Merrill Lynch is one of a growing number of financial-services companies that have combined their IT and operations units in an effort to smooth the connection between services delivered and the technology and processes that deliver them. After all, says Diane Schueneman, the head of the company’s Global Infrastructure Solutions, customers are won or lost through the quality of the service they receive rather than any assessment of what part of the company delivered it.

But even where functions depend closely on each other, integrating them poses a challenge. Schueneman, who leads the integration of IT and ops, approaches it by encouraging people to change along with the organization—through new educational opportunities, ambitious collaborative goals, and an environment that supports and rewards taking risks.

In this interview, Schueneman discusses the rationale behind Merrill Lynch’s integration of IT and operations with Allen Weinberg, a principal in the New York location of McKinsey’s business technology office. In the discussion, which took place at Merrill Lynch’s corporate headquarters, in lower Manhattan, Schueneman explains how this integration has poised the company to set new and ambitious goals for its combined operations and IT units and how it is building the capabilities to achieve these...