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The coordination or alignment between the business strategy and IT is generally high on the agenda for most CIOs. It is usually even presented as their ultimate aim. But alignment can also be a source of chaos that is difficult to resolve.

The alignment with IT can lead to goals which are contradictory and disruptive. I would compare it to the coordination between my car and my needs. The car has to be at the ready each day to transport my noisy, messy or surly gaggle of kids. It also gets used as a moving van and you need to be able to put the top down on sunny days. Poor machine. In many companies, the diverse and contradictory needs require an information technology system that sails effortlessly through the day trouble-free, and works miracles overnight. The system has to be flexible, but at the same time reliable and infallible. In order to be able to handle these Herculean tasks, efficient companies are introducing the concept of enterprise architecture. This entails methods for managing the various aspects of the company infrastructure. The four elements of the architecture must be inventoried and planned: the business processes, the applications, the data and the technical infrastructure as well as the interaction between these elements, their evolution and adaptation to new needs. Good management of the architecture also consists of setting up standardization projects. Just like projects for integrating the data and systems. The standardization ensures that new solutions can be introduced faster and more cheaply if there is a similar one already in use. The integration ensures that better use can be made of the available data and systems. The four elements of the architecture are limited, but mutually dependent tools that are managed by various managers and technicians. However, good management of the whole is necessary in order to give the company the capacity to adapt and react quickly. What’s more, the alignment has to be approached carefully, because strategic business organization projects are not necessarily coordinated with the existing structure of the processes. They do not use the existing data and are not easy to integrate into the applications portfolio. Often, new infrastructure is required which ends up weakening the hard won homogeneity. The activities related to enterprise architecture have to be separated from the IT-architects. The latter activity generally remains limited to inventorying and managing information technology systems. But in order to derive maximum profit from it, the enterprise architects have to take part in formulating the company strategy. Don’t neglect the importance of this discipline, and you will be rewarded handsomely.

Identikit

Georges Ataya is professor and academic director of IT Management Education at Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. He is managing partner of ICT Control NV-SA, a Brussels based management advisory firm.