Groupon, the online coupon phenomenon founded in 2008, considers it crucial to its success that its IT officials establish close and frequent collaborations with business managers.

"We try to create a very collaborative environment, getting engineering very embedded with the business side," said Ivan Moscoso, Groupon's director of engineering. "There are never really strong divisions between our departments. We try to keep things fairly fluid."

By having a lot of "face time" with managers in departments like sales, editorial and customer service, IT staffers can develop IT services and tools that truly support the efforts and goals of the company, Moscoso said.

To accomplish this, Groupon is very selective when hiring IT professionals. It looks for candidates who are strong on a technical level, but also able to understand the company's business needs and to communicate well with non-IT colleagues.