By Elliott Harrison

How to Make Business and IT a Happy Marriage

Dr. Linkletter IT 486

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Table of Contents

Abstract
This paper covers the complexity of business and IT alignment and the importance of this knowledge for your business. The IT department has a huge effect on businesses today and this concept will help you manage it to

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its maximum efficiency. Managing the IT department and making sure it is in a happy marriage with business is much more difficult than it sounds. CIOs struggle with this task every day and business and IT alignment is the key!

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Introduction

There are many things that are important to your business and its success and IT is no exception. Making business and IT work properly together is an extremely important part of running a business. Another term for making business and IT a happy marriage is Business IT Alignment. So what do these terms mean? Business and IT alignment is the act of controlling the IT department and making sure it is going the same direction as the business. This may sound simple but it is actually very complex and difficult to complete. In fact at study from 2008 shows that IT and business alignment are CIOs top concern. If it were so easy CIOs wouldnt be concerned. There are also a lot of things that can get in the way of business and IT alignment. One of those things is hatred. Business and IT have to get along if they are going to align their goals and work together. Also, Business and IT Alignment can be difficult to measure; but thanks to a company CompuCom even a small business can start. CompuCom has put together a list of 5 ways to measure business and IT alignment. These areas not only help you as a business understand IT alignment but also give you areas to look at and compare to your business. IT and business alignment is very important for your business to succeed and there are some things you can do to reduce the animosity towards the IT department to help for better alignment. Also thanks to CompuCom you can measure your progress and improve in areas youre lacking as a business.

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Importance of Alignment
Many people think controlling an IT department is easy but CIOs around the world know it is a very difficult and important task. In fact the article IT and Business Alignment Remains CIOs Top Concern by Marianne McGee tells just how important this task is. Marianne McGee says, Whats the number-one worry keeping CIO awake at night this year? Drum-roll, please: Its IT and business alignment. If this task were so easy it would not be keeping CIOs awake at night. This survey was done by Stevens Institute of Technology and business and IT alignment has been number one on their list annually since 2003. That is a very long time to stay at the number one spot. Their top researcher Jerry Luftman, VP of academic Community Affairs, talks about this when he says, one would think that over 30 years, with all the smart people CIOs, academia, it [IT and business alignment] would move further down the list, but it hasent. This illustrates just how difficult and important alignment is. There are many different factors that make this task difficult and almost all of the factors are unique depending on your area of business. Business and it are also changing constantly which makes them difficult to master. Marianne McGee says, Another reason IT and business alignment remains elusive is that the lingo keeps changing and the target keeps moving in that challenge. The important thing is that you know what business and IT alignment is so you can begin working towards it.

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Blocking Business and IT Alignment

There are many things that can prevent you from working towards business and IT alignment. Hatred and distrust is one of the big ones and needs to be resolved if business and IT are going to work together. In an article by Susan Cramm called Eight things executives hate about IT in the Harvard Business Review, there are several problems with IT that can prevent you from reaching alignment. One of those things is condescending IT people who dont listen to what other people say. Susan Cramm says, The CIO may be impressive, but he or she is also totally unavailable. When you have questions, your only option is someone a few rungs down, who lacks the breadth of expertise to advise senior executives. This can be a big problem and create anxiety between the employees and IT. This can make it very difficult to properly communicate and align your business with IT. Another problem that can prevent business and IT alignment is IT not understanding the true needs of the business. A lot of IT people demand requirements and then complain that you always change your mind about what you want from your system. IT should not only understand these changes but also know that dynamic business environments need change. Another common problem with IT is their tenancy to overestimate. Many IT people will propose the deluxe model when good enough will do. It is very common for IT to get excited about the technology even if it does not fit the business. There are many other problems that can get in the way of business IT alignment; these are only the most common problems.

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Six ways to Measure Alignment

Thanks to a company called CompuCom, you can measure your companies business and IT alignment. They developed six areas to look at and measure your business and IT alignment on a scale of 1 to 5. The first way is communication. If your business and IT people dont understand each other than you would score a 1 in that area, but on the other end if you do communicate well with each other than you would score high. Especially if you follow a defined communication process you would probably score a 5. The next area is Skills, and if you IT team just the basic skills but not the whole picture you will probably score pretty low. On the other hand a highly skilled IT team not only has technical skills but detailed knowledge of your business and that will score pretty high. Some IT teams will also add new skills as they move along and this would score them a 5. The third metric is architecture. This are is influenced on how your IT department influences your business. Things that dont really change your business, no matter how expensive, rank low but things that absolutely change the way you work, no matter how inexpensive, rank high. The fourth metric is measurement. This asks how often your company measures itself and its accomplishments. If you measure when the project is done then move on you will score low but if you measure throughout the project and what processes contribute the most you will score high. The fifth area to look at is partnership. If you have lots of distrust and hatred, and things move along slowly you will rank low. If IT and business are both mutually active and have high trust, shared risk you will

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score high. The last area to measure business and IT alignment is governance. This has to do with who makes decisions about what IT does. If IT is in isolation it is low governance. On the other end, high governance is methodical and consistent. The more that IT is driven by a clear business strategy the higher the governance. These are six key areas to rate your business on a scale of one to five to see how your company is doing. The

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final picture will look like this.

Rating yourself will give your company a clear shape that you can compare to other companies or to other departments in your own company. This

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rating system will greatly help your company achieve business and IT alignment.

Conclusion
Business and IT alignment is a very important part of running a successful business and there are many things you can do improve your companies alignment. Some of those things might be taking care of problems within the IT department. Others might be to actually measure your current alignment and see how you did so that you can improve on other areas. The most important thing is that you know what business and IT alignment is so that your company can work towards it. Maybe someday business and IT will blend together so well that alignment wont be the number one thing keeping CIOs awake at night.

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Bibliography
CompuCom. (2012, July 19). Business IT Alignment Explained Visually by CompuCom. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdoMSyeSk6E Cramm, S. (2010, March 29). Eight Things Executives Hate About IT . Retrieved March 30, 2013, from Harvard Business Review: http://hbr.org/web/extras/8things/5-proposes-deluxe-when-good-enough-willdo McGee, M. K. (2008, September 03). IT and Business Alignment Remains CIO's Top Concern. Retrieved April 1, 2013, from InformationWeek: http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/trends/it-and-business-alignmentremains-cios-t/210300331