If you answered no to this question, you’re not alone. Business and Information Technology alignment is a lasting challenge that has been afflicting organizations for years. Research shows that only 15 percent of IT leaders declared themselves to be fully aligned with the business. The good news is that recent Forrester research provides insight on how to overcome this disconnect1.
There are two sides to every story, and the perspectives of these two groups are fundamentally different:
IT perspective: Commonly has a demand overload in terms of new initiatives, expectations of business stakeholders, and maintenance of current systems.
Business perspective: Wants to use IT for strategic advantage, competitive advantage, and reaching business goals. However business also views IT as a utility function, a standard that is slowly changing.
Forrester’s suggested best practices:
- IT should try to meet business halfway to work towards understanding how they can be a strategic player.
- Business should utilize collaborative decision making by giving IT a say and setting up a mutual strategy.
- Visibility & empowerment allows for alignment … let IT know what the business goals and drivers are, and give them authority to act upon them.
To help bridge the business and IT gap, an important IT goal is to demonstrate to company stakeholders what value IT is bringing to the business in addition to monitoring IT’s operational value. There are several steps you can take to accomplish this goal:2
- Internally market IT accomplishments and successes within the organization – publish these successes and talk about them.
- Host an event with key business decision makers to discuss and demonstrate the value that IT brings to the business.
If you’re interested in obtaining further insight from the Forrester Research Report, “The Business-IT Expectation Gap”, it is available for free here: www.forrester.com/cioinsight.