The Importance Of IT Business Strategy

Question 1: IT-Business Strategy

Introduction

Information Technology has become a key business function for almost every organisation that has great expectations on their investments in how business-IT strategy can be positioned effectively to achieve and support the organisations goals and business objectives. The expectations can be enabling for businesses as they (REFERENCE);

• Reduce costs,

• Improve the workflow and communication, and

• Enhance productivity

Importance of Business-IT Strategy

Traditionally, (REFERENCE) a role for IT has been reserved for the subservient business planning that could be considered as a mere implementation tool that isn’t somewhat essential in the shaping strategy. However, business opportunities and growth-points

How do we make sure that IT remains relevant as the business evolves, and

Despite the growing trend towards homogenisation, there are opportunities and gaps where I.T can make a difference, (National Computing Centre) by moving beyond the conceptual level of strategic thinking towards a more practical, physical expression of the alignment process.

Alignment Strategies

According to (REFERENCE), the TEN alignment process principles that remain continuous and iterative are:

1. “Understanding the business by documenting all its processes”, stated Mr S Adeyelure and at his lecture on 27 February 2016 - This is done by capturing, storing and distributing data as it allows I.T to consider a multi-tier of the organisation and how it’ll fit with the rest of the world.

2. Acknowledge the culture (an overlooked aspect) by analysing the organisational structure, ethos and its nature as it gives an outline to how things are done.

3. Know the I.T estate – It allows the business to document/maintain all its assets (hardware and software), applications and delivery channels and it initially helps in understanding how they are aggregated into service offerings, such as:

- How many assets do we need?

- Who creates or configures

B2B examples that have been thinking out of the box for years with the understanding of their clients, their intimate marketing and the drive towards their decisions are:

- Adobe: It came up with the ‘manifesto’ that’s called Create New – it serves as a central theme of branding and marketing efforts.

- Cisco: Which has a wide variety of content including Q&A’s, presentations for events, is a useful resource for customers, as well as sales tool which in turn help attract more viewers.

- American Express: Has aimed at giving small business owners some lucrative advice. The jewel in the crown would be ‘the hub’, which is a forum that allows members to network and share ideas with each other and industry