Being a CIO is like top-level sport. You’re in the middle of a whirlwind of shifting demands, digitalization pressure, and sky-high expectations. Customers — formerly known as colleagues — want fast, intuitive, flawless service. Your own team seeks autonomy, recognition, and perspective. And you? You have to ensure both continuity and progress. But what should you steer by?
For too long, the focus has been on technology and SLAs: keeping systems running, closing tickets, managing endless innovations, delivering value-added services… But the real value of IT doesn’t lie in uptime or response times — it lies in the experiences and business outcomes you enable.
What truly matters is: can your colleagues do their jobs effectively with your IT services? Do they experience IT as support or as a burden? Are their goals achieved thanks to your systems, processes, and people? That’s where your added value as CIO lies.
And that’s exactly where XLAs (Experience Level Agreements) come in. They make the experience of the internal customer measurable — not to please, but to steer on what really counts: delivering visible value to the business.
Strategic communication is your lever. Not as a PR trick, but as a way to align expectations, make successes visible, and most of all: connect your team and the organization with what IT does and where it is going. And don’t forget your own people. IT professionals are scarce and in high demand. If they feel their work isn’t valued, or that they’re just a cog in the machine, they’ll be gone — often for less — to an employer who does care about their experience.
'Ignore experience, and you lose not only customers — but also talent.'
CIOs therefore have a new role: experience managers and value directors. And that’s something you can use help with. Just like the famous kingmaker David Garth, who helped four mayors to the top — not with empty words, but with sharp focus on perception and impact. Not superficial PR, but strategically influencing experience and outcomes. As de Volkskrant wrote: “He was a politician who knew how to use television, rather than a TV man advising politicians.” The same applies to you: you need an IT professional who knows how to use communication to optimize the IT experience of your stakeholders.
Do you want to not just run IT, but truly deliver value? Then it’s time to put experience at the center. By making experience measurable (with XLAs), using communication purposefully, and building a culture where IT services are not only delivered — but truly make a difference in the experience of your most important stakeholders: the Business and your team.
Do you recognize yourself in this? Do you feel the pressure rising, but the appreciation declining? Call or email me. I’ll help you gain control over experience, communication, and value — so you can visibly make the difference.
About the author: Jan Massier is the founder of BePresent with broad expertise in IT Management, XLA Management, change management, and IT communication. With 30 years of experience at various (management) levels in the IT world — always at the intersection of people and technology — he supports IT professionals and organizations in delivering valuable IT services.