In the past few decades, a large number of researchers examined the subject of business-IT alignment, with BITA being conceptualized in the academic literature in various ways.
Henderson and Venkatraman define such alignment as “the degree of fit and integration among business strategy, IT strategy, business infrastructure, and IT infrastructure”. They developed a Strategic Alignment Model (SAM) that addresses the alignment on the different levels of IT and business (Henderson & Venkatraman 1993). The model is based on four key domains of strategic choice: business strategy, organizational infrastructure and processes, IT strategy, IT infrastructure and processes (shown in figure 1). The dimension of strategic fit differentiates between external …show more content…
It is “one of the dominant alignment models, [that] has been continuously evaluated and was found to be consistent and prevailing in predicting impact factors such as firm performance” (Ei-Masri et al. 2015, p.3). It Luftman et. al., in their work on enablers and inhibitors, define business-IT alignment as “applying IT in an appropriate and timely way, in harmony with business strategies, goals and needs” (Luftman et al. 1999, …show more content…
This allows the term to “express both a ‘state’, the amount of alignment, as a ‘process’, the activities to reach a certain state of alignment. It covers not just the alignment process aimed at developing, selecting or enhancing IT applications and infrastructure, but also the agreements regarding the application and service management. BITA therefore covers more than just the ‘plan’ phase of IT, [but] also the ‘manage and maintain’ phase” (Silvius 2007, p.4).
Despite different definitions, the message business-IT alignment is conveying is the same: IT should support the business, and that it will be more successful if the IT resources are developed and organized with the business strategy and processes in mind. It may sound like common sense, but is not easy to achieve in
Henderson and Venkatraman define such alignment as “the degree of fit and integration among business strategy, IT strategy, business infrastructure, and IT infrastructure”. They developed a Strategic Alignment Model (SAM) that addresses the alignment on the different levels of IT and business (Henderson & Venkatraman 1993). The model is based on four key domains of strategic choice: business strategy, organizational infrastructure and processes, IT strategy, IT infrastructure and processes (shown in figure 1). The dimension of strategic fit differentiates between external …show more content…
It is “one of the dominant alignment models, [that] has been continuously evaluated and was found to be consistent and prevailing in predicting impact factors such as firm performance” (Ei-Masri et al. 2015, p.3). It Luftman et. al., in their work on enablers and inhibitors, define business-IT alignment as “applying IT in an appropriate and timely way, in harmony with business strategies, goals and needs” (Luftman et al. 1999, …show more content…
This allows the term to “express both a ‘state’, the amount of alignment, as a ‘process’, the activities to reach a certain state of alignment. It covers not just the alignment process aimed at developing, selecting or enhancing IT applications and infrastructure, but also the agreements regarding the application and service management. BITA therefore covers more than just the ‘plan’ phase of IT, [but] also the ‘manage and maintain’ phase” (Silvius 2007, p.4).
Despite different definitions, the message business-IT alignment is conveying is the same: IT should support the business, and that it will be more successful if the IT resources are developed and organized with the business strategy and processes in mind. It may sound like common sense, but is not easy to achieve in