How should sales ops and IT split responsibilities to avoid territorial conflict?

Question

Pulse RevOps · The Machine · Accepted Answer

## Direct Answer
Sales ops owns rep experience (CRM, workflows, enablement tools). IT owns infrastructure (security, compliance, architecture, uptime). Boundary: reps interact with ops; ops partners with IT. RACI matrix prevents turf wars.

## Operator Approach
Ops-IT friction is the #2 reason sales tech projects fail (**#1 = misaligned stakeholders**). Clear lanes prevent **3–6 month** delays on integrations.

**Sales Ops Owns:**
- CRM admin, customization, data model
- Sales workflow automation (Outreach, Salesloft, etc.)
- Reporting dashboards, insights
- Rep onboarding, training, documentation
- Comp analysis, quota management
- Sales tool selections and trials

**IT Owns:**
- Infrastructure, networking, VPN
- Security, IAM, SSO, MFA
- Compliance (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR)
- Data center uptime, backup, DR
- API architecture, data warehouse
- Enterprise architecture decisions

**RACI Boundary: Integrations**

| Task | Sales Ops | IT | Shared |
|------|-----------|----|---------|
| Define CRM data model | R/A | C | - |
| API security spec | C | R/A | S |
| Data sync testing | R | S | A |
| SLA/uptime monitoring | S | R/A | - |
| Tool compliance vetting | A | R/S | - |

**Conflict resolution workflow:**
1. **Sales ops proposes** tool/integration with business case
2. **IT vets** security, licensing, architecture fit (**5 business days**)
3. **Joint sign-off** on scope, timeline, SLA
4. **IT owns** deployment infrastructure; **ops owns** configuration
5. **Retrospective** at go-live; escalation to CRO/CIO if blocked

**Red flags of poor ops-IT alignment:**
- Integration projects slip **> 30 days**
- Reps report CRM slow-downs without root cause assigned
- New tools deployed without compliance review
- No shared KPI dashboard (uptime, user adoption, sync health)

## Mermaid: Ops-IT RACI Matrix with Escalation
```mermaid
graph TD
  A["Sales Ops Request: New Integration"] --> B["Ops: Define Business Case + Data Flow"]
  B --> C["IT: Security & Architecture Review"]
  C --> D{"IT Approves?"}
  D -->|Yes| E["Joint Scoping: 5 biz days"]
  D -->|No| F["IT documents concerns"]
  F --> G{"Ops Address Concerns?"}
  G -->|Yes| C
  G -->|No| H["Escalate to CRO + CIO"]
  E --> I["IT owns infra; Ops owns config"]
  I --> J["Deployment & Testing"]
  J --> K["Go-live with shared SLA"]
  K --> L["Monthly retro: adoption + uptime"]
  H --> M["Executive alignment on tradeoffs"]
```

**Sources:** OpenView Tech Stack Governance, Pavilion Org Design, Bridge Group IT-Sales Alignment Study

TAGS: ops-IT-alignment,RACI-matrix,responsibility-split,integrations,governance,escalation,SLA-management

Task	Sales Ops	IT	Shared
Define CRM data model	R/A	C	-
API security spec	C	R/A	S
Data sync testing	R	S	A
SLA/uptime monitoring	S	R/A	-
Tool compliance vetting	A	R/S	-

How should sales ops and IT split responsibilities to avoid territorial conflict?

Direct Answer

Operator Approach

Mermaid: Ops-IT RACI Matrix with Escalation

What does the score mean?