The business consists of several pieces working together to survive and grow. In addition to the principal elements of marketing, sales, operations, finance, and human resource functions, there are other components in place to support and strengthen the business. These include legal, internal auditing, technical support, public relations, supply chain management and vendor management, as well as the policies and procedures of the business. Each of these ‘components’ fits into the business side of the organization, essentially ensuring compliance with laws and regulations, risk reduction, operational efficiency, and ultimately, management of the company’s reputation. For example, the legal department helps monitor contracts and compliance, supply chain management oversees the flow of goods and services from raw material to customer, and public relations manages the company’s trust with the public.

Information Technology (IT) serves a unique function in modern organizations because it does not merely function as just another department amongst the many companies run by the business model – IT supports the whole business. IT connects with every other element of the business by virtue of its infrastructure, communications systems, data storage, and protecting its digital assets and consumer data security from breaches. Just as operations provide outputs of goods and services to customers and sales provide delivery of these goods and services, IT allows for the digital tools to be retained by the organization to support these outputs, delivery, and customer engagement. A business without an IT strategy cannot effectively compete in a technology-dependent world.

The IT function encompasses a range of roles and responsibilities. Technology can often be divided into software development, systems architecture, testing, database and operations management, project management, cybersecurity, and reporting. Each of these roles collectively ensures the business technology continues to support day-to-day operations as well as provide value to long-term objectives. Technology should be housed under a CIO with dedicated teams that cover a project management functions, development function, architecture function, testing function, operations and security – and reporting if areas are expensive or require notice. IT should remain efficient, targeted and responsive to the business’s changing needs to advance the organization, while innovation and security continue to be focused on.

To sum up; each business is a collection of functions that must work well together as a system. IT’s function is to integrate and support these functions while protecting the organization in a progressively digital and global marketplace.