Interop Bridges the IT-Business Gap

I'm incredibly excited about Interop 2014 in Las Vegas. To me, experiences like Interop are the perfect concatenation of community, content, and commerce. In Interop’s case, the show gathers luminaries from technology and business and connects both subjects instead of keeping them hermetically sealed from one another.

I had the pleasure of being the chairperson for the Business of IT (BOIT) track at Interop New York in September. Our BOIT speakers engaged their audiences on a variety of core topics: mobility and the advantage it can confer on progressive organizations, how to run IT like a business, the important of a culture of “YES” in IT, the importance of the CIO-CMO connection, and the advent of the Internet of Things.

I’m excited to build on this work and take it to new heights in Las Vegas, where we’ll amplify these topics and add new ones, including the applications of IT to the retail business and the importance of an international perspective in running great IT departments.

One goal of the BOIT track is to break down the barriers between IT and “the Business.” After all, we live in a world of IT-Business singularity. This is the idea that IT is inseparable from the business—in fact, you can’t run the business without IT. Imagine what would happen without the ability for employees to connect and collaborate electronically, or for executives to make decisions without the extensive data stores and information resources that they now have at their fingertips. Any notions of the business and IT as wholly separate entities are, well, ridiculous.

I am going to grade myself on the BOIT track at Interop 2014. I’ll only get an A if the speakers all wow their audiences and attendees leave with a strong sense of unity. So see you at my BOIT sessions—please be ready to grade me!

Romi Mahajan is the founder of KKM Group, a boutique marketing and strategy advisory firm. He is also an Interop track chair for the “Business of IT” track. He spent nine years at Microsoft and was the first CMO of Ascentium, an award-winning digital agency. Romi has also authored two books on marketing. The latest, “To Thine Own Self: Honest In Marketing” is available at Amazon.