From Silos to Synergy: 5 Ways to Rebuild IT-Business Alignment by Elkhan Shabanov

With two decades of global leadership experience, Elkhan Shabanov, CEO of Digicode Americas, has helped organizations transform IT from an isolated function into a core engine of strategic innovation. Drawing on his experience, these insights outline five practical steps leaders can take to align IT with the broader business, both culturally, structurally, and operationally. If your tech team feels more like an island than an integrated partner, these changes can help rebuild the bridge and unlock real digital momentum.

Moving From Friction to Flow

You can’t grow fast or sustainably if your business and IT teams are working in isolation. You may have best-in-class developers or enterprise-grade platforms, but if the goals, language, and decision-making are disconnected, the results will always fall short.

The highest-performing technology organizations today aren’t defined by headcount or tooling. They’re defined by how seamlessly technology is embedded into the business mission: from roadmap planning to customer success.

Misalignment often shows up as delays, miscommunication, and missed opportunities. And while the instinct may be to add more process (more handoffs, more meetings, more reporting) the real fix lies deeper. It’s not just about structure, but shared understanding, trust, and strategic purpose.

This means shifting from a transactional mindset to a true partnership model. 

When the partnership is right, everything becomes easier: communication flows, product velocity increases, and innovation becomes continuous.

The right technological partner doesn’t just help you fix problems; they help you change the way problems are solved. This is the shift from siloed, reactive IT to deeply integrated, business-embedded technology. Here’s how to do it right.

1. Bring IT into Strategic Conversations Early

Too often, IT is only called in once the plan is locked and funding approved, when it’s too late to shape the direction.

Flip that. Include your technical leads in roadmap planning, customer insight sessions, and early-stage ideation. When IT has context, it offers smarter solutions. When they feel ownership, they move faster.

Pro tip: Instead of asking “Can you build this?” ask “What’s the smartest way to solve this problem?” Such a shift opens up innovation.

2. Establish Shared Success Metrics

If IT is measured solely by uptime and sprint velocity, while product is measured by feature adoption and marketing by conversion rates, you’ll never be aligned.

Create cross-functional KPIs that matter to everyone, such as customer satisfaction, time-to-market, retention, and cost-per-feature. When goals are shared, incentives are too.

3. Invest in Translators, Not Just Managers

It’s not enough to have PMs running timelines. You need roles that speak both “product” and “platform.” People who can sit with stakeholders, ask the right questions, and relay the context to developers in a way that’s actionable.

Whether that’s product managers, solutions architects, or business analysts, these hybrid profiles are the glue that holds alignment together.

4. Foster Cultural Exchange, Not Just Collaboration

Alignment isn’t built in meetings; it’s built in moments. 

Let the engineering demo product be released to the sales team. Celebrate IT achievements across the company. Run cross-functional retros. Set up informal problem-solving lunches.

These small acts build trust, familiarity, and a shared sense of mission.

5. Avoid the Trap: Don’t Flatten IT Into a Service Desk

When organizations try to break silos, they sometimes go too far, reducing IT to a responsive unit focused only on speed and support.

That’s a mistake. Yes, IT should be responsive, but your best engineers want to build, not just fix. Treat them as strategic thinkers. Bring them into the problem definition, not just delivery.

Final Thought: The Bridge is Built with Intention

Alignment doesn’t happen by default. It’s an outcome of deliberate choices. Leadership must decide that speed, innovation, and collaboration matter more than departmental ownership or outdated roles.

The bridge between IT and the rest of the business is built when teams stop protecting territory and start pursuing shared outcomes. And once that shift happens, the impact is felt everywhere: faster product cycles, tighter feedback loops, smarter hiring, and clearer go-to-market execution.

But beyond efficiency, true alignment delivers clarity. Teams understand not just what they’re doing, but why it matters. Engineers see the customer. Executives understand the architecture. Conversations become forward-looking instead of reactive. That’s the real unlock.

That’s why, for example Digicode doesn’t just code – we collaborate. Teams embed into each other, bringing the mindset, tools, and cultural fluency to turn silos into synergy. Because real digital transformation doesn’t start with tools, it starts with trust. It begins when your IT function exceeds being merely a delivery engine. It becomes your strategic edge.