What Is Strategic Alignment

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.

In the “Mini Case Study: IT Planning at ModMeters”, it is clear that the communication skills between the business managers and the IT managers were in need of improvement. IT planning is a method used to form clear objectives for IT organizations that connect directly back to the enterprise’s strategic business goals (“IT planning”, 2014). IT strategic planning assists in directing the business strategy, based on IT capabilities and opportunities and determines IT’s role in delivering the business strategy. There is a clear lack of communication and individual opinions on taking ModMeters global. Although CEO John Johnson and other high leveled corporate employees believed the idea was promising and seemed to look good on paper, Brian Smith, CIO of ModMeters had different thoughts on the expansion. Brian Smith knew that although the new initiatives were theoretically doable; however with such tight resources including people, time, and money, he knew that finding the means to support two new strategic initiatives was nearly impossible (McKeen, J.D., & Smith, H.A., 2012, p. 69). There seemed to be a major lack of communication when planning the new initiatives and the miscalculation of funds to do it successfully.

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:

offer a fully integrated solution of strategy, operations, and information technology was key to its

expansion. The following are the key aspects of the IT infrastructure that must be put in place to

McKeen, James D; Smith, Heather (2012). IT strategy: Issues and practices (2nd ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall. Kindle Edition.

IT by itself does not provide any value, however, the alignment of IT to strategic, operational, and cultural objectives provides business value. Thus, the CIO must ensure that any new investment in IT is for the sake of business objectives and not for “IT for ITs sake”. Ensuring business alignment against IT project delivery is critical, must be undertaken for any investment and is the key component of IT value.

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

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.

Information Technology (IT): The hardware and software technologies a firm needs to achieve its business objectives (Kenneth C Laudon and Jane P Laudon., 2010).

Strategic alignment occurs when the Information Technology (IT) and business strategies are in dynamic symmetry with the structures that support strategy execution, which include; organization framework and Information systems (Lapiedra, Alegre, and Chiva, 2006). Therefore, when this alignment exists IT can predict what the business future requirements are and set up a trajectory to meet those upcoming needs (Hu and Huang, 2007). Luftman (2003) noted that for over two decades IT to business alignment has been classified among the top management concerns in organizations. Although IT-business alignment has been identified as a promoter for IT investment to enhance organizational performance, fear prevails among management teams that the return of investment in IT will not be achieved. The main reason of failure to generate return from IT investment is the practice’s challenge faced by many implementers due to external forces, like transformation of IT (Luftman and Kempaiah, 2008), cost, and lack of understanding on alignment framework and models to use at different strategic planning levels (Oana, 2010).

Frenzel (2004) claimed that to be successful, a firm’s IT management team must take action on the following critical areas: business management issues; strategic and competitive issues; planning and implementation concerns; and operational items. If for any reason, the organisation experiences difficulties in the above areas, the manager will need to set goals and objectives to overcome and prevent these issues.

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