Has the ideal of IT/business alignment become the holy grail of IT leaders? The promise of IT/business alignment is to focus investment and activities, increase the value of IT, and integrate IT more closely with business initiatives. IT leaders...

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Pull the right levers to promote innovation in your IT department. Review the six most important cultural preconditions for fostering innovation in the IT department.

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Assess your IT department for the six key preconditions of IT innovation. Learn the precondition priorities for your IT department and plan your roadmap to innovation success.

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Understanding the business goals and objectives is critical to creating a business linked IT strategy and increasing alignment between IT and the business.

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Meet with the senior business team and interview them about their specific plans. Understanding the business goals and objectives is critical to creating a business linked IT strategy and increasing alignment between IT and the business.

Template/Policy

In order to set an IT strategy, it's critical to understand the strategy of the enterprise in which IT is operating.

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In order to set an IT strategy, it's critical to understand the IT implications of the business goals and objectives.

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In order to set an IT strategy, it's critical to understand the strategy of the enterprise in which IT is operating.

Solution Set

Real corporate strategy is often either undocumented, may be in distinct business unit or departmental strategies, or is stated at such a high level that it is not possible for IT to take action.

Solution Set

Business and IT leaders have come under increasing pressure to reduce costs while maintaining organizational effectiveness. IT does not have the capability to do this, using its existing toolbox.

Discover strategies and tactics to learn how to tell when IT is properly aligned with corporate goals, and when it isn't.

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IT managers often have to influence decision-makers through an intermediary, who acts as an advocate for IT's agenda. Strategize to reduce the costs of advocacy, and improve your chances of success.

Solution Set

IT managers often need to work through an executive intermediary, such as a CFO, CIO, or VP, who acts as an advocate for IT initiatives. The advocate may not understand IT issues in depth, making it difficult for him or her to argue in favor of...

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Use this tool to strategize for your advocacy situation. Reduce the cost of advocacy while improving your chances of success.

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IT managers often have to influence decision-makers through an intermediary, who acts an advocate for IT's agenda.

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Municipalities, with their myriad of departments and services, must manage competing goals and objectives for IT. IT is a scarce commodity and allocating resources without a unifying business goal is particularly challenging. An IT Steering...

Solution Set

IT Leaders are looking for a holistic system of IT projects and solutions that denotes business processes, information stores, applications, security and technical infrastructure. EA provides competitive advantage and significantly lower...

Template/Policy

Business stakeholders are not programmed to voluntarily present IT with their requirements and expectations. When the need for stakeholder management is heightened - at the start of projects and during periods of change - conduct structured...

Solution Set

Many organizations contemplate forming an IT steering committee to better align IT investments with business strategy, but most don't know where to start.

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IT steering committees are a best practice approach for aligning strategic business and IT priorities. Understand when the time is right to establish an IT steering committee and how to get this group started on the right track.

IT steering committees, sometimes referred to as executive IT committees, can take a lot of pressure off new or existing IT leaders by engaging business leaders in setting IT investment priorities. Learn the lessons offered by experienced IT...

Executive IT committees can take a lot of pressure off new or existing IT leaders by forcing business leaders to set IT investment priorities. Learn the lessons offered by experienced IT leaders and use the Info-Tech charter-building template to...

Small enterprises are often apathetic when it comes to IT metrics. When discussing metrics and benchmarking with enterprises with less than ten IT staff, Info-Tech found that many feel no need to track and report on metrics, or benchmark...

It's easy to get overwhelmed with priorities when you're starting an IT leadership position. With a personal strategic plan, you can stay focused and position yourself for long-term success. Master the essentials of planning for your first one...

Premium Resource

The purpose of Business ? IT Alignment is to optimize the value that IT contributes to the enterprise. As such, in order to successfully outline a strategic IT roadmap, it is important to start here.

When the economy takes a turn for the worse, IT is often the target of budget and staffing cuts, regardless of the negative impact the cuts may have on projects or service levels. With the nature of the cuts out of IT's control, how can you...

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Poor economic conditions will impact every organization, be it directly or indirectly, strategically or operationally. Info-Tech's "Methodology: Reducing IT Cost-to-Serve" offers a proactive approach to IT cost reduction while mitigating risk to...

Bill Clinton's “It's the economy, stupid,” was one of several messages intended to keep his 1992 presidential campaign on track. I've modified this saying and use it to remind myself of what's important in IT. It's possible to get buried in...

Many enterprises have found that alignment is difficult to achieve because the gulf between IT and the various business units is too wide. Often there is poor communication, mistrust, or the two groups are simply on different pages. Follow...

A colleague of mine said a few weeks ago that IT staffing ratios are, in and of themselves, virtually meaningless. After a spirited debate on the subject, I got to thinking about IT metrics in general. Then I started seriously researching them....