Aligning Information Technology with Business Strategy

 There are several challenges that could be countered during the alignment of IT strategies with business objectives, senior management support for IT, IT involved in strategy development, IT understands the business, business-IT partnership, well-prioritized IT projects, and IT demonstrates leadership. Other alignment factors include external influences like industry traits, IT characteristics, IT credibility, as well as organizational culture (Campbell, Kay, and Avison, 2005; Reich and Benbasat, 2000).

Benefits of the alignment have been positively associated with firm performance and financial performance indicators such as sales growth, return on sales, return on assets, and profitability (Oh and Pinsonneault, 2007; Li and Ye, 1999; Keams and Lederer 2001; Parthasarathy and Sethi, 1992). It identifies or discovers and creates new IT strategies, identifies and creates new IT resources, provides input into strategic and tactical planning processes, and factors in effects of competition with the objective of improving information quality for IT clients (Hu, and Huang, 2006).

Reference

     Peak, D. A. 1. peak@unt. ed., Guynes, C. S. 1. guynes@unt. ed., Prybutok, V. R. 1. prybutok@unt. ed., & Chenyan Xu1, chenyan. xu@unt. ed. (2011). Aligning Information Technology with Business Strategy: An Action Research Approach. Journal of Information Technology Case & Application Research, 13(1), 16–42. https://doi-org.sdl.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/15228053.2011.10856200