How to get ahead in IT: Swap the geek speak for the spreadsheet

A techie's guide to understanding the bosses' biz

Learn to talk 'corporate'

“Talk to different areas of the business to understand how it works and what their goals are. Being proactive and approaching senior business people with ways IT can solve business problems and value will make a real impact,” he said.

Michael Snow, business development manager at Capita IT Resourcing, agrees it is increasingly relevant for IT professionals to have an insight into any business “roadmaps” and future objectives so that planning and IT decisions can be made ahead of time with little impact on “business as usual” processes.

“Employees need to invest the time and effort into appreciating the mechanics of the corporate environment and how each element is connected, so that it can operate as one unit. This allows them to not only visualise where IT fits within the company, but also how it aids any business decisions,” Snow says.

The ability to become visible within a company is key to gaining the recognition that many deserve, Snow adds, and in that respecting abandoning the TLAs is definitely a good thing.

“Individuals need to learn to talk the corporate language in order to stand out,” Snow said. “IT professionals also need to appreciate the impact of company decisions and how these will filter down to IT and other divisions in order to really demonstrate to the organisation just how valuable their role is.”

Not all IT experts find self-promotion and the articulation of their own strengths particularly easy. Unless people master such skills, though, career progression could suffer.

You might have to ditch the laptop and brush up on the dreaded 'soft skills'

The onus isn’t just on the IT department to see the bigger picture, according to Alex Kleiner - EMEA general manager of procurement software company Coupa. Kleiner believes the disconnect between business and IT is also, in part due, to the fact that line-of-business teams have their own agenda and often don’t have the ability to express exactly what they want from their colleagues in IT.

“Functional areas such as finance and procurement are very process driven. In some respects, they are very similar to where IT was five years ago, before people started bringing in their own devices and expecting IT to work around them. I find that getting to know these processes – and more importantly, the terminology that goes around them – is a great opportunity for IT, as it can sometimes be easier to use their own terms in order to establish that common ground,” Kleiner explains.