Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is an excerpt of a current article from Retail Paradox, Retail Systems Research's weekly analysis on emerging issues facing retailers.
There's an ongoing argument in the technology press and on techie blogs that "IT/business alignment is dead." This has been fueled by a recent book, Business/IT Fusion- How To Move Beyond Alignment And Transform IT In Your Organization, where author Peter Hinssen said, "We've been studying Alignment between business and IT for more than twenty years now. Scores of models have been developed, and enormous efforts have been spent on trying to make alignment work. But the results are horrible. Despite the huge efforts, in money and in people, the gap between business and IT has never been greater and never deeper. The relationship has never been more sour, and the attitude never more hostile."
RSR is currently sifting through recent survey responses to its own study on IT and Business Alignment in Retail, and it is clear that the IT executive is the one (and often only) executive on the hot seat to make sure that the company's investment in IT enablement of the business is working. Consider these facts from the survey:
- Retail Winners (predictably) score higher in meeting or exceeding the business's expectations of the IT function;
- Almost 60 percent of the survey respondents indicate that "IT leadership is largely responsible for connecting to business department leaders";
- Over 60 percent of the survey respondents indicate that meeting corporate objectives is at least aided by, if not dependent on, effective IT value delivery;
- Although almost 95 percent of Retail Winners say that the Executive Committee approves the IT operating budget and over 80 percent say that the Committee also approves the IT capital plan, over 70 percent of those same respondents indicate that conflicting demands for IT resources is by far their biggest challenge. And that is because for over 75 percent of Winners who responded to our survey, the Executive Committee doesn't involve itself in prioritizing projects or reviewing project status.
Let's make the call: Retail Winners are better "aligned" because they have over-performing IT executives, and because they drive business leadership to take an active role. Retail Winners indicate that the biggest opportunity to overcome inhibitors to improve IT value delivery is (according to over 80 percent), "more business involvement in IT efforts."
I'm reminded of something my father used to say to me when I managed to screw up a school project and blamed everything but myself: "It's a poor workman who blames his tools." Businesses have engaged in "plausible deniability" for years when it comes to IT. It was easy, after all. As we have commented in various Retail Paradox Weekly columns over time, non-IT'ers don't "get" the language of IT. Business people don't understand IT and they don't want to. It's certainly the last thing a CEO wants to spend time on.
But why not? What's the excuse? If the business is dependent on it, then the business better understand it. It's time to rename the challenge: it's Business-To-IT alignment that has to be addressed, and not the other way around.
Discussion question: What are the challenges of aligning business objectives with IT capabilities? What's the ideal circumstance for an IT director to succeed at his job?