Mälardalen University School of Sustainable Development & Technology Masters Thesis in IT Management 2008-06-04 How does the alignment of IT to business strategy affect the organisation of the IT function? Author ID No Opponents Tutor Joy Agbamuche 731126 Sirintip Saitong & Shahid Mahmood Ole liljefors & Michael Le Duc Abstract Date Purpose 2008-06-04 The primary goal of this research is to describe the IT function and examine how its alignment to an organisations strategy affects the way it is organised. Method The chosen method was a purely theoretical examination with the use of the case study of Windham International as primary resource and secondary resources such as book and literature review used for the thesis. How …show more content…
14 3.3 ALIGNING IT FUNCTION TO BUSINESS ....................................................................................................... 15 3.3.1 The Strategic Grid.............................................................................................................................. 17 3.3.2 IT & Business Capability................................................................................................................... 19 3.4 ORGANIZING THE IT FUNCTION (CENTRALIZATION VS. DECENTRALIZATION) ........................................... 20 3.4.1 Hybrid System/Shared services ......................................................................................................... 20 3.4.2 organising IT for Innovation ............................................................................................................ 21 4. WYNDHAM INTERNATIONAL ................................................................................................................. 22 4.1 IT AT WYNDHAM ......................................................................................................................................... 23 5. ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................................................... 25 5.1 HOW.DOES.THE ALIGNMENT OF IT TO BUSINESS STRATEGY AFFECT THE ORGANISATION OF THE IT FUNCTION
The purpose of this article is to illuminate the need for any organization to have its IT strategy and business strategy properly aligned. While many organizations view IT and business alignment as an event – it is actually an on-going process, or continuous journey. Therefore, the main problem is that many organizations of today still hold these two principles (business mission & IT strategy) as two separate entities. However, in the Information Age – collaboration is key to capturing and retaining market penetration. To not have alignment with the IT and business strategy together is not a matter of want it is a matter of survival. This report will expand upon the need for business and IT strategic alignment as well as examine what happens in lack of a comprehensive plan. This will be done by examining the Vermont Teddy Bear company prior to and after the arrival of Bob Stetzel, the Vice President of Information Technology. This document will view it findings and make recommendations on the immediate and future operations of the company.
With a specific end goal to consolidate a wide range of IT activities and advantage from them, the whole organizations IT strategy must be reengineered to cooperate. Instead of looking at IT as a unit itself, intergrading it into the business as a whole and making it work towards a common goal will make worth in the organization. The consequent strides should be refined in each segment of ModMeters to achieve their requests.
Architecture must be developed in order to oversee IT strategy to benefit the whole organizational enterprise. Centralizing IT strategy at the start of the new business strategies will be important to make sure IT and business are working together with common goals that deliver the most value. The following steps are to be completed within each department:
In order to leverage IT for the benefit of the whole organization enterprise architecture must be developed to oversee IT strategy. Centralizing IT strategy at the start of the new business strategies will be important to make sure IT and business are working together with common goals that deliver the most value. The following steps are to be completed within each department:
McKeen, James D; Smith, Heather (2012). IT strategy: Issues and practices (2nd ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall. Kindle Edition.
A: I’d say it going to be used for strategic, enterprise top line growth. In order to leverage IT for the benefit of the whole organization enterprise architecture must be developed to oversee IT strategy. Centralizing IT strategy at the start of the new business strategies will be important to make sure IT and business are working together with common goals that deliver the most
The role played by the IT in the company to the rest of the organization is reactive to business conditions rather than a proactive approach. IT has been busy establishing several IT processes, policies, and projects in order to catch up with current demand from customers, and has been relying on the “diving catch” approach of finishing things at the very last minute.
Information Technology (IT) is a foundation for conducting business today. It plays a critical role in increasing productivity of firms and entire nation. It is proven that firms who invested in IT have experienced continued growth in productivity and efficiency. Many companies' survival and even existence without use of IT is unimaginable. IT has become the largest component of capital investment for companies in the United States and many other countries.
Alignment of an enterprise’s goals with its IT1 and IS1 systems has been a challenge ever since IT became a business enabler. Proposing an IT alignment requires a thorough understanding of the business goals of the enterprise and the knowledge that alignment is an iterative process which requires constant measurement and honing (Chan, 2002). Enterprises often face the problem of balance of priorities between IT and Business objectives. This report deals with one such case that faced alignment and prioritization hardships resulting in an unclear approach to achieve a corporate strategy.
This portfolio focus on what I have learned during the whole IT Strategy and Control paper, a critical reflection of this paper would be provided. This reflection includes the key points, support reference and the demonstration of my own understanding about the paper itself and all of my personal understandings are based on the learning outcome of this paper. In the first part of this portfolio, I would discuss all the key IT Operations Management framework which have been introduced in the paper, the analysis of the processes based on my own understanding would be given. In the second part, analyze processes required for aligning IT infrastructure and operations with the business goals of an organization would be talked about, and I would focus a business organization which has been mentioned in the caselets as a sample. In the third part, some critical evaluate operational IT organizations and their processes against the studied models would be listed and analyzed. In the last part, the recommendations and analysis of my own would be given against those organizations (caselets) which have some problems and current issues arising from the implementation of the IT framework.
The proposed system will enable greater control over Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and the accounts the church uses for managing donations and paying bills.
Information Technology (IT): The hardware and software technologies a firm needs to achieve its business objectives (Kenneth C Laudon and Jane P Laudon., 2010).
Executive Summary Enterprises are increasing their dependence on their information technology applications and infrastructure. As a result, the IT applications and infrastructure are now regarded as primary business assets, and non-IS/IT senior business leaders such as CxOs and line of business managers are becoming involved in IT application and infrastructure buying decisions. In many enterprises, these business managers do not understand the technical possibilities, and the IT managers do not understand the business goals. The cultural divide between the business managers and IS/IT managers causes a knowledge-gap that becomes a source of great conflict, putting pressure on business initiatives and technical imperatives.
Aligning the IT process with business has been one of the top most concern in all the surveys conducted in past 11 years. It holds true in 2008 as well as in 2013. Out of all the participants 92.6% of the people have opined that aligning IT with business is important as per the survey conducted in 2008. In 2013 though still in the top five concerns there was a lots of progress
Companies over the last decade, has recognized that their survival to a lesser or greater extent, depends either entirely or partially to appropriate information system. It is established, based on lesson learned from both failed and successful organizations, that an information system strategy are to support or aligned with, business strategy. Similarly the business strategy can influences the choice of Information System used in the organization. A business strategy entails futuristic organizational planning that result in companies gaining competitive advantage. It is direct linked to supporting area such as marketing, procurement, and information system. The case of Comair airline, even after acquisition by Delta