In most of the organizations today, business always drives what IT has to do. Business is always under the impression that IT solutions are costly and time consuming. To address the short term need, business always asks for the tactical /quick fix from the IT folks. Most of the time, IT department bends to the pressure. So, IT has been reacting to the business needs and trying to meet the ends.
One of the Management consulting firm partner comments on this game of alignment as –“ IT has a list of things it’s working on, perhaps with some subjective connection to business objectives, and a hurried business agrees that, yes, this is the right list.”
Question is how IT can be proactive & influence business? IT can get overall picture of the landscape of software, hardware, processes. If it focuses on improving the business processes / business efficiency, it can proactively suggest changes to business. Quantify the benefits in terms of response time, strategic business benefit, competitive advantage etc. Ask for business endorsement for these initiatives.
Forrester suggests “Business Focused Enterprise Architecture” for strategically aligning IT & business. According to this process, IT needs to
Ø Identify key outcomes
Ø Analyze outcome drivers
Ø Develop & propose concepts
Ø Incorporate into planning
Ø Build into “To be” architecture.
IT can become a strategic partner to the organization, only if it becomes proactive in its approach.
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