ITT: Developing An Effective IT Communications Strategy
“Tracy was hired to start and lead a communications function for ITT’s Chief Information Officer. She combined her business acumen, marketing expertise and technology know how to communicate with 30,000 end users and 900 IT professionals around the world. She delivered on her promises.”
Tracy was hired by ITT to support the communications needs of its global Chief Information Officer (CIO) who had been selected to spearhead a strategic global business transformation project. ITT’s Chairman of the Board had decided to standardize the company’s back office processes and simplify its IT systems across 13 strategic business units operating in 60 countries.
The company invested several millions in SAP as its enterprise resource planning system of choice and spent a year documenting its key processes. At the same time, the CIO wanted to up-level her internal outreach to 900 IT employees worldwide in order to engage them as brand ambassadors for the change efforts. There was also a need for increased communications outreach to 30,000 end users around the globe as backoffice systems and processes changed. Tracy quickly implemented a coordinated communications strategy for the CIO and she secured the necessary resources to improve the quality and quantity of messages being sent to key internal and external stakeholders.
Because of her broad business background, the CIO also tasked Tracy with project management responsibilities for a leadership retreat of her top 50 IT executives from all business units. The main output was a clarified organizational strategic plan that could readily be implemented across all thirteen business units. As a result of Tracy’s leadership efforts, the IT organization was better informed and capable of interfacing with each other and supporting each unique business unit.