Binding Technology To Business

IT needs to be firmly aligned with business objectives. The CEO and CIO should work together to achieve this alignment.

IT (Information Technology) must be closely aligned with business objectives. This can help reduce costs, enhance customer service, promote innovation, improve communication, and drive quality improvements - in short, deliver on the very promises for which IT is implemented in the first place.

As per the results of Infrastructure Strategies 2003 (Infrastructure Strategies is an IMRB - Network Magazine survey to find out where the CIO/CTO is to invest for the year 2003-04), almost 80 percent of the Indian CIOs believe that their IT goals and business objectives are closely aligned. This alignment between IT and business is claimed to be much closer in BFSI and Telecom/IT/ITES verticals where technology and business go hand-in-hand.

Not so long ago

Just over two years ago, IT was considered the end-all. In many cases technology was implemented for technology's sake; rarely were the overall benefits - tangible as well as intangible - evaluated carefully before making an implementation decision.

CIOs were under constant pressure to follow the technology model adopted by the company's closest competitor. There was no clear rationale behind adopting a particular technology. Companies failed to realize that every organisation's business needs and issues were unique and that the replication model would not hold good. It was only events like the dotcom bust followed by the economic downturn that forced many companies to take a hard look at their technology investments. Improving IT and business alignment was the only way out for most companies which had already invested sizeable amounts on miscellaneous technologies.

Lack of alignment

When CIOs were asked why they think IT and business were not aligned, the most popular reasons were, 'Business goals are considered more important,' 'It is not the main objective of the company' or 'We are currently working to bring IT and business goals together.' While reasons like 'Lack of vision' or 'IT is not essential to the company's success' figured last.

This highlights the fact that even though IT has gained prominence within an organisation, it is still considered as just another department and not a catalyst for growth. It's true that IT alone cannot drive growth, but it can act as the key growth enabler, and companies need to realise this. 27% of the organisations realise the need to align IT and business goals together.