Working with IT? Follow 8 guidelines to ease the process

A communicator offers lessons learned during a collaboration on her company’s intranet

Too many communicators don’t make an effort to build a good relationship with IT. They treat IT like second-class citizens, voicing complaints such as:

A good relationship with IT starts with having an understanding of how IT teams work and what information they need to deliver stellar results. From what I’ve seen, IT’s world is highly organized. For example, IT projects always come with a detailed project brief that outlines:

They won’t start a project without having this basic information available.

That said, the majority of communicators go to the first meeting with IT unprepared. If you have only a vague idea of what you need, it should come as no surprise that your project’s off to a slow start.

Go to the first meeting with a clear idea of what is required, and be prepared to work with the IT team on compiling a detailed project brief.

2. Realize that you’re not their main customer

Usually, your IT counterparts are responsible for maintaining and developing the company’s system infrastructure. That is their main priority. From what I’ve seen, corporate IT departments don’t have teams dedicated to supporting the communications department.