I love my IT department:

We asked Fred Peters, Director of Corporate ICT at the Van Gansewinkel Group, for his view on generating more love for the IT department. 

How important is it for your IT organisation to have a good image?

According to Fred Peters, it’s important to define ‘a good image’ correctly. “In my opinion, the image is good if IT conveys the idea that they understand the world of the client. IT must do what they promise and have a service-minded approach. And lastly, IT must also support enterprise. Internal clients should be able to rely on IT to provide added value on the following six points:

- Non-stop availability

- Fit-for-purpose solutions business lines

- Corporate uniformity

- Ensuring a satisfied customer

- Prompt solutions

- IT innovations where relevant.”

What have you done to achieve this?

Fred Peters describes the various efforts made within AVR Van Gansewinkel as “IT marketing at all levels of the organisation. From the Board of Directors to riding along with our trucks to meet with the users on the shop floor. It is very labour-intensive, but ultimately leads to better understanding and improved results on both the business and the IT side. We’ve recently started producing video clips about successful projects which we publish on our SharePoint site and show during our internal Account Executive visits. I hand out the ‘I love my IT department’ sticker, with the question of what IT should do to ensure that this sticker can be attached to the door of a specific business unit. We also offer prizes for the completion of IT questionnaires. Since most people are keen on winning a digital camera, the response rate is very high. This autumn sees the introduction of a customer arena with a moderator. And we have the IT Opus Award, for which internal customers can nominate a member of the IT staff. Every presentation of the award, complete with champagne and the IT Opus Award plaque, is published in our Bulletin.”

What would you never do again within this context?

“Don’t assume that the business will learn to love you in the end,” cautions Peters. And don’t rely on the company’s communication and marketing department to do this for you. It’s not their job. Nor should you fool yourself into thinking that you can run a campaign with outsiders. An external marketing agency, by definition, lacks sufficient knowledge of IT as a product within our company.”

What advice would you give counterpart managers who are still at the start of the transition from ‘I hate...’ to ‘I love my IT department’?

Peters recommends using the business as a sounding board. “Allow yourself to be coached and speak to someone who has already started the process.”

The Van Gansewinkel Group is based in the Benelux and is also active in the Czech Republic, Poland, France, Britain and Portugal. The group has a total of 6,000 employees, 52 of whom are employed within the Dutch IT organisation. Total turnover came to EUR 1.2 billion in 2008; the total costs for IT (including write-off) in the Netherlands came to EUR 19 million in the same year.