IT Strategy Focused on Maintaining Term Paper
- Length: 4 pages
- Sources: 4
- Subject: Business
- Type: Term Paper
- Paper: #8960409
- Related Topic: World Religions, Corporation, Multinational Corporation
Excerpt from Term Paper :
"They cannot translate business needs into technology solutions. Many IT executives cannot present a business case for or against a particular technology" (Jahnke, 2004, p.2). How the technology performs is baed on the approval or disapporval from those in management. The factors are presented at the technology evaluation stage, but they fail to get at the alignment aspect of it (Jahnke, 2004).This does include that of business and IT people who cannot agree on how to align the company. Their perceptions and expectations and perceptions are vastly different. No one can get along to figure out how to get the organization running smoothly because of how each of them have unique perspectives and personalities about the issue at hand (Jahnke, 2004).
Many other areas are worth considering with this ordeal. A lack of a clear business plan or strategy is not in place, which makes it difficult to align technology with organizational tactics. This can end up causing a "conflict between business strategy and operating objectives" (Deloitte Consulting, 2004, p.5). All the different entitites will conflict, especially if there is a lack of resources within the firm (Deloitte Consulting, 2004).
Deloitte Consulting (2004) brings up others that are important. What is interesting is that "world religion changes" can impact a business (Deloitte Consulting, 2004, p.5). These do include various events, such as wars. With the economy and regulations, they do impact that of business itself. However, one cannot leave out that of market as well as social changes that occur on a regular basis. One cannot forget the societal factors, and that all of these are important when trying to align any aspect of a business with the IT professionals. Regardless, they are internal and external that impacts a company for either the positive or negative (Deloitte Consulting, 2004).
When aligning IT with an organization, failure is considered quite common. This puts those in the IT department as a means in which to deal with the marketplace as a battle, which is not their area of expertise (Holmes, 2007). "That's why the aligned organization's top executives create a supportive environment in which the CIO and other executives quickly recognize what isn't working, learn from it and recover" (Holmes, 2007, p.2). This is what makes up a company's culture by finding out a way to beat against the odds, although this is not always the case (Holmes, 2007).
By learning about alignment of IT and business strategy, one quickly learns that this is not possible. Much dispute arises because of the fact that the organizations goals are completely different than their own IT department. They could either keep it going by means of having those that do technology regularly or have this aspect of their firm outsourced to save money. Whatever the case is for each CIO and those in the executive positions, they are striving to keep everything cost-effective (Berkman, 2001).
The stance that one takes with this issue is that there is no way possible in which to make both happen because of the lack of resources (Deloitte Consulting, 2004). All the different changes that occur in the world, each business has to adapt to them, and when trying to align both areas in their business; however, failure can happen when it is least expected (Holmes, 2007). They will lose revenue and customers can become angry (Jahnke, 2004). Each company has to make their own choices in trying to make it work, but this is easier to do for those that are multinational enterprises, rather than the small and mid-size companies. In the end, each industry can work together in order to make a difference in the world with their technology, but this is going to take much time and patience for those in management as well as IT professional (Berkman, 2001).
References
Berkman, E. (2001). Why we're still talking about alignment. Retrieved June 29, 2011, from CIO: Eric Berkman. Why We're Still Talking About Alignment Dec. 15, 2000/Jhttp://www.cio.com/article/29456.
Deloitte Consulting. (2004). Eliminating roadblocks to IT & business alignment. Retrieved June 29, 2011, from CIO: http://www.cio.com/sponsors/031504deloitte/complete.pdf.
Holmes, A. (2007). The ROI of alignment. Retrieved June 29, 2011, from CIO: http://www.cio.com/article/27969/The_ROI_of_Alignment.
Jahnke, A. (2004). Why is…
