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Thursday, April 25, 2019

Challenges for alignment of IT strategies and business objective

Van Der Zee and De Jong (1999) cite a main problem with alignment as the time lag between business and IT planning processes. That is, given that the business environment and technology change so quickly, once an IT plan is enacted, there is a high probability that the plan and the technology are already obsolete.

Here is a point to add as challenge for alignment of IT strategies and business objective, business environment is constantly changing, and thus there may be no such thing as a ‘state’ of alignment. Strategic choices made by one organization frequently result in imitation by other organizations. Thus, strategic alignment is a process of change over time and continuous adaptation (Henderson and Venkatraman, 1993). 

There are four steps to align the business and IT strategies:
Plan: Translate business objectives into measurable IT services, so resources are effectively allocated to maximize turnover and ROI – This step requires ongoing communication between business and IT leaders.
Model: IT designs infrastructure to increase business value and optimize operations – IT must understand business needs and ensure that they are implementing systems critical to business services.
Manage: Service is delivered based on company objectives and expectations – IT must act as a single point-of-service request, and prioritize those requests based on pre-defined priorities.
Measure: Improvement of cross-organization visibility and service level commitments – While metrics are essential, it is crucial that IT ensures a business context to what they are measuring and keeps a clear relationship between the measured parameter and business goals.
The benefits of better synchronization between business and IT
  • Faster time-to-market 
  • Increased profitability 
  • Better customer experience 
  • Improved collaboration 
  • Greater industry and IT agility 
  • Strategic technological transformation 
Source:

 

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