Most IT organizations that are good at supporting growth do so through better engagement with external and internal customers. There are four major opportunities to do this. First, continually deploy IS staff in functional departments. IS staff need to be in a strong position to contribute to business innovations, as they have a view across information and process capabilities and are less tied to specific business processes. Leading business innovations requires credibility and a deep understanding of the business - not just current operations but also business strategy and sources of competitive advantage.

In addition to establishing linkages with internal customers, getting to know the final consumer pays dividends. The first step on this road is to establish a stronger working relationship with the sales organization. As enterprises focus on new customer segments and markets, the CIO must ensure that their IT organization know what's going on and plugged into trends that are emerging in the market for products.

Dealing with a proxy (the sales force) is better than not understanding the end customer at all, but beats getting to know the end customer personally. Get out and spend time with real customers by taking part in staffing rotations through retail outlets or having an IT person part own and help grow the value of a customer relationship. There's nothing like having to deliver at the front line to provide a deep understanding of the importance of some things that IT does, and the weaknesses and opportunities to improve in others. This might even stretch as far as assuming ownership of a few key customer relationships to provide a direct means of learning about growth needs and opportunities.

Finally, make sure that IT, at a minimum, doesn't get in the way of growth. For example making sure infrastructure is scalable so that it can handle any anticipated increase in volume or peaks in transaction volume. Build in flexibility into IT architectures and sourcing arrangements, and get involved in the design of products to help your organization develop ideas that can be implemented with minimal changes to infrastructure. This will allow additional features to be added in short order and therefore, if the marketers have done their job, "delight" new customers. In addition, bolstered management decision-making capabilities and business intelligence to support improved customer service, enable expansion and to meet the diverse needs of different customer groups.