It’s more important than ever for IT and business teams to be on the same page. Yet, many organizations struggle with a communication gap between these two groups. Why is this such a common issue? And how can dashboards be the bridge to solve it? Let’s break it down.
The Communication Gap Between IT and Business
1. Misaligned Objectives – One of the biggest reasons IT and business teams struggle to communicate is that they often have very different goals. IT tends to focus on metrics like system uptime, network performance, and cybersecurity. Meanwhile, the business side is more interested in things like revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and market share. With both teams speaking different “languages,” it’s no surprise that they often end up talking past each other, leading to misaligned priorities.
2. Too Much Jargon – Let’s be honest: IT can be a jargon-heavy world. Terms why choose our service like “network latency” or “data redundancy” are second nature to IT professionals but can sound like gibberish to someone on the business side. Business leaders need information that directly ties into business outcomes—not a lesson in technical terminology. When served this jargon ridden reporting, it reinforce the business perception of IT as a back office function disconnected from a leadership role in the organization.
3. Too Long; Didn’t Read (TLDR) – I recently reviewed a client dashboard where the CIO had 10 minutes to report in the monthly management review meeting IT. It was ten, very detailed, slides. Realistically, there wasn’t sufficient time in 10 minutes to cover even 2-3 slides, and the key business concern – are we on progress to deliver to the business strategy was never addressed succinctly. That answer had to be read from multiple different slides.
4. Why Should I Care – IT reports are often dense with technical data but lack business context. A report on server downtime, for instance, may not explain how that downtime is affecting customer experience or revenue. Without that essential context, it’s hard for business leaders to grasp the true impact of what’s going on in IT, which leads to less informed decision-making. I recently saw a client report which reported on “94% deflection” – a business user would not understand what that meant or even care!