
$400,000
$600,000
$800,000
$1,000,000
$1,200,000
$1,400,000
$1,600,000
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Budget
18.7% CAGR
Sargento Net Sales Have Doubled Since 2006

10. Sargento Today
• $1.5 billion in net sales
• Two divisions and one
subsidiary
• Consumer
Products
• Food Service &
Ingredients
• Sargento
Transportation LLC

11. Sargento Today
• Over 2,100 employees
• Four Wisconsin
locations
• Elkhart Lake
• Plymouth
• Hilbert
• Kiel

12. “Everybody is a technologist and everybody in
technology is in the business.”
- Brook Colangelo,
EVP and CTO at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
“Information technology and business are becoming
inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can
talk meaningfully about one without talking about
the other.”
– Bill Gates

13. Why Is the Need Greater Now?
Compressed
Business and
Technology
Cycles
Increase in
Number of
Small Projects
Increase in
Technology
Diversity
BYOX and
Consumerizati
on of IT
Greater
Business
Partner
Responsibility

16. • Order Fulfillment
• Aging Systems
• Manual Activities
• Tech-Centric Mind
• Tech Thinkers
• Some Data
• Web Based
• Value Creator
• Modern Tech
• Automation
• Stakeholder Mind
• Business Leaders
• Integrated BI
• Mobile
From To
Sargento IT Transformation

17. Sargento
IT Vision
Sargento IT enables
business success by
fostering integrated
partnerships with our
stakeholders and providing
proactive, effective and
current technology that
drives our business and
supports our culture.

18. Benefits of a Strategy
& Architecture Team
• Advocate for IT and Business
• Guide our technology
investments
• Improve Business-IT
relationship
• Drive emerging technology
innovation
• One point of contact

19. Three
Focus Areas

20. Best Practices
Do the
fundamentals
right
1

21. Get the Fundamentals Right
Expand
Business
Optimize Business:
Decrease costs, increase
efficiencies, increase
revenue
Support Business:
Manage cost efficiently, user/customer
experience
Fundamentals:
Accessible, uptime, secure, performance, deliver projects
on time

22. Best Practices
Do the
fundamentals
right
1
Build a culture
of trust
2

23. “Trust is like the air we breathe. When
it’s present, nobody notices. But when
it’s absent, everybody notices.”
- Warren Buffet

24. Trust Builds From the Bottom
Expand
Business
Optimize Business:
Decrease costs, increase
efficiencies, increase
revenue
Support Business:
Manage cost efficiently, user/customer
experience
Fundamentals:
Accessible, Uptime, Secure, Performance

25. Design for Stakeholder
Empathy
Source: Boagworks, “Adapting empathy maps for UX design”

26. Effective
Communication
• The message is key
(not the content)
• Content uses the
language of the
audience
• Timing is as important
as the channel

27. Best Practices
Do the
fundamentals
right
1
Build a culture
of trust
2
Focus on
stakeholder
goals
3

28. Focus on Stakeholder Goals
Understand and articulate business needs
Assess current state and capabilities
Increase Business IQ
Develop and prioritize plan to provide business results

29. Best Practices
Do the
fundamentals
right
1
Build a culture
of trust
2
Focus on
stakeholder
goals
3
Shift
Enterprise
Architecture
focus
4

30. “The business relationship director
manages the relationship; the architect
manages the possibilities.”
- Brian Martin
Sr. Director, Business Relationship Director,
Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America

31. Shift
Enterprise
Architecture
Focus Away
from
Governance
Do just enough
Enterprise
Architecture
Focus on Business
IQ
Work on top value-
creation
opportunities
Articulate how
technology can be
a disruptor or an
opportunity
Communicate to
stakeholders in
their language,
tools
Willingness to take
risk

32. Best Practices
Do the
fundamentals
right
1
Build a culture
of trust
2
Focus on
stakeholder
goals
3
Shift
Enterprise
Architecture
focus
4
Fear not the
unknown
5

33. • Regularly expose yourself
and your executives to
new technology in fun,
safe ways
• Engage with the
innovation teams, startup
community, and
educational institutions
with your business
leaders

34. Best Practices
Do the
fundamentals
right
1
Build a culture of
trust
2
Focus on
stakeholder goals
3
Shift Enterprise
Architecture focus
4
Fear not the
unknown
5

35. When Are We Successful?
The business is
•doing
something
better
•cheaper
•faster

36. When You Get Back
Schedule casual time
with your business
stakeholders
Understand your
stakeholders’
communication and
trust levels
Attend an industry
conference with your
business
stakeholders
Start communicating
technology
investments in
business terms
Determine how you
want to track your
progress

37. Questions
erinallen
@Erin_Allen
Erin.Allen@me.com