Cut the $hIT Recapped: How to get IT and the business on the same page

Cut the $hIT host and Plow Networks’ COO Bryan Link is joined by Spero Health’s VP of Technology and Director of Operations Chris Rathermal and Chris DeGeorge for this two-part series about getting IT and the business on the same page.

Whether on the business or technology side, this two-part series is for you. The episodes present two different perspectives on IT and its function within Spero Health, a drug and alcohol treatment organization, and how they have learned to work together to integrate technology into the business strategy.

The episodes begin with discussions about their career journeys that led them to the positions they hold today as VP of Technology and Director of Operations. After helping the audience get to know the two, the discussion focuses on the relationship between the technology and the business side of Spero Health.

In Part I, Rathermel explains how the business’s growth has affected technology and how his team was able to go from fighting fires every day to solving new problems through two focus areas: standardization and communication.

However, this realization did not happen overnight. It came after Spero Health went through a time of high turnover (a common challenge within IT departments) and conversations around how to work more proactively as a team. “Full disclosure, it’s not a pretty picture sometimes, but it was good to get the problem solved eventually”, Rathermel said.

An overall theme throughout the two-part series is communication. Rathermel explains how Spero Health’s open dialog culture has created a true partnership between IT and the business. Because of this, IT can understand the wants/needs of the business and come to the table with projects to serve these needs. This sentiment is echoed by DeGeorge in his episode as well.

Being on the operations side, DeGeorge explains how technology has become an integral function of their business. He discusses one central area that the business has used technology to serve their patients better, and that is through the launch of a new patient mobile app. The app allows patients to communicate with Spero Health 24/7 about their treatment, medication, and more.

Rathermel expresses the importance of tracking key metrics to gauge IT’s effectiveness as Spero Health grows. He goes into how the basic KPIs like critical uptime, downtime, and security responsiveness are essential, but where they see alignment between the business and IT’s goals is “really on the project and the timelines that they (we) can execute on those.” DeGeorge tells us about the technology metrics his team uses to measure success, such as their answer rate for their phone calls and the EHR uptime and downtime.

To learn more about how your business and IT can get on the same page read one of our latest articles on the importance of IT alignment with business strategy.

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