Question: Refer to the readings for this week on aligning IT to the business strategy, and either do some research or draw from your own experience to tell us about an organization that has successfully aligned its IT to the business. Choose one of the following questions and discuss the importance of its answer to the CIO:
1. How are IT projects currently determined and prioritized by the organization?
2. In what ways are the IT staff aligned or disconnected with organizational needs?
Classmate 1
In a perfect world when it comes to choosing an IT project, the end result would equal to the companies investment in the project. This meaning if the company requests that the IT project return a specific result the end goal should measure to that requirement. Though with changes in the IT world daily, many companies are making decisions in IT that they themselves are unsure in the end result. The causes companies to either make it big or crash hard. An example is how Nike lost two-hundered million due to struggles in implementing its supply chain software [1]. These risks can either make or break a company though with the previously note that the IT field is changing drastically. Companies have no way to know if their projects are going to provide them with what they need.
Companies like Wal-Mart thrive in the business world because of their IT strategy when it comes to business. CIO interviewed Kevin Turner asking what were their philosophies when it came to IS strategy. He stated that all of the businesses IS is centralized while keeping all of their locations with a commonality in regards to IT. On the business aspect, this allows the company the freedom of not having to retrain employees. This strategy allows Walmart to take any one from any store and place them in another. With the strategy, the employee has no draw backs and is able to get right back to work without losing time in training. [2]
When Wal-Mart acquires something new in the IS, they follow certain steps before implementing it to their system. According to Kevin Turner, Walmart looks at the prospect of success with the customer. When they made an overseas acquisition, Wal-Mart took 18 to 24 months just reviewing the system. From their, they try and reduce the process as much as they can before they try to implement it in their stores. Also so the IS people in Wal-Mart understand the risks in these decisions they place them in a business role that way the employees get a feel for what is at risk in these decisions. [2] So Wal-Mart follows the diagram stated in chapter 12 in Developing a Successful Governance Strategy. By determining which parts are needed in the project, refining the project to provide results, and implementing them. This strategy has allowed Wal-Mart to become one of the biggest companies on American soil.
[1] "Developing a Successful Governance Strategy, Chapter 12, Managing the IT Investment Only" , Retrieved January 13, 2017, from https://learn.umuc.edu/d2l/le/content/201559/viewContent/8128623/View
[2] Lundberg, A. (2002, July 01). Wal-Mart: IT Inside the World's Biggest Company. Retrieved January 12, 2017, from https://www.cio.com/article/2440726/it-organization/wal-mart--it-inside-the-world-s-biggest-company.html
Classmate 2
- IT staff is both aligned and disconnected with organizational needs. The staff is expected to be able to regulate, improve and assist with the needs of the organization by implementing solutions and technologies in order to maximize the organization's time and resources. IT staff is also responsible of protecting and regulating telecommunications through which every organizations conducts business. IT staff is aligned with the organization by their duty to assist the members and staff to ergonomically use its time to maximize revenue or achieve goals in required time. Implementation and adjustments of new technologies to improve communication and transactions is aligned with the organization since it is directly related to main objectives of the organization. IT staff's responsibility of protecting and regulating members and employees in order to protect sensitive data and breach of conduct policies also are a major objective of the organization's overall goal. IT staff and its organizations are directly connected because IT staff are expected to improve and assist the employees in achieving the primary and secondary goals of its organizations.
Reference
Lannon, R. &Lannon, R. (2017). Four Steps to Align Your Organization to its Strategic Plan. Projecttimes.com. Retrieved 12 January 2017, from https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/four-steps-to-align-your-organization-to-its-strategic-plan.html
Classmate 3
- In what ways are the IT staff aligned or disconnected with organizational needs?
In order to be successful, an organization needs to have an IT staff that understands the goals of the organization first, and the IT staff has to have effective strategies in place that will guide them on how to properly achieve the goals of the organization. Unfortunately, sometimes IT staff can become disconnected with the needs of the organization due to different factors. For instance, from this week's readings I have discovered that "too much focus on technical measures (especially if they are not aligned to IT objectives), (IT governance, 2005)" could actually inhibit performance within an organization. In other words, if IT staff were too busy establishing technical details, in doing so they can miss the objective that the organization is attempting to complete.
IT staff can be aligned with organizational needs by having a clearly laid out strategy that delegates responsibility and displays the overall strategic vision. Another term for this strategy is alignment planning. According to Lannon (2015), "Alignment planning as part of your strategic planning initiative seeks to accomplish three main objectives: ensure strong connections...fine tune departmental goals...and address issues that may exist." If an IT staff uses a framework such as this to help guide operations, then an organization's needs will be satisfied because everyone will be on the same page.
After doing a bit of research, I focused on CVS as an example of an organization that has successfully aligned its IT to the business. According to Brian Tilzer, senior vice president and chief digital officer, "We are using digital technologies to create outstanding customer experiences (2016)." CVS is a drugstore company that has engaged in rapid experimentation, risk taking and hiring individuals with digital and e-commerce backgrounds that have helped to create a rhythm of knowledge and solutions to keep things running smoothly (Kane, Palmer, Phillips, Kiron, & Buckley, 2016).
References
IT governance. (2005) (1st ed., p. 11). Manchester.
Kane, G., Palmer, D., Phillips, A., Kiron, D., & Buckley, N. (2016). Aligning the Organization for Its Digital Future. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved 13 January 2017, from https://sloanreview.mit.edu/projects/aligning-for-digital-future/
Lannon, R. (2015). Four Steps to Align Your Organization to its Strategic Plan. Projecttimes.com. Retrieved 13 January 2017, from https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/four-steps-to-align-your-organization-to-its-strategic-plan.html