"Well-behaved women rarely make history." - Anita Borg, Institute for Women and Technology

Overview

4) Internal Branding in an IT Department

The leaders of the Information Technology department at a global consulting firm faced a challenge that was to become increasingly common in their field: Do “work worth paying for,” or top management will find someone outside the organization who can. The IT department supported hundreds of consulting professionals who depended on their work to create brands and branding strategies for blue chip clients such as Microsoft.

Wow! Projects workshops helped a group of the IT managers see that as employees of a branding company, the solution to their situation lay in the principles that guided the company’s work. The IT people had to identify and promote their own brand.

They threw themselves into the challenge of uncovering the essence of who they were. They used brainstorming, individual yellow page ads, and Design and Beauty cards. They used self-assessment to identify their individual roles as team members, and they enhanced their creativity as a team by acknowledging and understanding these different roles.

Armed with their slogan—”Extra service for extraordinary people”—the IT people began making their presence felt throughout the consulting firm. They created attention-getting signs, customized sticky notes, and a distinctive computer start-up screen that made it easy for consultants to utilize their services. They started a call monitoring and coaching process. They produced a Help Desk Manual and “Technology on the Road” cards with Help Desk information for business travelers. They also planned new services such as on-line training videos to provide “just-in-time” help for end users.

“Ticketing,” or emergency calls, declined by 50%, reducing downtime throughout the organization. The IT department started providing management with new help desk feedback and client satisfaction reports showing overall satisfaction in the speedy resolution of technology problems.

Back to Case Studies