When business and IT are in sync

Aligning IT to business goals is of strategic importance when it comes to delivering the true value of IT. Aligning technology and business objectives is the first step in seeking value from an IT initiative. The Infrastructure Strategies 2004 - 2005 (Infrastructure Strategies is an IMRB survey on technology spending) survey reveals that close to 80 percent of India's CIOs are convinced that their IT and business goals are in close alignment.

Last year (2003 - 2004), it was a different story. At that time, the alignment was strongest only in the tech-savvy verticals of BFSI and Telecom/IT/ITES. This year CIOs across industry verticals are focused on seeking a stronger bonding between IT and business. So much so, that a whopping 96 percent in Telecom/IT/ITES claim to have attained this Holy Grail of IT-business alignment.

The IT-Business Relationship

The top three business priorities (from a CEO's perspective) for FY 2004-05 are to decrease costs, gain customer loyalty, and raise revenues. These are more or less the same as the Indian CIO's objectives - increase profitability, decrease costs, and provide better quality of service.

The above fact indicates the CIO is in sync with the business objectives defined by their CEO, and his tuning of the IT strategy to attain that objective - an important first step towards alignment.

Lack of Alignment

When CIOs (whose business goals and IT were not closely aligned) were questioned about the lack of alignment between IT and business, the most common reasons were: 'Business goals are considered more important', 'IT is not the main objective of the company', and that 'IT is considered to be a support/cost center'. Nearly 44 percent of these CIOs realize the need to sync IT with business and are already working towards that goal.

Step by Step

The natural first step towards alignment is to involve users and business leaders from various departments. This involvement is very crucial at each and every stage of IT deployment in the organization. For instance, an ERP initiative will fail or deliver sub-optimal results, unless user departments are consulted. The initiative can succeed only if the fine points of each department's work are ascertained. User representatives and business heads are playing an increasingly proactive role in various stages of IT initiatives. Over 50 percent of CIOs claim that their business heads are involved during project initiation or authorization and planning.

Research Snapshot