Business IT/IS Strategic Alignment - created from Mind Map

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Business Alignment

Five eras of alignment

IS Alignment

Data processing

MIS

SIS

Information Strategy

Strategic systems

share information with customers and/or suppliers

facilitate improved integration of internal processes

enhance the development of products and services

provide executive management with relevant strategic information

Ward & Peppard

Strategic IT/IS Alignment

Organisational performance depends on structures and capabilities that support the successful realization of strategic decisions

Alignment is a two-way process, where business and IS strategies can act as mutual drivers.

Strategic IS alignment “is not an event but a process of continuous adaptation and change”

Henderson and Venkatraman (1993) Hirschheim & Sabherwal (2001)

Business Benefits

Phases of alignment

ALIGNMENT TRAP

Get Out Of It

IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORKS

Enterprise Architecture (EA)

The Zachman Framework

TOGAF: The Open Group Architecture Framework

IT/IS Alignment Health Check

Luftman's Maturity Assessment Model

Business alignment is concerned with

“Linking and configuring the strategic elements, key

organisation systems, processes and structure in such a way

that their implementation achieves the organisation's shared

vision and results beyond expectations”

Strategic Alignment Inc, 2007

WHY?

to improve business processes,

reduce operational costs, and

promote real-time visibility

in business performance”

There has to be a balance

between the business, the

information technology and the

information system

Some definitions

• A Strategic Information System

– is any system that will support the strategic goals and objectives of a business and

its ability to affect its environmental relationships.

• Information System (IS)

– procedures which collect, process, store and communicate to support the work of

the organisation (much broader)

• Information & Communication Technology (ICT)

– chip based technologies used to store. process, recall and transfer information.

• IS Strategy – reflects the demand for IS to support the business

• IT/ICT Strategy – how to supply or meet these demands

• eg decision to use the cloud

Management effectiveness

Strategic information systems

Business competitiveness

Technological Era

• 60s and 70s

• Tech led

•Efficiency driven

Nexus Era

• 70s, 80’s (mid)

• Demand driven

•Increasing volumes

Impact Era

• mid 80’s, 90’s

•Innovation & alignment

• Competitive advantage

Fusion Era

• mid/late 90’s and now?

•Innovation, Value,

Benefits,

•Knowledge

•Business transformation

Complexity era?

• co evolutional,

governance, eco …

Why - We know we are all now

connected – economically, technically

and socially. But being connected is

not sufficient.

• We also have to infuse intelligence into

our systems and ways of working.

• The world has become flatter and

smaller. Now it must become smarter

As a concept has evolved through investigating complex

relationships existing between:

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Information systems (IS)

Business Strategy

Planning the organisation’s information resource

• What information is required and how it should be collected,processed, archived, maintained and destroyed

» Legal & regulatory aspects FOI and Data Protection

• Who has access to what information

» Security management

• What information systems are needed

– in short, medium & long term

• Lifecycle management

– How information systems and PCs will be procured, maintained, developed in

house or outsourced; replaced

• Organisational management of information

– central/local

Four types of IS/IT SYSTEM that might be considered strategic

These are those which:

1. Use technology to share information between customers and suppliers

2. Produce better integration of internal processes

3. Enable the organisation to enhance products or services based on information

4. Provide executive management with information to support strategic

decisions

Technology itself is an enabler - any organisation can buy IT

• Over time Information Systems can be developed to match another

organisations

• The information owned by an organisation and how information is used is key to

» strategic development of products, services,

» future developments

Alignment form the beginning leads to non-incremental & consistent approaches which provides for:

• Organisational agility:

– holistic, planned alignment provides agility through standardisation & integration

• Operational efficiency:

– ability to cope with complex business relationships (supply chain etc)

• IT cost reduction:

– single consolidated solutions avoid redundant multiple systems

• Risk management:

– alignment gives visibility of commercial and legal issues and reduces risk.

Plan

Model

Manage

Measure

Alignment is not a panacea or cure-all

• Competing demands from functional strategies and business units

• Lack of standardisation

• Additional complexity on top of existing legacy systems

• Poor project management & spiralling costs

• Alignment trap:

– right business objectives identified

• BUT: IT department is performing badly

» Result: Business objectives not achieved

Invest in IT effectiveness:

• Reduce

complexity

• emphasize

simplicity eg

standardised

infrastructure;

• company-wide

standards;

• reduce

customisation;

• centralise where

necessary

‘Right’-sourcing

• In-house if value

can be added by

company’s IT

dept

• Outsource more

effectively

(understand

systems before

outsourcing; set

key performance

indicators)

• Outsource more

selectively (eg

legacy systems;

routine activities)

Create end-to-end accountability

• Set up IT

governance

structures

• provide

appropriate

resources

• monitor

outcomes

An attempt to define a future state of the organisation, in which both the business functions and the Information Systems (IS) functions of

the business are integrated and optimised for the ultimate good of the

organisation.

• Considers the enterprise as a whole and promotes the use of modelling and planning at different levels and different perspectives

• Gives rise to various Enterprise Architecture frameworks

– Zachmann (1999)

– The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF)

– There are many others – i.e. CORBA

A schema representing the intersection of

• First: the six basic interrogatives

– What, How, Where, Who, When, and Why

• Second: six distinct perspectives relating to stakeholder groups

– Planner, Owner, Designer, Builder, Implementer and Worker).

• The intersecting cells of the Framework correspond to models

– can provide a holistic view of the enterprise.

An ontology:

• A theory of the existence of a structured set of essential components of an object for which explicit expression is necessary and perhaps even mandatory for creating, operating, and changing the object.

Business (or business process) architecture

Applications architecture

Data architecture

Technology architecture

Communication

Competency/Value Measurements

Governance

Partnerships

Scope & Partnerships

Skills

Business IT/IS Strategic Alignment

Annotations